“How many times do I have to tell you to use the gates instead of the windows?” Hiruzen sighed.

  With Hiruzen’s casual tone and finally seeing the intruder, the Anbu Guard ptoon of the Hokage took a sigh of relief.

  “What’s the fun in that? This way, we check whether these guys are taking their job seriously or not,” the intruder said, lifting the hat from his face, revealing a cheeky grin.

  “You guys leave now,” Hiruzen said, taking out his smoke pipe from his drawer.

  Upon receiving the orders from the Hokage, the Anbu ninjas suddenly disappeared from the office, but Jiraiya followed their movement with his eyes.

  This simple move was a testament to Jiraiya’s strength. Following the movement of a ninja using the Body Flicker Jutsu was not an easy feat. One could only predict the point they would appear, but once you reach a certain stage, it bees easy to sehe fluctuation of chakra caused by using this jutsu.

  “So, care to expin why you took 4 weeks to return to the vilge when you pleted your mission in 1 week?” Hiruzen asked.

  “Because the mission had aimated time expectation of 2 months for pletion, and I still have 1 more month,” Jiraiya replied, pig his ear.

  “That was the estimated time for others, not you. How do you always find such creative excuses anyway?” Hiruzen asked, taking a puff from his smoke pipe.

  “This is the talent that helped me bee the best author in the world—known as creativity,” Jiraiya replied.

  “Okay…” Hiruzen responded, causing a chill to run down Jiraiya’s spine due to the tone as he tinued, “Use that talent of yours one more time, and I’ll make sure you bee the Hokage no matter what… even if I have to break ys to keep you from running away.”

  “I’m sorry! I won’t do it again, Sensei,” Jiraiya replied, straightening up like aary school student.

  “Here,” Hiruzen said, handing a file to Jiraiya.

  “If you called me here for a mission, it’s such a waste. You could’ve just sent the file to me…” Jiraiya was saying as he opehe file. But as soon as he read the first page, his joyful demeanor vanished, repced by the proper demeanor of the sed-stro ninja in Konoha.

  “This is madness, Sensei. We are still not strong enough to take on other ninja vilges,” Jiraiya said.

  “tinue reading,” Hiruzen said casually, enjoying his leisure time while smoking.

  Jiraiya resumed reading. There were many things in that file, even some reports he had sent were present. Those reports alone didn’t have much value, but bihey created a much bigger picture of what was happening around the entire ninja world.

  “Everyone is too busy to do anything against us at the moment, and those who aren’t busy will be soon. That’s why we’re pnning to go ahead with this pn,” Hiruzen said.

  “You’re pnning to initiate a war between two small vilges just for this?” Jiraiya asked, looking at Hiruzen as if he were seeing his true face for the first time.

  “I’m not starting that war, brat. That war is iable. I’m just pushing it forward by a month and pnning to save various orphans. If this war was going to happen no matter what, what’s wrong with getting some be out of it?” Hiruzen asked.

  “But that’s not how Konoha does things,” Jiraiya said.

  “No, that’s how I didn’t do things. When Danzo was alive, it was his role to handle such matters. But now that he’s gone, I’ve taken on that role,” Hiruzen said, taking a deep puff of smoke.

  “Don’t be too hard on yourself, Sensei. It wasn’t your fault; there was nothing you could have done,” Jiraiya said, fully uanding the weight of losing a friend who had faced tless life-ah situations with you. For a sed, Orochimaru’s image fshed in his mind.

  “Let’s leave that topic aside. You uand your role, right?” Hiruzen asked, regaining his serious demeanor.

  “Being a sensei of three again, how nostalgic. Well, if these are your orders, there’s nothing I do other than follow them,” Jiraiya said.

  “If you’re ready to hahis, you’ll be training one of the ninjas yourself. Itachi is going to be trained by Fugaku, so you choose betweeher two,” Hiruzen said, passing two more files to Jiraiya.

  Jiraiya took the files and skimmed through them.

  “One is a medical prodigy rivaling Tsunade, having in-level strength only because he rained seriously, but still powerful enough to handle Jonin one-on-one due to his exceptional medical knowledge. The other is a bination of the best s of Konoha, possessing both the Senju ’s body and the Uchiha’s Sharingan, and 3-tomoe Sharingan at that, along with an S-rank jutsu… Mitotic Regeion Jutsu? Sehis brat is almost a Kage-level ninja,” Jiraiya said, pointing to Kaida’s file.

  “Yes, he’s worked really hard for this aly learhe Mitotic Regeion Jutsu. He’s still not profit in it, and the version he learned is inferior to the osunade uses. She didn’t share that version with me, and I only have the inferior one. So, whie do you want to choose?” Hiruzen asked.

  “What about the other one I don’t choose?” Jiraiya asked.

  “I’ll handle him,” Hiruzen said.

  “Then I choose him,” Jiraiya said, pointing to one of the files with a big grin on his face.

  ---

  A little before 4 pm, Kaida ehe Hokage building.

  “Hey, I’m Kaida Uchiha. I was ordered to e here at 4 pm,” Kaida introduced himself to the new receptionist.

  “Yes, please wait in front of Lord Third’s office. He’s currently in a meeting and will call you as soon as he’s free,” the receptionist replied curtly. Kaida nodded aoward the Hokage’s office.

  He was about to sit in the chair in front of the office when he suddenly froze, seeing the face of the ninja sitting nearby.

  ‘Kabuto? What is this monstrous genius doing here?’ Kaida thought. Then his mind began w overtime, dedug that Kabuto should still be under Danzo’s and, and since Danzo was dead, Kabuto must now be under Hiruzen.

  ‘Now, this is a wele bonus from all that hard work,’ Kaida thought.