Even villains have their limits.

Swish, swish, swish.

The examination hall quickly settled into silence, broken only by the frantic scribbling of candidates on their papers. The questions for this Chunin exam were exceptionally difficult; aside from the academic prodigies, few could hope to reach the passing mark.

Thus, several Konoha Chunin, who already knew the answers, disguised themselves as examinees, distributed evenly throughout the room. Anyone clever enough to copy their answers would pass without trouble.

“Stop looking around!”

Asuma stood beside Kisame, barking sharply at him, slapping the desk with a loud bang. In that instant, many candidates cast gleeful, mocking looks at Kisame.

With a proctor watching his every move, it seemed almost certain that Kisame would be eliminated in the first round, unable to cheat his way through.

“What are you staring at?”

Asuma scolded the other examinees, then made a brief sweep of the area before returning to Kisame’s side. He continued to find fault with Kisame, even going so far as to point out supposed errors directly on Kisame’s answer sheet.

Yet Kisame endured it with unexpected patience, nodding obediently at every rebuke, as if Asuma were actually tutoring him.

Fifteen minutes passed in this manner.

Suddenly, Kisame set down his pen and rose from his seat, locking eyes with Asuma in a palpable atmosphere of tension.

He seemed to have reached the end of his patience.

Would they fight?

The surrounding examinees watched eagerly, waiting for drama; even several proctors approached, ready to intervene.

But Kisame suppressed his anger, took his paper, strode across the classroom, and handed it to the chief proctor, Inoichi Yamanaka.

Had he given up?

Almost everyone assumed Kisame’s early submission was a sign of surrender.

Yet the outcome was astonishing.

Inoichi accepted Kisame’s paper, examined it carefully, and his expression shifted to surprise. He glanced at Kisame and declared:

“Congratulations, you have passed with full marks. You may rest in the adjacent classroom and wait for the next round.”

Gasps of disbelief rippled through the room.

Kisame, subjected to Asuma’s “personal attention”—a treatment unique among all candidates—had still managed to submit early and achieve a perfect score.

Clearly, he possessed genuine skill, both scholarly and martial.

“Thank you.”

Kisame replied with impeccable courtesy, heading for the door, passing Kakashi as he left, vanishing like a gust of wind.

No sooner had Kisame exited than—

Bang!

Asuma in the exam hall suddenly dissolved into a cloud of white smoke, disappearing before the astonished proctors and candidates.

What was happening?

For a moment, everyone was bewildered.

Inoichi Yamanaka frowned. He had long heard rumors of Asuma Sarutobi’s delinquent ways. Sending a shadow clone to proctor while skipping work himself was exactly the sort of thing a delinquent would do.

But Asuma was the son of the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi. As chief examiner, Inoichi could hardly make an issue of it. After all, his own Yamanaka clan was a direct subordinate to the Sarutobi family; the clan head answered directly to Hiruzen.

So, regarding Asuma’s absence, he could only turn a blind eye.

Among those present, only Kakashi was shaken.

Watching Kisame’s retreating figure, Kakashi suddenly realized a possibility. He consulted briefly with Inoichi, then quietly left the examination hall.

Soon, he noticed the restroom at the end of the corridor was out of order—water leaking from within, maintenance workers and cleaners already on site, a “Temporarily Closed” sign propped at the entrance.

Kakashi explained the situation to the staff and entered.

A few minutes later—

Click.

Kakashi, kunai in hand, pried open the lock on the innermost stall. As the door swung open, he found Asuma slumped on the toilet, unconscious.

This was Kisame’s doing.

At first glance, Kakashi recognized the culprit and deduced how Kisame had managed to submit early and still score perfectly.

Recalling the conversation he’d had in the exam room with the “Asuma,” Kakashi felt humiliated, his chest tight with indignation.

He had been duped by Kisame—again, and in plain sight.

At that moment, Kakashi’s famous deadpan expression doubled, then doubled again, reaching quadruple intensity.

It took a while before he regained his composure and, pointing at the unconscious Asuma, instructed the staff:

“Take him to the infirmary. Try not to let too many people see him on the way.”

…

Inside the examination hall, the test continued.

Some candidates submitted successfully and passed; others were caught cheating and eliminated. The rest struggled desperately to find the correct answers.

In the rest room, two or three dozen candidates had gathered, all having advanced to the second round.

Kurenai Yuhi entered, spotted Kisame, and marched straight over to him.

“Kisame Hoshigaki, what exactly did you do to Asuma?”

She looked furious, her large red eyes fixed on Kisame as if she might unleash genjutsu at any moment.

Kurenai hailed from a genjutsu clan in Konoha, whose former glory once rivaled that of the Uchiha. Raised and nurtured by her family, she was an outstanding student, graduating from the ninja academy with top-three grades.

It was well known that beautiful, studious girls are drawn to rebellious types; Kurenai and Asuma were childhood sweethearts of that very mold.

When she learned from Kakashi that her lover had been injured, she stormed over to confront Kisame.

“Kurenai, I know you and Asuma are lovers. But I overheard you two at the stairwell, discussing how to cheat—the whole thing.”

Prepared in advance, Kisame spoke calmly as he pulled a voice recorder from his pocket.

“So, with everyone here, shall I play your little backdoor scheme for all to hear?”

He smiled with hidden malice, poised to press play.

“Wait!”

Kurenai hurried to stop him, her cherubic face turning pale.

She wasn’t afraid for herself; she worried for Asuma.

Because Asuma was the Hokage’s son, exposure would not only harm him, but also damage the reputation of the Third Hokage and even all of Konoha.

Though young, Kurenai understood these stakes deeply.

That’s why she had refused Asuma’s offer at the stairwell.

She never imagined that Kisame would record their conversation.

After a brief silence—

“So… what do you want now?”

Kurenai bit her lip, lowered her posture, and pleaded with Kisame, “This whole thing was my fault, it has nothing to do with Asuma. If you give me the recorder and promise not to tell anyone, I… I’ll do anything you ask.”

There were tears in her eyes as she spoke, but her gaze was resolute.

Such a pure-hearted girl.

Kisame had no doubt that, if he demanded her body, she would agree tearfully for Asuma’s sake.

The young ninjas of Konoha truly were greenhouse flowers, so easily crushed.

Still—

Kisame, though no saint, had his own principles.

He would not stoop to such vile acts.