Chapter 13: Handing Over Scroll; Showing Affection
Notes:
Hokage Residence is a large mansion occupied by the Hokage during their tenure and is located close to both the Academy and Hokage Rock.
Shinobi is synonymous with Ninja.
Over time, Kiri was known as the ‘Village of the Bloody Mist’ because, in the Kiri Academy, graduating students had to fight to the death. Only survivors could advance to ninja ranks.
Kumo is the hidden village in the Land of Lightning, one of the five great Shinobi countries of the Ninja World.
Wearing a white shirt and gold-rimmed glasses, Uchiha Tonan walked down the silent street with the scroll in his hand. He had barely moved a few steps when an Anbu appeared in front of him.
“Looks like you’re safe. An enemy spy has appeared in the village. The situation is urgent, so please follow me to the Hokage Residence.”
It was rare for the Anbu member to speak so much at once. His eyes also subconsciously fell on the scroll in Tonan’s hands. He could guess what was in it.
For such a young ninja to be able to kill a chunin, he truly was a genius.
The Anbu was aware of Tonan’s value in the Hokage’s heart. Having guessed his strength now, he did his best to soften his tone while speaking to him.
Tonan nodded and responded with a serious expression, “I happened to be looking for Sandaime-sama as well. I’ll be troubling you, then.” He gave the Anbu a deep and polite bow.
Matched with how he was dressed, Tonan’s appearance was courteous. One couldn’t help but have a good impression of him. The Anbu nodded, and coming to Tonan’s side, he grabbed his shoulders before leaving with the Body Flicker Technique.
At the Hokage’s office, Sarutobi Hiruzen’s brows were locked into a tight frown. With a pipe hanging off his lips, he paced about the room anxiously.
Every so often, his gaze would drift towards the crystal ball in the room, that was showing the situation at Tonan’s home.
Hiruzen was resting at home when the Anbu urgently reported about an enemy spy breaking into the Hatake residence to assassinate Kakashi.
The spy did not expect Hatake Sakumo to have returned earlier that evening. Sakumo cut all four of the assassin’s limbs the moment he stepped through the doorway.
The Kiri spy was then rushed over to the Konoha interrogation room by an Anbu before the information was extracted out of him through various methods.
As soon as the Anbu learned about a chunin spy targetting Tonan, one of them immediately left for Tonan’s house while the other rushed over to the Sarutobi clan’s territory.
Hiruzen used the crystal ball to observe the situation in Tonan’s house once he was in office. But the ball could only view up to the boundary and not inside the residence.
This was also the reason why in his free time, Hiruzen could only peek at the open-air…
In fact, even before Hiruzen arrived at the Hokage Residence, Tonan had already left the Uchiha territory and was on his way.
“Hokage-sama, Uchiha Tonan is here.”
Just as Hiruzen was feeling overwhelmed by anxiety, the Anbu’s voice sounded beyond the door.
“Come in, quickly!”
Cree
The door to the Hokage’s office was pushed open. He saw Tonan running in excitedly, looking straight at him with awe. Those eyes were filled with reverence and familiarity.
Hiruzen looked the boy up and down and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw no sign of injury on his person. He asked, “My child, are you alright?”
It was fortunate such an excellent and faithful tool was unharmed. It would have been a big loss otherwise.
When Tonan heard this, his eyes seemed visibly moved. He smiled, “Sandaime-sama, no need to worry about me. I’ve already killed the spy. My apologies your rest was disturbed for such a trivial matter.”
Tonan bowed deeply before presenting the scroll to the Hokage. Taking it off his hands, Hiruzen was even more satisfied with the young Tonan.
He had unlocked his Sharingan’s third tomoe only a short while ago and could already kill off a chunin by himself without prior preparation. His innate talent was simply fantastic.
A perfect tool.
“How did you manage to kill this Kiri chunin?” Hiruzen casually asked as he put the scroll down on his desk.
Succinctly recounting the affair, Tonan replied, “I confused him with genjutsu.”
Hiruzen nodded. A three tomoe Sharingan genjutsu was indeed powerful. It appeared that Tonan’s aptitude for this was particularly high.
Else, he wouldn’t have been able to fight a chunin using genjutsu after having awakened the third tomoe only recently.
Hiruzen summoned an Anbu and passed the scroll to them. He returned to his seat and gestured for Tonan to sit across from him.
“Since you’re fine, why don’t you just stay here for a while? The Anbu is yet to fully ensure no fish has slipped our net. I’m very worried about your safety,” Hiruzen said with an anxious look.
Tonan was hesitant. “But Sandaime-sama, it’s already so late. If you don’t go back and rest, how will you have the energy to work tomorrow?”
Hiruzen laughed and waved his hand, “I’m fine. You can rest here on my desk. You also have school tomorrow.”
Tonan shook his head, and repeated, “No, Sandaime-sama. I’ve already rested enough. I think it’s better if you go and rest for a while instead.”
“But…” Hiruzen looked at the serious look on Tonan’s face and nodded amiably. “Alright, then, I’ll rest for a while. You should rest, too.”
“Yes,” only then did Tonan nod his head in agreement.
Sitting across from each other with a desk in between, Tonan watched Hiruzen closely. His stare made Hiruzen feel a little uneasy. Embarrassedly, he urged Tonan to rest soon before putting his head on the table, pretending to sleep.
After some time had passed, Tonan slowly got up and walked to the shelf. He picked up Hiruzen’s Hokage robe and draped it gently over his shoulders.
Then, he returned to his seat with a resolute expression, prepared to defend against any unlikely attack.
“This little guy’s not bad.”
Tonan had already practiced these skills to perfection in his previous life. And, its effects were good. At the very least, it was very effective on Hiruzen.
Two hours later, Hiruzen pretended to have just woken up. Coincidentally, the Anbu also arrived right at that moment.
“Reporting to Hokage-sama, here is the report from the interrogation office.”
He handed a scroll to the Hokage.
“To be able to extract information out of someone even after their death. Seems like I’ll have to be cautious with whatever he does in the future.”
Reminded of this technique, Tonan’s mind was spinning, but the reverent expression on his face looking at Hiruzen did not change even for a second.
The Hokage opened the scroll and looked through it to make sure there were no other Kiri spies in the village before ordering, “Send Tonan back so he can have some rest. While you’re at it, stay and watch over him in the shadows for a while.”
“Yes.”
Hearing this, Tonan stood up and bowed towards Hiruzen.
“I will take my leave then. Sandaime-sama, you should also hurry back and get some rest.”
“Yes, yes. I’ll go back and rest now.” Hiruzen saw the boy off with a smile.
After Tonan left, the smile on Hiruzen’s face disappeared. He walked to the window, looking into the distance, and said to himself, “They’re even tossing away their spies now? Looks like this war is really coming to an end.”
It was already Year 42 in Konoha. Five years had passed since the Second Shinobi War.
Ever since the Kumo shinobi infiltrated into Konoha to kidnap Uzumaki Kushina, several other shinobi villages had been making moves in the shadows again.
Many wars had broken out in the small buffer states between the Five Great Shinobi Countries.
In particular, after the implementation of the Bloody Mist policy in Kiri, it was like the entire village had become manic. They continually harassed the buffer states bordering the Land of Fire and the Land of Water.
But after years of fighting, it finally was time for Kiri to stop as well.
Otherwise, sparks would fly. It wouldn’t take too long then for the Third Great Shinobi War to happen.
