The Hokage waited atop the tower his office stood in. He sat with his arms folded in meditation, as he focused his abilities to sense chakra. It had been far too long since he had trained this part of his skills.

He waited and began to feel the world around him in the chakra. Civilians moved below like guttering candle signatures. He could feel the shinobi in the tower and around the town like fireflies moving through the light.

He felt for something moving, something weak.

And found it. Then it was gone. Then again, and gone.

His body tensed as his mind processed what he could sense and plan.

There!

He moved off as quickly as slightly arthritic limbs would allow him, trying his best to focus on where the flickers of movement were coming from.

He didn't follow directly. If Naruto was good, he'd know if he was being trailed. The Hokage wasn't the Hokage for no reason, and his mind soon had it worked out.

There was a pattern to the movement. He followed the pattern forwards, adjusted his movements and stopped on the rooftop as the figure landed on the other side.

He couldn't tell for sure, but it looked distinctly surprised to find him waiting there. He marvelled at the way the small stature blended into the shadows on top of the building. The hood was completely up and the face was hidden inside the darkness of the hood. He caught the slight ripple of the cloak behind in the breeze.

"How did you know Hokage-sama?"

"Know what Uzumaki-kun?"

"Where I was going. Then get there before me without me noticing you."

He smiled.

"I'm the Hokage, give me some credit. First off, I can sense chakra. I must say you're very good at concealing your chakra signature given what you contain."

The figure seemed to shrug, it was difficult to tell given he was barely visible in the dark.

"Necessary skill."

"Indeed. From what I could sense, you were doing a rough loop around the edges of Konoha. You're avoiding some areas though. Mainly the Hyuuga, Inuzuka and Aburame districts. So I worked out this was a pinch point in your root between two of the compounds. Then I saw the rooftops you could have chosen and went for the one with the second-most cover."

There was quiet as the breeze whispered through the rooftops of Konoha.

"You're good. Who taught you?"

"I'm nearly seventy years old. You pick up some of this stuff as you go. The most covered building is almost always well guarded, so you take the second best. Nobody properly guards it."

"Indeed. Can I go?"

"Not yet. I am the Hokage, and whilst I know Danzo keeps little secrets like you from everyone else, I know a lot about you. For example, you are twelve years old. You have so far performed eleven missions which would be ranked B-C rank in the standard system, each of them being an assassassination mission. Although none of them involved contact with shinobi above chunin level, and the target each time had no shinobi training."

The figure shrugged.

"I guess I'm good at what I do."

"Specialism in long range, ambush and stealth."

"What kind of idiot charges in blindly?"

There was silence again as Hiruzen contemplated the question.

"A dead one."

It wasn't immediately obvious, but he could have sworn the figure smiled. He just couldn't pierce the darkness under the hood with his gaze.

"Can I go now?"

"I have an offer for you."

"Not a mission?"

The tone sounded disappointed.

"I'll be plain. As it stands, you are very good at what you do. But you lack several things that I think you'll want in future that you can only really have when you're young."

"Such as?"

Now it was confused.

"Friends? Free time? The feeling of the sun and wind on your face?"

"I know of these things, but do I truly need them?"

"As it stands, you will spend your whole life in the darkness. I want you to spend some of it in the light."

The figure moved slightly forwards out of the darkness. The bottom of the face under the hood was only just visible in the half-light and shadow across it. The mouth was expressionless, but the whisker marks were there.

Oh the whisker marks, he'd forgotten about those.

'Just like when I took him from the orphanage and left him in Danzo's care. I should have done more in his life.'

"So you offer me the chance to gain things I have not yet had?"

"Yes."

"I've never found feelings to be that useful on missions. They mess up my breathing pattern when I'm aiming and distract me. Will they make me better?"

Hiruzen shrugged.

"It's your choice. But I'd rather you took it Naruto-kun. You can always return to your old ways if you don't like it. What do you say?"

