Thump, thump, thump.
Someone knocked heavily on the door.
"Come in."
Click.
The door opened.
A medium-sized cluster of chakra slowly entered Haori's perception.
"Gramps Third!"
Naruto Uzumaki bounced up from his bed, thrilled.
"Lie down, lie down. Your injuries are still serious. How are the wounds, do they still hurt?"
Sarutobi Hiruzen pushed a wheelchair into the room, his face wearing that warm, grandfatherly smile as he fussed over Naruto, even more kindly than the retired old men selling snacks on the roadside.
Fake.
You have had Naruto under surveillance for this long and you do not know how absurd his recovery is?
Haori narrowed her eyes and checked his emotional lights.
Unlike Naruto, whose feelings burst out big and bold, Sarutobi Hiruzen's emotional lights were very dim, and many of the colors were blurred together. He was someone very skilled at hiding what he really felt.
Yet when she focused more carefully, the first emotion that floated up was not murky falsehood, but confusion, followed by surprise.
Huh?
Haori paused.
Only when she saw these emotions drifting toward her did she suddenly realize something.
The Nine Tails' sense of malice only reflected what others felt toward it or its host. It was not the mind reading she had lazily assumed.
These colors had nothing to do with anyone else.
They were Sarutobi Hiruzen's feelings about her.
"I am already fine, Gramps Third."
"That is good to hear."
His and Naruto's voices filled the ward, but Haori could see clearly that emotions were constantly bubbling up from the top of the Third Hokage's head.
"And you, Sasuke? I heard from the doctors that your head was still hurting. Any better?"
"Thank you for your concern, Lord Hokage. It is much better now."
So that little speck of negativity was Sasuke.
Haori finally knew who that ball of envy, jealousy, fear and, buried deep inside, a faint respect and admiration belonged to.
You even dare be jealous of me?
Looks like I hit you too lightly last time.
She decided she would take good care of Sasuke in the future.
Help him learn the pecking order properly so he would stop wasting time on pointless thoughts.
After doing a polite lap of the room for show, the Third finally turned to the bed in the middle.
"I picked this up on the battlefield. It should be yours."
From his sleeve he took out a strip of black cloth and placed it in Haori's hand.
"Thank you."
Haori tied the returned cloth behind her head.
Fresh violet chakra flooded into her eyes.
Her gaze sharpened.
The world snapped into focus.
Sunlight poured through the window, forming pillars of light in the dusty air.
Two boys on either side craned their necks curiously toward her.
Sarutobi Hiruzen stood quietly in front of her, lined face full of age spots and wrinkles, his skin so dry she could practically see the texture of it.
Looks like the Byakugan has gotten stronger.
Is this the effect of the Nine Tails' chakra?
Haori wondered.
Her eye power flowed outward from her pupils, and her vision bloomed into a full three hundred sixty degrees.
The entire world felt like a dumpling sliced open, all its stuffing exposed.
"Are your injuries a little better?"
"Well enough."
She looked inward at her own chest.
Beneath the bandages, the flesh had not fully grown back.
Purple light filled her chakra pathways like threads, knitting torn muscle fibers together one by one.
After devouring the Nine Tails' chakra, her own chakra now had healing properties.
The Shikotsumyaku and the new chakra complemented each other.
The mortal wound from last night had turned into a massive pit in her chest.
Now, after this flood of chakra, the hollow was nearly filled.
A few more days and the wound would likely close.
"That being the case, why do we not find a quiet place to talk?"
The Third patted the wheelchair in front of him, motioning for her to sit.
Ignoring his gentle body language, Haori looked straight at the top of his head instead.
Friendliness, warmth, a faint haze of tiny negative feelings, but no killing intent and no malice.
"I can walk on my own."
"Sit. You are Konoha's little hero right now."
"Hero?"
"You defeated an elite jonin from another village and directly or indirectly saved so many students. If you are not a hero, who is?" Hiruzen said with a chuckle.
He was the one who had let a Kumogakure ninja slip into Konoha, who had allowed the person targeting the least acceptable group of victims, the Academy students, to act unchecked.
Even if he took the credit for killing Yotsuki Isao himself, it could not erase that failure. That protection was supposed to be his responsibility in the first place.
As Hokage, he could hardly shrug it off.
A few days earlier, the elder clan that had helped found Konoha, the Uchiha, had been wiped out.
The village was trembling beneath the surface already, and now there had been an attack from foreign ninja as well.
What the village needed most was a piece of uplifting news to steady the people and redirect their attention.
Naruto, in the eyes of the villagers, was the incarnation of the Nine Tails, shunned and feared.
He was not suited to stand in the light.
So no matter what, the one who killed the enemy could only be Haori.
