Naruto: From Novice to Grave

Chapter 87 - Another Storm Begins

The Chunin Exams ended in the morning, but their aftereffects continued to spread as the audience left.

In this era, the information and entertainment industry in the ninja world is still underdeveloped. Trendy things like television and movies are just emerging in the outside world and are in their initial stages. It will take several years before they reach Konoha Village.

Compared to the hundreds of millions of people in the world, ninjas, although the main force guiding and changing the world, actually account for a very small percentage of the population, belonging to a high-end elite group.

But this small group of people dominates the entire ninja world for one reason only: they have mastered and monopolized the methods of cultivating and using chakra, this extraordinary power.

After all, in any world, power is the most basic and important form of discourse.

Ninjas do not reject new things that appear in the ninja world, and they will actively promote new inventions from the outside world that are beneficial to ninjas within the ninja village.

Currently, the people living in the Ninja Village mainly receive information from traditional print media, including newspapers and various publications and books.

Aside from that, everyone's leisure activities consisted of nothing more than chatting and gossiping after meals, just like the old ladies gathered at the village entrance.

As word spread among the spectators, the Chunin Exams became a hot topic of conversation, with discussions heard everywhere, from restaurants to izakayas.

People seem to have temporarily forgotten the pain of war, forgotten their lost relatives and friends, and are immersed in the powerful fantasies brought about by a few exceptional geniuses.

From this perspective, the Third Hokage's original goal of holding a make-up Chunin Exams seems to have been perfectly achieved.

The incident involving the Uchiha clan was just an unexpected bonus.

In the evening, Higashino was really preparing to go to the hot spring resort in Konoha to enjoy life.

Nothing is more enjoyable than gathering with close friends and soaking in a hot spring after a great battle; this is what the ninja life should be like.

Higashino Makoto originally wanted to invite Gekko Hayate and Uzuki Yugao to a friendly gathering to comfort Shisui, who was feeling down.

As a result, Hayate encountered Tsubaki, a female classmate who had not yet graduated.

Like Iruka Umino, this girl failed to graduate early and is still in the ninja academy.

Now that the war is nearing its end, the victory on the eastern front has alleviated Konoha's manpower shortage, which has naturally slowed down the graduation rate of ninja academy students.

On their way to the hot spring resort, they ran into the three members of Hyuga Tokuma's team, and they decided to relax together.

Aside from the three masters, Higashino, Uzuki, and Gekko, this is Higashino's circle of friends in Konoha. His social circle is not extensive, nor does he bother to make it extensive.

As for that husky named Rocky—

This guy is currently having a conflict with Inuya Yako because of the declining quality of the dog food and shampoo, and he's staying in the Inuya family and refusing to come out.

However, according to Inuya Yako, the actual situation is that Rocky is of excellent breed and exceptional intelligence, which makes him very popular with the female dogs in the Inuya family, and he is working hard to steal other male dogs from the family.

He was so engrossed in it that he worked day and night, and then he was blocked at home by his female victims and dared not show his face.

Inside a luxurious hot spring resort with exorbitant prices, the men and women were separated.

This expense will be paid by Dongye Gongzi. Anyway, he's not short of money. Money is just a meaningless string of numbers if you don't spend it.

After soaking in the hot spring, everyone felt as if their very souls had been relaxed.

Now that they were completely open with each other, Higashino Makoto finally saw the legendary Caged Bird Seal. Hyuga Tokuma was an optimist and didn't care at all about what others were looking at him.

After all, he was also looking at Higashino Makoto, and his perspective was quite peculiar: "Hey, Makoto, you're about our age, right? Why is it that at the same stage of physical development, your 'weapon' is so outstanding?"

Higashino's face flushed red: "You're going to look at this with your Byakugan? Go back and apologize to all the Hyuga ancestors, you bastard."

"I don't need to roll my eyes, isn't this obvious to anyone with eyes? By the way, is there any secret recipe? Share it with us!"

The others perked up their ears upon hearing this.

Higashino, somewhat helplessly, could only share: "I stimulate myself by hitting myself with a solid iron ball every day. Yes, that's what I did."

.

Hyuga Tokuma rolled his eyes: "Just say you want us dead."

Higashino ignored him and turned to ask, "Shisui, did you get a beating when you went home at noon?"

