After the children and the bridge builder were gone, the tower finally remembered how to be quiet.
The door clicked shut behind Kakashi's retreating students; their chakra signatures receded down the stairs—Naruto's bright and jagged, Sasuke's tight and coiled, Sylvie's strange, layered thing that never quite behaved like anyone else's.
Hiruzen Sarutobi let his shoulders sink a fraction. The pipe sat warm in his hand. The office still smelled faintly of damp fur and alley dust.
Kakashi hadn't left with them.
He lingered by the window instead, one hand in his pocket, the other raising that ridiculous orange book halfway before he seemed to think better of it and tuck it away. He watched the street below with his usual slouch, but the line of his back was too straight to count as relaxed.
"Excited kids," Kakashi said at last. "Terrifying force of nature, really. You just gave them exactly what they wanted."
Hiruzen made a noncommittal sound and set the pipe in its stand. "Within limits."
"Mm. Limits." Kakashi's visible eye curved, faintly amused, faintly something else. "You know Naruto yelled something like that at me the first day we met. 'I'm gonna be Hokage, believe it,' and so on. I suppose this is what passes for consistency."
Hiruzen's gaze drifted to the door.
The echo of Naruto's voice still hung in the wood. Old man! Give us a real mission!
"I expected this confrontation eventually," Hiruzen said. "I did not expect… assistance." His mouth twitched. "From a girl covered in cat hair, lecturing me about field experience."
Kakashi huffed, the ghost of a laugh. "Sylvie does seem… committed to editing reality to her liking."
He said it lightly, but the phrasing lodged under Hiruzen's ribs. Editing reality. The girl did talk about the world as if it were a story she could revise, and herself as both character and commentator. Disconcerting, in someone her age.
Useful, in moments like today.
Hiruzen reached for a file on the edge of his desk—not Naruto's thick, flagged dossier, but a thinner one. He opened it.
Subject: Unknown Orphan (Designation: Sylvie). Origin: Unverified. Skills: Fuinjutsu aptitude (self-taught), Analytical intelligence (high).
There were notes from Iruka in the margins. Observant. Protective of Uzumaki Naruto. Shows an unusual understanding of chakra theory despite low reserves.
And now, a mental note to add: Unafraid to challenge authority if she believes the logic is sound.
"She is an anomaly," Hiruzen murmured.
"She's a stray," Kakashi corrected, turning from the window. "Found in the woods, no memory, no clan. We have a lot of those after the wars. She just happens to be one who decided ink was more interesting than kunai."
"Most strays don't develop functional sealing arrays without a teacher," Hiruzen pointed out. "And most academy students don't stand in this office and demand better treatment for their teammates."
Kakashi tilted his head. "You like her."
"I am intrigued by her," Hiruzen said. "She has no reason to be loyal to this village. We gave her a bed in an orphanage and a uniform that doesn't fit. And yet, she places herself between Naruto and the world as if it is her personal duty."
He tapped the file.
"Keep an eye on her training, Kakashi. Her reserves are low, which will limit her ninjutsu, but her mind is sharp. If she survives this mission…"
He let the thought trail off. He had seen many sharp minds broken by the reality of the shinobi world.
"If she survives," Kakashi finished, "you think she has potential."
"I think," Hiruzen said, "that Naruto needs an anchor. Sasuke needs a conscience. And Sylvie… Sylvie seems determined to be both."
He closed the file.
"If she returns, bring her to me. I may have… some old scrolls she would find interesting. It has been a long time since I had a student who appreciated the theory as much as the practice."
Kakashi's eye widened slightly. "You're going to tutor her?"
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," Hiruzen said, picking up his pipe. "First, let's see if she can survive a C-rank escort without getting eaten by bandits."
Kakashi straightened from his lean, hand lifting in a casual salute. "I'll keep them alive, Hokage-sama. And… I'll try to keep them happy, too. No promises about the cat, though."
"Keep Tora away from them," Hiruzen said. "For the village's sake."
Kakashi's eye curved. "We'll be out of your hair, then."
He flickered away in a swirl of displaced air, leaving the office finally, truly empty.
Hiruzen sat alone with the paperwork, the pipe, and the faint echo of young voices demanding more from him than quiet regret.
He reached for the next scroll—not to bury himself in it, but to start signing different orders.
Stories, Sylvie had once said in that odd, earnest way of hers, don't fix what's already happened. They just decide what happens next.
"Then let's choose better, this time," Hiruzen murmured to no one, and began.