"To think these two went and hid in the Akatsuki. No wonder they couldn't be found anywhere in the Land of Fire."
Looking at the final two names on the intelligence scroll, a hint of surprise appeared on Jie's face.
One was Darui, who had vanished from the shinobi world after failing his bid for Raikage five years ago. The other was Asuma Sarutobi, a man with a thirty million ryo bounty on his head.
After Hiruzen Sarutobi's death, Jie had wiped out the entire Sarutobi clan. Asuma had only managed to escape the slaughter because he was serving as one of the Guardian Shinobi Twelve for the Fire Daimyo at the time.
After becoming Hokage, Jie had completely forgotten about him until someone reminded him that a Sarutobi still drew breath.
It couldn't be helped... Asuma was remarkably unremarkable. Aside from his thirty million ryo bounty, there was nothing outstanding about him whatsoever.
However, when Jie tentatively dispatched Anbu to track him down, they discovered Asuma had already left the Guardian Shinobi Twelve, disappearing without a trace.
To think that the missing Asuma and Darui had both joined the Akatsuki.
It was a good thing Kakuzu had already died by Jie's hands. Otherwise, Jie genuinely would have wondered if Kakuzu might just take his new Akatsuki comrade straight to the underground exchange and cash in that thirty million ryo bounty.
And finally, the intern member... Tobi.
Seeing this name, Jie immediately recognized an old acquaintance. It was just Obito Uchiha's alias for wandering the ninja world. His strength was what it was, and Jie didn't feel the need to pay him too much attention.
Beyond the updated roster, the intelligence scroll also detailed the Akatsuki's recent movements. They were either helping one small nation assassinate another's daimyo, or overthrowing the regime of a third.
If they weren't doing that, they were haunting the underground exchange, hunting down high-bounty missing-ninja. Their sheer work ethic made them look more professional than most hidden villages' Anbu black ops.
Having read through the report, Jie set the scroll down, a trace of confusion in his eyes.
"They only lost three members, didn't they?" he muttered to himself. "Since when did the Akatsuki become so desperate that they'd scrape the bottom of the barrel?"
"Darui is one thing... at least he has solid potential and might touch the Kage level one day. But what use is a useless piece of trash like Asuma?"
"Is he just a walking thirty million ryo? Some kind of emergency reserve fund, like emergency rations?"
It wasn't that Jie simply looked down on Asuma... the man was genuinely useless.
As the dignified son of the Hokage, he had access to Konoha's absolute best resources. Yet, on a whim, he ran off to the Fire Daimyo's side to play Guardian Shinobi. He even dressed it up with some pretty excuse about wanting to find the true "King" worth protecting.
Jie couldn't help but shake his head at the sheer absurdity of it. In the shinobi world, wasn't strength the only true "King"?
For a Hokage's son, his combat prowess was laughably pathetic. Even at his age, he was still just a standard Jonin. He couldn't even breach the ranks of the Elite Jonin...
And his arsenal of jutsu was pitifully shallow... Fire Release: Ash Pile Burning and his twin chakra blades, the Flying Swallows—that was practically the extent of Asuma's repertoire.
If even a piece of trash like that could worm his way into the Akatsuki, had Nagato simply given up? Had he abandoned his grand plan to make the world know pain?
The thought crossed Jie's mind... should he go stir up some trouble for the Akatsuki? Give them a sense of urgency to accelerate their plans.
If they sped up the process, they could resurrect Madara Uchiha and then Kaguya Otsutsuki that much sooner. Once they inflicted enough damage on the other four great shinobi villages, Jie could sweep in and catch them all in one fell swoop.
It would solve everything once and for all, leaving him free to live out his days in absolute peace. Wouldn't that be a beautiful thing?
Besides, the best way for him to grow stronger was to constantly stir up trouble.
That was the only way his system would calculate and reward him with the highest possible payouts. By the time this whole grand scheme played out, Jie didn't even know what terrifying heights his strength might reach.
He figured that by then, the Otsutsuki clan...whether the main branch or the branch families, those so-called aliens from beyond the stars...would be nothing more than a trivial annoyance to him.
