At the Hokage office, Hiruzen sat on his chair, rubbing his terribly tired eyes. And in front of the him, Mariko sat with a set of documents on her hands.

Looking at the Hiruzen’s physical state, Mariko felt extremely worried about him. In her time as an assistant to the Hokage, she had never seen Hiruzen feeling this tired from the work. Even when there were piles and piles of paperwork waiting for him to approve or meetings after meetings from the council members, Hiruzen did it all. He did everything, bearing all the troubles, from all directions. Just like an unshakable mountain, but today, this unshakable mountain in Mariko’s eye, shook. Even though she believed that everything will pass by, Mariko felt extremely worried.

“Hokage-sama, how about you rest for a while. I will bring some-”

Before Mariko could speak anymore, Hiruzen raised his hand stopping her from speaking any further. “I know my limits, Mariko.”

“Hokage-sama.”

“Ask Mari and Inoichi to come. Also, tell them to bring everyone who was involved with the Suna-nin.”

“Hai, Hokage-sama.” The hidden ANBU acknowledged the order then hurried away to complete it.

Hiruzen closed his eyes and tapped on the table, waiting for Mariko.

Mariko cleared her throat and continued reporting. “Hokage-sama, you have a meeting with all the clan heads in the village area at one in the afternoon. Then you have another meeting with the all clan heads that are stationed outside the village at six. The head of the scouting department will also be meeting concerning details about the defenses outside the village.”

“Lastly, the members of the civilian council wanted to meet with you. They wanted to know about the movement of a large number of resources in the village.”

“Push it down,” Hiruzen said with his eyes closed.

“Hai, Hokage-sama.” Mariko jolted down the instructions and continued.

“The sensory division reported saying that they were unable to find Orochimaru. But they gave a list of places where permission is needed.” She reported then handed Hiruzen a page, full of addresses and area points.

Hiruzen grabbed the list and quickly went through it then placed the paper on the table. After a short pause and turn towards the window, Hiruzen answered with heavy voice. “No permission”

Just when Mariko was about to continue, Hiruzen stood up and raised his hands then said, “Ask DRAGON if he is free or not. If he is, then tell him to meet me.”

“Hai, Hokage-sama,” Mariko also stood up then turned around to leave the room. Her first job was to call DRAGON as soon as possible.

Hiruzen walked inside the inner chambers after giving the rest of the ANBU some signals.

“Hiruzen,” As soon as Hiruzen entered the room, a rough voice called him out.

“Enma, you are early.” It was his contracted beast, the current monkey king, Enma.

“Hiruzen,” Enma stretched out his big hands, grabbing Hiruzen. “As you had asked… I went to Mount Myōboku and met with the old toad sage.”

“Did he say anything?” Hiruzen asked with a bit of hope at the corner of his heart.

Enma looked at Hiruzen’s face for a long time then said “…I couldn’t even enter his residence. The two elders of the toad clan said that there was no incoming danger for the short future.”

“No danger? Short future?” Hiruzen frowned as everything pointed to Orochimaru and Sunagakure causing problems in the Chūnin exams.

After a bit of hesitation, Enma brought out a scroll from his chest pocket and gave it to Hiruzen.

Hiruzen took it and opened it calmly. He raised his brows after finding the scroll empty. “What’s this Enma?”

“When I was on my way back, I met with someone called ‘Zero’ from ‘Poison Hall’… at the periphery of mount Myōboku.”

“Near mount Myōboku? How is that possible?” Hiruzen looked at Enma in shock. The sage regions relating to the toads were an unknown territory. Humans had no chance of entering those lands, at all. Whenever one tried, he or she would forever be lost, with no hopes of ever getting out.

“I don’t know how he got there but, he gave that scroll to me. He also said that it was from the ‘Mistress of the Poison Hall’.”

“Mistress of the Poison Hall… never heard of that.” Hiruzen thought for a while then shook his head. The name sounded familiar but after thinking for a while he didn’t recall anyone with that title.

“I have only known ‘Zero’ from the ‘Poison Hall’. About this ‘Mistress of the Poison Hall’… I can't think of anyone. Have you heard of her, Enma?”

“I haven’t, Hiruzen.” Enma sat down, defeated by all this thinking. “I have been thinking about all this the entire way.”

“Oh, and that guy said that you should keep the scroll with yourself all the time from now on,” Enma added after a bit of thinking.

