The child looked at Sarutobi Hiruzen with clear eyes, sucking his finger, looking very cute and innocent.
Seeing the newcomer, Sarutobi Hiruzen showed a kind smile on his face. He put down his writing brush, took the pipe out of his mouth, seemingly feeling that this wouldn't set a good example for a child, and then said to the child, "Where are you from? Why is no one looking after you?"
However, the child just stood there quietly sucking his finger, looking at Sarutobi Hiruzen with clear eyes.
"Why don't you..." Just as Sarutobi Hiruzen was about to ask the child why he didn't respond, he suddenly saw bright red liquid vaguely flowing into the room from the edge of the open door.
Instantly, Sarutobi Hiruzen's words got stuck, and he didn't continue asking.
For a moment, the entire Hokage office seemed to fall into silence.
Only the faint sound of the child sucking his finger echoed in the office.
Inside the Hokage office, there was only the white-haired old man in Hokage robes sitting at the desk and the short, thin child standing behind the desk, sucking his finger and gazing at Sarutobi Hiruzen with clear eyes.
Sarutobi Hiruzen didn't speak, and neither did the short, thin child.
Blood continued to flow in from the bottom edge of the door...
After a long time...
Suddenly! Sarutobi Hiruzen pressed his left hand on the wooden desk!
"Summoning: Monkey King: Enma!"
Complex black markings appeared and spread out on the desk.
In the instant the emerging smoke had not yet dissipated.
Sarutobi Hiruzen shouted: "Staff!"
Enma, who had just been summoned, immediately understood. In an instant, he transformed into a large staff that Sarutobi Hiruzen grabbed in his hand, smashing it violently towards the short, thin child behind the desk with the force of ten thousand jun!
"Bang!"
A violent explosion sounded. The floor of the Hokage office was instantly smashed to pieces, sending many stones flying and deeply embedding them into the surrounding walls!
A cloud of dust surged up, obscuring the vision.
"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!"
Sarutobi Hiruzen had already formed hand seals with one hand while swinging the Adamantine Staff. Just at this moment, he spat out a gale, dispersing the dust inside the room.
The dust was forced out the door.
However, after the dust blocking the view dissipated, the scene revealed... was the figure of the short, thin child standing safely on the head of the Adamantine Staff, motionless in the gale, still sucking his finger.
"You!..." Sarutobi Hiruzen was somewhat astonished. He wanted to lift the Adamantine Staff, but the head of the staff seemed to be pressed down by a mountain. Even if he used all his strength, he couldn't make it budge.
What happened?!!
Why does a guy who looks like a child have such great strength?!!
Sarutobi Hiruzen's thoughts raced.
In the next moment, he directly released control of the Adamantine Staff, canceled the summoning, and let Enma go back.
Although doing so would make it difficult to summon again in a short time, it was better than being forcibly controlled.
"Fire Style: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet!"
While retreating rapidly, Sarutobi Hiruzen quickly formed hand seals, chakra surging and condensing in his throat.
Then, he spat it out.
Incredibly fierce flames spewed out, suddenly transforming into a ferocious fire dragon on its trajectory, invading towards that child, poised to turn this unknown strange thing into ashes!
"Ah..." Facing Sarutobi Hiruzen's fire dragon ninjutsu, the child stopped sucking his finger, opened his mouth, and uttered a babble peculiar to children.
What does he mean?
Sarutobi Hiruzen retreated to the windowsill, planning to retreat when there was a chance. With the village's encirclement, he was confident of keeping this thing in Konoha.
Before that, he gazed at the child in the office, wanting to know how he would respond. However, seeing the opponent open his mouth, he was somewhat puzzled about the reason for his action.
He couldn't possibly eat my ninjutsu, right? Relying on that small mouth?
But the next moment, Sarutobi Hiruzen's face showed a look of horror.
That child... his mouth actually expanded instantly in a way that violated physiological structure, while his child-like head and body appeared so petite under the mouth that almost filled the entire office...
The fire dragon invaded... but was forced into the child's expanded mouth, completely disappearing without a trace.
Immediately, the mouth shrank to its normal state, returning to a short, thin child sucking his finger, looking very harmless to humans and animals.
"What exactly are you?"
Sarutobi Hiruzen frowned tightly, staring dead at the child in front of him, speaking heavily.
That child's clear eyes suddenly became very turbid in the next instant. The finger being sucked was gradually put down, and his rosy and tender mouth opened and closed, "Do you know the Earth-Moon transmission point?"
Clearly a child's body, a child's mouth, a child's head... but the voice emitted was the thick and heavy voice of a middle-aged man.
Sarutobi Hiruzen's frown deepened. He didn't understand the reason for the opponent's phenomenon, nor did he understand the meaning of the opponent's words.
Earth-Moon transmission point?
What is that?
He had been the Konoha Hokage for so many years and had never heard of the existence of such a thing.
"I don't know." Sarutobi Hiruzen responded truthfully.
"Is that so..." The child's face showed a regretful expression, then he asked again, "Then is this Konoha?"
"..." Sarutobi Hiruzen pondered slightly and replied, "Yes."
There was nothing to lie about; after all, this was a question that could be answered by asking anyone on the street.
"Then will Konoha hold the Chunin Exams in a few months?" The child continued to ask.
Not only for that so-called "Earth-Moon transmission point"... but also for Konoha's Chunin Exams...
Sarutobi Hiruzen thought in his mind.
What should I answer...
He was a bit uncertain.
"No." Sarutobi Hiruzen finally answered.
"No?..." The child's face showed a regretful expression again. Immediately, his eyes became clear again, and he put his finger back into his mouth to suck.
Was the state just now a rational state, and this current one an irrational state...
Sarutobi Hiruzen pondered in his heart and quickly judged a conclusion based on the situation.
"What is your purpose in coming to Konoha? Why do you want to know if Konoha is holding the Chunin Exams? And what is the Earth-Moon transmission point?" Sarutobi Hiruzen tried to ask the child who was gazing at him with clear eyes.
But the questioning yielded no response.
Is it really so...
Sarutobi Hiruzen couldn't help but be more certain of his thought in his heart.
Only in the next moment, the child's eyes suddenly changed from clear to turbid again. The finger being sucked by his mouth was put down, and the expression on his fair and tender face changed, becoming somewhat gloomy. He spoke coldly to Sarutobi Hiruzen: "You deceived me."
Sarutobi Hiruzen's heart tightened.
Was I seen through...
Sarutobi Hiruzen didn't say much. In a flash of lightning, he flipped out of the windowsill and leaped into mid-air.
He vaguely felt that the child was very difficult to deal with, so he wanted to seek the village's support to take him down steadily with thunderous momentum!
But when Sarutobi Hiruzen unconsciously looked at other places in the village while in mid-air, he discovered...
The streets of the village were empty...
Immediately, from all the houses within Sarutobi Hiruzen's line of sight, doors suddenly opened and people walked out one by one.
Those people were actually all short, thin children exactly like the one seen just now!
[Reviews - Power St0nes - Comments are highly appreciated to keep me going.....(+50 chapters) patre0n.c0m/talecrafter]