Shadow

# Chapter 18: Shadow

Haruno Sakura stepped onto the stairs leading to the Hokage's Office under the watchful eyes of the two gate-guarding ninja.

"How enviable..."

"It looks like an excellent ninja is about to appear in the village."

The ninja who had questioned Sakura earlier spoke with a gentle expression.

The scroll Sakura had shown him bore a special code that was quite advanced.

For someone so young to obtain a high-level technique from Hiruzen Sarutobi—the implications were obvious.

"Hmm? Isn't your son only two or three years older than this girl?"

His companion teased him with a sly grin.

The gate-guarding ninja's mouth twitched at the thought of his own troublesome son, and he replied with a face full of exasperation:

"Don't even mention it. That brat has been driving me crazy lately."

"He went and applied hair removal cream to the Inuzuka clan's ninja hounds."

"Now over a dozen of the Inuzuka dogs are completely bald, and they chase after the little monster every day, biting at him..."

Sakura arrived at the second floor of the Hokage Building and couldn't help but doubt whether she had truly reached Konoha's core institution, given the outdated decor around her.

It looked like it would leak water the moment it rained.

The Hokage's Office was easy to find—a sign reading "Hokage's Office" hung on the door.

The office door was slightly ajar. Sakura barely knocked before it swung open on its own.

"Is that Sakura?"

"Come in."

Hiruzen Sarutobi's voice, somewhat aged but still full of vigor, rang out.

Sakura pushed the door open. An old man clad in a red-and-white haori, wearing the Hokage's hat, sat at the desk directly facing the entrance.

"Hokage."

Sakura first offered a respectful bow and was about to produce the scroll when she saw Hiruzen Sarutobi rise and approach her with a gentle smile.

"No need to be so formal. Just call me Hokage Grandpa."

"Alright, Hokage Grandpa!"

Sakura seized the opportunity without a moment's hesitation.

"Hahahahaha. Sakura, what brings you to see me today?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi led Sakura to sit on a nearby sofa as he spoke with a chuckle.

He had originally assumed the child would seek him out within a day or two of his gifting her the scroll.

To his surprise, a full half-month had passed before she came knocking.

This piqued his curiosity. Could it be that the training for Monstrous Strength hadn't stumped her?

Sakura took out the scroll Hiruzen Sarutobi had given her, spread it flat on the tea table before them, and pointed to the final section regarding how to circulate Chakra efficiently and concisely within the body.

Hiruzen Sarutobi looked at the child before him in astonishment. She had skipped all the earlier training methods and only asked about the final Chakra circulation technique.

Could it be that she had already mastered Monstrous Strength in half a month?

Still, Hiruzen Sarutobi set aside his doubts and began explaining carefully to Haruno Sakura.

As the Ninjutsu Doctor, Hiruzen Sarutobi was proficient in all nature transformations and shape transformations of the Five Elemental Ninjutsu. On the battlefield, he had once been hailed as the Ninja Hero for his exquisitely precise ninjutsu and the Adamantine Staff of Enma and his monkey clan.

His understanding of techniques could be said to be outstanding even among the very peak of the shinobi world.

"And so, Sakura, you're still too young. Once you grow a little older and your Meridians become more robust, you'll be able to circulate Chakra more effectively within your body."

Hiruzen Sarutobi answered the child warmly, but he also voiced the doubt in his heart:

"Sakura, by asking this question, have you already learned Monstrous Strength?"

There was a hint of anticipation in Hiruzen Sarutobi's words. If she could master Monstrous Strength in half a month, that would truly be...

"That's right."

Sakura spoke as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

Then her pair of Emerald Eyes swept across the room, fixing their gaze on the set of unremarkable tea utensils on the table.

Before Hiruzen Sarutobi's shocked eyes, a pitch-black teacup was crushed between Sakura's fingers.

Hiruzen Sarutobi was momentarily speechless at the sight.

What was Monstrous Strength?

A signature technique created by Tsunade, with a training difficulty approaching S-rank. Among A-rank techniques, its difficulty was absolutely T0-tier.

And this child had done it in only half a month...

Back then, it was because I considered this child's strength, so reminiscent of Tsunade's, and her excellent fine control over chakra, that I gifted her the method for training in the Strange Strength technique.

I never expected it would actually give me such a pleasant surprise.

It's just a pity about my antique tea set.

Sakura, watching the silent Hiruzen Sarutobi, couldn't help tilting her head, thinking he might just feel that crushing a teacup was no big deal.

She then reached for the teapot, and with a 'crack,' the teapot was also ruined.

"St-stop!"

Hiruzen Sarutobi winced as he watched his antique teapot get destroyed in a moment of carelessness, but it was too late.

"Huh?"

"Lord Hokage, is there something I didn't do well?"

Sakura's gaze involuntarily fell on Hiruzen Sarutobi's desk, searching for something to test her strength on.

"No, good, very good."

"Sakura's excellence exceeds my expectations."

Hiruzen Sarutobi blocked Sakura's hunting gaze, feeling that if he were a step slower, who knew what this child might dismantle.

Just then, the office door was slid open with a whoosh, and an old man and an old woman appeared directly before Sakura and Hiruzen Sarutobi.

"Sarutobi..."

The old man, about the same age as Hiruzen Sarutobi, instinctively started speaking but noticed Sakura and abruptly stopped.

Seeing these two, Sakura roughly guessed why Hiruzen Sarutobi had known she was coming right away.

So no one else even knocks...

"Lord Hokage, if you have business to attend to, I'll take my leave..."

Sakura, seeing that these two seemingly half-dead elders—who could still bounce around for decades—Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado, had appeared, knew it was time to go.

"Sakura, wait, there's something I need to give you."

With that, Hiruzen Sarutobi ignored his two old friends, went back to his desk to rummage through something, then took out a scroll and handed it to Sakura.

"Go on. If you learn it, come find me again."

Hiruzen Sarutobi patted Sakura's head and spoke with a smile.

"Thank you, Lord Hokage!"

Seeing the old man pull out another scroll, Sakura's eyes lit up. She hugged the scroll and quickly vanished before the three elders.

Watching the pink-haired girl leave, Homura Mitokado couldn't help but look at Hiruzen Sarutobi with confusion:

"Monkey, who is that child?"

From the moment he entered, he had been observing Sakura. His old friend seemed especially patient with this child.

"The future of Konoha."

Hiruzen Sarutobi looked out the window with some emotion at Sakura Haruno, who was leaving the Hokage building.

"Isn't that an exaggeration, Sarutobi?"

Koharu Utatane beside him frowned slightly.

"No exaggeration. In this child, I see the shadows of Tsunade and Minato..."