* AN: Great thanks to my friend Skelekitty for his help in polishing this chapter.

Disclaimer: I DO_NOT own "Naruto". No profit is being made.

Naruto :: Self-Made Sage

It had been only a few weeks since Naruto started the Shinobi Academy, and he was already quite convinced that teachers there disliked him - for no reason he could discern - just as much as many people on the streets did. At least they showed it by pretending he didn't exist rather than by calling him names or, if sufficiently drunk, throwing things at him.

Still, Naruto had promised Hokage-jiji that he would train to be the best ninja ever and then take his hat from him, and he wasn't about to let something as simple as teachers' indifference stop him. Thus, he was doing his best to follow a chūnin who was reading a lecture on chakra in the most mind-numbingly boring way possible. It wasn't easy, and the young Uzumaki missed a lot of probably important points from that lecture, but if there was one thing he did understand, it was that all humans had chakra - many just didn't have enough to do anything meaningful with it.

But, what about animals? He had seen some dogs around the village that were doing ninja stuff. Did that mean they had chakra too?

"Sensei, do animals have chakra too?" Naruto asked, even if normally his questions were ignored by the teacher. This time, however, the chūnin decided to give him an answer - mostly for the benefit of his other students.

"Yes." The man said. "Now shut up and don't interrupt me again. There are people who actually come here to learn." And then he went back to reading his lecture.

So, animals had chakra, the blond boy thought. But what about plants? Did all living things under the sun have chakra? Did the world itself have chakra too? If so, he thought, it would be really cool if he could somehow use this abundant 'natural' chakra - with so much life around, how could it be anything but abundant? - to power awesome jutsu. If he could pull that off, he would surely become the most powerful ninja ever and the best Hokage of Konoha!

Naruto lay on his back in a far corner of one of the many training grounds surrounding the village, watching the darkening sky. He had spent several hours trying to get a hold of this 'natural' chakra, and he had utterly failed to achieve any results. No matter what he had tried, he hadn't gotten even a whiff of it. Such failure, of course, soured the blonde's mood, but he was nothing if not stubborn. He may have failed today, but he will try again tomorrow. And he would keep trying until he eventually succeeds. That's just how he was.

So, for months after months that followed the young Uzumaki tried his very best to harness the elusive 'natural' chakra with no notable progress in the area being made. And while he was failing to achieve his goal, his 'training' wasn't entirely without benefits. For one, it had greatly improved his awareness, to the point where he could spot things unnoticeable even to some jōnin. Spending hours upon hours focused on a single goal also helped Naruto curb his hyperactivity. To an extent, at least. He also had inadvertently spied on more than a handful of actual shinobi, mostly active-duty chūnin, training. It helped him get a better idea of what he should strive towards as he progressed through the academy - sure, he was still the dead last of his class, but only because he wasn't book smart and nearly failed academic subjects.

Spending so much time in the relative wilderness of forested training grounds also forced Naruto to improve his survival skills - it wasn't always possible to make an instant ramen in the middle of a forest after all, and being hungry sucked. Trying to nail fish in the nearby stream with kunai also made him much more adept at using throwing weapons. Not that Naruto wanted to pursue that branch of ninja arts - he was still big on the idea of throwing around awesome jutsu, powered by 'natural' chakra of course.

It was near the end of the third year of his attempts to harness the 'natural' chakra when Naruto finally managed to make some progress. By accident. Turns out, trying to force it into himself was exactly the wrong way to go; instead, he simply needed to relax and let it flow into him, well, narutally. That accident also showed him that he needed to exercise some caution and control how much of 'natural' chakra he let into his system: as more and more of it flowed into his system, he felt his body trying to change against his will. This made his freak out and a sudden movement - thankfully - cut the flow of the 'natural' chakra.

Whatever 'natural' chakra that was already in still tried to morph him, of course, but getting rid of it wasn't hard. He just needed to waste it on some cool jutsu. And since his repertoire was very limited at the time, Naruto picked a weak fire technique that normally could do little more than light dry grass on fire and pushed as much chakra into it as he could. The result was a raging inferno that incinerated everything in front of him and even melted the very ground.

"Whoa!" Naruto exclaimed, awestruck by the way the 'natural' chakra has empowered his jutsu. If he could learn to wield this power properly, he'd definitely be on his way to becoming the greatest Hokage ever! Still, as excited as he was by his success, Naruto could see that the 'natural' chakra could also be quite dangerous to him - after all, it did try to change into something he wasn't, and that couldn't be good.

