Naruto: The King Behind the Curtain

"Look, those are Rain Country ninjas."

"That person is a Seinin (Star Ninja) from Bear Country!"

"Even Cloud Village came. They won't be easy to deal with!"

As time passed, more and more foreign ninjas appeared in Konoha.

The news about the Joint Chunin Exam gradually spread.

Most Konoha villagers welcomed this event joyfully—after all, hosting such a grand Chunin Exam was a symbol of national strength!

At this moment, several Konoha genins were whispering in a tavern:

"Where are Sand Hidden people now?"

"I took the shortcut here. They should arrive in about two minutes."

"What about Cloud Hidden?"

"Probably three minutes."

"All actors are ready. Asuma, it's your showtime!"

"Cursed, why do I have to play such an idiotic role?"

"Really? It suits your style perfectly!"

"What? Have I always been like this in your eyes?"

"It's called wisdom disguised as foolishness! At least for other villages, this behavior fits your image perfectly," Ibiki urged, "No time left. Get on stage now!"

Grumbling unhappily, Asuma muttered as he stepped onto the street but immediately got into character.

"Hey you, bandana guy! You Baki from Sunagakure?"

The Sand Hidden group, who had been chatting happily, stopped walking and turned their heads sideways. There stood a delinquent-looking guy with a cigarette in his mouth.

Baki frowned slightly and replied coldly, "Yes, that's me."

"I heard you're the strongest one in Sunagakure? You look pretty ordinary!" Asuma shrugged under glaring gazes from the Sand Hidden ninjas. "Just calling it like I see it."

"You bastard!"

Just then, several Cloud Hidden ninjas happened to walk to the crossroads from another path.

"Eh? Seems like something interesting is happening!" Yugito excitedly pulled her companion through the crowd. "Samui, let's go check it out too!"

"No way, this isn't cool at all!" Samui resisted but was dragged along anyway.

Baki stopped his subordinates from rushing forward, asking, "Did you come all the way here just to provoke me with that mouth of yours?"

Asuma proudly pointed his thumb at himself, "My name is Asuma Sarutobi. I'm the second strongest among Konoha's genins!"

"The Third Hokage's son?" Baki naturally knew about this opponent but still found it hard to believe in his heart.

"Hmph! Someday, you'll be calling me 'Asuma Sarutobi's father'!" Asuma declared rebelliously.

"Just as described in the intelligence report!" Baki twitched his lips slightly. "Did you come here specifically to say these things to me?"

Asuma impatiently waved his hand, "Because some ignorant guys claimed the top five most famous ninja villages represent the five strongest participants in this Chunin Exam."

"But I think certain village's number one might not even match Konoha's number two... Hmm, maybe they couldn't even beat someone like Ibiki, who ranks around a hundredth in Konoha!"

From a distance, Kurenai looked at Ibiki in surprise, "That's brutal. Your own script insults you too?"

Ibiki, with a dark expression, said, "He added that line himself."

"Tell us clearly—who exactly are you talking about?"

Asuma put on an exaggerated sigh. "Do I really have to spell it out? I'm talking about Sunagakure where the Kage's gone missing, Cloud rushing kids through graduation, and Iwagakure where jonin can't even beat genin..."

Yugito, who had been watching from the crowd, immediately turned furious. She leapt forward with a snarl, "You bastard! How dare you look down on Cloud!"

Asuma acted surprised for a second before lazily yawning, "Sorry, but I don't do conversations with rookie ninjas like you."

"You damn— I'll knock your teeth down your throat!"

Baki narrowed his eyes. "Let me handle this first!"

"I called him out first!"

"He came at me first!"

Asuma gave them a disdainful look. "You two? Seriously?"

"You..."

As tensions flared and blades were half-drawn, a calm voice suddenly cut in.

"Sorry everyone, Asuma has caused you all some trouble."

"Hey, Seiki, I didn't actually start anything with them!"

"That's him? The Seiki Shimaseki?" Yugito and Baki both thought in shock as they looked at the tall young man speaking. Handsome, gentle, and fresh as sunlight—he inspired instant liking at first glance.

They quickly snapped back to their senses. "Wait, what do you mean 'didn't start anything with us'?"

Asuma cracked his knuckles. "You really wanna get punched, huh?"

Seiki gently pressed his shoulder. "Starting fights without reason before the exams could get you disqualified."

"What are you implying? That we'd lose to him?"

Shaking his hands frantically, Seiki replied, "Of course not! You must be incredibly strong to have earned representation for your villages!"

"Then let him fight us!"

Looking genuinely surprised, Seiki said, "Two against one? Well that's..."

Provoked by Seiki's words, Yugito and Baki exploded again. "We meant one-on-one!"

Seiki appeared troubled before finally smiling bitterly. "How about we choose something less violent then?"

"Though the exact challenges change each year in the Chunin Exams, the general locations usually stay the same. Why don't we race through Death Forest—whoever finishes fastest wins?"

Unwilling to risk disqualification, Yugito and Baki gritted their teeth and eventually agreed.

"Just wait—I'll definitely win!"

...

After calming things down, Asuma couldn't help laughing out loud.

"Haha, everything went smoothly indeed!"

"Yeah, thanks mainly to their jōnin instructors not coming along."

"They're dozens of teams after all—those instructors couldn't possibly follow them around constantly," Asuma naturally explained.

"Exactly. Otherwise, how else are they gonna gather intel?" Seiki slightly shook his head.

"Eh? Gathering intel?"

"You think they came here so innocently? Agreeing to hold this competition in Konoha—most likely, they wanted to gather intel on our military deployments."

"So what do we do? Should we warn Lord Third and others quickly?"

"Do you seriously think Hokage-sama and the others haven't already considered that?" 

"Eh?"

"Why agree then?" Asuma asked, bewildered.

"Of course it's because we don't have any military presence at all!" Seiki chuckled softly.

"What? What? What?"

"Don't worry. By now, it's already too late for them to realize. On one hand, the ninja who came to participate in the Chunin Exams are essentially hostages; on the other hand, Konoha's preparations should be nearly complete by now. In short, they've already missed the best timing to act."

Asuma gave him a strange look. "Then aren't they about to get furious right now?"

Seiki sighed, "They probably didn't expect Konoha's military preparedness to fall off this badly either."

Shaking his head, Asuma pushed aside such complicated thoughts. "By the way, Seiki, if you're aiming to expand our influence, why not bring Mist and Stone into this as well? If we defeat all four major ninja villages at once, it'll definitely be more effective when we try to win over those smaller ninja villages afterward, right?"

Seiki raised his fingers one by one. "First, coming across too many ninja villages at once could easily raise suspicion. Besides, after hearing about these competitions, they might feel disrespected and volunteer to join us themselves."

"Second, who said I intended to win against them anyway?"

Asuma was taken aback. "You don't plan to win?"

Seiki nodded slightly. "Showcasing our strength should be saved for the final official match. With this tournament, I just don't want them interfering with my plans."

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