Ambush

This mission was different from the last one. The previous mission had been bandit suppression, so travel itself had not been much trouble. This time, however, they were escorting a merchant caravan. The entire convoy had to keep pace, making their journey much slower.

After registering their departure from the village, the caravan headed west, toward the Land of Earth.

"Kiyo, do you think the Land of Earth has anything unusual? Although we left the village together on a mission last time, we only went within a hundred li of Konoha. We did not even leave the heartland of the Land of Fire. I wonder whether there will be anything interesting in the Land of Earth this time.

Also, what kind of place is Great Tree City?"

"You are asking me? Who am I supposed to ask? I have only read about a few special places in books. It is not as though I have ever been there."

Uchiha Kiyoshi rolled his eyes and replied helplessly.

Perhaps Nawaki had truly been talking too much along the way, because Uchiha Kiyoshi still gave him a reminder.

"Still, although escort missions are said to be very safe, we cannot relax too much.

All sorts of accidents can happen during a mission. We cannot let down our guard."

Just as Nawaki was about to say something else after hearing Uchiha Kiyoshi, Sarutobi Saku cut in.

"That is right, Nawaki. Stay vigilant. You cannot relax at all during a mission; that is a ninja's basic quality. Do you not want to become Hokage? Or can you not even manage this?"

Sure enough, provoked by Sarutobi Saku, Nawaki stopped talking and began watching their surroundings, guarding against a surprise attack.

Orochimaru was not walking with them, but following in secret. Seeing Nawaki's change, he felt gratified. The boy had finally made some progress. A ninja had to endure loneliness; he could not keep being so restless as before. Orochimaru had originally planned to speak to Nawaki after they returned from this mission, but the boy's two teammates had said it first. The brat had escaped a lesson.

"I was originally planning to have Tsunade remind him. Nawaki really is lucky."

As Nawaki stood guard, his entire body suddenly shuddered. He had a bad premonition, but it soon faded away. Nawaki looked around in confusion and found nothing, yet he became more alert.

Did something bad almost happen just now? Forget it. If I cannot find anything, I will stop looking and focus on guarding properly.

Eh? Could someone have been planning to attack us just now, but saw how vigilant Lord Nawaki was and decided there was no hope, so they gave up?

Sure enough, Kiyo and the others were right. You really cannot let down your guard during a mission.

"Nawaki, was there something just now? What are you looking for?"

"Ah, no. It is nothing. I was just staying on guard."

The Ninja World was not actually very large. It only took three days to travel from Konoha to Sunagakure, of course, that was at a ninja's travel speed. By that measure, Konoha was only four days away from Iwagakure. Great Tree City was in the part of the Land of Earth closest to Konoha, making it even nearer than Iwagakure—only three days away.

However, that was according to a ninja's travel speed, which was roughly three hundred kilometers per day.

Great Tree City was about nine hundred kilometers from Konoha. At the caravan's speed of ten kilometers per hour, traveling ten hours a day, it would take roughly nine days to arrive.

That was only calculating the straight-line distance. In reality, the total time required would be around eleven or twelve days. Including the return trip and the time spent purchasing goods, this mission would take a full month.

Still, it was quite cost-effective. The danger was low, and the rewards were not bad. The round trip was actually counted as two separate missions.

Nine days later.

"We are about to enter the Land of Grass. Everyone, be careful.

Unlike the Five Great Nations, the Land of Grass's own ninja village is weak. Bandits run rampant within its borders, and robberies happen often.

Moreover, the small ninja village lacks strength, so its vigilance is not particularly good. Aside from bandits, many Rogue Ninja and missing-nin also gather in countries like these.

The Land of Grass is the same."

Upon entering the Land of Grass, Uchiha Kiyoshi gave his two teammates a reminder. However, he did not overdo it; scaring them would not be good. He then explained further to reassure them.

"But there is no need to be afraid. We are Konoha Shinobi, and generally few people will take the initiative to cause us trouble. As long as we do not provoke anyone else, there will be no danger."

With Orochimaru out of sight, Ishimura Yukito had remained beside Uchiha Kiyoshi and the others. Hearing Uchiha Kiyoshi's words, he smiled and said, "This little brother is right. The Land of Grass is indeed one of the more dangerous places on our route, but with you Konoha Shinobi here, few people will take the initiative to provoke us."

Unfortunately, things did not go as they wished. Few people might cause trouble, but there were always exceptions.

Yagi Nobuto was a lucky man who had accidentally obtained a scroll recording ninja fundamentals, such as the Chakra extraction method and the Three Basic Techniques. From the age of ten onward, he had trained diligently for over twenty years. Unfortunately, without anyone to guide him and with insufficient talent, he now only possessed the strength of an ordinary Chunin.

With poor talent and no systematic education, Yagi Nobuto could only rely on resources if he wanted to improve. As a Rogue Ninja, the only ways for him to obtain resources were taking missions posted on the Black Market and robbing passing merchant caravans.

Naturally, it was difficult to do alone. So he had gathered three other Genin Rogue Ninja to form a gang specializing in robbing merchant caravans.

Originally, their targets had only been small caravans with weak defenses. A medium-sized caravan like Ishimura Yukito's, escorted by Konoha Shinobi, was not something they could afford to rob.

But this time, seeing that Ishimura Yukito's sizable caravan was being escorted by only three children, Yagi Nobuto set his sights on them.

"A sizable caravan, escorted by only three ten-year-old brats..."

Hearing Yagi Nobuto mutter, the companions beside him understood what he was thinking. One of them, a horse-faced ninja, said worriedly, "Boss, look at the forehead protectors they are wearing. Those three are Konoha ninja. We cannot afford to provoke them."

Yagi Nobuto's gaze flickered as he struggled internally. Then, as though he had made up his mind, his eyes turned fierce.

"Let's do it. They are only three brats. Are we really unable to handle them? At worst, we hide for a while. Looking at the size of that caravan, if we pull this off, we will not have to worry for at least half a year."

Hearing their boss say this, the three underlings beside him also hesitated briefly before deciding to follow him. They had never dared to dream of robbing such a large caravan before. Now that they had encountered one with such "weak" protection, they naturally had to take a chance. As Rogue Ninja who lived with their lives on the line, none of them were harmless men. They dared to take risks.

Walking at the front of the caravan, Uchiha Kiyoshi seemed to sense something.

"Stop! It seems like someone has their eyes on us."

Although Ishimura Yukito had not noticed anything upon hearing Uchiha Kiyoshi's shout, he still called the caravan to a halt.

Nawaki and Sarutobi Saku also became alert, maintaining a battle-ready stance. Uchiha Kiyoshi's senses had always been sharp. Though they had not felt anything wrong, they trusted his judgment immediately.

Uchiha Kiyoshi also assumed a defensive posture while searching for possible enemies.

Just now, he had sensed a trace of killing intent. It was difficult to describe, but he was certain—it was killing intent. Thanks to his powerful soul, his senses had been somewhat keen since childhood. After cultivating the Body Nourishment Technique, his physical senses had improved further, making him even more sensitive to changes in the aura around him.

PS: The break might feel a little awkward, but there is nothing I can do. I need to control the word count, so I can only post two chapters a day, totaling four or five thousand words. New books are all like this. I was a newcomer before and did not understand, so I posted over ten thousand words a day. That was a bit reckless...

But that will change after it goes premium. There will be at least seven or eight thousand words daily, and an occasional ten-thousand-word update is still possible.

Please be understanding.