"I don't get it."
Hikari leaned back in the wheelchair, her legs swinging lightly, looking relaxed and carefree.
*Creak!*
*Squeak!*
The wheelchair groaned under the strain.
Sarutobi Hiruzen stood with his back to her, his voice carrying through the wind. "The scroll contains the secret *Raiton Chakra Mode* from Kumo. If you can't see it, then forget it."
*Creak~*
The wheelchair's noise stopped.
The scroll slowly unfurled.
Hearing the rustle of paper and faint muttering behind him, Sarutobi shook his head with a quiet chuckle, leaning on the rooftop railing, waiting patiently.
The sun climbed higher, its golden light dazzling.
Sarutobi pulled the brim of his hat lower, casting an oval shadow on the ground, his aged figure like a taut bow.
After a while—
*Rustle!*
The sound of the scroll being rolled up came from behind.
"Memorized it all?"
"Yep."
Hikari looked at Sarutobi as he turned slowly, handing back the neatly rolled scroll.
Sarutobi tucked it away, glancing at Hikari. "Your spoils of war are yours. Don't say I'm hogging your stuff. Yozuki Yuo's been dead a while, so only the *Raiton no Yoroi* technique was intact enough to salvage. The village put in effort too, so it'll go into the sealed scroll later. As for Naruto, you keep his situation under wraps. His circumstances are special—villagers can't know."
Hikari nodded blankly.
Watching Sarutobi ramble on, she felt a bit at a loss.
She'd braced herself for harsh interrogation or torture after revealing her abilities, ready to spar verbally. But instead, the Sandaime Hokage brought her to the hospital rooftop, nagging like an old mother hen.
Sarutobi talked for ages, noticing Hikari's dazed look, and frowned. "You following all this?"
"Uh—yeah, that's it?"
"What else do you want?"
"I thought—"
Hikari hesitated, constantly checking the emotional glimmers above Sarutobi's head, but found no trace of the malice she'd expected.
"Thought what? That I'd grill you about where your special physique comes from? Your weird sensing ability? Or that tailed beast chakra?"
Sarutobi looked at the bewildered Hikari, chuckling. A flicker of pride crossed his weathered face as he gripped the railing, spreading his arms like an eagle, embracing all of Konoha behind him. "The Land of Fire sits on the world's most fertile soil, and Konoha is, without question, the strongest of the five great ninja villages. Others covet *us*. When have we ever lusted after their scraps? Is your bone-growing *Kekkei Genkai* stronger than the Uchiha's *Sharingan*? Or Senju's *Mokuton*? Is your sensing better than the Hyuga's *Byakugan* or the Yamanaka's mind-probing?
"I've seen fake *Jinchuriki* before! Every tailed beast in the ninja world was distributed by the Shodai Hokage, and the strongest, the Kyubi, is lying in the hospital below your feet. Konoha's secret jutsu clans are countless, and the techniques in our sealed scroll are so powerful we have to pick and choose what to learn. So tell me—what do you have that's worth me, worth Konoha, stooping to scheme for?"
*Whoosh!*
The wind billowed Sarutobi's robes, fluttering above Konoha.
The aging ninja hero spread his arms, proudly embracing the village, his commanding presence shaking Hikari to her core.
Confidence, pride, sincerity—colors flashing from high to low, glowing like fireflies.
*Konoha's old geezers are filthy rich second-gen elites!*
Hikari finally understood the strange dissonance she'd felt.
She'd been thinking about Konoha's actions through Kirigakure's lens. Kiri and Kumo scheming for the *Byakugan*, or Danzo for the *Sharingan*—she'd assumed Konoha was the same, a village that went crazy for shiny things.
But the reality was the opposite.
This was the strongest ninja village, built by Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama after conquering the ninja world—a utopia compared to the blood-soaked Kirigakure.
Its foundation was unimaginably deep.
*Edo Tensei* to revive the dead, the three legendary *Sennin* training grounds. The fastest *Jikukan Ninjutsu*, *Hiraishin*, and the *Shiki Fujin* that seals souls, ignoring all defenses. While other villages dreamed of a single *Byakugan*, Konoha had them by the basketful.
Whether it was Sarutobi, Danzo, or Orochimaru, they chased *Mokuton* to become a "God of Shinobi" or studied the *Mangekyo Sharingan* of the "Ninja World's Asura."
