Asuna frowned at the stranger's tone, clearly displeased. She huffed coldly, "I don't know."
Her blunt response immediately irritated the boy. A shinobi from Sunagakure, he was already on edge after a long, exhausting journey. Not only had he arrived late, but all the good inns had already been filled with foreign guests, leaving him nowhere comfortable to stay.
Now, lost amid the overwhelming prosperity of Konoha, he couldn't even find the registration site for the Chūnin Exams. Compared to the windswept desert and adobe buildings of Suna, Konoha was a bustling, vibrant city. The disparity stoked a quiet envy, and he subconsciously lumped Asuna in with the locals.
So when she flatly refused to help, he immediately assumed it was Konoha's arrogance showing again.
"Oi! You people from Konoha really look down on others, huh?" he snapped.
"Huh? What are you even talking about?" Asuna asked, baffled. While she couldn't quite follow his grumbling, she had no interest in dealing with someone who was openly rude and accusatory.
"Hold it!" the boy yelled, stepping in front of her to block her path. "Konoha's getting way too cocky. You need to be taught a lesson."
"Oh?" Kirito stepped forward slowly, his gaze locking onto the boy's. His tone was soft but direct. "Then I'd love to see exactly how you plan to do that."
"Tch, another loudmouthed brat. I can't stand little punks like you," the boy growled, now turning his attention to Kirito.
"If that's the case, what are you going to do about it?" Kirito replied calmly.
"I'll show you," the Suna ninja said coldly.
Kirito spread his arms slightly, inviting the fight with a shrug. "Go ahead, then."
The tension thickened. Just as the air turned volatile, a sharp voice called out from down the road.
"Kankurō! There you are! What the hell are you doing!?"
A tall girl with a massive iron fan strapped to her back jogged over from the distance.
"Temari? That's my line! Where the hell have you been?"
"I was checking out the inns, obviously. I finally finished my own task. What about you?"
These two were unmistakably the elite genin representing Sunagakure in the Chūnin Exams, Kankurō and Temari. Judging by their conversation, they had only just arrived in Konoha and were clearly unfamiliar with the area. Their personal issues, however, were none of Kirito or Asuna's concern.
"Hey, seriously, what were you doing just now?" Temari asked, clearly sensing something off as she looked between her brother and the two locals.
Kankurō immediately jumped at the chance to play the victim. "I just politely asked these two where the exam registration hall was. But instead of helping, they sneered at me like I was beneath them. I was about to teach them some manners."
"Oh please, what a joke," Asuna scoffed, glaring at him with disdain.
"What was that!?" Kankurō snapped, his temper flaring.
"Alright, that's enough out of you!" Temari rubbed her temples in frustration. She knew exactly what kind of temper her brother had. She gave a small bow toward Kirito and Asuna. "Apologies, friends from Konoha.
My teammate's a bit hot-headed. Please don't take offense. If you don't mind, could you tell us where to register for the Chūnin Exams?"
Temari's more respectful tone calmed the situation slightly. Asuna, no longer quite as annoyed, simply replied, "I don't know."
Kirito added, "Best to ask someone else. We're not shinobi, so we've no reason to know where the exam registration is."
"I see," Temari nodded, somewhat surprised. Sunagakure was different from Konoha in that nearly every household trained as shinobi. But precisely because of that, their village lacked any form of self-sustaining economy. With meager support from the Wind Daimyō, it was no wonder Suna remained impoverished.
"Tch. You talk big, and you're not even ninja? What a pair of nobodies." Kankurō sneered. While civilians often looked down on shinobi for not producing anything of value, shinobi in turn saw non-combatants as weak and useless. Though mutually dependent, both sides carried deep-rooted disdain for one another.
Sching! Asuna drew her slim sword in one fluid motion. Her eyes burned with fury as she stared at Kankurō. "In that case, as a shinobi, do you have what it takes to block this blade?"
"Hah! You can try if you want!" Kankurō spat.
"Don't blame me if I don't stop this next time," Temari muttered, clearly exasperated. Though she kept quiet, she too looked down on civilians when it came to combat ability.
Asuna's body was taut like a drawn bowstring, her eyes locked on Kankurō. The latter, however, didn't even take a stance. He simply stood there, arms crossed, staring down at her with a superior smirk.
Whoosh! Asuna lunged, thrusting her sword forward with fierce momentum.
By ninja standards, her speed wasn't exceptional, but it was far faster than any ordinary person. Kankurō stepped to the side easily, dodging the first thrust. "Tch, is that- "
He didn't finish.
A chill raced down his spine as he felt a sharp sting of cold graze his neck. His eyes widened in disbelief.
Asuna's second strike had come faster, much faster, and it aimed directly at his throat. He dropped into a hasty crouch, barely evading a deep gash. But before he could recover, her sword suddenly trembled violently in her hand.
A high-frequency vibration.
Kankurō's eyes went blurry for a moment, thrown off by the shimmering blade. He couldn't follow the trajectory of the next strike at all. This was a sword technique Kirito had personally taught her.
"Kankurō!" Temari cried out, her face pale as she sensed something had gone wrong.
Shlick! He stumbled back several steps, almost tripping over his own feet. Only Temari's last-minute intervention kept him from falling.
Kankurō looked down in shock.
There, just above the collar of his outfit, was a thin slash mark left by the blade. It hadn't broken skin, but if the strike had landed a centimeter deeper, it would have carved into his jugular.
Asuna slid her sword back into its sheath, her expression cold and aloof. "Care to repeat what you just said?"
"…Tch." Kankurō's painted face twisted with rage and humiliation. His voice trembled as he reached behind him, pulling his puppet from his back and slamming it to the ground.
"You've got some nerve, girl! You've just made a huge mistake!"
He bared his teeth and his eyes gleamed with bloodlust.
But the violent aura lasted only for a moment.
Swish!
Something cold pressed against the back of his neck.
"Don't let your killing intent run wild. It's dangerous," said a calm voice.
Kirito.
He was suddenly standing behind Kankurō, a katana held firmly in his grip, the icy blade resting just beneath the boy's jaw.
"You, please, wait, calm down!" Temari's eyes went wide in horror. She'd been watching the entire exchange and still had no idea when or how Kirito had moved. He had not only slipped past her field of vision, but managed to slice Kankurō's puppet into pieces before anyone even saw him act.
The puppet, still sealed, lay in tatters on the ground, reduced to shattered wood and steel fragments.
"You're the one who needs to calm down," Kirito said evenly. His gaze then drifted toward a nearby tree.
"I don't like repeating myself," he added. "You up there… Gourd Boy. You heard me, right?"
From the shadow of the tree, a red-haired boy emerged, carrying a massive gourd on his back.
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200 P.S = 1 Extra Chapters