The Third Hokage Tests Akimichi Torifu

Yesterday, he went to a hot spring inn and ended up being beaten out by a group of women. They even reported him to the Hokage Office Building.

The day before yesterday, he deliberately tried to steal adult books from a bookstore and was caught red-handed.

The day before that...

The Third Hokage felt exhausted.

Once again, he was the one cleaning up the mess.

It seemed he needed to have a talk with Naruto.

This could not continue.

There was already enough trouble. The Third Hokage hoped Naruto could behave himself for a while.

As for whether Naruto had gotten close to Yan, the Third Hokage could no longer spare the attention for it.

In the restroom, Yan looked at his reflection in the mirror, picked up a towel, and wiped away the blood seeping from his eyes. The Sharingan's evolution had failed.

Yan did not know whether it was because he had not suffered enough intense stimulation.

Recently, he had always felt that his eyes had undergone major changes. His mental power had strengthened, his genjutsu had become much more powerful, and using the Sharingan consumed far less than before.

Although overusing the Three-Tomoe Sharingan and severely depleting its ocular power would not make him blind, the aftereffects of heavily drained ocular power and mental strength were still severe.

With the same Three-Tomoe Sharingan, Yan's ever-increasing ocular power and mental strength effectively extended his endurance. The power of all kinds of genjutsu had greatly increased, and even his perception had improved along with it.

As for its copying ability... better not mention it.

Aside from Kakashi, the Copy Ninja, almost no Uchiha ninja had become famous by relying on copying. That also showed how heavily the village was promoting Kakashi.

Without the village's support, based on merit alone, Kakashi would be doing well just to surpass Shisui.

"Good thing I'm an Uchiha. If a ninja from another clan had blood streaming from his eyes at every turn, he'd probably scare plenty of people to death."

After wiping the blood from his face, Yan gave a self-mocking smile.

He was somewhat regretful that the Sharingan had failed to evolve. Feeling disappointed was unavoidable.

Fortunately, Yan could keep the right mindset. It would be best if it evolved smoothly; if not, he would just continue developing steadily.

Others could awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan. There was no reason he, with his cheat ability, could not.

Otherwise, what the hell was the point of having this cheat ability?

Yan had barely returned to his office and sat down when someone forcefully shoved open the door.

"Captain."

After entering the office, Fū took out an encrypted scroll and handed it to him. It was the miniature kind, specially used to transmit intelligence.

Without being curious about where the scroll had come from, Fū asked, "Captain, do we need to send a reply?"

"No."

Yan opened the encrypted scroll and gestured for Fū to leave first.

"Oh, and don't kill the crow."

Other than Izumi, no one else on his squad had a particularly good relationship with Shisui.

The scroll had come from Shisui. Given Shisui's habits, he had definitely used a crow as the messenger.

Yan was therefore genuinely worried these guys might kill the crow.

Shisui was a good man, and a selfless one. You could curse him or humiliate him, but only as long as you did not touch his crows.

Otherwise, he would get very angry.

A killer whose dog was gone would go berserk outright. A ninja whose pet crow was gone would probably go completely mad.

"Uh..."

Fū halted and shot his captain an annoyed look. Am I that kind of person?

Although I hate the crow's owner, Captain, please do not lump me together with that big idiot Zhiyan.

"Hahaha..."

Having successfully teased Fū, Yan laughed as he checked the scroll's contents.

It had been some time since Shisui went to the Daimyo's Mansion. During that time, Shisui had only contacted Yan, reporting everything that happened at the Daimyo's Mansion to him.

He had bypassed both the Third Hokage and Fugaku to report directly to Yan.

So far, the transformation of this qualified employee was proceeding quite smoothly.

Yan believed that once Shisui grew accustomed to this working arrangement, he would gradually distance himself from the Third Hokage sooner or later.

"Heh, what a clever tactic."

After reading the contents, Yan smiled disdainfully.

The Daimyo was really playing a good hand, actually trying to poach someone from him.

If I were afraid of you poaching him, would I have dared send Shisui over there?

You're overthinking it.

"Still, those terms really are enough to make anyone jealous."

In order to win Shisui over, the Daimyo had even offered a marriage alliance.

Unfortunately, he did not know that Shisui was only interested in crows and Itachi. Beauties could only step aside.

Even though he was not using his own daughter as the bargaining chip, but merely his niece.

That alone showed how highly the Daimyo valued Shisui.

Apart from reporting that the Daimyo had offered all kinds of terms to recruit him, Shisui mostly described the mess at the Daimyo's Mansion.

For instance, after the ninja recruited by the Daimyo failed to win Shisui over, they began targeting him.

Kill them?

Forget it. They could not make a move, at least not personally.

They were merely a bunch of clowns. No matter what tricks they played, they could not do anything to Shisui.

Yan directly put the matter out of his mind.

As for reporting it to Fugaku... forget it!

He had recently been worn down badly by the Police Department's restructuring. Several elders had joined forces to show Fugaku what it meant to be disgustingly troublesome.

Yan was glad he had not attended that damned meeting. Otherwise, he feared he would not have been able to hold himself back from putting on another show of insubordination.

Night fell.

Konoha's thriving commerce kept it lively. The area around the commercial district was brightly lit, and crowds of people packed the streets.

Compared to the commercial district,

the Ino–Shika–Cho clan grounds, which had not moved for decades, seemed somewhat desolate. A few dim streetlights shone over the roadside.

"Delicious, so delicious."

Torifu, who had become completely round like a barrel, with slicked-back hair and a face full of beard, kept stuffing meat into his mouth. He had turned eating barbecue into the ravenous feast of a hungry demon.

The Third Hokage, sitting opposite Torifu, watched him eat with great relish and lost every bit of his appetite.

He had thought the barbecue smelled pretty good, but Torifu's eating manners had scared him off.

"Hiruzen, aren't you eating?"

Seeing that the Third Hokage had no intention of picking up his chopsticks, Torifu blinked his eyes, which had nearly become slits.

"..."

After several seconds of silence, the Third Hokage shook his head.

"Then that's great."

With a chuckle, Torifu grabbed the meat from the Third Hokage's plate and began wolfing it down, paying no mind to the grease and seasoning all over his hands.

The barbecue was enough to fill several adults, yet it only left Torifu half full.

"Burp~~~"

After letting out a satisfied burp, Torifu regretfully looked over the messy table, wiped his hands with a towel, and asked, "You came to see me because of Danzo and the Daimyo, right?"

Though he had long stopped involving himself in affairs, Akimichi Torifu still paid attention to major events in the village.

The Third Hokage was at the height of his headache over the matter, yet he had come knocking on Torifu's door. His intentions were obvious: Torifu had become a suspect.

"Torifu, I'm in a difficult position."

The Third Hokage sighed. "But everything is for the sake of the village. If we do not find the person who betrayed the village, the village may suffer even more serious consequences."

If they dared leak even Root's intelligence, what would they not dare to do?