Threat Level

A moment later, the cloaked man appeared at Satoru's last known location, letting out a wry smile.

"Swish—"

With a soft sound, a big-breasted... beautiful woman with her hair tied in a ponytail appeared beside the cloaked man.

Konoha Jonin, Tsunade.

"Haha... How about that, isn't this kid interesting?"

Tsunade patted the cloaked man's shoulder, letting out a hearty laugh:

"I actually won the bet this time! Give me the money!"

The cloaked man removed his hood, revealing a pale, handsome face.

Black hair, golden vertical pupils, and eyeshadow extending to the wings of his nose—Konoha Jonin, Orochimaru!

Orochimaru's handsome face held a hint of embarrassment. With his strength, to be outsmarted by a child not even nine years old...

"Fortunately, Jiraiya isn't here..."

Muttering to himself, Orochimaru smiled and took out his wallet, tossing it to Tsunade:

"I never expected a 'fat sheep' to actually win."

"Tch! Don't tell me you went easy on purpose!"

Pulling out the banknotes, Tsunade tossed the wallet back to Orochimaru. Winning money from Orochimaru gave her immense satisfaction:

"Ah, so comfortable!"

"Alright, I'll leave this kid Satoru to you—I'll explain things to Advisor Mitokado. Since I took your money, I have to see this through!"

"Fine..."

Orochimaru looked helplessly at the excited Tsunade, but couldn't help but remind her:

"Explain it properly, don't resort to violence."

"Oh my, am I the kind of person who resorts to violence at the slightest disagreement?"

Tsunade waved her hand dismissively:

"Relax, I'm leaving—You get ready for tomorrow's business. Nawaki is also your responsibility, you need to discipline him properly!"

"Don't hold back, train him well, just don't let him die—if he gets injured, I'm here!"

"..."

Tsunade disappeared with a "swish," leaving Orochimaru in thought:

"Hmm, no matter how I look at it, Tsunade doing this..."

"It's like she's given me a research assistant, and also research material..."

"But, which one is the research assistant, and which one is the research material... Hehehe..."

"I'm really looking forward to it..."

Meanwhile, Satoru, who had just run home and caught his breath, was also pondering the attack he had just experienced.

"The jutsu that guy used just now..."

Satoru flipped through the catalog of ninjutsu and genjutsu he had collected over the years, searching carefully.

Although he didn't have specific training methods, through his deliberate collection, Satoru had a general understanding of the names, ranks, and approximate effects of most mainstream Konoha ninjutsu and genjutsu.

This was an important part of his knowledge.

"Demonic Illusion: False Place Technique... Found it. It's not a very powerful genjutsu..."

Satoru clicked his tongue. If a Genin or Chunin had used it, it shouldn't have had such a strong effect, and maintained for so long!

"Next, Wind Release: Great Breakthrough... Although it's a C-rank jutsu, it's fundamentally for distraction and doesn't have much killing power..."

The attack he received was practically the power of a B-rank jutsu. If it weren't for the magic suppression weakening the effect of the jutsu, he wouldn't have broken free so easily.

Seeing this, Satoru had a good idea of what was going on.

The cloaked man who "attacked" him was definitely not a Chunin.

At the very least, he was a Special Jonin, but more likely a Jonin.

"Maybe even..."

Satoru couldn't help but recall the situation a while ago when he was being secretly watched by a mysterious person suspected to be Orochimaru.

And that deliberately hoarse voice.

"What the hell, this guy was so quiet all this time just to make me lower my guard and then attack me?!"

"But if it really was Orochimaru, there's no reason he would have let me escape so easily."

"So... someone is watching him, preventing him from going too far?"

Satoru's mind conjured the face of... Tsunade. He rubbed his nose fiercely:

"Hey! It's not over yet!"

"This time, all my trump cards are out except for the refrigerator... It's true, you can never have too many trump cards."

Satoru put away the Ninjutsu and Genjutsu catalog, spaced out for a moment, then pulled out his Summoning Technique research notes and continued his studies.

"No matter what Orochimaru is planning, given his status and mine, he can't act recklessly for now!"

"And if it's not Orochimaru, but someone else..."

The face of Mr. Pot King appeared in his mind, and Satoru frowned deeply;

"If it's that old geezer, then it means my father's endorsement has attracted his attention, and he wants to start with me to obtain the so-called 'family secret techniques'."

"If that's the case, then the subsequent practical training, exams, and battlefield deployments are all opportunities for him to make a move."

"No, I must develop the summoning scroll to a practical stage as soon as possible... As long as I can decipher this last formula, I can use The Book of Medivh to reconstruct it and convert it into a magic array!"

"This way, I can create magic scrolls!"

With disposable magic scrolls, Satoru's various methods would become more diverse, and the problem of excessively long casting times for some spells could also be solved.

Although the power was slightly reduced, it was all worth it.

"Besides... I still need to inform the old man about this matter. Regardless of the situation, the fact is that I was attacked in the village. If I can't beat them, won't I report it?!"

At dinner, Satoru dejectedly picked at his food.

Mitokado Homura across from him wore an unusually ingratiating smile: "Satoru, Dad gave them a good scolding. When Tsunade first told me about this, she didn't tell me they had already acted!"

"This is a good thing for you, so of course I agreed... and then Tsunade told me that Orochimaru had personally tested you!"

"Of course, this is simply outrageous. I insisted on punishing them at first, but after all, they are Third Hokage-sama's students, and Tsunade even brought up Lady Mito..."

What Mitokado Homura was talking about was clearly Satoru's "attack" during the day.

To Satoru's relief, it was indeed Tsunade and Orochimaru who caused this, and Mr. Pot King had nothing to do with it.

This lowered Satoru's risk factor by several levels.

The Lady Mito mentioned by his father was the wife of the First Hokage Hashirama Senju, the first Jinchuriki of the Nine-Tails who was still alive, and the grandmother of Tsunade and Nawaki – Mito Uzumaki.

Konoha's true matriarch.

Although Tsunade certainly wouldn't have informed her, since this crazy woman brought up this elder, coupled with the Third Hokage's influence, and more importantly, Satoru had actually made Orochimaru suffer a setback...

Mitokado Homura didn't have much resistance to his son being manipulated.

After all, Orochimaru was the most talented among the Third Hokage's three disciples. There was even talk that Hiruzen Sarutobi was grooming him to be the next Hokage.

Orochimaru had not been impressed by any of the previous academy graduates. His refusal to take students had drawn criticism from Hiruzen, Homura, Koharu, and even Danzō.

And now, he was actually planning to teach Satoru, which made Homura very interested.

Although Homura had originally wanted to introduce Satoru to another teacher... if it were Orochimaru, he possessed qualities that the other person lacked, which would be more beneficial for Satoru's future development.

Thus, Tsunade's proposal was accepted.