"I Have Fought Against Three Generations"
Early the next morning, Naruto woke up, washed up, jogged a couple laps across the rooftop, and returned to his room to continue sculpting clay figurines.
He only ran about a hundred meters. At three years old, his body wasn't developed enough to endure prolonged strain, and he knew it. Just a bit of movement was enough to get his blood flowing.
After yesterday's failed attempt at recreating a Vittorio Veneto-class battleship, Naruto revised his expectations. He set a smaller, more achievable goal: a destroyer. Sleek, nimble—destroyers were the real unsung heroes anyway.
Bang, bang, bang.
"Come in."
Naruto quickly stuffed the malformed clay battleship into a nearby iron pot and mashed it up. That stupid hair detailing had defeated him again. With a sigh, he stood and headed to wash his hands.
The door creaked open.
The Third Hokage stepped inside, his face lined with weariness, eyes darkened with fatigue, his presence almost grandfatherly—if you ignored the fact he'd spent more time spying on Naruto via crystal ball than attending council meetings.
He had watched Naruto's late-night stunt—talking to a girl and summoning a mysterious purple portal—and hadn't slept since.
"Naruto, about last night..." Hiruzen started hesitantly.
"What about last night?" Naruto replied innocently, his smile natural, confident. Acting? Please. Bluffing adults was practically his new passive skill. Idol life wasn't for him—that was Sasuke's thing. Power, mystery, and mischief were more his style.
"What was that purple door you summoned?"
"Grandpa, how did you know?" Naruto countered, feigning surprise.
Cough, cough! Hiruzen nearly choked on his pipe smoke. "I just... happened to be passing by."
Naruto's eyes narrowed in mock offense. "You saw it and didn't help me? Old man, I could've died!"
"You were already leaving by the time I saw you," the Third Hokage replied with his usual politician's calm.
"Oh... is that so?"
"What exactly was that portal? Can you tell Grandpa?"
Despite the attempt at kindness, his bloodshot eyes made him look more like a suspicious old man than a doting elder.
"I dunno," Naruto said with a yawn. "I was just tired and trying to sleep, then poof! There it was."
Changing the subject failed, so Naruto shifted to his favorite tactic: feign ignorance and act cute. He didn't know anything. He was just a three-year-old. Three-year-olds couldn't explain dimensional breaches.
"Can you use it again?" Hiruzen asked, clearly intrigued.
Naruto scratched his head and hesitated theatrically.
Then he raised a hand.
Two violet portals shimmered into existence, linked like mirrors. Naruto walked into one and reappeared from the other moments later.
The Third Hokage approached one of the portals and cautiously reached out. His hand phased through it—there was no Chakra signature, no sensory feedback. Just eerie, glowing light.
Ten seconds later, both portals flickered and vanished.
'Interesting... but flawed,' Hiruzen thought. 'The delay makes it impractical for high-speed combat... unless it can be refined.'
Of course, the disappearance wasn't time-based. Naruto had closed it manually to control the narrative. He couldn't have Sarutobi thinking he was too powerful.
"Can you do it again?"
"I probably can't," Naruto said truthfully.
He had only 2 mana points left, and it cost 6 to open one portal pair. He was tapped out—but better to leave Sarutobi guessing.
He raised a hand again for show. Nothing happened.
"Guess I'm tired," Naruto shrugged.
Hiruzen rubbed his beard. "It's not Chakra… It's something else."
"Maybe I can do it again in, um, three hours?" Naruto added, purposely exaggerating. Mana regenerated one point every three minutes. He'd be fine in under 20.
"What's the range of the jutsu?"
"Jutsu?"
"Where can you put the purple doors?" Hiruzen rephrased.
"Places I've been to… I think."
Which wasn't a total lie. In truth, Naruto could place portals in visible areas—or even far-off zones using items from his shop system, like deployable lamp posts with a visibility function. A mechanic he wasn't ready to reveal yet.
Hiruzen nodded thoughtfully. Not viable for mass deployment yet, but it had strategic potential: infiltration, elite transport, and evasive escapes. The untouchable teleportation phase especially intrigued him.
He ruffled Naruto's hair.
Naruto flinched.
'Touch me again and I'll yank a legendary treasure out of your old-man liver,' he thought darkly. Some ancient survival instinct told him men should never let others touch their heads.
Then, something flickered in the old man's gaze. Minato. His mind involuntarily returned to the Fourth Hokage—the Yellow Flash, the master of space-time ninjutsu. No wonder his son had inherited something extraordinary.
"Enough for today," Hiruzen said, finally snapping out of his thoughts. He placed two books on the table. "Read these when you're bored. Don't just play with clay all the time."
Naruto raised a brow. "Old man, I'm three."
"Oh… right."
"And I can't read."
Hiruzen chuckled awkwardly.
"Well, take these anyway. You'll grow into them."
Naruto looked at the books like they were bricks.
"Take this, then! My ultimate move: Infinite Egg Jutsu!"
He launched a flurry of summoned eggs at the Hokage. Sarutobi laughed and caught them as he left, muttering something about needing protein.
He came with two books.
He left with a dozen eggs.
---
Naruto tossed the books onto the shelf and returned to sculpting his destroyer.
Then he paused, grinning mischievously.
"Does this count as me having fought the Third Hokage... and escaped unscathed?"
He laughed maniacally.
"Hahaha! Three years old and already clashing with Hokage-tier opponents... I'm a monster!"