Children in the shinobi world really are different—like they've got fertilizer in their bodies or something.
On Earth in his previous life, a one-year-old baby might just have learned to walk and say a few simple words. Here, kids were already running wild all over the house.
Barely a month or two after Naruto's birthday, he had already begun to show signs of being a little troublemaker. It was easy to imagine he wouldn't grow up to be well-behaved.
The difference was that, in the original timeline, his childhood pranks were meant to attract attention from the people around him. Now, with both parents alive, if he caused trouble in the future, it would most likely be to draw the attention of his Hokage father.
You could say he was already walking down the path of "Boruto-sama," his future son.
Not every child was like Higashino Makoto, who had the soul of an adult from a young age, sparing Higashino Megumi from ever experiencing the hardship of raising a child.
Uzumaki Kushina, on the other hand, was currently on the verge of losing her hair from stress. Every day, when she saw household items accidentally broken, she would clench her fists tightly.
This was completely different from what her close friends Megumi and Mikoto had told her. They said that when Higashino Makoto and Itachi were young, they had always been quiet and well-behaved children.
So why couldn't her son be like that?
If Naruto weren't still so young, he'd probably be getting beaten three times a day.
Fortunately, Namikaze Minato was a gentle man. Otherwise, Naruto's future situation might have turned into a full-on tag-team beating from both parents.
Time passed in a flash, and December arrived. The year Konoha 52 was about to come to an end.
That morning, Makoto arranged for the three members of the Hayate squad to take over the Shadow Guard duties from Tokuma's squad.
At present, Kakashi's team had withdrawn from their duty of protecting the Fourth Hokage's family. They had been broken up and reorganized, then assigned to ANBU missions.
After all, Kakashi was a genius who had been promoted to jōnin at the age of twelve. He was now serving as a squad captain in the newly formed ANBU.
The protection of the Fourth Hokage was now entirely handled by the seven members of the Shadow Guard.
As for the Third Hokage? He was only serving as acting Hokage, so there was no need to establish a separate Shadow Guard. His usual security was arranged by his eldest son.
Hiruzen planned that once he officially retired, he would also have his eldest son withdraw from ANBU, return to being a regular ninja, and ideally work a bit harder to give him a grandchild.
Being able to hold a grandchild at home after retirement was, for most shinobi—who rarely met a peaceful end—an almost perfect old age.
Since the Fourth Hokage had temporarily retired at home, the Shadow Guard's duties were extremely idle and boring—perfect for slacking off and training.
Makoto's arrangement for them was to use his own experience as reference and carry out Yin–Yang or elemental chakra training within their bodies.
These precise and complicated operations could be done while sitting quietly, making them excellent for improving chakra control.
He called it "static practice."
Correspondingly, physical training and combat drills were "dynamic practice."
Shinobi training had always followed these two paths. Makoto had merely separated them and summarized them using the concepts of stillness and movement.
After the Hayate squad left, Makoto also planned to find a place to slack off and train.
At that moment, Gekkō Kumomi came looking for him.
...
At present, all ANBU members had been personally selected and organized by Gekkō Kumomi, who served as the new ANBU commander and was usually quite busy.
As for the remnants of the old ANBU—after being purged by Obito—they were now under the responsibility of Sarutobi Hiruzen's eldest son. The Third Hokage intended for them to accompany him through his final term before withdrawing from ANBU and returning to the light.
"Yo, sensei. Rare to see you come over—miss me?" Makoto joked.
"Sorry, Makoto. I'm a normal person—I'm not interested in handsome boys," Kumomi replied jokingly before getting straight to the point. "There's something I need your help with. A few days ago, a chūnin squad from the village went missing after carrying out an escort mission. Their status is currently unknown."
"They defected? Do you want me to hunt them down?" Makoto asked.
In the years before and after the war, it was common for rogue ninja to appear in large numbers across the major villages. Makoto himself had carried out such pursuit missions in ANBU.
"No. Two members of the squad have families in Konoha, and ANBU has investigated their usual behavior—the likelihood of defection is very low."
"More importantly, this is already the second case of an entire squad going missing recently. After investigation, ANBU hasn't been able to find any traces at all."