The young Uzumaki had no doubts that mastering this newly-discovered power will not be an easy task by any means - there weren't many things that he could master without investing hours upon hours of hard training into them - but he was not afraid of training himself to the bone. Especially when it promised such incredible results.

Training with 'natural' chakra turned out to be harder than Naruto had anticipated and it took him nearly a year to finally learn how to draw in just the right amount of it into himself - enough to greatly empower his techniques, but not enough to make it go berserk and try to morph him into ...something. He had no idea what 'natural' chakra was trying to turn him into, and he had no desire to find out. He liked himself the way he was, thank you very much!

During this time, the blond boy discovered that 'natural' chakra didn't just make his jutsu more powerful. It also greatly increased his physical strength and toughness. There seemed to be no amount of blunt force that he couldn't just shrug off. Bladed weapons still could hurt him, though. Naruto also quickly discovered that using 'natural' chakra also gave him an ability to sense living things around him. And not just those nearby - if he focused hard enough, he could 'see' Hokage-jiji in his office, and the Hokage Tower was several miles away.

There was one more amazing thing that 'natural' chakra could do. Naruto wasn't sure how it all worked, but somehow he didn't even need to connect his punches to hit the target. It was like 'natural' chakra created some invisible hands to strike the target if his real one missed.

The young Uzumaki grinned: he couldn't wait to show off his new awesome powers at the academy. The teachers would now have no excuse not to make him a genin! And from there it would only be a matter of time before he claimed the hat from Hokage-jiji!

~/ *** \~

It was only a week before the graduation exam - his third one - when Naruto finally felt like he had enough control over this 'natural' chakra to use it for real. And as much as he wanted to show his new awesome powers off as soon as possible, he decided against doing that and chose to wait until the exam to reveal his true skills. Not only did he feel it would be more impactful that way, but it would also be a good way to start his career as an actual shinobi of Konohagakure no Sato.

And with that in mind, he dedicated the last few days of his 'childhood' to planning and executing his grandest prank ever! And he then pulled it off without much of an issue - too bad Iruka-sensei still managed to catch him somehow. Being the cause of an abrupt ninjutsu test at the academy sucked. Scrubbing paint off the Hokage monument was not fun either.

Finally, it was the day of the graduation exam.

Unfortunately, the graduation exam started with a written test and that was something that 'natural' chakra couldn't help with. And Naruto would really need some help to pass this portion of the exam with good marks - he had never been good at academics. At least the questions weren't that hard so the blond Uzumaki managed to answer enough questions not to fail the test outright.

With the written portion of the exam finally over, Naruto's mood improved considerably: the remaining tests were about throwing weapons, traps and survival, taijutsu and ninjutsu. In other words, things he was at least somewhat competent in. And with his newfound mastery over the 'natural' chakra, he was sure that he'll pass the latter two with flying colors.

Thanks to all the pranking he had done, Naruto had no problem with setting and disarming traps. For the same reason he also had no trouble staying hidden, though building a personal camp without being seen by the examining academy instructors was a bit more difficult. Especially the lighting campfire part: he wasn't lucky enough to get much dry wood and so his campfire was producing quite a bit of smoke. Still, even with that little setback, the blond Uzumaki managed to score really well on this test.

As Naruto waited for his turn at the weapons range, he wondered whether or not he should draw upon the 'natural' chakra for this test. The effect wouldn't be as drastic as with taijutsu or even ninjutsu, but some extra power behind his throws wouldn't hurt. His decision made, he concentrated on gathering 'natural' chakra.

"Next, Uzumaki Naruto." Mizuki-sensei called. A few moments the said brat emerged from the crowd of his classmates and everyone immediately noticed that something was different about. Both his air and his appearance. And while the chūnin instructors were quite content to ignore those, the same couldn't be said about their students.

"Hey, what's with make-up and colored eye-lenses, dead last?" Inuzuka Kiba asked provocatively. "Think it's going to help you pass the exam?" The wild boy then dissolved into barking laughs.

"What was that, dog breath?" Naruto shot back, but the anger in his voice was strangely subdued. Not that many people noticed that - and those who did wouldn't bring it up right now.

