Two minutes later, Zabuza still lost the match.
Due to his lack of familiarity with these Ninjas... it was already impressive to perform this well on his first try.
When he handed the phone back, Asuma laughed heartily, "You're really good, Zabuza! With your skill, I feel like you could reach the Anbu rank. Don't you think so, Kakashi?"
Kakashi nodded in agreement. Among all the opponents he had faced, aside from being completely crushed by Yuto during his beginner days, Zabuza was one of the strongest he had ever fought.
Zabuza took their praise to heart.
Then, Asuma added, "By the way, I was wondering if you could help me grind some ranked matches. I've been busy lately and haven't had much time to play."
Zabuza was surprised, but just as he was about to ask for clarification, Asuma felt his request might be a bit inappropriate.
So, he pulled out ten 10,000-ryo bills from his vest.
"If it's not a problem, consider this 100,000 ryo as your commission. It's not much, but don't look down on it. There will be more later."
At the mention of 100,000 ryo, Zabuza's eyes instantly widened.
"Oh? Then what do I need to pay attention to?"
That's right, Zabuza was tempted.
Even without the commission, he wanted to experience playing with a full collection account.
After all, he would encounter these Ninjas eventually...
As the saying goes, 'Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated.'
Asuma said, "Just help me grind wins in ranked matches. If you can reach the Jonin rank... that would be even better."
Kakashi glanced at Asuma curiously.
From what he knew, there shouldn't be much going on recently, right?
Konoha had already suspended its mission system some time ago, and they had been idle for the past month...
Asuma noticed Kakashi's confusion and explained, "Shikamaru should have finished his clan's training these past few days. With the third exam coming up, I plan to take him for some physical training. Also, night patrols are being increased these days. It's the old man's orders."
Kakashi nodded in understanding, "Alright, be careful at night."
---
Afterward, Asuma and Kurenai stayed for a while longer before leaving.
Once Zabuza took over Asuma's account, he glanced at the Chunin 2 rank and silently got to work.
---
"Hey... today's meal seems pretty good. Elephant, aren't you going to eat?"
An Anbu's member walked by carrying a lunchbox, looking at Elephant, who was still engrossed in the game, and asked.
However, Elephant's face was filled with anger at this time. It was obvious that he was too addicted to the game.
"Shut up, get lost!"
The Anbu's member completely understood Elephant's state and silently walked away with his lunchbox.
Three minutes later, Elephant went over to apologize to this Anbu's member.
But the conversation shifted to another topic.
"Hey, do you think Asuma's gone crazy? He's been rushing to the Jonin rank like mad, then dropping back down..."
"That's not all. I finally found some time during lunch to play a couple of matches, and Asuma ended up taking a few wins from me! "
At this time, other Anbu also came over and said, "Huh? You got your points taken by Asuma too? That guy's amazing. His skill has improved so much all of a sudden!"
"Yeah, and in the three matches I played against him, he used different lineups each time."
"Heh, I managed to beat him once when he was using Zaku, but then I ran into him again, and he won with Dosu..."
---
Listening to his teammates chattering about Asuma's matches, Elephant looked confused, "Are we... still talking about Asuma? Or are the new Ninjas really that good?"
"Whoa! He's reached Jonin 2 now! And Kakashi's at Anbu 3! Their ranks are climbing so fast!"
An Anbu's member exclaimed.
At this, more voices chimed in with complaints, "It's not like they're getting those points from nowhere. I dropped from Chunin 3 to Chunin 1!"
"Same here! I'm already a Genin, okay..."
"Huh? My Genin rank hasn't changed much."
Then, the Anbu, who said that he was at the Genin rank, was met with contemptuous looks from everyone.
With many more players now, most of the original Anbu's members were concentrated in the Genin and Chunin ranks, with more in the Chunin ranks.
If they tried to boost now, they could easily push Kakashi to the Kage rank, but reaching the Super Kage rank would be unlikely.
Someone suddenly realized something and exclaimed angrily, "Damn! Could it be that Asuma had Kakashi playing for him? And then Kakashi takes points from Asuma? That way, he can quickly climb to the Kage rank?"
This statement was like a wake-up call!
"That would explain it..."
"Exactly! That's why Asuma's skill improved so suddenly! Who would've thought they were like this?"
"They're practically in cahoots!"
After some thought, the Anbu's members found that this was the most plausible explanation for the situation.
---
Meanwhile, at Yuto's shop, Zabuza was also a bit annoyed, though he didn't show it.
What annoyed him was that after winning a few matches, he would be eaten by Kakashi.
Although Asuma had said reaching the Jonin rank was enough, Zabuza wanted to prove himself.
Plus, he wanted to master more Ninjas, so he kept climbing the ranks.
But every time he ran into Kakashi, it was game over.
It could be said that Zabuza was now at a level where he was second only to one person.
Aside from Kakashi, almost no other player could beat him.
But that was only if he was using relatively normal Ninjas.
Zabuza would never forget the match where he used a Ninja named Abumi Zaku.
Although Yuto's optimizations had made this 'masterpiece' less 'crazy,' it still wasn't strong by any means. It couldn't even compare to Dosu, another C-Rank Ninja.
After climbing to Anbu 3 by taking points from Zabuza, Kakashi decided to call it quits.
He had already beaten Zabuza five times, and at this point, Kakashi awkwardly made an excuse about going home for dinner.
After Kakashi left, Zabuza felt a bit regretful.
Truth be told, he actually enjoyed the process of battling Kakashi.
Though losing after being toyed with was incredibly frustrating.
After Kakashi left, Zabuza pulled out the ten 10,000-ryo bills Asuma had given him.
Since Mei had confiscated his assets, it had been a long time since he'd held such a large sum of money.
"Haku, hand me your phone. I'm going to top up for you..."