Roy glanced at Minato Namikaze without making a move.
"I'll listen to my teacher."
"Minato," Hiruzen Sarutobi's mouth twitched imperceptibly.
Minato looked back and forth between the two, smiling as he put away his kunai. "Jin, since the Hokage summoned you, you should go. Heading to the battlefield isn't urgent for these next two days; there will be plenty of time later."
Moreover, the boy actually possessed astonishing talent in Space-Time Ninjutsu... Minato's lake-blue eyes flickered. He might have to sweet-talk Kushina into letting them crash at Fugaku's place for a meal more often.
Seeing this, Roy shoved his hands into his pockets and followed expressionlessly behind Hiruzen, strolling toward the edge of the southern forest...
At that time, it was approaching noon, and the sun was bright.
The old man and the young boy, one in front and one behind, walked out of the forest, crossed the streets, blended into the breeze, and headed straight up the Hokage Monument. Neither spoke until...
Hiruzen stopped first. Standing right on top of his own carved head, he turned back and asked, "Are you angry?"
Roy stopped as well. Beneath his feet was the carved head of Hashirama Senju, wearing a forehead protector and gazing over Konoha. He replied flatly, "Anyone would find it hard to be happy about being spied on."
"Keeping an eye on the growth of every young ninja is my duty as the academy principal."
"Then, may I ask what the Hokage saw?"
"I saw it," Hiruzen looked deeply at Roy. "And I was startled."
Saying that, the old man sat down cross-legged, patting the empty spot beside him to motion for Roy to come over...
Roy sat down openly, his legs dangling over the cliff face, swinging slightly. His bangs, hanging over his eyes, swayed gently in the wind, exuding an indescribable, unique aura of free-spiritedness.
Hiruzen turned his head to look at him, his memories flashing back to his own youth. Compared to this boy, his past self... seemed to pale in comparison.
"Jin."
"Speak."
"Could you tell me... who is your teacher?" Hiruzen turned his head, looking out at the high, cloudless sky and the bright sun over Konoha alongside the boy. He said quietly, "Don't tell me it's Fugaku. You know as well as I do that he couldn't teach a child as outstanding as you."
Swordsmanship that could rival Sakumo's... the casual use of seal-less Ninjutsu... unparalleled talent in Space-Time Ninjutsu... coupled with [Yang Style] and the sharp perception that saw through the [Telescope Technique] at first glance... The boy was like a mystery. Just a casual display of a fraction of his abilities revealed Ninjutsu and swordsmanship that many Jonin might not master in their entire lifetimes...
Let alone Fugaku, Hiruzen asked himself, even if he combined his efforts with the First and Second Hokage, they might not be able to raise such a formidable child!
Otherwise, Asuma wouldn't still be struggling just to reach the middle of the pack...
It made him blush just thinking about it.
"Teacher?"
"Yes..."
Roy thought of Urokodaki Sakonji, the old woman Biscuit, his father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and... Ging, Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni, and others. Men and women, old and young, who had either imparted knowledge, offered a word of advice, or shared a discussion with him... There were swordsmen, Hunters, Soul Reapers... Finally, he summed it up in one word:
"Dreams."
The boy swung his legs and said leisurely, "I often learn from my teachers in my dreams."
"They don't mind my clumsiness, and for that, I am incredibly grateful."
After the boy finished speaking, he pinched a wisp of the breeze, his thoughts fluttering. It was as if the days of practicing swordsmanship with his teacher Urokodaki Sakonji were right before his eyes... It had been nearly two years since they last met. He wondered if his senior disciples, Sabito and Makomo, deep in Mount Sagiri, were doing well now...
The warm sunlight cascaded down on the silent Hokage Monument...
Hearing this answer, Hiruzen turned to look at the boy. Even though the answer was absurd and bizarre, his intuition told him that Roy was telling the truth.
"Hehehe..." The old man chuckled, suppressing his voice.
He took off his Hokage hat, placed it beside him, and stroked his half-black, half-white goatee, saying with certainty, "To be able to be your teachers, I imagine... they must all be remarkable figures."
"Indeed," Roy let go of the breeze, smiling along. "I think so too. Therefore,"
The boy turned his head to look at Hiruzen. "I've always felt that I am very lucky."
Hiruzen was taken aback, then said earnestly, "They are also very lucky."
"To have a student like you, I believe they must think the exact same way."
Urokodaki Sakonji's gaze before he set off for Mount Fujikasane to join the Demon Slayer Corps... his great-grandfather's guidance when he first learned [Ren]... his father's embrace when they met in a dream... his grandfather comparing heights in the mottled hallway, Ging's gifts, Biscuit's insights, and his first encounter with Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni born out of 'gratitude'...
