Third Hokage

The enormous pangolin thrashed about for several minutes before finally breathing its last amid the raging flames, leaving behind only a massive pangolin shell.

Besides that, Uchiha Feiyu, who had been watching from above, also gained something: the pangolin's soul.

Though the pangolin's soul was far inferior to Hatake Sakumo's, it possessed an exceptional earth-traveling technique. Not only would it be useful when he cultivated earth-nature Chakra in the future, it would be even more useful for escaping.

After all, even when most animals possessed Chakra, it was usually the attribute-less kind. Fewer than one in ten had an attribute, while those with pure attributes or even innate ninjutsu were one in a thousand.

Moreover, most innate ninjutsu were merely tricks like spraying water or spitting wind. A ninjutsu like earth-traveling, which was also highly useful to Uchiha Feiyu, was even rarer.

Only because he had been lucky on this mission had Uchiha Feiyu obtained a useful soul. Such opportunities could only be encountered, never sought.

Over the following month or so, although the entire team completed more than a dozen missions, things were mostly peaceful. At most, they acquired the souls of a few ordinary Chakra Animals.

However, over that month, Uchiha Feiyu's own strength also improved considerably.

Although he had obtained Hatake Sakumo's soul and learned the White Fang Sword Style, he still had major shortcomings in areas such as Chakra nature transformation and training his own muscle memory.

After all, he had only possessed Hatake Sakumo's soul for a few days. Even though he learned and improved rapidly through his possession ability, there was no way he could squeeze everything out of it in such a short time.

Over the past month, the White Fang Sword Style, which he had initially grasped only roughly, had gradually been absorbed into Uchiha Feiyu's muscle memory. His flexibility and transitions between moves had improved significantly.

His Lightning Release Chakra nature transformation had also advanced greatly. Both the power of his blade aura and his speed under Lightning Release stimulation had risen by a large margin.

Even his Chakra had increased considerably. This was not only due to the stimulation from Hatake Sakumo's soul, but also because Uchiha Feiyu now possessed the Two-Tomoe Sharingan. His bloodline fed back into his body, enhancing his talent as well.

The clearest sign was his sparring matches with Hizashi Hyuga during this period. Hizashi Hyuga found it increasingly difficult to hold back, and in the end, he plainly stated that he could no longer conduct full-power combat training without one of them getting hurt.

According to Hizashi Hyuga, Uchiha Feiyu might still have shortcomings in other areas, but in terms of pure battle power, he was already at the Jonin level.

Uchiha Feiyu's freakish rate of improvement also spurred on his two companions. Unfortunately, no matter how diligently Asuma and Kurenai trained, their progress compared to Uchiha Feiyu, who was practically cheating, was like a turtle crawling.

In more than a month, the two had only gone through some real combat against Chakra Animals, seen a little blood, and gained some battle experience. Their strength, however, had not improved in any fundamental way.

One day, after completing a mission, Uchiha Feiyu once again came to the Death Forest to train. The moment he reached the training ground they had cleared in the depths of the Death Forest, he was slightly startled.

The training ground inside the Death Forest was really just an open patch of land he and Kakashi had made by cutting down some trees. It naturally could not compare to a proper training ground, but it had not cost them anything, either.

At that moment, Kakashi, with his silver hair, stood respectfully before a short old man in the center of the training ground. That short old man was none other than the Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen.

"Why does Lord Hokage have time to come here? You're not here to hold us accountable for damaging the Death Forest, are you? I don't have any money to compensate for it!"

Uchiha Feiyu put on a somewhat trembling expression, making Kakashi, who had already come to understand a little of his true nature, secretly roll his eyes. The Third Hokage's expression also froze slightly at those words before he shook his head.

"I did not come here today to hold you accountable for the damage to the Death Forest... Though you should still do less of this sort of thing in the future."

The Third Hokage stroked his chin and spoke with a smile.

That was merely something to say. As wielders of supernatural power, as long as ninjas were even slightly strong, eight out of ten would establish secret bases of some kind. The ground beneath all of Konoha was probably already half hollowed out.

The little thing Kakashi and Uchiha Feiyu had done would never have alarmed the Third Hokage. He had not come for that at all.

In fact, Kakashi might have been too young to think much of it, but the moment Uchiha Feiyu saw the Third Hokage, he had already guessed why he had come—nothing more than to win over the two youngest geniuses in Konoha.

Neither Hizashi Hyuga nor Asuma would have kept Uchiha Feiyu's performance in Team 1 from the Third Hokage.

He was only fourteen now, yet he already possessed standard Jonin-level combat strength. Kakashi was only eight or nine, yet he had once defeated Kondo Kunihiko, a Special Jonin. No matter how one looked at it, the two would at least become Quasi-Kage Level powerhouses in the future.

For promising talents like these, the Third Hokage would certainly make an effort to win them over and bring them under his command. That had always been the style of the Third Hokage's faction.

"As long as I don't have to pay, it's fine. I'm really poor right now. All my savings combined don't even add up to a hundred thousand ryo."

Uchiha Feiyu patted his chest and looked as though he had breathed a sigh of relief, making the Third Hokage choke for a moment.

"Is your life so difficult? That is a failing on the part of us senior officials. In the future, we will provide greater subsidies to orphaned students at the Ninja Academy."

Although Uchiha Feiyu understood the Third Hokage's intentions, he had no desire to draw closer to him.

First of all, he was an Uchiha. Even if he was an overlooked fringe member of the Uchiha Clan, it was difficult to say what the higher-ups might have in mind for him.

Second, this was the Third Shinobi World War. Once he joined a faction, he would probably be assigned some major mission and sent straight to the battlefield!

Not to mention that he would become a target, drawing who knew how many open schemes and hidden plots. He might even end up as cannon fodder.

Kakashi was living proof. He had first followed Namikaze Minato and spent time on the most dangerous battlefield of the Third Shinobi World War, then afterward caught Danzo's attention. He had only barely survived countless brushes with death.

"Subsidies and such don't matter. It's not like they'd be given to me anyway. Since Lord Hokage didn't come to hold us accountable, what did you come here for today?"

With a lazy smile on his face, Uchiha Feiyu asked. The Third Hokage smiled gently and looked at Uchiha Feiyu and Kakashi.

"I am deeply sorry about White Fang. Fortunately, he left behind the two of you as his successors. You are both the most outstanding geniuses in all of Konoha. If you have any troubles, you may tell me."