Naruto: Uchiha Youngjo's Konoha Spring

Chapter 87 Jiraiya's Dilemma
"Uchiha Tokou?" Obito's face suddenly darkened when he heard the name.

When he was still in the village, although Uchiha Obito was not active on the battlefield in the direction of Kirigakure where the Uchiha clan was active during the Third Shinobi World War because of the Fourth Hokage, he had heard the legend of this cousin who was several years younger than him.

Let's not talk about anything else, just the Kirigakure that he is causing trouble for now. To this day, the name Uchiha Tokou is the nightmare of some veteran ninjas in the Kirigakure who experienced the Third Shinobi World War. Countless souls of Kirigakure were buried under the ninja sword "Raiders" that the Kirigakure called the Bloodless Blade.

But Obito didn't expect that this cousin who had made great achievements on the battlefield actually had this skill.

Originally, the entire Uchiha clan had been on the verge of explosion under his secret manipulation, but he had just not paid attention to the affairs of the village for a while, and Uchiha Douguang completed the integration of Uchiha power, which he could not accept at all.

Being from the Uchiha clan, he naturally understood how terrifying the potential of this clan was. With normal ninja talent, the Uchiha clan itself was already at the forefront of everyone in the ninja world, not to mention the existence of the unreasonable Mangekyō Sharingan, which was a huge destabilizing factor for his Moon Eye plan.

So for Uchiha Obito, only the dead Uchiha is a good Uchiha.

"What happened to the Uchiha clan while I was away?" Obito took a deep breath and asked Black Zetsu who was standing beside him.

"I'll let Bai Zetsu tell you the details later, but even Bai Zetsu hasn't gained much information about this cousin."

"Even White Zetsu hasn't collected enough information?" Uchiha Obito frowned under his mask when he heard this. You know, the reason why he has been able to do so many things in the ninja world over the years is largely due to White Zetsu's ability to collect intelligence in every possible way.

"This guy's lightning escape technique is very special. There is a strange magnetic field within several meters around his body. Under the interference of this magnetic field, it is difficult for White Zetsu's spores to germinate, let alone directly collect intelligence." Black Zetsu explained to Obito.

After listening to Black Zetsu's explanation, a strange color flashed in Obito's exposed eye.

"What do you think, Obito, do you want to try to resolve this destabilizing factor?" Black Zetsu slowly approached Uchiha Obito and asked.

"In order to ensure the success of the Moon Eye Project, any destabilizing factors must be eliminated." Uchiha Obito said coldly, turning his head and glaring at Black Zetsu, "Also, call me Uchiha Madara."

……

After Uchiha Tokou and Kakashi returned to the village, the village was peaceful for a while.

During this period, Sarutobi Hiruzen would bring Jiraiya with him whenever he participated in some high-profile events, such as the opening of a store in the village and inviting the Hokage to cut the ribbon.

Although Jiraiya is famous as one of the three ninjas, he has not been active in the village for many years. Most people in the village know that Jiraiya exists but do not know him. Sarutobi Hiruzen did this to make Jiraiya familiar to the villagers.

Furthermore, in the nearest village, stories of Jiraiya's heroic deeds during the Second and Third Shinobi World Wars began to spread again.

It can be said that Sarutobi Hiruzen put in all his efforts to pave the way for Jiraiya.

However, after actually taking over the position of Hokage's advisor, Jiraiya found that his work was not particularly smooth.

Although Sarutobi Hiruzen gave Jiraiya the authority to mobilize the Anbu and the Jonin Squad, Jiraiya discovered while working that among the Anbu and the Jonin Squad, except for the ninjas from the Ino, Shika, and Chou clans and the Sarutobi clan, the other ninjas were not very enthusiastic about his orders.

Although the ninjas who received the mission would eventually complete the mission with quality and quantity, it was nothing compared to the situation when people from the Security Department asked the ninjas from the Anbu or the Jonin Class to handle some collaborative tasks together, and everyone rushed to sign up.

In fact, this is also human nature. When participating in tasks related to the Security Department, the Security Department will pay them another salary according to the Security Department's salary standards after the task is completed, not to mention that there are hidden benefits such as dinners during and after the task. Naturally, the tasks that Jiraiya issues as he pleases are not very attractive.