"Yeah, Naruto, what's with those markings on your face?" Yamanaka Ino added a question of her own. "Do you fashion yourself as a member of some imaginary clan or something?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about." The young Uzumaki replied somewhat forcefully but without a hint of deception. Indeed, while using 'natural' chakra did create some red markings on his face, he had never seen his reflection while training with it and so was completely unaware of changes to his appearance it caused.

"That's enough." Iruka-sensei interjected. "Do your throws, Naruto." Nodding, the blonde took ten kunai and ten shuriken from Mizuki-sensei and got ready for his test.

First came stationary targets. Those weren't very challenging to begin with and with the strength boost given to him by the 'natural' chakra, Naruto got his kunai embedded into the wooden targets nearly to their hilts, leaving his classmates and teachers alike speechless. While he had never been bad with weapons, no one had expected this from him either. And then Naruto added to their astonishment when all his shuriken hit the targets, similarly embedding themselves deep into the wood.

Next came the moving targets and Naruto's practice at kunai-fishing paid off in full when he, once again, didn't miss any targets and only once hit something other than a marked 'vital' area.

"Hey, dead last, since when are you actually this good?" Kiba asked as the young Uzumaki completed his test.

"Are you saying that I wasn't good before?" The said blonde returned with force. Thankfully, the teachers intervened before the situation could escalate and herded brats towards the site of the taijutsu test.

As students were called one by one to demonstrate their skills in unarmed combat by lasting a minute in a spar against one of their academy instructors, Naruto discovered yet another interesting thing about being infused with 'natural' chakra. As long as he didn't draw attention to himself, he seemed to just fade into the background. People around him knew he was still there but somehow they had trouble noticing him. Hell, some could lose him even if he didn't do anything more than stepping behind a thick tree. While a prankster and someone who craved attention, Naruto knew how to be stealthy when he needed to, and this ability was incredible for keeping out of others' sight. He was so going to abuse it later.

Eventually, it was his turn to fight against Mizuki-sensei. The rules of the test were simple: he needed to stay within the circle for a minute to pass, and his mark depended on how well he defended against the chūnin's attacks. Of course, the man wasn't supposed to fight him with his full strength, but… Somehow, Naruto had the feeling that Mizuki-sensei would conveniently forget how much he needed to hold back.

As soon as the match was called, the white-haired man went for a quick and powerful punch meant to knock Naruto out. The young Uzumaki however was able to dodge it - barely - before counter-attacking with a punch of his own. The chūnin dodged the incoming fist easily, but he certainly wasn't expecting the attack to have the extended reach (provided by the 'natural' chakra). And he certainly didn't expect it to have such a ridiculous force behind it. He ended up being shot out of the ring a good dozen of meters, ending up in a graceless heap on the dirt.

There was a long period of stunned silence before Iruka-sensei finally announced that Naruto passed the test. This once again brought the blonde to the center of everyone's attention as people absolutely wanted to know how the supposed dead-last whose only claim to good taijutsu was his staying power had suddenly improved to the point of actually throwing a chūnin out of the ring in a single attack - one that seemingly didn't even connect.

Not wanting to explain his super-awesome secret technique of using 'natural' chakra, Naruto gave a quick half-truth about having done lots of independent training, before using his newly-discovered stealth ability to disappear into the background.

To finish taijutsu tests, a different chūnin instructor was called - Mizuki-sensei needed some time to recover from whatever Naruto had done to him. Mostly because the man had been completely unprepared for a hit of such magnitude and, thus, took much more damage from it than he normally would.

Once all students were tested for their taijutsu skills, it was the time for the final test of the genin exam, the ninjutsu one. It was also the part that Naruto dreaded almost as much as the written test he had earlier today. And the reason was simple: Bunshin no Jutsu. A very simple technique that created an illusionary copy of the user. It was also a jutsu Naruto couldn't perform satisfactory no matter what he tried.

The testing of his classmates that came earlier in the list took awhile, so it was mid-afternoon when it was finally Naruto's turn to demonstrate his proficiency with the basic ninjutsu taught to the academy students.

And, apparently, Mizuki-sensei was still recovering from the incident, so his place was taken by Suzume-sensei, who taught kunoichi classes that Naruto - on the account of being a boy - wasn't allowed to attend.