"Two cases already? Then it looks like someone is targeting Konoha—specifically hunting ninja on missions outside the village. The opponent must be very strong, and clean enough that even ANBU can't track them."
"That's our assessment as well."
"So you want me to go? But for something like this, shouldn't you send a specialist tracker?" Makoto asked.
"We did. But all suitable candidates are currently on missions and unavailable. If we wait too long, whatever little traces remain may disappear."
"So I've assigned the most recent case to Tokuma's squad. However, considering they're still young and not very strong in combat, I need you to join them—protect them, and prevent the enemy from targeting them in the shadows."
Tokuma's squad was indeed specialized in tracking, but Makoto still found it odd. "Don't they have Hiyoma-senpai leading them?"
"Just like you, he's recently become independent. Jōnin are busy—you can't expect them to lead teams all the time."
"Alright, I understand, sensei."
"I'll leave it to you," Kumomi said, handing over the relevant information. Before leaving, he added, "Oh, and don't show yourself. Just follow behind them."
"If the enemy sees you, they might not dare show themselves. After all, you're now known across the shinobi world as the 'Hell Wind Oni'—even the usually unreasonable Kumogakure fears you. You've got quite the reputation. Your bounty on the underground exchange is pretty high too."
Makoto: "…"
What was wrong with this shinobi world? Were they copying the neighboring world or something? If you didn't have a bounty on your head, you'd be too embarrassed to go outside?
...
In a forest along the western road of the Land of Fire, Hyūga Tokuma, Aburame Muta, and Inuzuka Meko—along with their dog—were following the trail of their target, heading toward the Land of Rivers.
There hadn't been any rain recently, which was good news for scent-based trackers like their dog and for certain special insects.
Makoto followed them in secret.
Not long after leaving Konoha, Tokuma's team paused at a fork in the road before continuing westward at full speed into the Land of Rivers.
The chūnin squad that had gone missing had last been escorting a merchant and his goods back to the Land of Rivers.
Outside the merchant's house, the dog Rocky said, "There's still a bit of the target's scent inside."
Muta nodded. "Then it seems they completed the mission successfully. If nothing happened here, it matches our earlier deduction."
Tokuma said, "Let's go inside and ask the client."
Inside the merchant's home, the three questioned the employer and several workers who had accompanied the convoy. All answers indicated that they hadn't encountered any rogue ninja along the way.
They had only run into a group of bandits within the Land of Rivers, but those had been easily dealt with by the Konoha ninja. After completing the mission, the squad had left the Land of Rivers immediately.
After gathering the information, Tokuma's team quickly turned back.
Though they weren't specialized interrogators, they knew some basic genjutsu. Ordinary people had almost no chance of lying in front of them.
After they left, Makoto used genjutsu himself to interrogate the merchant again. The answers were the same. The merchant had no hidden identity and no reason to target Konoha ninja.
That night, Tokuma's team returned to the fork near Konoha and took the other path to continue tracking.
They had already noticed earlier that the target had left a fresh scent on this route—suggesting that on their return trip, something had caused them to deviate instead of heading back to Konoha.
However, their initial priority had been the merchant in the Land of Rivers, so they only came here after finding nothing there.
Following the path for a short distance, they arrived at a bustling town. It was already night, and the town was brightly lit and lively—clearly a place known for entertainment.
There were quite a few places like this around Konoha.
Inside a hot spring bathhouse in the town, Tokuma's team slipped into a private bathing room.
From a young and pretty female attendant, Makoto learned that the place offered "special services." It seemed the missing chūnin squad had stopped here to relax on their way back.
This was normal. Many adult ninja liked to unwind after missions. They weren't ascetics, after all.
Inside the unused bath, Rocky said, "The target's scent ends here."
Muta nodded, agreeing with the dog.
Meko looked at the room's interior. "This place hasn't been renovated, which means no battle happened here. It doesn't look like the squad encountered a powerful enemy."
Tokuma frowned, puzzled. "But they didn't go anywhere else, and they didn't return to Konoha either… So what you're saying is—three living people just vanished into thin air right here?"
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