Ambush

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

After registering to leave the village, the caravan headed west toward the Land of Earth.

"Kiyoshi, do you think the Land of Earth has anything different? Although we left the village together on a mission last time, we only went about a hundred li around Konoha. We never even left the heartland of the Land of Fire. I wonder if there'll be anything unusual in the Land of Earth this time.

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

"Who are you asking? I've only read about a few unusual places in books. I've never been there either."

Uchiha Kiyoshi rolled his eyes and replied helplessly.

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

"Still, even though escort missions are supposed to be safe, we can't relax too much.

All kinds of accidents can happen during a mission. We can't let our guard down."

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

"That's right, Nawaki. You can't relax your vigilance during a mission. That's a ninja's basic quality. Don't you want to become Hokage? Or can't you even manage something this simple?"

Sure enough, provoked by Sarutobi Saku, Nawaki stopped talking and began watching the surroundings, guarding against a sneak 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 be able 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 unexpectedly, the boy's two teammates said it first. The brat had escaped a lesson.

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

While Nawaki was keeping watch, his entire body suddenly shuddered. He had a bad feeling, but it quickly faded away. Nawaki looked around in confusion and found nothing, though he became even more alert.

Did something bad just happen? Forget it. If I can't find anything, I won't keep looking. I should focus on keeping watch.

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

Sure enough, Kiyoshi and the others were right. You really can't let your guard down during a mission.

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

"Ah, no, it's nothing. I'm just keeping watch."

The Ninja World was not actually that large. It only took three days to travel from Konoha to Sunagakure, of course, at a ninja's speed. By that calculation, Konoha and Iwagakure were four days apart, while Great Tree City lay on the side of the Land of Earth closer to Konoha, making it even nearer than Iwagakure—only about three days away.

However, that was based on a ninja's travel speed, roughly three hundred kilometers a day.

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

That only accounted for the direct route. In reality, the total journey would take around eleven or twelve days. Including the return trip and the time spent purchasing goods, this mission would take an entire month.

Still, it was a good deal. The danger was low and the reward was not bad. The round trip was actually counted as two separate missions.

Nine days later.

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

Unlike the Five Great Nations, the Land of Grass has a weak ninja village. Bandits run rampant within its borders, and robberies happen frequently.

Moreover, those small ninja villages lack strength, so their security is poor. Aside from bandits, many Rogue Ninja and missing-nin also gather in countries like these.

The Land of Grass is no exception."

Upon entering the Land of Grass, Uchiha Kiyoshi gave his two teammates a warning. However, he did not overdo it. It would not be good to frighten them too much, so he quickly explained further to reassure them.

"But there's no need to be afraid. We're Konoha Shinobi. Very few people would take the initiative to cause trouble for us. As long as we don't provoke others, there won't be any danger."

With Orochimaru staying out of sight, Ishimura Yukito had remained beside Uchiha Kiyoshi and the others. Hearing Kiyoshi's words, he smiled as well.

"This little brother is right. The Land of Grass is indeed one of the more dangerous places on our route, but with Konoha Shinobi accompanying us, few people would dare cause trouble."

Unfortunately, things did not go as they wished. Though few people would trouble them, there were always exceptions.

Yagi Nobuto was a lucky man who had happened to obtain a scroll containing the Chakra extraction method and basic ninja techniques such as the Three Basic Techniques. He had trained diligently for more than twenty years since the age of ten. Unfortunately, without anyone to guide him and with insufficient talent, he only possessed the strength of an ordinary Chunin now.

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 in the Black Market and robbing passing merchant caravans.

He could not manage such things alone, so he had gathered three other Genin-level Rogue Ninja to form a gang specializing in robbing merchant caravans.

Originally, they only targeted small caravans with weak defenses. A medium-sized caravan like Ishimura Yukito's, escorted by Konoha Shinobi, was beyond what they could afford to rob.

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

"A fairly large 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 their forehead protectors. Those three are Konoha ninja. We can't afford to provoke them."

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

"Do it. They're just three brats. Can't we handle them? At worst, we'll hide for a while. Judging from the size of that caravan, if we pull this off, we won't have to worry for at least half a year."

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

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

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

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

Nawaki and Sarutobi Saku also grew vigilant and entered combat readiness. Uchiha Kiyoshi's senses had always been sharp. Although they had not felt anything wrong, they trusted his judgment immediately.

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

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

PS: The break might feel a little frustrating, but there's nothing I can do. I need to control the word count, and I can only post two updates a day totaling four to five thousand words. New books are all like this. I'm a newcomer and didn't understand before, so I updated more than ten thousand words every day. That was a bit reckless...

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

Please bear with me.