'It's decided then. I'll have to stir the pot.' Jie made up his mind.
Jie summoned a ninja crow. He drafted a new intelligence scroll, leaving behind a few jutsu transcriptions and some words of warning, before having the crow deliver Konoha's current intel directly to Itachi Uchiha.
Three days passed in a flash, and soon enough, it was time for the three little brats' graduation assessment.
At the all-too-familiar Konoha Training Ground 1, a very familiar Kakashi stared at the equally familiar Jie, feeling entirely speechless.
Nearly ten years ago, he had been the one to administer Jie's graduation exam right here on these very grounds.
Now, returning to the scene and seeing the same face, Kakashi couldn't suppress a shiver of lingering trauma. A phantom ache throbbed between his legs. The jutsu Jie had used on him back then was simply too brutal.
Kakashi was acutely aware that if Jie's aim had been off by even a millimeter, he would have spent the rest of his life dependent on adult diapers.
And now, he was being forced to administer another graduation exam. To make matters worse, one of the candidates was none other than Jie's younger brother, Sasuke Uchiha.
At the thought of it, Kakashi couldn't help but sigh heavily. He mentally reviewed the files of the three genin candidates standing before him.
'I wonder just how strong Sasuke Uchiha is. He can't possibly be as much of a monster as his older brother... right?'
'Then there's Naruto. Minato-sensei's son, and Lord Jiraiya's disciple. His strength is bound to be extraordinary.'
'And the last one is the Eldest Miss of the Hyuga Main House. I hear she's actually Lord Fifth's personal disciple.'
'Every single one of them is more troublesome than the last,' he lamented internally. 'And yet, I can't afford to hold back.'
He let out another tired sigh, forcing himself to stop overthinking it. If he dwelled on it, he'd only spiral into despair. Why couldn't Jie go torment someone else for a change? Was it really that entertaining to constantly single him out?
Watching Kakashi subconsciously squeeze his legs together, a flash of understanding crossed Jie's eyes. It seemed Kakashi's memories of that particular jutsu were still incredibly fresh.
He wondered if Kakashi would randomly select a "lucky" participant to victimize in retaliation this time around...
Hinata was a girl, so that was highly unlikely. Sasuke was his own younger brother... surely Kakashi wouldn't be foolish enough to deliberately target the Hokage's sibling.
So, by process of elimination, the most likely candidate for Kakashi's "lucky" revenge was... Naruto?
Just thinking about it made Jie want to light a candle in mourning for the blond boy.
This was the first time since Jie's own genin days that someone had requested an early graduation. To have three candidates step up all at once—and three with such extraordinary backgrounds, no less—was unprecedented.
Naturally, every shinobi clan in Konoha had wanted to come and spectate the spectacle, but Jie had strictly barred them from attending.
Back when he took his own exam, he hadn't had the power to stop the village from gathering around and gawking at him like an exotic animal in a zoo. He still hated the memory.
But now? ...Now he was the Fifth Hokage, the absolute authority in the Hidden Leaf. Power was meant to be exercised, and he was absolutely not going to let history repeat itself.
Therefore, the only people present at Training Ground 1 were the three candidates, Kakashi as the Chief Examiner, Jie himself as the Hokage, and his assistant, Izumi.
"Ahem." Jie cleared his throat, drawing the attention of the three prospective genin. "Since the three of you have applied for early graduation simultaneously, I've decided to arrange a rather unique assessment for you."
He held up his hand, producing a soft jingle. "I have two bells here. Shortly, Kakashi will be tasked with protecting them."
"Your objective is to snatch these two bells from Kakashi. Only those who secure a bell will successfully graduate. Whoever fails to get a bell will be sent straight back to the Ninja Academy... to start all over again from the first year."
"Well? Doesn't this brand-new exam sound exciting?" Jie asked, a wicked grin spreading across his face.
But to the three young candidates staring back at him, it didn't look like a reassuring smile at all. It looked like the smile of an absolute devil.
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