Chapter 156: Chapter 158: Hanabi: Working Behind the Scenes Is Hard, Too, You Know
"So the real matches are finally about to begin."
Pipe clamped in his mouth, the Third Hokage swept his gaze over the ten advancing genin, his eyes coming to rest at last on Naruto.
Not only had the boy learned the Rasengan—he’d even used shadow clones to knead up several of them in a row.
Kankuro had been scared into forfeiting outright.
—Otherwise he’d likely have been ground into mincemeat.
[That fight ran a whole season]
[Made into a seasonal anime, it’d probably wrap in two episodes]
[Dying]
[Truly a contest of great nations—aside from the two Sand ninja, everyone’s a Konoha shinobi]
[The baseline quality’s just different, and they’re the host nation besides]
[How come we don’t see Mist ninja or any others—do they not do the Chūnin Exams?]
[The person above, how’d you armchair your way this far? Allied nations, that’s the whole point]
[So are those other three the Axis, then?]
[What if they’re the Entente?]
[Sadly neither—weren’t you all watching earlier? The ninja world’s fought three great wars already; one more makes it the Fourth]
[Einstein: the Fourth, I get it—fought with stones and clubs]
[Grass (a type of exclamation), drop that into Road to Ninja and the line actually checks out]
Only this time, the view cut back to Hanabi.
Now that the Chūnin Exam battles were over, the present scene had been ruled "slice-of-life," so the slice-of-life camera card was usable now.
Except the audience noticed Hanabi wasn’t at the exam venue.
In fact, the moment Naruto’s fight ended, Hanabi had already slipped away together with Uchiha Hikari; the one left on-site was a shadow clone.
And now the view cut to a hospital.
Someone lay in a sickbed, seemingly unconscious.
Hanabi walked over and set a flower at the head of the bed.
Then she simply watched the person, smiling, saying nothing.
Kabuto could no longer keep up the act of being asleep.
"Here to look in on the loser you beat?" Kabuto Yakushi opened his eyes.
"Kabuto-senpai was waiting for me too, weren’t you—otherwise you’d have run off long ago."
After that initial "collapse of conviction," Kabuto had calmed down now.
He had things he needed to get clear on, too.
"Just how much do you actually know?" Kabuto couldn’t help asking.
"I know a great many things~ I’m not sure which area you’re asking about." Hanabi smiled.
"At this point, let’s drop the playing-dumb." Kabuto’s glasses caught the light.
[Knew it, a deep-cover four-eyes after all]
[The ones in glasses are always the ruthless ones 233]
[But he’s already been outmaneuvered by Hanabi]
"Because I really do know a great many things." Hanabi tilted her head. "Is what you want to ask about Danzo, or Orochimaru—or maybe..."
"You know even that—I’d honestly rather you were playing dumb."
Though this woman was smiling, Kabuto felt an intangible pressure all the same.
This woman was terrifying.
Just being looked at by her gave him the sense of being seen straight through—an invisible pressure pressing in from every side.
"On my way here I happened to look in on the three Rain ninja I once rescued—Team Shigure," Hanabi said. "The Rain ninja are sworn to secrecy, so they rarely let slip anything about their village. But word is, in the Hidden Rain there’s yet another organization in existence. How interesting."
Now Kabuto was certain: she truly did know something.
"The one who dispatched those three Rain ninja was the Hidden Rain’s leader, Hanzō of the Salamander—but now, well..."
—Now, that wasn’t so certain anymore.
There was no firm timetable, but Hanzō of the Salamander had most likely been replaced sometime in the window after he sent the Rain genin to Konoha and before Itachi slipped into the village.
"Lady Hanabi." Kabuto said in a low voice, "I think there are certain matters that perhaps aren’t suited for a public setting, you know."
"Is that so." Hanabi tilted her head. "But I don’t have a single thing I need to hide, you know."
—But I do.
Kabuto badly wanted to say it.
In fact, it was already plain in the audience’s view: even though Hanabi had used a camera card to claim this footage, the Stage hadn’t cut any corners with it either.
[Dying]
[Kabuto: don’t you come over here]
[The blackhearted four-eyes is now praying for Hanabi to hurry up and leave]
[This guy’s definitely a spy]
[Maybe there’s even a blood feud involved]
[My wife’s about to start playing puppet master again]
Bingo!
No prize, though.
"So you’re hoping to get some intel out of me?" Kabuto asked.
"Actually, I’m more interested in you as a person," Hanabi said.
In a certain sense, this fellow really did, single-handedly, raise the curtain on the Fourth Shinobi World War.
"...You want me to become a spy?" Kabuto said.
"Oya, oya, why would your mind jump straight to spying~ What if I simply think your medical ninjutsu is superb?" Hanabi’s voice hovered between teasing and earnest. "Or—what if what I’ve got my eye on is your ’fate’~"
This wasn’t pulled out of thin air.
Because Kabuto’s given name is pronounced kabuto. Mm, that’s right—and that "to" sound is the very same one you hear in Naruto, in Nagato, in Obito, and so on.
Kabuto Yakushi’s surname was written in kanji, but his given name was in kana.
Why would the one to raise the curtain on the Fourth Shinobi World War start stirring up trouble?
Hanabi figured this matching "to" was actually the most important thing of all...
"You want me to betray them?" Kabuto wasn’t about to fall for Hanabi’s honeyed words.
"No." Hanabi smiled. "In life, finding someone who truly understands you isn’t easy at all. I’m not so classless as that."
Kabuto was thoroughly thrown by Hanabi.
What on earth was this woman trying to do?
"The reason I value you is precisely because you are you. Sometimes a flower pruned too much really isn’t beautiful at all," Hanabi said.
Though she hadn’t said it outright, Kabuto had already picked up on it.
—This woman knew that he, Kabuto Yakushi, was a spy; she even knew about his stretch back in Root. Perhaps she knew about the Akatsuki business, too.
"I only hope you’ll think over a certain question," Hanabi said. "What, exactly, is the true source of all the suffering in your life. Is it some specific person—or some other kind of thing entirely."
"...What exactly are you getting at, my lady?" Kabuto said.
[Grass (a type of exclamation), he switched to formal speech]
[This is the setup for stirring up trouble]
[It’s over, it’s over—isn’t the strongest one on the hero squad always the one who turns at the end? Director Hanabi couldn’t be holding a villain’s script, could she?]
[I don’t think so—Sasuke’s the type who looks ready to go dark at any second]
[Honestly Naruto looks like he could turn too]
Hanabi, meanwhile, went on. "If you ever find yourself lost again—or once you’ve found your answer—then come find me at that time."
"And by then, you’ll understand what it is I want to do."
At this, Hanabi shifted once more—into the appearance of Nonō Yakushi.
"I’m sorry I didn’t recognize you back then, Kabuto."
"Don’t take that form—" Kabuto ground out through clenched teeth.
"Ara ara ara, this is desensitization training, you know." Hanabi rose and walked to the door. "Besides—I think Lady Nonō, if she really did hear that you were safe and sound, would surely react just like this, you know."
"Well then—please rest well."
She closed the door, leaving behind a Kabuto at something of a loss.
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