Practical Combat Weapon!

Whoosh!

Tang Ping abruptly swung his left hand forward.

The charging genin saw the movement but did not dodge.

What he had not expected was for a cloud of white mist to suddenly spread out and envelop him.

"Ah!!"

Thinking it was merely mist, the genin clutched his eyes and screamed.

Pfft!

Before he could recover from the pain, a kunai pierced through his neck.

A one-hit kill!

Battles between ninja were often this simple.

"Hmph, it's your good fortune to die to my Fire Mist Technique!"

Tang Ping shouted.

Lime!

He had used lime!

How could he possibly not use such a godly tool in battle?

Ninja relied on Chakra and all kinds of ninjutsu, so they naturally would not think of something like this. After Tang Ping had happened upon lime in the village, he had set his sights on making it into a combat weapon.

At this stage, it could be considered his signature weapon.

Calling it the "Fire Mist Technique" was naturally for others to hear.

If the enemy thought it was ninjutsu, they would watch to see whether he formed hand seals or used Chakra.

But who could have guessed that it was nothing more than lime powder?

Well, not using chili powder was already considerate enough.

Ninja did not need to follow rules of honor anyway. Any means could be used, so there was nothing strange about him using this method, right?

Not far away, Taiyi seemed to have seen Tang Ping finish his battle and let out an irritated croak.

Croak!

Flames ignited around its right claw as it stomped down heavily.

Boom!

A massive amount of fire erupted from the ground in a fan-shaped area ahead of it, tearing apart the earth and setting everything on the ground ablaze.

"Ah!"

Amid miserable screams—

Two Hidden Mist genin were caught completely off guard and taken out by the attack.

It could only be said—

As Taiyi's size grew, all its abilities increased exponentially.

If it had been this large during the previous test, Kakashi would never have survived.

That was the utterly unfair advantage of a Summoning Beast.

Bang!

At that moment, Kakashi was also kicked flying by his enemy.

"Die, brat!"

The Hidden Mist chunin furiously hurled the kunai in his hand.

He was enraged from humiliation.

They were only a few newly graduated Konoha Genin, yet they had killed five of his subordinates. Even killing them would not make up for it.

Kakashi lay on the ground, watching the kunai grow ever larger in his vision as he slowly closed his eyes.

This isn't so bad.

Having already stepped into darkness, he felt that dying on a mission like this might be a relief.

At this point, he truly did have self-destructive tendencies. Otherwise, he would not have accepted Danzo's order to kill Tang Ping without hesitation.

Yet after a few seconds passed without any pain, Kakashi could not help opening his eyes.

A Dark Gold wing, like a curtain, blocked his view.

Taiyi had shielded Kakashi from the kunai.

Too bad I don't have a camera. Otherwise, I could hold this over him for the rest of his life!

Tang Ping walked over to Kakashi. Looking at Lord Kakashi lying on the ground with a lost, helpless expression, he dearly wished he had a camera to capture the scene.

"Now isn't the time for sleeping!"

He teased.

"Hmph!"

Kakashi snorted coldly and slowly got to his feet.

It could only be said that Kakashi was merely the strongest among the three, while Team 3's true strongest combat power was Taiyi.

That might make Tang Ping sound like he was cheating.

But just think about how Naruto would open by having Gamabunta fight for him in the future, directly going head-to-head with One-Tail Shukaku. Then Tang Ping's approach was actually far too conservative.

Whoosh!

After getting up, Kakashi lowered his body and charged forward, attacking from Taiyi's flank.

Though he was the youngest, his combat strength was truly top-notch. At the very least, without Taiyi's help, Tang Ping would be completely outclassed.

Taiyi did not join the attack. Instead, it stood in front of Tang Ping.

A Summoning Beast like it was not suited for close-quarters brawling. Using ninjutsu would affect Kakashi as well, so staying behind to protect Tang Ping was the best choice.

With Kakashi keeping the enemy occupied and Taiyi protecting him, Tang Ping could form hand seals and use ninjutsu without worry.

The artillery route!

That was his combat style.

Trying to engage in close combat would be outright suicide.

That was the domain of "protagonists" like Kakashi and Minato Namikaze. They could fight that way without issue, but if anyone else tried it, they were guaranteed to die in a spectacularly rhythmic fashion.

Anyway, not even dogs played melee.

Fire Release: Flame Bullet!

After rapidly completing the hand seals, Tang Ping unleashed this C-rank ninjutsu.

The wheel-sized fireball he spat out swiftly struck the chunin who had just been forced back by Kakashi's short blade.

Boom!

The explosion and flames engulfed the area where the enemy stood.

At that moment, a figure appeared behind Tang Ping, thrusting a kunai toward him.

"I got you!"

It was the Hidden Mist chunin.

He had just used the Substitution Technique to evade the Flame Bullet.

Though it was only one of the basic Three Body Techniques, avoiding a Flame Bullet was naturally not a problem when prepared.

But something unexpected happened.

Bang!

The Tang Ping he struck suddenly turned into smoke, while a piece of wood appeared amid the white mist.

"I'm finished!"

The Hidden Mist chunin's expression changed drastically. He had just tried to pull away, but it was already too late.

Pfft!

A kunai pierced his heart from behind.

It was Kakashi.

How could he possibly let such a good opportunity slip away?

He stabbed the heart rather than the neck due to his height, not because he did not want to attack the neck.

The instant the kunai entered the heart, he twisted his wrist, directly shredding it.

He was ruthless!

If he had not done that, the enemy might have taken him down with a final counterattack.

Such things were all too common in battle.

An inexperienced rookie genin might truly have fallen for it.

"That was close!"

Tang Ping, who had used the Substitution Technique to avoid the attack, emerged from the side.

Over this period, he had made up for his progress in all the Three Body Techniques, and they had finally proven quite useful.

"..."

Kakashi gave Tang Ping a cold glance but did not respond.

He had truly never seen someone so afraid of death. The fatal blow should have been Tang Ping's responsibility, yet he had handed it to him.

If Tang Ping knew what Kakashi was thinking, he would definitely say—For a reward of a few ten thousand ryo, why risk your life?

For this B-rank mission, the village would take a cut, then the team leader would take half. Once the remaining reward was split among the three of them, each person might receive only a little over ten thousand ryo.

That amount would be gone after one lavish meal.

So expecting him to risk his life for that little money was pure dreaming.

"All right, let's go meet up with Koji first!"

Seeing that Kakashi did not want to talk, Tang Ping changed the subject.

The danger was not over yet.

Minato Namikaze had not appeared, which meant he had been held up by someone. Naturally, they had to remain cautious.

However, Tang Ping was not too worried.

Who was Minato Namikaze?

Unless it was a plot death, he was a combat genius at the very pinnacle of Hokage-level strength, someone who could not possibly die.

There was absolutely no need for him to worry about someone like that. The ones who needed worrying about were the enemies.

The moment they stepped out of the cave—

Whoosh!

A streak of golden light flashed past, and their team leader appeared before them.

Seeing that the two were unharmed, Minato Namikaze sighed in relief.

"It seems you've already dealt with the enemies!"

He had been held back by enemies earlier and had only rushed over after dealing with them.

"Teacher Minato!"

Yamaa Koji had returned as well.

Taiyi had already dealt with quite a few bandits earlier, and the rest naturally could not escape his pursuit.

With that, the mission was over.

What remained was handling the aftermath.

And Tang Ping was very curious to see how Minato Namikaze would deal with it.

Because the waters ran too deep.