Shinji ignored the dying struggle of the Root ninja in front of him, He had always believed in acting decisively rather than talking nonsense.
Before, he needed to lay low, but now they were bullying him right to his face.
The next instant, the deep blue Rasengan wrapped in a golden halo in Shinji's hand slammed down on the Root ninja's head.
The moment the Rasengan made contact with the Root ninja's head, it was like it was grinding up rotten meat. Blood and white brain fragments splattered everywhere, and then the ground in the alley seemed to shake.
Centered on the spot where Shinji landed, the ground within a radius of several meters was instantly reduced to dust.
In the circular crater formed by the Rasengan, Shinji rubbed his wrist, looking at the Root ninja who had died before he could even scream.
He nodded with great satisfaction. Not bad. The enemy didn't suffer at all, and his clothes weren't stained with any filth.
It's just...
He had to take this headless corpse to the Hokage Building.
Thinking of this, Shinji reached out and grabbed the shoulder of the headless Root ninja, giving a pull. He lifted the headless Root ninja straight up.
"Although your mouth stinks, it's time for you to make your last contribution."
After speaking, Shinji jumped up and quickly sped towards the Hokage Building.
Shinji, who had been leaping across rooftops the whole way, stopped in front of the Hokage Building without alarming anyone.
"Halt!"
Two ninjas, dressed in Anbu attire and wearing cat masks, appeared not far from Shinji. They looked at Shinji very cautiously, after all, he was currently carrying a headless corpse.
If they hadn't seen Shinji wearing Konoha's Chunin attire, they probably would have attacked the moment he appeared.
Shinji let go and dropped the Root ninja's corpse, raising his hands to show he had no ill intentions. There were already at least ten targets aimed at him from the shadows.
"Please inform the Hokage, Aratani Shinji, homeroom teacher of Class 1-1 at Ninja School and a Chunin, requests an audience."
Hearing this, the two Anbu who were on guard were stunned.
One of them finally spoke after a while, "Wait."
After speaking, the Anbu who had spoken made a gesture to the other one, and then disappeared with a jump in front of Shinji. Only then did Shinji lower his raised hands and stand in place, waiting.
Before long, he noticed that the Hokage Building, which had only the Hokage Office floor lit, suddenly lit up completely at the same time.
Hiruzen, wearing the Hokage's robe and hat, quickly walked out of the building. Following him were several ninjas.
When Hiruzen was about to reach him, he bowed and said, "Hokage-sama, I am sorry to disturb you so late."
Hiruzen's first glance was at the headless corpse beside Shinji, and then seeing the obvious attire, his pupils instantly contracted.
After a long time, he finally spoke, "Take him away and gather as much information as possible."
"Yes! Third Hokage!"
A middle-aged man wearing glasses who was following behind Hiruzen immediately responded upon hearing this.
He walked beside Shinji, squatted down, took out a blank scroll, spread it open, and then formed hand signs.
"Seal!"
Instantly, lines of tadpole-like script spread from the scroll. Then they wrapped around the headless corpse, and the next second, a puff of smoke appeared.
Shinji just glanced at it, this was the most basic storage Fuinjutsu. Of course, it could only store inanimate objects, and the space wasn't large. It was generally used to seal and store supplies or corpses. After all, there were ways to extract information from a ninja after death. However, the most useful part was the brain.
As the sealing technique was completed, the originally blank scroll was covered with sealing characters, with a large character in the center.
"Hokage-sama, I'll head back now." With the sealing complete, the middle-aged man turned to Hiruzen and said.
Only after Hiruzen nodded did the middle-aged man take the other ninjas and walk back into the Hokage Building.
Seeing the Anbu who were still on guard beside Shinji, Hiruzen waved his hand to dismiss him. The Anbu guarding in front of Shinji immediately disappeared.
But Shinji could feel that there were many people around him who were still on guard.
"Shinji, come with me." Hiruzen said to Shinji with a gentle smile.
"Alright, Hokage-sama."
Shinji could only nod in greeting to this, and then followed behind Hiruzen, walking towards the interior of the Hokage Building.
Entering the building, he looked around. When he had first become a ninja, he had come to the Hokage Office to meet the Third Hokage. This place was still exactly the same.
Hiruzen was walking ahead, and turned back to see Shinji's expression.
He asked with a smile, "How is it? Is it still the same as when you graduated?"
"Yes, Hokage-sama, everything feels like it happened yesterday."
There was a hint of nostalgia in Shinji's tone. After all, he was facing graduation at the time, and knowing the cruelty of the Ninja World naturally left a deep impression on him.
It was quite unfortunate at that time. Minato had passed away not long before his graduation.
"That's for sure. At least you're still a spirited young man." Hiruzen took out his pipe, lit it, and said meaningfully.
Shinji smiled slightly. He naturally knew what Hiruzen was referring to. After all, a qualified ninja wouldn't just kill a seemingly fellow villager in the village without saying a word.
"Hokage-sama, as soon as that person appeared, he said that Danzo summoned me."
"As a ninja of the village, I only know the Third Hokage. I've never heard of anyone named Danzo."
"So I just replied, 'Is that some kind of sewer rat?' Who would have expected that when this person heard what I said, he immediately became furious and attacked me. I was forced to act."
This speech made Hiruzen very relieved, even if there was a bit of fabrication in the last part.
However, Hiruzen knew that Shinji was indicating to him that in Konoha, he, Shinji, only recognized Hiruzen, the Hokage, as his leader.
"We'll talk about this later. What I'm more interested in knowing is how the injuries on the person who attacked you were sustained?"
After speaking, Hiruzen looked at Shinji in front of him with piercing eyes.
After all, how could Hiruzen, who had personally promoted Minato, not be clear about that injury?
It was too familiar, so familiar that when Hiruzen first saw it just now, he thought Minato was still alive and had killed the person himself, but couldn't show his face. He wanted to see what Shinji would say.