The Hokage’s office.
Hiruzen Sarutobi held his pipe in his mouth, his gaze moving between Shingetsu and the documents in his hand.
After a long silence, he set the papers down.
“I’ve already handled your ninja appointment.
I can also arrange it if you want to go to the front lines…
but what is this?”
Hiruzen Sarutobi pulled a page from the documents.
It was an entire list, ranging from senbon to explosive tags.
Shingetsu lounged casually on the sofa and said flatly, “If you can’t even understand that, how are you Hokage?
It’s a list.”
“I know it’s a list.
What I’m asking is…
why did you give this list to me?”
“That’s a strange thing to say…”
Shingetsu frowned slightly.
“Old man, you really are odd.”
“I’m going to fight your war for you.
Hiring child labor is bad enough, but you won’t even prepare equipment for me?”
A vein bulged on Hiruzen Sarutobi’s forehead as he bit down on his pipe.
“The village does have a duty to provide battlefield ninja with an appropriate amount of ninja tools, but…”
Bang!!
He slammed the page down hard on the desk.
“Three hundred refined-steel kunai!
Eight hundred shuriken…
fine, I could overlook that!”
“Ten thousand explosive tags!”
“Are explosive tags something you count by the ten thousand?!”
A small-scale battle would not even use that many explosive tags!
“Talk properly.
You’re spraying spit.”
Shingetsu covered his face in disgust and shot Hiruzen Sarutobi a look.
“Read the rest before you start yelling.
You’re acting like I’m trying to take advantage of you.”
Forcing down the urge to throw this brat out, Hiruzen Sarutobi continued reading the documents.
His expression gradually turned serious.
Another silence followed before Hiruzen Sarutobi looked up at Shingetsu.
“Are you sure…
you want to hand that technique over to the village?”
“To be precise, I’m handing over the principles for synthesizing this technique.”
Shingetsu rested his hands on his knees, his posture more like someone negotiating a business deal than reporting to the Hokage-sama.
“As Takigakure’s highest secret technique, its value is equivalent to an S-rank mission.
Exchanging it for the supplies I listed isn’t unreasonable, is it?”
Of course Hiruzen Sarutobi knew Shingetsu had obtained Earth Grudge Fear.
At the time, Orochimaru had hired Sakumo through proper channels.
“Earth Grudge Fear…
That is a very old technique.
During the Warring States Period, they used it to occupy the land beyond the waterfall and establish Takigakure.”
Hiruzen Sarutobi took a puff from his pipe and said gravely, “Creating Earth Grudge Fear requires large-scale experimentation on living people.
After the Warring States Period, the Five Great Nations explicitly forbade Takigakure from possessing Earth Grudge Fear again.”
“Shingetsu-kun, this is Kinjutsu that violates ethics and steals the lives of others.
It should not be used as…”
Shingetsu cut off the long speech Hiruzen Sarutobi had prepared.
“The Second Hokage devoted his entire life to developing ninjutsu, and most of them also ended up in the Scroll of Seals.
Does that mean those techniques should never have existed either?”
“Cough, cough…”
Hiruzen Sarutobi coughed sharply twice.
“Of…
of course not!
How could the Second Hokage’s techniques be the same?”
Shingetsu only smiled without speaking.
“There’s no such thing as a good or bad technique.
It depends on who uses it.”
“If we can extract Earth Grudge Fear’s function for stitching limbs together, it would be a top-tier Medical Ninjutsu.”
“Compared to other techniques that require huge amounts of chakra or delicate control, a stitching technique is simple, crude, and effective.”
“Using the lives of some enemies in exchange for a higher survival rate among Konoha ninja.
Do you think that’s a bad thing?”
Seeing Hiruzen Sarutobi waver, Shingetsu added more fuel to the fire.
“Back then, the Second Hokage used enemies as sacrifices for Edo…”
“Enough!”
Hiruzen Sarutobi quickly raised a hand to stop him, not wanting Shingetsu to keep bringing up his teacher’s dark history.
