Chapter 67: Farewell, Third Generation [Revised]

  "Third Hokage!" The guard named Genma led the four of us to the Hokage's office and told us to wait outside for a moment.

  "What's going on, Genpaku?! What happened? Didn't you and Rai lose a bet to the Small Iron gang the other day, so you're taking their shift as guards today? How did you end up here? Come in!"

  "Reporting to the Third Hokage, there is a group of children who wish to settle in Konohagakure."

  "Settling down? You should go to the reception office for that. What are you doing here?" The Third Hokage buried his head in the numerous documents, without even lifting his head.

  "I think this matter should be made known to the Third Hokage, a group of children under the age of ten, without adult accompaniment, came to Konoha and said they wanted to settle down. Both Rai and I felt that there was some problem, but couldn't quite put our finger on what it was. These children gave me a very special feeling, so I thought I'd let the Third Hokage...". The guard named Genma also seemed perplexed by his own somewhat rash actions.

  "So those kids are waiting outside? Let them in! Genma, remember that Konoha is a village that encompasses many different families, and that's why we're prosperous today. Since these children haven't shown any abnormalities, let's have them stay for now. After all, they're just kids." The Third Hokage said warmly to the guard named Genma.

  "Yes, Third Master."

  "Let those two kids come in and take a look? I'm really curious what kind of special views you and Le Tong have on these kids!"

  "Third-generation adults, not two little kids!"

  "What?!" The Third Hokage finally poked his head out of the sea of documents, "Which one is it?" Although the walls of the Hokage's office had been specially reinforced to prevent eavesdropping, for ninjas above a certain level, it was still useless. Now, right outside the door, the great Hokage himself couldn't even determine the correct number of people outside! Had he really gotten old?!

  "There are four kids in total, three boys and one girl, all with very distinctive appearances." Genpaku didn't think much of it, he just expressed his views on these children, "One boy has white long hair, is very quiet, and has a strong murderous aura; then there's a girl with black long hair who smiles very warmly and beautifully; and another boy with green short hair who always has a smile on his face and looks very spirited..."

  "What's wrong? Didn't you say there were four?" The Third Hokage suddenly took an interest in these children and also wondered why Genma had stopped describing all of a sudden.

  "...it was a boy with blond hair and blue eyes...and then, I don't know how to say it, he was just very ordinary, a normal kid, but...". Genma didn't know how to describe the boy, everything about him seemed normal, perfectly in line with what you'd expect from an average six-year-old, but that's exactly what made him feel strange. If he had to put his finger on it, it was probably just his ninja instincts.

  "Is that so? Well, isn't this interesting, Genma! Let those kids come in!" The Third Hokage's curiosity was piqued.

  "Yes, Third Master!"

  When the Third Hokage saw the four children following him, he suddenly stood up, his expression unusually heavy.

  "What's wrong, Third Hokage?!" Genma asked with some surprise and concern, he had never seen the Third Hokage look like this before.

  "...Hokage, you go down first! All of you, go down together! I'll take care of these kids' affairs, they're just a group of children, nothing will happen to them." The Third Hokage ordered after a moment of silence, telling all unrelated personnel to leave first, including his personal Anbu.

  ※※※

  Three years haven't seen, but the appearance of the third generation of fire shadow hasn't changed much.

  Facing his joyful and astonished expression, I showed a little joy, a little nostalgia, a little shyness, and a little strangeness... My reaction was just like meeting a long-unseen elder.

  I touched one of my hands to Izayoi's wrist and used "Telepathy".

  If it weren't for the fact that the "Ninja Hero" in front of me now is a three-time Hokage who has been through many battles, I really wouldn't have used this technique.

  "My Telepathy" allows me to transmit my current thoughts into the minds of those who have a continuous, close, and physical contact with me, but these objects can only be used by those who possess my Chakra Crystal, although it is very limited. Compared to the general Jonin's Lip Reading or the Tounin's Telecommunication, my "Telepathy" has never been eavesdropped or discovered by others, because it only consumes a little more concentration and almost no Chakra fluctuation occurs, so there is no risk of information leakage.