What made Jiraiya even more upset was that he was not very successful in recruiting the fourth generation's former subordinates such as Genma Shiranui.

He originally thought that as Minato's teacher, he should be able to smoothly take over his disciple's former subordinates. However, after he proposed to Shiranui Genma and others his plan to promote them to the rank of Jonin, documents applying for transfer to the Security Department appeared on his desk that afternoon.

Although they all have a close relationship with Minato, in the eyes of these former subordinates of the Fourth Hokage, Jiraiya's identity as the Fourth Hokage's teacher does not seem to be as useful as Kakashi's disciple.

After all, when the Fourth Hokage had raised Shiranui Genma and the others from obscurity, Kakashi had fought alongside them, but what was Jiraiya doing at the time? He was roaming around the ninja world collecting material, and he wasn't even there the night the Fourth Hokage died.

If it were just that, it would be fine. But after the Fourth Hokage died, Jiraiya never even came back to see Naruto, the Fourth Hokage's only orphan. Now he wants to have the audacity to gain their loyalty directly. What right does he have?

In addition, Jiraiya also discovered that the current ninjas in the Anbu and Jonin classes have more or less received the favor of Uchiha Tokou and Kakashi, and they all praised the two when they mentioned them, which made Jiraiya very worried.

"Looks like it's time to have a good chat with Kakashi." Jiraiya thought to himself at his desk, "I might as well go see that kid Naruto."

While Jiraiya was having a headache every day because of these things that he was not good at, Kakashi was living a pretty good life.

Although he has officially started working in the Security Department, the special department where he works, which is jokingly called the Minamigagawa Hotel by Uchiha Tokou, is used to detain and investigate people with special identities. Currently, only Utane Koharu and Mito Kado En are detained there. His daily work is very leisurely. He only needs to visit the interrogation room every day to check the progress of the interrogation of the two.

The several Uchiha clan members sent to him by Uchiha Tokou also gave him a lot of face. Every time he went on patrol, they would drag out these two old men and beat them up. Kakashi was of course happy to see this.

Not to mention that these two old men have admitted under the illusion of fists, feet and Sharingan that they were the ones who spread the rumors about Kakashi some time ago. After learning and growing over this period of time, Kakashi's perspective on thinking has changed unconsciously. When he re-examined the incident involving his father, he also realized that these two old men were definitely not clean in it.

Therefore, coming over to watch the two old men get beaten has become one of Kakashi's daily entertainment activities during the past period of time, in addition to staying in the office to watch Jiraiya's masterpieces during working hours.

The clock in Kakashi's office showed five o'clock. Kakashi closed the Intimate Paradise and got up to leave work on time.

After getting off work, Kakashi thought about it and rushed towards the ninja school. There were banquets every night in the past few days, and he had neglected to take care of Naruto. When he returned home every day, Naruto was already asleep, so Kakashi decided to spend some time with the child today.

When Kakashi arrived at the ninja school, the children who had just finished school were coming out one after another. Not long after, Kakashi saw Naruto walking out with Sasuke, Shikamaru, Chouji, and Inuzuka Kiba. "Naruto!" Kakashi waved at Naruto, signaling him to come over quickly.

"Brother Kakashi?" Naruto showed an incredible expression on his face when he saw Kakashi coming to pick him up.

After saying goodbye to his friends, Naruto ran over with his small schoolbag on his back.

"Why are you here? Isn't there a banquet today?" Naruto asked.

"I have nothing to do after get off work today, so I came to pick you up. What? Don't you want me to pick you up from school?" Kakashi said with a smile.

"Well, that's not the case..." Naruto stuck out his tongue and said a little guiltily.

Before Kakashi took Naruto in to take care of him, Naruto was quite envious of other children who had their parents come to pick him up after school. After moving into Kakashi's house, at first Kakashi would come to pick him up after school every day when he was not busy, which was also the happiest moment of his day.

However, after the excitement wore off, Naruto felt that this was just the way it was, and soon, like other children, he regarded being able to go to and from school alone as a symbol of growing up.

