Black Rat

At the Hokage's Office Building, Umino Iruka was here again.

He wasn't idle; Konoha was simply like this. No matter how trivial the matter, the village head had to be informed.

Even if Old Wang at the village entrance lost a sheep, it had to be reported to the Hokage!

It was like calling the mayor's hotline over an ordinary street brawl and asking the mayor to handle it.

"Recently, Kakashi has been doing well. He doesn't seem to have been affected by the villagers' gossip. As for Uchiha Obito of the Uchiha Clan, he hasn't shown much talent in his studies." Umino Iruka read out the recent performance of several people the Third Hokage was closely watching.

"Is that so?" The Third Hokage nodded.

Konoha Ninja were divided into two systems: clan ninja and registered ninja. Clan ninja were trained and managed by their clans and did not submit to the ninja village's administration. They were essentially the private troops of the major clans.

There were an enormous number of such ninja, accounting for nearly sixty percent of the village's ninja resources.

And that was only what was out in the open. No one knew how many ninja the various clans had hidden away.

When dealing with these uncontrollable ninja, the Third Hokage generally used war to force them into sending troops. After all, if the village fell, the clans would naturally perish as well.

As for registered ninja, they were clan members sent to the Hokage as a gesture of goodwill. These ninja were not handed over directly; instead, they went through the Ninja Academy process and were naturally registered after graduation.

Some clans were clever, sending only peripheral members or outright dead weight. Those people were eyesores within the clan anyway, so they might as well be thrown to the Hokage and made his problem.

Obito was a typical example. With that learning speed and that talent, how did he look like an Uchiha?

Other clans supported the Hokage and sent their core descendants to the Ninja Academy. Typical examples were the Ino-Shika-Cho Clan and Hatake Kakashi.

Whenever he thought about the Uchiha Clan tossing such useless baggage at him, the Third Hokage felt waves of anger rise within him. Yet he couldn't do anything to the Uchiha Clan. In the future, he would even have to assign Uchiha Obito a decent Jonin squad leader to demonstrate how much he, the Hokage, valued clan ninja.

He didn't know the saying about buying a thousand miles horse's bones, but his approach was much the same.

Of course, he would not rely entirely on clan ninja. On the contrary, in order to prevent the clans from becoming too powerful and undermining the Hokage's rule over the village, he had to suppress them.

To contend with clan ninja, aside from supporting clan ninja loyal to himself, the more important thing was the vast number of Civilian Ninja, among whom the occasional genius could emerge.

He was not like the Second Hokage. Senju Tobirama possessed immense strength and tremendous prestige, so he naturally had no need to struggle against those clan ninja. All the disciples he accepted were clan ninja—whether someone had a surname was enough to distinguish whether they had a clan.

Sarutobi Hiruzen needed the support of Civilian Ninja, so aside from Tsunade, his other two disciples were both civilians.

After those two disciples, the only Civilian Ninja to rise to prominence had been Namikaze Minato. Though still young, Namikaze Minato was powerful and a perfect inheritor of the Will of Fire. He was an exceptionally ideal successor in Sarutobi Hiruzen's eyes.

And recently, he had noticed another Civilian Ninja: Kamiya Keiyun.

He was similarly talented, and especially fond of the Will of Fire.

"How has Kamiya Keiyun been performing?" As Sarutobi Hiruzen listened, he suddenly realized Umino Iruka had stopped.

Wasn't there still one more?

"Kamiya Keiyun's recent performance has not been very good. He sleeps in class, runs off extremely fast after class, and never trains at the training ground behind the academy." Umino Iruka hesitated, but still told the truth.

"How could this be?" Sarutobi Hiruzen frowned. The light he had seen in that boy's eyes when he delivered the books had not been fake!

Hadn't he said he wanted to protect Konoha? Could sleeping in class protect Konoha?

"You may leave first." Sarutobi Hiruzen waved a hand.

"Yes." Umino Iruka nodded, then turned and left.

Sarutobi Hiruzen tapped his pipe and recalled the boy's gaze from a few days ago—that purity, that wildness, that yearning.

He believed he had not misjudged him.

So where had things gone wrong?

He looked up at the time. It was half past seven in the evening.

At this hour, ordinary children would already be asleep. But children who studied diligently should still be training.

Could he have slept during the day because he trained at night?

Sarutobi Hiruzen considered it, then simply opened the crystal ball.

He looked toward the Kamiya Family first.

