Fugaku smiled faintly. Only after watching Sasuke enter the waiting area did he look away.
Neither Suigetsu, his student, nor Sasuke, his younger son, had disappointed him in that match.
Inside the waiting area.
"Hey!"
Hozuki Suigetsu, drenched in sweat, suddenly called out to Sasuke.
Sasuke turned, looking puzzled.
"Konoha is holding back your future, Sasuke!"
"The people here are all too weak!"
Hozoki Suigetsu grinned.
He paid no mind to the angry looks from the other Konoha Genin.
"How arrogant!"
"He lost, and he's still acting so proud! What a jerk!"
"He's asking for a beating!"
Angry shouts rang out one after another.
Hozuki Suigetsu smiled, his attitude unchanged. "Once you see Kimimaro fight, you'll understand the gap between villages."
He paused.
"Sometimes it's bigger than the gap between a person and an animal!"
The Konoha Ninja were furious, but they could not help looking at the quiet boy in white standing off to one side.
He seemed to speak very little. With his strikingly handsome face, he looked as though he belonged to a different world from everyone else.
"Suigetsu, you talk too much," Kimimaro said softly.
"Sorry! I lost, so I'm a little sore about it, okay?" Suigetsu said with an awkward laugh.
"If you lose, train harder and win next time."
"There's no need to dwell on it," Kimimaro said evenly.
Hozuki Suigetsu scratched his head.
Kimimaro turned and bowed slightly to the Konoha Ninja. "I apologize on Suigetsu's behalf. He was rude to you."
That gesture eased much of their anger and left the Konoha Ninja with a far better impression of Kimimaro.
But Hayate Gekko, who had been watching silently nearby, grew grave.
For all Kimimaro's courtesy and gentle appearance, he gave Hayate an overwhelming sense of pressure.
Soon, the second match began.
"Haku