As for Li Fan, although both siblings thought very highly of his talent...
Given "Li Fan's" previous track record and his current age of only twenty-three...
He might need a few more years to enter the ranks of the village's top five.
So their idea at the time was to drag out the impending war for as long as possible.
It would be best to wait for Li Fan's strength to grow for another year or two before letting him assume the role of Fourth Kazekage.
But now it seemed that Li Fan had rashly agreed to Aoki's sparring request.
Whether Li Fan failed to see the implication of victory or defeat behind this request...
Or saw through it but accepted it for the sake of pride...
It all indicated that Li Fan might not yet have the qualifications to be Kazekage.
At this point, Ebizo sighed softly:
"In the end, Li Fan is just a twenty-three-year-old young man. Moreover, he stays in the village all year round and hasn't gone on many missions."
Chiyo was silent for a while, then looked up slightly at the woman standing silently in the middle of the room:
"Akatsuki, go watch their spar in person tomorrow. Once the result is out, tell us immediately."
Hearing this, the woman with the graceful figure wearing the rabbit mask—Akatsuki—showed hesitation in her dark eyes revealed through the mask.
Seeing her delay, Chiyo immediately understood and said gently:
"Don't worry. Us two old immortals... I won't say much about anything else, but we can still protect ourselves within the village. Besides, the person who killed the Third Kazekage has likely already fled."
"As the Vice Commander of the Kazekage's direct Anbu guard, you should also go see the future commander of the guard."
Hearing this, the Anbu Vice Commander Akatsuki nodded silently.
She nodded slightly to the two elders in front of her, and then vanished in the blink of an eye.
As the direct guard of the Kazekage, the Anbu guard usually only obeyed the Kazekage's orders.
But now that the Third Kazekage had been missing for a day and was very likely murdered...
With the Fourth Kazekage not yet selected, the Anbu guard naturally obeyed the Chiyo siblings' orders temporarily.
Even so, as the Vice Commander of the Kazekage's private guard...
Akatsuki only needed to nod slightly when meeting and leaving the Chiyo siblings. This was one of the privileges of the Kazekage's guard.
After Akatsuki left, the room fell into a long silence.
It wasn't until half an hour later that conversation resumed in the room.
"Sister, although that kid Aoki likes to play petty tricks, has a violent temper, lacks a big-picture view, and certainly has no foresight..."
"The great war is coming. I think it's better to let someone stronger take the position of Kazekage."
Immediately, Chiyo's voice echoed in the room:
"Sigh. Why didn't that child Li Fan decline the spar? That way, at least the situation could be salvaged."
"How about this: if that child Li Fan can last ten minutes against Aoki, then even if we have to risk our old reputations, we will keep the Kazekage position vacant for a year."
"Sister, what if he can't even last ten minutes or fifty moves?"
"Then let Aoki be the Fourth Kazekage. As for that child, let him be a staff officer. He is still young; he has plenty of time."
"Besides, Aoki isn't the only Jonin with ambitions to be Kazekage."
"But he was the first one who dared to jump out and spar with Li Fan, slapping us in the face. Looking at it this way, that kid Aoki can be considered brave and resourceful to some extent."
Meanwhile, the news that the Third Kazekage had been missing for a day...
And was very likely murdered...
Had mysteriously spread to the ears of all veteran Chunin and higher-ranked ninjas in the village.
Before the ninjas could be shocked and saddened...
Not long after, the news that Li Fan was going to spar with Jonin Aoki also reached their ears.
With these two events happening together, any ninja who wasn't too stupid understood the hidden meaning behind them.
In an instant, a large number of Chunin who wanted to advance had already bought gifts, or were preparing to, and asking people to deliver them to Jonin Aoki's house.
A large number of Tokubetsu Jonin (Special Jonin) had also prepared gifts and were rushing to Jonin Aoki's house in person.
The remaining official Jonin, apart from those friendly with Aoki, remained silent.
For these Jonin, they naturally knew Aoki's shortcomings clearly.
Even if Aoki really became the Kazekage, he would probably only serve a transitional role for a few years.
As for Li Fan?
Most ninjas in the Sand Village were pessimistic, believing Li Fan was no match for Aoki.
They also recognized Li Fan's potential very well; perhaps in a few years, Li Fan would surpass Aoki.
But at this moment, the twenty-three-year-old Li Fan was definitely not the opponent of Jonin Aoki, who was battle-hardened and renowned in the ninja world.
Li Fan headed toward his home at an unhurried pace.
He nodded politely in return to the ninjas or civilians who greeted him, regardless of their status.
The reactions of the surrounding ninjas and civilians were identical: first surprise, then feeling overwhelmed by the favor, and finally moved.
They couldn't be blamed for making a fuss.
The Sand Village had strict class distinctions, and Sand ninjas generally had violent tempers.
Those like Li Fan, who nodded in return to everyone regardless of status, were extremely rare.
