As for Li Fan, although both siblings were very optimistic about his talent, based on his previous performance—and the fact that he was only twenty-three—it might take a few more years for him to reach the top five in the village.
Their initial plan had been to delay the looming war for as long as possible. Ideally, they wanted Li Fan's strength to grow for another one or two years before letting him take the position of Fourth Kazekage.
But now, it seemed Li Fan had rashly agreed to Aoki's request for a duel. Whether he failed to understand the deeper meaning behind that request, or understood it but accepted anyway out of pride, the outcome was the same—this cast doubt on whether he was truly ready to serve as Kazekage.
At this point, Ebizō sighed."After all, Li Fan is only a twenty-three-year-old young man, and he's spent most of the year inside the village. He hasn't been on many missions."
Chiyo was silent for a while, then raised her head slightly toward the woman standing quietly in the middle of the room."Hongyue, go watch the match between the two of them tomorrow in person, and report back to us immediately after the result is out."
The graceful woman wearing a rabbit mask—Hongyue—hesitated. Though her mask hid her face, her dark eyes betrayed her uncertainty. Seeing this, Chiyo immediately understood and said gently:"Don't worry, we two old folk aren't dead yet. I can't speak for everything, but we can still protect ourselves in the village. Besides, whoever killed the Third Kazekage has probably fled long ago.
"As the deputy commander of the Shadow Guard directly under the Kazekage, it's time for you to see the future commander of the Shadow Guard for yourself."
Hearing this, Hongyue nodded silently. She inclined her head slightly to the two elders before disappearing in an instant.
As members of the Shadow Guard directly under the Kazekage, they always obeyed the Kazekage's orders. But with the Third Kazekage missing for a day and very likely dead, and with no Fourth Kazekage yet chosen, the Shadow Guard temporarily followed the orders of the Chiyo siblings.
Still, Hongyue was the deputy commander of the Kazekage's private guard, and one of the privileges of that position was that when she greeted or took her leave from the Chiyo siblings, a slight nod was sufficient.
After Hongyue left, silence settled over the room again. It was nearly half an hour before voices broke it.
"Sister, although Aoki likes to play tricks and has a bad temper, he has no strategic vision, let alone foresight. But with war coming, I think it would be better to let someone stronger serve as Kazekage."
Chiyo's voice echoed in the quiet room."Why didn't Li Fan refuse the challenge? At least that way we'd still have some room to maneuver. Let's put it this way—if Li Fan can last ten minutes against Aoki, then we should keep the Kazekage position vacant for a year, even if it costs us our reputation."
"Sister, if it were me, I couldn't last fifty moves against him."
"Then let Aoki be the Fourth Kazekage. As for the boy, let him serve as an advisor. He's still young and has plenty of time. Besides, Aoki isn't the only one who wants the position. But he was the first to openly challenge Li Fan and slap us in the face. From that perspective, Aoki is, in some ways, brave and resourceful."
Meanwhile, the disappearance of the Third Kazekage for a full day—along with the likelihood that he had been killed—had already spread quietly among all senior chunin and higher-ranked ninja in the village.
Before they could fully process their surprise and grief, another piece of news reached them: Li Fan would soon duel the senior jonin Aoki.
With these two events happening together, even the dullest ninja could grasp the implication.
In an instant, many ambitious chunin had already sent—or were preparing to send—gifts to Aoki's home. Many special jonin prepared gifts and rushed over personally.
The remaining jonin, apart from those who were close to Aoki, stayed silent. They all knew his flaws. Even if he became Kazekage, he would probably only be a transitional leader for a few years.
As for Li Fan? Most in Sunagakure were pessimistic. They respected his potential and believed he might surpass Aoki in a few years—but at this moment, at twenty-three, he was no match for a seasoned, well-known senior jonin like Aoki.
Li Fan walked slowly toward home, nodding politely to every ninja and civilian who greeted him.
Their reactions were nearly identical: first surprise, then flattery, and finally a sense of being moved.
It was understandable. In Sunagakure, class divisions were sharp, tempers were quick, and very few people—especially high-ranking ninja—would return greetings to everyone regardless of status.
Ten minutes later, Li Fan stepped into a home that felt both familiar and strange. He went straight to the kitchen—and vanished.
In reality, he was in a secret room seven meters underground, sitting cross-legged on a stone bed.
Li Fan shook his head. He had never expected that Rasa would be paranoid enough to buy a house with an underground chamber just to train in peace. In the original story, he'd shown no such trait—but then again, Rasa had been only a minor character, with barely enough screen time to display any quirks.
Li Fan didn't actually need to hide in the chamber, but he decided that being cautious was better than taking chances.
He called out the system silently in his mind."Exchange for ten high-quality Favorability Fruits."
"Are you sure you want to spend thirty skill points to exchange for ten top-grade Favorability Fruits?"
"Confirm."
"Exchange successful. 340 skill points remaining."
Li Fan thought for a moment, then added silently:"Use two top-grade Favorability Fruits on Tsunade."
If you asked Li Fan who was the most striking beauty in the Naruto world, it would be Tsunade—not just because she had more screen time than other kunoichi, but because she was… impressive.
The thought of the two "basketballs" she carried on her chest made the still-virgin Li Fan restless. He had dreamed about her many times, imagining all sorts of scenarios, and now the chance felt almost real.
He wondered how those legendary "watermelons," bigger than her head, would look in reality.
Though he had been an unassuming man in his old life, silently enduring workplace exploitation, Li Fan was not modest at heart. He had read all sorts of adult manga.
Just as his mind wandered to all the ways he could handle Tsunade in the future, the system's cold mechanical voice cut him off.
"Ding. Use failed. This system does not work on characters the host has never met in reality."
Hearing that, Li Fan frowned, clenching his right fist and smacking his thigh in frustration. He had never expected such a restriction!
This meant his plan to max out the favorability of the top female officials in the other four ninja villages had to be abandoned. Originally, he had hoped to use this method to quickly gain influence across all five great villages.
Of course, he wouldn't admit that what truly angered him was the collapse of his fantasy about remotely controlling Tsunade and making her travel thousands of miles to deliver him a gift.
After venting, he calmed himself and said silently:"System, tell me all the restrictions."
Two minutes later, he nodded slowly.
There were two main restrictions:
First: Li Fan could not use a fruit on anyone he had never seen in person. Knowing someone's name and face wasn't enough—he had to meet them, even from hundreds of meters away, or simply catch their eye once.
Second: The fruits could not be used on men, nor on women who appeared over forty. A woman could be forty-five in reality, but if she looked in her twenties or thirties, the fruit would still work.
After hearing this, Li Fan felt relieved. These were far looser conditions than he had imagined. Meeting someone at least once wasn't that difficult, and he had no interest in using the fruit on men or on women who visibly looked like older aunties.
Now the question was—who should get these ten fruits?
Li Fan couldn't decide, so he asked:"System, do you have a complete list of all women I can currently use the fruit on?"
"Host request detected. Generating list…"
A few seconds later, a list appeared in his mind:
Ye Cang, 21 years old, Favorability 29
Yasha Lian, 16 years old, Favorability 18
Wan, 17 years old, Favorability 11…
Hongyue, 26 years old, Favorability 10…
Le Man, 18 years old, Favorability 7
Jialuo, 20 years old, Favorability 3
Looking at the mere ten names, Li Fan's mouth twitched. The list was too short.
With thousands of ninja in Sunagakure, even if female ninja were fewer, there should be at least a few hundred names here.