There was a long pause.

The cloaked figure moved into a ray of light that shone from the full moon that had risen over Konoha. The moon-shadow behind him swayed in the breeze as he pushed the hood back behind his head.

Blonde hair, cropped short but still somehow spiky adorned his head. The face was almost entirely emotionless, the lips a thin flat line under his nose.

Hiruzen sighed as he took the image in. The eyes, of course the eyes as well. Well, the single eye he could see.

In the silver moonlight, one eye was a pool of cerulean blue that shimmered like a sapphire in the light. The other eye was covered by a strip of black cloth much like the one Kakashi wore. He wondered what was under it briefly.

"I accept. Do I go to the academy for their graduation tomorrow?"

"Not exactly. You won't be in a traditional team as such. With your skill set, putting you into the normal genin mould won't work. As such, you'll be shadowing the genin teams as they go on missions. Intervening as you see fit. Eventually the teams will be informed of your presence and you can interact as much as you want to. Report to the mission room at midday in two days. Try not to be spotted."

The figure smiled.

"I will be there. If you can spot me."

He stepped back into the darkness on the building and pulled the hood back over his head.

"May I go now?"

"Yes. It's been nice to see you again Naruto-kun, or at least one of your shadow clones."

"How did you know?"

"I've pulled the shadow clone replacement trick so many times I can recognise it very fast young Naruto. So go on and dispel to relay your conversation with the actual you."

He suspected the figure nodded before it was gone again, a patch of shadowy darkness moving from roof to roof to find a better place to dispel.

His brain churned as it thought about the encounter. Was he really doing the right thing? What would Minato think of his actions?

He sat on the roof and looked up towards the moon.

'Well Minato-kun, I hope I have. I really do. Hopefully he'll become great like you were.'

He sat in the mission room as the remainder of the desk-chunin left the room after finishing their scribing and recording of the days events.

His eyes were fixed on the clock that hung on the far wall above the entrance. The steady tick of the clock came with the second hand inexorably climbing towards the twelve.

It reached midday and kept going, as time is want to do. Hiruzen waited a few seconds as he reached out his senses into the room. He smiled.

"Come out Naruto-kun."

Naruto dropped lightly from the rafters of the high ceiling and landed before him.

"Hokage-sama."

"How long have you been there?"

"Since the briefing two nights ago. I can wait."

Hiruzen silently marvelled at the patience of the boy before him. ANBU specialists had been known to hold a position silently for hours, Jiraiya had boasted a week to him when they met up, but he was an expert spymaster.

"Nobody looked?"

"It's amazing how many people don't look at the ceiling Hokage-sama."

"And if they had?"

"I had a light genjutsu up, not so much to disguise me but enough to make them not notice me, or at least not want to."

He nodded. His eyes took in the appearance of the young man. He was still wearing the cloak, although it was now a blotched brown. He realised it was blending with the background as he saw it.

A strap crossed his chest, the vague shape of a crossbow on his back. A strap for another weapon was also there.

"Interesting. Your first task is to shadow a team as they take part in their Jonin sensei's exam. It's out on training ground seven. Come back with a verbal report of what you see."

"Hai."

Naruto walked up the walls and left via a roof window. Hiruzen smiled as he brought out his pipe with deft, practised movements at odds with the arthritis that had been building in his fingers.

'This way I should get to hear whether Kakashi has passed this team before he comes to report. And I'll know if I can collect my winnings.'

He puffed gently on the pipe and relaxed. With the missions handed out, he could afford an hour or two's gentle relaxation before the paperwork started to come back in.

Naruto moved quickly from rooftop to rooftop. Civilians barely looked up, and other ninja only used the rooftops if they were in a hurry. That meant they weren't paying attention, and Naruto could hide away without being spotted with ease.

He approached the training grounds and took to the heavy woods that were around ground 7 to survey the test as it took place. He got to a high branch, lay down on it, pulled the cloak over him as it took on the appearance of the leaves, and closed his visible eye and whispered.

