"What in the world are you doing, Konohamaru?"
Konohamaru dangled from the awning of Mitsuro's window, held captive by a rope wrapped around both his feet. Mitsuro stared at him from inside the house with an expressionless face.
"Just as I expected from Mitsuro-sensei! You set a highly skilled trap in front of your window that would ensnare any ninja! That's exactly why I want to learn ninja skills from you!"
"Only an idiot would fall into a trap like that," Mitsuro replied dryly.
Konohamaru was momentarily speechless. He stared at Mitsuro with wide eyes and asked respectfully, "Could you please get me down?"
Mitsuro sighed at his student's sheer foolishness and went to the window to free him. "Tell me, why are you so desperate for me to teach you ninjutsu outside of the Academy? Ebisu-san seems like a much more capable ninja than I am... I'm just a normal teacher!"
Konohamaru grinned and answered, "That's not true at all, you're so awesome! I saw with my own eyes how you came out of the ground like a shadow!"
Mitsuro's hands froze in mid-air. "What did you say?!" He couldn't believe what he was hearing.
Konohamaru, unaware of his teacher's shock, went on excitedly. "I saw how coolly you came out of the ground! It was like your body was made of shadows. It was so cool!"
"When did you see me do that?"
"Huh? A few months ago... One night, Mugen-chan and I came to your door, but you weren't home... so I was waiting for you behind the window..."
Mitsuro thought, "Huh?!" His brain struggled to process the information.
Suddenly, his gaze fixed on a hawk screaming and circling in the Konoha sky. He squinted his eyes, watching it intently.
"Hmm..." Mitsuro said quickly. "I'm sorry, but something urgent has come up. I have to go."
He disappeared in an instant, and Konohamaru looked at the empty space in surprise. "Huh?! Teacher? Teacher! Someone get me down!"
..
At the same moment in the village, the summoning bells had rung for all the Jonin, and they were gathering in the main hall. Mitsuro was one of the last to arrive. He leaned against a wall in a corner and waited quietly for the meeting to begin.
Unlike their usual gatherings, some of the Chunin were also present. Soon after, the Jonin sensei in charge of the Genin teams began to arrive one by one. Mitsuro looked around and saw Iruka enter the hall with Kakashi.
He waved to Iruka. "Oh, Iruka-san!"
Iruka replied with a smile, "Mitsuro-san! How are you?"
"I'm good. How are you?"
"Not bad." In the back of his mind, he was still analyzing his conversation with Konohamaru. He felt something was wrong, but seeing Iruka and the others, he pushed the thought aside. He was one of those people whose mind prioritized things, making anything that wasn't a priority disappear from his thoughts. And right now, the village meeting was his priority.
Asuma also came over, taking a puff from his cigarette as he addressed Mitsuro. "Mitsuro, you've gotten pretty lazy lately! Why don't you take any missions?"
Before Mitsuro could answer, the Hokage entered the hall. With calm steps, he went to his desk at the back of the room and took his seat. All the ninjas present stopped talking and stood at attention out of respect.
Without preamble, the Hokage began to speak. "I have called all of you here today for an important reason. You must have noticed that the number of visitors to Konoha is increasing, and that number will only grow in the coming days."
The ninjas nodded in silent agreement. They all knew what was happening, but they were waiting for the official announcement from the Third Hokage.
The Hokage took a puff from his pipe and continued, "I officially announce that the Chunin Exams, hosted by Konoha, will begin in one week, starting on July 1st."
..
Mitsuro stared at the severed rope on his windowsill. It finally hit him what he had forgotten... Konohamaru.
On the night of the scroll theft, he'd thought he had done an excellent job. Not even the Anbu had been able to track him. The Hokage had looked him in the eye the entire time and hadn't taken any action against him. At one point, he had even tried to make him a Jonin teacher. There had been no suspicion or tests from the Hokage—it had been a perfectly clean and skillful theft.
But now he realized there was a witness. A clumsy kid had caught him red-handed. Konohamaru had seen him deactivate the jutsu.
How much had he seen?
Did he see my mask?
Damn it! My Sharingan! Did he see that too?
He started biting his lip. "He must have seen it! I took my mask off when I was at ease! What an idiot! What a complete idiot!! You always tell others that a ninja is someone who is never caught off guard, and yet a snot-nosed brat who hasn't even finished school yet was able to catch you. Ugh!"
Should I kill him?
"No! He's the Third Hokage's grandson, he always has a guard... Wait! A guard? What if Ebisu saw me too?"
His face went pale. He panicked for a moment.
"No, if Ebisu had seen me, he would have reported me to the Hokage by now. He's not an idiot like Konohamaru who doesn't know any better..."
Mitsuro paced the room, pressing his fingers to his temples. He had never been so cornered.
"He said he saw me from the window?"
He looked at the window, then walked to the middle of the room and checked the angle from which he had emerged from the ground that night.
"That night, I performed my jutsu facing the front door."
He sat on the floor and recreated his movements.
"If I came out here, how much could he have seen?"
He looked at the window again, trying to give himself some hope.
"No... I don't think he saw my eyes or the mask... He probably just saw that I had something on my head and took it off..."
He went to the couch and sat down.
"The good thing is that Konohamaru's not all there, just like Naruto! Otherwise, he would've been suspicious about why I changed my clothes so quickly or why I was acting so secretly... But instead, he's not suspicious of me at all... I just need to make sure he doesn't talk about it with anyone else..."
He dragged his feet on the floor and rested a hand under his chin.
"Maybe it's not a bad idea to become his Teacher..."
He tried to think more carefully about the idea.
"This way, I can slowly gain control over him... Seeing more of my jutsus will make him forget about that night... But how can I get the Hokage and Ebisu to agree to this?"
He clasped his hands together. His mind was lost in a complex labyrinth of plans and possibilities until morning.