The crystal ball could not show him anywhere he wanted. It relied on Konoha's barrier to exist. The entire barrier was essentially one giant camera; only places visible to the barrier could be reflected in the crystal ball.

Thus, it could observe every open-air location in Konoha. It could also observe certain indoor places where barriers had been set up.

Such as the Ninja Academy.

Naturally, there was no barrier inside the Kamiya Family home, so Sarutobi Hiruzen could only see the roof, followed by the empty front and back yards.

"He isn't training?" Sarutobi Hiruzen frowned. For Ninja Academy students, the first choice for training was the academy's backyard, followed by their own homes.

As for the numbered Training Grounds, they were enclosed with wire fences and guarded by ninja for the villagers' safety. Only official ninja could enter.

So if Kamiya Keiyun was neither at the academy nor training in his yard, there was only one conclusion.

He had gone to sleep.

As for training indoors, that was even less likely. Civilian students could only train Taijutsu and the Three Body Technique. The academy had not even taught them Shuriken or kunai practice yet.

The Three Body Technique consumed Chakra and could only be practiced a few times. And with such a small indoor space, it could not accommodate a ninja practicing Taijutsu.

"Alas." Sarutobi Hiruzen shook his head, feeling somewhat regretful.

He had seen many examples of geniuses wasting their talent. Judging by his performance in Chakra extraction, if he had continued working hard, he might have achieved something in the future.

But he didn't know how to work hard and squandered his time.

In the end, he would die on the battlefield.

All one could do was call it a pity.

Sarutobi Hiruzen certainly would not go out of his way to persuade him. There were simply too many cases like this.

Besides, ninjutsu training required initiative. If someone didn't want to become stronger and disliked being tired, dirty, or in pain, what could anyone do?

Other ninja were not his parents and would not be responsible for his future. Whether he could awaken to that realization depended only on himself.

"Hm?" Just as Sarutobi Hiruzen was about to change locations and relax, he suddenly found Kamiya Keiyun in a corner.

"Wait, what is he doing?" Sarutobi Hiruzen thought he had made a mistake. Had this child not been training in the yard, but gone farther away?

But when he looked again, his face immediately darkened.

The child was crouching in a corner, actually... catching rats?

Hmph. I shouldn't have expected anything from him!

Sarutobi Hiruzen decisively switched to the bathhouse view. What else could a child catching rats be doing? He was definitely playing. Could he possibly be training?

"Someone's watching me again?" Kamiya Keiyun sensed a feeling of being watched, but it vanished in an instant.

"Probably just passing by." Kamiya Keiyun frowned, unsure whether the Third Hokage had seen him catching the rat.

"Looks like this rat can't appear again in the future. At the very least, I can't let anyone know it has anything to do with me!" Kamiya Keiyun looked at the rat in his hand. Ordinary rats had gray fur, commonly known as brown rats and house mice, but the one in Kamiya Keiyun's hand was black.

Its fur was as smooth as satin, and its tail was longer than its body. It was a little dirty, perhaps because it had been crawling through grain stores, but it was extremely good-looking. If washed, it should be quite beautiful.

Kamiya Keiyun recognized this kind of rat as well. Its scientific name was the Roof Rat, a species that mainly lived in houses. It could swim, was skilled at climbing, and liked following familiar routes. It was found throughout Huaxia and truly was a good neighbor to the people of Huaxia. Kamiya Keiyun had often encountered them in the school warehouse where improved seeds were stored, and the two sides had battled wits many times. Seeing one now in the Naruto World naturally felt incredibly familiar.

"I won't be picky. You'll do!" Kamiya Keiyun brought the Black Rat home. The moment he entered, he heard two screams.

"Ah, a rat!" The terrified scream came from Sanyō.

"Ah, Keiyun, is this a reward for me?" The excited scream came from Ruri.

Kamiya Keiyun's face darkened. "Don't mess around. If you want to eat rats, catch one yourself. And you, Sister—you're already a ninja, yet you're afraid of rats? Besides, don't you think this rat is cute?"

"Cute?" Sanyō blinked and looked at the bewildered rat in Kamiya Keiyun's hand. It did seem rather cute.

"Why did you catch a rat?" Sanyō asked.

"Same reason as Ruri," Kamiya Keiyun said. "To help us!"

This world was not his previous life. Recruiting employees was not popular, and neither was forming gangs. If Kamiya Keiyun wanted subordinates, he could only cultivate them himself.

Come to think of it, loyalty was a problem. Cats were probably fine, but were rats loyal creatures?