Danzo won the next match and the one after that.

The last one was close, but ultimately, Asuma sprung a trap that Danzo had laid so well that he hadn’t seen it coming. Sick and tired of losing to decrepit old men, he announced that he would retire for the evening and stormed out of the teahouse, despite knowing he would return in one week to challenge Danzo once more.

Shogi wasn’t the reason he and Danzo met every week, but it was a nice bonus and distraction from the heavy topics they often talked about. The games were neither the first things to enter Asuma’s mind nor were they last to remain with him at the end of their meetings. More curious than not, he wondered if the Nine-Tails kid was still training in the park. He looked up at the darkening sky and decided that he probably wasn’t.

It would have been two hours since he saw the boy training by the stream and no matter how precocious, a kid was still a kid.

“Might as well check, though,” muttered Asuma as he exited the front gate.

The guards fell into deep bows and yelled in unison, “Excuse me, Lord Sarutobi! We apologise most profusely, Lord Sarutobi!”

“Man, you guys crack me up,” said Asuma, wiping tears from his eyes. “I already told you, I’m not pissed at your friend for not recognising me earlier, I swear. You act like I’m going to force you to commit seppuku at the smallest inconvenience and I doubt Elder Shimura is the kind of guy to do that.”

They glanced nervously at each other before the taller one spoke. “L-Lord Shimura is a fair lord, but h-his nephew, Lord Yoshito, i-is rather… severe.”

The genuine fear in his voice immediately sobered him up and he leaned over and patted their shoulders. “...Does he doesn’t make you vassals commit seppuku?”

“No, nothing that extreme,” said the second guard. “When he’s sober, he’s rather pleasant to talk to, if a little erratic. But he’s rarely sober and instructs us to do impossible things, and when we inevitably fail, his punishments can be…”

He trailed off and Asuma shook him impatiently. “Come on, out with it. If he’s abusing you guys, I’ll go right back in and bring it up to Lord Shimura.”

“N-No!” The first guard yelled before tempering his voice. “It’s nothing painful, but his punishments are quite demeaning. Things like seppuku are rare, and only occur when a vassal brings great dishonour upon the clan. However, punishments from our lords do not count as dishonour. Satoshi’s cousin was forced to run around the entire residence thrice—completely naked.”

Asuma stared between the both of them, trying to see if it was all an elaborate joke, but the fear on their faces told another story. He snorted, unable to contain his amusement within him, and soon gave up doing so, laughing to himself as he turned away.

“My advice? Stay away from Yoshito, and if you can’t, try to give him more alcohol. It'll send him to sleep eventually.” He looked over his shoulder and grinned. “Who knows, maybe he’ll make you two run naked around the entire village next? If his alcoholism becomes a serious enough problem, bring it up to Elder Shimura.”

He waved them goodbye over his shoulder and descended the steps, surrounded by forestry on either side. He entered a well-trod sidepath leading back into the park he’d entered from and slowly edged towards the left side, where the stream was. This time, he wasn’t greeted by curses and yelled exclamations.

He pressed onwards, wading through the thicket and sliding down the small slope until the stream came into view. Still wet from head to toe, Naruto stood atop the stream with his eyes closed. A few pebbles adorned both his arms, and he took a step forward, slightly more stable-looking than before.

The water around his feet rippled outwards.

Asuma bolted forward an instant before the chakra flow to his feet spiked, sending him flying skyward in a rage of frothing water. Naruto flailed in the air and all the pebbles plummeted into the water. Asuma sprinted down the bank and jumped up to intercept him, setting him down on the other side of the stream.

“Biting off a bit more than you can chew, aren’t you?”

The boy blinked in surprise and stared at him in recognition.

“Have I met you before?” Asuma asked.

“Oh!” He shook his head, spraying a few droplets. “No, but I’ve seen you before.”

“When?”

“That play. The Life and Times of the Fourth Hokage. At the start, the playwright introduced himself and then thanked Lord Third.”

“Right. Funny that you were there too—the Leaf’s a small world.”

He folded his arms a little awkwardly. Asuma wasn't in the habit of talking to children, but there was something strangely disconcerting about this one; a knowing gleam in his eye that meant a little more than above-average intelligence.

“So, uh, what are you doing out here?”

“Training. Thanks for the save by the way.” He ran a hand through his hair and shook it out violently. “The waters aren't deep so I would’ve broken something in the fall.”

“You’re welcome,” Asuma replied, taking a seat on the grass beside him. “Do you know what kind of training you're doing?”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“Yup. Chakra control training. Word is, I've got huge reserves, so apparently I'll struggle with control in the future. I've decided to make sure that's not a problem.”

Asuma hummed. “That’s all well and good, but you're like ten, aren't you? A kid your age shouldn't be spending a Saturday alone—well, I guess the day’s already over, but I’m making a point here.”

“...Ten and six months.” He picked up a pebble and hurled it across the stream. It bounced thrice before sinking halfway. “I’m alone because the only person who'll train me is me.”

He picked up another pebble and whipped his wrist. This time, it skipped four times before sinking.

“...Makes sense,” Asuma replied.

The kid snorted. “You’re terrible at this, huh?”

“Bad at what? Stone skipping?” He picked up a pebble and tossed it, clearing the stream in six skips.

