Chapter 79: A mysterious statue

"!? "

Hearing his nonchalant reply caused the Leaf shinobi in the restaurant to awkwardly look at him.

Kurenai in particular, was ready to throttle him with a look of indignation.

As a whole, Konoha was rather united compared to other villages.

After all, the largest percentage of ninja came from humble origins, and as such they had no one or any defenses against Hiruzen's kind old man act.

Plus, the majority of the clan leaders were fine with the added benefits brought by the 'Will of Fire' as long as it didn't penetrate to deeply into their own clans.

Hachiro gave a taunting smile to the Shinobi looking at him in anger.

Killing intent bubbled inside the room causing, an imaginary gust of wind to grace the room.

The Konoha shinobi could feel dread building up inside themselves.

Vomit!

A genin fell down covering his mouth, before retching out his food.

Kurenai baffled, questioned what was going on.

"An Illusion? I thought he doesn't know genjutsu?"

However, after getting a closer feel and look at it, she denied that thought.

That can't be right.

It seemed to be murderous aura, so thick, it manifested and caused the collapse of plenty of hearts.

"More effective than I thought it would be."

Hachiro mumbled to himself,

Killing intent wasn't normally visible for many reasons, but mostly because the Human body simply couldn't perceive it. Thanks to the amplification effect from the Lightning Devil Fruit it had revealed itself to these inexperienced genin.

It was a neat trick, he had abused during the war.

A single lapse of concentration could cause a shinobi to die, even if it wasn't as strong as it was on these shinobi, it caused quite the trouble.

"Caused the Chunin and Jonin to freeze up momentarily, as for the genin there was varying effects I should take note of... kind of disappointing this is the quality of ninja coming from Konoha."

Hachiro glanced around the room.

"Hah! That's rather rude, y'know! How about you look at me, the great toad sage of Mount Myoboku!"

A hearty laugh coming from outside caused the eyes of Kurenai to light up.

A burly figure with white hair dramatically walked in.

The Konoha ninja looked at him, as if he was their only source of water in a desert.

Jiraiya, one of the [Legendary Sannin].

Hachiro could hear one of the cannon fodder hatefully whisper,

"Hmph, not so cocky now."

Hachiro gave a bright smile before interrupting the Sannin's, grandiose entrance.

"Wow! It's been a while old pervy sage. So, have you finally succeeded in your 40 year old chase for the love of your life, Tsunade?"

Jiraiya froze and become as unmoving as a block of ice. His figure took on a white and black shading as he felt his heart being pierced by an invisible arrow.

With a sullen expression he said,

"Damn kid, that's a heartless hit."

Hachiro dropped a few hundred ryo and grabbed some Dango's about to be served and started munching down on them.

This stuff is so sweet and sticky, how does that woman eat so many in one go?

"I didn't know you returned to Konoha."

Hachiro got up and patted his shoulder.

"Anyway, good luck in your love life! Pervy sage~"

He gave him the most aggregating smile, he could and walked out.

"Stop calling me 'Pervy Sage', you brat!"

Jiraiya shouted angrily,

Why does everyone call me a pervert?!

I am simply an eager researcher, hoping to perfect my great art!

"Oh, wait! The exam!"

Suddenly, Anko snapped and swung her hand at the table breaking it and disturbing the silence fallen upon her favourite restaurant before launching herself like a spear towards the academy.

Kurenai also realised that the target she was meant to survey, had left her in the dust somewhere.

...

...

After, a few minutes of intense searching, she found the Cloud shinobi making small talk with a street vendor and asking about the origins of an ancient piece of broken, sculptured, stone.

"Really? It looks like something from the land of Hot Water, are you certain it came from the Land of Iron?"

The vendor had a business smile and said,

"Certainly, my great-grandfather was a samurai that wanted to leave behind his bloodstained past. Apparently, this was the only possession, he found left intact inside his brother's house. It was very important to him. You see this mark? That's apparently, the mark of the temple that had been built even before the warring states."

They continued to speak interested in this artefact, that had been imbued with chakra. He soon squandered some of the money, he had earned from his missions and bought it for a couple ten thousand ryo.

"There you go."

Hachiro scanned the stone using Lightning chakra and didn't find anything to spectacular about it.

"Two disappointments in the space of an hour."

He clicked his tongue, "Just not my day is it."

Kurenai was all too pleased to see his displeasure.

Then a Hyuga Jonin approached them, and extended an invitation to Hachiro, directly from the Hyuga patriarch.

"Greetings, Mr Hachiro, our patriarch Hiashi Hyuga would earnestly like to meet you."

Hachiro turned to look at Kurenai and asked,

"So, will you be coming?"

"No, thank you."

She pondered for a few seconds before refusing.

It was painfully obvious what her mission was, after he had exposed her upon arrival.

The individual in question was the Hyuga Patriarch and as such, he wouldn't be able to do anything to extreme under the clan leaders watch.

Plus, they were probably going to talk about Hinata Raiden and her relationship with the Hyuga. They wouldn't want a Jonin like her being present. It just seemed as if it was a recipe for bad endings in which, she suffered.

She shivered just imagining what could go wrong.

"That brat was right, the genin in Konoha aren't nearly as mature as those from other villages..."

Jiraiya walked out from the shadows of a nearby building.

He stared at the faint outline of the cloud shinobi in the distance, knowing he had long been spotted.

"Jiraiya-sama!"

Kurenai gave a salute to show her respect.

"No need for the cordiality, I just came back to collect some material I need... and maybe check up on how the yellow haired brat's kid is doing.

Jiraiya said sullenly, before smiling while thinking about his student's kid.

"I hope he has a better appreciation for my work than his father. If you can't appreciate the blessings we are given then you're just not a real man."

His mood quickly flipped as he grumpily huffed to himself, and took the long way to the Hokage's office.

"Hmph."

...

...

An hour later.

Konoha's 44th training ground, the forest of death.

Anko still had some sugar stuck in her teeth, as she introduced them all to the rules of the second exam.

A five day survival test, that didn't care about the safety of its contestants.

Shortly after, they started the exam and Haku said to his teammates, while holding a scroll of earth.

"I think we should hide in a gathering of trees nearby, and wait for any other teams with a heaven scroll to enter the range of Hinata's byakugan. Remember, our training, we can easily take out any of our opponents!"

Kimimaro emotionlessly gave his opinion.

"Every team will aim to gradually move towards the central tower. The concentration will be higher and we can easily snatch it from them."

Haku smiled bitterly,

"I guess your right. It's probably the most efficient way to get a scroll."

He then turned to the Cloud's princess, Hinata.

"Hinata-chan, what do you think?"

Hinata continued to scan around her using the Byakugan and said,

"Dad, said this mission is important. Uncle Raikage is counting on us too, we shouldn't take any chances."

Hinata clearly stated her viewpoint and opinion on the matter.

Under normal circumstances, she would have avoided causing so much harm and destruction. But she remembered the emphasis, the academy put on missions.

There was also everyone in the village, she had to think for. She could take no chances, and didn't want to disappoint them if she had too.