"Interview with Ninjas? That name… is that really okay?"
Naruto watched the new program from start to finish, paying close attention. He flipped through Karin's notes — The Charm of Editing, In the Blink of an Eye, Invisible Editing — and saw how hard Karin had been working.
The program felt a bit raw, transitions awkward, but everything essential was there. Naruto nodded, jotted a few notes on a blank sheet, and told Karin to revise the show at her discretion when she woke.
"Don't wake her yet," he told the TV staff. "When she wakes, show her my notes and let her decide what to change. Also—keep working. Bring the ninja world better shows."
"Got it."
Naruto left the TV building. The Chūnin Exam preliminaries were over and the official contestants were set: twelve players.
Konoha had five: Rock Lee, Aburame Shino, Inuzuka Kiba, Akimichi Chōji, and Kohiyama.
Cloud Village had two: Omoi and Yurui.
Iwagakure: one — the Black Soil team.
Kirigakure: two — Ghost-lantern Shuiyue and Longjuro.
Sunagakure: two — Gaara and Temari.
When the teams walked out of the Forest of Death's central tower, the Iwagakure jōnin (Loess and Wen Ya) wore sour expressions as if someone had swindled them out of a fortune. Only one of their genin had made the cut. Even Sunagakure had two—did that mean Iwagakure had fallen behind?
A trail of genin followed the two disgruntled jōnin back to their station, bracing for a storm of scolding when they returned.
"Hey—there's a whole world out there beyond what you know!" one of the Cloud jōnin said, trying to cheer them up. His face was frosty but his tone gentle; if he were in full form he'd have been harsher.
Karui and Aziyi felt embarrassed and awkward. Their coach was clearly trying to spare them humiliation. The jōnin on the side, meanwhile, was already calculating how to report these results to Raikage-sama—this would be a hassle to explain.
"Iwagakure only has one finalist? Huh. Cloud, we did okay with our teams. Send Konoha's details to Azabuyi for the Raikage report," the jōnin said, doing his duty and putting on a smile.
Elsewhere, Kirigakure's Terumi Mei was pleased. Two finalists wasn't bad — a respectable showing after the village reforms — and the watermelon-mountain-pufferfish jōnin nodded in satisfaction.
Sunagakure's jōnin Baki was at a loss. He glanced at Gaara with curiosity. In recent matches, Gaara's lethality appeared restrained. Instead of crushing opponents outright, Gaara had been wounding them just enough to force a concession. That was a softer Gaara than Baki remembered.
"If that damn monster hadn't shown up, I would've swept through…" Kankuro muttered, sulking. He'd lost to Shino, whose bugs and chakra absorption had stymied him.
"Win or lose, you lost. Don't dwell on it," Temari snapped, though Kankuro remained miserable—recognizing the gap between him and Shino.
Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Third Hokage, addressed the five finalists: "Good job. Use the next month to train. Come back stronger for the third test."
"All right, Hokage-sama!" the five answered in unison.
With the exam nearly two months' work behind them, Hiruzen beamed. Konoha hadn't taken half the slots, but it had come close — a dominating result against the other four major villages. For a time, the village returned to its normal rhythm.
"Ha! Pervert!" "A pervert peeper—long white hair!" "If I catch you I'll—"
Screams rang out from a hot spring house in Konoha. Chaos erupted for a moment as a figure slipped away, elusive as a loach.
A tall white-haired man crouched in a corner, muttering in frustration. He'd been caught peeking five times today—unusual even for him. Still, he wasn't deterred; there were plenty of hot springs in Konoha.
"Hey hey—" he muttered again.
At another hot spring, the same white-haired man grinned wickedly at his hidden vantage point. Then a fist smashed through the wooden panel and hit him square in the face. Blood spurted; he flew out of the bathhouse, still squinting at the hole.
"It's Tsunade!" he groaned as she kicked him again and again, while Shizune trotted along behind, clutching the little pig. Tsunade's hands were not gentle.
One of the legendary Sannin—Jiraiya, the Toad Sage—was at the hot springs, and his face was swollen from punishment. Tsunade hauled him out and threw him into a stream like trash. He scrambled to his feet and rubbed his face; the puffiness faded quick as ever.
"Oh—wait, is that the famous Jiraiya? The Toad Sage? Finally I see it!" someone exclaimed.
"Jiraiya! Konoha Sannin—gambling and drugs? I've seen everything now," someone else cackled. The rumor got twisted into a joke: Konoha's famous Sannin, gambling and doing drugs.
Jiraiya choked on that, and Tsunade nearly gagged at the mischaracterization. Konoha's reputation getting tangled up with vices—what a mess.
But behind the laughter and punishment, there was an edge of truth: the village had its sins, its secrets, its fallen heroes. The surface bustle of festivals and exams hid undercurrents the size of storms.
And Naruto? He watched all of this and cracked the faintest of smiles. Konoha had problems—big, messy, human ones—but it was still his home. He'd clean up what he could, in his own way, and make sure the village kept breathing, no matter how rough things got.
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