Go Eat Barbecue

Hatake Sakumo watched the two children bicker, feeling rather pleased.

Kakashi had matured too early and usually did not act like a child his age.

Now that he had an opponent like Fang Xu, he seemed to have gained a little more youthful spirit.

That was not a bad thing.

He clapped his hands.

"Alright, that's enough sparring for today."

"Since Fang Xu has become my disciple, the Hatake Family has gained another student."

"Come on. I'll take you out for barbecue to celebrate."

Fang Xu's eyes immediately lit up.

"Barbecue?"

Lightning Body Tempering drained stamina, Taijutsu training drained stamina, and swordsmanship drained stamina too.

At the mention of barbecue, even his stomach seemed to react.

Kakashi glanced at him.

"You looked so composed just now."

Fang Xu was perfectly frank.

"Being composed doesn't conflict with eating meat."

Hatake Sakumo burst out laughing.

"Well said."

After packing up, the three left the riverbank and headed toward Konoha Shopping Street.

The setting sun painted the streets in warm hues, while the roadside shops gradually lit their lamps.

Walking beside Hatake Sakumo, Fang Xu was still processing the matter of becoming his disciple.

From today onward, he was no longer merely a Ninja Academy student being invested in by the Third Hokage.

He now also had Hatake Sakumo as his teacher.

He had someone to teach him swordsmanship.

And Kakashi, his opponent, could push him every day.

Most importantly, the risks around him had been reduced considerably.

Fang Xu knew very well that true strength was not forged in a single day.

Exchange Talent also needed time to cool down.

What he needed most right now was time to grow.

This connection with Hatake Sakumo had come at exactly the right moment.

When they reached an intersection, Hatake Sakumo did not slow down, but his peripheral vision discreetly swept toward the Hokage Building.

The feeling of being watched through a technique was faint.

An ordinary ninja might not have noticed it at all.

But he was Hatake Sakumo.

The instincts he had honed surviving on the battlefield were far more reliable than many ninjutsu.

The Telescope Technique.

Hatake Sakumo still wore a smile, but he felt somewhat displeased inside.

That kind of technique was downright improper. It should never have been developed in the first place.

Using it to spy on enemy intelligence was one thing, but using it to watch children and comrades in the village was uncomfortable no matter how one looked at it.

Especially when it was Hiruzen Sarutobi.

A dignified Hokage using a crystal ball to watch a child who had just become someone's disciple—what was that supposed to be?

Hatake Sakumo did not expose it. He merely withdrew his gaze and continued leading Fang Xu and Kakashi toward the barbecue restaurant.

Inside the Hokage's office.

The image within the crystal ball slowly faded away.

Hiruzen Sarutobi sat behind his desk with a slight furrow between his brows, wisps of smoke rising from his pipe.

He had seen it clearly just now.

Hatake Sakumo had accepted Fang Xu as his disciple.

That move had come too quickly.

So quickly that it had caught even him off guard.

Only last night, he had increased Fang Xu's survivor's pension and given him the Incomplete Cloud Lightning Body Tempering Technique.

His original plan had been to first bring the child into his sight, then gradually cultivate a bond.

Yet today, Hatake Sakumo had taken him in directly.

Hiruzen Sarutobi took a puff from his pipe, his expression remaining tense.

Hatake Sakumo had never been someone to underestimate.

The White Fang of the Leaf's reputation had been built upon the lives of his enemies.

He wore the Hokage's half-cloak and commanded the Anbu; he possessed prestige, strength, and seniority.

Many young ninjas in the village regarded him as a true hero.

Danzo had mentioned more than once that Sakumo's reputation was too great.

A force like the Anbu remaining in Sakumo's hands for too long was no minor matter.

Hiruzen Sarutobi had never fully taken those words to heart before.

He needed Sakumo, and Konoha needed Sakumo as well.

The Third Shinobi World War was on the verge of breaking out, with fresh intelligence arriving from the border every day.

Moving against Hatake Sakumo at a time like this would be like cutting off his own arm.

No matter how wary he was, he could not break this blade now.

But today's incident had deepened Hiruzen Sarutobi's wariness by another degree.

Fang Xu's potential was not low.

Lightning-Attribute Nintaijutsu, talent in swordsmanship, and a steady temperament.

If a child like that fully aligned himself with Hatake Sakumo, he would become far more than an ordinary disciple in the future.

Hiruzen Sarutobi set down his pipe, opened a drawer, and took out a file.

Fang Xu's name was written on the file cover.

He had already read through it once before.

This time, he examined it more carefully.

Father, Fang Naoto, deceased jonin.

Mother, also killed on a mission.

The first few pages were entirely ordinary.

Then, when he reached the section on ancestry, Hiruzen Sarutobi's hand stopped.

There was an inconspicuous entry in the old records.

Descendant of a Senju branch family.

The surname had been changed generations ago, and the family had integrated into Konoha's ordinary household system.

Hiruzen Sarutobi narrowed his eyes and flipped through several more pages.

The records were not complete.

After all, the Senju had voluntarily integrated into the village in its early years, and many branch families no longer used the Senju surname.

But the bloodline origin recorded in the file was already enough to explain everything.

Fang Xu was not an ordinary civilian. He was a descendant of the Senju.

Hiruzen Sarutobi lightly tapped the desktop.

No wonder Fang Xu's home had contained notes on swordsmanship.

Not everything the Senju had left behind in those days was necessarily out in the open.

The fact that this child had been able to teach himself the basics from a single set of notes might not have been due solely to his good comprehension. It might also have been related to certain foundations in his bloodline.

The furrow in Hiruzen Sarutobi's brow gradually eased somewhat.

If Fang Xu was a Senju descendant, then there was still room to turn things around.

Hatake Sakumo had indeed gotten ahead by taking him as a disciple first.

But there was someone in Konoha who possessed a natural appeal to Senju descendants.

Tsunade, the First Hokage's granddaughter.

The most influential surviving figure of the Senju.

And also his disciple.

Hiruzen Sarutobi looked at the name in the file and quickly made his decision.

Since Fang Xu had Senju blood, he would have Tsunade approach him and, ideally, take the child as her disciple as well. Even if Fang Xu had already become Sakumo's disciple, his blood relationship with the Senju would be enough to draw him under Hiruzen Sarutobi's banner.

In the Hokage's office, Hiruzen Sarutobi pushed a file across the desk.

Across from him, Tsunade stood with her arms crossed, her face full of impatience.

"Old man, you specifically called me back just to have me take a disciple?"

She gave a derisive snort.

"Forget it. I'm not interested."

Hiruzen Sarutobi was not surprised. With his pipe between his teeth, he said, "Don't be so quick to refuse. Look at the information first."

Tsunade did not even touch it.

"I said I'm not taking one."

Her tone was firm.

"I've had enough of all this infighting in the village. You, Danzo, and those elders—whoever wants to win over whom, whoever wants to cultivate whom—leave me out of it."

Hiruzen Sarutobi sighed softly.

"Tsunade, he's only a child."

"That's even more reason he shouldn't be watched by people like you."

Tsunade raised her eyes to him, her voice growing colder.

"I was already planning to leave the village for a while to clear my head, and now you want me to take a disciple? Old man, are you worried I won't leave decisively enough?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi fell silent for a moment, then pushed the file another inch forward.

"Fang Xu, six years old, a Ninja Academy student."

"Both parents died on missions. His home contains old belongings from the Senju line."

"According to the records, he is a descendant of a Senju branch family."

Tsunade's fingers paused.

Her face had originally been filled with impatience, but upon hearing the word "Senju," her gaze still fell upon the file.