You Must Compensate Me! [Seeking Collections and Flowers]

The Third Hokage finished speaking, waved his hand, and left directly. His plans had been disrupted because of Hikaru, and now he needed to redraw the training plans for the four of them—Hikaru, Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru—especially Hikaru!!

The Third Hokage believed that with careful training, in just a few years, Hikaru could become a pillar of Konoha. He trusted Hikaru could do it.

But some of the plans he had previously set needed to be revised and overturned.

"Follow Uchiha Hikaru. Don't let anyone disturb him, even if they're from the Uchiha Clan."

"Yes, Hokage Lord."

The Third Hokage left, but the Anbu remained. From today onward, Hikaru was basically their Key Focus, with a level of attention that might even surpass others.

Hikaru had awakened the Sharingan before he was even six years old. The Third Hokage couldn't afford not to take this seriously. If this news got out, it would surely cause an uproar—the Uchiha had produced a prodigy.

At six years old, even Madara Uchiha, known as the Asura of Slaughter within the Uchiha Clan, hadn't awakened the Sharingan. But Hikaru had.

"Uchiha Hikaru!!!"

As soon as the Third Hokage left, Tsunade, whose arm was slowly recovering, puffed out her cheeks in dissatisfaction, glared at Hikaru, and shouted, "I treated you like a friend, and you were hiding this so deep!!!"

"Yeah!! And making us watch you train—were you secretly trying to widen the gap in strength between us?!"

Jiraiya, his face flushed red and covered in scratches, chimed in as well.

Among the three, Jiraiya was the most injured. His face was full of tiny wounds. Though not severe, every movement made him wince in pain, and it would take days to recover.

Orochimaru frowned, staring hard at Hikaru, unable to believe that Hikaru had already awakened the Sharingan!!!

Moreover, his combat awareness and flexible use of taijutsu and ninjutsu exceeded Orochimaru's expectations. This was hard for the genius Orochimaru to accept.

"Cough, cough!!"

Hikaru really wanted to reach out and poke Tsunade's puffed-up cheeks, but he held back. He coughed and said helplessly, "A long time ago, I asked if you wanted to train together. But every time, you shook your heads and refused. You can't blame me for this."

Hikaru shrugged his shoulders and spread his palms helplessly.

"..." "..."

Tsunade and Jiraiya immediately lost their steam. Hikaru was right—before every training session, he specifically asked them if they wanted to join. Unfortunately, Tsunade and Jiraiya had never cared. Now jumping up to accuse him was indeed unreasonable.

You can't blame someone else for quietly getting stronger when you refused to train yourself!!!

"I didn't expect you to hide it so deep. But this is just the beginning, my captain."

This was only the second time Orochimaru had voluntarily spoken to Hikaru. The first time was when Hikaru deliberately shifted the blame onto Jiraiya.

"Captain..."

Tsunade and Jiraiya exchanged glances, finally realizing the issue.

Other squads only had three members. They had four!!

And the Third Hokage's actions essentially meant he was choosing someone to act as captain, leading the squad on missions. As the Hokage, he couldn't always be running around with them.

"Hmph!!! That Third Elder is really unfair. He must have known Hikaru's secret but just wouldn't tell us!!"

"It hurts like hell!!"

Tsunade was instantly annoyed. Rubbing her arm, she asked, "Hikaru, how did you come up with that? I've never seen any taijutsu technique counterattack like that in that kind of situation."

While defending, she still managed to land a vicious hit on herself. It hurt like crazy—she had thought her arm was done for.

Hikaru smiled faintly and explained, "In taijutsu training and combat, a lot of things are easy to overlook. I just took a few steps in that direction. The elbow, head, and knee are some of the hardest parts of the human body. Since the knee can deliver powerful strikes, why can't the head and elbow?"

"When your fist came at me, you either had to stop or crash into my elbow. That gave me enough time to counterattack, as long as I was faster than you."

This method was a bit dirty, but effective. Just look at Tsunade—one hit to the arm muscle, and it felt like her arm was useless. All sensation was gone.

"It feels like cheating... No way!! You have to make it up to me!!! I want grilled meat today!!!"

Tsunade propped her chin on her hand, thought for a moment, then suddenly shouted, demanding compensation with a look that said, "If you don't pay up, you'll regret it."

"Yeah!! Grilled meat!!!"

"Mm."

Jiraiya immediately agreed, and to Hikaru's surprise, even Orochimaru nodded and let out an "Mm," agreeing with Tsunade.

What the hell, what's wrong with this world...