Chapter XIV

The next morning, I woke up feeling uncertain about what to do with little Naruto. It was Monday, and school was starting as usual. Naruto was simply yawning and enjoying the sunlight shining in through the window, unaware of my dilemma.

I wondered if I should return him to the orphanage, but I wasn't sure if his situation had been resolved, and I didn't trust the orphanage to take good care of him. On the other hand, I couldn't skip school either.

Looking at my schedule, I groaned when I saw that my first class was Biology. I decided to skip it and spend my time finding a trustworthy caregiver for Naruto while I was away. After all, I didn't want to waste my prime hours taking care of a child.

After considering the situation, I arrived at a potential solution. Given the mistreatment Naruto received at the orphanage, I suspect that rumors may have circulated about his identity as the true fox container. As such, I decided to inscribe a simple seal and transformation Jutsu on Naruto's back. The Jutsu should last for an entire day until I dispel it.

The blonde-haired child vanished, replaced by a mop of brown hair. His whisker marks gradually transformed into red splotches typically seen in infants. With this transformation, no one should be able to recognize him.

I made sure to design the seal and transformation to be as inconspicuous as possible, with minimal chakra consumption. If someone with great chakra affinity were to inspect Naruto, the insignificant seals should be obscured by the immense amount of chakra he possesses. It's given since the seal's power is drawn from Naruto himself. Overall, this solution fulfilled its purpose well.

Naruto wasn't an early riser, and despite disturbing him multiple times during the walk to the market district, he was mostly asleep. Regardless, we quickly arrived at their destination - a nondescript building on the main road of the district. Upon entering, we were greeted by aisles of various goods and merchandise from outside the village.

The person I wished to speak with was a man in the middle of polishing one of his katana. He was primarily a blacksmith by passion and a merchant by trade. I didn't know who else to turn to, hence my reason for seeking out Magoroku Ojii-san.

"Magoroku Ojii-san," I called out from the side, attempting to raise my voice since the man was busy humming away in his own world. In the end, I had to tug on the man's shirt to get his attention.

"If it's Nobuyuki-kun, what do you need? If you're asking for Kousuke, he's already gone to school," Ojii-san said.

I shook my head, "It's not that," I said, choosing my words carefully. "I need a babysitter."

He tilted his head until his eyes fell on sleeping Naruto, who lay comfortably in his sling.

"Oh, I see. Who's this little cutie?" he asked.

I'd thought of an alibi. "He's a kid from the same orphanage, but due to various reasons, he ended up in my care for foreseeable future," I said, then added, "I can't take care of him at the moment due to the Academy, so if you can help me, Magoroku Ojii-san."

It was best to keep the explanation as abstract as possible while leaving out some details and truth. People tend to speculate and come to their own conclusions.

"How about you just entrust him to us? I'm sure my wife wouldn't mind," suggested Magoroku.

I questioned him, "Is that alright?"

"It's fine, it's fine." He affirmed, "You've been a great help for the past year. But in exchange, I want you to run some errands on the weekend. I promise it won't take you long," said Magoroku.

I considered it for a few moments. Errands would probably involve delivering letters and packages to some of Magoroku's associates.

I simply nodded, "That's fine by me."

In the end, I handed Naruto over to Magoroku Ojii-san. I trusted the man the most since, even as a merchant, he was someone who lived by his code, a man of principle so to speak.

After all, one couldn't be influential and have so many associates as a merchant without having integrity.

.

Class was as boring as it could possibly get. Kato-sensei's lectures were somewhat amusing ever since I'd found some of kids undergoing great stress whenever he shot them a look, but I found myself more focused on my Fuuinjutsu practice. Occasionally, I would listen in-between my practice, just to make sure I didn't miss any important information

Despite the tension that seemed to hang in the air whenever Kato-sensei was around, I didn't find him all that strict. As long as you could answer some of his questions, he seemed to not mind if you skipped class or studied a different topic altogether.

Yesterday, I had caught wind of some information from Haguro. I was always curious about the size of my chakra capacity, or rather, the lack of it. The fight against Itachi had made me realize just how wide the gap between us will be.

As soon as class was over, I reached under my desk and grabbed the brown packet that I had stashed there earlier. I looked around the corridor, trying to spot the older kid I wanted to talk to. Ah, Finally, I found him trying to push his way through the congested door from his class.

In the midst of the crowd, I grabbed his shoulder, and he turned around to see who it was. "We need to talk," I said, subtly showing him the brown packet.

As Haguro had predicted, he immediately showed interest. I couldn't help but smirk inwardly. I mean, it's no secret that the Hyuga clan is known for their curious eyes, but I never thought I would meet one like this. The rumors must be true, then.

"Follow me," he said, leading me to a hidden corner in the academy. It felt like we were about to make a forbidden transaction, which, in a way, we were.

"Do you have the goods?" he asked eagerly.

"Yeah, sure," I replied, peeling off one of the layers to reveal saucy images of hot Onee-san in risqué poses.

I had to blink as the guy practically drooled over the book. I suppose it's normal in a place where there's no public internet available. No phones, no internet, just some dudes exchanging saucy materials like in the good old times.

"Alright, what do you need?"

"Can you check the amount of chakra I have?" I said, getting straight to business.

I could see the veins around his pearly white eyes bulge slightly as he confirmed my request. "Your chakra is below average," he said with a frown. "In fact, it's the lowest I've seen in this academy so far."

It was within my suspicions, so I wasn't too shocked by the fact. I asked him another question, "What about my physical and spiritual energy?"

His eyes bulged even further, but thankfully he didn't ask for more materials in exchange for his answer. "It's odd. Your physical energy is normal for a kid our age, but the problem is your spiritual energy is too large. Though, I'm not sure what this is means."

I asked him to write down the specifics of my chakra reserves on paper, using comparisons to others he had seen to estimate the metric. While a ninja can generally gauge their chakra levels with experience, having an exact numerical value can be helpful.

"Thank you for your service, that's more than enough," I said as we parted ways, with him sneaking the incriminating brown package into his bag. The deal was done, and now I had more questions to ponder over.