Battle

Ikura's departure surprised everyone, and they began discussing what exactly Ikura had said they lacked compared to real ninja.

When their discussion produced no results, some began asking Yichen.

But knowing was knowing, and not knowing was not knowing. If it were so easy to explain, Teacher Ishikawa would have told them long ago.

Yichen explained for quite a while, but not a single classmate could understand him.

"Do all of you really have to experience life and death yourselves?" Unable to think of a better way, Yichen decided to be direct.

He said to everyone, "You should all know my practical combat ranking. I'm somewhere in the middle of the class. I really did find what Ikura was talking about, but I can't explain it clearly. Experience it for yourselves through actual combat."

After saying that, Yichen looked at a classmate who had previously been roughly evenly matched with him in sparring and said, "Let's fight."

The student froze for a moment, but rather than backing down, he said excitedly, "Alright. This is a good chance to see just how strong someone who killed a Chunin has become."

The others immediately spread out, clearing an area for the two of them.

The two took their positions and formed the Seal of Opposition. Then, without hesitation, Yichen launched the first attack. Their strength had originally been about equal, but Yichen's Chakra had now undergone a qualitative transformation, greatly increasing his power. In this Pure Taijutsu fight, his opponent was completely at a disadvantage.

Startled by Yichen's suddenly enhanced strength and speed, the student could not even bring out seventy percent of his full ability. After only a few exchanges, he was knocked down. Yichen took the initiative to form the Reconciliation Hand Seal, ending the sparring match.

After the first fight, Yichen did not stop. Instead, he immediately looked toward the next person. That student had assumed Yichen would explain something after winning, but Yichen unexpectedly challenged another opponent right away.

Feeling that Yichen was looking down on him, this classmate immediately leaped into the field without hesitation. His strength was in the second tier of the class, a full level above Yichen's. They had fought before, but Yichen had never won.

Once the fight began, Yichen still attacked first, but this time his opponent did not wait passively and counterattacked. Although Yichen's strength and speed had improved greatly compared to before, they were only about equal to his own. He did not believe he would lose.

Yichen and his opponent countered each move in turn. After several exchanges, Yichen grew more confident with every blow, becoming braver as the battle went on. His opponent was certainly capable, but for some reason, he seemed immature.

Driven by that mindset, Yichen fought more and more smoothly, occasionally achieving the effect of using four ounces to deflect a thousand pounds. Meanwhile, his opponent became increasingly alarmed. He only felt Yichen growing stronger and stronger, and fear began to rise in his heart. Then the situation took a sudden turn for the worse.

With his mentality thrown off balance, the student lost his ability to judge accurately under Yichen's swift, fierce assault. He accidentally threw a punch at empty air and could not pull back in time. Yichen seized his wrist and tugged, sending him sprawling forward onto the ground.

Before Yichen, who had won another match, could even catch his breath, another student with strength similar to the last one stepped forward and formed the Seal of Opposition toward him. Yichen laughed. That was exactly what he wanted. He did not know why, but his blood was suddenly boiling. He wanted a great battle, and if no one came to challenge him, he would have picked someone himself.

They smiled at each other, then attacked almost simultaneously. Carrying the momentum of two consecutive victories, Yichen had already found his rhythm, while his opponent had yet to adapt and was dragged along at Yichen's pace.

With the experience of fighting the previous opponent, Yichen defeated this one even more easily.

Then came the fourth person, then the fifth, until Yichen had defeated every student in the class's second tier one by one.

Having finally fought to his heart's content, Yichen was about to stop and say something when Shinohara stepped into the field. Shinohara, who argued with Yichen almost every day, said nothing this time. The two tacitly formed the Seal of Opposition at the same time, then moved at the same time. But this time, Shinohara charged directly at Yichen, while Yichen did not attack head-on as he had before and instead dodged to one side.

Seeing that Yichen intended to use agility against him as usual, Shinohara did not care. In all these years of combat classes, most of his opponents had dealt with his attacks this way. Some had succeeded, but far more had failed. He also had plenty of experience in how to catch his opponent while conserving Chakra.

But Yichen's method this time was different from before. Instead of dodging around within the area everyone had specifically cleared for them, he charged directly into the crowd of spectators.

Shinohara paused in surprise, then followed him in. He was not worried about any accidents. Once Yichen entered the crowd, he would lose his mobility, which would only benefit Shinohara.

The classmates were confused as well, unable to understand Yichen's intention. Only one student noticed something strange about the Ninja Tool Bag he was carrying when Yichen ran past him.

Before he could figure out what was going on, the situation in the field changed. Yichen, who had been fleeing through the crowd, suddenly vanished with a Bang, transforming into an object. The student focused his eyes and saw that it was his Ninja Tool Pouch. Then what was he carrying? Just as he lowered his head, he discovered that a figure had appeared beside him at some point.

At the same time, the students watching from directly in front of and beside Yichen immediately noticed the hand signs he formed. It was the Substitution Technique. But his Hand Seal Speed was so fast that by the time they recognized the technique, before they could even cry out in surprise, Yichen had disappeared, leaving only a Ninja Tool Pouch where he had been.

After switching positions with the substitution, Yichen was now directly behind and to the side of Shinohara. Unfortunately for Shinohara, the sight of the Substitution Technique made him instinctively slow down in surprise.

Yichen darted forward and, before Shinohara could react, reached out from behind and tapped him on the neck. Then he quickly retreated before Shinohara's instinctive counterattack could strike him.

The entire sequence flowed as smoothly as clouds and water. From the beginning of the fight to its end, it had been even faster than the previous battles. The others had not yet voiced their shock at seeing Yichen use the Substitution Technique in actual combat when his swift victory shocked them into silence again.

