Hiruzen's Satisfaction

In Konoha, inside the Hokage Building, in Sarutobi Hiruzen's office.

Bang—!

Shimura Danzō pushed the door open in a rush.

The Anbu guards nearby pretended not to see.

As regular guards here, they knew all too well about the relationship between Elder Danzō and Lord Hokage!

Hearing the commotion, Sarutobi Hiruzen calmly looked up.

He knew that without any announcement, the only person who would barge into his office was Danzō.

"Danzō? What's the matter? What has you in such a hurry?" When Danzō's anxious expression came into view, Sarutobi Hiruzen was immediately puzzled.

Other people might not understand Danzō, but how could he not?

Unless it was something important, Danzō would never look like this in front of him.

At Hiruzen's question, Danzō took a few deliberate deep breaths.

"Hiruzen, I'm sure you know what Kirigakure has been up to."

Hiruzen was even more puzzled. "We already discussed that. What else is there?"

"There's a serious problem, Hiruzen!" Danzō's expression turned solemn as he stared intently into Hiruzen's eyes. "We don't have enough commanders. We need to station sufficient forces along the coast to defend against Kirigakure."

Then Danzō took the map hanging on the wall and laid it on Hiruzen's desk.

He pointed to the Land of Fire's long, narrow coastline. "Because of the coastline... we need a force that's not only strong, but also highly mobile."

"What do you suggest?" Hiruzen was just as troubled by the situation.

Some time ago, Sunagakure had declared war.

Iwagakure had responded by sending troops straight to the border, as if ready to strike at any moment.

Kirigakure, too, had somehow started acting as though it was about to make trouble.

Aside from himself, the village had only three capable commanders at present.

That was right—his students.

Orochimaru, Jiraiya, and Tsunade.

But there was a problem...

Because of her Hemophobia, Tsunade could only command the medical corps from the rear.

Orochimaru had to confront Sunagakure.

As for Jiraiya, it went without saying that he also had to take a force to the border to guard against Iwagakure.

He truly had no idea what to do about Kirigakure.

He had a contingency plan in mind.

If the fighting grew intense, he intended to send the Uchiha straight to the battlefield.

As for Teacher Tobirama's long-standing policy of keeping the Uchiha confined to the Military Police Force, that would have to give way to the war!

"Deploy the Uchiha! They've been resting and building up their strength for years. It's time they did something useful."

"Given the length of the coastline, that student of Minato's, Uchiha Yuzhen, must be sent there. He has the Flying Thunder God."

At last, Danzō revealed his true intentions.

He had already decided on the way over: he would directly propose sending Uchiha Yuzhen to defend against Kirigakure.

Hiruzen would almost certainly refuse.

So he would change tack and suggest sending the entire Uchiha clan into action.

And with the boy's special abilities, he would also be included in the mission.

Hiruzen would have nothing to say.

Besides, as Konoha's "second-in-command," he understood the village's predicament.

The Uchiha had been resting and building their strength for years. It was time to use up some of it.

Hearing Danzō's proposal, Hiruzen felt a deep sense of satisfaction.

Danzō truly was his closest "Bond," the Root that had become darkness and supported him from behind the scenes.

At that moment, Hiruzen decided that from then on, he would not let Danzō down either. As long as Danzō did not do anything too outrageous, Hiruzen would tolerate even an attempt on his life—anything short of outright treason.

"Excellent. We'll do it."

In high spirits, Hiruzen readily approved Danzō's recommendation.

Uchiha Yuzhen had been having a wonderful time lately.

His training was going smoothly, and his strength was visibly increasing.

It all put him in a fantastic mood.

That day, he set off in high spirits.

He was heading to the Training Ground where he had arranged to meet Team Minato.

According to Namikaze Minato's plan, they would train together from then on.

As he left the clan grounds, he thought about his shortcomings along the way.

There was no doubt about it: like Sasuke, he was an Uchiha who specialized in ninjutsu.

His Genjutsu relied entirely on the Sharingan, and his Taijutsu was just good enough to get by.

But with his Affixes, he wasn't satisfied with that.

He wanted to develop all three areas—ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu.

His ninjutsu was good enough for now.

He also had plans for improving his genjutsu and taijutsu.

First, he wanted to improve his physique.

That made the purple Affix he had obtained from Might Guy, Steel Training, especially important.

After all, its effect was simple and direct.

The description was just one line: consistent training would improve his physique.

He was looking forward to it.

So he had ordered weights a few days earlier.

"Whew—it's tougher than I expected." Yuzhen ran all the way and, as he neared the Training Ground, couldn't help remarking, "Then again... Rock Lee trained for years before carrying five hundred jin. I started straight off with a thousand. It's only natural that I'm struggling."

He had run the entire way without using any chakra.

He had relied entirely on his physical strength.

His situation was also different from Rock Lee's.

He had a massive chakra reserve.

A large chakra reserve meant his physique couldn't possibly be weak.

If anything, it put him in the strong category.

That was exactly why he had decided to start out with a thousand jin of weights.

When he entered the Training Ground, Uchiha Yuzhen put those thoughts aside.

He greeted the two people who came into view. "Sorry... Kakashi, Rin. I think I'm a little late?"

"It's fine. I'm used to you Uchiha being late, and so is Rin," Kakashi said flatly, fixing Yuzhen with a lifeless stare.

Rin Nohara smiled reassuringly. "Don't say that, Kakashi. Yuzhen-kun got here on time. The only one who's always late is Obito."

As luck would have it, speak of the devil—and he appeared.

Rin had barely mentioned Obito when he came hurrying over, wearing his goggles.

"Ha... ha... ha... ha!" Uchiha Obito braced his hands on his knees and took a few deep breaths.

Once his breathing had steadied, he looked up and apologized to the three of them. "Sorry. I helped an old lady get home, and it took a little longer than I expected."

Hearing that, the three of them couldn't very well say anything.

If anyone else had said it, it might have been an excuse.

But when Obito said it, he had really done it.

As teammates, they skipped the small talk.

They got straight to training.

They had barely been training for a short while when Kakashi stopped.

He walked over to Yuzhen, who seemed to be warming up, and asked in a serious tone, "You're wearing weights?"

"Whew... yeah, I'm wearing weights to improve my Taijutsu," Uchiha Yuzhen replied, exhaling.

"Training in Taijutsu with weights..." Kakashi advised him, "You can't just start using weights without guidance. I suggest you ask Guy about it."

Yuzhen nodded to show he understood Kakashi's advice.

Kakashi didn't know what made him special, after all.

With his Affixes,

he had discovered something unusual while training his Taijutsu.

The Affix's effect—"consistent training will improve your physique"—was actually immediate. Even a single second of training brought results!

Even over this short time, he could already feel himself starting to adapt to the thousand-jin weights.

At the very least, they didn't feel as difficult as they had when he first put them on that morning.

Still, Kakashi's advice gave him an idea.

Since his Affix ability was so extraordinary,

should he learn some...

professional knowledge about the body, so he could get the most out of it?

A thought suddenly surfaced in Yuzhen's mind.