As soon as Ning Feng finished speaking, the lead Anbu Ninja froze and frowned, completely failing to understand what Ning Feng meant. "What are you talking about, kid? I don't understand."
"Come on, let's go find Kakashi first!"
Before the Anbu Ninja could leave, Sarutobi Shinnosuke, the Anbu commander who had been sitting at the back of the office all along, suddenly spoke sharply. "Wait!"
Hearing this, the Anbu Ninja paused and was about to ask something, but Sarutobi Shinnosuke waved a hand, signaling that he could leave.
With no other choice, the latter obediently left.
Only Ning Feng and Sarutobi Shinnosuke remained in the office.
Others might not have understood what Ning Feng had just said, but Sarutobi Shinnosuke had caught the underlying meaning.
Namely, Ning Feng was not one of Minato Namikaze's men, nor was he a trusted subordinate Minato had planted in the Anbu.
Sarutobi Shinnosuke had originally worried that the arrival of Minato's man would affect his position, which was why his attitude had turned cold.
What he had not expected was that a child of only five could see through the overt and covert struggles between their Sarutobi Clan and Minato at a glance.
Someone with such insight was almost impossible to find these days, let alone someone so young!
"Your name is Uchiha Minato, right?! I never expected you to be so clever!"
As Sarutobi Shinnosuke said this, the corners of his mouth lifted into a smile. Then, as he continued speaking, he handed a Ninjutsu Scroll to Ning Feng. "I actually forgot earlier. Every Ninja who joins the Anbu receives benefits and allowances."
"This is your allowance for joining the Anbu. Welcome aboard!"
"Also, you'll be going on missions with your older brother from now on. That will be a little safer! And your captain will be Kakashi, who can help improve your strength quite a bit."
By this point, Sarutobi Shinnosuke was wearing a kindly smile, looking like an entirely different person from the icy-faced man of moments before.
"All right!"
Ning Feng took the Ninjutsu Scroll, turned, and left.
How could he not know that Sarutobi Shinnosuke was already thinking of winning him over? It simply was not yet time for him to put a substantial offer on the table.
In any case, after making an impression on Sarutobi Shinnosuke, Ning Feng followed the lead Anbu Ninja to where Kakashi was.
It was worth mentioning that, apart from the Anbu commander, who knew every Anbu member's identity, no one else knew their teammates' true identities.
Thus, when Ning Feng arrived before Kakashi wearing a mask, neither Kakashi nor Uchiha Itachi knew that the Ninja beside them was Uchiha Minato.
In addition, Ning Feng learned from the Anbu Ninja that the entire Anbu currently had only seventy-odd official members. These seventy-odd members were divided into squads of four, with each captain leading four squads, totaling seventeen people.
Even Danzo's Root was merely a branch of the Anbu. On the surface, it was under the Hokage's leadership, but in reality, it belonged to Danzo.
Although these seventy-odd people all took orders from the Hokage, their internal struggles were complicated. Some were controlled by the Yamanaka Clan, while others were controlled by the Akimichi Clan...
The Hokage himself might have had fewer than a dozen or so people truly under his control.
This was also why Konoha's Hokage often ordered political purges, and why there were usually few Ninja who truly protected the Hokage.
In short, by the time Konoha reached the reign of the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, its enormous machine was no longer running very smoothly. Everywhere, powerful figures in the Konoha High Command held control and drained it dry.
After they briefly reported to Kakashi, he immediately assigned everyone an S-rank mission.
And this mission actually involved a recently emerging organization... the Akatsuki!
Rumor had it that the leader of the Akatsuki had killed Hanzo of the Salamander, the leader of Amegakure known as the demigod, right from the outset.
Their main mission objective was to infiltrate Amegakure and gather more intelligence about it!
Ning Feng was utterly shocked when he heard about this infiltration mission. As expected of Konoha's Anbu-they're starting us off with infiltration.
In the original Naruto story, Kakashi had once attempted to infiltrate Amegakure. Ning Feng had never expected that he would have to infiltrate it immediately after joining Konoha's Anbu.
Of course, compared with the mission he had received, what pleased Ning Feng most was that, upon joining the Anbu, the system had awarded him quite a few more Experience Points in succession, raising him to level 21!
Since the infiltration mission would begin tomorrow, Ning Feng left the Anbu and returned to Konoha after Kakashi finished assigning the mission.
Konoha was even livelier now than it had been the last time Ning Feng logged into the game.
Many of his classmates had only fully realized the immense value of this Naruto online game after encountering the Giant Mountain Cat, so every one of them was working especially hard.
Ignoring the envious looks from the players around him, Ning Feng slowly opened the Ninjutsu Scroll Sarutobi Shinnosuke had given him as he approached the Hokage Residence.
Yet the moment he opened it, he froze, surprise entering his eyes.
What Sarutobi Shinnosuke had given him was not a Ninjutsu Scroll at all, but a blood contract. As long as he signed this blood contract, he would be able to summon summoning beasts.
The stronger his chakra, the more fearsome the summoning beasts he summoned would be.
More importantly, this was the Sarutobi Clan's blood contract, which summoned beasts of Enma's kind.
The Sarutobi Clan and summoning beasts such as Enma had been on friendly terms for generations and shared an extremely deep friendship. Simply signing his name on this contract would allow him to easily summon powerful summoning beasts to help him fight!
Of course, signing a blood contract was not the only way to summon summoning beasts. Controlling them directly with the Sharingan would work too!
I'm short of a decent summoning beast right now, so the Sarutobi Clan's summoning beasts are naturally the best choice!
[Blood contract] (Sarutobi Clan): After signing this scroll, you can successfully summon powerful summoning beasts to assist in battle! The stronger your chakra, the stronger the summoning beast!
Without hesitation, Ning Feng clicked to use the [Blood contract]...
In an instant, an enormous contract scroll appeared before Ning Feng and slowly unfurled. At the very end of the contract, the names of Sarutobi Sasuke, Hiruzen Sarutobi, and others were still quietly inscribed.
Clearly, Sarutobi Sasuke, Hiruzen Sarutobi, and the others had also signed this [Blood contract]!
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