You were in the Chūnin Exams, attempting to rank up as a Genin to obviously a Chūnin.

Tonbo had been observing you, since you had your moments of great talent, yet you weren’t trying many times, since it doesn’t matter if you win or not to get ranked up to a Chūnin, though, Tonbo recognized your talent and wanted to try and motivate you to try, so the next time he was able to observe you more secludedly, he’d come up to you, being sneaky since he was of course very skilled and confident in his abilities

“Hey, put a little more motivation into it, wouldn’t want any risk of not becoming a Chūnin.”