In a single clash, the trio wiped out three Kirigakure ninjas.
The result was nothing like they'd imagined. They had expected to face the most talented Genin from other villages. Even if it wasn't supposed to be a hard fight, it shouldn't have been this one-sided.
If all the other villages' Genin were this weak, the Chunin Exams would just be a walk in the park.
"Probably just a fluke. Maybe these three were the absolute weakest Kirigakure ninjas," Sasuke said after a moment of hesitation.
He didn't fully believe it himself, but he needed some reason to keep moving forward.
Hearing this, Naruto ran over to the corpses. He patted them down and found several intelligence scrolls, along with a point scroll. Unrolling the point scroll, his face lit up.
"They're definitely the weakest batch from Kirigakure," Naruto declared. "Look, we've already gathered almost fifty points, while these guys only had three. With pathetic strength and terrible efficiency like that, they were obviously just cannon fodder sent to test the waters."
Sasuke half-believed it.
For now, the trio stopped hunting point scrolls. They wanted to test the theory... were those three Kirigakure ninjas really the weakest in the exams?
Not long after, a Kumogakure monitoring ninja delivered the battle report to the room where the Kage had gathered.
Seeing the ninja return, a flicker of suspicion crossed Mei's face. 'The battle ended that quickly? Were those brats Jie Uchiha brought so weak they got crushed in two strikes?'
That had to be it.
A faint smile appeared on Mei's lips at the thought. After all, she had personally trained this batch of Kirigakure ninjas. She had absolute confidence in their strength.
The team that encountered the Konoha trio wasn't even her strongest squad, yet they were still elites among their peers. Only genuine prodigies could defeat them.
As for the children Jie brought, becoming Genin at such a young age was certainly impressive. But their age and lack of experience were fatal weaknesses.
Mei only hoped her Kirigakure team had shown mercy and spared the three kids' lives. Otherwise, if Jie lost his temper, her plans for this event could run into unnecessary trouble.
Watching Mei's constantly changing expression, Jie found it rather amusing. She really did love overthinking.
Unfortunately for her, those thoughts were nothing more than fantasies. How could a few pieces of cannon fodder possibly compare to his trio?
At that moment, the Kumogakure ninja arrived before the assembled Kage. "My Lords, the battle has been decided."
"Who won?" Mei immediately interrupted before he could continue.
The Kumogakure ninja glanced at her, a complicated expression appearing on his face. That single look made Mei's heart sink slightly.
'Could it be... my Kirigakure ninjas lost? Were those three children really geniuses?'
Before she could think further, the ninja spoke again. "Reporting to the Mizukage, the Kirigakure team was defeated."
Mei inhaled sharply. They really lost?
Still, they were children from Konoha's prestigious clans. Their strength was indeed extraordinary. However, the next sentence instantly froze the expression on her face.
"Furthermore, the three Kirigakure ninjas suffered fatal injuries and died on the spot."
Those words felt like knives stabbing into Mei's heart. The Kirigakure ninjas she had spent so much effort nurturing had actually died at the hands of three children.
For a moment, her heart ached.
She had only recently become the Mizukage. In the past five years, she had worked tirelessly to nurture a small number of talented young ninjas for Kirigakure.
Yet before her plans could even begin, she had already lost three elite Genin. How could she not feel the pain?
If this had happened anywhere else, Mei could have used the incident to pressure Konoha and demand an explanation.
But this was the Chunin Exam.
A fair competition.
The Kirigakure ninjas had died because they were weaker. If she tried to make a scene over it, nobody would sympathize with her. Instead, the other villages would only think Kirigakure was weak and incompetent.
Mei's expression turned pale, then flushed red. For a moment, she didn't even know how to preserve her dignity.
However, the Kumogakure ninja delivered another brutal blow before she could recover.
"And... it only took one move."
"The three Konoha Genin brought by the Hokage defeated the Kirigakure ninjas with a single attack. After that one strike, the Kirigakure ninjas died instantly. There wasn't even time to rescue them."
The moment those words fell, the entire area went silent.
Not only Mei, but even Rasa, Onoki, and Yugito unconsciously held their breath.
"One move?" Onoki asked in disbelief.
As someone who had led Iwagakure for decades, he understood Kirigakure's strength very well. Although their number of ninjas was small, they followed an elite training system.
Any Genin Mei personally selected for the Chunin Exams would definitely be strong.
Even Onoki couldn't confidently say that Iwagakure's Genin could defeat them with certainty, let alone kill them in a single move.
Yet the three children from Konoha had done exactly that.
At that moment, everyone present except Jie felt a chill run down their spines.
'Are these three children the next generation of Sannin Konoha has been secretly nurturing?'
'Konoha's foundation is simply too terrifying...'
After hearing the battle report, Onoki, Rasa, and Mei all looked toward Jie again. But this time, their eyes were filled with deep apprehension.
As for Yugito, she could only smile bitterly inwardly.
At that moment, she suddenly felt the urge to abandon Kumogakure altogether and hide somewhere deep within the ninja world. Living in constant fear like this was simply exhausting.
So what if Tailed Beasts possessed long lifespans?
Even if she managed to outlive Jie by surviving for decades more, would she really live long enough to witness Konoha's downfall?
With the way Konoha kept producing monsters one after another, Yugito seriously suspected that Kumogakure would be destroyed long before Konoha ever declined.
Meanwhile, Jie quietly observed the reactions of the gathered Kages.
Listening to the trio's battle record and seeing the shock and fear on everyone's faces filled him with immense satisfaction.
The feeling was almost like playing a strategy game.
Watching troops he had personally nurtured completely crush another player's forces gave him a sense of achievement no less satisfying than winning a battle with his own hands.
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