MWM Chapter 153

“Hahaha, well, I never expected that in my old age, I would be able to take on such a talented disciple like you. It truly is a blessing for me!”

The Third Hokage was momentarily stunned when Leo agreed so quickly, but then he burst into a joyous laugh.

The two of them exchanged a few pleasant words in the Hokage’s office before Leo returned to his residence.

It was then that Leo began to faintly understand why the Third Hokage chose this moment to accept him as his fourth official disciple, and even mentioned holding a disciple induction ceremony for him tomorrow afternoon.

First, the Third Hokage was likely genuinely grateful for his contributions during Orochimaru’s attack—not only saving his life but also saving the lives of many Konoha ninjas and villagers. 

But that alone wouldn’t be enough for the Third Hokage to decide to take him as a disciple, especially considering Leo’s status as a prince. Even if the Third Hokage was willing, the higher-ups of Konoha wouldn’t necessarily agree. 

Being a Hokage’s disciple carries a special significance. 

So at most, if he needed it, Konoha would offer some jutsu as a token of thanks, much like the second option the Hokage had just presented.

Thus, the first point alone doesn’t fully explain it—it merely laid the groundwork.

Second, the situation in Konoha is currently not very favorable. The Third Hokage’s disciple, Orochimaru, led the Sound ninja in an alliance with the Sand ninja to attack Konoha and even killed the Fourth Kazekage.

If, as in the original storyline, the Third Hokage had died in this conflict to save Konoha, nearly taking Orochimaru down with him, then there wouldn’t be much to say. 

But since he survived, as the Hokage of Konoha, he naturally has to bear the consequences. Internally, he heard that Danzo criticized the Third Hokage at a meeting that afternoon, again bringing up the Hokage’s decision to let Orochimaru go due to a moment of weakness in the past.

Danzo even suggested that the Third Hokage was no longer fit to continue as Hokage, although this was temporarily dismissed by the two advisors.

This issue seems to have been deliberately leaked to the villagers, likely by Danzo’s people, and it indeed stirred up some discontent among them.

If the Third Hokage had killed Orochimaru back then, today’s events might never have happened.

And with Leo being the one who saved most of the Konoha ninjas and villagers, now the most popular figure in Konoha, if the Third Hokage takes him as a disciple, leveraging everyone’s goodwill toward him, it could cleverly diffuse the villagers’ resentment.

The third point comes from external sources. This attack by Orochimaru caused significant upheaval, and it’s likely that the daimyo and nobles of the Land of Fire harbor some dissatisfaction with the Third Hokage.

However, if the Third Hokage takes him, the prince of the Land of Fire, as a disciple, it will greatly increase the daimyo’s favor toward the Hokage and help draw the daimyo closer again, leaving Danzo no room to exploit.

The fourth and final point is that although Orochimaru’s Konoha Invasion plan did not succeed, it still had a considerable impact, significantly lowering Konoha’s prestige across the entire ninja world.

If not handled properly, it could lead to war at any moment.

He himself has formidable strength, a healing ability comparable to Tsunade’s, and has only been learning ninjutsu for a year, with an extremely terrifying talent. With a little guidance to improve his ninjutsu skills, he would be a definite future Kage-level ninja.

Having such a disciple is incredibly advantageous for Konoha as a whole.

He is also a disciple of Chiriku, the head monk of the Fire Temple. Should a war break out, he could bring the monk-ninjas from the Fire Temple to assist.

These might be the real reasons the Third Hokage was willing to take him on as a disciple and hold a grand induction ceremony, with even the Konoha higher-ups not objecting.

However, these reasons didn’t bother him. People naturally use each other; one is only used because one has value. If the Third Hokage wants to use him to solve Konoha’s current predicament, he also wants to use the Third Hokage to strengthen his own power.

With his five-element chakra affinity, there’s probably no one more suitable than the Third Hokage to guide him in learning all kinds of ninjutsu.

Moreover, as an official disciple of the Third Hokage, he would have the opportunity to learn many jutsu.

Even though he had snatched the Scroll of Seals, it only contained five forbidden jutsu. Many of Konoha’s powerful jutsu weren’t recorded in the Scroll of Seals.

Forbidden jutsu are those that can potentially pose great danger upon learning, like the Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu—if someone with insufficient chakra tries to learn it, they might die from chakra depletion while creating clones.

The Eight Gates Technique leads to death if all gates are opened, and the Mutual Multiplication Explosive Tags technique is uncontrollable and usually ends up killing the user as well.

Many of Konoha’s highly powerful jutsu are not forbidden techniques; they’re just difficult to learn, so few have mastered them, which is why they’re not recorded in the Scroll of Seals.

For example, the space-time ninjutsu Flying Thunder God, which earned the Fourth Hokage his title of “Yellow Flash.”

Does Leo want to learn the Flying Thunder God Technique?

Of course, he does. His Apparition has a distance limit, and there’s about a one-second delay when casting it.

For wizards with average physical abilities, this isn’t an issue, but for physically strong ninjas, this one-second pause could easily lead to problems if they’re too close.

That’s why he never foolishly Apparates behind Orochimaru to launch an attack; he only does so against ninjas who aren’t skilled in taijutsu.

But the Flying Thunder God Technique has no pause time. Minato used it to kill fifty ninjas in an instant, showing that even if it has a cooldown, the cooldown time is incredibly short.

Additionally, the Flying Thunder God has no distance limitations. As long as the technique’s mark is placed somewhere or carried somewhere, the caster can sense it and teleport there.

Besides learning ninjutsu, if he becomes strong enough in the future, the position of Hokage isn’t out of reach for him.

Not being from Konoha, he could never truly become Hokage, but with the right title, sufficient strength, and the approval of most ninjas and villagers, becoming Hokage becomes a possibility.

And if he were to become Hokage, the daimyo and nobles of the Land of Fire would undoubtedly support him.

However, the Third Hokage and Konoha’s higher-ups certainly wouldn’t allow him to become Hokage.

But once he has his foot in the door, it won’t be up to them to decide.

Of course, these are thoughts for the future. For now, he just wants to learn as much ninjutsu as possible from the Third Hokage.

The next morning, Konoha held a memorial service. Despite Leo’s efforts, saving most of the severely injured Konoha ninjas, quite a few ninjas had still died on the battlefield.

In the afternoon, the Third Hokage indeed announced that Leo would be his fourth official disciple and even held a ceremony in front of the villagers.

Aside from a small number of people like Danzo, most of the ninjas and villagers were very pleased with this.

After the ceremony, Leo, along with the nobles of the Land of Fire and Konoha’s higher-ups, headed to the capital of the Land of Fire to report to the daimyo on the events that had transpired in Konoha over the past few days and discuss the next steps.

Before leaving Konoha, Leo secretly met with the spy Kabuto, who still hadn’t exposed his identity.

…

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