“In order to get his hands on this child, Danzo approached me privately twice not long ago.
I refused him both times.” Hiruzen Sarutobi slowly exhaled a ring of white smoke, his aged face unable to hide a heavy weariness.
“From the looks of it now, he still hasn’t given up on the idea.”
“Stop being such a soft-hearted pushover, old man.
Danzo changed a long time ago.”
The veins on Tsunade’s forehead bulged faintly, and the hand pressed against the desk gradually tightened.
“From the moment he dared to make a lethal move against you—the Hokage—that bastard was already insane.”
Hiruzen Sarutobi knew Tsunade was referring to the assassination Danzo had plotted against him two years ago.
Perhaps it was having the Wood Release ninja Tenzō that had gone to Danzo’s head, or perhaps it was the resentment of twice narrowly missing the seat of Hokage—but on the road to the Fire Daimyo’s estate, Danzo had brazenly launched an assassination.
He sent out all of Root’s elite, plotting to have every last one of them ambush the mountain path and strike down the Third and his escorting ANBU.
Fortunately, Kakashi Hatake—stationed in Root at the time—happened to overhear Danzo and his subordinates conspiring to intercept and kill the Third, and stepped in to disrupt the ambush, causing that assassination to fall through.
“I understand.
I’ll have a talk with Danzo.”
With a thunderous crash, an explosion suddenly erupted!
Tsunade slammed a palm down on the desk in front of Hiruzen Sarutobi.
The thick wooden desk split apart down the middle from the force of her strike, the two halves toppling to either side as the documents on top scattered through the air.
“What is there left to talk about, you senile old fool?!
Danzo dared to try and kill even you!
What is there that he wouldn’t dare to do?”
Tsunade’s voice suddenly rose, full of fury.
“Look at you—Danzo was ready to kill you!
And what did you do?
Warn him?
What is there left to warn about?!
Has being Hokage rotted your brain?!”
“Let me tell you something, old man!
I’ve already lost Nawaki, I’ve already lost Dan—if anything happens to this child too, then I say you shouldn’t be Hokage anymore!
Sooner or later Konoha will fall to ruin in your hands!”
“I’ll be the one to take up this Hokage seat, and I’ll settle accounts with Root myself!”
Hiruzen Sarutobi gazed at the wreckage strewn across the floor and the enraged Tsunade, silently tucking away his pipe.
A long, drawn-out sigh drifted through the quiet office.
…
The evening breeze carried the rich aroma of Ichiraku Ramen, and the warm yellow lamplight spread a gentle halo across the tabletops inside the shop.
Genshin and Naruto sat side by side on a wooden bench, while the roly-poly A-Bao sat directly on the dining table, before it a bowl of custom-made bamboo shoot ramen—the bowl nearly as large as half the little panda’s body.
Unlike the broad, heavy paws of an ordinary bear, A-Bao’s padded palms were closer to human hands, its short little fingers just able to grip a pair of bamboo chopsticks.
The little paws sent the chopsticks flying as it buried its head and slurped away in big, satisfying mouthfuls.
Its name was A-Bao, and it loved eating noodles… this sense of déjà vu…
Naruto refused to fall behind in the slightest, cradling his big bowl and burying his head to slurp furiously.
The hot broth steamed his whole little face bright red as he chattered indistinctly at Genshin, mouth stuffed full of noodles, his words coming out in broken fragments.
“Genshin bro… next time, next time let’s come eat this again!
Ramen is super delicious!”
Off to the side, Ayame propped up her cheek, her narrowed eyes resting on the boy and the bear, her palm pressed lightly against her face as she wore a soft, doting auntie’s smile.
“Sure, as long as you don’t slack off on your morning training every day.” Genshin reached up to wipe away the grease smudged at the corner of Naruto’s mouth, his gaze falling on A-Bao’s already-emptied ramen bowl.
?
Such a huge bowl of noodles, and it finished already?
A-Bao patted its belly with satisfaction, looking less like a panda and more like a seal in that pose.
But from Genshin’s observation, A-Bao’s size hadn’t changed in the slightest.
Did it convert what it ate straight into energy?
That energy conversion efficiency was a little ridiculous.
His curiosity piqued, Genshin reached out and touched A-Bao.
On the surface he was just rubbing the panda, but his consciousness had already slipped along his perception into the creature’s body.
And the energy feedback that came from within A-Bao’s body left Genshin genuinely startled.
Though it looked small on the outside, the amount of Chakra within A-Bao’s body was remarkably high—and the Chakra density at its body’s core was absurdly concentrated.
That dormant, slowly gestating, magnificent power was as if a volcano waiting to erupt lay hidden beneath this cub’s fuzzy exterior.
No wonder it was still so small at six years old… it was suppressing its level.
What exactly would this little panda become in the future?
Bearzilla?
Genshin couldn’t help but start looking forward to A-Bao’s future.
Just as Genshin was immersed in his sensory exploration, an eerie sense of emptiness suddenly stabbed into the range of his perception, instantly cutting off his train of thought.