“What you said makes sense.
There is no good or bad technique.
If it’s used for the right purpose, then it’s good!”
Letting out a long breath, Hiruzen Sarutobi shook his head helplessly and smiled.
“I can tell you agree quite strongly with the Second Hokage’s philosophy.
Not bad!”
That argument made him feel even more that Shingetsu had some inexplicable connection to his teacher Tobirama.
There were very few Uchiha who would deliberately learn about and approve of the Second Hokage like this.
“In that case…”
Hiruzen Sarutobi lightly tapped the desk and frowned.
“Actually, you could use this technique to exchange for an S-rank mission completion record.”
“Accumulate three S-rank missions, and you can exchange them for a technique from the Scroll of Seals.
That’s far more worthwhile than a batch of ninja tools.”
Originally, according to Tobirama-sama, the techniques in the Scroll of Seals were to be prioritized for civilian ninja as much as possible, not given to ninja clans, especially not the Uchiha.
He had only offered this reminder because Shingetsu had shown that he could think of the bigger picture, and also because he was Orochimaru’s disciple.
Shingetsu shook his head.
“I want the goods now.”
Leaving aside the fact that he had no immediate use for other techniques, something like the Scroll of Seals could just wait until Orochimaru stole it and made a copy.
If Orochimaru did not defect the way he had in the original timeline, getting hold of the Scroll of Seals would be even easier.
As if everyone were as petty about keeping knowledge secret as you Second Hokage master and disciple pair.
Having grown used to the respectful attitude of most ninja, Hiruzen Sarutobi found Shingetsu’s repeated rebuttals a little hard to adjust to.
It was not that he had developed any dislike for Shingetsu.
He simply felt this child had far too much personality.
“May I ask what you need so many explosive tags for?”
“I don’t want to say.”
The answer was exactly what he had expected.
“Compared to Earth Grudge Fear, you should be asking what that special secret technique was.”
After Shingetsu left with the Hokage-stamped document to collect his armaments, Danzō Shimura stepped out from the shadows.
He was becoming more and more used to this method of concealment, hiding in the shadow cast by the sun.
The corner of Hiruzen Sarutobi’s mouth lifted slightly.
“That…
I actually have some idea.”
“You saw through it?!”
Danzō’s pupils shrank.
It had been like this since they were young.
Techniques he could not understand, Hiruzen Sarutobi could see through at a glance.
His talent was so great that Tobirama-sama had taken him as a direct disciple.
How irritating…
“Based on your description…”
Hiruzen Sarutobi pondered for a while, then slowly said, “Since Shingetsu can’t release chakra from his own body to use ninjutsu, he must be using some method to mobilize the chakra inside Earth Grudge Fear.”
“Speech is one part of the process, but the more important factor is likely the Sharingan.”
“Don’t even think about it.
That isn’t something that can be popularized.”
As he spoke, Hiruzen Sarutobi gave Danzō a sidelong look.
“And honestly, what are you doing, picking a fight with a child?
Aren’t you afraid people will laugh if this gets out?”
“A child?”
Danzō snorted coldly.
“With that boy’s strength and scheming, I cannot treat him like an ordinary child.”
“No, where exactly are you seeing this scheming?”
Hiruzen Sarutobi propped his head up with one hand, looking somewhat speechless.
“No matter how you look at it, that child is the type who says exactly what he thinks, isn’t he?”
“Hmph!
Arrogance and speaking frankly are two different things!”
“All right, enough.
The child is quite good.
As soon as he thought of how Earth Grudge Fear could help the village, he handed it over.”
Hiruzen Sarutobi passed the scroll to Danzō and said solemnly, “I’ll leave this matter to you.
Don’t do anything unnecessary.
I want this technology used only for medical purposes.”
Danzō took the scroll, but his unease remained.
His instincts told him that brat definitely did not have good intentions.
This feeling of being plotted against was far too familiar.
It was just like what he did to others.