Naruto: The Hidden Shadow Style

The Third Hokage was not currently in the village. He needed to be at the front line, helping the frontline ninja reorganize. Although the situation within the village was urgent, with his hands full he could only choose to oversee operations from afar. Actually, it wasn't hard to guess who the primary responsible party for Konoha's affairs was... it was none other than Danzo Shimura.

After departing from Sansho, Haseo regrouped with other Anbu operatives, met with Danzo Shimura, and received the surveillance rotation for monitoring the Uchiha clan. Thus began their monitoring operation on the Uchiha family.

Unlike several decades later, the Uchiha weren't yet confined to a specific area of Konoha. They lived scattered throughout various parts of the village. Therefore, monitoring an entire clan required vastly increased manpower.

Therefore, that very night Haseo got dispatched to secretly monitor one of the Uchiha residences. Through observing this household alone, Haseo could already detect signs indicating the Uchiha were getting restless. Despite still maintaining restraint for now... the house remained brightly lit all night, its owners clearly hadn't slept at all, with people constantly coming and going.

Although they didn't show any other unusual behavior besides this, such frequent interactions alone spoke volumes about their intentions.

Haseo remained on high alert, keeping watch until someone finally relieved him two days later. In reality, this meant he had been working nonstop for seventy-two hours straight... At this rate, Haseo wouldn't need to worry about his hair situation much longer—it would just naturally fall out soon enough.

Premature baldness was a pitiful sight.

Perhaps in terms of physical stamina, ninja were worlds apart from ordinary people, but at the end of the day, physiologically, Haseo was just as human—one liver and all.

After completing his first surveillance mission, Haseo returned to his residence and collapsed into bed. When he finally woke up again, it was already the afternoon of the following day.

Not only had he fought through the night previously, but he had also engaged in long-distance pursuit and extended observation. Fatigue had built up in his body, and a single stretch of sleep wasn't enough to fully restore him. So even after waking up, he sat dazedly on the bed for quite some time before gradually regaining full awareness.

At that moment, he realized he felt extremely hungry. That's just how young bodies worked—if Haseo were middle-aged or older, he'd probably feel no hunger after waking up, just exhaustion.

Yet he didn't rush to eat anything. After recovering somewhat, Haseo instead retrieved a scroll from his nearby ninja tools pouch.

This was something given to him by Sansho during their last meeting. According to her explanation, it was supposed to be a reward acknowledging his performance and progress recently. However, in Haseo's opinion, rather than being a simple reward, this item functioned more like an "ace up his sleeve" prepared specifically to cope with the current tense situation. That said, such a powerful jutsu didn't seem easy to master at all.

Fortunately, having already acquired certain self-defense capabilities, Haseo no longer felt as urgently desperate about such matters as he used to. He briefly examined the jutsu before carefully putting it away. Then, after dressing properly, he walked out of his room.

His next mission wouldn't start for at least two or three days, so he had time to rest. Plus, there was another matter he needed to handle during this period… Haseo was still temporarily staying at Konoha's Relief Infirmary, but now that he'd become a ninja, it was no longer appropriate for him to live there.

So he had to find a new place to stay in the village.

Money wasn't a problem, though. For one thing, ninja who participated in the war effort received corresponding wages, and for another, special missions came with their own separate payments. In a way, Haseo could even be considered financially well-off at the moment—precisely because he had no place to actually spend his money.

Finding a new home wasn't difficult, so Haseo left the infirmary and headed out for a rare walk around Konoha.

This was his first time wandering like this through the ninja village.

The streets were bustling with people, as if the tense atmosphere only existed among the ninja themselves. Ordinary civilians seemed unaffected by any sense of imminent conflict. "Sometimes ignorance really is a kind of blessing," he mused with a touch of irony.

Finding a place wasn't difficult, but there was one problem—he didn't really know anyone in the village besides Sansho. And just as Haseo was feeling somewhat at a loss over this matter, someone suddenly called out his name.

"Haseo?"

He turned his head and looked down slightly, seeing the person who had called him.

"Jiraiya..."

Haseo figured this guy was at least a living, breathing person who might come in handy, so he asked, "Are you free right now?"

This was the second time they'd met. The previous encounter had been during a sparring session.

Asking "Are you free?" sounded somewhat impolite, so Jiraiya frowned slightly, putting on a serious adult expression as he said, "At a time like this, how could any ninja in the village be idle? But no missions have been assigned to me yet."

That this kid understood the situation in the village wasn't particularly surprising. He likely had better access to timely and comprehensive intelligence than Haseo did.

Haseo nodded, understanding clearly now—the kid definitely had nothing to do.

"If you don't have a mission right now, why don't you walk with me for a bit... I've recently decided to move somewhere else. Do you know anything about this sort of thing?"

Although they had only met once before, Jiraiya had a naturally easygoing personality and was happy to help. Haseo had merely asked on a whim, never expecting that he'd actually run into an expert on the topic.

"Oh, in that case, I just happen to know a great spot." Saying this, Jiraiya started walking ahead, leading the way for Haseo.

"Have you been in the village this whole time?"

"I went to the front line for a while, but I was recalled back to the village due to some recent missions."

"Will you be staying here long?"

"For a while... I guess."

"Let's think about it," Haseo said. Who knows what Konoha's strategy is, or when the Uchiha would ever settle down.

"In that case, we'll get another shot at settling this for good. And this time, I'm not losing to you."

Competitiveness—so typical of youth... Haseo gave him a sidelong glance, thinking he'd do well to boast after returning from Mount Myoboku.

As they casually chatted, Jiraiya soon brought Haseo to a street built alongside a river.

"What place is this?"

"A hot spring town, currently under construction. If you're looking for a place to stay, this is the most convenient area."

Sure enough, construction was still ongoing here, with buildings at all stages of progress as far as the eye could see.

The water flowed gently, small bridges crossed the stream, hot springs spilled into the river, mist rising softly—it was quite a pleasant sight overall, exactly the kind Haseo enjoyed.

However, there was just one issue…

"Calling this a hot spring town feels a bit generous. Seems more like one of those pleasure districts to me." Haseo muttered, stroking his chin.

"So… do you dislike it?"

"Not in the slightest."

You've got to pick your battles. Who in their right mind would turn down a kid's sincere gesture? Honoring their thoughts means protecting their innocent hearts—it's all part of helping the next generation of Konoha ninja grow up strong.

P.S. Don't forget to cast your recommendation vote if you enjoyed this chapter!

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