Saying she was a secretary was not entirely accurate. As Hokage, Tsunade had a large team of assistants helping her handle various matters. Otherwise, with so many affairs concentrated on one person, she would never be able to finish the work even if she stayed in the office day and night without sleep.

Someone like Nara Shikaku, Shikamaru’s father, also had a team under him as the Hokage’s advisor, let alone the Hokage herself.

Shikaku himself was considered part of the Hokage’s team and was responsible for assisting with military affairs.

Then there were the two advisors, Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura, who mainly assisted the Hokage in handling the village’s political matters.

In addition, a large number of Chunin and Jonin helped the Hokage manage ninja-related affairs in the village, such as mission posting, reward distribution, and mission acceptance.

Ethan remembered that in the original plot, Tsunade’s disciple Shizune always acted as a sort of secretary. In reality, Shizune’s job was to collect work that had already been largely processed by those below her and bring it to Tsunade. Tsunade would then approve documents that already had proposed solutions, and make decisions on matters where multiple options were presented.

Although most of the time Tsunade only needed to stamp documents, the combined workload of the entire Hidden Leaf Village was still a terrifying amount.

"So I have to sit here and stamp things with you?"

Shizune was responsible for communication between the Hokage and the assistant teams, while Ethan was assigned to the office to help Tsunade with various miscellaneous tasks, such as sorting, organizing, large-scale data statistics, and some very tedious manual labor, mainly stamping.

"It’s just that a lot of work has piled up recently, so I need help."

The Third Hokage had been preparing to retire earlier, and a lot of work was temporarily set aside, waiting for the new Hokage to take over. As a result, many matters had accumulated.

Now that the Fifth Hokage had officially taken office, this backlog could no longer be left unattended.

However, after taking office, the Hokage could not stay in the office all day. She needed to go out and make appearances so that the villagers could recognize their new leader, and also to become more familiar with the village itself.

These duties limited the time Tsunade could spend in the office, while the accumulated work urgently needed to be dealt with, so she grabbed Ethan to help.

"Anyway, it’s simple work, just a bit tedious."

Ethan looked at the stacks of documents piled higher than himself. This huge pile was all waiting to be stamped. Even if stamping was mindless work, was this really just a bit tedious? It was exhausting.

By late at night, Tsunade collapsed into her chair as if all the strength had been drained from her body, staring blankly at the ceiling with a look of despair.

"Finally finished."

Ethan, who was beside her, had finished much earlier. Tsunade only gave him very straightforward tasks, while documents requiring detailed instructions or decisions had to be handled by her personally.

After finishing his work, Ethan made himself a cup of hot tea and slowly sipped it while sitting there.

"Maybe I should add some goji berries."

Through the nearby window, most of the Hidden Leaf Village was dark, with only a few lights still on. Some residential areas were completely dark, and ordinary people would have long since fallen asleep.

The Hokage building had slightly more lights, including the Hokage’s office.

This had been the norm for the past few days, sometimes even working through the night into the next day, then continuing until late again. Today was already considered relatively easy.

"Well, I’ll head back now."

After finishing his tea, Ethan tidied his desk, casually said goodbye to Tsunade, and left.

Tsunade clearly had not recovered yet. More than physical fatigue, she was mentally exhausted. The work itself was not difficult, but the sheer volume was irritating. The old her would never have tolerated this kind of thing.

But after becoming Hokage, a sense of responsibility and mission weighed heavily on her. She forced herself to deal with everything diligently, and so far she had not complained once.

After leaving the building, Ethan originally planned to walk back slowly, but suddenly sensed something and immediately activated the Flying Thunder God Technique.

At this moment, Tsunade was still slumped in her chair, but she was no longer alone in the office. Jiraiya had somehow appeared and was sitting on Ethan’s desk, looking at the exhausted Tsunade.

"I never thought I’d see you like this."

Tsunade did not bother responding. Even she herself had never imagined such a day.

Back then, among the Sannin, Orochimaru had been the smartest and most talented in ninjutsu. At the time, both Tsunade and Jiraiya believed Orochimaru would become Hokage.

"Things really are unpredictable. By the way, why did you come over today? Aren’t you still teaching Naruto?"

