Chương 21

The Academy classes ended not long afterward and slowly the students started leaving the classroom one by one. Naruto immediately dragged Kiba into another argument regarding who would become Hokage first while Choji quietly continued eating chips like the fate of the world itself depended on potato consumption. Meanwhile Iruka Umino remained strangely thoughtful even after the class emptied out. Rei's answer kept bothering him. Not because it was wrong exactly. That was the uncomfortable part. It sounded too…

aware. Too heavy. Like something written by someone much older than a child sitting inside the Academy. And the more Iruka replayed the words in his head, the more uneasy he felt. Eventually after sitting alone inside the empty classroom for several more minutes, Iruka quietly folded the paper again and decided to visit the Hokage Tower. If there was one person in the village who understood unusual children properly, it was probably Hiruzen Sarutobi.

The old Hokage was already inside his office by the time Iruka arrived later that evening. Papers covered almost the entire desk while smoke from his pipe lazily drifted through the room. The moment Hiruzen saw Iruka entering however, the old man immediately sighed tiredly.

"…Please tell me Naruto didn't paint another monument." Iruka blinked once.

"…No?" Hiruzen visibly relaxed slightly afterward.

"Good. Because if he painted the Hokage faces again this week, I was considering faking my own death." Oh yeah, Naruto had already started this ritual of doing pranks. And Rei didn't bother to stop him. He did however tell him not to pain the face of 4th Hokage. For avoiding future regret.

"I actually came to speak about another student." That immediately made Hiruzen mildly curious.

"…Oh?" Iruka slowly placed Rei's paper onto the desk afterward.

"Rei Amagi." Now that got the Hokage's full attention. Not outwardly of course. Hiruzen was far too experienced politically to visibly react over a child's name. But internally? He had already been paying attention to Rei for quite some time now. The old man quietly picked up the paper afterward and began reading. And slowly… his expression changed slightly.

"…I see…" Hiruzen murmured quietly afterward. Iruka crossed his arms slightly.

"…That answer doesn't sound normal for his age, does it?" Hiruzen didn't immediately respond. Instead he quietly reread the lines again while smoke drifted lazily upward from his pipe.

"With so much power, knowledge and resources across nations…" the old Hokage repeated softly. Then finally, after another moment of silence, Hiruzen placed the paper back onto the table.

"…Don't concern yourself with it too much, Iruka." Iruka frowned slightly.

"…Lord Hokage?"

"He visits library quite often, and Rei had always been the top of the theory class. Besides it's good that he thinks the world should come together to save themselves if there was a major disaster. If we don't, it would be a shame. Such a knowledgeable child is quite rare. Don't worry much. I will talk to him when I have time." Hiruzen replied.

"…Understood." A few moments later Iruka quietly left the office again, leaving Hiruzen alone with the paper afterward. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Silence filled the room. The old Hokage slowly leaned back in his chair afterward while quietly staring at the Academy response in front of him.

"… You really are a strange child…" he murmured softly. Because the truth was… Hiruzen had already been watching Rei for years now. Not obsessively. That would be absurd, sending ANBU to tail a child. He wasn't a huge asset or person of interest for the village. Even Sasuke didn't have an ANBU following him, much less for a child who didn't have any ties with any clan or family. But Hiruzen did keep an eye on him. Seeing Rei sometimes reminded him uncomfortably of his own teacher. Tobirama Senju.

Not personality-wise entirely. Rei lacked Tobirama's harsher edge and open pragmatism. But the awareness was there. That same strange feeling that the child standing before you was quietly analyzing far more than he ever openly expressed. Most children were transparent. Rei wasn't. And that alone made him unusual. Hiruzen slowly exhaled smoke afterward while thinking back over the last several years. The theory scores. The strange questions during class. The way Rei interacted with Naruto despite village pressure.

