The Hidden Grass Village ninja lying on the ground glared at his teammate. "Mui, what are you looking at? Help me!"
Mui lowered his eyelids. "You are bringing misfortune upon the Hidden Grass Village."
"Don't pretend to be the good guy!" the Grass ninja yelled. "The Five Great Nations throw all their unwanted trash and criminals into the Hōzuki Castle prison. Don't tell me you don't resent that! I'm speaking up for our village's demands—the Great Nations owe us this!"
Hearing him sound so righteous made Obito momentarily feel guilty. But he quickly recovered. No matter how flowery this guy's speech was, bullying his teammate was an undeniable fact. Obito knew he hadn't done anything wrong.
Mui sighed, then suddenly raised his hand and unleashed a torrent of flames. "Fire Style: Heavenly Prison!"
Interweaving flames formed a cage, trapping Obito.
Obito reacted quickly, flashing through hand signs. "Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
However, the moment his fireball touched Mui's fiery prison, it instantly dissolved.
Mui spoke calmly, "Don't waste your energy. This is a sealing jutsu passed down through my clan for generations. I haven't mastered it yet, or this fiery prison wouldn't be visible outside—it would be branded inside your body, making you unable to gather any chakra."
"Obito!" Rin and Ibiki started to move forward to help, but Mui conjured two more fire prisons, trapping them as well.
"Baki, sir, this is our chance!" a subordinate whispered to Baki from a corner. "A Leaf ninja was beaten by a Grass ninja. If we step in now and save the Leaf Village team, wouldn't that show off the Hidden Sand's strength and generosity?"
Baki was tempted, but the problem was he wasn't confident he could win quickly.
He specialized in Wind Style jutsu, and wind feeds fire. Since the Grass ninja's jutsu appeared to be a specialized Fire Style, if Baki failed to rescue them and got trapped himself, the Hidden Sand Village would suffer a huge loss of face.
"Wait a moment. The hero always makes the last entrance," Baki decided to quickly look for a weak point in the Grass ninja's technique.
Meanwhile, Nagato instinctively lifted his right hand, but Yahiko gently pressed it down.
Nagato gave him a confused look. Yahiko smiled and whispered, "Look at his face. Does he look even slightly scared?"
Nagato looked up and saw that the boy named Obito was completely calm.
"You idiot! Hurry up and let me go! Do you want Mui to burn all of you?" the Grass ninja under Obito's foot loudly yelled.
"Heh, you think this is the full power of me, an Uchiha?" Obito gave an arrogant grin.
"You are an Uchiha?" Mui's expression turned serious. "Show me whatever else you have."
"Then you better pay attention." Obito drew a deep breath and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Setsuna Bro, HELP!"
Mui was stunned. This was the famously arrogant Uchiha clan?
Before Mui could say anything, a tall figure suddenly appeared directly in front of them.
"Heh, what kind of game are you guys playing now?" Setsuna chuckled.
"Setsuna Bro, please save Rin first," Obito said with worry.
Ibiki watched impassively. Did Obito seriously just completely ignore me?
Setsuna glanced at the flame prisons trapping them and reached out his hand to grab one.
"Careful..." Mui was shocked by Setsuna's reckless move and was about to warn him, only to see the fire prison—his pride and joy—shattered by the man's bare hands.
"How is that possible?" Mui's pupils shrank. Doesn't that guy's hand feel any heat?
After freeing Rin, Setsuna casually released Obito and Ibiki as well.
"What's going on here?" Setsuna asked.
"This jerk was trying to threaten and extort us," Obito said, quickly grabbing the Grass ninja to report the incident.
"It was them who bullied my teammate and refused to pay compensation! Do the people from the Great Nations think they can ignore all common sense?" the Grass ninja suddenly started wailing dramatically, trying to draw in the surrounding Hidden Sand citizens.
Obito was shaking with anger. "It was clearly you who was bullying the red-haired older sister!"
"She's my teammate! How could I possibly bully my own teammate?" the Grass ninja switched his story completely.
Setsuna lightly tapped his toe on the ground and smiled. "That's right. The people from the Great Nations can ignore common sense."
The Grass ninja was shocked. Was he allowed to say that in front of regular people?
"Everyone, look..." The Grass ninja tried to call the attention of the Hidden Sand villagers, only to realize that the nearby citizens were frozen in place, as if someone had hit the pause button.
An indescribable wave of terror washed over him. His voice trembling, he asked, "W-what did you do to them?"
"I just hit their pressure points. They won't know what happens over the next thirty seconds," Setsuna smiled like a demon.
The Grass ninja was shaking and crying, his snot and tears flowing as he begged for mercy. "I'm sorry! I shouldn't have threatened you! Please let me go! I promise I'll never do it again!"
"Don't worry. You won't have a 'next time.'" Setsuna delivered a powerful kick, and the opponent instantly vanished into the sky.
Setsuna's foot landed, and time began flowing again.
"Huh? Where's that jerk?" Obito asked, confused.
"I don't know. Maybe he used some kind of jutsu to escape," Setsuna said, dusting off his hands.
"We let him off too easy," Obito gritted his teeth.
In the corner, Baki's subordinate urged him, "Baki, sir, if we don't go out now, the crowd will scatter... Huh, Baki, sir?"
The subordinate then noticed Baki was slumped on the ground, hands covering his mouth, his eyes filled with terror.
Just a moment ago, Baki had realized everyone had stopped, even his two subordinates. It was as if time had ceased to flow.
Then, he personally watched that Leaf ninja named Setsuna kick the Grass ninja into the heavens.
"A monster! That Leaf ninja is a monster..." Baki was trembling, and he suddenly remembered what Rasa had told him. "Wait, is he Chishun Setsuna? The opponent I'm supposed to defeat in the Chunin Exam?"
Baki felt faint. Is this really an enemy he could handle?
"Baki, sir, how about we go out now and reprimand the Leaf ninja, accuse them of disturbing the peace, and have them locked up?" one subordinate suggested.
"Absolutely not!" Cold sweat poured from Baki. He had no desire to become a human rocket.
Baki wiped the perspiration from his brow. "What I mean is, we should show the proper grace of a host village. We will defeat our opponents in the Chunin Exam, not use external factors to pressure them."
His two subordinates looked at him with awe. "As expected of Baki, sir!"
"Time to go." Setsuna was about to walk away when he suddenly felt two sharp gazes fixed upon him.
Setsuna turned back and spotted two familiar faces: Sasori, the future Wind Killer, and Kakuzu, who had once successfully assassinated the First Hokage and survived.
Setsuna looked at the goofily smiling Obito and the three observers pretending to be pedestrians (Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan). He couldn't help but be amused. Was this an early-stage Akatsuki group bonding session?
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