Back in his office, the Third Hokage immediately picked up a thick stack of reports to go through.
"Elemental Chakra Mode combined with Kenjutsu, his sword movements are so fast that even the naked eye can't detect them. Speed-wise, this kid might one day rival the Raikage and Hanzo."
Defeating over a hundred enemies didn't surprise him much, but not using any Ninjutsu or Genjutsu throughout the entire battle still brought slight astonishment.
"The Uchiha clan has grown too powerful. Their influence has expanded so much that even finding a legal loophole to rein them in feels nearly impossible."
The Third Hokage held absolutely no greedy intentions regarding the Uchiha who possessed critical techniques.
After all, everyone knew Konoha Troublemaker wouldn't just sit back passively. If he dared move against them, they'd likely rekindle those past public protests—and then he'd be the one getting booed and spat on.
Looking at Danzo's recent reputation, "frozen" couldn't even begin to describe it; only something like being "buried so deep underground that nothing could reach it" would be appropriate.
The Third Hokage insisted he was a respectable man. To prevent such situations from occurring, he'd decided long ago that when it came to these matters, he'd endure everything patiently, certainly never ending up as disgraced as Danzo did.
"How much damn free time does this punk have lately? No sooner did he finish building those planes than he started all this chaos." Putting down the detailed documents, once again he raised his assessment of Konoha Troublemaker's genius.
Not only completing an order of over a dozen airplanes, but also finding time to practice Kenjutsu—he must definitely possess some unique approach to time management.
"As for that whole mess between the Uchiha and the Hyuga, I bet it'll blow over like most clan squabbles do," the Third Hokage thought more about it and became increasingly puzzled.
Hashirama's era was all about compromise and negotiation, but in today's world, those tactics wouldn't cut it anymore—in fact, they'd likely worsen tensions among various clans even further.
Tobirama's strategies were even less applicable. Such ruthless and cold methods during peacetime would naturally make villagers grow wary, increasing their vigilance toward outsiders.
As the third Fire Shadow, Hiruzen Sarutobi currently advocated mild policies during peace while enforcing strict military discipline when war broke out.
However, after witnessing events involving the Uchiha and Hyuga families, he realized treating every clan equally was fundamentally unachievable.
During Hashirama's period, it was a chaotic age. To unite other clans into forming the ninja village required genuinely sincere treatment toward everyone.
In Tobirama's era, it was wartime. With four great ninja villages attacking Konoha simultaneously, even the slightest mistake would undo all previous efforts.
Thus, strict discipline combined with emotionless approaches was undoubtedly the best choice.
Nowadays, however, it's peacetime. Neither of those previous strategies seem suitable.
The Third Hokage believed that during times of peace, they should continuously enhance Konoha's strength without limits. Therefore, upon witnessing Shen's numerous inventions and advanced combat concepts, he gritted his teeth and staked Konoha's future on him.
Currently, he felt that although Konoha hadn't completely outpaced other villages by a huge margin yet, when facing off against any single ninja village, victory would undoubtedly belong to Konoha.
While enemy ninjas dragged themselves onto the battlefield exhausted, Konoha dropped in by plane and rolled in with armored transports. If they still lost under such circumstances, the Third Hokage might as well resign immediately—it would preserve at least some dignity.
However, victory required absolute unity among all of Konoha. If they played passively while in a dominant position, the enemy might seize the opportunity to grow stronger and eventually wipe them out in one decisive strike.
Therefore, during times of peace, they had to not only focus on development but also resolve internal issues first—securing their backs so they could stand tall in the shinobi world.
"I hope there will be some results tomorrow," muttered the Third Hokage, glancing toward Kage Rock, inexplicably feeling even more irritated.
"You may all rest now." He placed his Kage headpiece on and told the Anbu not to follow him before leaving.
At the Nama River, the bored Shen lay on the ground, counting stars visible in the night sky.
"Not a single constellation matches those from my past life. Looks like astronomical knowledge won't work here," he concluded after finishing his count.
Even in the Naruto world, the moon was still simply called "moon"—who knew why tides and day-night cycles mirrored those from his previous life?
Seriously? You expect me to believe the Sage of Six Paths casually waved his hand and flung the moon into perfect position to block the sun?
Anyway, as a transmigrator, Shen didn't buy it. Might as well blame the original author's setting—could he really go back and beat up whoever messed up the plot?
Growing sleepier by the minute, he sat up and yawned, "Aha, Nayou, let's call it a day."
"Mm-hmm," came a drowsy reply.
Looking down, Shen realized Nayou had already fallen asleep but somehow still managed a subconscious response.
Sighing softly, Shen lay back again, staring at the stars. He decided to wait until his friend naturally woke up.
About ten minutes later, the Third Hokage arrived at the Nama River after passing through some woods, but hadn't taken several steps when he suddenly froze completely.
"Shen and Nayou... sleeping together?" The thought popped into his mind out of nowhere.
"If holding hands gets you tied up and displayed at the Hyuga gates, what should someone caught sleeping together expect?" The Third couldn't help feeling secretly delighted.
He quickly pulled out a sound device and snapped several shots of the two.
"Who's there?"
Just after taking a few pictures, another groggy voice sounded again.
The Third hurriedly hid the camera and looked up at the sky. "What a bright moon tonight—no, I meant a big moon. No, no, a round moon!"
"Huh?" x2
The two sleepers immediately jolted upright, clearly dissatisfied with that comment.
"Third old man, you have issues."
"Yeah, Shen makes sense. I think Hokage Uncle has problems too."
Fully awake now, Shen and Nayou didn't need to think hard to realize—they must have left plenty of evidence just lying around here sleeping.
They'd definitely heard those shutter clicks just a moment ago.
Thankfully these cameras weren't capable of silent shooting; otherwise this troublesome monster would have real leverage against the Konoha troublemaker.
Now wasn't the time to dwell on whose fault it was—uniting against external threats mattered most.
Being stared at by red eyes and white eyes made the Third Hokage feel his scalp tingling, causing him to guiltily turn away.
Indeed, he was in the wrong here. Not only did he sneak photos, but he also got caught figuring things out. If he flatly denied everything, his Hokage dignity would shatter into pieces right on the spot.
So, he decided to play it cool and not give anything away, even in front of those two stubborn kids.
Shen thought it was time to reveal some of his cards and instantly appeared before them: "Breaking News! The current Hokage was caught doing such a thing inside a restroom!"
The Third Hokage remained unmoved and simply turned his back.
In a flash, Shen appeared before him once more: "Breaking News! The current Hokage did such a thing to two sleeping children!"
The corner of the Third Hokage's eye twitched. He turned around again—he could still tolerate this level of distortion.
This time, however, Shen didn't show up in front of him. Instead, one simple line was enough to change everything: "Looks like those Sarutobi brats are into DJing. Want me to give 'em a few lessons?"
[Breaking News: The Third Hokage Caught Covering For His Family's DJ Habits?]
Immediately, the Third Hokage imagined tomorrow's newspaper headline—and a terrifying image flashed through his mind.
He couldn't help but shiver, then yanked the camera out of his trouser pocket.
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