The blond Uzumaki didn't have any problems with Henge no Jutsu or Kawarimi no Jutsu but, as always, failed to produce a passable clone with Bunshin no Jutsu. He still didn't understand why he was the only one in his class who couldn't perform this technique properly. And no one seemed to be willing to give him the answer either.

"Alright, Naruto." Iruka-sensei began. The said boy immediately got scared of failing the graduation exam. "You've barely passed the written portion of the exam and your ninjutsu would be a failure as well. However, you've scored extremely well on survival, shurikenjutsu and taijutsu tests. So much so that I believe forcing you to attend the academy for yet another year would be a waste of your new-found talents."

"I haven't seen much of your performance, so I'll defer to Iruka-sensei judgement." Suzume-sensei said. "But I must say, this ought to be the first time in my memory when someone managed to do something like that during the taijutsu test. That's well beyond genin level."

"So… Congratulations, Naruto, you're a genin of Konohagakure no Sato now. Wear your headband with pride." The scarred chūnin said while handing the young Uzumaki a hitae-ate.

"Thank you, Iruka-sensei." Naruto said.

~/ *** \~

Naruto barely stepped back into his apartment when someone knocked on his door. And it was an ANBU wearing a rat mask.

"Uzumaki-san." The masked ninja said. "Hokage-sama wishes to speak with you. Immediately." Naruto cast a glance at a cup of instant ramen sitting on his dinner table and sighed.

"Alright." The ANBU placed his hand on his shoulder and the two of them disappeared in a swirl of leaves. A few Shunshin no Jutsu jumps later they arrived at the Hokage's office.

"Thank you, Rat-san. You can return to your post." The ANBU gave a curt nod and disappeared to wherever. The elderly Kage meanwhile turned his attention to the blond boy. "First of all, let me congratulate you on passing the graduation exam, Naruto-kun."

"Thank you, Hokage-jiji." The young Uzumaki replied. "Just wait a little bit more, and I'll finally take that hat from you."

"I have no doubts about that." The Hokage replied. "Now, you must be wondering why I've summoned you." Naruto nodded. Indeed, if the old man simply wanted to congratulate him, there was no need to order an ANBU to bring him here. "You see, I have this device that lets me remotely view certain locations." Hiruzen Sarutobi continued. "And while I was watching the graduation exam earlier today, I couldn't help but notice something interesting about you. Those markings that you had on your face, and the power boost they gave you - it reminded me a lot about something Hashirama-sensei could do."

"Hashirama?.. You mean, the Shodai Hokage could do something like this?" Naruto asked, sounding both excited and disappointed - the latter because he, apparently, wasn't the first to discover the ways of using 'natural' chakra.

"If this is what I think it is, then yes." Sarutobi said. "Can you please do your thing?" The Professor asked. And while Naruto was busy gathering 'natural' chakra, he swiftly cut his finger and ran through a sequence of hand-seals. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" In a puff of white smoke, an elderly-looking monkey appeared.

"Why are you summoning me, Hiruzen-dono?" Enma, the Monkey King, wasn't exactly happy to be summoned at this time. His attention however, was immediately captured by the blond boy in the room. "Who was the fool that tried to teach Senjutsu to this young one?" He asked then.

"I wanted to consult you on this skill Naruto-kun here has developed, Enma-dono." The Third Hokage replied. "And you've already confirmed my suspicions." The Monkey King nodded. "But, I'm afraid, there was no one who taught Naruto-kun. He managed to learn Senjutsu all on his own." Enma tilted his head, studying the boy.

"You are unbelievably lucky young one." He said finally. "Even with a teacher, many a student attempting to learn Senjutsu ended up as a stone statue, their souls unable to depart to the Pure World until their petrified bodies are no more. To succeed all on your own… Unbelievable."

"So that's what was happening to my body when I let too much 'natural' chakra flow in? It was trying to turn into stone." Naruto muttered, a realization of how close he came to non-being multiple times dawning upon him.

"While I'm sure that now that you know of the dangers of Senjutsu you will not attempt teaching it to anyone, Naruto-kun, I will still give you an official order." The Third Hokage spoke, his voice gravely-serious. "Under no circumstances are you to teach Senjutsu to any shinobi of Konohagakure no Sato."

"Y-Yes, Hokage-sama." The young Uzumaki replied.

"Good." The aged shinobi said with a nod, his summon mirroring his action. This was followed by a period of uneasy silence.

