While the Hokage's side, Hagoromo included, had gathered a handful of nobodies together for a meeting, Kakashi of the Copy—Dead Fish—Eye had already led his Team 7 off to the Land of Waves to open up new territory.
Broadly speaking, a small maritime nation like the Land of Waves was caught in the gap between Konoha and Kirigakure's spheres of influence. In terms of distance, it was closer to the Land of Fire, but if one were talking about which side could more conveniently reach out and interfere, then in practice, it was still Kirigakure.
After losing the Land of Whirlpools as its maritime foothold, Konoha had already given up competing for maritime influence on the overall strategic level. Especially after Konoha's strength declined during the three Shinobi World Wars, this strategy became even clearer. Such "concession" could undoubtedly improve relations between Konoha and Kirigakure. Even if a few frictions occurred, they would not affect the overall situation.
This time, Kakashi's team's mission was to protect a bridge builder from the Land of Waves and ensure his safety while he constructed the great bridge connecting the Land of Waves to the outside world.
This bridge held decisive significance for the country. Once the nation's closed-off transportation was changed, the poverty of this island country would also improve somewhat.
However, this was undoubtedly an act that would break the existing balance. The hidden mastermind controlling the country's economic lifeline did not want to see this happen…
In truth, though, that hidden mastermind had a hole in his brain. He had completely failed to consider that once the bridge was built, collecting bridge tolls would actually be even more profitable.
Under those circumstances, his control over the country's economy would not decrease. On the contrary, it would increase…
Because of this situation, Kakashi's team inevitably came into conflict with this hidden mastermind and the Kirigakure shinobi he had hired. However, the final result still ended in Team 7's victory.
Moreover, achieving this victory was not particularly difficult. In truth, Kakashi did not even have many chances to act, because the enemy was merely a chūnin squad. As for the fighting power of the enemy's samurai army, that could be ignored entirely. In this world, truly powerful samurai were basically just shinobi wearing samurai skins. The combat power of fighting units that could not use chakra was roughly equal to kelp.
Originally, this should have been where the first enemy to force Kakashi into a fifty-fifty fight, the Demon of the Hidden Mist, Momochi Zabuza, appeared…
But he did not.
That was perfectly normal. Right now, he was still properly serving Terumī Mei as her underling in Kirigakure. He had no time to carry out such a complicated series of activities.
In Hagoromo's story, from the time Zabuza had just graduated from the Ninja Academy as a brat, he had always been Terumī Mei's underling. After his big-sister boss became Mizukage ahead of schedule and began implementing relatively enlightened policies, he still remained willingly in the role of underling.
After all, Uchiha Obito had not blindly messed around in Kirigakure, so the village's situation was far better than it had been originally. Even after Kimimaro was abducted by Hagoromo, the Kaguya clan had gradually been pacified.
With the enemy being merely chūnin, Kakashi finally had more than eighty percent confidence before the fight began…
In terms of strength, Naruto, who had been trained in various ways since childhood, had no major problem dealing with a chūnin. However, he lacked real combat experience, so the battle still went back and forth.
Naruto used his little spinning ball in actual combat for the first time, and he fell in love with that feeling of spinning, leaping, and closing his eyes.
In the end, Kakashi's team dealt with the Kirigakure shinobi and conveniently handled the Land of Waves' hidden mastermind as well, perfectly completing the mission.
Team 7's first real battle felt somewhat like Naruto's personal performance. Haruno Sakura, as always, was just there to make up the numbers. As for Uchiha Sasuke, although he was also able to display considerable combat strength, his naturally expressionless face was ultimately not as eye-catching as Naruto's, and the gap between them was revealed just like that.
Sasuke had not even realized yet that, in truth, his Sharingan had already opened on the night of the clan massacre…
Although Kakashi had always advocated taking training slowly, the problems on Sasuke's body were already severe enough. Kakashi had clearly not paid enough attention to this point, nor had he realized that this was not something that would improve simply with time.
For Sasuke, if he could not even surpass a classmate who had graduated in the same year as him, then what was the point of talking about killing Uchiha Itachi?
As someone born into the Uchiha clan, Sasuke did not feel that there should be any gap in talent between him and Naruto. If there was a gap, it should have been the other way around. So why had this result appeared?
Without much effort, he found an extremely obvious reason: Naruto had a tremendously powerful shinobi by his side who had always been teaching him ninjutsu, while he did not.
Sasuke's thinking was not strange. In fact, it was far too correct. For a shinobi, having someone teach you and having no one teach you were fundamentally different things. Never mind Hagoromo—even if Kakashi seriously and strictly taught ninjutsu, Sasuke's strength could also advance by leaps and bounds.
The problem was that Kakashi's advocated "natural growth" actually felt somewhat like free-range raising.
For Sasuke, who longed for his own strength to grow explosively, this was undoubtedly an extremely unsuitable method. Therefore, he urgently needed someone who could teach him how to become stronger.
After Team 7 returned from the Land of Waves mission, Naruto felt completely refreshed, while Sasuke had also gained something. However, what Sasuke gained was more in terms of psychological construction, and it was even developing in a somewhat extreme direction.
After this mission was completed, the Chūnin Exams were also officially launched. Genin from other villages began entering Konoha one after another.
Putting aside Naruto's excitement after learning that such a promotion exam existed, during this period, Mirai gained another new daily activity…
Lying in wait at Konoha's main gate.
And she did so quite seriously. The three of them directly moved a table over and placed it beside the "village entry registration" area. Anyone who did not know better would think these three were official staff.
These three were not causing any trouble either. They were merely watching from there, so the shinobi actually working there could not drive them away…
It was best not to casually chase away the Fourth Hokage's daughter.
"Mirai, what's the point of us staying here?"
Mirai's behavior left the expressionless Kimimaro of Team 6 somewhat confused.
"Advance observation. We're collecting information on future enemies. Maybe it'll come in handy at a critical moment."
When Mirai answered, her gaze never left the gate.
Haku gave Kimimaro a look that said, "You're the one with all the questions." If she wanted to squat here, then they just needed to accompany her properly.
"But… do enemies at the genin level really require this much caution? Besides, this is only an exam…"
The reason Kimimaro was puzzled was because he felt this level of caution did not match Mirai's personality.
It was not that they looked down on their opponents too much. For shinobi, any enemy should be treated with caution. The problem was, there was no need to be cautious to this extent, right?
"Who said anything about genin?"
Unexpectedly, Mirai's focus was completely different from what Kimimaro had assumed.
"I said the targets for intelligence gathering are the jōnin team leaders from the different villages, not the genin following behind them…"
"Jōnin capable of taking on this kind of task definitely won't be ordinary. Naturally, they're worth observing."
Fine. Kimimaro was completely Spartan now. Mirai had not come to gather intelligence in order to mess with other people's genin. She had taken this action so that, when necessary, she could better mess with other people's jōnin.
This theory convinced him.
As expected of a disciple taught by Hagoromo. Her vision for causing trouble was truly lofty.
Of course, it was not as though all genin were unworthy of attention. Or rather, any genin worth paying attention to was absolutely even more extraordinary.
For example, the instant the Sunagakure delegation appeared, the gourd baby in their team immediately made Mirai narrow her eyes in imitation of Hagoromo…
Red hair. This probably belonged to family inheritance.
Panda eyes. Probably used to display how rare and precious he was.
Earthen gourd. Used to show that he had plenty of personality.
The tattoo on his forehead and that silent gaze showed that he was a little rebellious and also a little crazy.
In short, this was a big deal.
Hagoromo could play another big game now.
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