"Was that the work of a Konoha genin?"
Naruto, Kakashi, and the others were instantly dumbfounded.
They subconsciously looked around at the expanse of red earth, struggling to process what they were seeing.
"Fifth Kazekage, that joke isn't funny. Since when did Konoha Hidden Leaf Village produce such a powerful genin? We certainly don't know of one."
Shikamaru was the first to lose his composure, forcing out a dry laugh as he spoke.
Before them stood the delegation from the Land of Wind's Sunagakure.
Leading them was Sunagakure's Fifth Kazekage, whose status and position were in no way inferior to Uzumaki Naruto's.
If that attack were truly determined to have been carried out by a Konoha genin, it would be nothing short of a nightmare for Konoha Hidden Leaf Village.
Although, in this age of peace, all sides exercised restraint and would not escalate matters to the level of war, if Sunagakure truly pursued the matter and demanded compensation from Konoha Hidden Leaf Village, it would certainly be unavoidable.
As Konoha Hidden Leaf Village's strategist, Shikamaru had no intention of taking the blame for this.
"That's right, Shikamaru is correct. If Konoha truly had a genin with that kind of strength, we would have promoted him to chunin, or even jonin, long ago. Why would we leave him unattended?"
As the Seventh Hokage, no matter how foolish Uzumaki Naruto might be, he quickly came to his senses and hurriedly echoed him.
"However, Gaara, rest assured. No matter who that person is, since he dared cause trouble within Konoha Hidden Leaf Village, as the Seventh Hokage and your close friend, I definitely will not stand by. I will spare no effort to capture him as soon as possible and eliminate any risks to the Chunin Exams two days from now."
"Yes,