Chasing Sun Haori.
A girl willing to risk her life to protect her classmates, who had, at such a young age, turned the tables and killed a Kumogakure elite jonin.
A prodigy who perfectly embodied the Will of Fire.
Her existence was a message for the people.
Even without the Uchiha, under his leadership Konoha was still strong.
Monstrous geniuses continued to appear.
Elite jonin from rival villages were nothing more than fodder for Konoha Academy students.
In this way, the people could latch onto something inspiring.
They would celebrate, talk, and gossip, and slowly, the Uchiha massacre would fade from their minds.
As for this attack, the casualties were not high, and he could balance that stain with the achievement of "discovering" such a genius.
The only unknown now was Chasing Sun Haori herself.
Sarutobi Hiruzen's gaze deepened.
Yotsuki Isao's brain had remained mostly intact, and the corpse processing unit had worked through the night.
They had finally extracted the contents.
The information they found had been, to put it mildly, interesting.
So interesting that the Yamanaka clan member who performed the probe had, after compiling the full report, had the sense to erase the relevant memories from his own mind with a clan jutsu.
"Come on. Let us talk outside."
Watching the Third Hokage's expression and emotions, Haori knew he must have learned something.
Her injuries last night had been too severe.
She had used every last drop of chakra just to survive.
There had been no time to clean up the scene, and the Yamanaka clan's techniques were no joke.
Her mind raced as she organized how she would respond.
Going with the flow, she got up and sat in the wheelchair, the frame creaking and groaning in protest.
After swallowing the Nine Tails' chakra, she seemed to have gained even more weight.
Haori leaned back carefully, afraid she would snap the fragile thing.
Rattle.
The Third gripped the handles tightly and pushed her out of the room.
Click.
The door shut behind them, leaving the ward empty except for the two boys staring at each other across the beds.
Naruto had just opened his mouth to greet Sasuke when he saw the other boy turn away with clear disdain.
Gritting his teeth, Naruto rolled over too, deliberately turning his back and presenting Sasuke with his rear.
The two of them lay on their sides, refusing to look at each other, like two old, discarded rags.
"Good morning, Lord Third."
"Good morning."
Sarutobi Hiruzen nodded and smiled at the nurses who greeted him as he pushed the wheelchair down the corridor.
The muscles of his arms bulged under his wide sleeves.
Haori, eyes covered once more, sat obediently in the chair, too worried about breaking it to move much.
To the doctors and nurses of Konoha Hospital, the pair looked like a retired grandfather taking his disabled granddaughter out for some fresh air.
"Hey, is that the prodigy who killed the Kumogakure ninja?"
"Yeah, that is her."
"She is so cute, like a little doll."
A middle-aged nurse in uniform propped her hands against her cheeks, little pink hearts of "adoration" bubbling off her emotional lights.
Haori smoothed the messy hair hanging over her forehead, trying to fix herself up a bit.
After last night's fight, her appearance was more than a little ragged, but the stream of pink emotions whistling toward her said that these people's filter for her was extremely strong.
Suspiciously strong.
The news had spread too fast.
In what felt like a single night, everyone in Konoha Hospital already knew she had killed a Kumogakure jonin.
Even some of the patients had little emotional lights popping up when they saw her.
This was clearly not natural.
"Nervous? You are the big star of Konoha Hospital right now," the Third teased softly when he saw Haori tidying her hair.
"Lord Hokage did this on purpose, did you not?"
"How so?"
"If you really wanted to talk, you could have set up a barrier and spoken in the ward. Instead you are pushing me in circles around the entire hospital."
"A genius deserves genius treatment."
He chuckled and headed upstairs.
On the way, they encountered several Academy parents.
"Look, that is Chasing Sun Haori. Lord Third is personally pushing her chair."
"You do not get it. I heard she received Lord Third's personal guidance. She used secret arts he taught her to take down that Kumogakure jonin."
"In that case, Lord Third is the truly amazing one."
"Of course he is."
Half of the lines sounded like they were being read straight from a script.
Haori licked her back molar in embarrassment and finally understood why they had been walking this long loop.
First they trumpeted her ridiculous feat to cover the political stain of the village being infiltrated and students dying.
Then, once attention was fully on her, they tied her firmly to the Hokage, so that the glory would circle back to him.
In one move, the stain became a highlight.
The students had been saved because the Hokage was wise and powerful and invested in nurturing talent.
As for why Kumogakure ninja had attacked in the first place… do not ask.
Having figured out the logic, Haori suddenly understood why, in the original story, the Third Hokage had chosen to die with Orochimaru.
Half of a person's life is spent chasing benefit, the other half chasing reputation.