"How could that be? Really, do you think our Uchiha clan is so petty? Actually, our clan respects the strong very much. You defeated me in a direct battle, and no one will say anything. They will only encourage me to continue to train hard."

"Exactly, exactly," Hyuga Tokuma chimed in. "Why do people always plot against Konoha's major clans, saying they like to suppress geniuses who aren't from their own clan? That's never happened."

Moonlight Gale said, "It's something that ordinary people come up with when they're bored."

"This is the ninja world, where the strong are naturally respected."

Huh? Who's speaking?

Everyone turned around and saw, oh, there's another person here. When did Aburame Muta arrive? Why are you wearing sunglasses while taking a bath?

"Haha, I was just kidding." After his gossipy remarks, Higashino asked with a slightly serious tone, "So, Shisui, do you understand what I told you before?"

Only the strong will have their words and thoughts noticed and attract those who agree with them, leading them to follow them spontaneously. What use is it for the weak to think a lot or to make sound judgments? They can neither protect themselves nor those who agree with them.

After a moment of silence, Shisui nodded and said, "I understand."

Hyuga Tokuma interjected curiously, "What are you guys talking about?"

"The first priority for a ninja is to train and become stronger."

"Really? Isn't that obvious? Do you even need to tell me?" Tokuma was uninterested in the topic and instead asked, "By the way, you should be able to be promoted to Chunin now, right? After all, having a Genin like you hanging out with us Chunin makes us look less respectable."

Chunin are no class whatsoever; Higashino really splashed a bucket of hot spring water on him.

Hayate Gekko expressed his opinion: "There will definitely be no problem. Shisui and the other four squads will all be promoted."

As you all know, Chunin are the foundation of a village's strength, and they also suffer the most casualties in the war. Now, there is an urgent need to fill the gaps.

"6

"War!" Hyuga Tokuma shrank back into the hot spring. "It should be over soon, right? Now only the northern battlefield is left. We probably won't have a chance to fight anymore."

His sunglasses-wearing teammate calmly added, "It's hard to say. Anything can happen in the ninja world. My clan's teachings tell me that I can't draw conclusions until the very last moment."

The Aburame clan, nicknamed the atmosphere destroyers, successfully ruined what was originally a pleasant atmosphere for everyone.

Higashino didn't care; on the contrary, he was quite looking forward to seeing what the fighting style of the Cloud Village and Iwa Village ninjas was like.

As it turned out, Hayate Gekko was right. On the second day of the Chunin Exams, Shin Higashino was notified to go to the Hokage Building to update his information and successfully promoted to Chunin, losing the earth-shattering title of Genin. His entry was updated to "On the side of the road".

Luckily, he didn't have any vocabulary system with him, or he would have been doomed.

Not only him, but everyone who made it to the third round of the Chunin Exams became a Chunin, with the quotas being distributed in bulk.

Once again, it has been proven that Aburame Muta was right: don't jump to conclusions until the very last moment.

Just a week after the Chunin Exams ended, in mid-September, trouble broke out again on the northern front.

Intelligence indicates that both Kumogakure and Iwagakure are secretly mobilizing troops to accelerate their offensive.

It seems that everyone is about to give up, but they are unwilling to let it end like this, and are preparing to make a big move at the last minute to see who can't hold on and will die first.

In order to deal with this situation, Konoha had to redeploy troops to provide support once again.

Because if there is no equal force to counter them, those two might concentrate their forces to kick Konoha out of the game, which is something they are definitely capable of doing.

No matter what, Konoha is the most hated one.

Minato Namikaze, who had just returned to spend a few days with his girlfriend, had to lead support troops to the northern battlefield on the morning of September 14.

The Gekko Kumomi squad, where Higashino Makoto is located, and the Sarutobi Hitsuki squad, where Hyuga Tokuma is located, are both in this support force.

However, with Shisui absent and Konoha's military strength not so strained, the Uchiha clan's plans were put on hold again.

When they gathered in the morning, everyone glared at Aburame Muta: "You jinx!"

Hidden behind his sunglasses, Aburame Muta remained calm and unmoved, perhaps secretly pleased that he was finally being watched by all his companions.

The people of Konoha once again went through the traditional ceremony of bidding farewell to relatives and friends, but the atmosphere was better than at the beginning of the war, because many people felt that perhaps this was the last time.