Plain and simple—they didn't even care about other villages' *Kekkei Genkai* or secret jutsu.
*Why bother studying your junk when I haven't even mastered my own *Kekkei Genkai*? Senju Tobirama's techniques are strong and tough to train, and we've got a massive sealed scroll. Who has time to mess with your scraps?*
All the tailed beasts in other villages seemed impressive, treasured like gems, but could the One through Eight Tails combined beat the Kyubi? Konoha, unaware of Kaguya Otsutsuki's might, didn't even glance at Hikari's abilities.
They studied *Mokuton* and *Sharingan* not for the *Kekkei Genkai* itself but to uncover the roots of Hashirama and Madara's unmatched dominance.
"I got it wrong," Hikari said after a long silence, admitting she'd been looked down on.
Seeing she understood, Sarutobi lowered his arms, speaking earnestly. "Your talent surpasses any ninja I've seen—even the Shodai at your age wasn't your match. But talent is the most valuable and worthless thing in the world. It can't be transferred or copied. You might even toss it aside like trash one day. Konoha doesn't need to kill the goose for its eggs. That's something only desperate, red-eyed poor folk would do."
Sarutobi's rich-man speech left Hikari's head spinning.
As the saying goes, *only with a full granary do you learn etiquette; only with enough food and clothes do you know honor and shame.*
A peasant fleeing the backwater Kirigakure, she was seeing for the first time just how domineering the second-gen elites of the strongest ninja village could be.
"One last question—what's your real identity?"
"Didn't you say you wouldn't ask?"
Hikari raised an eyebrow, scrutinizing his open, weathered face. *Was all this just a trick to get me to spill the truth?*
Noticing her caution, Sarutobi rubbed his forehead with a headache. "If I wanted to harm you, I'd have sent the Yamanaka to poke around your brain already. Why waste words? For saving so many ninja school students, even if you're a spy from another village, I'd give you a chance to start fresh. So, speak!"
Hikari carefully studied the emotional glimmers above his head: helplessness, suspicion, friendliness.
As she hesitated to reveal her identity, the suspicion glimmer grew, while the friendliness shrank.
Sometimes, silence says everything.
This was clearly his final test.
If she didn't show some truth, she'd always be watched and kept out of Konoha's inner circle. The secret techniques in the *Sealed Scroll* she coveted? Forget it.
"Have you heard of Kirigakure's Taketori clan?"
Hearing her words, Sarutobi thought for a moment, his eyes flickering. "The *Shikotsumyaku* Taketori? You're one of them?"
"You might not know, but two months ago, the Taketori clan was wiped out. Orders from the Yondaime Mizukage, carried out by Anbu Captain Kurio Shun."
"Why?"
"The official reason was rebellion. The real one? They wanted our clan's heirloom."
"What heirloom?"
"No idea."
Hikari shook her head, looking confused. "The Anbu searched every corpse thoroughly. I got lucky—my *Kekkei Genkai* awakened at the critical moment, and I took down a few Kiri Anbu to escape. Later, I fled from Peichuan Port to the Land of Fire, heard Konoha's ninja were the strongest, and came here to find a way to get stronger for revenge. You probably know the rest."
Hikari explained in detail—cause, process, outcome, all laid out clearly.
She named key figures and, under Sarutobi's questioning, shared specifics of the extermination: directions, personnel, breakout timing.
She answered without hesitation.
Only someone who lived through it could weave such detailed lies.
Her bone-manipulating ability matched *Shikotsumyaku*, and her Kirigakure origin aligned with Sarutobi's earlier guesses.
The Taketori clan had a long history, so having a unique secret jutsu made sense.
Gradually, the suspicion glimmer above Sarutobi's head dimmed, though a faint speck remained.
He didn't fully buy her story.
He'd have to verify the Taketori clan's fate, but with Hikari's prodigious talent, using Kiri's spies wouldn't be a waste.
If her story checked out—a clan wiped out by Kiri's leadership, leaving her with a blood feud—she might be from Kiri but posed no threat to Konoha.
Her identity would be clear.
If she was clean and not here to harm Konoha, with time and the Will of Fire, she could form bonds and become one of them.
