Mission; a bountiful harvest!

Sakura Haruno climbed the steps of the mountain path.

The road was dotted with crooked, low houses built by the bandits themselves. The bandits didn't know how to build houses; they only knew how to destroy them, so even their own living quarters were a mess.

However, right now, scattered haphazardly are the corpses of the bandits all over the ground.

Sakura dealt with these bandits who committed arson, murder, robbery, and all sorts of atrocities without any pressure—not only in battle, but also psychologically.

From the perspective of the ninja world's moral standards, her swift and decisive killing of them was already considered quite merciful.

For these scumbags...

These people have taken at least three or four innocent lives on their hands. Perhaps one of the white ones might occasionally emerge from among the black Crow, but Sakura clearly doesn't have the time or energy to distinguish them one by one. Anyone who can infiltrate a bandit's den, no matter how innocent, can't be truly innocent.

Therefore, they all deserved to die.

At first they rushed forward; then they began to scatter and flee.

But to the girl, it made no difference. With a swift stroke of her long sword, a group of people fell to the ground; her fingers danced nimbly, and the blood on the ground, manipulated by Chakra, transformed into ice darts, instantly annihilating those who turned to flee.

In just a few seconds, the entire band of bandits was wiped out.

The girl looked up, and there stood the bandit leader, watching indifferently as she casually killed the group of thugs.

"Aren't you going to save them?" she asked, looking up.

Judging from his Chakra levels, he was a missing-nin, at most Special Jōnin.

"Those people deserved to die, why should I save them?" he said.

"You're not much better than them," Sakura sneered.

"No, there's at least one thing I'm better at than them," the leader said with a confident smile.

"Oh?" Sakura raised an eyebrow and asked curiously, watching his figure.

From the girl's perspective, the sun was directly behind the bandit leader's body, and the sunlight cast a golden glow on his silhouette.

The leader's tall figure suddenly appeared even more imposing.

He slowly placed his hands flat on his chest; this was not the usual Hand Seals gesture. Ying Dai's eyebrows twitched slightly, her curiosity mingling with a growing sense of vigilance.

These are Hand Seals I've never seen before... Could they be some kind of Secret Technique?

Then, the bandit leader suddenly ducked low to the ground and roared, "Landing strike!"

Then suddenly he knelt down and prostrated himself on the ground!

"I surrender! Please spare my life! I can give you one million! No, two million! All my savings are only two million, I'll give it all to you!" he shouted as he kowtowed repeatedly.

So, being "a little better than them" just means being more sensible?

Sakura immediately rolled her eyes.

The man rummaged inside his clothes and pulled out a bankbook and a note from somewhere. He crawled over on his knees, saying, "Look, all my money is here. If you're willing to spare my life, I'll tell you the PIN. There's over two million in the account!"

Sakura Haruno watched him crawl over with a half-smile.

He held up the bankbook in his hand, unfolded it under Sakura's eyes, and then, taking advantage of the moment when the bankbook blocked the girl's view, he suddenly sprang up, shouting, "Die!" At the same time, he pulled out the Kunai hidden in his palm and stabbed it into Sakura Haruno's heart!

This is exactly the usual tactic.

Sakura Haruno sneered.

The long sword in his hand had already pinned him to the ground!

A clean and decisive strike that resulted in an instant kill.

"Next time, please restrain your murderous intent before surrendering, you idiot... if there's a next time!" Sakura said coldly as the bandit's body gradually stopped trembling.

I checked and found nothing missing.

"Yes, mission accomplished." She nodded. "You can report to the main body now."

He then dispelled his Ninjutsu and transformed into a pile of ice on the spot. Soon, the ice melted into water and disappeared into the soil.

At the same time.

Within a radius of several hundred kilometers centered on Sakura's temporary base.

The pink-haired girl was still active in various places, carrying out the various tasks on the list.

Suppression.

In a city in the Land of Fire, a long-established underworld family is approaching its final moment.

Swish, swish, swish! The loyal family guards were cut down by the girl's swords in just a few strokes.

Clang! Clang! Clang! Several darts that were thrown haphazardly were easily deflected by the newcomer.

Wherever the blade pointed, none could stop it; the attackers slaughtered them all with incredible speed.

In the blink of an eye, only the last core members of the family remained.

"You... you demon!" Watching the ninja mercilessly slaughter the outer thugs, the inner guards, and their own clansmen, someone cursed in a frenzy, "Bastard, they actually killed them all!"

A mocking smile curled at the corners of the girl's lips.

"Oh? Did you think about this when you killed those innocent people?"

A flash of light, and several heads flew off simultaneously.

The following day, the entire city celebrated.

Assassination.

In the home of a nobleman somewhere in the Land of Rice Fields.

The patriarch was leisurely resting on a recliner when a figure suddenly appeared in front of him.

"Konoha Ninja?" He looked at the Forehead Protector on the girl's forehead, then suddenly smiled with relief. "You've finally arrived."