For a moment, the field was completely quiet.

From the first fight to his victory over Shinohara, Yichen had used less than half his Chakra and won every match decisively. Yet aside from the first student, everyone else's raw strength had been roughly equal to Yichen's. Shinohara in particular surpassed Yichen by far in every physical combat metric.

Yet the threat they posed to Yichen had been almost negligible.

Yichen took a deep breath and calmed his rapid heartbeat from the string of battles. "This is what Ikura is searching for," he said.

Everyone suddenly came back to their senses, and the silence was instantly replaced by clamorous noise.

They were all ninja trainees and possessed basic judgment. During Yichen's successive fights, they had already realized that his strength was only in the class's second tier. Yet he had crushed classmates of equal strength and even defeated Shinohara, who was clearly stronger than him.

That proved Yichen had indeed grasped something they did not possess. And since even Ikura, the top student in their grade, was pursuing it, they became even more desperate to understand. They felt as though a hundred claws were scratching at their hearts, each emphasizing their urgency while asking whether anyone else had figured it out.

Naturally, such a discussion could not produce an answer. Fortunately, there was someone nearby who understood. Teacher Ishikawa shouted several times for everyone to quiet down.

After Ikura requested leave, Teacher Ishikawa had come directly to the training field and witnessed Yichen defeat his classmates one by one through the entire process. He simply had not interrupted them until now.

"Students, you have all seen Yichen's improvement, haven't you? He is the first person in our class to possess the will of a ninja." As he spoke, he looked over everyone's reactions. Good. They were all paying close attention.

"You must be very curious about what this ninja's will actually is. Let me tell you. Ninja have emotions. They are not the task tools ordinary people imagine them to be. Ninja will give everything they have, unswervingly, for their ideals and convictions. This is the Will of Stone I usually speak of. As the top student in the class in theoretical grades, Yichen has also mastered the Will of Stone the best, which is why he was the first to comprehend his own ninja will. You should all learn from Yichen in the future."

Seeing Teacher Ishikawa use the opportunity to promote the Will of Stone and steer the matter toward theory classes, Yichen opened his mouth to say something. But Teacher Ishikawa immediately glared at him, frightening him into quickly closing it.

Seeing that no one objected, Teacher Ishikawa began another lengthy speech about the Will of Stone. Perhaps this was the most attentively the students had ever listened, so Teacher Ishikawa explained it in ever greater detail and at ever greater length.

A practical combat class was forcibly turned into half a theory lesson. Strangely enough, no one resented it. Instead, everyone was fired up. During the remaining half of the class, they trained especially hard.

That enthusiasm lasted for many days. Just as everyone was about to begin slacking off, Teacher Ishikawa revealed that although Yichen had not yet graduated, he had already started working with the Barrier Team. This gave everyone a renewed sense that time waited for no one, sustaining their drive for quite a while longer.

Later, Teacher Ishikawa casually mentioned Yichen's recorded mission history. This sparked another wave of intense training throughout the class. Even Yichen himself was influenced by the atmosphere and increased his own training intensity. Seeing Yichen training so hard as well, everyone assumed it truly worked and became even more motivated.

It had to be said that Teacher Ishikawa's maneuver was remarkably effective. The entire class's performance improved by a large margin, and in every aspect: from theory to Chakra Control, then physical fitness, and finally actual combat. Every student showed obvious progress. The teachers from other classes were left dumbfounded, thinking, No wonder Ishikawa was personally chosen by Ōnoki to teach the first Advanced Class. He really is beyond comparison.

Time flew by, and four full years had passed since Yichen and the others enrolled. Since they had been admitted early, they could still study at the Ninja Academy for another year despite the war. Of course, that was also because the war was entering its final stages. This war had lasted somewhat longer than the First Ninja World War, but it had been less brutal.

During the First Shinobi War, the Kage of all Five Great Ninja Villages personally entered battle and fell one after another. The Second Tsuchikage and the Second Mizukage died together. The Second Wind Shadow died on the battlefield against Konoha, while the Second Hokage and the Second Raikage died in Kinkaku and Ginkaku's rebellion.

During the Second Shinobi War, the Kage of each village restrained themselves and did not personally take action, but the originally fierce fighting turned into a war of attrition. As a result, even more ninja died than in the First Shinobi War. Rationally speaking, this was a good thing for the Iwa ninja. They had nothing else in abundance, but they had plenty of ninja.

Konoha suffered the greatest losses. Although the other four nations fought among themselves during this war as well, Konoha was the only country that engaged in full-scale war with all four of them.

Although the other four nations were hostile to one another and constantly made small moves, not every pair of nations had their armies clash on a large scale.

But Konoha seemed blessed by the heavens. Whenever the situation became critical, a Genius would emerge to turn the tide. First, White Fang drove back Sunagakure's Puppet Masters. Later came the battle between the Three Sannin and Hanzo.

Hanzo was also pitiful. Rain Village had exhausted all the resources it had accumulated in this war. And the scale of the Land of Rain doomed Rain Village to never rise again.

Hanzo himself had also developed a distorted view of his own position. In truth, although Rain Village and the Land of Rain suffered terrible losses in this war, the Sunagakure and Konoha forces that invaded the Land of Rain suffered equally terrible losses.

During the Third Shinobi War, neither country dared commit too many troops to the Land of Rain. Instead, they focused on defense along their respective borders with the Land of Rain. From that perspective, Hanzo had succeeded. But he had not realized it. All he saw was his own failure.

Hanzo, consumed by self-doubt, not only fell from his peak in strength and will, but also lost much of his former boldness. This caused his subordinates to lose confidence in him, which in turn weakened his control over Rain Village and the Land of Rain. It also laid the groundwork for the later rise of the Akatsuki Organization.