Naruto: The King Behind the Curtain

At the border of the Land of Fire, deep within a lush, verdant forest.

A group of four swiftly leapt from tree to tree.

"Sensei Yamanaka, isn't this supposed to be a time of peace? Why are there still so many bandits?" Asuma asked, puzzled as he recalled the long list of missions he had seen.

Kurenai nodded. "I know the outside world isn't peaceful, but I didn't expect things to be this bad even within the Land of Fire."

"The Land of Fire is vast," Inoichi Yamanaka replied helplessly. "Even with the Daimyo of the Land of Fire's army suppressing threats and Konoha ninja handling missions, it's impossible to completely eliminate every bandit and robber in the country."

"Compared to petty states, our Land of Fire is actually quite peaceful!"

Seiki let out a quiet sigh. "If chaos counts as peace, then this world really must be sick."

Asuma joked, "Is that a Medical Ninja thing? Like wanting to fix everything you see?"

Seiki gently shook his head. "When a person gets sick, there are Medical Ninjas to heal them. But when the world itself is ill… who will heal it?"

Asuma said confidently, "That's totally on us…"

But before he could finish, Inoichi cut in, "We're here!"

They had already passed through the forest, and in front of them stood a bandit stronghold.

Seeing the situation, the three students fell silent and attentively listened for their teacher's instructions.

"According to the mission description, there are a total of forty-seven bandits inside this encampment. There may be more we haven't accounted for or hidden ones…" Inoichi's gaze swept over the three students as he smiled slightly. "How you divide and attack is entirely up to you three to decide!"

With that, he stepped aside to watch them work. He was actually pretty curious about what schemes his three brilliant students would cook up.

However, Asuma's first sentence nearly caused him to pull a muscle.

"I think we should do this: Seiki in the middle, me on the left, Kurenai on the right—and no stealing enemies!"

Kurenai looked at him with disdain. "You're saying that because you know my and Seiki's genjutsu can end fights quickly, aren't you?"

Asuma retorted matter-of-factly, "Exactly! Since I'm slow, you two should let me get more practice!"

Kurenai blinked, confused—was she imagining things, or did Asuma actually sound proud?

Seeing them actually getting serious about discussing it, Inoichi coughed twice. "Ahem. Have all of you forgotten the key points of infiltration and assassination taught in the ninja handbook?"

Asuma spoke up indignantly, "If everyone we run into ends up dead, isn't that the definition of a clean mission?"

"That actually almost makes sense… if you ignore all basic shinobi principles!" Inoichi was barely holding back his frustration—he was certain that if not for worrying about going against the Hokage's teachings, he'd have made Asuma personally experience what 'tough love' really means!

"Ahem. Seiki, what do you think?" After calming down slightly, Inoichi turned to Seiki hopefully.

"To be honest, I don't really care. But since Asuma suggested it first…" Seiki smiled faintly, "we might as well go with his idea."

Asuma patted Seiki's shoulder emotionally. "Good brother!"

Seiki shook his head in disbelief. He never expected that the stories he told during elementary school to build closer relationships would actually mislead The Second for real.

Looks like he had to take the blame for this mess!

...

Meanwhile, inside the bandit stronghold.

"Boss Sig, we've received news from Konoha!" said a bearded bandit.

"You mean that Konoha villager we bribed to monitor bounty missions for us?" asked the one-eyed man sitting at the main seat.

"That's right!" the bearded man nodded repeatedly. "He says someone has issued a mission to wipe us out."

Upon hearing this, the surrounding bandits grew anxious.

That was Konoha — ranked as the top among the Five Great Ninja Villages!

"Damn it! Who the hell issued this mission?"

"What should we do? Maybe we should just disband now!"

"Quiet!" Sig coldly snapped, then asked, "How high is the bounty?"

"Sixty thousand ryō!"

"Only sixty thousand?" Sig sneered. "From what we've heard, sixty thousand ryō barely ranks as low to mid-tier for their C-ranked missions. Those are usually taken only by genin!"

Hearing his explanation, the bandits who were frightened by Konoha's reputation began to relax.

"So it's just some genin? Those ninja who only know basic Body Replacement techniques can't be much stronger than us!"

"Yeah, back in the Land of Rivers, we've killed our share of these 'ninja lords' too!"

The bearded man quickly chimed in praise, "Aniki Sig, no wonder they say you were born to be the Bandit King! Those ninja are just kids—"

However, Sig shot him an angry glare. "I'm just telling you not to panic. But we still need to prepare to flee if necessary!"

The bandits looked confused. "Boss Sig, you..."

"Konoha isn't like those small villages like Tayuya. Their genin missions come in two formats — one with a team made up entirely of genin, and another led by chunin or jonin. If it's the latter formation, we don't stand a chance at all!"

Sig coldly swept his gaze over them. "So, after finishing our last job, we head to the Land of Wind!"

Some hesitation appeared among the bandits. "But boss, the Land of Wind is also one of the Five Great Nations!"

"Idiots! Big countries mean big paydays. Ten jobs in the Land of Rivers wouldn't match a single job in the Land of Fire." Sig calmly replied. "As for why the Land of Wind specifically — it's the largest territory-wise, yet its ninja village is the weakest among the Five Great Nations. As long as we don't go overboard, those ninja lords won't have time to deal with us."

"No wonder you're Boss Sig!"

"Just wait till we finish this last job —"

Suddenly, an explosive noise rang out from outside the hall.

Sig's expression darkened. "They couldn't have arrived this soon, could they?"

"Let's go check it out."

The anxious bandits stepped out from the hall, only to see three kids standing there.

"Just three? That's it?" Remembering Sig's earlier words, the bandits felt reassured again.

As long as there's no legendary chunin or jonin hanging around, we're fine.

Sig stepped forward, drawing his blade. "You're the Konoha ninja?"

Asuma rested his chin on his palm, "You don't seem surprised?"

Sig glanced at him. "Leave now, and I'll act like nothing ever happened."

Seiki tilted his head. "Is this a farewell message?"

Sig's expression darkened. "Fifty-six of your holier-than-thou kind have already died by my hand..."

Before he could finish speaking, a giant fireball came flying toward them.

The bandits tried to flee but to their horror, found their bodies paralyzed, forced to watch helplessly as flames consumed them.

Seeing the scene unfold, icy fear gripped Sig. He screamed frantically, "Impossible! How could they possibly be mere Genin?"

On a high branch far away, Inoichi Yamanaka looked puzzled. "Does this even count as infiltration? Probably... yeah?"

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