"Byakugan."

The world became greyscale and bigger. It is difficult to describe what is nearly 360 degree vision with any kind of accuracy because a human mind not used to it; and the brain doesn't expect its cone of vision to suddenly become different. It gets even worse when you try to marry it with normal human vision, hence keeping his normally closed.

He focused the gaze mentally. The best way to describe it would be like adjusting a microscope with your mind, but whilst needing to keep totally still with one eye shut fast whilst your other is the microscope. When the world is composed of grey and chakra signatures.

He could see four scattered ahead of him.

'Hmm, one large signitature must be the Jonin sensei. Three smaller ones though.'

He mentally stopped the Byakugan and moved forwards to get a better view. He was now within fifty metres of the Jonin.

'White hair, headband covering the eye, and book, which is a grey that means its orange. Well, Lord Danzo told me they were eccentric. The headband and hair mean this should be Hatake Kakashi. He's good.'

He looked around at the bushes, and quickly picked out the genin team members.

'Have any of them done any stealth lessons? Their positions are wrong, their clothing is wrong. She's even poking her damn head out from under her cover. Idiots. Their sensei knows exactly where every single one of them is.'

He watched, working out how he would attack the Jonin much as the team probably were. Ah well, his job was to observe the test, not to pass it.

One of the team members jumped out from his hiding spot and charged Kakashi. Naruto was taken aback at the laziness with which he was stopping the genin's assault on him.

The genin was using what taijutsu he had, and it was sloppy and unrefined even to Naruto's inexperienced eyes. The jonin hadn't even taken his eyes off his book. It wasn't even an interesting fight, it was...boring really.

With the genin dispatched and humiliated, the Jonin continued to wander gently through the training ground. Naruto followed, keeping either high in the trees or low to the ground, not following too quickly. Keeping out of the way.

He settled into a new position as the second genin attacked with a barrage of shuriken and kunai from above. Whilst the accuracy of five projectiles at once was impressive for a genin, Naruto found himself almost offended by it.

Who wastes five shots when you only needed one? Either way, the jonin had used a karawimi without delay and been utterly unaffected by the assault. He then disappeared away from a fireball jutsu.

Naruto watched the giant jutsu as he became more and more confused by their attacking style. Whilst undeniably powerful, it was far too showy for his liking. In fact, all of these shinobi were far too of them seemed to have any plan of action and were acting individually.

He briefly wandered whether the three genin could combine to win, but decided against it. The Jonin was just too strong. And was moving in his general direction.

His hands flicked through the handsigns for his shadow deepening genjutsu and shrunk back deeper into the undergrowth. He found a hollow tree and ducked inside it, cloak taking on the mottled texture of the rough bark. That done, he activated the Byakugan once again.

He checked his surroundings. The sensei had managed to take the final genin member, the mixed chakra signals around the girl indicating a genjutsu. And the jonin was moving towards him, still reading his book.

He held his nerve, only if the Jonin was a very good sensor and paying attention would he actually be spotted. He kept his watch as the man approached.

The man was still reading the book, although Naruto could see his visible eye glancing left and right as he did. Not only was he extremely competent, but he intentionally gave off a goofy air to ensure his genin weren't ready for his true strength.

The man glance up at the tree, and looked directly at Naruto for just the slightest second. He then checked to see if anyone was around, and pulled his headband up to reveal his second eye.

Naruto cursed the fact he was wearing a mask, previously hidden by the book. He could have read the facial expression much better if it hadn't been there. His eye saw the other eye.

The Byakugan shows life in greyscale except for chakra. Chakra is usually a pale blue, although different personalities could show different colours. Kakashi's eye was a subtlety darker colour than the rest of him. And spun gently.

'Like Lord Danzo's eye! He has the sharingan too, it must be Hatake Kakashi.'