*Shikotsumyaku* aside—Konoha didn't lack powerful *Kekkei Genkai*.
If Hikari lived in Konoha, married, and had kids, her *Shikotsumyaku* would stay.
What truly excited Sarutobi was her talent surpassing the Shodai's.
A near-seven-year-old elite jonin? Too good to be true!
Looking at Hikari's short legs dangling off the wheelchair, Sarutobi's heart burned.
He might boast about Konoha's vast wealth and unrivaled jutsu, but in all his years, he'd never seen an elite jonin this young.
Konoha's former top genius, Kakashi, was a chunin at six, jonin at twelve—a height 99% of ninja couldn't touch, the ceiling for all prodigies.
Hikari had crushed Kakashi's record, halving the time.
Roughly a super-deluxe Kakashi with a *Kekkei Genkai* and half-*Jinchuriki* status, destined to rival any village's Kage.
If not for lingering doubts about her identity, he'd have taken her as a disciple already.
Konoha didn't lack advanced jutsu; it lacked geniuses to carry forward the predecessors' techniques. Letting a talent like Hikari roam free was a crime against genius itself.
*Pop, pop, pop!*
Emotional glimmers burst from Sarutobi's head.
Hikari glanced at them: suspicion down to a tiny speck, replaced by hesitation, excitement, and fondness.
Her approval rating seemed to have spiked, the glimmers brighter than the murky ones in the hospital room.
Hikari's tense nerves eased slightly.
She'd passed this hurdle.
Her Kiri origin was a massive liability, but if she could use this chance to clear her name, her path forward would be much smoother.
*Whoosh!*
The rooftop's fierce wind softened, warm like a spring breeze.
Sarutobi's fluttering robes settled, only the hem near the ground still curling slightly.
"I'll have your story investigated," Sarutobi said after a long pause, locking eyes with Hikari's youthful face, finally resolute. "Come—be my disciple!"
Hikari's eyes widened in disbelief, staring at the Sandaime Hokage.
"My identity—"
"If your identity wasn't an issue, I'd have taken you as a disciple long ago."
Sarutobi's eyes burned with a hunger for talent.
Natural mastery of all five chakra natures, a physique strong enough to match Yozuki Yuo's *Raiton no Yoroi*—perfectly suited to his fighting style.
Most crucially, her young age.
If she were ten or twelve, he wouldn't be this excited. Young meant her mindset was malleable, moldable through the Will of Fire to shape her as he wanted.
Any later, once her mind matured, it'd be too late.
Looking at the stunned Hikari, Sarutobi's face grew stern. "Let's be clear. If we become master and disciple, our relationship stays secret until you earn my approval. Until then, you get nothing but ninjutsu training. If I find you harming Konoha, everything you learn from me, I'll take back with interest. So, are you willing?"
Hearing his terms, Hikari couldn't help but smile.
She came to Konoha for power, not political titles like "Hokage's disciple."
Sarutobi clearly coveted her talent but feared she'd use the title to vie for Hokage, so he set up this awkward master-disciple deal.
It suited her perfectly.
The Hokage's job was exhausting, buried in paperwork. With Kaguya's world-ending threat looming in a few years, power was the priority—politics could take a hike.
It felt like waking up to a flood of good news.
She got the powerful *Raiton Chakra Mode*, cleared her identity, and gained a Kage-level teacher.
Double blessings.
"Deal, Sarutobi-sensei!"
Hearing her words, a touch of melancholy crossed Sarutobi's aged face.
In his life, he'd taken three disciples.
Tsunade clashed with him over the Senju and left the village. Orochimaru defected for immortality. Jiraiya was off chasing some "Child of Prophecy" nonsense, swayed by Myoboku's toads.
You could say he'd been abandoned by all.
The title "Sarutobi-sensei" felt both warm and foreign.
"We're not master and disciple yet—your identity's still unconfirmed!"
Sarutobi denied it, despite himself.
Seeing his approval glimmer tick up slightly, Hikari laughed inwardly.
"Right, Sarutobi-sensei."
"I said we're not there yet!"
"Uh-huh~"
Sarutobi looked at Hikari, sitting primly in the wheelchair, flashing her two little tiger teeth with a grin, and felt a flush of embarrassment, like she'd seen through him.
*A witch-like disciple? That's a new one for me.*