Chapter 702: Challenging the Strong

After a brief exchange, the Mist Ninja quickly led the Konoha exchange team back to the Hidden Mist Village.

Upon entering the Hidden Mist Village, Obito couldn’t help but look around with curiosity. This wasn’t Obito’s first time visiting another Ninja Village, but it was his first time visiting another Great Ninja Village.

Perhaps for reasons of concealment, the Hidden Mist Village was built deep in the mountains, surrounded by large mountains and featuring a very complex terrain.

“The residents of Hidden Mist Village must rarely leave the Village; otherwise, it would be too exhausting,” Obito grumbled inwardly.

Even as a Ninja, he found it a bit convoluted, let alone ordinary people.

However, even if the terrain wasn’t complex, the residents of Hidden Mist Village probably wouldn’t leave the Village often, as a Ninja Village, after all, has the characteristics of a military base.

Perhaps because Obito and his group arrived at Hidden Mist Village after nightfall, Obito felt that the prosperity of Hidden Mist Village was far less than that of Konoha.

“It must also be related to the complex terrain here. Muzuki-sensei said that to develop the economy, transportation conditions must not be poor,” Obito analyzed internally.

He felt that if he were a caravan owner, he wouldn’t be willing to do business in Hidden Mist. Finding the Village aside, walking through so many mountains would be exhausting.

“Then we won’t disturb your rest.” After leading the Konoha exchange team to the reception area, the Mist Ninja left.

Considering the Konoha exchange team’s arduous journey, the exchange meeting was scheduled to begin two days later, allowing ample time for rest.

“Rest well here tonight and don’t wander around Hidden Mist Village,” Shinku Yuhi instructed after allocating the rooms.

Hidden Mist Village certainly wouldn’t resort to foul play. If they were to stab Konoha in the back at this time, Hidden Mist would truly have no place in the Ninja World.

He was worried that a few Mist Ninja whose family members or close friends had died on the Konoha battlefield might not be able to control their hatred and attack members of the Konoha exchange team.

It should be noted that just a few months ago, Hidden Mist was still sending Ninja troops to fight Konoha. Such a thing was entirely possible.

Although a powerful Konoha could demand a satisfactory response from Hidden Mist after such an incident, for the attacked Konoha Ninja, it would be a troublesome matter, so it was best to avoid it if possible.

The Konoha Ninja responded in unison.

In fact, most of them had no intention of going out to explore; they just wanted to get a good night’s sleep.

The room allocation principle was two Chunin per room, one Jonin per room, and no cohabitation for male and female Ninja, except for married couples.

Since there was still some time before bed, Obito called Kakashi, Rin Nohara, and Anko to his room to chat.

“It’s too early to sleep now; let’s talk about something,” Obito suggested.

Kotetsu heard Obito’s words, and the fatigue on his face dissipated considerably. He asked, “Captain Obito, can you tell us about your mission experiences?”

After hearing Obito’s brief account of the Land of Snow mission on the ship, Kotetsu became curious about Obito’s mission experiences.

“Mission experiences, huh? What type of mission do you want to hear about?” Obito asked, scratching his head.

Recalling carefully, they had indeed done many missions of various types over the past few years.

“Just tell us about those that sound really impressive, like plots from Ninja novels,” Kotetsu replied excitedly.

“I see…” Obito showed a thoughtful expression.

Speaking of impressive, the Loulan mission was definitely the most impressive. Future Ninja traveling through time to the present—such a plot is rare even in Ninja novels.

However, time travel is inconvenient to talk about and sounds very far-fetched. If Obito hadn’t experienced it himself, he would find it hard to believe such a thing could happen in reality.

Obito thought for a moment, then said, “I don’t know why, but Kakashi has a knack for jinxing things when we’re on missions. Several times, he’s caused our missions to go awry.”

Kakashi:…He really wanted to refute Obito, but it was true during that period. He firmly believed that the mission wouldn’t go wrong, but every time he said it, something unexpected happened.

“When you’re on missions, never say things like ‘nothing will go wrong.’ If you run into the Raikage or someone like that, it’ll be dangerous,” Obito said seriously.

“No way, encountering the Raikage just because of a sentence?”

Izumo felt this was even more outrageous than the lies adults tell to scare children into staying home at night.

“We didn’t run into the Raikage, but we ran into the Third Raikage’s son, the Candidate Raikage, and some Kumogakure Jonin and Chunin. And at that time, we were actually just passing through on a C-Rank Mission,” Obito recalled.

Izumo’s eyes widened. A Candidate Raikage plus multiple Jonin—that would be top-tier difficulty even for an S-rank Mission.

And they encountered this on a C-Rank Mission?

“Oh, right, I think I wasn’t even a full-fledged Ninja back then; I was an intern.”

Izumo:…Interns are supposed to be weeding and picking up trash, right? How is Obito’s internship different from his?

Izumo’s face showed a hint of unwillingness. He suddenly realized that compared to Obito, he was as ordinary as a background character in a Ninja novel.

“That time was indeed very dangerous, fortunately, Muzuki-sensei was there,” Might Guy nodded.

At that time, they were facing a powerhouse like the Candidate Raikage and would have been instantly killed.

“With Muzuki-sensei by your side, there would be no danger at all,” Kotetsu said.

The new AB Combo was very famous in the Ninja World, but not on the same level as Muzuki.

