Naruto: The King Behind the Curtain

The next morning, early in the dawn.

Inside an empty classroom, Seiki and his two companions had already arrived ahead of schedule.

"Geez, where's the teacher? It's taking forever!" After waiting for a while, Asuma yawned impatiently and asked nearby, "Seiki, I heard Tsunade-sama and others have left Konoha?"

Without looking up from his notes on practicing Spirit Transformation Technique, Seiki replied, "They left last night."

Asuma sighed wistfully, "Growth really does come with regrets... In the blink of an eye, so many familiar faces are gone!"

Kurenai shot him a sidelong glance, "Don't talk like you'll never see them again, idiot!"

Asuma shrugged nonchalantly before asking, "Hey, did you guys hear? Our instructor might be a jonin from the Yamanaka clan."

Kurenai nodded, "I heard. So what?"

Asuma chuckled mischievously, "From what I know, direct combat capability of Yamanaka ninja isn't that strong. You think the village deliberately assigned us a weaker jonin because we're too powerful to balance things out... Mmmph!"

"What the heck are you..." Kurenai turned around, unable to hold back her laughter, "Haha! What are you doing?"

Asuma had two pens stuck inside his nostrils while proudly flashing a victory sign.

"Release!" With this light shout, the classroom door slid open and a young ninja in his twenties entered.

"Never underestimate any ninja—that's your first lesson from me. Also, Asuma-kun, talking behind someone's back is impolite!"

Seiki and Kurenai hurriedly greeted, "Sensei Yamanaka!"

Relieved by the interruption, Asuma rubbed his nose and mumbled, "Alright, alright."

The young ninja gave a helpless smile and walked toward the podium, "First, let me introduce myself. My name is Inoichi Yamanaka. My hobbies include gardening, and my dream is to raise my child into an excellent ninja someday."

Asuma mumbled softly, "Feels like even old men have more energy than him!"

"Well, the Hokage may be old, but he's still got some youth in him—otherwise, how do you explain being born when he was forty-two?" Yamanaka Inoichi glanced sideways but merely thought it, not voicing it aloud.

"As for my abilities, my techniques specialize in controlling enemy bodies through mental arts." Inoichi smiled. "To be honest, Asuma wasn't completely off-base. My role here is to compensate for your deficiencies in intelligence gathering and sensing."

Asuma widened his eyes, "Then why did you control my body too?!"

Inoichi's lips twitched—what a blunt way to put it. "Asuma-kun, hasn't anyone ever told you that being too straightforward can make people dislike you?"

Though Inoichi made himself sound pretty low-key, Seiki wasn't fooled for a second. Every jonin had climbed their way through life-and-death trials to stand at the peak of regular shinobi. Even if they were just intelligence ninja, their strength absolutely couldn't be underestimated.

Asuma muttered under his breath, "Ibiki sounded just like this. Do all sensor ninja like to pull these kinds of stunts?"

"I've finished my introduction. As for you three..." Inoichi Yamanaka smiled. "I've already heard plenty about you, so there's no need to introduce yourselves."

"What? I even specially prepared an impressive speech last night!" Asuma's face fell as he was eager to introduce himself, but soon regained his enthusiasm. "How about our abilities then? Shouldn't we demonstrate our strengths for better teamwork?"

"That's true. Interests and hobbies can be learned through information, but real strength can only be observed in actual combat." This time Inoichi didn't object. "So I want all three of you to show me what you've got in a sparring session later."

Asuma, who was just getting excited, suddenly froze. "Wait a second, aren't we supposed to fight against you, our teacher?"

Inoichi calmly waved his hand. "After all, I'm a Jonin. How could I possibly take advantage of you rookies?"

Asuma still looked doubtful. "Really? But I heard other Jonin instructors usually fight their students personally!"

"There's no need for me to do that," Inoichi remained composed. "As an intelligence ninja, watching from the side is enough for me to analyze your approximate strength. Moreover, another reason why other Jonins fight their students is to let the newcomers clearly see the gap in power. However, since all of you are prodigies, I believe this step isn't necessary anymore."

Asuma nodded in agreement. "That makes sense."

Kurenai couldn't help rolling her eyes at him. Where did that ridiculous confidence even come from? Had he somehow built up a twisted sense of self-worth through sheer loss?

Seeing Asuma finally drop the issue, Inoichi secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

If he hadn't already known about their abilities, he could've been in serious trouble today.

After all, what he excelled at most was his clan's Mental Arts, while facing him were two ninja with extremely strong mental resistance.

Plus, he couldn't even fully gauge Seiki's strength either.

"Sure, Kakashi Hatake became a Chunin at six and is now said to rival Jonin. But this one's talent goes even further. Even without proper training or hardship, he probably isn't far behind Kakashi at all."

Thinking about this reinforced Inoichi's determination not to participate.

If he were defeated by his own students on the first day, would he still have any dignity left as their teacher?

"Coughing, let's proceed to the test now."

...

They reached the grove behind the Academy.

"Asuma and Kurenai will form one team, and Seiki will be alone. No objections, right?" Inoichi grouped them according to his prior knowledge.

"I object," Asuma raised his hand.

"Oh? Do you, Asuma-san, want to challenge Seiki directly?" Inoichi nodded appreciatively. "No wonder you're the Hokage's..."

Asuma interrupted calmly, "Actually, I don't mind personally, but if you truly want to understand our actual strength, Inoichi-sensei, this definitely won't work."

This time it was Inoichi's turn to look puzzled. "Why do you say that?"

Beside him, Kurenai gave a tired look. "Because… it'll be over in a flash!"

"Huh?"

Asuma added, "It's the Flying Thunder God Technique! If Seiki doesn't use the Flying Thunder God Technique, we could still have a real battle. But once he uses it, the fight will end very quickly!"

"The Flying Thunder God Technique?" Inoichi Yamanaka's eyes widened. Although records indicated that Seiki had mastered the Flying Thunder God Technique, he hadn't considered this possibility seriously. After all, it was one of the most difficult Space-Time Ninjutsu techniques, even among S-rank ninjutsu!

In his opinion, this era was already lucky to have someone like Minato Namikaze who has mastered it.

"Actually, I only recently succeeded in mastering it under Senior Minato's guidance," Seiki humbly replied.

"But aren't you a Medical Ninja?" Inoichi still found it somewhat difficult to accept.

Before Seiki could respond, Asuma smoothly comforted him, saying, "It actually makes perfect sense for a Medical Ninja like Seiki to know some Space-Time Ninjutsu if he needs to get to every injured person right away!"

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