"Uhm… Hokage-jiji." Naruto finally spoke uncertainty. "When I was learning to use 'natural' chakra - how to use Senjutsu - I noticed a second source of chakra in me. It was… Angry, potent, yet somehow unable to mix with my normal chakra. Do you know what it might be?" The Professor let out a sigh.

"Well,.. I guess, the time to give you the knowledge of your burden has come, Naruto-kun." The man spoke. "What do you know of Kyūbi no Yōko?"

"It attacked Konoha twelve years ago and Yondaime Hokage killed it." The blonde replied. There was a short pause, before he added: "And what's that about my burden?"

"Alas, Naruto-kun, bijū like Kyūbi no Yōko can't be killed." The Third Hokage replied. "So, the Fourth did the best thing he could do to protect the village from the beast. He sealed it away."

"...Into me?" Naruto asked then, guessing where this all was going. Hiruzen nodded.

"Yes, he sealed Kyūbi into you, Naruto-kun. He trusted you to keep it secured and unable to harm anyone again."

"So… I contain the Kyūbi…" Naruto said barely above whisper. "Is that what many people are so mean to me?"

"You were supposed to be seen as a hero, whose very existence ensures the safety of the village." The Professor replied. "But, unfortunately, people can be blinded by pain of their loss and refuse to see you as anything by the avatar of the very thing that brought them their pain. I did what I could to protect you and ensure that you were treated well, but I'm not omnipotent. I'm sorry, Naruto-kun, I failed to give you the life you deserve for your sacrifice."

"I… I will forgive you, jiji. Later." The blond Uzumaki said. "Right now... I just need some time to myself." And without waiting for the Hokage to dismiss him, he turned around and walked out of the man's office.

"That could've gone better, Hiruzen-dono." Enma said. There was a short pause, before the Monkey King continued: "I believe the issue you've summoned me for has been resolved. I shall take my leave then." And with that he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

~/ *** \~

"Begin!" Hatake Kakashi called, announcing the start of the 'survival exercise' that would show whether the newly-formed Team Seven he got saddled with was worth teaching. Immediately, two of the three cute little genins disappeared into the woods, doing their best to stay out of his sight. He, of course, could easily locate them, but for the moment he'd pretend otherwise. Right now, he was more curious about the final member of the team, one Uzumaki Naruto, who was standing perfectly still and made no attempts to get away from his spot. "Aren't you going to hide?" The jōnin asked.

Naruto kept silent and motionless as a strange pattern of red markings appeared on his face. This coincided with him gaining an invisible aura of power - one that made even Kakashi's gut feeling cry that the boy was a threat. Finally, the blond Uzumaki opened his eyes, revealing that his irises had somehow changed their color from their normal blue to yellowish-orange.

"The objective is to take the bells from you, no?" Naruto answered his question with one of his own. "Wouldn't running away be, like, going against that?"

"To get to a more advantageous position?" The jōnin suggested.

"This place is good enough for me." The blond Uzumaki replied while settling into a passable approximation of the academy taijutsu stance.

"If you think so." Kakashi said dismissively while actually getting ready for a real fight. He might have dismissed Hokage-sama's word about Naruto's newfound combat abilities yesterday, but now that he had felt the power radiating from the boy… He would listen to his instincts and take the boy seriously.

So, when Naruto came charging at him, the silver-haired jōnin quickly jumped aside, letting the boy's attack hit nothing but empty air. Two feet away, Kakashi could still feel something ghost by him, and it wasn't just wind caused by an overpowered punch.

Making a long jump back, Kakashi lifted his headband, revealing his implanted sharingan eye. Much to his surprise, the sharingan failed to see through whatever technique Naruto was using and all that the Copy-nin could see was a slight shimmer surrounding the blonde. Letting out a small sigh, Kakashi returned his headband to its usual position. It was not like the Uzumaki brat was fast enough for him to require the enhanced perception the sharingan granted him… Still, the boy having something that was indiscernible to the fabled sharingan was not something that the jōnin had expected. Kids these days…

Meanwhile, Naruto was ready to try punching him again, and this time Kakashi, rather than simply dodging the attack, substituted himself for a log. He wanted to see just how powerful the brat was. A moment later, the log disintegrated into a shower of splinters. Damn. That was some serious strength. No wonder that poor chūnin instructor needed several hours of rest before he could return to his duties after taking one of these. Kakashi further observed that Naruto knew he didn't actually hit him even before he finished his punch. Was the brat a sensor too?

