In the first floor of the Hokage Building, the mission hall.
Behind the reception counter, two Chunin who appeared to be clerical staff were rapidly recording documents with their heads lowered.
One of the ninjas finished organizing the scrolls in front of him and, seeing that the hall was now empty, stood up and stretched.
"It's almost time for the shift change. Where should we go later?"
He casually asked his colleague beside him.
The person next to him put down his pen, leaned back in his chair, and replied with a smile:
"How about going to Ichiraku Ramen?"
"That's a good idea. Teuchi's ramen has always been very popular."
"Has there been anything new in the village lately?"
"All the countries are busy with negotiations. Those Jonin are so busy they barely have time to touch the ground. What could possibly be new?"
The two chatted idly.
Just then, the space in front of them suddenly twisted slightly.
The abnormality immediately caught their attention.
"What is that?" one of them pointed forward and exclaimed.
"Huh?"
The other followed the direction and saw a faint red light flash and disappear.
In the next second, both their pupils suddenly dilated, their eyes instantly becoming hollow and vacant.
"Bring up the mission that Jonin Minato accepted."
Shinji's figure slowly emerged from the spatial ripples, speaking calmly to one of the Chunin.
The Chunin nodded dazedly and began rummaging through the documents on the desk. Within seconds, he pulled out a gray scroll.
Shinji immediately stepped forward to take it.
The mission hall recorded every mission accepted by each ninja. Even those directly assigned by the Hokage would be registered and archived here by the clerical staff.
After leaving Nohara Rin's house, Shinji made his way back to the Hokage Building.
Seeing that the mission hall was about to change shifts, he decisively acted, instantly controlling the two on-duty ninjas with a Genjutsu.
Under the powerful Genjutsu of the Mangekyō Sharingan, no trace would be left afterward.
Shinji unrolled the gray scroll and carefully studied the record.
"Team Minato, border, patrol..."
"The location is the eastern border of the Land of Fire, near the heart of the Land of Iron?"
After confirming the information, Shinji placed the scroll back in its original position, once again activated Transparent Escape, and silently disappeared.
In front of the counter, the two clerical Chunin suddenly felt a moment of dizziness before regaining clarity.
One of them paused, instinctively asking:
"It's almost time for the shift change. Where should we go later?"
...
"The border?"
Shinji silently repeated the mission location, a strong premonition rising within him.
This time, Madara Uchiha would definitely make his move.
"Can't rush. Need to prepare in advance."
He warned himself internally.
Not long after, Shinji walked back to the clan grounds.
As he approached his own doorstep and was about to push the door open, a familiar voice suddenly reached his ears.
"Oh, isn't that Shinji?" a warm, honest voice drifted in.
Shinji turned toward the sound, a smile appearing on his face as he raised his hand in greeting. "Uncle Jukai!"
Jukai casually asked, "Just back from a mission?"
Shinji nodded. "Yeah, just turned in the mission and came home."
Jukai seemed to relax, stepping closer and glancing around before lowering his voice:
"When we saw you surrounded by the Police Force that day, we were all terribly worried."
"We haven't seen you return home these past few days and thought you'd been arrested by the Police Force."
"We were even discussing going to the Police Force to plead on your behalf. You've never been a bad kid."
Jukai scratched his temple somewhat sheepishly.
It turned out they'd misunderstood the situation.
Arrested by the Police Force?
Shinji was momentarily taken aback before recalling the incident from that day—Tekka from the Police Force had brought people to search his home, leading to a confrontation that drew many onlookers from the neighborhood.
Feeling the genuine concern from Uncle Jukai, Shinji felt a slight warmth in his heart.
Although Uncle Jukai was a member of the Uchiha Clan, he remained a kind-hearted person, as did the other neighbors around.
"It was just a routine inquiry, Uncle. No need to worry."
The two stood chatting by the doorway.
Suddenly, Shinji had an idea. He quietly summoned the System in his mind, opened the inventory, and used a [Character Detector] on Jukai.
A moment later, a line of text popped up on the System Panel.
While continuing his conversation with Jukai, Shinji opened it with a thought.
[Character: Uchiha Jukai]
[Skills: Arithmetic Lv0, Cooking Lv1, Fishing Lv1…]
[Estimated Conquest Success Point Reward: Ambiguous Relationship/20 Points, True Love Relationship/100 Points]
[Note: Low difficulty rating. In this world, there are still genuinely caring neighbors like this uncle!]
Looking at the panel, Shinji froze on the spot, his urge to complain skyrocketing.
Arithmetic counted as a skill?
He knew Uncle Jukai ran a small business, but his arithmetic skill was only Lv0. Did he often give customers too much change?
And the Points—only 20.
Truly Uncle Jukai!
With a thought, he added Uncle Jukai's name to the binding list.
Instantly, another notification popped up in the message bar.
[Uchiha Jukai has completed the preliminary Conquest. Ambiguous Relationship established.]
[Host has received the first-tier Point Reward: 20 Points.]
[Bond Relationship not yet confirmed. Please advance the relationship as soon as possible to complete Bond Establishment and claim the second-tier reward.]
Shinji glanced at the Side Quest [Make Friends], and the progress bar noticeably jumped.
[Side Quest "Make Friends" Conquest Progress: 1/30]
Seeing this, Shinji's lips curled into a slight smile.
Just as he had guessed earlier.
Binding Uncle Jukai directly completed the first stage of the Conquest.
In other words, he only needed to find 29 more ordinary villagers he was familiar with to complete this Side Quest.
Thinking this, Shinji found Uncle Jukai much more agreeable.
What a simple and kind-hearted uncle!
Uncle Jukai, who was still talking to Shinji, suddenly shivered inexplicably and instinctively looked around, feeling as if he were being watched by something strange.
But the surroundings were empty, with nothing in sight.
He chatted with Shinji for a few more words before bidding farewell and leaving.
Shinji waved goodbye to Jukai with a smile, then turned and entered his house.
Opening the entrance and stepping into the living room, he took a bottle of chilled soda from the refrigerator, leaned back on the sofa, and gulped it down in one go.
Shinji casually placed the empty soda bottle on the low table in front of him.
He once again pulled out a ninjutsu scroll from his robe, slowly unrolled it, and laid it flat across his knees.
This was precisely the scroll for the Shadow Clone Technique he had applied for.
In less than half an hour, he gently closed the scroll.
After awakening the Mangekyō Sharingan, his comprehension and memorization speed for ninjutsu had become astonishingly fast. The Shadow Clone Technique had already been fully mastered by him.
Shinji stood up, swiftly forming the cross hand seal with both hands.
"Shadow Clone Technique!"
Poof—
A cloud of white smoke erupted, and a figure identical to him stood steadily by his side.
He examined the shadow clone up and down, simultaneously clearly sensing that the chakra within his body had been evenly halved, causing him to frown slightly.
This was the characteristic of the Shadow Clone Technique—chakra was equally distributed, and each clone possessed independent consciousness.
Shinji pointed at the clone and said, "Go help me replenish supplies. I'm heading out on a long journey tomorrow."
The shadow clone tilted its head, showing no courtesy at all, and directly extended a hand toward the original.
"Money."
Shinji was stunned for a moment, then helplessly pulled out a stack of silver notes from his wallet—exactly one hundred thousand ryo, no more, no less.
This was the payment he had just received for completing an escort mission. Before it could even warm up, he had to part with it.
He sighed inwardly, feeling that his financial luck had been rather poor lately—his wallet always seemed empty.
The shadow clone took the silver, shot a disdainful glance at the original, turned around, and pushed the door open to leave.
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