After returning to the village, Tsunade took over as Hokage, while Jiraiya once again refused the advisors’ suggestion that he stay in the village to assist her.

Instead, he continued focusing on teaching Naruto. Besides Naruto being the son of his disciple Minato, Jiraiya also saw his younger self reflected in him. Now, he not only wanted to protect Naruto from the Akatsuki, but also truly wanted to train him into a capable ninja.

"Naruto wants to completely master the Rasengan, so it’s not suitable to teach him new things for now. As for practical combat experience, having that Uchiha kid as an opponent is enough."

The power gap between Jiraiya and Naruto was too large, making sparring meaningless. At best, it would only be feeding techniques.

Moreover, after learning that Sasuke was also training with weights, Naruto began wearing them as well. With his speed and explosiveness restricted, even feeding techniques became difficult. It was better to let those two youngsters train together.

Watching the two of them grow rapidly was actually a strong stimulus for the aging Jiraiya, so he did not stay with them all the time. When free, he would wander around the village under the pretext of gathering material.

"By the way, why did you make Ethan do odd jobs for you?"

"No particular reason." Tsunade straightened a little, resting her cheek on one hand with her eyes closed, as if pretending to nap. "I just find that arrogant brat annoying."

"I’m afraid you find more than just that brat annoying, don’t you?"

Ethan becoming the Hokage’s assistant surprised many people. The most dissatisfied were not Ethan himself, but the two advisors, Koharu and Homura.

However, Tsunade had just taken office and was only asking a Chunin to help her. The two advisors did not feel it appropriate to object immediately, so even though they were unhappy, they did not take what they considered overly excessive action.

"Hmph, always pointing fingers and acting like old geezers."

If not for the fact that those two truly served the village and had not done anything too outrageous, Tsunade would have already exploded. Did they really think she had a good temper?

Compared to them, that Shimura Danzo was even worse.

At first, Tsunade thought Ethan’s hostility toward Danzo came from youthful dislike of the village’s dark side. But after dealing with Danzo herself, she also had the urge to punch that old man in the face. It was no wonder Ethan felt that way.

"In this regard, I can’t help you."

Jiraiya knew his own temperament. He simply could not deal with such messy affairs, which was why he firmly refused the position of Hokage.

Facing those troubles was worse than fighting the Akatsuki to the death.

"I know you can’t help much. Speaking of which, how to arrange that brat next is quite a headache."

The accumulated work was almost finished. Ethan could continue to stay under the title of assistant, but that seemed like a waste of his abilities.

Sending him out on ordinary missions also felt excessive. Tsunade had no clear plan yet and could only take things one step at a time, or perhaps ask Ethan what he wanted tomorrow.

At this moment, the person causing Tsunade such a headache was sitting on a rooftop, watching the show.

When he left the Hokage building earlier, he sensed that the Uchiha compound had been invaded. Given the timing, Ethan immediately knew who it was.

The Sound Four.

Using the Flying Thunder God Technique to return to the compound, he indeed saw the Sound Four.

Unlike the original plot where Sasuke was suppressed by them, Sasuke, after removing his weights, displayed remarkable strength. With Naruto also joining in instead of just watching, the two working together made the Sound Four, who had not yet activated their Cursed Marks, look extremely clumsy.

Seeing this, Ethan was in no hurry to reveal himself. Constantly facing Ethan as an opponent made it hard for Sasuke to clearly perceive his own growth.

The arrival of the Sound Four was perfectly timed. Once Sasuke realized how much his strength had increased through this training method, he would become even more determined to stay in the Hidden Leaf and continue under Ethan’s guidance, rather than being lured away by Orochimaru.

Reality unfolded much as Ethan expected. Although Sasuke had trained diligently according to Ethan’s instructions, sparring only with Ethan or Naruto made it difficult for him to sense how much stronger he had become.

Wearing weights for a long time meant he rarely had the chance to unleash his full power, so he did not know his current limits.

This situation was special. Ethan had also told him to be flexible in real combat. So when Sasuke realized the enemies were targeting him, he decisively removed his weights and immediately activated his Sharingan.

"This is the perfect chance to test my strength."

(To be continued.)

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◇ One bonus Chapter will be released for every 200 Power Stones.

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