The way he deliberately kept himself average during combat exercises despite clearly possessing better instincts than he showed publicly. Though Hiruzen could never prove it, but he always had an inkling that Rei was hiding. He had an unusual amount of chakra, though he wasn't a great sensory ninja like his sensei, but that didn't mean he didn't pick up on things. He was known as the Professor of the shinobi world, and it was said that for a reason. That part especially bothered Hiruzen slightly.

Because hiding strength was not normal behavior for children. Children liked attention. Even geniuses like Kakashi Hatake had openly displayed talent proudly at that age. And yet Rei intentionally suppressed himself publicly. Why? That was the question bothering Hiruzen most. There was no war anymore. No active political bloodline hunts. No reason for a child to instinctively hide his abilities this carefully.

The old Hokage quietly stared outside the window afterward while smoke drifted lazily upward from his pipe. Konoha looked peaceful tonight. Children walked through the streets, shopkeepers closed stores and people having a jolly time out. Peace. The thing they had all fought so hard for. And perhaps that was exactly why Rei's answer bothered him slightly. Because the child wrote like someone who didn't fully trust peace to last forever. And for some reason, internally he knew that this was true.

This world just needed a fuse to light up another great war.

Later that evening, Rei found himself carrying grocery bags through the streets of Konoha while internally questioning how he somehow ended up doing shopping in two completely different lifetimes now. As Rei walked back home humming a music from his previous world, his instincts suddenly picked up something familiar. His eyes shifted slightly afterward. And there, sitting calmly on a nearby wooden bench beneath one of the street lamps, was none other than Hiruzen Sarutobi himself.

The old Hokage wasn't even pretending this was coincidence. The moment Rei noticed him, Hiruzen simply smiled slightly while holding his usual pipe. And immediately, Rei understood. He is here for me. The classroom answer probably drew more attention than intended. Though Rei himself wasn't particularly worried. Compared to the absurd nonsense he dealt with inside the MCU recently, having a philosophical conversation with an old man honestly ranked pretty low on the danger scale.

Okay, maybe not, but you get the gist. If this man wanted to do something to him, he would send a masked man, not himself openly. So after a small internal sigh, Rei calmly walked toward the bench before sitting beside the Hokage quietly, grocery bags resting near his feet.

"…Good evening Lord Hokage."

"Good evening, Rei." Hiruzen replied calmly.

"Doing shopping for your parents?"

"…Yes."

"You are more responsible than most of the kids out there.."

"I try to help as much as I can.." That actually made Hiruzen chuckle softly. And after some silence, Hiruzen spoke again.

"I heard your Academy class had an interesting discussion today." Rei nodded. He didn't expect his note to reach the ears of Hiruzen so fast, and also a bit surprised that it would make the Hokage come down.

"…Iruka-sensei asked a strange question."

"And you gave a strange answer." Hiruzen replied calmly.

"…Fair enough." The old man smiled slightly before looking ahead toward the village street again.

"You wrote that humanity would deserve to lose if they couldn't unite against disaster." Rei quietly rested his chin against one hand afterward while thinking for a moment.

"…I don't know much about the world yet," he admitted honestly.

"I'm still just a child."

"But…" Rei continued quietly, "…shinobi are powerful. Very powerful. Even you yourself are famous across the world." That made Hiruzen glance toward him slightly. Rei meanwhile continued calmly.

"Unity everywhere is impossible. That's just delusional. People are greedy, proud, emotional.... Nations fight each other. That's normal." His tone remained strangely practical while speaking.

"But if there was a disaster big enough to destroy everyone…" Rei looked upward toward the darkening sky afterward, "…then refusing to work together at that point would just be stupid." Hiruzen quietly listened.

"With enough power and knowledge available," Rei continued, "…if people still choose pride over survival… then honestly they deserve whatever happens afterward." Silence followed again. The street remained peaceful around them. Civilians walked by occasionally without realizing the Hokage himself sat casually on a nearby bench speaking with an Academy student. Eventually Hiruzen exhaled softly through his pipe.

"…I hope," the old man said quietly afterward, "…that if such a time ever comes, the world will be wise enough to understand that." Oh they will. And they have to. If they don't I will make sure that they come in line.