I Shadow You, Regret, Door—Bang!

Inside the Hokage Office Building, Hiruzen Sarutobi stood before the floor-to-ceiling window, watching Tsunade and her group approach the building.

Scrolls lay spread across the desk, filled with every detail of the intelligence on Indra, Mikoto, and the others' trip to the front lines.

"Even within the Uchiha Clan, those two are rare geniuses. It seems I made the right choice."

Hiruzen Sarutobi murmured to himself. He was greatly pleased with Indra and Mikoto's performance on the battlefield.

Unlike most Uchiha members, whose personalities tended toward extremity, the two were remarkably mild-tempered. At a glance, they were clearly talents who had inherited the Will of Fire!

With a little more cultivation from him, they would become the Uchiha the village needed.

Just as Hiruzen Sarutobi turned and sat down, the office doors opened. Danzo Shimura, his head and right eye wrapped in bandages, pushed the door open and entered.

"Hiruzen, why am I only getting the intelligence on Tsunade's two disciples now?" Danzo Shimura's expression was grim as he immediately demanded an explanation.

Hiruzen Sarutobi exhaled a puff of smoke and said calmly, "Danzo, there are some things you are not suited to receive too early."

Holding back his anger, Danzo let out a low growl. "I'll be blunt, Hiruzen. Those two Uchiha are perfectly suited to join Root. I can make them Hidden Leaf's sharpest swords!"

"They are not suited for Root, Danzo." Hiruzen Sarutobi dismissed Danzo's idea with a single sentence.

Danzo immediately grew anxious, shouting with a flushed face, "The Uchiha Clan needs to be restrained! Otherwise, those mad dogs will turn around and bite the village! Only Root's [darkness] can keep them firmly in hand!

"Hiruzen, have you forgotten what our teacher told us?

"Don't be so stubborn. You'll destroy the village!"

Bang!!!

"Enough, Danzo! I am the Hokage!" Hiruzen Sarutobi rose to his feet and slammed his palm onto the desk, cutting off Danzo's incessant ranting.

Danzo's face turned red from holding himself back, while the anger in his heart surged higher and higher.

During the First Shinobi World War, Ginkaku and Kinkaku had suddenly staged a coup during the alliance ceremony between the Raikage and Hokage, then pursued them relentlessly.

Back then, he had merely been one step slower than Hiruzen Sarutobi in volunteering to serve as bait. Yet that old monkey had been appointed Hokage by their teacher, Tobirama Senju.

If not for that incident, with his talent and ability, he would never have lost to Hiruzen Sarutobi.

But no matter how Danzo argued with himself inwardly, Hiruzen Sarutobi was still the one sitting in the seat of the Third Hokage.

"Hmph. You'll regret this, Hiruzen!"

Danzo snorted through gritted teeth and slammed the door behind him as he left.

Bang—!

Tsunade, who was bringing Indra and Mikoto over, ran straight into Danzo.

Danzo shot Tsunade a vicious glare, then left without so much as a glance at Indra or Mikoto.

"Why does that old bastard look like his parents just died? What's he glaring at me for?" Tsunade was baffled, but she did not dwell on it.

Danzo's expression was usually dark enough already. Who knew what that old bastard was thinking about?

Pushing the door open, Tsunade called out warmly, "Third Hokage, I'm back!"

Hiruzen Sarutobi, seated behind his desk, immediately put away the bearing of a legendary shinobi and smiled.

"Welcome back, Tsunade." After responding, Hiruzen Sarutobi looked at Indra and Mikoto with a kindly expression.

The two immediately spoke in unison. "Lord Hokage!"

Their respectful attitude made Hiruzen Sarutobi smile even more broadly.

"Indra, Mikoto, I have seen all of your contributions. You both performed excellently in your mission."

After speaking, Hiruzen Sarutobi took two bags filled with money from a drawer. "Each bag contains two hundred and fifty thousand ryo. This is your payment for the mission. Take them."

"I'd brave ten thousand deaths for you, Lord Hokage!" Indra shouted excitedly as he immediately took the money bag.

