419-Anyone with two brain cells could it piece together

For a brief moment, Renjiro's mind went completely blank.

"…Ah."

Hiruzen's words echoed in his ears, the implications sinking into his bones like the chill of a winter morning.

'You could also make use of your summon.'

The words had been spoken so casually, yet they sent a sharp jolt through Renjiro's entire system. His thoughts momentarily ground to a halt as if his brain refused to process what had just been said.

How?

How did the Hokage know?

Renjiro had been meticulous—no, paranoid—about keeping his summon a closely guarded secret. It wasn't just for the sake of surprise in battle; it was a fundamental rule in the shinobi world.

Information was power.

The right knowledge could be the difference between victory and defeat, between survival and death.

If Jiraiya had revealed more about Pain before Konoha's destruction, the village could have mounted a better defence. If Orochimaru's experiments had been uncovered sooner, the Sannin's betrayal might have been prevented. The lesson was clear—secrets, when kept well, could tip the scales of fate.

Renjiro had taken that lesson to heart.

Very few knew about his summoning contract with the Lightning Eagles. His summons were his ace, a force that could turn the tide of battle when revealed at just the right moment.

So how?

His heart pounded once, hard before his rational mind wrestled control back.

His crimson Sharingan flickered subtly before he suppressed it, reining in the instinct to analyze every micro-expression on Hiruzen's face. Instead, he forced his muscles to relax, deliberately slowing his breath.

After a moment, he finally spoke, voice measured but edged with curiosity.

"…How?"

Then he caught himself and cleared his throat, forcing his expression into something more neutral before rephrasing the question.

"How did you find out, Hokage-sama?"

At his desk, Hiruzen Sarutobi did not immediately answer. His focus was still on the scroll before him.

Only after a long moment did the Hokage finally set his brush aside and lift his gaze, dark eyes studying Renjiro with that unreadable sharpness he had mastered over decades of leadership.

"Did you truly expect the village to believe," Hiruzen began, his voice calm yet firm, "that you escaped from Ay, the Raikage's son, and from within Kumogakure's grasp… out of nothing but sheer ability and luck?"

His tone remained neutral, but the underlying message was clear.

"Anyone with two brain cells could piece together that reverse summoning was involved."

Renjiro's expression remained impassive, but internally, his mind worked through the Hokage's logic.

It was a plausible deduction. His sudden escape, with no clear explanation, had raised eyebrows. Reverse summoning was a logical answer. But… something still felt off.

"…Technically," Renjiro said after a pause, a smirk tugging at the corner of his lips, "reverse summoning is a show of ability."

The look Hiruzen gave him made Renjiro immediately shut his mouth.

He had seen that look before—the one that said, Don't push your luck.

Clearing his throat, Renjiro forced himself to refocus. Even if the Hokage's reasoning was sound, how had he known what his summon was?

His eyes narrowed slightly as he considered his next words.

"If that's the case," Renjiro said, voice carefully even, "then how did you know my summon was able to fly?"

Hiruzen didn't even blink. Instead, he gave Renjiro a completely deadpan look and said, flatly,

"I didn't."

A moment of silence.

Renjiro's face darkened.

His mind replayed the conversation, and the realization hit him like a kunai to the skull.

He had just freely given that information away.

His fingers twitched, resisting the urge to slap his own forehead.

He had let his irritation get the better of him. In trying to probe for information, he had ended up revealing even more instead. It was a rookie mistake, one he normally would have never made.

'Calm down, Renjiro,' he told himself, inhaling slowly through his nose. 'It's fine. The situation is still salvageable.'

Even if Hiruzen now knew that his summon could fly, it wasn't the end of the world. The true extent of what his eagles were capable of was still unknown to most.

As long as he remained careful, his advantage wasn't completely compromised.

Hiruzen, meanwhile, seemed satisfied with whatever conclusion he had reached. With a small sigh, he picked up the scroll he had been working on and rolled it shut before retrieving another from a compartment in his desk.

Renjiro's sharp eyes tracked the movement, already analyzing the possibilities.

The Hokage then held out both scrolls toward him, signalling to one with a slight nod.

"It's here," he said simply. Then, shifting his gaze to the other scroll, he added, "And this—give it to the Mizukage as soon as possible."

Renjiro's eyes narrowed, his mind automatically running through the implications of those words.

Still, he didn't argue. He merely reached out and took both scrolls, tucking them away with practised ease.

Hiruzen studied him for another long moment before exhaling quietly.

"You're dismissed."

Renjiro inclined his head slightly. Then, in a burst of smoke, his form dispelled—revealing that he had never actually been there.

Hiruzen closed his eyes briefly, an odd mixture of frustration and reluctant amusement flickering across his face.

Sending a shadow clone to his mission briefing?

Even for Renjiro, that was pushing it.

After a moment, the Third Hokage let out a sigh, rubbing his temples.

This war was going to be a headache.

=====

The sky stretched endlessly around him, an infinite expanse of shifting white and silver, broken only by the occasional slivers of deep blue that peeked through the clouds. It was a world untouched by the struggles of the land below—a realm where only the wind reigned supreme.

Renjiro sat atop Uno feeling the power beneath him with every beat of the eagle's enormous wings. The wind roared past his ears, tugging at his clothes, his skin, and his very presence as if trying to rip him away from the back of the massive bird. But he remained steady adapting instinctively to every shift in Uno's flight.

His dark red locs thrashed wildly in the wind, some strands breaking free and whipping against his face. His sharp eyes—normally narrowed in sharp calculation—were wide and focused, taking in the vastness of the sky.

Clouds rolled past like shifting dunes of mist, obscuring the world below in thick, billowing blankets. Occasionally, the thin slivers of land became visible through the gaps in the clouds—a fleeting glimpse of forests, rivers, and villages that seemed so small from this height, their significance dwarfed by the enormity of the sky.

A deep, powerful flap of Uno's wings sent a tremor through the air, an invisible force that rippled through the clouds. The eagle's wingspan was vast, each individual feather edged with streaks of silver as if lightning itself had been trapped within its plumage. Every motion of Uno's wings was controlled, precise, and efficient—no energy wasted, no hesitation in its path.

Reaching down, Renjiro pressed a gloved hand against the bird's plumage, fingers sinking slightly into the thick, warm feathers. They were softer than one would expect from a beast built for speed and power, but there was an undeniable firmness beneath them, the kind of structure that allowed Uno to withstand the harshest of storms.

Uno let out a sharp, piercing cry, a sound that cut through the roaring wind and sent a vibration through Renjiro's chest.

Renjiro exhaled, his breath barely visible in the thin air.

"…Uno." His voice was steady despite the raging winds.

The eagle beneath him tilted its head slightly as if acknowledging him without needing to turn its gaze from its path.

"We can't keep the Mizukage waiting."

Uno responded with another sharp cry, the sound reverberating through the sky like the crack of thunder.

Then, with another powerful flap, the great eagle surged forward, piercing through the clouds with a speed that sent the wind shrieking past Renjiro's ears. The shift in velocity pressed him slightly downward against Uno's back, forcing him to adjust his balance as the scenery around them blurred.

=====

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