“At that time, Muzuki-sensei didn’t have his current strength, but he was still very strong. Muzuki-sensei alone blocked the AB Combo and most of the Cloud Ninja,” Obito explained.

“Only one Chunin and one Jonin bypassed Muzuki-sensei and caught up to us.”

Kakashi felt a little uneasy hearing this.

“At that time, a certain official Ninja in our team, who was also a Chunin, insisted on acting cool and wanted to cover our retreat alone, letting me and Might Guy, two interns, escape.”

“But when the fight started, a certain official Ninja was taken out in a few moves.

When the enemy was almost defeated, he suddenly stood up and rushed to kill them, saying things like ‘genius’… *muffled*”

Kakashi, unable to hold back, directly stepped forward and covered Obito’s mouth.

He had blurted it out in the heat of the moment; now, recalling it was truly embarrassing.

“So, who was that Chunin?” Anko asked.

“Haha, who indeed? It’s so hard to guess,” Izumo said evasively, his gaze drifting to the ceiling.

“Yeah, I feel like if Captain Obito doesn’t say, we’ll never guess,” Kotetsu said seriously.

Eventually, this topic was skipped at Kakashi’s strong suggestion, moving on to other subjects.

For example, whether there were dango sold in the Land of Water, what the famous scenic spots in Hidden Mist Village were, and the most serious topic: discussing the talented Ninja of Hidden Mist.

“If no new Ninja have emerged, the most formidable genius in Hidden Mist should be Mei Terumī or Kisame Hoshigaki, right?” Obito said.

During the second stage of the Chunin Exams, Mei Terumī’s powerful Water Release caused Obito no small amount of trouble, leaving a deep impression on him.

But that was in the past. In fact, Obito had won it back in the third stage of the exam.

By the time they met again at the Youth Martial Arts Tournament, their strengths were no longer on the same level.

“Kisame Hoshigaki? Obito, you’re mistaken. I remember there was a Ninja in Hidden Mist named Kisame Hoshigaki,” Might Guy said confidently, stroking his chin.

Obito was speechless. Was Might Guy, the one who couldn’t remember names, correcting him now?

“Anyway, I’m not interested in their young Jonin. If I’m going to fight, I’ll fight those strong Jonin,” Obito said.

Fighting a Jonin like Mei Terumī now would be pure bullying, and Obito wasn’t interested in that.

If he was going to fight, he would fight the strong, the renowned powerhouses of Hidden Mist!

He would show those old Hidden Mist geezers what a Konoha genius was!

“Discuss it with Captain Shinku before you do anything; don’t suddenly bring it up at the exchange meeting,” Kakashi reminded him.

The rules of the exchange meeting were for Ninja of similar age and the same Ninja rank to interact. There would be no Chunin fighting Jonin, or thirteen-year-old Jonin fighting thirty-year-old Jonin, and so on.

Obito clearly wanted to bypass this rule and challenge stronger opponents.

If Obito said nothing and suddenly did this during the exchange meeting, from Hidden Mist’s perspective, Konoha would be seen as provoking and probing.

On Konoha’s side, Obito would also be acting on his own, damaging diplomatic relations, pleasing neither side.

If Obito wanted to become Hokage, this would be a significant blemish.

“I know that. I’ll report it tomorrow,” Obito nodded.

If Shinku Yuhi didn’t agree, Obito wouldn’t insist; he would just treat it as a trip.

After all, it wasn’t anything important.

“This is youth! I also want to challenge a powerful Mist Ninja!”

Might Guy gave Obito a thumbs-up, ready to join in.

He had joined the exchange meeting to challenge strong opponents, only to learn the rules later.

Kotetsu and Izumo looked at the two with envy; this was the Ninja life they dreamed of.

Protecting princesses, thwarting conspiracies, and becoming national heroes.

Having strength far beyond their peers, never worrying about opponents being too strong, only too weak.

Even ordinary missions could unexpectedly become extraordinary.

Izumo thought about the last one and decided against it. Obito’s kind of unexpected situations could easily lead to fatalities.

If it weren’t for Muzuki and Obito’s own strong abilities, anyone else would have had grass growing on their graves.

The next morning.

After breakfast, Obito, Might Guy, and Kakashi went to find Shinku Yuhi.

Although Kakashi hadn’t mentioned it during their chat yesterday, he had also come to train his swordsmanship. Given the choice, he would definitely prefer to challenge stronger opponents.

“I’ll contact Hidden Mist and see what their thoughts are,” Shinku Yuhi didn’t agree directly.

As a Konoha Ninja, he certainly wanted to see Konoha Ninja shine at the exchange meeting.

But since it concerned the diplomacy between the two Villages, he couldn’t let Obito and his group act rashly.

Konoha was very strong now, but casually abandoning an ally of a Great Ninja Village level was still not a wise move.

Earning a million Ryo didn’t mean you could casually throw away a hundred thousand Ryo, and Shinku Yuhi didn’t have the authority to throw away that hundred thousand Ryo either.

After the Third Mizukage of Hidden Mist received the news, he called Genji and Yagura Karatachi and asked for their opinions.

PS:

First update, there’s another chapter coming, probably before three o’clock.

If it’s not updated by three, it might have to wait until tomorrow.

Because my condition wasn’t very good when writing the latter part of this chapter, I’m not sure if I can finish it. But if I can’t finish, I can’t stay up anymore. The holiday is over, and I have to go to work.