Battle

In secret, Orochimaru had actually already discovered the enemies' presence. They were a few Genin and Chunin, all Rogue Ninja. Their disguises and concealment were hardly sophisticated, and Orochimaru saw through them immediately.

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

"They've got some nerve. They 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 brats. 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 interfering. Of course, even if they had known, they would not have been surprised. It had been made clear before they set out: they were to complete the mission themselves, while Orochimaru was merely coming along to observe. It was a test.

That was right, a test.

A test of the results of their recent training.

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

Uchiha Kiyoshi's group had reacted beyond his expectations. They were even more professional than he had imagined.

"Is this what Shinobi from a major village are like? Even kids barely in their teens have such quality?"

Yagi Nobuto muttered.

The targets' reaction had caught him off guard, and Yagi Nobuto was even beginning to regret it. If he had known, he would not have acted so rashly.

"But the arrow's already on the string. There's no backing out now. Damn it, I'm doing this. One successful job will give me enough time to train for over half a year."

Thinking of the possible rewards from this job, Yagi Nobuto gritted his teeth and decided to continue with his plan.

One Chunin and three Genin—against ordinary people or Samurai, that was indeed a powerful force.

If they had come from a Shinobi village, there would have been even more they could do. Naturally, that was only if they did not encounter a true powerhouse, the kind two ranks above them.

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

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Several sharp whistles cut through the air, and Uchiha Kiyoshi knew the hidden enemies had made their move. He also breathed a sigh of relief. Using ninja tools for a sneak attack meant this was probably not a completely one-sided fight. That meant they could fight.

The throwing techniques a group of Rogue Ninja had figured out on their own were far from impressive, and Uchiha Kiyoshi's group easily evaded 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 woods to one side.

Uchiha Kiyoshi took the lead, guarding against possible ambushes as he searched for signs of the enemy.

Yagi Nobuto's four-man squad 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 smashed toward Uchiha Kiyoshi's group.

This was Yagi Nobuto's only Ninjutsu, a C-rank Ninjutsu that had cost him dearly to obtain from the Black Market.

"That's it?"

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

It was not because the enemy's Ninjutsu was too powerful, but because it was too weak. Even among C-rank Ninjutsu, it was utterly unremarkable.

Caught off guard and momentarily stunned, Uchiha Kiyoshi had no time to dodge.

Yagi Nobuto was overjoyed. Sure enough, his previous worries had been unnecessary. Shinobi from major villages were not all that impressive. This one had been scared stiff and did not even know how to dodge.

Nawaki and Sarutobi Saku, on the other hand, thought nothing of it and immediately dodged the earthen bullets.

When Yagi Nobuto attacked, Uchiha Kiyoshi had already locked onto his position. He sensed the other man's Chunin-level Chakra, and the contrast between that and the Earth Bullet Technique was so great that it left him stunned for a moment.

How could he have known how precious Ninjutsu scrolls were? Only in Konoha—and only with the backing of a powerful clan—could he obtain Ninjutsu one after another, while also receiving thorough basic knowledge and education. In the outside world, merely possessing a C-rank Ninjutsu was already impressive, representing extraordinary power.

Though both were C-rank Ninjutsu, the Earth Bullet Technique was vastly inferior to the Ninjutsu Uchiha Kiyoshi had learned. If an ordinary person's power ranged from 0 to 10, then C-rank Ninjutsu roughly ranged from 20 to 100. The Earth Bullet Technique was worth at most 30 or 40, while Uchiha Kiyoshi's Ninjutsu were all at least 80. Even Uchiha Kiyoshi's self-created Earth Shield could withstand over 20 points of damage.

Of course, stronger techniques were harder to learn, but the increase in difficulty was not that extreme.

Seeing that Uchiha Kiyoshi was the leader of the three, Yagi Nobuto had focused his attack on him. That was why he had been so delighted to see Uchiha Kiyoshi freeze. The toughest one had been frightened senseless right away, so would the remaining two not be easy prey?

Uchiha Kiyoshi did not know what Yagi Nobuto was thinking, nor did he have time to care about Yagi Nobuto's fantasies.

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

His hands did not come together, each forming seals separately.

"Earth Shield."

Two earthen shields appeared. Under Uchiha Kiyoshi's control, they struck the two incoming earth bullets at special angles and deflected them.

The two earth bullets were knocked aside by the slanted shields, veering in opposite directions as the shields shattered. Uchiha Kiyoshi ignored the broken shields, rolled forward, and slipped through the gap revealed by the deflected bullets.

The entire sequence flowed seamlessly. Even Orochimaru, hidden in the shadows, could not help but admire it. To turn such a minor trick into something like this, Uchiha Kiyoshi truly was a genius.

"But how did he form those seals just now?"

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

"One hand can form seals too?

That had never occurred to me. I didn't expect it to be possible."

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

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

That was right: One-Handed Seals. Ever since he was six, Uchiha Kiyoshi had spent the past four years studying One-Handed Seals whenever he found the time, and he had now made some progress.

One-Handed Seals still had drawbacks. During the sealing process for many Ninjutsu, some Chakra flows had to be controlled simultaneously by the same seal, yet the one-handed seals corresponding to those flows were different. That was the troublesome part. In such situations, the technique could not be completed with One-Handed Seals alone, so 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 at the same time.

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

After dodging that wave of attacks, Uchiha Kiyoshi locked onto Yagi Nobuto's position. He was not the only one; Nawaki and the others had also found where Yagi Nobuto's group was hiding.

Seeing that his attack had still been evaded, Yagi Nobuto was dumbfounded. Had his teammate beside him not warned him, he would not even have noticed the three rushing toward him.

Uchiha Kiyoshi had no intention of wasting time playing hide-and-seek. A quick battle was best. He charged straight in, and the two sides soon clashed.

With Uchiha Kiyoshi keeping him tied down, Yagi Nobuto could not widen the distance and could only fight head-on.

Unfortunately for him, a self-taught Chunin was far too lacking in skill compared to a Shinobi like Uchiha Kiyoshi, who was on the verge of becoming an Elite Chunin. Still, Yagi Nobuto struck viciously. If Uchiha Kiyoshi had not focused all his taijutsu on defense, he really might have suffered some serious injuries.

While Uchiha Kiyoshi's side was locked in close combat, the situation on the other side was different. It was a complete slaughter.

How could three Rogue Ninja Genin, who knew no Ninjutsu beyond the Three Basic Techniques, possibly withstand Nawaki and Sarutobi Saku's barrage of Ninjutsu?

Nawaki used two C-rank area-of-effect Water Release techniques, the Water Arrow Technique, and the enemy had already lost their ability to fight. Sarutobi Saku then followed with a Wind Release: Great Breakthrough, killing the three Genin on the spot.

Yagi Nobuto had never imagined the gap between his group and Shinobi trained by a Shinobi village would be so vast. In the blink of an eye, 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 run, but whether he could.

After taking care of the lesser enemies, Nawaki and Sarutobi Saku were also incredulous. But they quickly recovered and moved to finish the battle first.

With the three joining forces, Yagi Nobuto ultimately failed to escape and was killed by Sarutobi Saku's Wind Release.