"Creak—"
Hokage Building, Hokage's office.
Hiruzen Sarutobi leaned forward and suddenly sat up straight. Because he exerted too much force, the chair beneath him staggered backward, leaving two shallow white marks on the wooden floor.
"Light?"
Specks of fluorescence bloomed and vanished. The young boy was surrounded by a soft halo of light. He transformed into a 'ribbon of light', merged into the sunlight, and with another flicker, shot forward nearly a thousand meters!
This distance had already far exceeded the limits of the [Swamp Space].
Hiruzen Sarutobi pressed his face close to the crystal ball, holding his breath and watching quietly. His heavily wrinkled face twisted imperceptibly as he immediately fell into deep thought...
Developed using it as a 'base'... [Light].
Or rather, it shouldn't be called [Light Style], but a variant of [Yang Style]!
And [Yang Style] was something only the Senju and Uzumaki clans possessed!
Hiruzen Sarutobi narrowed his eyes, studying the young boy in the crystal ball who was carrying Rin Nohara, constantly turning into sunlight and weaving through the dense forest. The boy's handsome face, which was thirty percent similar to Fugaku and seventy percent similar to Mikoto, clearly marked him as an absolute Uchiha!
He couldn't possibly have even the slightest connection to the Senju, the Uzumaki, or even... [Yang Style] from birth!
Then, there was only one possibility left... 'It's this child himself who is the anomaly!' Hiruzen Sarutobi sat heavily back in his chair. His pen slipped, dragging a dark ink stain across the long scroll, perfectly obscuring Roy's name...
He just sat there, watching, no longer caring about the scroll ruined by the ink stain, until the scene shifted. The boy suddenly stopped in his tracks, and only then did Hiruzen straighten his back, continuing to focus intently on the crystal ball...
South Border Forest.
Through 'light transformation', Roy carried Rin Nohara past Kakashi and Obito, emerging directly from a ray of sunlight beside them before disappearing again...
Leaving the two far behind... After a brief moment of shock, Kakashi and Obito looked at each other, both seeing an indescribable astonishment in the other's eyes!
"A person can turn into light?" Kakashi, his face half-covered by his mask, turned his head and asked Obito directly, "Is it the Sharingan?"
Although those simple words didn't explain much, Obito quickly understood what Kakashi meant... He had definitely heard that after the Uchiha clan's Sharingan awakened, it possessed various incredible powers. But... based on Obito's own experience of awakening the Sharingan after Roy deliberately instilled 'negative emotions' into him, the young boy vaguely felt that something as 'beautiful' as 'light' was definitely not something the Sharingan-wielding Uchiha clan could possess. Instead, it was something the Uchiha feared, desired, yet could never reach!
'The inherently evil Uchiha is not just an empty phrase.' Obito recalled the glimpse of the future he saw while under the illusion, took a deep breath, and slowly shook his head. "I don't know, but..."
"I don't think that looks like the Sharingan."
As Obito spoke, a hint of crimson slowly crept into his eyes. Meeting Kakashi's gaze, he said, "At the very least, he hasn't activated it, has he?"
Kakashi froze, falling silent... Just as Obito said, Roy's eyes were clear and bright, almost like the sun. There was no sign of any crimson creeping in!
The white-haired boy swayed slightly, recovering his senses after a moment. He exhaled, narrowing his eyes at the boy and girl who had already reached the finish line ahead of them. "If that's really the case, then it can only mean... that Jin Uchiha himself... is extraordinary!"
"Extraordinary..." Obito murmured, staring ahead.
"Extraordinary..." Minato Namikaze arrived a step later via a kunai marked with the Flying Thunder God formula. Returning to Roy's side, he saw the boy still immersed in that profound and mysterious state, absentmindedly pinching a ray of sunlight between his fingers. Minato's expression was complex and hard to describe. He had to admit... Kakashi was right...
People were indeed different from one another. Different starting points, different experiences, different talents, different past lives, different personalities. With all these variations, it seemed... there was only one commonality, and that was... everyone would eventually die!
However, would people truly all walk toward death in the end?
The ancients said to strive towards the light, and also that Yin without Yang cannot grow, and Yang without Yin cannot thrive... Roy was immersed in the realization of 'transforming into sunlight', listening to the continuous system prompts echoing in his ears...
[B +100 +100 +100.....]
In a moment, it broke past 40,000, entering the realm of 50,000... Displaying—
Roy opened his palm, letting that ray of sunlight slip through his fingers. Then, he extended his index finger and pointed at a wooden stump standing in the training ground ahead.