  There are just a few drawbacks, first of all, in fact, I don't even like touching others through clothing, let alone direct skin contact with others, so one of the ninjutsu that I often use is a chakra membrane, although it costs me three times as much chakra to simulate the sensation of skin.

  But here is in Konoha, not outside like before. As long as one Jonin notices something unusual, I'll... So it's still better to be prepared, and in Konoha, I don't need to have too much power either. After all, Konoha won't let the Nine-Tails' Jinchuriki escape surveillance again, the events of three years ago can't happen again. The power that can't be revealed is just as good as not having it at all, and besides, Konoha also wouldn't waste a strong Jinchuriki like me unnecessarily. If there's real danger, who knows, maybe the Anbu watching over me in secret will appear to protect me! Hehe.

  Speaking of which! I remembered something important.

  Apart from us and the three generations of adults, there shouldn't be anyone else around here, right? Sixteen Nights. Although my senses are dull, but when it comes to detecting hidden individuals, Sixteen Nights' intuition is frighteningly accurate.

  The Sixteenth Night nodded at me with a curious look on her face after looking around for a while.

  This "Telepathy" currently can only be transmitted by me unilaterally, and the receiver can only respond to me with actions.

  I patted 16th Night's head with satisfaction, then stood quietly in front of the desk in the Fire Shadow office, facing the Third Generation Fire Shadow. Of course, Bai, Junmaro and 16th Night also stood beside me, accompanying me in silence.

  For a moment, the entire Fire Shadow office was filled with an eerie silence.

  I'm not worried about the Third Hokage discovering my special transformation technique.

  Unlike my usual transformation into "Tsuki" with black hair and a normal appearance, which only uses the second layer, I transformed into Uzumaki Naruto using three layers of chakra. The first layer is for transformation, the second layer is to conceal all changes in breathing caused by the transformation technique. Originally, when walking outside, two layers were enough, but in Konoha, where many high-ranking ninjas and Anbu are gathered, a person with no breath at all would attract more attention. Therefore, the third layer is to simulate normal human breathing. If this transformation technique that I developed with all my might can still be discovered by others, then I really have no other choice.

  The chakra consumption of this special transformation technique is five times that of a normal transformation, and I also need to constantly maintain the normal person's breathing wave, which means I have to keep running chakra almost 24 hours a day to sustain this special transformation on my body. Plus my heavy seal, now I'm about as strong as an average six-year-old kid.

  I later found out that the special transformation technique I developed, was not just a simple transformation technique. I also intuitively developed an advanced application similar to disguise techniques, Color Chameleon Technique, which I used in the third layer. However, overall, this special transformation technique is only a pure chicken rib-style ninjutsu, and can only be applied to people like me who don't want to reveal their true identity, don't want to attract attention from other ninjas, and have enough chakra.

  My current state is pretty bad, mainly because I'm under a heavy seal, my movements don't feel as fast as they used to be, and my reactions are much slower than before I transformed... The difference between me and a regular genin is that when I'm being attacked, I know I'm going to be attacked, but ordinary genin don't, however the result is still the same... we both end up getting hit.

  As for ninjutsu, most of the chakra in my body has been used up. Special transformation techniques and heavy sealing are extremely consuming ninjutsu. Under these two states, I can only use less than one-fifth of the original amount of chakra, which is even worse than that of an ordinary genin.

  Moreover, because my body is covered in three layers of chakra, it makes the operation of ninjutsu very troublesome. Originally simple hand seals for ninjutsu now require more than triple the mental effort to control. My current ability to manipulate ninjutsu might be worse than that of an average six-year-old kid!

  However, all of these can be improved, I just need time to adjust and update. Moreover, this way of doing things might also be a good training method.

  Just as I was deep in thought about the training plan for the next six years, the Third Hokage finally couldn't bear this quiet atmosphere and spoke up first: "Is that you? Naruto." The end of his sentence seemed to be choked with sobs.