Scenes unfolded one by one... Roy leaned back, his back against the somewhat rough rock face, keeping his mouth shut. He just looked up through his fingers at the sun gradually reaching its peak. After a moment, he said leisurely, "The Hokage didn't call me here just to make small talk with a kid who isn't even a ninja, did he?"
With his back to the reclining Roy, Hiruzen slowly gazed at the bustling commercial district of Konoha ahead, as if he could never get enough of it. "Let me correct you. I have already approved your early graduation. So, strictly speaking, you are already a qualified Genin."
"I didn't agree to it."
"I don't need your agreement." The old man turned his head with a sly look and said seriously, "I am the principal. What I say goes."
Roy rolled his eyes and simply closed them, refusing to look at him.
Hiruzen chuckled, not annoyed in the slightest, and said calmly, "Of course, this time, I sought you out to answer your question."
Roy remained unmoved.
Hiruzen continued on his own, "Last time at the academy, you asked me if Konoha's 'Fire' included the Uchiha... Now..."
Wearing his white Hokage robe, Hiruzen looked at the azure sky and enunciated every word, "That depends on what the Uchiha... think..."
"Or rather, what do you think?"
"Me?" Roy kept his eyes closed, hands resting behind his head, and said indifferently, "Didn't the Hokage ask the wrong person?"
"I didn't ask the wrong person. I mean you."
Roy slowly opened his eyes, meeting the old man's burning gaze head-on, and raised an eyebrow. "Are you serious?"
*This brat, the moment the village and the Uchiha are mentioned, he won't even call me Hokage anymore?*
Hiruzen said seriously, "Of course."
He looked deeply at the boy. "You are different."
Roy fell silent. In that instant, he even suspected... had his secret of helping his clansmen awaken their Sharingan been leaked? But on second thought, after the [Tongue Eradication] planted by his father and Uchiha Setsuna was broken, it was impossible for there to be no perception of it... Roy immediately dismissed the thought in his mind. At the very least—
One thing was certain now... Hiruzen Sarutobi had his eyes on him!
His thoughts fluctuated like the Nen radiating and twisting above his head. Roy feigned sleep... Hiruzen didn't mind him. He spread his wide sleeves, revealing his smoking pipe firmly in his grasp. Waiting until he had pulled out some tobacco from his pouch and filled the bowl, he leaned close to Roy and extended the pipe. "Got a light?"
"No." Roy rolled over, turning his back to Hiruzen completely, and said coldly, "Smoking is bad for your health. That's common sense even a child knows."
"But it relieves fatigue." Since Roy wouldn't give him a light, Hiruzen simply lit it himself. He took a puff and said, "The Hokage is very busy. I wish there were forty-eight hours in a day."
He inhaled the smoke into his lungs and exhaled it from his mouth, slowly forming a smoke ring that expanded with the wind, drifted away, and vanished.
Feeling comfortable, Hiruzen leaned back a bit. "Tell me, what do you think?"
The old man said quietly, "Between the Uchiha and the village, you have to choose one."
*Just like what you did to Shisui, to Itachi... to every Uchiha who showed even a hint of talent... Do we really have to draw a line between us?*
A saying suddenly came to Roy's mind: Those in power don't necessarily want talent. Even if it's a pig, as long as it's loyal enough, it will be entrusted with heavy responsibilities. An indescribable sense of irony instantly welled up in his heart!
"What I think isn't important. If you, Hiruzen Sarutobi, lack the ability and can't control the village, please don't shift the blame for your own incompetence onto the Uchiha!"
The boy's words were shocking!
Hiruzen's hand holding the pipe paused. With another glance, he saw the boy suddenly stand up, stepping on the massive carved head of Hashirama Senju, draped in a radiant cloak woven from thousands of sunbeams. Looking down at him impassively, Roy said, "Since the Hokage asked, I'll tell you."
"I'll choose if I want to, and I won't if I don't. Are you satisfied?"
Silence.
On this bright noon.
Atop the Hokage Monument, the symbol of Konoha's legacy, an old man and a young boy, one sitting and one standing, one looking up and one looking down, stared at each other quietly... The air seemed to freeze, almost solidifying!
Sizzle... The tobacco in the pipe slowly burned... smoke rising... It took a long time for Hiruzen to suddenly snap back to reality, realizing that he seemed to have... been scolded!