"Whoosh—" A slender beam of concentrated light shot out instantly, hitting the wooden stump dead center and blasting a finger-sized hole right through it!
'Light... concentrated sunlight... is also the most important aspect of the [Sun] that I never remembered...'
'Just like my eyes, I never expected that one day they would house lasers.'
A red glow surged in his eyes, and suddenly another laser followed the light beam, piercing another small hole in the lower edge of the wooden stump...
Roy tried using 'light' as a foundation, expanding his imagination to develop various techniques. Finally, he clapped his hands together, drawing a lightsaber from between his palms and raising it high. At that moment, Minato Namikaze's faint voice reached his ears...
"What kind of sword is that?"
Minato Namikaze asked solemnly, sensing the terrifying fluctuations emanating from the lightsaber.
Roy casually twirled the sword, the scattered sword light falling to the ground and piercing bottomless holes that bubbled with groundwater. He said absentmindedly, "Ame no Murakumo... Its name is Ame no Murakumo!"
Beneath the heavens, above the clouds, only the sun hangs high.
It truly was... "A very good name."
Minato Namikaze reversed his grip, slotting the kunai into his waist pouch. He smiled and extended his right hand toward Roy. "Let's get to know each other. I am your team leader for this mission, Minato Namikaze."
"Jin Uchiha." Retracting the lightsaber in his hand, Roy reached out and shook Minato Namikaze's hand.
One who created his own Light Style, the other as warm as the sun... The two figures, one large and one small, were reflected through the crystal ball into Hiruzen Sarutobi's old eyes, which were filled with the marks of time and hardship.
The old man seemed to finally remember his dry pipe. He picked it up, took a puff with a smack of his lips, and his face was hidden in the permeating smoke, making it hard to see clearly...
"How wonderful... They are all radiant young people..." A moment later, a sigh echoed leisurely through the Hokage's office...
Perhaps recalling his own youthful days, or perhaps his emotions were surging too much to calm down... After fiercely smoking the remaining tobacco in his pipe, Hiruzen Sarutobi stood up, draped his Hokage cloak over his shoulders, put on his Hokage hat, and pushed the door open...
"Sigh..." The door of the Hokage's office opened and closed.
Footsteps echoed through the Hokage Building, through the bustling streets outside, and through the greetings of Konoha villagers, peddlers, merchants, and ninjas, involuntarily heading towards... the South Border Forest...
At that time, Roy noticed the secretly prying gaze disappear, and he discreetly withdrew his hand from Minato Namikaze's grasp.
He turned his head and glanced at Rin Nohara, who was walking towards him.
She was pinching the corner of her clothes, her eyes lowered, as she mumbled, "Thank you."
Her usually sweet and gentle demeanor seemed a bit flustered and at a loss when facing him at this moment...
'What's wrong with me?'
'Rin Nohara, you should lift your head and look at him boldly when you speak...'
Her cheeks burning, the young girl seemed... to have not yet escaped from the illusion and reality of the 'light transformation'. To this,
Roy expressed his understanding. He nodded slightly at her and said, "You're welcome."
The boy's gaze bypassed Rin Nohara and looked behind her at Kakashi and Obito, who had finally reached the finish line and were resting their hands on their knees, panting heavily.
He said, "Since I caused everyone to take the blame together, I should bear the responsibility."
To the side, Minato Namikaze crossed his arms. Seeing Kakashi and Obito walk up one after another, he nodded imperceptibly...
What are comrades? What are bonds? This was it.
A gust of wind blew by, rustling the man's blond hair. Minato Namikaze clapped his hands and said, "Alright, let's begin today's training mission."
He flipped his hand and pulled a bell from his chest pocket.
"Jingle..."
The bell swayed in the wind, emitting a crisp ringing sound...
Noticing this scene, Roy's thoughts surged, flashing back to the future when Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura first formed a team to snatch the bells from Kakashi's hand. He glanced sideways at Kakashi. Come to think of it... this was also an old Konoha tradition. As for exactly who it originated from, it might... trace back to the Third, or even the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju. It was just that... the bell had appeared, but the expected team-up hadn't...
Minato Namikaze instructed Kakashi, Obito, and Rin to pair up and spar. Meanwhile, he shook the shiny bell and blocked Roy's path, looking at him with a smile. "To be honest, before you arrived, I was thinking of having you cooperate with Kakashi and the others to snatch this bell from my hand. But,"
After seeing the various techniques Roy displayed while sprinting through the forest carrying a log... Minato Namikaze immediately changed his mind. He looked at Roy seriously and said, "I think, with your strength, you shouldn't need their cooperation."
