Chapter 6: The Hokage's Doubt
The morning sun streamed through the tall windows of the Hokage's office, casting long shadows over scrolls, paperwork, and half-drunk cups of tea. Hiruzen Sarutobi sat at his desk, unmoving, eyes trained on the file open before him—but his mind was elsewhere.
He's disappeared again, Hiruzen thought grimly.
Naruto Uzumaki. The boy had been missing for over a week now, vanished from the village without a trace. That alone should have been impossible—not with Chūnin Exam security at its peak. Patrols lined the walls. ANBU watched the streets. And yet, Naruto had simply vanished.
Hiruzen had taken no chances.
He summoned Jiraiya, his former student, one of the Legendary Sannin, to find the boy. If anyone could track Naruto down, it would be him.
But Jiraiya had returned two days later, shrugging and scratching his wild white hair with a sheepish grin.
"Can't find him, old man. I checked all over Konoha. Maybe he slipped outside?"
No, Hiruzen had thought, even then. The security net was too tight for that. Naruto hadn't left the village.
He had hidden.
Or—more likely—someone had hidden him.
What irked Hiruzen more than anything wasn't that Naruto had vanished…
It was that Jiraiya hadn't really tried to find him.
He could see it in his student's eyes. Jiraiya was more interested in finding new bathhouses and research material for his next book than keeping tabs on a boy he had every reason to care for.
Naruto—the son of the Fourth Hokage.
A student's legacy.
A godson.
And yet...
Then, just two days before the finals of the Chūnin Exams, Naruto reappeared.
He had stormed into the Hokage's office with Anko Mitarashi at his side. Not looking lost or hurt—but confident. Taller. Leaner. His body coiled with strength that hadn't been there weeks before.
And there was something else.
His eyes burned—not with rage, but clarity. Focus. A silent power.
Not the same boy I saw during the first phase, Hiruzen had thought immediately.
Naruto had lifted his shirt and revealed the seal on his stomach. Hiruzen recognized it at once—the Five Elemental Seal. A disruptive barrier, layered over the existing Nine-Tails seal, choking Naruto's chakra and making it unstable. The work of Orochimaru.
The boy hadn't even known what it was. He said it was placed on him during the second phase of the exams, and that he hadn't told anyone—not even Kakashi.
That had struck a nerve.
Why hadn't Kakashi noticed?
Why hadn't he said anything?
Why had no jonin—even Naruto's assigned sensei—picked up on the irregularity in the boy's chakra?
Unless... Naruto had stopped trusting him. Hiruzen wasn't blind. He knew Kakashi had placed his focus entirely on Sasuke. Perhaps he had even convinced himself that Naruto would "be fine" on his own.
But Naruto hadn't been fine.
He had been fighting with a suppressive seal restricting his chakra. Alone. In pain. And he hadn't asked for help.
Not from Kakashi. Not from Jiraiya.
And yet, somehow, Anko had found him.
Anko, the reckless, volatile kunoichi who still bore the scars of Orochimaru's betrayal. She'd brought Naruto to him. She had seen the seal. Trained the boy. Cared, in the only way Anko knew how.
And when Hiruzen broke the seal, when Naruto's chakra finally flowed free—the rush of power had been undeniable.
It wasn't the wild, unfocused energy he once knew. It was controlled. Sharp.
Chūnin-level? At the very least.
Where did he go, Naruto? Hiruzen thought, eyes narrowing slightly. And who exactly is he becoming?
The old Hokage leaned back in his chair, eyes closed for a moment, feeling the weight of the future pressing down on him.
Whatever the answers were, he would find out soon.
Because the finals of the Chūnin Exams were just around the corner.
And Naruto Uzumaki would not be stepping into that arena as the underdog anymore