The first week passed slowly, yet every second felt vivid in Hirito's still-developing senses.
He couldn't crawl. Couldn't talk. Could barely move his fingers without effort. But his mind—still sharp from his past life—remained active, restless.
It was during the quiet mornings, when Mikoto gently rocked Sasuke to sleep, or when Itachi tiptoed past the crib with childlike grace, that Hirito felt it.
A presence.
Not chakra exactly—not in the way he remembered it from anime, not as a glowing energy inside people. This was something outside them. A pulse beneath the earth. A quiet hum in the wind. The warmth of sunlight that somehow vibrated through his skin. Like the world was breathing around him.
At first, he thought it was just his imagination—leftover remnants of reincarnation, maybe a glitch in his perception.
But it didn't fade.
If anything, it grew stronger each day.
This isn't chakra, he realized on the eighth day. This is something else. Wilder. Purer.
Then a thought struck him.
Natural energy?
He remembered bits of Naruto lore—Sage Mode, the risk of turning to stone, the Toads of Mount Myoboku. But that power had to be trained, practiced. It wasn't something you could just feel.
And yet…
When Mikoto left the room one afternoon and the wind slipped through the thin paper window, Hirito felt a surge, like the entire room had shifted. Not visibly. But spiritually.
This body… it's not cultivating chakra yet, he thought. That's done later—when the elders open your chakra pathways through training.
Which meant only one thing.
Whatever I'm sensing… it's not from inside me.
His connection to this energy—natural energy—was passive, instinctive. His soul, perhaps, was still too old for this world. Too open.
That terrified him more than he cared to admit.
Because if he noticed it… who else might?
Elsewhere, hidden in the depths of Konoha's underground, shadows moved.
Danzo Shimura's cane tapped rhythmically against the stone floor as a masked shinobi knelt before him.
"Report."
The agent spoke without raising his head. "Subject Hirito remains physically undeveloped. However… there are signs of heightened sensitivity. He reacts to subtle movement and presence. He tracks motion in the room when no one speaks. This exceeds what we've seen in normal infants."
Danzo narrowed his lone eye.
"Have the chakra pathways awakened?"
"Negative, Danzo-sama. No signs of chakra molding yet."
Danzo was quiet. "Then it may be sensory. Or worse—instinctive reaction to environmental energy."
"Natural energy?" the agent asked cautiously.
Danzo turned, cloak sweeping behind him.
"Possibly. Or something unknown. Either way… continue monitoring. Double the watch on days with high wind or full moon."
"Yes, Danzo-sama."
Danzo paused at the doorway, speaking without looking back.
"If he ever senses us watching… we move to containment."
Meanwhile, at the Uchiha compound, the wind carried new guests.
Minato Namikaze arrived with a quiet smile, flanked by two ANBU and his pregnant wife, Kushina. The guards at the gate stiffened, quickly notifying Fugaku.
Mikoto rose from the porch with Sasuke in her arms, while Hirito lay bundled nearby, silent as always.
Kushina knelt beside the basket with a bright grin. "Look at them! So cute! It's rare enough to have one Uchiha baby, but two?"
"They're both healthy," Mikoto said proudly, "though Hirito's a quiet one."
Kushina chuckled. "The quiet ones are always the most dangerous."
Minato approached Fugaku and handed him a scroll sealed with the Hokage's insignia.
"A gift," he said. "To honor the birth of your sons—and a formal appointment. The Hokage's office invites Shisui Uchiha to join the Hokage Guard ANBU unit."
Fugaku raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.
Shisui, who had quietly emerged from within the house, knelt with a hand to his chest.
"I accept, Hokage-sama. I will serve."
Minato gave a nod, pleased. "You're one of the few I trust at that level."
As the adults spoke, Kushina gently lifted Hirito and cradled him against her. His dark eyes stared up at her with unnatural stillness.
"…He's got a deep look for someone barely two weeks old," she murmured.
Minato smiled. "He's probably judging us already."
Kushina laughed, but in her arms, Hirito felt something… massive. A swirling inferno locked behind layers of chakra.
The Nine Tails.
He blinked slowly. Not in fear. In excitement.
He had watched Naruto in another life. But now, he could feel the fox—trapped, furious, ancient—and sealed inside a woman who smiled so freely.
Incredible.
Kushina seemed to sense something too.
She whispered to Mikoto, "This one's going to change things. I can feel it."
Mikoto only smiled. "Let's hope it's for the better."
That night, as Fugaku sat alone in his study, he pondered the visit.
The Hokage's gift. Shisui's promotion. The baby who didn't cry or gurgle. Who just… watched.
He thought of how Hirito's eyes tracked movement from across the room. Of how he never startled at sudden noise. Of how he looked at people like he was already measuring them.
"He doesn't feel like a child," Fugaku muttered.
Then, after a long pause, added:
"…He feels like something watching through a child."
Outside, in the silence beyond the compound, two masked ROOT agents stood beneath the shadows of a swaying tree.
One of them whispered, "He looked directly at me. I didn't make a sound. No chakra flare. No movement."
"Noted," the other replied.
They sealed their scroll and vanished into the dark.
The wind blew again.
And in his crib, Hirito slowly opened his eyes.
He didn't know why the trees whispered louder on nights like this, or why the wind carried so much energy, or why the silence vibrated with invisible threads.
End of the Chapter.