068 Naruto Mobile Game

"Ahhh, you damned thing!!"

The Raikage's face was full of fury; veins bulged on his forehead and blue lightning threads flashed across his body from time to time.

In the office, his secretary Mabui stayed perfectly composed. She called the ninja squad stationed outside in, and they carried away the ruined table.

They moved briskly — not only did they remove the broken table, they replaced it with a brand new one.

The Raikage sat back down and dealt another hand.

Three minutes later...

Huff—

The Raikage exhaled heavily. The powerful muscles on his arms twitched slightly, as if eager to spring into action.

Mabui kept watching him. When she saw the Raikage sitting quietly without making a sound, she was very satisfied.

"Raikage-sama, your emotional control has improved a lot. It was only fifteen tables broken and you almost switched to Lightning Release chakra mode."

The Raikage leaned back in his chair, utterly speechless.

He ignored whether Mabui's words were flattery or teasing and only opened the battle report.

A whole row of purple filled his view.

Purple has a certain charm, but if he could choose, the Raikage much preferred to see red.

Always losing—who's winning this game? At this rate, is the Raikage even going to keep his position?

"Raikage-sama, actually… we could learn from Orochimaru's way of climbing ranks." Mabui hesitated, then said.

"No!" The Raikage refused without hesitation. "That completely destroys the spirit of fine men from Kumogakure!"

Mabui sighed in resignation. Indeed — that was exactly why, once people were matched with him, they operated like their lives depended on it.

It was insane; they were even more serious than during the Great Ninja Wars' life-or-death fights.

Don't underestimate ordinary ninja. Back in the day the Third Raikage collapsed and died after being exhausted under the assault of a large number of ninjas.

The current Fourth Raikage might not die, but prolonged intense matches clearly took a toll on body and mind.

And the Raikage was using "Raikage" as his in-game nickname.

Who on the Kumogakure server didn't know that? Now game names couldn't easily be changed—otherwise he'd be backing down.

"Mabui, although everyone's enthusiasm is indeed high, at least they're earning a little to improve their lives. Why are they all charging up the Ninja Mobile Game, those Akatsuki folks..."

"Raikage-sama!"

A Kumogakure ninja suddenly burst in, panic written all over his face, interrupting the Raikage.

"Calm down, what is it?" the Raikage asked.

"Sir, Killer Bee—no, Bee-sama is rampaging in Valley of Clouds and Lightning, he's fully gone jinchūriki—tailed-beast transformed!!"

"That's understandable; tell the village not to worry. He should calm down in a bit."

Hearing that, the reporting ninja was stunned.

A jinchūriki going berserk, tailed-beast transformation—since when is that "understandable"?

Seeing the Raikage's expression remain unchanged, the ninja left full of confusion.

"Don't you want to go check?" Mabui asked.

"No need. He definitely gone berserk from playing the Ninja Mobile Game too hard, haha!" the Raikage burst into laughter.

The duel arena had changed, especially the ranked matches — everyone felt that way.

It started today.

Many people had felt something off earlier, but only today did that premonition turn true.

The four major high-tier moves could be chosen individually, so of course everyone picked the S-nin that was harder to obtain.

But when they actually used them in combat, they found that the insanely powerful ones were all A-nin!

Wha—can Orochimaru be played? Deva Path? That one could work.

So the problem was, how was he supposed to deal with Itachi Uchiha, Deidara, and Konan?

"S-nin are a trap, a trap!"

At the Cube Internet Café, Ino stared at her phone after getting head-patted three times and nearly threw it in anger.

When the Ninja leaks came out, she had immediately set her sights on Pain: Deva Path.

Mysterious and awe-inspiring!

Shinra Tensei! Chibaku Tensei! Those skills looked absolutely overpowered!

Wasn't that way stronger than the snake-spitting stuff, clay sculptures, or the paper woman's few moves?

But as it turned out...

They were usable in ranked matches, but not very practical.

"Art is an Explosion! Hmm!" Tenten raised both hands, formed a seal, and shouted passionately.

Ino leaned in to look at Tenten's phone. Sure enough, after the ultimate image the screen flashed two huge characters: COMPLETE VICTORY — blindingly obvious.

"Damn it! Why is Tenten's ninja so strong? It's not fair!" Ino's teeth clenched and clicked.

"Didn't we analyze choices when selecting ninjas? You insisted on your own idea."

Shikamaru set his phone down and took a sip from a cup of boiled water on the table.

Ino peeked — it wasn't a perfect victory, but it was a win, because Shikamaru was playing Might Guy.

"Why not play the new ninjas?" Ino asked curiously.

"Deidara and Konan have too much strength, especially Deidara. If you lose the internal battle, that match's basically over," Shikamaru said.

"Really? Aren't you a capable Anbu player? Still afraid of that?" Ino taunted.

"I know that," Tenten put down her chips. "Deidara can fly off the screen; no one can hit him!"

That wasn't a secret; the move simply required holding the skill and using normal attacks.

Looking back, there had actually been some signs of this at the information conference.

"Mostly, among all ninjas only Itachi Uchiha's Amaterasu can hit him, so players using Deidara banned Itachi," Shikamaru sighed.

"Wrong, there's also the Thunder Strike!" an older man walked over and sat with the three.

"Asuma-sensei?" x3

"Hey, our Tenth Team sure has fate—we even run into each other here." Asuma smiled.

"You only came in because Asuma-sensei saw us outside, right?" Tenten revealed.

"Asuma-sensei is reliable; didn't he say he was going to meet Kurenai-sensei? That didn't go well, did it!" Ino teased.

"Kurenai was secretly training with a student; she didn't tell me anything." Asuma made a helpless face.

"Hmm, the Secret Scrolls really do only list Thunder Strike as able to hit Deidara." Shikamaru had started testing in the practice arena.

Thunder Strike could indeed hit flying targets, perhaps because it descended from the sky.

But even so, it's not easy to lock down a ninja with a single Secret Scroll.

Because he saw that clearly, Shikamaru banned Deidara, Konan, and Itachi Uchiha.

Konan also flies and few can hit airborne ninjas; Itachi was an old problem.

By comparison, Pain: Deva Path could be countered with other ninjas.

These are the three kings of the patch!

"By the way, Shikamaru, haven't you used your Coupons yet?" Asuma looked at Shikamaru.

"Oh, I got the ten from joining the Anbu, but it won't hurt to try." Shikamaru opened the Coupon store and casually bought a lottery orb.

Whirr—

A streak of golden light suddenly appeared in the café. Though it vanished quickly, it drew everyone's attention.

Shikamaru felt something heavy in his hand. He looked down and saw a black device with a label stuck to it.

He read it aloud without thinking.

"Emulator?"