CHAPTER 158: CHAPTER 158

Satoru really did have something to do—otherwise, he wouldn’t have gone to the hospital just to give Kimimaro the rest of his meds.

Shisui would be staying at the hospital for a while as the assigned jōnin, and Satoru had a quick chat with him in the room and even borrowed a few crows.

Hozuki Suigetsu and Haku didn’t seem like the type who were in a rush to train hard like Naruto and the others.

For those two, this month was probably more like a sightseeing trip through the Land of Fire—nothing to worry about.

Naruto was throwing a bit of a fit, but mostly because neither Satoru nor Kakashi would train him directly, which made him feel kinda lame.

Still, Naruto trusted that Satoru wouldn’t lie to him. If Satoru recommended someone, that person must be reliable, right?

He completely forgot that Kakashi had also tried to suggest another teacher earlier.

After parting ways with Naruto, Satoru wandered over to the library.

"Ah... yeah, a map of the Land of Wind."

He looked through maps of different countries and ended up picking the most detailed and reliable one he could find, then paid for it.

In fact, aside from the Land of Water—where tourism meant more detailed maps and travel info—most countries didn’t have detailed routes for places outside their own borders.

After all, they never knew when a war might break out, and ninja from different countries didn’t often travel back and forth.

The more detailed the map, the more it could reveal about a country’s internal layout.

Kirigakure was kind of an exception. Even if someone leaked the map of the Land of Water or the path to the village,

Once they used Kirigakure no Jutsu, no one could find their way through it anyway, so they weren’t too worried.

The Land of Wind hadn’t developed much due to its geography. People living there was already surprising—like surviving in the Sahara.

Satoru scratched his messy silver hair and stared at the map, lost in thought.

...

Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro were taken back to a room specially set up for Chunin Exam participants.

Although Gaara had been seriously hurt by Kimimaro, once the bleeding was stopped, his life wasn’t in danger anymore.

It was suggested he stay in the hospital to recover, but Baki insisted on taking him back to their lodging.

There were too many people from Konoha in the hospital—it was better for them to stay out of sight.

Temari and Kankuro sat by the window, looking over at Gaara lying on the bed.

This guy had never been hurt before. It was the first time they’d seen him like this.

Everyone in the room stayed quiet, and the mood was heavy.

They didn’t come to the Chunin Exams just to get promoted. Their real goal was to take down Konohagakure.

No one really wanted another war, especially since it was the Land of Thunder that took the chance to attack the Land of Wind during the last Great Ninja War.

Back then, they were the victims. Now they were about to become the attackers.

That’s exactly why Temari didn’t like the idea of attacking an ally, even if the opportunity was right in front of them.

Back when they were still in the Land of Wind, Temari had already shown hesitation about the plan.

Starting this conflict wouldn’t just affect Konohagakure — it could trigger a war across the whole world.

But the truth was, they didn’t have any other choice.

"The alliance that came at such a high cost would be broken, and countless people would die in the war again."

"Ninjas are just tools of war. Peace treaties are nothing but things used to control us."

They were the weapons of their country’s Daimyo. As long as a mission came down, as long as the Kazekage gave an order, they were supposed to carry it out.

It might sound like twisted logic, but this idea of ninjas being tools — a lot of them had already accepted it as reality.

After that, Baki explained the real reason behind all of this, just so people like Temari wouldn’t let their dislike of war mess up the mission.

Because Sunagakure and Konohagakure had a peace treaty and were allies now, their clueless Daimyo started acting like peace would last forever.

He started cutting funding to Sunagakure, shrinking their military budget little by little.

Not just that — many of the missions that should have gone to Sunagakure were handed over to Konohagakure instead.

It was a downright brainless move, and even after several talks, nothing changed.

The Fourth Kazekage had to rely on his Magnet Release to extract gold from sand just to keep the village going, but that wasn’t a long-term fix.

Watching Konohagakure grow stronger, their own position was becoming more and more dangerous. They had to find a way to throw Konohagakure into chaos.

That’s why they set their sights on the Chunin Exams.

"The Fourth Kazekage has now decided to team up with Otogakure and use this chance to take over Konohagakure!"

"This is for the pride of Sunagakure, and also to show those Daimyo how important military power really is."

"This is an S-rank mission. Take it seriously."

But now Gaara had already ended up in a serious fight with someone from Kirigakure before the mission had even started.

This really caught them off guard.

Because the number of ninjas in Sunagakure was dropping, they had shifted to focusing on training elite fighters.

Temari, Kankuro, and Gaara — they were technically just Genin, but all of them were really strong.

They thought taking on Konohagakure would be easy — like slicing through vegetables.

But out of nowhere, people from Kirigakure joined in. Even the Mizukage was here.

Kirigakure was known as the Village Hidden in the Mist, but it was also famous for assassins — something clearly shown in Kimimaro’s fight with Gaara.

These guys were nothing like the Genin from Konohagakure.

Even though the real Chunin Exams were still a month away, and Gaara would probably heal up by then...

It was clear now that Kirigakure was a dangerous wild card. They needed to be extra careful around them.

"You two try to avoid any trouble with the people from Kirigakure. Our target this time is Konohagakure."

"Don’t cause any unnecessary problems."

Baki didn’t want to say anything bad about Gaara, so all he could do was warn Kankuro and Temari to stay alert around the people from Kirigakure.

"Yeah, yeah, we get it. It’s not like we’ll run into them again outside."

"That bone guy is probably resting up anyway. Shouldn’t be a big deal."

Kankuro scratched his head, still thinking about how that guy managed to break through Gaara’s absolute defense.

Seriously, no matter how crazy they got, they wouldn’t go anywhere near the Kirigakure people again.

"Keep a close eye on him. Once he wakes up, don’t let him go wandering around on his own."

Gaara totally lost it after someone broke through his defenses. Once he wakes up, there’s a good chance he’ll rush into the hospital and try to kill someone.

After giving the two of them a quick warning, Baki frowned and walked out.

He needed to talk to the people from Otogakure about how they were going to handle this sudden situation.

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