Chapter 25: The Third Hokage

The massive pangolin thrashed for several minutes before finally breathing its last amidst the raging flames, leaving behind only a giant pangolin shell.

Besides this, Uchiha Feiyu, who had been watching the show from above the whole time, also had a harvest: the pangolin's Soul.

Although the pangolin's Soul was far inferior to Hatake Sakumo's, it possessed a highly sophisticated Earth-moving technique, which would not only be useful for practicing Earth-style chakra in the future, but was even more handy for escaping.

One must know that even if the vast majority of animals possess chakra, it is of the non-elemental type; those possessing an affinity are one in ten, and those with pure affinities, or even innate ninjutsu, are one in a thousand.

Furthermore, the vast majority of innate ninjutsu are mere tricks like spitting water or blowing wind; a ninjutsu like the Earth-moving technique, which is also extremely useful to Uchiha Feiyu, is even rarer.

It was only because of good luck on this mission that Uchiha Feiyu obtained a useful Soul; such things are hard to come by and cannot be sought.

In the month or so that followed, although the entire squad carried out more than a dozen missions, things were basically calm and peaceful, with at most the souls of a few ordinary chakra-animals gained.

However, during this month or so, Uchiha Feiyu's own Power Level also improved quite a bit.

Originally, although he had obtained Hatake Sakumo's Soul and learned the White Fang Sword Technique, he still had significant deficiencies in areas like chakra nature transformation and the training of his own muscle memory.

When it comes down to it, he had only obtained Hatake Sakumo's Soul for a few days; even with the rapid progress learned through the Possession ability, it was impossible to drain it dry in such a short time.

During this month, the White Fang Sword Technique, which had been roughly mastered, was gradually transformed into muscle memory by Uchiha Feiyu, with significant improvements in the flexibility and coherence of his moves.

Moreover, his original Lightning Release chakra nature transformation had also advanced significantly; both the power of his blade aura and the speed stimulated by Lightning Release had greatly increased.

Even his chakra had increased quite a bit; this was not only due to the stimulation brought by Hatake Sakumo's Soul, but also because Uchiha Feiyu possessed the Double Tomoe Sharingan, with his bloodline feeding back into his physical body, which also improved his talent.

The most obvious sign was his sparring with Hyuga Hizashi during this period; Hyuga Hizashi was increasingly unable to hold back, and in the end, Hyuga Hizashi even stated clearly that he could no longer conduct full-power combat training without both sides getting injured.

According to Hyuga Hizashi, while Uchiha Feiyu might still have flaws in other areas, in terms of pure Power Level, Uchiha Feiyu was already at the Jonin level.

Uchiha Feiyu's monstrous rate of progress also stimulated his two companions, but unfortunately, no matter how hard Asuma and Kurenai trained, compared to a cheater like Uchiha Feiyu, their rate of progress was like a tortoise crawling.

In over a month, the two of them had only experienced some actual combat against chakra-animals, seen a little blood, and gained some combat experience, yet they still had no essential improvement in strength.

On this day, after finishing a mission, Uchiha Feiyu came to the Death Forest again to train. Just as he arrived at the training ground cleared out inside the Death Forest, he was slightly startled.

The training ground inside the Death Forest was actually just a flat piece of land that he and Kakashi had created by cutting down some large trees; it naturally couldn't compare to a formal training ground, but it didn't cost anything either.

At this moment, in the center of the training ground, the silver-haired Kakashi was standing respectfully before a short old man, and that short old man was none other than the Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen.

"How does the Hokage have time to come here? It wouldn't be to hold us accountable for destroying the Death Forest, would it? I don't have the money to pay for it!"

Uchiha Feiyu wore a trembling expression on his face, causing Kakashi, who already had some understanding of his true nature, to secretly roll his eyes. Upon hearing this, the Third Hokage's expression also stalled slightly, and then he shook his head:

"I didn't come here today to hold you accountable for the destruction of the Death Forest... though, of course, it's better to do less of this kind of thing in the future."

The Third Hokage stroked his chin and said with a smile.

This was just talk; as controllers of supernatural power, as long as a ninja is slightly powerful, eight out of ten will build some secret bases, and the underground of the entire Konoha is probably more than half hollowed out.

The small matter that Kakashi and Uchiha Feiyu did would not alarm the Third Hokage at all, and he certainly didn't come for this.

In fact, perhaps Kakashi was still young and didn't think much, but the moment Uchiha Feiyu saw the Third Hokage, he had already guessed why he had come—it was nothing more than to win over the two youngest geniuses of Konoha.

Uchiha Feiyu's performance in the First Squad would certainly not have been hidden from the Third Hokage by either Hyuga Hizashi or Asuma.

He was only fourteen years old now and was already a standard Jonin-level combatant; Kakashi was only eight or nine years old, yet he had defeated Kondo Kunihiko, who was a Special Jonin, back then. No matter how you look at it, both would be at least Quasi-Kage level powerhouses in the future.

For such potential stocks, the Third Hokage would certainly want to win them over and use them for his own purposes; this was also the consistent style of the Third Hokage's faction.

"As long as I don't have to pay money, that's fine. I'm very poor right now; my total savings don't even add up to 100,000 ryo."

Uchiha Feiyu patted his chest, looking relieved, which made the Third Hokage choke for a moment.

"It seems your life is very difficult? This is a mistake by our high-level officials; in the future, we will provide more subsidies to orphan students at the Ninja Academy."

Although Uchiha Feiyu understood the Third Hokage's intentions, he had no intention of leaning toward him.

First of all, he was an Uchiha, and even if he was a marginalized person not welcomed by the Uchiha Clan, it was hard to say what the high-level officials might think of him.

Secondly, it was now the Third Shinobi World War; after joining a faction, he would probably have to take on some major missions and go straight to the battlefield!

Not to mention that he would become a target, attracting who knows how many conspiracies and schemes, and might end up as cannon fodder.

That guy Kakashi is a clear example; he first followed Namikaze Minato and spent time on the most dangerous battlefield of the Third Shinobi World War, and then was targeted by Danzō, barely keeping his life after a brush with death.

"Subsidies or whatever don't matter; it's not like they're being issued to me anyway. Speaking of which, since the Hokage isn't here to hold us accountable, what are you here for today?"

Uchiha Feiyu asked with a lazy smile on his face. The Third Hokage showed a gentle smile and looked at Uchiha Feiyu and Kakashi:

"I am very sorry about what happened to White Fang. Fortunately, he left behind you two successors. You are both the most outstanding geniuses in all of Konoha; if you have any troubles, you can tell me."

(End of chapter)