Starting as the mastermind behind Naruto

Chapter 116 Is the Uehara Naraku you know me? (Eighth update! Please subscribe!)

Night fell.

The lights in the Hokage's office were always on.

Hiruzen Sarutobi, sitting in his chair with a pipe in his mouth, glanced at Kakashi Hatake, who was kneeling before him, and asked, "Kakashi, how much information did you gather about that Rain Ninja?"

"There are many reasons, but this person is still too young."

Kakashi Hatake nodded and said in a deep voice, "Based on the intelligence I've analyzed, the civil war in Amegakure must have greatly weakened them, forcing them to choose to send Uehara Naraku to participate in an arms race of this magnitude, like the Chunin Exams."

After saying that, Kakashi added, "There is no doubt that Uehara Naraku is very strong. Four years ago, I personally witnessed him single-handedly destroy a border outpost of Kirigakure."

"What about his personal preferences?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi took a puff of his cigarette.

The borders of the Rain Country are connected to the Wind Country, the Fire Country, and the Earth Country.

The attitude of Amegakure will determine whether Konoha can maintain its defensive advantage on the northwest border. If given the opportunity, Hiruzen Sarutobi would certainly not mind supporting an Amegakure leader who is inclined to ally with Konoha.

Today, Hiruzen Sarutobi overheard Naraku Uehara's words: Hanzo of the Salamander is indeed very old, and the next leader of Amegakure is imminent.

"It's hard to say."

Kakashi Hatake shook his head and explained, "Although Uehara Naraku seems to have a good impression of Konoha, Orochimaru and... Obito must have done indelible damage to Amegakure before."

Those two guys are both rogue ninja from Konoha.

Hiruzen Sarutobi glanced at Kakashi Hatake and slowly said, "It's alright, we can fight against rogue ninja together with Amegakure... He's right about one thing today, our generation is getting old, and the future will be handed over to you young people."

"..."

Kakashi Hatake lowered his head and did not respond.

Hiruzen Sarutobi has been in charge of Konoha for about forty years and is now sixty-nine years old, but the selection of the Fifth Hokage has not yet been made.

If the remaining two of the Legendary Sannin of Konoha were to return, they would be the most suitable candidates; if they were not willing to return, there would be few ninjas in Konoha who could command respect, and even the major ninja clans would not be able to manage them.

Unless you pick the tallest among the short, and pull out someone like Sarutobi Asuma.

After all, Sarutobi Asuma's disciples were from the three great ninja clans of Ino-Shika-Cho, which is quite normal, as the Sarutobi clan and the Ino-Shika-Cho clan were allies during the Warring States period.

"You can go now."

Hiruzen Sarutobi slowly turned around and stood at the window of the Hokage's office, saying softly, "By the way, Kakashi, could you fetch the village's genin, Seikosuke Maru?"

"Yes."

Kakashi Hatake left the Hokage's office.

the next day.

Uehara Naraku left all the messy matters to Hattori Hirakawa, Haku, and Kaguya Kimimaro, and wandered around Konoha Village, hoping to run into some important figures.

Unexpectedly, after Uehara Naraku activated the display of his Destiny Skill, he discovered that the Konoha Jonin instructors seemed to be having a private meeting.

"They're really not giving us any chance at all!"

In that case, Uehara Naraku can only wait until the Chunin Exams officially begin before he can start reaping his rewards.

In just two days, Uehara Naraku had made quite a bit of progress.

He had painstakingly saved up 2,700 gold coins in Amegakure, but in Konoha, he simply did a series of ordinary tasks such as sightseeing, drinking some ramen, and eating some tricolor dumplings, and he actually earned about 1,500 gold coins.

Moreover, the tasks in Ichiraku Ramen are extremely absurd. For example, in the "Big Eater" task, Uehara Naraku drinks twelve bowls of ramen with all his might and then receives 600 points of life energy from the system. This reward makes Uehara regret it to the core.

If I had known that each bowl of ramen in the Big Eater Challenge would reward 50 life energy points, I would have desperately eaten several bowls!