Especially during this period, Kakashi had a banquet every night. Naruto found that he could eat ramen freely every night instead of having to eat those extremely unpalatable green peppers under Kakashi's gaze. So Naruto even wished that Kakashi would go to the banquet every day.

But Naruto's little thoughts could not be hidden from Kakashi's eyes. Kakashi did not say anything, but led Naruto slowly towards home.

When Naruto relaxed his guard, Kakashi suddenly said, "The new dream soy sauce ramen that the village has recently launched doesn't seem to taste very good."

"No way! I've been eating that ramen every day recently! It tastes really good!" Naruto blurted out without thinking.

By the time Naruto realized that he seemed to have said the wrong thing, Kakashi was already staring at him with dead fish eyes.

"Naruto, don't I have someone make dinner for you and send it to your house every night? But you just eat ramen every day?" Kakashi asked.

"Sorry..." Naruto said, looking down.

"Naruto, I know you like to eat that, but if you only eat ramen, you won't get enough nutrition and you won't grow tall." Kakashi said helplessly, "Forget it, I will try to come back for dinner next time."

After the two returned to the Hatake family's ancestral home, they met an uninvited guest at the door. Jiraiya was holding a gift in his hand and was peeking inside the door of the Hatake family's ancestral home.

Jiraiya turned around when he heard the noise and saw Kakashi and Naruto standing together.

"Kakashi, you're back from get off work." Jiraiya greeted Kakashi, but his eyes involuntarily moved to Naruto. Looking at Naruto's golden hair that was exactly the same as his father's, a strange look flashed in Jiraiya's eyes.

"Old man, who are you? Are you a relative of Brother Kakashi? You both have white hair." Naruto looked at Jiraiya and asked curiously.

"Good question!" After hearing Naruto's question, Jiraiya took two steps back as if some mechanism had been triggered. He casually formed a seal and after a bang, smoke exploded. A giant toad, as tall as a person, with a rosary with the word "loyalty" written on it hanging around its neck appeared out of thin air. Jiraiya stepped on the toad's head and made an exaggerated pose.

"I am the Toad Spirit Immortal of Myoboku Mountain, also known as Toad Sage! Jiraiya, I am honored to meet you!"

Naruto had never seen such a scene before and was immediately stunned. It took him a long time to react and he muttered, "How powerful!"

Another burst of smoke exploded, and the toad under Jiraiya's feet disappeared instantly. After Jiraiya landed gracefully on the ground, he also laughed.

"Lord Jiraiya, have you eaten? Would you like to eat something together?" After Jiraiya finished showing off, although Kakashi knew that Jiraiya might have other purposes in coming to him, this man was his master after all in terms of seniority, so Kakashi still patiently invited him.

"Okay, thank you for your help then." Jiraiya said with a hearty smile. After that, he handed the gift in his hand to Kakashi and said, "Take it. I think you will like it."

Kakashi took the thing and took a look at it, his eyes instantly lit up. This turned out to be the latest sequel to "Intimate Paradise".

"I wrote this while I was in seclusion in the Security Department some time ago. This is probably my last work. I hope you like it!" Jiraiya said with a smile.

Kakashi calmly put the book into the sealing scroll he carried with him.

After Jiraiya handed the book to Kakashi, he turned to look at Naruto beside him, gave him another gift, and said:
"I heard from the Sandaime that you like ramen very much, Naruto. These are the special ramen from all over the ninja world that I have collected during my travels in the ninja world over the years."

When Naruto took it and took a look, his eyes immediately lit up. Many of the ramen in this bag were varieties he had never seen before.

Seeing that Naruto liked his gift, Jiraiya breathed a sigh of relief. This time when he came to visit, Jiraiya didn't know how to face Naruto. After thinking about it, he could only use things that Naruto liked to get closer to him.

After Kakashi invited Jiraiya into his home, he asked his neighbors to order a banquet from the village and have it delivered to his home.

After dinner, Kakashi sent Naruto back to bed, then sat back at the table and poured Jiraiya another glass of wine.

"Lord Jiraiya, do you have something to talk to me about?" Kakashi asked.

……

(End of this chapter)