That Shameless Old Man Is Peeping

Although he had long known the plot, seeing Aoba in person still made him sigh at how prematurely mature the Shinobi World was.

Obito's situation was not an isolated case. It was actually quite common, and the Ninja Academy did not forbid it either. After all, the Shinobi World had endured war for so long that no one knew whether they would return from the battlefield next time. Even a ninja village as strong as Konohagakure could not guarantee absolute safety for those it sent on missions.

Early marriage and childbearing were the norm in the Shinobi World. Outstanding people in particular were more likely to win the favor of the opposite sex and better able to protect their children's upbringing. It was not uncommon for people in their thirties to become grandparents.

"Morning, Aoba."

Namiashi Raidō greeted him with a smile.

"Morning."

Aoba greeted him back. He had a fairly favorable impression of this future teammate.

"Did something happen? You seem pretty excited."

"Huh? You don't know?"

"Know what? I just got here."

Aoba said lazily, sprawled across his desk.

"Hehe, I heard we're having a practical combat class today!"

"Practical combat?"

That finally caught Aoba's attention. If they were merely throwing wooden kunai at each other, Namiashi Raidō would not have put it that way.

"Yeah, fighting like real ninja! Swish, swish, swish!"

Namiashi Raidō looked excited as he gestured with his hands and feet.

Just then, the class bell rang. Yuhi Kurenai also said goodbye to her friends and returned to her seat. Looking at her gesticulating deskmate, she teased him.

"What? Another one went crazy?"

"Oh, so you heard too. But why add 'another'? Who else was there?"

"Who else? Sarutobi Asuma. He came over earlier and rambled a bunch of nonsense, saying he wanted me to see his true strength or something. He even said he'd defeat you. What a joke. He can't even beat me."

Kurenai briefly explained what had happened, not forgetting to mock Sarutobi Asuma at the end.

Aoba said nothing, merely smiling.

He quietly observed Kurenai's attitude and felt relieved when he saw that she was still repulsed by Asuma.

He privately marveled at how strong the plot's inertia was. He had guarded against it this much, even going so far as to create conflict and make the two of them fight, yet Asuma had not come to dislike Kurenai. He had even shamelessly stuck himself to her.

Had he activated some strange trait in him?

Soon, afternoon arrived.

After the taijutsu instructor announced that they would be having practical sparring today, the entire class became excited.

After reiterating the sparring rules, he announced the first match.

First match: Kakashi versus Uchiha Obito.

The top-ranked student against the dead last. Everyone had assumed it would be a one-sided teaching match, with Kakashi easily defeating Obito.

To everyone's surprise, Obito actually fought Kakashi on even terms. They exchanged blows back and forth, and their purely taijutsu battle was evenly matched.

The watching students were dumbfounded. Was this really that foolish dead last Obito who was late every day?

His taijutsu was actually this strong!

Even Might Guy could not help getting fired up as he cheered them both on.

"I can see him! He's much slower than Tekka!"

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Kakashi threw several shuriken.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

"Not good!"

Seeing the shuriken flying toward him, Obito hurriedly pulled out a kunai from his ninja tool pouch to block them. Just as he tried to counterattack, he suddenly saw several Kakashi clones charging at him.

"Damn it, if my eyes had awakened, I'd see through this kind of ninjutsu at a glance!"

Looking at the clones rushing in from different directions, Obito could not tell which was the real body and which were clones. He could only keep dodging.

"All right, it's over!"

Aoba silently shut off the Chip. Although it had wasted a little chakra, he had still gathered some interesting data.

The next moment, Obito was knocked down by a sweeping kick from one of the figures. Before he could get back up, a kunai was already held near his throat.

"The match is over. Hatake Kakashi wins!"

As the teacher announced the end of the match, Kakashi put away his kunai.

"All right, the two of you, form the Reconciliation Seal."

"Damn it!"

Although he knew Kakashi was strong, Obito was still unwilling to accept losing so easily!

What he did not know was that his own strength had also shocked Kakashi. He had never expected Obito, who was usually so unreliable, to possess such strong taijutsu.

"Next match, Yamashiro Aoba versus Sarutobi Asuma."

Aoba was somewhat surprised to hear that his opponent was Asuma. Based on the usual pairing order, his opponent should have been Might Guy, who ranked second from last. Yet it had somehow become Sarutobi Asuma.

Although Asuma was somewhat rebellious and often went against the teachers, he was still the Hokage's son. He enjoyed abundant resources and had private tutors after class, so his strength was not weak. It could be seen from his conflict with Kurenai that he had held back and had not gone all out.

"Now this is interesting!"

Aoba immediately thought of what Kurenai had said that morning. Asuma clearly knew he would be fighting Aoba.

Was he trying to reserve himself a child bride in advance? Or was someone using this chance to test Aoba's mettle?

Or perhaps both?

"System, activate Chakra Radar detection."

Aoba tapped his finger, and chakra fluctuations of a special frequency spread outward with him at the center.

[Chakra Sensing]

A sensing ninjutsu Aoba had modified from a little sensing trick learned from Anbu, combining it with the Chip's radar function.

Since he had secretly learned it, its range was only around two to three hundred meters, but that was barely enough for now.

Soon, the system detected abnormal chakra. There was a chakra signal seventy-three meters to the southwest, in midair.

[Telescope Technique]

He did not need to think to know that it had to be that shameless old man, the Third Hokage, peeping on them.

"Since that's the case, I won't hold back!"

The corners of Aoba's mouth lifted as he walked toward the field under Asuma's provocative gaze.

"Damn Aoba, you coward. Today, I'll let Kurenai see this guy's true colors."

There had been countless conspiracy theories about Sarutobi Hiruzen online in Aoba's previous life, but Aoba himself did not have much of an issue with the Third Hokage.

Konohagakure was called a village, but it was actually even larger than a town from his previous life.

It was a village founded only forty years ago, and two leaders had died during that time. The third had taken office in a moment of crisis. How much political wisdom and governing ability could they really have had?

From Aoba's perspective, Konohagakure's various current systems were simply pathetic.

What elder council system? It was riddled with loopholes. The elders had the power to check the Hokage, while Root's members even obeyed only Danzo. It was downright ridiculous!

Yet under such circumstances, they had still managed to withstand the siege of the four surrounding great ninja villages during the Second Shinobi World War and the Third Shinobi World War that followed. Honestly, Sarutobi Hiruzen did have some ability.

As for all those conspiracy theories, they were also judgments made by netizens from a god's-eye perspective.

Of course, the most important reason was that people had projected their own political acumen onto Sarutobi Hiruzen's position.

That was why there were so many conspiracy theories surrounding the Hokage.

The Third Hokage was actually pretty good, at least in Aoba's opinion.

After all, being able to receive full compensation payments was enough to put Konohagakure far above the other ninja villages.

As for the other ninja villages, they were even worse. Those born into ninja clans were all right, but ordinary civilians basically had no chance to rise.

Kirigakure even targeted ninja clans, and its Ninja Academy slaughtered students indiscriminately. The greater the genius, the faster they died.