Kakashi Hatake raised his head.
The sowhat shabby apartnt building before him made him montarily dazed.
So this was the kind of place his teacher's orphan lived in?
However, that thought only lasted for an instant before vanishing.
After seven years in the Anbu, Kakashi had already witnessed more darkness than he cared to rember. As soone who fully understood what a jinchūriki represented, he also understood the difficult position the Third Hokage was in.
After all, back then, even Kushina Uzumaki—the previous Nine-Tails jinchūriki and Kakashi's own teacher's wife—had been monitored constantly until Minato eventually beca Hokage…
"Let's head upstairs."
As though he had seen through Kakashi's thoughts, Hiruzen Sarutobi interrupted him.
"And while we're at it, we can discuss that matter."
Following the Third Hokage upstairs into Naruto's apartnt, Kakashi quickly surveyed the room.
It was small and mostly empty.
The window placent and surrounding structures offered multiple ideal positions for external surveillance.
Out of habit, Kakashi instinctively searched for hidden Anbu observers nearby.
Yet to his surprise—
He found none.
"I already had them withdrawn," Hiruzen said calmly.
"For so ti now, Naruto has not had Anbu watching him."
"…That's dangerous."
Kakashi remained silent briefly before speaking.
"Whether it's Naruto's identity or the dangers tied to being a jinchūriki…"
"And that," Hiruzen interrupted while casually touching the wall and window fra, "is exactly why I called you here today."
The brim of his Hokage hat shadowed his eyes, making his expression unreadable.
"I need you…"
"…to assassinate Naruto."
Completely unaware of what was happening inside his apartnt, Naruto Uzumaki was still training as usual.
At the mont, he was using the training ground Guy had previously brought him to.
Just as Guy had promised, everything there—from the equipnt to the facilities—was leagues better than the run-down public training field Naruto used before.
For soone constantly experinting with new ideas, it was practically perfect.
Before leaving on a mission, Might Guy had also told Naruto to use the training ground freely.
As an apology for their earlier misunderstanding, Guy had even declared that Naruto could bring friends along anyti he wanted.
All repair and maintenance costs?
Guy would handle them himself.
Naturally, Naruto had zero intention of refusing.
And today, there were two additional figures training alongside him.
One of them was little Hinata Hyuga.
Ever since she embarrassingly fainted after Naruto got too close to her last ti, Hinata had originally planned to keep more distance from him.
Maybe secretly observing him from farther away would be enough.
But every single ti before she could even properly begin tailing him, Naruto would already notice her and imdiately drag her over to train together.
And when it ca to Naruto's requests—
Hinata simply could not refuse.
Once they actually started training together, Hinata beca deeply shocked by Naruto's taijutsu level.
Though her own abilities were still lacking, as the eldest daughter of the Hyūga main family, her knowledge and insight were not lacking in the slightest.
She could confidently say that even Neji-niisan—the genius endlessly praised during clan competitions—was nowhere near Naruto's level.
Especially because the clan guards no longer reacted at all whenever Naruto casually dragged her away.
Instead, they simply wore expressions that practically scread:
"Please go ahead, Lady Hinata."
So even encouraged her to hurry along.
The whole thing felt incredibly strange to Hinata.
What she didn't know was that not only were the two guards observing—
Her father himself was currently hidden far away, silently watching through the Byakugan.
Yes.
Ever since receiving reports from Hyūga Hizashi and Hyūga Itta, Hiashi Hyuga could no longer suppress his curiosity.
For the past several days, he had personally followed behind his daughter.
Partly because he truly worried for Hinata's safety—especially after Guy effortlessly bypassed the guards during that earlier "incident."
His first instinct afterward had been to forbid Hinata from going out alone.
But there was another reason as well.
Curiosity toward Naruto.
And after personally observing Naruto's training, Hiashi had indeed discovered sothing astonishing.
With the Hyūga clan's complete martial inheritance and the Byakugan's unparalleled observational ability, Hiashi reached a terrifying conclusion:
Naruto Uzumaki absolutely did not look like a child without guidance.
Soone extraordinary was teaching him.
A true master.
And not rely an average one either.
Whoever it was possessed extrely high-level skill even by shinobi world standards.
Whether it was shurikenjutsu, taijutsu, chakra control, or countless other fundantal disciplines—
Just several days of observation were enough for Hiashi to conclude that Naruto's basics were practically flawless.
Could the Third Hokage himself be teaching him?
As the Hyūga Clan Head, Hiashi imdiately rejected that possibility.
No elite shinobi in Konoha should be secretly educating Naruto.
After all, the uncontrollable danger of jinchūriki chakra rampages remained an unsolved issue throughout the ninja world.
If the Nine-Tails jinchūriki lost control, those very sa techniques could beco weapons capable of destroying Konoha itself.
What exactly was the Third Hokage planning?
And there was another thing that shocked Hiashi even more—
Naruto's teaching ability.
When he watched Naruto repeatedly attempt to explain things to Hinata with phrases like:
"You just do this first, then this, then this…"
Hiashi nearly failed to suppress the urge to rush out screaming:
"Stop misleading my daughter!"
Fortunately, Hinata eventually realized she genuinely could not comprehend Naruto's bizarre instinct-based explanations.
So she timidly suggested she should try figuring things out on her own instead.
Only then did Hiashi finally relax.
He truly feared Naruto might derail Hinata's entire training path.
The Hyūga Clan possessed a complete and refined inheritance system.
Why abandon that just to follow Naruto's incomprehensible "feel it with your heart" learning thod?
Still, what surprised Hiashi most today was another small figure currently present at the training grounds.
The dark gray clothing almost bordering on black…
And the familiar fan crest embroidered upon it.
Sasuke Uchiha.
"Damn it! How exactly are you throwing those shuriken?!"
After failing repeatedly, Sasuke finally exploded in frustration.
"Let see."
Naruto glanced toward Sasuke's thrown shuriken.
The first one had beautifully struck the bullseye of a distant training post.
Confused, Naruto asked:
"Where did your second shuriken go?"
Hearing that genuinely innocent question, Sasuke's face reddened.
After a long pause, he awkwardly pointed toward a nearby tree.
Naruto squinted for several seconds before finally spotting a tiny tallic glint shaped like a star stuck in the bark.
…How did it even fly all the way over there?
Naruto silently complained inwardly.
"Why don't you ask your… brother?"
"I just saw him do it once and tried figuring it out myself."
Naruto casually pulled out one of his own shuriken before tossing it toward the training post.
Clang!
A crisp tallic collision rang out.
The flying shuriken suddenly curved midair and shot toward the one Sasuke had embedded earlier.
Then Naruto's shuriken firmly lodged itself directly above Sasuke's—
Perfectly pinning another star-shaped marker between the two blades.
"Wow, Naruto-kun is amazing!"
Hinata stared blankly at the display in awe.
"That's it!"
"How did you do that?!"
Sasuke nearly shouted.
In his mories, only his brother had ever achieved sothing like that.
That was precisely why he had been so shocked after seeing Naruto practicing shuriken techniques earlier.
And after realizing Naruto was only around his own age, Sasuke's competitive spirit instantly ignited.
Before long…
Wherever Naruto trained, Sasuke would appear as well.
Although his original goal had been surpassing Naruto—
It had only taken less than a single day before it transford into asking Naruto for guidance.
The gap between them…
Was simply too enormous.
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