Something was wrong.
The Chakra of the ANBU ninja who lurked in the shadows every day, specifically assigned to protect Naruto, had vanished…
Before Genshin could even think it through clearly, the Chakra of the ANBU who had always protected him vanished as well.
No—rather than “vanished,” it was more accurate to say it had faded away, like a candle flame burning out.
During his wandering days he had seen the dying: the Chakra within their bodies grew weak in just this way as life slipped from them, until it faded away completely.
In its place came a cold, malice-filled Chakra that spread slowly like a venomous serpent through the gaps in the shrubbery along the street, locking firmly onto Genshin’s position.
Something had happened!
Genshin maintained his outward calm, quietly standing up to pay the ramen shop owner by hand, then took Naruto by the hand and walked out.
This father and daughter were among the rare ordinary folk who didn’t discriminate against Naruto—the least he could do was not drag them into this.
As he stepped out the door, Genshin naturally bent down and scooped A-Bao up.
Walking along, he pressed his lips to the fuzzy little panda’s ear, lowering his voice to a volume only the two of them could hear, his words rapid yet steady.
“A-Bao, listen to me.
In a moment I’ll send Naruto off—you guard him and get home at full speed.
Once you’ve confirmed Naruto is safe, go straight back to the Fallen Star Pool and use the Reverse Summoning Technique to summon me there.”
Genshin had signed a summoning contract with the Fallen Star Pool.
He could summon A-Bao and the other pandas, so naturally he could also have A-Bao summon him over.
A-Bao was very sharp—it had also sensed something was off, and gave a decisive nod.
Everything arranged, Genshin reached out and patted Naruto on the shoulder, pulling a natural smile onto his face.
“Naruto, I just remembered there’s an urgent training matter I need to deal with.
Why don’t you head home on your own first, all right?”
“Eh…”
Naruto was a little reluctant.
Genshin had been busy training lately, with less time to spend with him, and he treasured every bit of time he got to be with Genshin.
“Be good.
Next time I’ll treat you to ramen again.”
Genshin smiled and lightly poked Naruto’s forehead.
“Okay… you’d better keep your word, Genshin bro!”
Watching Naruto slowly walk off into the distance carrying A-Bao, Genshin took a step to the side, subtly positioning himself behind Naruto, completely blocking off the path locked in by that cold Chakra.
His back tensed slightly, his perception firmly fixed on the direction of the forest from which the malicious aura emanated.
For the moment he couldn’t determine whether the hidden enemy’s target was Naruto, the Nine-Tails’ Jinchuriki, or himself—the village’s only pure-blooded Uzumaki descendant.
But before he could confirm it, he would first try to see whether letting Naruto leave provoked any reaction from the other party.
Fortunately, right up until Naruto’s figure disappeared at the end of the street, that enemy launched no attack.
Then it was obvious.
The enemy had come for him.
“So you’ve already found me?
What a remarkable little brat—so young, yet already using the Uzumaki Clan’s perceptive talent to such a degree.”
A hoarse, low voice echoed slowly along the empty roadside.
A pallid figure, gripping the corpse of an ANBU whose neck had been wrung, walked down from the tree one step at a time.
A grayish-purple shimenawa rope was bound across his back—pale skin, faint purple eyeshadow, and those signature narrow, slitted golden pupils that gave off a cold, cutting glint in the moonlight.
Genshin’s heart clenched hard, and he recognized the man almost instantly.
Holy shit, Orochimaru?!
Why is he here?
Shouldn’t Orochimaru be a rogue ninja right about now?
But Genshin quickly caught on.
Whenever some inexplicable tragedy or conspiracy cropped up in Konoha, pinning the blame on Danzo was never wrong.
If it was him, then it all made perfect sense.
Danzo, who had always had dealings with Orochimaru, would find it all too easy to track Orochimaru down and then have him slip silently into Konoha.
And if it was Orochimaru who did the deed, Danzo could keep himself and Root out of it entirely.
Tch—what a clever little scheme!
“You seem to… have quite an interesting Summoning Animal.”
Orochimaru’s slitted pupils looked Genshin up and down with keen interest, his gaze sweeping over the pale golden Hamon Chakra flowing around him as he licked his lips.
“And this Chakra—it’s very much like a certain someone’s… I see.
I think I understand now why he wants you so badly.”
Him?
Damn it, it really is Danzo!
Genshin had a sharp eye—his gaze landed at once on the tightly clenched hand of that ANBU corpse.
Wedged fiercely between the man’s fingers was an unignited signal flare, while a mass of pale black sealing script crept across his wrist and neck, the fine intricate patterns locking down every movement of his entire body.
So that was it—was this the reason he had died so silently?
He hadn’t even had time to send out an alarm.
“Come along with me obediently, and I can spare your life.
But if you resist…”
Before the cold words could finish, the ground suddenly split open.
More than a dozen venomous snakes burst up out of the earth, swarming densely toward Genshin to surround him, their cold venomous fangs glinting frostily in the moonlight.
____
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