“This?” Hiruzen looked at the scroll for quite some time. Although this little scroll with flower pattern looked beautiful, there was nothing else.

Knock! Knock!

“It’s bound to happen, Enma.” Hiruzen shook his head and smiled. “Let’s wait a few more days then we’ll spar.”

“You old fool… be ready next time.” Enma smiled with his eyes closed and disappeared in a cloud of chakra smoke.

“Hokage-sama, we received news from the border patrol,” Mariko reported it from the other side of the door.

“From the borders?” Hiruzen stood from his seat, pocketing the scroll inside his chest pocket then walked out.

“Let’s hear it.” Feeling refreshed, Hiruzen walked with his back straight towards his chair.

“All the neighboring small nations are as usual. There has been no change at the borders in the past six months… and even the land of sound is the same.”

“As for the land of sand, three units have started infiltration from the eastern border and two have begun investigating the northern Sand border. They have just finished their first round and have send in the reports.”

Mari paused for a while and looked at Hiruzen.

Hiruzen listened with his eyes closed thinking about the possible things that could happen. Before letting his imaginations run wild, Hiruzen let out a small noise and gave Mariko a signal.

Mari nodded and started at once. “The eastern border of the land of sand had no border patrol but the nearest forts had shinobis defending it as usual. Although the forts were not heavily defended, it seem to be adequate enough.”

“That’s all normal.” Hiruzen sighed then added, “We may need to contact our men inside Suna.”

“Should I?” Mariko felt uneasy as she asked. “We already have a few traders ready.”

Hiruzen placed his hand on the table and thought for a long time before saying, “If Sunagakure is really planning for an attack; there defenses will be even tighter. We should be ready… Send the traders.”

“Hai Hokage-sama.” Mari accepted the order and seeing that Hiruzen had no more orders, she turned around to leave.

“Is DRAGON here yet?” Hiruzen asked to which the door slowly opened.

A figure wearing a dark robe and a white mask quietly walked in.

“DRAGON, take a seat.”

“Hai, Hokage-sama.” DRAGON gave a small bow and sat on the sofa.

Mariko left the room and the seals glowed, separating the room from any disturbances.

“Hokage-sama,” DRAGON also had a stack of documents about the current affairs.

“DRAGON… I wish this day never came to be.” Hiruzen sighed as he took out two small cups from the coffee table in front and a bottle of alcohol.

DRAGON looked at the bottle then at Hiruzen, “Hokage-sama, it’s unwise to drink so early. And you have a chain of meetings past noon.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Hiruzen shook his head and opened the bottle.

DRAGON looked at the aged Hiruzen for a moment before grabbing the bottle. Hiruzen looked in inquiry to which DRAGON said, “Let me pour,” revealing his aged voice that was different from his normally heard voice.

“…I never thought I would ever hear this voice again,” Hiruzen let out a faint smile as DRAGON filled the cups with alcohol.

“Old friend.” Hiruzen called out causing DRAGON to pause for a while.

Letting go of the bottle, DRAGON paused for a second then sighed looking at the ceiling. With a slight shake, crackling sounds came from his body as DRAGON’s figure rose by a few inches. Taking off the robe, he revealed his slightly tanned skin and well-defined muscles. Pressing the mask on his face, DRAGON applied a bit of chakra and pulled it off, revealing his slightly tanned sharp face. Although there were some wrinkles on his face, it made him look wise. But the most noticeable features about his face were the pair of deep violet eyes and his spiky blood red hair.

(I totally do not know how to describe a person. With the help of discord members I did some things)

“You look much older than me, Hiruzen.” After a few cough, DRAGON’s voice changed, revealing his rough voice.

“Uzumaki blood sure is…”

DRAGON touched his face and closed his eyes, thinking about his past. “It’s more of a curse. To live this life and to bear this…”

Hiruzen picked up his cup and looked at the glistening surface of alcohol.

“With the one from Kusagakure, there are now twelve Uzumaki in the village but… they are all children. No training, no knowledge about their heritage, just what am I supposed to do?” DRAGON closed his eyes in bitterness.

There was a long pause as both men realized the burden they were facing. While one faced death, the other faced life.

Both, life and death were equally dreadful.

Comparisons were torturous.

After a while, both men raised their cups and said at the same time, “To the future.”

