Shizune trembled behind Kairen, pinching his flesh with her nails to stop him from speaking further.
Beside them, Yamashita Shige was also dumbfounded—he had offended the son of the Hokage among the noble ninja clans.
A werewolf! Could it be that everything he said yesterday was actually true?
Kairen stood up, ignoring Shizune's attempts to restrain him, and walked right up to Asuma, confronting him silently.
Asuma was a full head taller than Kairen, which only made Shizune's anxiety deepen.
The noise in the large tent slowly died down. All the patients and medical-nin turned their eyes toward this scene.
A civilian genin… provoking the Hokage's son??
Asuma spoke word by word: "What did you just say?"
Kairen sneered, locking eyes with Asuma.
"Have you ever been to the battlefield?"
"Have you ever cut someone down? Have you ever seen a corpse?"
"Can you tell me how many times you've actually experienced the slaughter of shinobi?"
Asuma froze. He had been here for almost two months now, yet he hadn't killed anyone, hadn't fought in a real shinobi battle…
It was as if he were a leader coming to inspect a construction site.
Kairen smirked as he rubbed his bandaged waist.
"None! Not a single one! Look at this… this is the Hokage's son."
He suddenly pointed to his own bandages.
"Do you have these? Do you have even one wound on your body?"
Asuma remained stunned, his body trembling slightly as if trying to suppress something.
"You don't. All you have is the title of the Sarutobi clan's young master. All you have is the arrogance of being the Hokage's son."
Kairen grabbed Asuma by the collar.
"What were you looking down on just now? Were you ashamed that I was captured? Does my survival offend your eyes? Do you even know how many people are still prisoners in the Sunagakure camp? Do you know what kind of torment they suffer every single day?"
"If you really are the Hokage's son, then you should be saving them—not playing patrol games in the rear like a child."
Shizune and Yūhi Kurenai froze at Kairen's words. Being captured in enemy territory… the torment one suffered there couldn't even be written in textbooks.
Each word from Kairen stabbed into Asuma's heart. Asuma's face darkened.
"What does a civilian genin like you know? With your level of strength, what use are you on the battlefield?"
Unable to win with words, he resorted to belittling Kairen's strength.
"Oh!" Kairen let out a light laugh, then turned toward the tent's exit. "Come on then! It's too cramped in here—I won't have room to step on your head!"
"Kairen—!"
Shizune shouted in worry. In her mind, this boy couldn't even perform the Transformation Technique properly. How could he possibly be a match for the class elite, Asuma?
Asuma sneered coldly. Indeed, he had been forced into a corner by the other's words.
But so what? A weakling had no right to pass judgment on him!
Yūhi Kurenai tugged on Asuma's sleeve.
"Asuma, let it go. Kairen's injuries aren't healed yet, and he can't possibly be your opponent."
"Hmph!"
Asuma snorted. He didn't listen. In his mind, Kairen was just trying to show off in front of Kurenai.
Asuma strode out, his cold smirk still plastered on his face.
Shizune and Kurenai followed quickly behind.
Yamashita Shige quietly picked up his IV stand and tiptoed toward the tent flap, poking his head out to watch.
He wasn't the only one—many others were eager to see the outcome.
Kurenai's squad was stationed outside. Among them was someone from the Nara clan, and their supervising jōnin was none other than the elite jōnin Yūhi Shinku.
Yūhi Shinku leaned against a tree trunk, watching the standoff between Kairen and Asuma. He shook his head.
Everything Kairen said was true. The Hokage's son did enjoy privileges—he himself was nothing more than a jōnin assigned to accompany the young master.
But it couldn't be said out loud. Not that bluntly. In fact, it couldn't be said at all.
When it came to matters involving the village leadership, one had to stay quiet. Many civilian shinobi had lost their lives precisely because they didn't.
The Nara clansman glanced at Kurenai, who wanted to stop things but couldn't, and chuckled.
"Not even a beauty yet, and already causing chaos!"
"Yūji!"
"Sorry, I nearly forgot—Kurenai is the sensei's daughter!"
Yūhi Shinku unfolded his arms.
"I'll keep an eye on them, just to make sure Asuma doesn't go too far."
Nara Yūji chuckled again, a glint flashing in his clever eyes.
"That's not necessarily how it'll go!"
Shinku turned to look at him.
"Didn't sensei say this boy escaped from Sunagakure's ANBU?"
Shinku stopped and didn't step forward.
Asuma pulled out a kunai, sneering coldly at Kairen. But Kairen simply stood there quietly, his upper body wrapped in bandages, a faint smile tugging at his lips.
Unarmed, yet still standing tall.
"What are you relying on?" Asuma grew angrier. The Kairen of the past had been meek, never daring to look him in the eye.
Now, Asuma could no longer find his own reflection in the other's gaze.
With a sharp resolve, Asuma lunged forward. The kunai was about to pierce into Kairen.
"Kairen…"
Shizune and Kurenai squeezed their eyes shut at the same time, unable to watch the scene of Kairen being stabbed.
Silence. No screams of pain. No sound of fighting.
Both girls opened their eyes—and their pupils instantly dilated to the extreme.
Kairen's foot was planted firmly on Asuma's head.
A one-hit defeat!!
Nara Yūji analyzed carefully: "The instant Asuma stabbed forward, he dodged, then stomped straight down on Asuma's head! That speed… that reflex… no wonder he escaped from Sunagakure's ANBU."
"Everyone underestimated him. His taijutsu is already at chūnin level! What on earth did he go through during that month of captivity?"
Yūhi Shinku said nothing, just watched Asuma being stepped into the ground.
For the first time in Konoha's history, a civilian had left the imprint of his shoe on the Hokage's son's face. Words couldn't describe the weight of it.
Asuma bit into the dirt, his breathing ragged. He struggled desperately, but that foot pressed him mercilessly into the ground.
"See? This is the Hokage's son. Born to a family of hawks, yet still destined to eat dirt."
"Damn it!" Asuma's veins bulged, his fingers clawing violently into the soil.
For someone as proud as him to be trampled beneath a peer's foot, without the strength to resist even a little—
How was that possible? Moku Kairen had never been his match before. How could he be overwhelmed in just one exchange now?!
Good grief!!
Yamashita Shige's blood boiled with excitement. He almost yanked out his IV line, eager to join Kairen in tasting the thrill of stepping on a noble clan brat.
Yūhi Shinku was just about to move to stop Asuma's humiliation when a green figure shot in even faster.
Kairen abruptly stepped back. Approaching him was a young man in a green vest, bearing no clan crest—he wasn't from the noble clans.
"How dare you treat young master Asuma with such disrespect!"
Kairen smiled faintly. "A Sarutobi family servant?"
The green-clad chūnin's eyes widened.
"What did you just say?"
"I said… does licking the bones of the noble clans taste that good?"
"Damn you!" The green-clad chūnin immediately formed hand seals and lunged forward in a body flicker, kunai gleaming coldly in his hand. He was genuinely aiming to kill Kairen.
"Eight Gates—Gate of Opening, open!"
Kairen pressed four fingers together in front of him, as chakra surged endlessly from within his body.