Naruto: The King Behind the Curtain

"Seiki, do you think we've completed the old man's mission like this?" Asuma mumbled quietly on the way.

"How could it be that easy?" Seiki shook his head. "Just like they said themselves, the positions of those small countries won't change just because of these Genin."

Hearing this, Asuma felt depressed. "Then aren't we working for nothing?"

Beside him, Kurenai gently tapped her delicate chin with her index finger. "I think the main point is to convey our attitude?"

Seiki slightly nodded. "Many factors determine a country's political stance—the most important naturally being its displayed military strength and economy, which Hokage-sama will handle personally. Although the image and attitude we project can't play a decisive role, in situations where both sides are equal, it can still affect their inclinations."

Asuma thoughtfully nodded.

Smiling, Seiki added, "What else we can do is show our potential and make those small countries realize—the future clearly belongs to Konoha!"

"Great! Then let's win this Chunin Exams—" Asuma was saying confidently when suddenly, a violent explosion erupted around them.

The ground trembled and a blast of searing heat rushed past, momentarily dazing both Asuma and Kurenai.

"Opportunity!" Zabuza rushed forward at maximum speed. While charging, he still had time to form hand seals, creating two water clones.

He never expected those pre-planted Explosive Tags to injure his opponents—just needed them to draw a momentary distraction.

Zabuza's original body initiated the [Great Waterfall Technique] to divide the three opponents, while the two clones swiftly trapped Asuma and Kurenai—who were still recovering from the explosion—in [Water Prisons]!

Seiki leapt upward, stepping onto a tree trunk to dodge the attack. "[Water Prison Technique?]"

Zabuza's eyes turned cold. "They'll suffocate inside the water prison within one minute. If you want to save them, you must defeat me within that minute!"

Even though he'd already drained a lot of Seiki's chakra earlier, Zabuza still didn't feel fully secure—which is exactly why he had come up with this strategy.

Firstly, remove the threat from those two, restoring the battle back into one-on-one; secondly, disturb Seiki's focus, making him make mistakes under an impatient mindset.

As for defeating him within a minute?

In Zabuza's opinion, unless Seiki could immediately enter that state again without any prior preparation...

Otherwise, he was definitely going to win!

Far away, Shidotatsu was filled with horror. "Splitting into two water clones to create water prisons while his original body still unleashes such powerful A-ranked Ninjutsu—this guy is truly a monster! That previous chase was just playtime for him—he hasn't even shown real strength yet!"

While horrified, he also noticed something odd. "Wait, according to my brilliant analysis, shouldn't that [Seiki] just be an imitation?"

In the forest clearing...

"Since you're so eager to die, I'll have to grant your request then!" Seiki's eyes remained calm as he pulled out a handful of shuriken from his tool pouch, launching them in all directions toward Zabuza like a blooming flower rain.

"Throwing Jutsu? Is your chakra so low now that you can't even use proper techniques anymore?"

Zabuza mocked as he knocked down all the shuriken.

Seiki's right fingertip flicked as if strumming invisible harp strings hanging in the air. The fallen shuriken on the ground lifted again and swarmed around Zabuza like a storm, launching an attack.

Meanwhile, his left hand began forming one-handed seals.

In the next instant, ten of Seiki's shadow clones materialized around him.

Zabuza noticed this too, but didn't take it seriously. He was simply surprised that Seiki still had chakra remaining.

[Flying Thunder God - Chaotic Slash!]

All the Seikis vanished at once. Then, under Zabuza's disbelieving gaze, they reappeared exactly where those shuriken had been.

Seiki... Seiki... Seiki...

Seiki - Zabuza - Seiki

Seiki... Seiki... Seiki...

In this situation, he couldn't react at all. He could only watch helplessly as every Seiki held kunai knives aimed directly at him.

In a flash, Zabuza was skewered from all sides, kunai ripping into his body like hail.

"Puuh… So terrifying… This assassination… technique… If only I'd learned it earlier… might've… perfected… death itself..."

Zabuza mumbled to himself, before the light faded from his eyes.

"What ironclad willpower," Seiki murmured, shaking his head slightly. "A true shame..."

Shidotatsu watched Zabuza's gruesome demise with wide eyes, clamping a hand over his mouth and nose to stifle a gasp.

"Killed Zabuza in mere seconds? No way... seriously?! Why did I have to participate in the Chunin Exams alongside such a monster?"

Thinking about this sent a chill through Shidotatsu. "Thankfully that idiot Zabuza helped me test the waters or else I would've died here today... Wait, earlier sounded like Explosive Tags detonating. They wouldn't think it was me who set that off..."

Though the battle appeared somewhat complex, in reality, from when Zabuza activated the Explosive Tag to when he was finally killed by Seiki, it hadn't even lasted ten seconds total.

During this brief time span, some of the Rock ninja lying in ambush elsewhere happened to rush over.

"Kill them! Make Konoha suffer!"

"Aniki-Tamaki, leave one alive for us!"

The group of Rock ninjas eagerly rushed over after hearing the sound of Explosive Tags. However, when they arrived, there was no sign of Tamaki—just Seiki standing calm and composed, with Zabuza's lifeless body lying before him.

"Uh... That person looks... somewhat familiar?"

"Ha! There's no way someone like Zabuza could be... Ah! It actually seems to be him!"

The Rock ninjas charging forward with tanto blades and kunai weapons froze in place, staring at Seiki—who stood completely still—chills crawling up their spines.

Why does this situation feel... rather suspicious?

And where exactly is our big brother Tamaki?

At that moment, Asuma and Kurenai walked out from the shattered water prison.

"Damn it! That bastard Zabuza tricked us!" Asuma angrily exclaimed.

"I'm... very... furious."

Then both of them turned cold, angry stares toward the gathered Rock ninja.

"As far as I recall, aren't you guys working together with Zabuza?"

"You were just saying how you wanted to kill us!"

The Rock ninjas wore awkward expressions, slowly backing away.

"I believe there must've been some misunderstanding here!"

"Yeah, yeah! We were only joking around earlier!"

They were retreating in panic when, suddenly, from behind the tall tower, several Iwagakure ninjas who'd been hanging back finally appeared.

"Kill all the Konoha ninja!"

"Huh? Why haven't the follow-up explosive tags gone off? Watch me!"

At the sound of those voices, the Iwagakure ninjas' faces paled.

Before they could stop it, the explosion that had previously subsided once again spread toward the three Konoha ninja.

"Trying to trick us again!" Asuma and Kurenai thought angrily, without hesitation, launching into a massacre.

Soon, all the attacking Iwagakure ninjas were wiped out.

"Is this the best you've got, to ambush us like this?" Asuma muttered with disdain, then suddenly asked, "Wait a second, Seiki… did we get all of them?"

Shidotatsu, crouched in hiding, stiffened the moment he heard those words.

"After all, they're here in Konoha for the Chunin Exams. We should at least leave them some dignity." Seiki smiled while secretly thinking, "Already scared witless? This fear will leave such a deep psychological scar that he won't even try to resist my *genjutsu*! Someone like him might be more valuable alive."

Asuma and Kurenai didn't object, following Seiki toward the high tower.

Crouched behind the bush, Shidotatsu's legs gave out as terror gripped him. "It's... It's my fault they died. When I return to Iwagakure… No, wait, it was actually Zabuza who caused their deaths. It was the Konoha ninja who killed them… Nothing to do with me, absolutely nothing to do with me..."

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