Chapter 66 - 60

It was a fine day for Konoha. The Chunin Exam Finals will start any moment now. Thousands upon thousands of people visited Konoha to see the finals, whether they be merchants, shinobis, civilians, or rich nobles, they all came here just to see the fights.

Hiruzen and the other Kages, The Kazekage, Rasa and the Raikage, Ay, agreed to Hiruzen's plan but there was a bet. If ever a shinobi from their village wins, Hiruzen would have to pay them with a huge amount of money. The Sandaime agreed, knowing full well that nobody in this village can beat Hikaru in a fight. This was especially great for Rasa, since he really needed a financial backup in his village. The Raikage just wanted to see the heck of it, he's just interested in who would win this fight. All contestants vs one handicapped contestant.

Hikaru will be blindfolded and cannot use his chakra nor mana. He made these rules himself to make it harder for him. He can only use his raw strength, which is still a little bit unfair for the other contestants.

(At The Konoha Stadium)

Thousands of people surrounded the arena as they all chatted with each other. The Sandaime, Kazekage, and the Raikage all sat on top of the stadium in a glass protected room. They each have their own bodyguards, the Raikage with Samui as his bodyguard, and the Kazekage with Baki guarding him. While the Sandaime has Jiraiya as his guard.

Samui is a tall, fair-skinned woman with a curvaceous figure who generally wears a stoic, aloof expression on her face. She has blue eyes and straight, shoulder-length blonde hair cut in an asymmetrical bob style. She wears a very low-cut outfit which displays her sizeable cleavage, with mesh armour underneath, a short skirt and red hand guards, high boots, and what appears to be a modified Kumogakure flak jacket that covers her stomach only, similar to a girdle. She also carries a tantō strapped horizontally to her lower back

Baki is a very tall man. He has two distinctive, red markings on the right side of his face, the only visible part of his head, with the rest being covered by his turban-like head gear and by a sheet hanging from it on the left side of his face. He dons the standard attire of a Suna-nin, complete with a forehead protector and flak jacket.

"So Jiraiya, do you think Azumi can win against Hikaru?" Hiruzen asked, knowing full well she couldn't.

Jiraiya just sighed and shook his head before saying, "No, she cannot. Hikaru, simply put, is a monster. Not even I can punch him without getting skewered by his hand through my stomach. He's simply too strong."

"Hah hah hah hah, of course you wouldn't be able to. Not even I, the Hokage, can defeat him." Hiruzen laughed.

Rasa and Ay suddenly had shivers. They felt like they've just been scammed by this sly Hokage.

Hiruzen then turned his head towards the other two Kages and said, "You two will have to watch carefully, see if you can determine who to become a chunin and who doesn't."

Ay snorted and said, " Hmph, I only have one shinobi there. Airi and Haru were more than qualified to become chunins, if only Haru didn't encounter an enemy he couldn't defeat, then I would have two shinobis here in the finals. Darui only has himself to blame, I'll make sure to train him harder than before."

"Hm, all three of my children got in but that doesn't mean I'd be biased only towards them. Gaara seems to have been able to calm himself and not go maniacal over something. Temari is still the same, while Kankuro… he is still as basic as ever. I wonder, what happened to my son, Gaara, when he arrived here?" Rasa wondered.

Rasa, while he loves his children very much, is also torn between his familial love and his duty as the Kazekage of Suna. He made a deal with Orochimaru to invade Konoha, knowing full well that Orochimaru was a highly dangerous criminal. But he wonders, where is that Snake?

Hiruzen saw the puzzled look on Rasa's face and said, "Orochimaru is dead."

The Kazekage suddenly widened his eyes and stood up almost immediately before trying to escape, only for Jiraiya to appear behind him with a kunai on his neck while Baki had his kunai on Jiraiya's throat too.

"Hokage-dono! What's the meaning of this?!" Raikage yelled.

"Now, now, calm down. Let me explain." Hiruzen looked straight at the other two Kages before him and said, "You see, the Kazekage teamed up with Orochimaru, a highly dangerous criminal, to invade our village. You see now? Your shinobis would've been caught in the crossfire if one of my men, I mean, boy, killed Orochimaru less than a month ago." Hiruzen explained.

