Now Standing Before You Is

To prevent Asuma from saying anything more earth-shattering, Soseki quickly returned to the previous topic, "But only the eyes cannot be hidden by a mask!"

Asuma nodded thoughtfully, then stared directly at Soseki, "Soseki, quickly guess what I'm thinking right now."

Soseki looked back calmly, making Asuma feel a bit uneasy, "You weren't thinking anything before. Now, you should be telling yourself not to think about anything."

Asuma's eyes widened, "That's amazing! Is this mind-reading?"

Soseki gently shook his head, "It's not that magical. I'm just too familiar with your personality. If it were a stranger, even with their gaze, expressions, and body language, I could at most analyze some details."

"That's still amazing," Asuma rubbed his hands together, trying to please him, "Soseki, can you teach me this?"

"Of course. After all, I was planning to bring it up in the Psychology Club anyway."

"Huh? I thought your Psychology Club was just for listening."

"Since it's a Psychology Club, we need to understand everyone's true thoughts first."

Soseki smiled slightly. He didn't mind letting psychology take root and sprout in this world.

On one hand, the very nature of psychology meant that many people were interested, but very few were willing to delve deep. On the other hand, what he was preparing to share was mainly micro-expression analysis. This would not only be ineffective against those who could control their micro-expressions well but could also be used to deliberately let others interpret the "true thoughts" they wanted to convey.

After Soseki's brief explanation, Asuma felt he was ready to graduate.

When it came to psychological analysis, wasn't it enough to just have eyes?

"Who should I practice on?" Asuma muttered to himself, then his eyes lit up, and he swaggered in a certain direction.

"Why are you little brats here again?" the stall owner who had sold them alcohol before said with a depressed look as he saw Asuma standing proudly in front of his stall.

Asuma crossed his arms, deciding to use the "seize the initiative" technique Soseki had taught him, "Your alcohol is fake!"

The stall owner was startled at first, then angered, "Are you little brats looking for a fight?"

"Huh? His eyes didn't look away, which means he's not guilty. Damn, I failed on the first try." Although Asuma was frustrated, he didn't care about the other person's attitude. He was the second-generation Hokage, what was wrong with being a little arrogant?

Seeing the other person about to get angry, Soseki stepped forward, "The alcohol isn't fake, but it's probably been diluted many times, right?"

The owner said righteously, "You kids don't understand. Alcohol is meant to be diluted."

"But the alcohol taste is so weak. Are you sure it's not... so bad that even the Raikage would say it's bad?"

The stall owner's expression stiffened. Asuma, standing beside Soseki, shouted, "His eyes looked away! He's definitely guilty."

Hearing him shout this, the stall owner became enraged, "What do you kids know? Lord Raikage actually... No, why should I explain myself to a brat like you?"

Seeing the other person on the verge of a breakdown, Soseki calmly pointed to his side, "Standing before you now are the son of the Hokage, a rebel, a top genius from the Ninja Academy, and the Vice President of the Psychology Club!"

The stall owner's raised fist froze in mid-air, his expression becoming quite colorful, "I'm sorry, please excuse me!"

Asuma, on the other hand, accepted Soseki's introduction with a sense of entitlement and asked with lingering interest, "Soseki, is there anything else?"

"Do you want me to say 'bounty'?" Soseki's eyes were strange, but he still shook his head.

"I think 'Mind Hunter' sounds pretty good. This hunter is going to start hunting those who have fallen into darkness!" Asuma, feeling quite pleased with himself, scanned the marketplace, looking for his next target.

Just then, Soseki suddenly stopped in front of a shop.

"Soseki, why did you stop there?" Asuma tilted his head, then his eyes lit up, "Soseki, wait, don't say anything yet. Let me analyze it."

Soseki was quite pleased with Asuma's performance, which was more enthusiastic than skilled.

If Asuma got over this initial excitement, he would truly have a problem.

"Hmm~ When you stopped just now, your eyes were focused on the sign in front of this shop, and your eyebrows furrowed very subtly, indicating that you think there's something wrong with the shop's sign."

As he spoke, Asuma also looked over.

"So it's this shop. I noticed it when I passed by earlier. The owner put the prices on the sign outside in advance, and the prices are set very high. It's probably to prevent people like us who can't afford it from coming in and disturbing them."

Asuma then looked at Soseki, "So, is there a problem?"

Soseki pondered for a moment, "At first, I thought the same thing. But when I passed by the second time, I noticed something wasn't quite right."

"What wasn't right?"

"This shop sells specialties from the Land of Lightning. If a Konoha merchant acquired them from the Land of Lightning, they should sell them after these Land of Lightning merchants have left. Therefore, this shop is very likely rented or bought by merchants from the Land of Lightning."

Asuma seemed to have a breakthrough, a flash of inspiration, "The Cloud Village merchants around here are all setting up stalls directly. Only this one has rented or bought a shop. If they don't plan to return to the Cloud Village, the most logical thing to do now would be to buy goods and hoard them. But they haven't done that. Instead, they've set the prices ridiculously high, as if they're driving customers away. This indicates that this business is likely just a 'mask'."

Soseki nodded, "Although we can't be sure, it's indeed very likely."

"Hmph, whether he has a problem or not, let this hunter go in and test him..."

"Wait, the previous method might not work. If the other party has a problem, their psychological resilience will definitely not be comparable to the previous person."

"Then what should we do?"

"Heh heh, of course, we'll let them expose their own flaws! So, this time, it will require you, Asuma, to act naturally..."

After a brief discussion, accompanied by an extremely arrogant voice, the two great actors officially made their entrance.

"Boss, boss!"

"Coming, coming..." The boss happily ran out, and was stunned for a moment when he saw the two little figures standing at the entrance, but quickly regained his composure, "Children, what are you doing here?"

"Hmm, this boss's 'strength' is indeed formidable!" Asuma, having already decided the man was a villain, silently praised his acting skills.

"Of course, we're here to buy something. What else would we be doing here, watching you bathe?"

"Cough cough!"

The boss looked confused but still spoke in a gentle tone, "Little ones, the things here are very expensive. You should go play somewhere else."

Asuma said nothing, merely tilting his head back and looking at the man with his nostrils flared.

At this moment, Soseki stepped forward. "Standing before you now is the son of the Hokage, the Ravager, the future heir of the Sarutobi clan, and a strong contender for the second-year class representative of the Ninja Academy!"

There should be some instances later in this book where micro-expression analysis is used, but not many (mainly because I don't understand it myself). These parts will primarily reference some of the works by the Bilibili UP主 'Mind Detective Ming Bo Chen' (with permission from Brother Chen Bo). Some readers might feel this kind of analysis is like Monday morning quarterbacking, as it's difficult to use or discern in real life. However, since this book is set in the Naruto universe (where characters' emotions are overly rich) and incorporates supernatural abilities (like using chakra sensing to complement it later), it should be effective to some extent. In any case, please bear with me if there are any shortcomings in my writing ω).