Tsunade looked at him with disdain and muttered, "It's not like you haven't won that much while gambling with me."

"Is gambling money the same as money I earned with my own hands?" Indra shot Tsunade a glare.

Because of what had happened in last night's dream, Indra felt irritated whenever he looked at Tsunade now.

Even Hiruzen Sarutobi was amused by the way the master and disciple bickered.

After accepting her money bag, Mikoto carefully tugged on Indra's sleeve. She felt that they should not act so recklessly before the Third Hokage!

"Enough, you two. Seeing how close you are as master and disciple puts my mind at ease."

Hiruzen Sarutobi spoke up, easing the tension between them before taking the initiative to say, "Indra, Mikoto, this battle has also shown me the talents you possess.

"I intend to have you join the ANBU for a period of training. Are you willing?"

Indra was startled upon hearing this. Hidden Leaf's ANBU was a special unit established by the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, and directly commanded by the Hokage.

Hiruzen Sarutobi was clearly intending to cultivate the two of them.

Indra immediately replied in a clear voice, "Lord Hokage, I have no objections!"

Seeing this, Mikoto immediately chimed in, "Lord Hokage, I'm willing as well."

She did not know much about the ANBU, but since Indra had agreed, Mikoto went along with it.

Heh, this kid was really sharp.

But Hiruzen Sarutobi liked Indra's attitude!

Chuckling happily, Hiruzen Sarutobi then took several forms from a drawer.

"The nature of ANBU missions is confidential. You only need to sign a codename on these forms. As for what codename to use, come up with one yourselves."

After thinking it over, Indra wrote "Dragon" as his codename, while Mikoto wrote "Cat."

After signing the forms, the two found a resource list beneath them, which included a large number of B-rank and A-rank ninjutsu, secret medicines, ninja tools, and more.

"Lord Hokage, this is..." Indra looked at Hiruzen Sarutobi in confusion.

Taking a puff of his pipe, Hiruzen Sarutobi said seriously, "These are rewards provided based on your contributions on the battlefield. You may choose any one item."

This was actually an old village tradition. Money was given openly, while resources were provided in secret.

Quite a few civilian ninja in the village had been cultivated this way. Otherwise, money alone would not have been enough to improve their strength.

However, Indra and Mikoto's resource list was indeed much better than the usual ones.

After all, they were talents he intended to cultivate, so Hiruzen Sarutobi was not stingy with such resources.

Indra eagerly browsed through the list and fixed his gaze on the ninjutsu section.

Aside from the secret techniques of the village's major clans, he actually saw an A-rank ninjutsu on the list: [Multiple Shadow Clone Technique].

Indra's eyes lit up, and he immediately chose that technique.

Seeing Indra exchange for it, Hiruzen Sarutobi frowned slightly.

"The Multiple Shadow Clone Technique was created by the Second Hokage. It consumes an enormous amount of chakra, and when the clones disappear, their experience, memories, fatigue, and even pain are all fed back to the original body.

"Generally speaking, this A-rank ninjutsu is not recommended for learning."

Hiruzen Sarutobi emphasized the warning, but Indra's gaze remained firm.

Seeing this, Hiruzen Sarutobi no longer insisted and solemnly warned, "Creating too many clones at once may cause you to die from chakra exhaustion.

"Moreover, if an excessive amount of memories and pain are fed back to the original body all at once, it can be unbearable and may even lead to death.

"So once you learn this ninjutsu, you must use it with great caution!"

When used normally, the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique had the same effect as the Shadow Clone Technique, except its upper limit was higher.

In fact, almost all the ninjutsu created by Tobirama Senju had been classified as forbidden techniques by the First Hokage.

After taking over the position of Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi had carefully selected quite a few ninjutsu to include on the list.

After all, most B-rank and A-rank ninjutsu were secret techniques of the major clans and could not be casually taught to civilian ninja.

To make the resource list's ninjutsu selection look a little more plentiful, Teacher Tobirama would just have to suffer a little. If he knew in the afterlife, he would surely forgive him.