Battle

In the shadows, Orochimaru had actually already discovered the enemies' presence. They were merely a few Genin and Chunin, and Rogue Ninjas at that. Their disguises and concealment skills were hardly impressive, so Orochimaru saw through them at once.

However, Orochimaru was in no hurry to deal with them.

"They've got some nerve. They actually dare intercept a merchant caravan escorted by Konoha Shinobi, with a bunch of Genin and one trash Chunin.

Forget it. I'll leave them to those three boys. Uchiha Kiyoshi should be able to handle a Chunin by now, right?"

Uchiha Kiyoshi and the other two had no idea that Orochimaru had already discovered the enemies preparing to attack them, nor that he had no intention of intervening. Of course, even if they had known, they would not have been surprised. It had been agreed before they set out that they would complete the mission themselves. Orochimaru was only tagging along to observe, as a test.

That was right, a test.

A test of the results of their training during this period.

Just as Uchiha Kiyoshi and the others formed up, Yagi Nobuto cursed under his breath from the shadows. "Are these little brats really this sharp?"

The reactions of Uchiha Kiyoshi's group had exceeded his expectations. They were even more professional than he had imagined.

"Are these the Shinobi produced by the great ninja villages? Even children barely into their teens have such high standards?"

Yagi Nobuto muttered.

The target's reaction had caught him off guard, and Yagi Nobuto even regretted his decision somewhat. If he had known, he would not have acted so rashly.

"But the arrow is already on the string. There's no backing out now. Damn it, I'm going all in. The payoff from this job will be enough to fund more than half a year of training."

Thinking of what he stood to gain, Yagi Nobuto gritted his teeth and decided to carry on with his plan.

One Chunin and three Genin was indeed a powerful force against ordinary people or samurai.

If they came from a ninja village, there was even more they could accomplish. Of course, that was assuming they did not encounter a truly powerful enemy, the kind that stood two ranks above them.

Unfortunately, they were only Rogue Ninjas. Their ninja training had been incomplete from the start, and they lacked Ninjutsu. More fatal still, they did not even realize it.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Several projectiles tore through the air, and Uchiha Kiyoshi knew that the hidden enemies had made their move. He also breathed a sigh of relief. An ambush using ninja tools meant this probably was not a hopelessly one-sided battle. That meant they could fight.

The throwing techniques a group of Rogue Ninjas had figured out on their own were nothing special. Uchiha Kiyoshi and the other two easily dodged them.

At the same time, Uchiha Kiyoshi pinpointed the enemies' approximate location.

"Follow me. They're this way."

Nawaki and Sarutobi Saku followed Uchiha Kiyoshi as they charged toward the dense forest to one side.

Uchiha Kiyoshi took the lead, guarding against possible ambushes as he searched for the enemies' traces.

Yagi Nobuto's four-man team was fairly clever. They did not use Chakra, or rather, they did not allow any Chakra to leak out, making it difficult for Uchiha Kiyoshi's group to track them by their aura.

But hiding was not a solution either.

Yagi Nobuto struck first.

"Earth Release: Earth Bullet Technique!"

Five or six earthen bullets the size of human heads appeared and hurtled toward Uchiha Kiyoshi's group.

This was Yagi Nobuto's only Ninjutsu, a C-rank Ninjutsu that he had paid a considerable price to obtain from the Black Market.

"That's it?"

Already slowed by the ambush, Uchiha Kiyoshi froze when he saw the enemy's attack.

It was not because the opponent's Ninjutsu was powerful, but because it was too weak. It was not even noteworthy among C-rank Ninjutsu.

Having been ambushed and then stunned for a moment, Uchiha Kiyoshi had no time to dodge.

Yagi Nobuto was overjoyed. Sure enough, his earlier worries had been unnecessary. The Shinobi from great ninja villages were not all that impressive after all. This one had been frightened stiff and did not even know how to dodge.

Nawaki and Sarutobi Saku did not think much of it, dodging the earthen bullets at once.

Uchiha Kiyoshi had locked onto Yagi Nobuto's position the moment he attacked. He sensed the other man's Chunin-level Chakra, and the contrast between that and a Ninjutsu like Earth Bullet Technique was simply too great. That was why he had frozen for a moment.

How could he have known how precious Ninjutsu scrolls were? Only in Konoha, and with the support of a powerful clan, could he acquire one Ninjutsu after another and receive such comprehensive basic knowledge and education. In the outside world, even a C-rank Mission was already quite impressive, representing extraordinary power.

Though both were C-rank Ninjutsu, Earth Bullet Technique was worlds apart from the Ninjutsu Uchiha Kiyoshi had learned. If ordinary people had a power level of 0 to 10, then C-rank Ninjutsu ranged roughly from 20 to 100. Earth Bullet Technique was worth at most 30 or 40, while Uchiha Kiyoshi's Ninjutsu were all at least 80. Even the Earth Shield Uchiha Kiyoshi had created himself could withstand more than 20 points of damage.

