Upon returning to the Hokage Office, Takuno still hadn't made a decision, intending to take things one step at a time, perhaps then he would know whether or not to save the couple who made so many Hokage fans sigh with regret.
He gave a brief report on this mission, as he hadn't seen much; the real report should come from Kakashi once he awakened.
"Is that so? So Rin Nohara couldn't be saved after all?" The Third Hokage sighed.
He was saddened by the death of his villager, but more than that, he was worried. He naturally knew Kakashi's past.
He had entrusted him to Minato back then precisely to save this genius. Now, it seemed the situation might become even more serious... If Kakashi were truly ruined by this, it would be a major loss for the entire Konoha!
The Third Hokage took a deep, headache-ridden drag from his pipe, the white smoke shrouding his expression.
It was truly troublesome. For now, he could only trust Minato to save him.
"I understand the process now. The mission... is considered complete. Your reward will also be given according to A-rank mission standards. Now you won't have to take on missions so late, will you?" The Third Hokage found some humor in his predicament, teasing Takuno.
Missions like these, which belonged solely to the village, naturally required expenditure from the village's finances.
"Yes," Takuno nodded. Currently, he could choose to take missions or not.
At present, he still had many things to research, such as the Mind's Eye of Kagura, a sensory ability of the Uzumaki, and the study of Wind Release and Lightning Release Ninjutsu should also be put on the agenda. There were still many things he could do.
So, he was not in a hurry to merge with a second Kekkei Genkai.
"Then, Hokage-sama, it's getting late. I'll head back now. Hokage-sama should also rest early," Takuno said. He had arrived at the Hokage Office quite late, and then this unexpected turn of events occurred.
So the Third Hokage hadn't rested either, and by now, it was indeed deep into the night.
"Haha, alright, you go on back," the Third Hokage said gently.
After Takuno left, the Third Hokage let out a deep sigh. With no one else around, his face finally showed signs of exhaustion. Many things seemed to have gone beyond his control.
This made him feel mentally drained. Was it time to pass on this position to the next generation?
As he pondered this, his gaze seemed to fall upon two distinct figures.
One was his disciple, Orochimaru, who was eerily cold, terrifying, and unapproachable.
The other was his grand-disciple, Minato, who was always full of sunshine, well-liked, highly regarded, and powerful enough.
Comparing the two in his mind, the Third Hokage slowly made his choice.
If there were no Minato, perhaps Orochimaru would be the only choice, as the qualified candidates were all his disciples.
However, Tsunade and Jiraiya had no interest in this position, and Tsunade also suffered from hemophobia, a psychological illness fatal to medical ninja, while Jiraiya was accustomed to being a wanderer and had no desire to be bound by the Hokage position.
Therefore, if there were no Minato, even if Orochimaru was unsuitable, he would still have to choose him. He couldn't possibly choose Danzo, could he? He wasn't any younger than him!
But with Minato, everything was different. Compared to Orochimaru, Minato had almost all virtues and none of Orochimaru's flaws!
"Let's wait until the war is completely over," the Third Hokage decided... Meanwhile, Takuno felt the Three-Tails Chakra within him. At this moment, he could not be considered a Jinchuriki, nor did he have the Three-Tails within him, only a portion of the Three-Tails Chakra.
Now, he began to mobilize his Chakra, pouring it into the seal.
The purpose of doing this was, of course, to cultivate the Three-Tails Chakra. Although the Three-Tails Chakra he had collected was not small, it was still not enough compared to the Chakra of a complete Three-Tails.
And this involved the question of how to cultivate Tailed Beast Chakra, which was not too difficult to solve.
In the original work, the Nine-Tails Chakra within Sora's body was cultivated by his father, Kazuma, from a leaked trace of Nine-Tails Chakra to the extent that it could erupt with six tails.
Of course, although he continued to rampage afterward and was then pacified by Uzumaki Naruto's Talk no Jutsu, Takuno estimated it would be at most a seventh tail, perhaps six tails was already the limit.
Besides Sora, Orochimaru also cultivated a huge Eight-Tails horn from fragments of an Eight-Tails horn.
Therefore, Tailed Beast Chakra could definitely be cultivated.
This matter was not difficult, and Takuno could research it easily. He was not Kazuma; his mastery of Sealing Jutsu was much higher than his.
He wouldn't grow an extra monster's hand, nor would he randomly go berserk.
It should be said that Sora wouldn't randomly go berserk either; his rampages were the result of his father's deliberate guidance.
However, keeping Tailed Beast Chakra sealed within one's body, especially when accumulating enough of it, was not a good thing, so it was naturally necessary to find a suitable storage object.
Takuno's gaze turned to the distance, in the direction of the Land of Rain.
There were Jiraiya's three disciples there. He had originally thought that obtaining the Chimera Technique first would make him miss that event.
But now it seemed that Danzo had not yet teamed up with Hanzo the Salamander to frame the Akatsuki Organization, so there was still time.
Unfortunately, Takuno did not know much about the situation there. He had indeed used crows to find traces of the Akatsuki Organization, but... Nagato's Rinnegan, even if acquired later, was not for show. His crows were discovered by him, and the result was imaginable.
Therefore, it was not so easy for him to use crows to monitor the Akatsuki Organization's movements now.
In addition, Danzo and Hanzo the Salamander were not easy to monitor. Sending crows once was fine, but if the number of times or the duration increased, they would almost certainly be discovered.
Not everyone was as crude and weak as Hiruko.
But then again, if Hiruko wasn't weak, he wouldn't have researched the Chimera Technique to become stronger.
As for Danzo, you could say he was bad, but you couldn't say he was weak.
He was able to use Wind Release to beat a power-up Sasuke to such an extent, with Wind Release cutting Susanoo. Although it wasn't a high-stage Susanoo, who would have thought before then that Wind Release could cut Susanoo?
And if Sasuke hadn't had comrades, he might have truly succeeded.
Then there was Hanzo, who was called a Demigod. His reputation was well-deserved, and his abilities should not be underestimated.
So Takuno could only monitor the movements of the Rain Ninja. Whenever they proposed a meeting with the Akatsuki Organization, that would be when he would head to the Hidden Rain Village.
As for his goal? The Rinnegan was impossible, but... he could take a part of other things!