Damn, you can actually get stronger just by eating noodles...

Konoha is really a ridiculous place.

If we calculate based on difficulty, Amegakure is like starting with a doomsday AI challenge, while Konoha is like a simple daily AI challenge.

As expected of a ninja's home turf.

Moreover, as the host of the Chunin Exams, Konoha sent a total of 75 people to participate in this Chunin Exam, a number greater than all the other ninja villages combined.

Uehara Naraku was unaware that this number was one more team than the number of people Konoha Village was originally supposed to participate.

The Chunin Exams officially began once Konoha confirmed the list of participants and all the participating ninja villages had arrived.

When Uehara Naraku arrived at the exam assembly point with Kaguya Kimimaro and Haku, all the genin who were participating in the Chunin Exams had gathered there.

As Uehara Naraku expected, the nine new genin who graduated from Konoha this year also participated in the exam.

Team 7: Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno.

Class 8: Kiba Inuzuka, Shino Aburame, Hinata Hyuga.

Class 10: Nara Shikamaru, Akimichi Choji, Yamanaka Ino.

Perhaps because it was their first time participating in the Chunin Exams, these newcomers were talking to a senior, seemingly trying to get some information from him.

Judging from their exclamations, they had clearly received quite a bit of information.

It just so happens that Uehara Naraku also knows that so-called senior, who is also one of the leeks that Uehara is about to harvest.

Orochimaru's spy, Kabuto Yakushi.

After Orochimaru and Kabuto escaped from Uehara Naraku, they arranged for Kabuto to infiltrate Konoha to participate in the annual Chunin Exams and recruit talented ninjas.

"Senior Dou."

The pink-haired girl, Sakura Haruno, suddenly spoke up: "I want to ask about someone else. He should be a genin from Amegakure, named Uehara Naraku."

"..."

Upon hearing the name Uehara Naraku, Kabuto Yakushi involuntarily stopped what he was doing and subconsciously pushed up his glasses.

Kabuto Yakushi hadn't heard that name in a long time.

Neither he nor Orochimaru mentioned Uehara Naraku's name, as they had both suffered a humiliating defeat that time.

Kabuto lowered his head, not wanting anyone to see the expression on his face: "How did you know that name?"

"What Kakashi-sensei mentioned..."

Sakura Haruno frowned. This Amegakure genin's name was something Kakashi Hatake had specifically told them, as a warning that they needed to be careful around him.

Even though Kakashi Hatake believed that Naraku Uehara wouldn't kill him, these kids were still incredibly arrogant.

Uchiha Sasuke stood next to Haruno Sakura and said coldly, "Perfect timing. I'm also a little curious about this person's information. After all, even Kakashi-sensei thinks he's the strongest opponent we'll face in this Chunin Exam."

"Your instructor, Jonin, is right."

Kabuto's voice was somewhat hoarse and low, and his fingers gradually stiffened: "If it's the person I know, he should be able to easily kill everyone here..."

"Are you kidding me!"

Sasuke Uchiha immediately looked displeased.

Even if the guy Kakashi was talking about was incredibly strong, could he really kill hundreds of genin all by himself?

However, after hearing what Kabuto Yakushi said, the expressions of Sakura Haruno, Naruto Uzumaki, Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara, and a group of other newcomers became increasingly serious.

"Don't worry, it might just be a case of the same name..."

After speaking, Kabuto slowly raised his head and looked around the Chunin Exams assembly area to see if there were any traces of Uehara Naraku there.

When Kabuto Yakushi discovered that Uehara Naraku wasn't in the exam hall, he breathed a slight sigh of relief. Perhaps it really was just a coincidence of names?

Da da da…

A series of footsteps reached Kabuto Yakushi's ears.

The group of Konoha newbies involuntarily raised their heads and stared blankly at a young ninja wearing an Amegakure headband standing behind Kabuto Yakushi.

Uehara Naraku looked down at Yakushi Kabuto on the ground and chuckled, "Kabuto, turn around and see if the Uehara Naraku you know is me?"

(End of this chapter)