Of course, greater power meant greater difficulty in learning it, but the increase in difficulty was not all that drastic.

Seeing that Uchiha Kiyoshi was the leader of the three, Yagi Nobuto had focused his attacks on him. That was why he had been so thrilled to see Uchiha Kiyoshi freeze. The toughest one had been scared witless right from the start. Would the other two not be easy pickings?

Uchiha Kiyoshi had no idea what Yagi Nobuto was thinking, nor did he have time to care about his fantasies.

His reaction had been a beat too slow. With three earthen bullets blocking his path, Uchiha Kiyoshi could only take them head-on.

His hands did not come together. Each formed seals separately.

"Earth Shield!"

Two earthen shields appeared. Under Uchiha Kiyoshi's control, they deflected two incoming earth bullets at unusual angles.

The two earth bullets struck the shields at a slant and veered off to either side, shattering the shields as well. But Uchiha Kiyoshi ignored the broken shields, rolled forward, and passed through the gap exposed after the two bullets were diverted.

The entire sequence was smooth and fluid. Even Orochimaru, hidden in the shadows, could not help but praise him. Turning such a minor trick into something like this proved that Uchiha Kiyoshi was a genius.

"Still, how did he form those seals just now?"

Orochimaru recalled the scene. What interested him was not how Uchiha Kiyoshi had handled the attack, but the way he had formed his seals.

"Can seals be formed with one hand?

That never occurred to me. I never expected it to work."

Having encountered something that interested him, Orochimaru grew somewhat excited and stuck out his tongue to lick the corner of his mouth.

"One-Handed Seals. Interesting, very interesting."

That was right, One-Handed Seals. Since he was six, Uchiha Kiyoshi had spent the past four years studying One-Handed Seals whenever he had the time. Now, he had finally made some progress.

One-Handed Seals still had their drawbacks. During the seal-forming process for many Ninjutsu, certain Chakra flows had to be controlled by the same seal at the same time, but the corresponding one-handed seals were not the same. That was the troublesome part. In such cases, the technique could not be completed with One-Handed Seals alone, which was why it could only be considered a minor trick.

When Uchiha Kiyoshi developed Earth Shield, he had taken this into account and avoided Chakra flows that required different one-handed seals simultaneously.

There was another downside as well: the number of seals increased. Earth Shield normally required three seals, but using one hand required five. And that was only a bottom-tier C-rank Ninjutsu. Powerful A-rank Ninjutsu required far more, which was why this was merely a minor technique, usable only with low-level Ninjutsu.

After dodging that wave of attacks, Uchiha Kiyoshi locked onto Yagi Nobuto's position. It was not just him; Nawaki and the others had also discovered where Yagi Nobuto's group was hiding.

Seeing that his attack had still been evaded, Yagi Nobuto was dumbfounded. If his teammates beside him had not reminded him, he would not even have noticed the three charging toward them.

Uchiha Kiyoshi did not want to waste time playing hide-and-seek. A quick battle was best. He charged straight in, and the two sides quickly clashed.

With Uchiha Kiyoshi tying him down, Yagi Nobuto could not pull away and create distance. He could only fight head-on.

Unfortunately, a Chunin who had learned by trial and error was far too lacking in skill compared to Uchiha Kiyoshi, who was on the verge of becoming an Elite Chunin. Still, Yagi Nobuto attacked viciously. If Uchiha Kiyoshi had not put all his Taijutsu training into defense, he truly might have suffered serious injuries.

Uchiha Kiyoshi's side was locked in a "close fight," but the other side was different. It was a complete slaughter.

How could three Rogue Ninja Genin, who knew no Ninjutsu besides the Three Basic Techniques, possibly withstand the Ninjutsu bombardment of Nawaki and Sarutobi Saku?

Nawaki unleashed two C-rank area-of-effect Water Release techniques, Water Arrow Technique, and the enemies immediately lost their ability to fight. Sarutobi Saku followed with Wind Release: Great Breakthrough, killing the three Genin on the spot.

Yagi Nobuto had never imagined that the gap between his group and Shinobi trained by a ninja village would be so immense. In an instant, his three subordinates were gone. How could he still have the mind to fight Uchiha Kiyoshi? He was already plotting how to escape.

Unfortunately, it was no longer a matter of whether he wanted to flee, but whether he could.

After dealing with the lesser enemies, Nawaki and Sarutobi Saku were also incredulous. However, they quickly recovered and decided to end the battle first.

With the three of them working together, Yagi Nobuto ultimately failed to escape and was killed by Sarutobi Saku's Wind Release.