The person scolding him wasn't Danzo, Koharu, Homura, or his teacher Tobirama Senju, nor was it the First Hokage, hailed as the 'God of Shinobi' who single-handedly founded Konoha. It was... a half-grown child!
In the silence, the old man took another puff of his pipe to steady his fluctuating emotions. He cast a sidelong glance at Roy and said, "Of course you can be willful, provided that... you have the strength to back it up."
Uncharacteristically, Hiruzen looked at the boy sternly. "If you were as strong as the man beneath your feet, let alone the Uchiha, even if you asked for the position of Hokage, I wouldn't bat an eye and would immediately step down for you!"
The key was... could he?
There was only one God of Shinobi. Only Hashirama. Only Hashirama... could make him willingly submit.
Unfortunately... "I am not him, and naturally, I cannot become him." Roy shook his head.
Hiruzen quietly breathed a sigh of relief. At least... the child wasn't arrogant beyond measure. There was still hope...
"Hmph, as long as you know!"
Roy didn't argue. He simply extended a hand, opening the aura nodes in his palm, and separated a wisp of Nen into [Water] and [Earth]. Intertwining and merging them, he condensed a wooden cane from his palm and struck it against the ground.
Dust billowed up, causing Hiruzen's gaze to sharpen and his mouth to fall open slightly.
The boy rested both hands on the top of the cane. Seeing that the cane he had condensed through [Wood Style] was less than a fraction of Hashirama Senju's power, he agreed with Hiruzen, saying, "You don't need to remind me of that. I know exactly what my Wood Style is like and how it compares to the First Hokage's."
"..."
Hiruzen: "..."
His hand trembled, losing his grip on the pipe. With a clatter, it tumbled down the cliff face... Soon after, the sound of the pipe snapping in half echoed up...
"You... know [Wood Style]?"
"I wouldn't say I know it. I just grasped it not long ago and am still figuring it out..."
Roy raised his hand again, and another wooden sword took shape in his palm... Itachi's birthday was fast approaching, and Roy planned to make a [Divine Script Wooden Sword] to give him. He figured... Itachi would definitely love it when he saw it.
Itachi's tender yet prematurely mature face surfaced in his mind.
As Roy's thoughts shifted and he snapped back to reality, he suddenly felt his shoulders sink, firmly grabbed by a pair of large, calloused hands!
Hiruzen stood up abruptly, grabbing Roy's shoulders. Leaning in close, he stared straight at him as if looking at a rare treasure, muttering to himself, "I should have known. Since you mastered [Yang Style], it wasn't impossible for you to learn [Wood]... Good boy, you're right..."
"It's my incompetence."
"I almost let you go to the battlefield..."
*Huh?!* Roy: "..."
A sense of foreboding instantly welled up in his heart... The boy frowned and asked, "What does the Hokage mean by this?"
"Exactly what it sounds like." Hiruzen let go of Roy, placed a hand on his head, and said decisively, "Jin Uchiha, I announce once again: starting today, you are grounded!"
"I need a reason." Roy's small face fell.
The prize that was practically in his hands was about to slip away. He could have freely harvested 'Life Energy' on the battlefield... Roy thought indignantly. Even Yamato hadn't been grounded by Hiruzen back then.
But,
"That's an order!"
Hiruzen bent down, picked up his Hokage hat from the ground, and put it on his head. The large character for 'Fire' on it brooked no argument, leaving Roy momentarily speechless.
He immediately turned and left in a huff...
Tap, tap... The sound of footsteps echoed...
Watching the boy make a few leaps down the Hokage Monument, Hiruzen called out faintly to Roy's back, "You know I can monitor you at any time."
Suddenly, a flash of light erupted... Roy stopped jumping and simply turned into light. Flash, flash, and another flash, he moved out of Hiruzen's line of sight, disappearing completely.
"..."
"That brat..." On the massive Hokage Monument, the carved heads of the First, Second, and Hiruzen himself gazed out... Hiruzen chuckled and scolded leisurely.
He finally remembered his dry pipe and ran to the bottom of the cliff to look. It was broken... His mouth twitched in heartache...
Fortunately, trading a broken pipe to witness Wood Style was worth it. Hiruzen picked up the broken pipe, moved his feet, and hurried toward the Hokage building...
The old man and the young boy, separated by the noisy and bustling commercial district of Konoha, darted off in different directions like two parallel lines that would never intersect... Little did they know, on an inconspicuous large tree nearby, a white snake abruptly emerged. Its vertical pupils gleamed with a dark light as it flicked its tongue. Following the direction Roy had left in, it slithered stealthily, winding its way silently toward the southern forest...
##Discount##
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