This old man clearly belonged to the latter.
He valued how the people saw him so much that he dared to let the title of "Strongest Hokage" float around unchecked.
Of course he would stake his life to use the Reaper Death Seal on Orochimaru.
That traitor was his greatest, most undeniable failure.
They rode the elevator of gossip and whispers all the way up.
Eventually, they reached the rooftop.
The wind on the rooftop was strong.
Haori leaned back in the wheelchair as her hair whipped behind her.
Sarutobi Hiruzen tugged his Hokage hat more firmly onto his head and quietly took two steps back to avoid the silver strands lashing past his face.
"These old bones of mine are not as tough as Yotsuki Isao's."
"You flatter yourself," Haori said politely.
Seems he really does know everything.
Testing just how much he understood, she tilted her head, tucked the flying hair into the back of her shirt and changed the subject.
"So his name was Yotsuki Isao."
"Mm. An old elite jonin of Kumogakure, famous even before I made my name," the Third said, recalling the information pulled from the man's brain as he stepped to the edge of the roof and looked down.
"I once traveled to Kumogakure. At the time, he was the one assigned to monitor us. A very formidable ninja."
"He was certainly strong. I nearly died."
Thinking of that ridiculous single-finger Hell Stab, Haori's face twisted slightly.
If she had not predicted his attack path in advance and moved her heart and lungs into her abdomen, she would not be sitting here making small talk.
She would already be ashes.
"You were very fortunate."
The Third's gaze dropped to the bandages on her chest.
"That man was no ordinary jonin. He was once a candidate to become the Third Raikage."
"A Kage?"
Haori raised a brow.
Sarutobi Hiruzen shook his head.
"He contended with the Third Raikage in their youth and was beaten into submission, becoming one of the Raikage's guards.
After that, he relied on the Third Raikage's secret techniques to roam the battlefield. For a time, he almost touched that level himself."
"And then?"
Curiosity tugged at Haori.
"There is no grand 'then'.
When war broke out between Kumogakure and Iwagakure, he strutted about in his Lightning Release Armor, thinking himself untouchable.
The current Third Tsuchikage, Onoki, hit him with a special kekkei genkai sneak attack and nicked his lungs, leaving a chronic injury.
The Third Raikage stayed behind to fight alone and cover the retreat.
He ran back to Kumogakure with his life barely intact."
"From then on, both his body and spirit were shattered.
He obsessed over powerful jutsu, learning anything that looked strong, whether it suited him or not.
In the end he force fed himself everything he could of the Third and Fourth Raikage's taijutsu and somehow managed to refine himself from a wounded Kage-level into a slightly stronger elite jonin."
"He cultivated in reverse?"
Haori was stunned.
She had never heard of anyone who trained themselves weaker by learning more, and that Hell Stab of his had really not seemed weak.
The Third chuckled.
"The Third Raikage focused on power and defense. The Fourth focused on speed and mobility.
Two completely different paths.
He wanted to merge their strengths into one, but all he did was make the Fourth's techniques sloppy and let his earlier mastery of the Third's grow rusty.
He turned himself into a half-baked mess.
Outside of the Lightning Release Armor, everything else he knew was average.
Even that Hell Stab was probably weaker than the Third Raikage's four-finger version."
He shook his head and continued.
"Konoha has countless clans with secret techniques.
Which of them does not have some top-level powerhouse in their history? Which of them does not have terrifying jutsu sealed away?
If learning a few powerful techniques were enough to make someone a top-tier fighter, Konoha's elite would have flooded the world by now."
Sarutobi Hiruzen turned and looked directly at Haori.
"Your talent is extraordinary. It stands above the entire ninja world.
Whatever you do, do not let yourself be blinded by so-called 'strong' jutsu.
A true master can make an enemy tremble with nothing but a single kunai.
A weak ninja will tremble themselves, afraid to use even a technique like Hell Stab on someone's head in case they miss and kill themselves instead.
The strong do not rely on tools."
"Is this your belated mentorship, then?"
Haori smiled, cutting straight through the promotional lines she had heard in the hospital below.
The Third's expression did not change.
His wrinkled face did not show a hint of embarrassment.
"Just a few methods that do not belong in a ninja's toolkit."
"So, you dragged me out here at the crack of dawn just to talk about Yotsuki Isao?"
"Of course not."
From his robe he pulled out a scroll and flipped it toward her with a flick of his wrist.
"The corpse unit pulled these from his brain last night. Take a look."
"Sorry, I am blind."
Sarutobi Hiruzen could only sigh and wave helplessly, turning his back on her as he gazed over the edge of the rooftop.
"You little girl do not have a single truthful word in that mouth of yours."
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