"Is that a compliment?"
"Of course." Minato Namikaze said sternly, "From the moment I announce the start, please be sure to treat me as an enemy."
"Enemy." Roy chewed on the word, and his posture straightened, causing his aura to undergo an earth-shattering change in that instant!
"Boom!" An unparalleled and overbearing [Ren] exploded outward with the boy at the center, crushing everything in its path!
Not far away... separated from Roy and Minato Namikaze by only an empty stretch of the training ground, Kakashi, who was fighting Obito and Rin alone, was hit by the shockwave of the 'Nen aura'. He stumbled, nearly colliding with Obito's forceful uppercut, and looked back in horror...
In the very center of the training ground, Roy's black hair defied gravity, dancing wildly as if he had stepped out of the sun. As he opened his mouth, [Scorching True Intent] overflowed. He stared burningly at Minato Namikaze and said calmly, "I have always treated my enemies with the intent to kill. So,"
"Sensei, are you sure you're serious?"
Minato Namikaze's blond hair was blown wildly into the air. Facing the [Ren] head-on, he thought to himself, 'What powerful chakra!'
Instead of retreating, he stepped forward and laughed openly. "Of course!"
The man drew a kunai with a backhand grip, spun it nimbly in his palm, and gripped it firmly. Only then did he narrow his eyes at Roy and say, "You've already called me Sensei. If I don't figure out your true strength, I'll make the wrong judgments during missions."
"True."
Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated. However... Roy turned his head and glanced in a certain direction behind him. "Sensei is right, but I feel it's necessary to have a witness. If someone really gets hurt, there needs to be an explanation."
"Step, step..." Footsteps sounded.
Noticing Roy's gaze, Minato Namikaze looked in the direction Roy was looking...
A white Hokage cloak faintly emerged from a corner of the dense forest, followed by that familiar Hokage hat, and the old face beneath the hat, covered in the marks of time and hardship...
"Third Hokage?!" Minato Namikaze was stunned. With another glance,
Hiruzen Sarutobi walked out of the dense forest, casting a leisurely glance at him and Roy. He smiled warmly and said, "I certainly didn't come here to be a witness."
"Both of you are precious to me; I wouldn't want to see either of you get hurt..."
As the current Hokage spoke... he stepped into the range of the [Ren], facing Roy's [Ren] head-on. Feeling the 'light' and 'heat', 'attraction' and 'repulsion', 'wind and fire' and 'lightning', 'water waves' and 'rocks' mixed within it, he stopped in his tracks. He locked his gaze intently on Roy and said, "This doesn't look like the Chakra Extraction Technique the academy taught you!"
[Chakra Extraction Technique]: Born from 'stamina', a product processed through 'stamina'... Compared to the Four Major Principles of 'Nen', this so-called mixture of 'physical energy' and 'spiritual energy' was ultimately a bit shallow...
Roy looked at Hiruzen Sarutobi indifferently. "The academy didn't teach people to graduate early either."
Hiruzen Sarutobi: "..."
His breath hitched.
He glared at Roy helplessly. "Look at your own strength. Is it proper for you to still be staying in the academy?"
A guy who could clash swords with Sakumo, claiming to be an ungraduated student from the ninja academy... If the other major ninja villages found out, they would definitely suspect Konoha of bragging and deliberately trying to crush their morale!
"I'm not even seven years old yet." Roy said noncommittally, "What's improper about not reaching graduation age?"
Seven years old... It would have been fine if Roy hadn't mentioned it, but once he did... whether it was Hiruzen Sarutobi, Minato Namikaze, or Kakashi, Obito, and Rin who were forced to stop fighting not far away, all of them fell silent.
Even though Kakashi had graduated from the ninja academy at age six, look at this guy's six years of age: creating his own ninjutsu, casting jutsu without hand seals, space-time ninjutsu, all done effortlessly... Kakashi wished his mask was longer, so he could just cover his entire face and save himself the embarrassment of seeing anyone...
Yeah, he's only seven years old... This was Hiruzen Sarutobi.
Yeah, he's only seven years old... This was Minato Namikaze...
At this moment, the South Border Forest fell into an eerie silence. Only the occasional bird soaring across the sky and chirping broke the immersion...
Hiruzen Sarutobi snapped back to reality and waved at Roy. "We'll talk after the training. Child... come with me..."