About ten minutes later, Li Fan returned to his home, which felt both familiar and strange.
He walked straight to the kitchen, and then vanished inside it.
At this moment, Li Fan was in a secret chamber seven meters underground.
He sat cross-legged on a stone bed and shook his head.
Li Fan truly hadn't expected that Rasa was actually a paranoid victim.
Just to cultivate with peace of mind, he had deliberately bought a house with an underground secret chamber.
From the original story, he hadn't seen Rasa showing any such paranoid tendencies.
But when Li Fan thought about Rasa's minor role in the original work, he felt relieved.
With such short screen time, even if he was paranoid, he wouldn't have had time to show it.
Li Fan didn't really need to go through the trouble of coming into this secret chamber, but after thinking about it, he felt that being careful just in case was never wrong.
After summoning the system, Li Fan recited silently in his heart:
"Exchange for ten High Grade Affection Fruits."
"Confirm spending 30 Skill Points to exchange for ten High Grade Affection Fruits?"
"Confirm."
"Exchange successful. Remaining: 340 Skill Points."
Li Fan thought for a moment and recited silently:
"Use two High Grade Affection Fruits on Tsunade!"
If one were to ask who the most memorable beauty in the Naruto world was for Li Fan...
It would definitely be Tsunade.
Not only because she had more screen time compared to other ninja beauties, but also because she was so huge.
Thinking of the two "basketballs" hanging on Tsunade's chest...
Li Fan, still an old virgin, felt a faint stirring in his heart.
He had dreamed of Tsunade many times and tried various positions in his dreams. He didn't expect it to come true this time.
He wondered how astonishing Tsunade's watermelons—bigger than her head in the anime—would look in reality.
Although Li Fan was an honest man who silently endured the exploitation of "people's entrepreneurs" before transmigrating...
His inner heart wasn't honest. He had read all kinds of hentai doujinshi.
Just as Li Fan was fantasizing about how to manipulate Tsunade into various positions later... the cold mechanical voice of the system interrupted his fantasy.
"Ding. Usage failed. This system does not work on characters the host has never seen in reality!"
Hearing the failure notification and the prompt in his mind...
Li Fan frowned slightly. At the same time, he immediately clenched his right hand into a fist and slammed it hard onto his thigh!
Li Fan never expected the system to have such a restriction!
In this way, Li Fan's plan...
To max out the affection of all high-ranking officials in the other four major ninja villages... could only be regrettably scrapped.
Originally, he had planned to speed-run the Five Great Ninja Villages this way.
Of course, Li Fan would never admit that what angered him most was the shattering of his fantasy of remotely controlling Tsunade to come over and deliver herself from a thousand miles away.
After habitually venting his emotions by punching his thigh, Li Fan continued to recite silently:
"System, just tell me all the restrictions."
Two minutes later, Li Fan nodded slowly.
There were two main restrictions on all fruits exchanged from this system.
First:
Fruits could not be used on characters Li Fan had never seen in reality.
For example, even if Li Fan knew Tsunade's name and appearance...
Since he had never met Tsunade in reality, he couldn't use them on her.
But as long as they met in reality—even if Li Fan just looked at her unilaterally from hundreds of meters away...
Or if she looked at Li Fan unilaterally—then the fruit could be used immediately.
That is, just one encounter was enough.
Second:
All fruits produced by the system could not be used on males, nor on females who appeared to be over forty years old.
For example, a woman who was actually forty-five years old...
But looked like she was in her twenties or thirties... could have the fruit used on her.
But if her appearance looked over forty, then it couldn't be used.
After reading these conditions, Li Fan breathed a sigh of relief.
The conditions for using the fruit were much looser than he imagined. The first point was very easy to solve.
As long as he improved his strength to a certain level, he just had to see the woman he wanted to use the fruit on from a distance. Although it was a bit troublesome.
The second point was not a problem at all.
Li Fan himself was a shallow person who judged by appearance, and he also considered himself a very vulgar ordinary man.
He had no interest in using affection fruits on men.
And he had even less interest in using fruits on older women who looked like aunties.
Since all the restrictions were clarified, who should he spend these ten fruits on next?
Li Fan thought for a while but couldn't think of any women he had seen in reality to use them on immediately. So he simply asked the system:
"System, can you list all the eligible women I can use the fruit on?"
"Host request detected. Generating list."
A few seconds later, a list immediately appeared in Li Fan's mind:
Pakura, 21 years old, Affection: 29
Yasha Lian, 16 years old, Affection: 18
Ban, 17 years old, Affection: 11
...
...
Akatsuki, 26 years old, Affection: 10
...
...
Karuman, 18 years old, Affection: 7
Karura, 20 years old, Affection: 3
Looking at these ten or so names, Li Fan's mouth twitched slightly. This list was too short.
Logically speaking, there were thousands of ninjas in the Sand Village. Even if female ninjas were few, there should be at least a thousand or several hundred.