When he heard Yukimura Seisui's words, Kitsuchi was utterly baffled.
This isn't how you were acting before...
Why the sudden change?
Just as he was thinking this, he saw Seisui pull out a wooden plaque from seemingly nowhere. Carved onto it were the words:
"This path is mine, this tree I've planted; If you want to pass, pay the toll, undaunted."
Kitsuchi glanced at the towering trees around them, then back at Seisui, who was a few years younger than himself.
You planted this tree? Please. That thing was probably growing here before your parents were even born.
But having witnessed Seisui's strength before, Kitsuchi wasn't eager to provoke him. So he asked instead:
"What do we have to do to get through?"
Seisui looked at him and calmly replied,
"Just pay a 300,000-ryo road damage fee."
"We don't have money," Kitsuchi shook his head.
"Who brings cash to the Chunin Exams?"
"That's fine," Seisui said confidently. "I trust you won't go back on your word and disgrace Iwagakure. Just sign a promissory note."
He pulled out a slip of paper and handed it over.
While he was still hesitating, more teams began to arrive one after another.
Some of them, upon seeing Seisui's sign, stepped forward to protest, only to be held back by their teammates.
Once the crowd had mostly gathered, Seisui stopped paying attention to Kitsuchi and started forming hand signs.
"Summoning Jutsu: Panda Wu!"
In the next instant, a towering twenty-meter-tall panda appeared behind Seisui.
Same as before, it wore oversized shorts and casually held a twig of bamboo between its teeth.
This time, though, it also had several bamboo canisters strapped around its waist for unknown purposes, and in its hand was a thirty-meter-long green bamboo staff, stripped clean of its leaves and branches.
It looked like a warrior monk from a mountaintop temple.
The moment Panda Wu appeared, the noisy crowd fell silent.
What kind of Genin can summon a twenty-meter-tall beast?
The massive panda looked down at the crowd and asked Seisui in a deep voice,
"Want me to take them all out?"
"No," Seisui leapt down from its head and stood in front of it.
"We're not robbing them, we're charging a road damage fee."
Everyone blinked in disbelief.
Did he just admit he's robbing us?
Just then, A from Kumogakure stepped forward, looking up at the towering panda in awe.
"Three hundred thousand, right?" he said.
"I'll write the IOU!"
He took the slip from Seisui and began writing.
Classic A, didn't even blink as he skimmed a hundred thousand off the total.
Seisui didn't seem to care.
Losing 100k? Whatever.
A moment later, the promissory note was done.
Seisui let A through with a satisfied nod.
As he walked past, A looked at Seisui and said,
"Next time, I won't lose to you."
"You better not."
"Next time, I'm charging you to fight me," Seisui shot back indifferently.
Next time? The only one you'll be worthy of fighting is Minato.
Kitsuchi, who'd been hesitating until now, saw A willingly sign the note and made up his mind.
A loss to this kid.
He might not know the details, but it's clear, Seisui is powerful.
Then again, a twenty-meter-tall summon was more than enough proof.
Kitsuchi signed the note and left.
Seisui scanned the remaining crowd.
Most of those still here were from minor ninja villages, likely too broke to pay.
Just then, Hyuga Hizashi arrived with two others.
Without hesitation, they signed the IOU.
Then, teams from the other major villages also began stepping forward to do the same.
Seisui wasn't worried about anyone defaulting.
But when it came to Sunagakure, he didn't let them through.
"Damn you, Konoha ninja!"
A Genin from the Sand raged.
Then he shouted,
"Everyone, attack together!"
"There's only three of them!"
Seisui smirked with mockery.
"I'm standing right here. What can you do about it?"
Behind him, Panda Wu stomped its foot.
The ground trembled with a thunderous boom, and the crowd wavered.
"Can we really take them?" a trembling Genin from a minor village whispered.
"This is too much!"
Most of them had made it this far because they were confident in their skills.
Now, provoked and embarrassed, they began shouting:
"Screw it!"
"Damn Konoha!"
"Let's get them!"
"Yeah, kill him!"
But despite their bravado, no one actually moved.
Not even a step.
Seisui looked at them all, unamused.
All bark, no bite.
Then he vanished in a flash.
The first Sand Genin to speak suddenly felt the world spinning.
Next thing he saw was a headless corpse.
Before he could process anything, darkness took him.
Seisui cracked his neck and muttered,
"With no skills, why act tough?"
"Who are you barking at?"
He turned toward a nearby bush and called out:
"Need me to invite you out personally?"
Seisui was blocking this path not just to extort some money,
but mainly to wait for Rasa, that bastard.
Everyone else was secondary.
Inside the bushes, Pakura looked at Rasa with disdain.
"Useless. All you ever do is screw things up."
"You just had to provoke a monster like this."
Her words were biting, but Rasa had no way to argue.
Seisui had targeted Rasa specifically, and rightly so.
Originally, he could've just stolen the badge and left.
But no, he chose to torture his opponent.
If Might Duy hadn't had the Eight Gates, he'd probably have been tortured to death.
Seisui didn't claim to be a good person, he'd killed people.
But he'd never tortured anyone.
As Seisui's voice faded, Pakura and her team emerged from the brush.
But the moment they did, Minato appeared next to Seisui and poured his chakra into his special three-pronged kunai.
A razor-sharp slash burst forth.
Pakura froze for a second, then instinctively yanked Karura aside to dodge the attack.
Rasa, however, stood his ground.
Golden sand surged up from the ground to form a shield, attempting to block Minato's strike.
But in the next moment, a fiery blade swept in from behind Seisui's attack.
In Pakura's eyes, two slashes, one from the front and one from behind, struck Rasa's shield at once.
Seisui disappeared and reappeared behind Rasa, slashing downward.
Rasa collapsed instantly, a deep gash cutting into his back, all the way to the bone.
Pakura and Karura's pupils shrank.
They frantically formed hand signs, preparing to attack,
But Seisui didn't move.
Instead, he calmly said,
"Relax. I just made sure he's badly injured."
"Didn't kill him."
The two Sand kunoichi paused, glancing down at Rasa.
Sure enough, his chest was still rising and falling.
"You're the top prodigies of Sunagakure, aren't you?" Seisui said, looking them over.
"I doubt you want to fail this exam, do you?"
=============
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