Naruto realised that if he could see Kakashi's eye, it meant Kakashi could see through his genjutsu. He had been found.

Instinct honed by hours of training kicked in. He dropped smoke, created a couple of shadow clones and fled, each clone going in a different direction.

Byakugan active, he focused his real eye ahead to stop him hitting everything, and his Byakugan behind him as best he could. Aside from the blind spot where the optical nerve connected it to his brain, as best he could see he wasn't being followed at all.

In fact, the figure was waving goodbye in a faintly surprised manner to each clone in turn.

He stopped. Kakashi had clearly seen him but had made no move to follow or speak to him. In fact, he had been pleasantly surprised. That didn't square up.

He stopped moving and ducked instinctively under the thickest cover he could find and looked out once more using the Byakugan.

Kakashi was moving off again in the slow deliberate fashion he done when the test had started. No urgency, just a slow stroll with the book held out in front of him.

So...he had been found by an experienced ninja, who, instead of demanding to know who he was and why he was there had let him escape. The last part was almost definitely true, Naruto was quick for his age and agile, but there was no way he could match the speed of a full grown and experienced jonin, especially one with the record Kakashi had.

No...He had been pleasantly surprised. That meant he was slightly expecting him to be there. But how?

'The Hokage must have told him.'

Naruto filed that away. It was obvious he was being tested. The 'Don't be spotted' instruction the Hokage had given on the rooftops had been an obvious one. This one was more subtle, he was being evaluated by the jonin with the team.

He continued to observe from a distance, wary that Kakashi could spot him too easily if he got too close. He was lecturing his team, one of them tied to a post. He eventually turned away and walked off.

The team wasn't going anywhere, might as well see what Kakashi was doing. He had a hunch.

The trees and shrubbery barely rustled as he moved quickly from place to place, Byakugan eye focused on the elite Jonin.

He had been right. Kakashi was hiding with a clear view of his charges, and was watching them closely.

Naruto stopped a short distance away, and considered throwing up a genjutsu. He dismissed the option, it hadn't worked the first time, it probably wouldn't a second time. Could he get a shot off with the bow? Maybe, but this man was elite.

He looked through the trees at his target again. His focus on the genin was very tight. Maybe from above?

He moved up into the branches of the trees, and reached behind him. The reassuring black leather grip of the tanto blade he kept on his back slid into his palm in a very practised motion. He crept along the branch until he was nearly above Kakashi, and unsheathed the blade slowly, well oiled sheath barely whispering as the blade slipped from it.

He took a grip, and dropped, blade moving towards Kakashi's back through the air as he pushed it down to increase the power it would hit Kakashi with.

Kakashi reacted at the last possible moment, rolling away and launching a kunai at him. He shifted the blade just enough to block the projectile with a clang. It slammed into the earth as he prepared to move again.

"You're good; I only knew you were there just before you dropped. Although you're not retreating like last time."

"How did you spot me?"

"Luck. The shadow in the tree didn't look right. I've seen enough genjutsu in my time and decided to take a better look. It was good work. I expected as much."

"Hokage-sama sent me here for you to test me."

Kakashi found himself a little taken aback. The way he'd said it bore absolutely no hint that he doubted it at all. It was a fair deduction.

"Yeah. You're good. Although a chunin, if they spotted you, would be enough to stop you at this stage. Your block with the tanto wasn't particularly good, and that cloak will get in your way in a straight up fight. You are quick though."

"I don't get spotted. Even if I do it's usually because I want to get guards to move."

"Quick too. Well, we'll both report to the Hokage later about each other I guess. What do you think of my team?"

"Too brash. No stealth at all. No dress sense either."

Kakashi shrugged.

"Well, I have to pass them; they seem to have finally worked out to work as a team. Quite rare. Ja Ne."

He disappeared to pass the team. Naruto moved off back towards the briefing room to wait again. It should only take a couple of hours, and he could wait.