Hiruzen never noticed the scroll in his chest pocket disappearing or the matter about the ‘Mistress of the Poison Hall’. In conscious or unconscious mind, the Poison Hall had now slowly faded as the threads of karma got severed one after another.

On the other side.

At the underground training room, pair of eyes were moving left, up, right and down. They were moving everywhere, capturing everything. Raito blinked time and again, clearly more than the normal amount. As arrows came raining down, Raito no longer made big, bulky movements but made do with small significant movements, dodging the arrows by a hair’s length.

Now, the mechanism did not give him time to change focus and prepare like in the beginning. It was two or sometimes even three at times, raining down at Raito from all directions.

‘Damn,’ Raito gritted his teeth, dodging the arrows but every now and then the arrows would graze by, leaving a scorching mark on his body. Then the pain from heat would come by, agonizing him and there seemed to be something else, which caused extra pain.

“Mari-nee, when I come out, I am gonna-Ow.” Raito gritted his teeth and clenched his fist, trying hard not to scream.

[Due to intense training, you DEX raised by 1.]

“Only thing… this is the only thing that is making me stay in this dank place.” Raito said while exhaling with difficulty.

“Damn,” Raito lay on the ground looking at the ceiling with exhaustion. “And it’s only level three.”

“Inventory, improvised food pill, one.” Raito commanded as a food pill appeared on his mouth.

Swallowing the food pill, Raito’s face scrunched up in disgust. “I’ll remember this too, making me swallow this… disgusting thing.”

When Raito first swallowed the food pill, it was from the top of the basket. But after some time passed, the food pill’s taste turned intense. The good thing about the pill was the large amount of nutrients along with it’s absorbents. As for the taste enhancers, there were none.

Ten minutes later, the nutrients in the food pills were completely absorbed, letting Raito move with ease.

Throwing out his torn and ragged jacket and T-shirt, Raito revealed his well-defined lean muscular top. Raito sighed as he traced several cut marks made by the wooden arrows.

‘[Heal]’

With a green glow, the cuts and bruise all over his body quickly disappeared.

‘[Meditation]’

Circulating the stagnant chakra in his body Raito felt his body getting lighter and the tension disappearing. The accumulated fatigue of the whole day disappeared slowly, rejuvenating his body.

‘Should I let go and unlock all the seals?’ With a thought, restricting seals appeared all over his body. Raito thought for a while then buried this absurdly stupid idea.

“Status.”

Yoshizawa Raito Lvl 41 Exp 28%

Rank – Genin (Ninja)

Title – The Gamer

HP – 5,400/6,400

CP – 12,300/12,800

STR – 170 (Total 300)

VIT – 179

DEX – 150 (Total -203)

INT – 180

WIS – 108

LUK – 41+20 (+20 from Equipment Bonus)

Stat points: 164

Yoshizawa Household Member: Additional +50 HP per level +2 INT & +3 VIT per level.

Holder Of Lucky Star: Additional +1 LUK per level.

(So, these are Raito’s current stat. High in STR right now because of all the physical training, he has been doing, himself, with lee and Gai, and with Kakashi. The INT is down but the total CP is up because of the chakra control exercises. For those who remember that leaf training, leaf spinning, tree climbing and rock climbing gives him various amount of chakra points, which I have forced them to be of basic and elementary level. The higher level of exercise are like Naruto repairing the bells with chakra in demon continent movie, so here I have changed that part to like taking seeds out of shells, engraving names using chakra, using chakra threads and so on… and yeah the WIS is quite low.)

“It’s going good.” Raito closed the status tab with a smile on his face then stood up. With a chakra thread, Raito pulled the ring, revealing a path downstairs to the bathroom.

“I think I am getting lazier.” With a swipe, all the clothes disappeared then a sphere of water appeared above Raito’s head, letting out a light shower.

Taking out a sachet of shampoo, Raito used it to cover all the important parts.

While he continued making bubbles for himself, the wooden tub at the side of the bathroom was gradually being filled with water.

After a light shower, Raito walked towards the tub then squatted down.

“I can't do some for the jutsus from a distance.” Raito sighed then placed his hand above the water surface. “[Water Purification]”

The water let out a dim glow before subsiding.

[Skill ‘Water Purification’ has leveled up by 1.]

[Skill ‘Water Purification’ has reached level 40.]

“Finally.” Raito laid his body in the tub filled with purified water and let out a satisfied moan. “This is the best.”