"During the next round, we will lead the allied red-team forces to assault the Gōketsu site. During the initial assault, Team Asuma will accidentally stumble into a Goo Bomb trap that removes us from the fighting. Gōketsu will defeat the rest of the alliance and place them in cells. The Gōketsu will then supply Team Asuma with the seals, pangolins, and chakra necessary for us to take out the other three sites. The six of you"—again the gesture to Gōketsu's allies—"and the six that I am currently teamed with will have your documents destroyed but will otherwise be spared, and will be given all the word halves of your blue-team compatriots, bumping you up the rankings yet again. This should result in Team Asuma as the top squad in the Exams, followed by the nine current members of Red Team One, with a handful of the other top scorers mixed in if they are red team tonight and manage to evade your hunt. The six non-Team-Asuma members of my current group will rank below the twelve of us but still above most other contestants.
"After the event is over, those of you without the chakra or relevant skills to fight in the tournament"—he looked pointedly at Ikemoto—"will announce that you are dropping out. There are three members of my group who will definitely drop out, and I would assume two or three of you would do the same. This means that the rest of us are clinched for the tournament and can settle our final rankings in the arena."
The only sound was the crackle of the fire as everyone digested that.
"So...you're going to win the event, and the Exams, without lifting a finger?" Fukai demanded.
"It's kind of his thing," Noburi said with a snort.
"How do we know you won't betray us?" Gomi demanded. "Maybe when you attack our facilities you take us out too." Haga looked at him in betrayal; he rolled his eyes in response. "Seriously, you saw how easily we went through that group back there, and they had serious firepower. If these guys come at us with full chakra, plus some of that chakra water so they can refill mid-battle, plus all the pangolins, plus all the seals that Gōketsu is handing out, do you honestly think we can hold them off?"
The girl looked grumpy but said nothing.
Nara shrugged. "First, the six of you will be spread as widely as possible among the blue teams tomorrow—I assume I don't have to explain why—so you and Haga are unlikely to be working with anyone else here tonight. That means that, even if we betrayed all of you, you would only be down another fifty points over what would happen anyway, so your risk is minimal. Second, it would not be to our advantage to do so. The Nara focus on the long term; the short-term gain from betraying you would be negligible given Team Asuma's current standing and it would poison our clans' reputations. In all the stories of the Nara clan, when have you ever heard of us betraying an ally?"
"You're planning on betraying your allies tomorrow," Fukai pointed out.
"By no means," Nara said. "First, it is their choice whether or not to join the alliance. Second, everything we will say is absolutely true. We did fend off the Gōketsu assault—the fact that we did it through diplomacy and political leverage instead of force of arms has no bearing. It is critical for those other teams that the Gōketsu be crushed, since otherwise their success will cement the view of Leaf's dominance. We will not attack our allies and we will give them fully accurate intelligence on what we know of Team Uplift's capabilities...at least, the capabilities that have already been revealed during the Exams. If the gathered red teams are able to push through the assault on their own, more power to them." He raised his eyebrows, looking around at each of them. "What do you think the chances are that two dozen chūnin candidates will be able to successfully defeat a Summoner and her creatures while fighting on a sealmaster's prepared ground?"
