Aoki, facing Rasa's very reasonable request, couldn't refuse. He grunted a reply:
"Fine. Be on time tomorrow!"
And with that, Aoki turned and left without another word.
The thought of becoming Kazekage soon made his blood race with excitement.
In the past, he had always been suppressed by the formidable Third Kazekage.
Aoki once believed he'd spend his whole life under the Third's shadow.
But who would've thought—the Third Kazekage suddenly disappeared, and was likely already dead!
With him gone, and only the elderly Chiyo siblings remaining…
Sure, there were two or three others in the village with similar strength to his.
But in a real life-or-death fight?
Aoki was confident—he'd come out on top.
So, if he could be the first to defeat Rasa, the strongest of the younger generation—
That would give him the edge in the race for the Fourth Kazekage seat!
Thinking about this, Aoki began fantasizing about his future as Kazekage, a broad, hearty smile spreading across his rugged face.
Though Sunagakure was the poorest among the Five Great Villages…
And though the Kazekage had less power than other Kage…
Being heavily constrained financially by the Wind Daimyō and politically by the elder council…
And though the past three Kazekage hadn't exactly met happy endings…
Aoki still felt—
It'd be way better than remaining a plain old jonin!
Being Kazekage was dangerous—
But was being a jonin now not dangerous?
______________________
Rasa silently watched Aoki's broad back retreat into the distance, then shook his head.
In the original story, he had no memory of any Jonin named Aoki ever being mentioned.
There was only one conclusion:
This Aoki probably died during the Third Great Ninja War.And since he had no connections to the protagonist group, his deeds were forgotten by history.
Rasa glanced at the growing crowd of shinobi, then turned. He gave Karura a brief farewell and began walking back toward his residence.
At the moment, he only had 370 skill points—so top-tier combat items were out of the question.
Still, from the memories he had inherited, Aoki was a peak jonin. Maybe even stronger than Baki would be more than a decade later.
But Rasa wasn't worried.He had the system, after all.
Shameless as it sounded, the system was part of his strength now. As long as he returned quickly and used his remaining skill points to redeem relationship-boosting items, he could start racking up favorability.
Between tonight and tomorrow morning, he should be able to accumulate thousands of skill points.
That wouldn't be enough to unlock the Eternal Mangekyō or Rinnegan…
But definitely enough for something good.
After all, he had only skimmed the first 100 items on page 1 of the system store.
There were 9 trillion pages in total.
That meant 90 trillion things he could potentially redeem.
"A sparring match, huh? That brat Aoki always had ambitions for the Kazekage seat. Looks like he finally found his chance."
In the heart of Sunagakure, in a dimly lit, unassuming room, Chiyo sat with an expressionless face.
"Heh. Sister, Aoki's always liked playing clever games," said Elder Ebizō, seated beside her, a mild smile on his lips.
But a closer look at his cloudy eyes revealed not a shred of mirth.
"That's also why, despite his decent talent," Ebizō continued, "his strength has never truly broken through."
After all, the two siblings had made their stance clear earlier regarding Rasa's candidacy. And no one at that meeting had objected.
Yet Aoki had challenged Rasa publicly the moment the meeting ended.
Such a sly move was nothing less than a blatant challenge to their authority.
"Do you wish me to go warn Jonin Aoki?"
A soft voice rang out from the shadows of the room.
The speaker was a woman dressed in a black coat and wearing a rabbit mask.
Even with the coat hiding her figure, her silhouette spoke of impressive curves. She stood tall at 1.7 meters, clad in mid-heeled black shoes.
Her feet, just visible beneath the coat hem, were smooth and white—flawless, unmarred by even a single vein.
Even in the dim room, her skin seemed to glow faintly, her ankles delicate, snow-pure and elegant.
The only visible skin besides her feet was her slender neck, marked with distinct puppet-user face patterns.
A puppeteer—and clearly not a low-level one.
Chiyo was silent for a moment before shaking her head.
"No. Aoki's challenge was fair, and Rasa accepted. We have no reason to interfere. And even if we did, it wouldn't change anything. Dissenters will still dissent."
Ebizō sighed."If Rasa had refused at the time, we might've stepped in with a good excuse. But he agreed—on the spot."
He shook his head, clearly feeling a little regret on Rasa's behalf.
After all, a Kage didn't necessarily have to be the strongest in the village…
But he did need to be among the top tier—at least top five or six.
Otherwise, his authority simply wouldn't hold.