“Nice, but I wasn't talking about stone skipping.”

“I figured and was trying to change the subject,” Asuma replied. “But considering you're water-walking at ten, I was an idiot for thinking it would work. Tell me, why are you training so hard, Naruto?”

“I never told you my name.”

“...You're a famous kid.”

Naruto threw his head back and barked out a harsh like. “More like infamous, but fair enough. Since you know my name, you might as well tell me yours.”

“Asuma Sarutobi, Jonin of the Leaf.”

“I’m guessing you're related to Lord Third since you were in the VIP box with him.”

“You’d be right. He's my father.”

“I wonder what that's like.” Naruto leaned back on his palms. “Having your father as the Hokage.”

“Not as cool as it sounds. Being Hokage is a round-the-clock deal. If you're not all in, the village suffers, and for the village to prosper…”

“You had to suffer,” said Naruto, staring at him with a knowing gleam in his eye.

Asuma didn't like it—not the understanding in his eyes, nor the direction that the conversation was headed—so he grabbed hold of its reins. “I get you being a prodigy and all, but you'll regret spending your childhood in forests alone, trust me on that one.”

“I don't have much of an option. I train every single day and it's not enough.” He laughed hollowly. “You know, one of my friends might've been right. All that effort for what? I waste weeks to learn something, and a clan kid comes in with a technique taught to them by their sixty-something-year-old elder and beats me.”

Asuma took a mental step back at how bitter he sounded.

“Guess what the worst part is,” he demanded. “That same friend is probably being forced to train with one of his clan’s elders.”

Naruto breathed out explosively. A million words left unsaid hung in the air, laced with frustration. Together, they stared at the setting sun over the brush in silence. Asuma spent the time gathering his thoughts while they took turns skipping stones across the stream.

“This might sound strange, but tell me everything,” he said. “Get it all off your chest. Every single thing that's on your mind, big or small. Come on, throw it at me. I can spare a few minutes, at least, because, if nothing else, it might make you feel better.”

Naruto shrugged. “Worth a shot.”

For the next few minutes, Asuma listened—mostly. Occasionally, he'd stop to ask for clarification, but otherwise let the kid ramble, mostly about his lack of growth compared to his classmates. He'd never thought so deeply about the gap between shinobi-born and civilian children before. After all, he was a son of the Sarutobi clan and had all the resources he would ever need.

Listening to Naruto, though, he realised just how frustrating it was to be confined to a handful of rudimentary jutsu when he probably had enough chakra control and chakra to fire off at least a few C-ranks. But if he was too concerned with chasing strength, his entire childhood would slip him by without him even realising.

When it came down to it, he needed to remember why he was sacrificing his humanity, but at the rate he was going, Naruto would have nothing to fall back on—no warm bath to submerge himself in when the job became too much—and would break.

His frustration was understandable, but titles like Rookie of the Year and Runner-up mattered very little in the real world. He’d seen many rising stars cut down too soon by an enemy’s blade. Excluding any hatred towards their village, killing promising flowers before they had the chance to bloom was common practice in the Elemental Nations.

“Right,” said Asuma. “Here’s the deal. I might—emphasis on the might—be able to teach you a few things.”

Naruto sat up straight and his jaw was slack with shock.

“Hold your horses. I won’t throw jutsu at you for no reason and I won't let you demand things of me,” said Asuma. “I am a jonin, and that’s something you respect, training or no training. I don’t need to teach you, but I’m choosing to purely out of the kindness of my heart.”

A small part of Asuma shrivelled at the bald-faced lie. He wasn’t teaching the kid solely out of the kindness of his heart, but for the good of the village—the kid’s wellbeing and the village’s wellbeing were one and equal.

“Do you know the field across the other side of this stream?” he asked.

“No, can’t say I do.”

“Cross the stream, and go straight ahead. There’ll be an open field once you get through the trees. You can find it on foot, but I suggest you tree-hop. I’m sure you know what that is since you’re walking on water. There’s no path or signs for you to follow so you’ll have to follow my instructions to the letter.”

“Straight ahead… that way?” asked Naruto.

Asuma nodded. “Right on. We’ll meet there in exactly one week at 9 AM sharp. If you’re late by even a minute, this thing is off, do you understand?”

“I understand,” said Naruto, standing up and bowing respectfully towards him. “I’ll do my best, Asuma-sensei.”

“Yeah… I’m nipping that in the bud,” he said while stifling his wince. “There’ll be none of that sensei stuff, kid. I don’t plan on becoming a teacher anytime soon. There are missions to do and bounties to claim so I’ll leave the teaching to old fogies like my father.”

“Asuma it is, then.”

He wasn’t sure if his choice was the right one, but from the moment Danzo made the comparison between Naruto and him, he realised that the Jinchuriki wasn’t something he could ignore.

Despite not being an orphan, he knew what it was like to not understand why people gave their all to a village of strangers—and not just themselves, but their very families. Asuma’s doubts about the Will of Fire hadn’t been put to rest even with his reaffirmed loyalty and perhaps they never would be.

It wasn’t the perfect philosophy, but it was the best thing to come out of a bloody era. All he could do was ease some of the Jinchuriki’s doubts and make sure he remained loyal to the village.