After successfully finding the scroll containing the important item, the match finally came to an end after an hour.
Leaving the cinema, everyone still felt reluctant for it to be over.
However, they all walked quickly, eager to share what they had seen in the livestream with those who hadn't been able to get tickets.
Such a good chance to brag, how could any normal person pass it up?
Meanwhile, Minato and his two companions followed Torifu out of Training Ground No. 7 to meet the hundred ninjas they had completely wiped out.
Upon meeting them, Minato and the others kept apologizing, saying it was just a match and that friendship came first, hoping no one would take offense.
But what could those hundred ninjas do?
On the surface, they quickly expressed their understanding.
In their hearts, however, they were thinking: "Wasn't the objective of the match just to kill the big target and retrieve the important item? Why did you have to kill all of us? And the excitement you showed while killing... are you sure that was just an act?"
Still, everyone finally understood just how terrifying the legendary Konoha ninjas were.
All hundred of them prided themselves on being geniuses. Even if they didn't show it outwardly, deep down they were quite proud.
Especially this time, having stood out among all ninjas under fifteen years old, their pride had only grown.
Yet Minato and his companions crushed that pride into the ground without mercy.
Three people, under heavy restrictions, managed to slaughter all hundred of them in just one hour, easily.
The oldest among the three, Fugaku, wasn't even sixteen. Minato was not even eleven years old.
If they were "geniuses," then what were Minato and his friends?
Only "monsters" could describe them.
And it wasn't just the under-fifteen ninjas, those older than fifteen also fell into deep thought.
If these hundred could be wiped out so easily, what about them?
And remember, Minato's group had their strength sealed. If this were the real battlefield without such restrictions, how much better could they handle it?
Many suddenly felt a sense of urgency, deciding they needed to train harder.
Shin, however, paid no mind to such concerns. Once everyone had left, he appeared at Training Ground No. 7.
With a wave of his hand, countless floating spherical cameras flew toward him from all directions, and he stored them all in a scroll.
Next, he began using mostly Earth Release techniques, and in no time, the small town was restored to its original state.
Although he complained aloud about the effort, for him, such work was truly effortless.
As for the match, in his eyes it was nothing more than child's play, kids playing house.
The reason he agreed to hold the tournament and fully supported it was because he had a much larger goal.
What he really wanted was to engage in a contest of strategy with the other ninja villages from afar, winning without fighting.
News of the match quickly spread through every street and corner of Konoha.
Listening to those who had watched the livestream describe it with vivid detail, others grew just as excited, and bitterly regretted not getting a ticket.
Only they themselves knew how much they wished they could have seen Minato's brilliance in person; the regret gnawed at their hearts.
Spies from other villages who had infiltrated Konoha quietly compiled the intelligence they had gathered from the tournament, ready to send it back to their respective villages.
For these civilian spies, who posed no real threat, Shin had always allowed them to operate freely.
Sometimes, he even took the initiative to leak certain information for them to pass along.
He wanted Konoha to become the strongest, a village the other ninja villages could only look up to.
And to achieve that goal, war was not the only path.
Economic warfare and an arms race could achieve it too.
No matter what advanced technology your great ninja villages come up with, Konoha will always be a generation ahead of you.
So here's the question, are you going to keep up or not?
If you do, I have plenty of ways to drag you down.
After all, my technology is far more advanced than yours, and my costs are much lower.
But if you don't keep up, then you'll be left eating my dust, losing any qualification to compete with me. From then on, whenever you see Konoha, you'll have to bow your head, act humble, and sit at the kids' table.
This open and blatant scheme had indeed made the current great ninja villages grumble endlessly.
More than once, they'd cursed Konoha for being shameless.
But what could they do? Really give up competing and resign themselves to such treatment?
The first to be unable to hold on were Suna and Iwa.
There was no need to say much about Suna, ever since the Second Great Ninja War, they had been in a serious decline.
After seeing their crushing defeat, the daimyō of the Land of Wind became increasingly disappointed in them and instead began improving relations with Konoha, entrusting many missions to Konoha instead.
After all, in his eyes, if I'm spending the same money, why not hire someone better?
What's more, the Third Kazekage gave me a bad attitude every day, and Chiyo even clashed with me over money. Back then, you just stood there and didn't say a word to defend me, how was I supposed to tolerate that?
Now, look at Konoha. Shin never disrespects me.
Not only has he given me plenty of emotional value, but, under the arrangements of the Fire Daimyō, he also provided me with medicine to make my body healthier, and even sent people specifically to protect me.
So where should my money go? Is there even a question?
Without the Wind Daimyō's financial support, Suna's condition has only worsened.
When the Third Kazekage learned about Konoha's simulation training program, he immediately saw its advantages, gritted his teeth, and decided to copy it.
But he forgot, why did he have Suna take the "elite ninja" route in the first place?
Wasn't it because they had no money?
This decision nearly bankrupted Suna outright.
He never expected that building just a few simulation training facilities would cost so much money.
And those heavy-handed ninja fights destroyed the facilities every time, making the maintenance costs astronomical.
Now, the Third Kazekage was already thinking about abandoning this training method, he simply couldn't afford it anymore.
Although the thought of Suna's decline happening under his leadership pained him deeply, what choice did he have?
Thinking about how in just a few months it would be time to pay Konoha reparations again, and then looking at the completely empty treasury, he sighed, took Rasa with him into the desert, and resumed the grueling life of mining.
Many people didn't understand why he always favored Rasa and never considered the more talented Pakura.
Only he knew, it was all because of money.
He was well aware of Pakura's excellence. But could she mine with Magnet Release to bring in income for the village?
Could she work tirelessly, without complaint, mining day after day, even if misunderstood by others?
If he wanted Rasa to devote himself wholeheartedly to the village, he couldn't let Rasa become disheartened.
But what he didn't know was that, while he was doing everything with Suna's best interests at heart, Pakura had already begun preparing for a coup.
Within Suna's upper ranks, many had already expressed their willingness to support her.
Plenty of people were fed up with the Third Kazekage often being absent from the village, impossible to find when problems arose.
And in many people's eyes, Suna's downfall was entirely his fault.
If he hadn't started that war back then, would things have turned out like this?