Chapter 47

The bottle was near empty.

Its been sitting on that table for well over a decade. Hardly touched or even glanced at. The last time he could remember opening it was the night the third war had been declared and all forces were marching on Konoha.

Since then, he probably hadn't touched the damn thing.

One week after the arrival of Hi no Kuni's Daimyo and it was nearing empty.

Magojiro Koutou was the very last person he expected to arrive here. Even the monkey Hiruzen would have been less of a surprise.

The villages, lesser and greater, held a balance of power between the Daimyo and the Kage.

In Iwa, he technically held more power than the Daimyo, Michizu. Iwa's rough mountain terrain did not make for good farmland or massive populations of people. So his ninja, despite still being outnumbered by the Daimyo's men, could, according to calculations and scenarios, deal with the Daimyo's armies with strength to spare. Suna was the same, and now it seemed the Daimyo of the deserts was taking steps to remedy that by hiring out other villages as opposed to his own, hoping to weaken the Yondaime-Kazekage's power base enough for them to be on equal footing.

He had his eyes on that to see how it would play out and he had no doubt Michizu did as well.

The Kiri ninja however were particularly reliant on their Daimyo, the man controlled the navy. Which meant he controlled all import, export, border control and communications within the islands.

Kumo and Konoha were the only villages that were truly standing on even ground with their respective Daimyo.

For that reason more than anything else, the Daimyo of these two nations were very well guarded and cared for.

Should the Daimyo die, and his heir find that the ninja in their employ did not do absolutely everything within their significant power to avoid such, it could destabilize the political and social arena of both nations.

Sarutobi coming here, while surprising would have made some sense. He could observe the chuunin exams and make sure nothing happened to the gennin involved.

Moreover the man could protect himself from any Shinobi in the village, even him.

Koutou could not.

Neither could his samurai.

If Onoki truly wanted them dead, he could have it done in an eyeblink. Orochimaru was powerful but he was not an omnipotent force able to survive every ninja in an entire village bearing down on him.

He knew this.

But worse than that, his men knew this.

Now, not only did he have to keep his eye on the man, he also had to keep himself and keep his own Shinobi calm.

They knew their orders but this was a lit torch in a powder keg. One stray ember was all that would be needed to make the whole thing go to hell.

One drunken brawl, one stray suggestion from one idiot to another could spark the fourth war.

Or worse. A deliberate measure.

Iwa and Kumo were "united" only in so much as the fact that they hated Konoha more than each-other. With Kumo's rapid military expansion and the fact that they were reported to hold a very powerful Jinchuuriki, they might just be looking to flex some of their muscle.

What better way to do it than have this thing blow up under Iwa's nose, have them take the brunt of the blame and the stigma that the neutrality of the chuunin exam, established nearly a decade ago was first broken by them.

Even by Shinobi standards, the deception would stick enough to hurt them.

Clients didn't trust in people who were known for violating agreements.

With the lack of adequate guards the man himself had brought, the situation was only exacerbated.

He had to order his ninja, many, if not all of whom had lost family and friends during the third war, to both Hi no kuni's ninja and samurai, that not only did they have to leave them alone, but that they had to actively try to protect them.

Needless to say, it was not sitting well, if at all.

Konoha had dropped a bomb on his front door, all to nominate that little Namikaze spawn.

Yes...Namikaze.

'Uzumaki my ass!' He snorted.

That was Namikaze Minato's son or he was the Daimyo's wife.

His lips curled. He would never forget the face of the man that had slaughtered well over three hundred men in a single night. It was a face he dreamed of slicing to ribbons. He'd celebrated for a month after he heard of his death. Everyone in the village did.

That damn monkey...he wanted to make a statement, show the whole world that they lost once to Minato and they'll lose just as easily to his infant son.

That Minato Namikaze would soon come a second time onto the world and he would still be a Konoha ninja.

He took another drink.

Evidently the God of Shinobi forgot that accidents happened all the time at these exams.

The Namikaze brat might just find that out the hard way.

-0-

"When your team number is called please walk up here." One of the chuunin examiners spoke. "From here you will follow one of our proctors to your examination area." Clearing his throat as he began to call up the names on his clip board Naruto turned to his teammates.

"What do you guys think is gonna happen?" He scrunched up his nose in feigned ignorance. "I heard they gave written tests before anything."

"Sometimes." Kyofu shook her head. "But not all the time. I guess with so many teams here they believe a written test will be a waste of time since they don't have the proctors to look out for cheating, or the time to grade the exams quickly enough. My guess is they're heading straight for the phase that cuts down the teams down to half the number at least."

.

.

.

‼️If you want to access to more than 400 advanced chapters, wait no more and subscribe to my Ko-Fi, where you can buy books in completely downloadable PDF format.‼️

☕️ko-fi.com/skyarc☕️