Reborn!

22: A Baffling Situation

Naruto managed to manipulate Mizuki, making the chūnin tell him about the forbidden scroll a bit sooner than he had in the previous timeline.

As such, he managed to sneak into the Hokage tower without any difficulty. What with his former post as a Hokage in the future of a past timeline, he knew all the secrets of Konoha. He had succeeded in entering the vault which held village secrets in his last play-through and that was when he had still been a child and before he had been privy to such knowledge. It was not as if being stealthy was difficult for him anyway. Naruto had pranked an entire shinobi village without being caught, so visiting the vault was child's play.

He allowed himself to be spotted as he left the office through the window, saluting the Hokage as he tossed a note onto the desk. Naruto then hopped out of the window, disappearing as he fell out of Hiruzen's line of sight. The Sandaime could only shake his head, watching Naruto go helplessly. It was not as if he could stop the boy anyway. He always had a sinking suspicion that Naruto was behind the mass pranking incident a year ago. The blond was the only person in all of Konoha whose location during the event had been unknown.

Questioning Naruto, however, would get him nowhere. Besides, it was absurd to consider a mere academy student capable of outgunning the entirety of Konohagakure. Of course, with it being the prodigious son of Minato, it was not a farfetched idea at all. Sarutobi Hiruzen clearly thought that it was very likely that the culprit in the matter had been Naruto.

He picked up the note that the blond left after fleeing with the Forbidden Scroll in hand.

It read: Jiji, I'm off to catch a white rat. I'll give it back at sunrise. I promise, dattebayo!

Hiruzen snorted at the verbal tick that made its way onto paper. He knew better than most that the blond's usual persona was a mere cover. He knew Naruto used the famous Uzumaki speech impediment to make himself sound stupid. The Hokage had to admit that it worked, pretty well actually.

However, it was overdoing it when Naruto even wrote it down. His handwriting was neater than any schoolwork he had ever submitted to Iruka, too. Nothing was misspelt for once - his academy instructors had always been aggravated by the errors that seemed too purposeful to be mere accidents. Hiruzen knew that these suspicions were not unfounded now.

"Come back safely, Naruto-kun, and I'll ignore the fact that you read the Forbidden Scroll," he told the boy with an exasperated sigh.

Hiruzen could have sworn that he heard a bark of disembodied laughter echo throughout the office. Even so, he knew that he would not find anything even if he looked. Hiruzen was aware that there was no reason to feel alarmed by it anyway.

Naruto had not yet left, after all.

The one that went to collect the traitor was but a shadow clone.

It truly was something else when an academy student deemed a single clone to be sufficient to apprehend his turncoat instructor.

ʕ•ﻌ•ʔ

Hiruzen did his best to suppress the flinch that was his instinct when Naruto suddenly slammed his office door open without warning.

He had not heard footsteps or sensed any wisp of chakra incoming, yet there Uzumaki Naruto stood whilst defying all rational considerations.

"Jiji," Naruto said quietly, his head downcast.

The aged Hokage was taken aback by this. For Naruto to display such behaviour was uncharacteristic. He had never seen the blond looking so gloomy. A nagging part of Hiruzen's mind told him that he had some part in this. He did not understand why this was so. Certainly, it could have been many things. Even so, he did not see why Naruto would have such a look of disappointment as he stared at his grandfather figure.