The ice blade didn't give him much time, swiftly piercing his chest.

On his deathbed, scenes from his life flashed before his eyes like a revolving lantern: growing up in Konoha and becoming a ninja; deserting on the battlefield out of fear; and upon fleeing to the Land of Rice Fields, discovering a nobleman's son who looked remarkably like him, killing him and impersonating him...

He Earth Flow with constant fear and guilt for over a decade, unable to sleep soundly...

When Sakura Haruno appeared before him, he did not choose to struggle, but instead accepted his fate.

"Finally, I can get a good night's sleep..." He closed his eyes, a peaceful smile on his face, as if he had fallen into a deep sleep.

The girl shook her head, placed his corpse into a scroll, wrote the name "missing-nin: Ao Fujiwara" on it, and disappeared into the hall.

Guards.

"Thank you so much!" The employer gripped the girl's hand tightly, saying excitedly, "This road was supposed to be difficult and fraught with bandits. I thought it would take three to five days, but we made it in no time! The ninjas of Konoha Ninja Village are truly amazing!"

Sakura pouted.

As one of the top five ninjas in the village in terms of combat strength, how could I not be fast when I personally carry out these intermediate missions?

Besides, the bandits inside had just been wiped out in the previous mission.

"Alright, mission accomplished, I should disappear now." She withdrew her hand and said calmly, then immediately dispelled the clone.

It turned into a pile of shattered ice as the employer stared in disbelief.

Reconnaissance.

Search.

And so on.

Sakura Haruno has only been Chunin for a year now, and the number of missions she has completed hasn't even met the special requirements for promotion to Jonin. So, these missions she's currently undertaking can be considered as rushing to complete them and making up the required number.

With her abilities, she's mostly overkill for these tasks, except for the one involving Xiao.

Fortunately, she can use her Ice Clone to complete the mission.

Since she began practicing Yin Release Nature Transformation of Chakra, applying Yin Release to her Ice Clone has greatly enhanced Ice Clone spiritual power and extended their duration. Without engaging in too much combat, they can even last for more than twenty hours without disappearing.

While the resulting Ice Clone don't significantly increase combat power, they greatly enhance practicality.

Ice Release was originally a fusion of water and wind attributes, but now, with the addition of Yin Release's Nature Transformation, it has begun to reveal its extraordinary nature. Just like Wood Release —Captain Yamato's Wood Release and the Wood Release of the First Hokage who incorporated Yang Release's Nature Transformation are worlds apart in power, like the difference between a bronze-level player and a master of empty talk.

Unfortunately, that's all she can do for now. Yin Release is completely different from the other Five Elements Release Techniques, and relying solely on her own research would be too inefficient.

If she wants to continue her in-depth study of Yin Release, she would need to be able to access the family Secret Technique scrolls passed down by clans such as Nara.

As for now, the greatest use of Yin Release for her is to improve the efficiency of research and missions, nothing more.

At Sakura's temporary base.

Counting from the first extraction of Chakra into the Yin Seal from the newly formed heart, this is already the thirteenth.

It has been almost a month since I left the village to carry out my mission.

"It's shrinking so quickly?" Sakura frowned, looking at the heart in the container whose vitality had greatly decreased, and sighed.

Since yesterday, these hearts have shown signs of losing their vitality.

However, the dissipation was extremely low, and she thought that at that rate, these hearts could hold on for a few more days; but unexpectedly, right after the Chakra was extracted from the hearts, the situation took a sharp turn for the worse and deteriorated rapidly.

Of course, this is understandable.

After all, she was draining all the vitality from these hearts every time, and no matter how much she recovered afterward, the lost energy could never be replenished. This kind of short-sighted approach was unsustainable, and Sakura had anticipated this.

It was just one day earlier than she expected.

"It seems it really is ****." Sakura Haruno tried to revitalize it with Medical Ninjutsu, but to no avail. The heart, which was less than two weeks old, already had cells that looked as old as if it had lived for eighty years.

Unless she possesses the same level of Yang Release cultivation as Hashirama Senju, she will only be able to return to exhaustion.

These hearts were collapsing at a visible rate of aging, and Sakura Haruno, powerless to stop it, had no choice but to abandon any treatment. She pulled out a thin blue rod formed from her spiritual power from her palm, branching out into tree-like shapes that connected to the blue rods inserted into the hearts. These beautiful-looking rods could transform between reality and illusion; when Sakura had previously inserted them one by one into the hearts in the container, the inserted parts transformed into ethereal forms, without causing any damage to the hearts.

Next is...

This is the most exciting moment of achievement.

Sakura wants to extract the Chakra stored in the Yin Seal above her heart and transfer it into her body!

This is a massive amount of Chakra energy!

(Fourth update, bonus chapter for reaching 1400 monthly votes!!)

(I won't be able to finish the fifth update, but today's update is definitely substantial, nearly 14,000 words, which is enough for five updates! The update schedule is pretty good, right? So! Please vote for me!! Please subscribe!!!)

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