Deciding to test that, the silver-haired jōnin Shunshin'ed behind Naruto and the blonde immediately noticed that. Still, the boy wasn't fast enough to capitalize on his ability to sense his opponent coming and Kakashi was able to land a free hit on him. One that didn't appear to have any effect despite him putting some actual effort into it. Kakashi then immediately jumped back as Naruto finished turning around and tried to punch. The boy, of course, missed again, creating a new crater in the ground.

"Stay still so that I can take that bell from you!" Naruto demanded.

"I'd rather not." Kakashi replied, using his 'usual' dismissive tone. All the while trying to come up with a good way to neutralize the brat in front of him. Based on how the boy had shrugged off one of his serious punches like nothing, taijutsu was not an option. And so were quite a few ninjutsu as they either dealt blunt damage or required him to get in melee range - not a good idea with someone who could literally break you in half with a punch. Perhaps he could use… Kakashi shoved those thoughts aside as Naruto did a hand-seal for a fire jutsu. The jōnin wondered why this particular one as he didn't see any campfires that needed to be lit, but got ready to use Kawarimi no Jutsu just in case Naruto somehow turned it into an actual combat technique.

"Alright then. Let's see how you deal with this!" The blond Uzumaki shouted. Then he breathed out a jet of scorching flames that easily rivaled Katon: Gōen no Jutsu a normal shinobi could produce.

Dusting ash off his flak vest, Kakashi made a mental note that, perhaps, Naruto shouldn't be taught any big jutsu until the blonde learned how to tone them down to their intended destructive level. Him burning the entire village down by a B-rank jutsu amplified a thousand times was not something anyone reasonable would want.

He also noticed that those strange facial markings that Naruto had gained before their fight began had become fainter. Were they an indicator of how much power the blonde still had at his disposal? If so, that meant that one could tire him out of this 'super-mode' - and probably prevented from entering it again. Still, Kakashi wasn't willing to test that out. While not the hardest fight of his career by far, he'd rather not go against this empowered Naruto for longer than necessary.

"Ninja arts lesson number three: Genjutsu." He called while placing a moderately-powerful illusion on the boy. His academy profile said that he had absolutely aptitude for the art, and judging by the fact he let out a startled scream before collapsing on the ground unconscious, his 'super-mode' did nothing at all about that.

It didn't look like Team Seven would be able to pass his test, but if they somehow manage to, he'll have to teach Naruto how to detect and dispel illusions. No ninja should have a weakness that is so easy to exploit and there was no way it would remain a secret if the boy managed to make any sort of name for himself - and given that he was the Kyuubi jinchuuriki and a (secret) son of the Fourth Hokage, him making a name for himself was only a matter of time.

Anyhow, it was the time for him to see what his other two potential students were up to… Haruno Sakura was the kunoichi of the year. Perhaps he should see whether she lived up to that reputation? Nodding to himself, Kakashi Shunshin'ed away to where the pink-haired girl's hiding spot was.

~/ *** \~

While Konohagakure no Sato was a shinobi village first and foremost, there was a significant number of civilians living in it permanently - civilians who had families in the nearby settlements or even in the Fire country's Capital. Quite a few trade caravans also made a stop there. Thus, a civilian walking through the village's gates was a common sight and the chūnin guards didn't even raise an eyebrow when the next person in the line turned out to be an elderly lady wearing a 'horned' turban with an orange headdress.

"What is the reason for your visit, ma'am?" One of the chūnin asked.

"I've heard from an old monkey that one of your young has developed a talent that I find most interesting. I'm here to meet them and maybe, just maybe, offer them my tutelage." The elderly lady replied. Normally an answer like that wouldn't be enough for an outsider to be allowed into the village, but something about this lady made the chūnin decide to let her into Konoha.

"Welcome to Konohagakure no Sato and good luck in your search." The chūnin said. "Please be mindful of the fact that civilians aren't allowed in shinobi-only sectors of the village." The lady nodded before stepping through the gates. She then let a smirk on her lips: for all of the security measures these humans supposedly had, infiltrating a shinobi village was a hatchling's play for the Great Sage of Ryūchi Cave.

Now, to find that boy who managed to learn Senjutsu by himself…