Hours before the meeting on the bridge...
The Third Hokage's office was shrouded in the pre-dawn gloom. The only sources of light were the small oil lamp on the immense oak desk and the intermittent glow of the ember in Hiruzen Sarutobi's pipe. Gray smoke floated in the still air, laden with a tension that seemed to solidify in the shadows of the round room.
Kakashi Hatake stood in the center of the office. He wasn't carrying his usual orange book. His posture was impeccable, the same one he used to adopt when leading ANBU assassination squads under the old man's direct orders.
"I summoned you early, Kakashi, because reports from the perimeter surveillance squads recorded a chakra anomaly last night near the Forest of Death," Hiruzen said, his hoarse, tired voice cutting through the silence. "But your expression tells me you have more urgent matters concerning your team."
Kakashi nodded slowly. His single visible eye was dark, devoid of its characteristic laziness.
"Lord Third... I need to update my assessment of Naruto Uzumaki," the silver-haired Jonin began, measuring each word with a surgeon's precision. "Yesterday we ran our first D-Rank mission. Weeding the garden of the Feudal Lord's wife. A mundane task, designed to foster cooperation and humility."
Hiruzen exhaled a cloud of smoke, tilting his head. "Was there any conflict? Did he refuse to participate?"
"Quite the opposite, and that's what's terrifying," Kakashi replied, taking a slight step forward. "He didn't use his hands. He summoned three Shadow Clones to do the physical work while he sat meditating under a tree."
Hiruzen frowned. "Kage Bunshin is a B-rank technique that divides chakra equally. It's a massive waste of energy for pulling weeds, especially for a genin. Did you reprimand him for his recklessness?"
"I did," Kakashi confirmed, and an almost imperceptible shiver ran down his spine as he recalled the boy's blue gaze. "And his response... Lord Third, his response wasn't that of a reckless child. He told me that chakra is an internal, renewable resource, but time is an absolute law of the universe that can't be recovered. He called me stupid for suggesting that spending the 'absolute law of time' on physical labor was better than spending a renewable resource like chakra."
The Hokage removed the pipe from his lips. The logic was cold, brutal, and from a purely philosophical and tactical standpoint, irrefutable. It was the kind of thinking one would expect from a Kage or an ancient warlord, not from a twelve-year-old orphan.
"His clones weeded the garden with surgical efficiency," Kakashi continued, not giving the old man time to absorb the first blow. "But what he did with the time he saved is the real reason for my report. He interrogated me, Lord Hokage. He questioned me about Konoha's noble clans."
"He interrogated you?" Hiruzen's eyes sharpened, losing any trace of grandfatherly warmth. "What exactly did he want to know?"
"Everything," Kakashi hissed. "He wanted to know the nature of their arts. He told me, 'A warrior who doesn't know the fangs of the beasts he sleeps with wakes up with his throat cut.' He asked me about the Hyūga clan, the Ino-Shika-Chō formation, and very specifically, the Aburame clan."
Kakashi rubbed the bridge of his nose, remembering the dark smile that had crossed Naruto's face.
"When I explained how the Aburame use their bodies as nests for parasitic insects, he didn't show disgust like Sasuke or Sakura. He smiled. It was a smile of recognition, as if he'd seen worse things and perfectly understood the concept of sacrificing the body for lethality. He sees the village as a chessboard full of monsters, Lord Hokage. He's analyzing us. He's mapping our capabilities as if we were an enemy army or... prey."
Hiruzen slowly rose from his chair. He walked to the window, gazing at the stone monuments of the previous Hokages. The silence lasted nearly a minute. The village he had sworn to protect with the Will of Fire was harboring a predator who didn't believe in that will.
"Was there anything else, Kakashi?" Hiruzen asked, his voice suddenly sounding much older.
"Yes," Kakashi said, and this time, his voice was barely a tense whisper in the closed office. "He went to the Central Library. He read about the Sage of Six Paths. And he asked me directly how to absorb Natural Energy. He asked me about Senjutsu."
The creak of wood echoed in the room. Hiruzen Sarutobi had gripped the window frame so hard that the old wood had splintered under his fingers.
The Hokage spun around, his eyes wide with genuine shock. "Senjutsu? A genin shouldn't even know that word! It's a myth for ninety-nine percent of shinobi forces. Only Jiraiya, Orochimaru, and a handful of elders know the true nature of Senjutsu chakra."
"I warned him it was an extinct art and that trying to absorb the world's energy would turn him to stone, that it was suicide," Kakashi explained, remembering the millennia-old arrogance in the blonde's response. "He just smiled at me and said, 'Suicide for a mortal, perhaps.' Lord Third... last night there was a massive chakra anomaly at the edge of the Forest of Death. An environmental absorption so strong that the local flora withered. Do you believe he...?"
Hiruzen closed his eyes, the weight of the entire world falling onto his frail shoulders.
"If he tried to absorb Natural Energy from the Forest of Death without toad oil or an ancient summoning contract, he should be dead. His body should be a stone statue hidden among the roots," Hiruzen murmured, more to himself than to Kakashi. "But if he's alive... if he truly managed to subjugate the world's energy through sheer force of will and lineage..."
The Hokage returned to his desk and dropped heavily into his chair. He opened the bottom drawer and took out a scroll sealed with red wax.
"Kakashi," Hiruzen called out, his tone now dictating an absolute military order. "This boy can no longer be evaluated within Konoha's walls. The village is a controlled environment; here he'll always be defensive, hiding his true cards and accumulating information."
Hiruzen slid the scroll across the desk.
"I've approved a petition from the Land of Waves. A bridge builder named Tazuna needs a C-rank escort. Missions outside the borders are chaotic, unpredictable, and often lethal. You'll take Team 7 out of the village today."
Kakashi took the scroll, his fingers brushing the red wax. He understood the tactic immediately.
"You want me to observe him in a real life-or-death scenario," Kakashi deduced. "Away from the village's rules, where his purest instincts will have to come to light for him to survive."
"Exactly," the Hokage nodded, lighting his pipe again with slightly trembling hands. "If he's a threat to Konoha, I need to know before he finishes forging his claws. And if Sasuke Uchiha is under his influence... I need you to measure how much the genius of our fallen clan has been corrupted or enhanced by Naruto's heresies."
Kakashi tucked the scroll into his vest. He gave a perfect military bow.
"We'll leave in an hour, Lord Third."
"Go, Kakashi," Hiruzen dismissed him, exhaling a thick cloud of smoke that enveloped his wrinkled face. "And be careful. If what you say about his conviction and his talent for Senjutsu is true, you're no longer escorting a child genin. You're walking alongside something that our history has forgotten how to name."
Back in the present, on the bridge...
Kakashi blinked, the memory of the tense morning meeting with the Hokage fading as he looked at the three genin in front of him.
Naruto's new orange-and-black trench coat fluttered gently in the river breeze. The boy looked at him with that abyssal coldness, waiting patiently. Sasuke, at his side, maintained a rigid posture, his black eyes hiding secrets the Jonin couldn't yet unravel. Only Sakura seemed like the same predictable genin as always.
"We're going to the Hokage Tower," Kakashi repeated, adjusting his forehead protector. "We have a C-rank escort mission outside the village. Our client is a bridge builder from the Land of Waves, and he's waiting for us."
Naruto didn't smile, but a deep, lethal satisfaction settled into his spiritual core. At last. Fresh meat. Real enemies. This world is going to start showing me what its killers are made of.