"What?! Was that true, Kazekage!?" Ay asked angrily.

Samui readied her tanto as she stared at the scene in front of her.

"Calm down everyone. Jiraiya, put down your kunai. We will have a talk with our Kazekage here." Hiruzen said as his eyes glinted.

Jiraiya withdrew his kunai and Baki also withdrew his kunai.

Then, suddenly, the air around Hiruzen changed. He became more serious and calculative. His previous carefree attitude was gone, and now his staring dead directly to Rasa's eyes before he gave the Kazekage two options, "Rasa, I know that your village has suffered from a financial crisis but this does not mean you could just invade my village. You know the consequences of war, you were there after all when it all happened. I understand your situation…"

"No you don't!" Rasa yelled at a sudden snap, "Did you ever see your people die from starvation because we didn't have enough resources in our village? Or did you ever see your people fight for a single slice of bread!? The feeling of those things, it makes me feel that I'm a failure as a leader! Your village took away one of our main and highly paid financial income, our missions. I have thousands of my shinobis waiting just outside your village, I can invade Konoha anytime I want! Give me one good reason why I shouldn't!"

"Because all of your shinobis are under my genjutsu." Suddenly, a young yet cold voice sounded.

All of the people in the room turned their heads towards the voice, and saw a twelve years old child looking at them. He wore aristocratic clothes with a mask tied to his waist. He has a long sword on his back with the Konoha headband on his waist.

"Oh, Hikaru, you've finally arrived. So, did they put on a fight?" Hiruzen asked, strangely happy.

"No, they couldn't, specifically, they just really couldn't. They are all now under my genjutsu, I can make them do whatever I want." Hikaru replied.

"You lie! There's no way…" Rasa said.

"...He would be able to do that? Trust me, he's more powerful than he looks." Hiruzen said.

Hiruzen gestured at Hikaru and he immediately understood what the Sandaime wanted him to do. In a sudden burst of speed, he appeared behind Rasa, dislocated his knees with a kick, before tying him up with his mana whip. Then he knocked out Baki with a chop on the back of his head, so no more interference would join in.

All of this happened in less than a second.

Ay couldn't even react after Hikaru was one with Rasa, and he only reacted a few seconds after. Samui even took 10 seconds to realize what had just happened.

"What just… happened?" Ay couldn't comprehend what just happened to Rasa. It was like, in a single flash of a second, Rasa had his knees dislocated and Baki was knocked out.

"Aaah!! What happened!?" Rasa yelled as he fell to the ground when he felt his knees dislocated.

Now, Rasa wouldn't be able to fight and Hiruzen could talk to him as much as he wants.

Hikaru threw a bottle of Divine Blessing to Hiruzen's hands and said, "Well, I'll be going now. Make your talk fast, the finals are going to start soon." He then vanished in thin air.

Hiruzen nodded before he looked back to Rasa and said, "Now, we'll talk calmly and resolve our grudges to each other."

( Half an hour later, in the arena)

Countless chatters came from the sidelines of the arena, while the contestants waited behind the metal fences.

It seems like they've been here for a while. But, there was something that caught their eyes for a while now, is that Hikaru was sitting in the middle of the arena with a blindfold on his eyes.

"I wonder what darling is doing there." Azumi wondered out loud.

"Maybe the Sandaime ordered him to do that? But why though?" Sasuke replied to her question.

"Hmm, let's just ask him directly." Hinata said before she shouted at Hikaru, "Hikaru-kun, what're you doing there?"

Hikaru turned his head towards Hinata, and said, "Oh this? Wait for the Sandaime to announce what's happening." Then he took out a chocolate bar out of nowhere and ate it while waiting for the Hokage too.

While he is blindfolded, Hikaru can still "see" what they are doing. He has trained his hearing and smell so that he could fight the invisible monsters in the System, like the Irithyllian Slaves. They were very annoying enemies. There are those in which you could see their eyes and dark smoke, while there are types that could truly become invisible by closing their eyes.

Imagine fighting ten of those and they are all ten times stronger than normal. Yeah, he was f.u.c.k.i.e.d by them for so many times. Not in a literal sense though.

Then, the Sandaime appeared on top of the Kage stands and all the people quieted down.