The Peaceful Era

To Yichen, the ten-day break felt a little short, but there was no helping it. Leaving the village to carry out missions was also an important form of training for a ninja.

Just like this time—if not for Yuki Kagami's provocation, Yichen would not have resolved to develop his bloodline limit.

And if not for that life-and-death battle, Yichen would not have been so eager to improve the speed at which he cast ninjutsu.

When they regrouped, Kitsuchi found all three of them full of energy.

Shinohara in particular. During this mission, Yichen had faced one moment of danger when Jonin Imamura Kosaku suddenly attacked him. If he had not dodged quickly, he would have lost his life. It counted as a brush with death.

But Shinohara had actually been in the greatest danger. At least three times, he had nearly been impaled by ice spears.

Fortunately, Shinohara was also a ninja with firm resolve. This brush with danger had not robbed him of his courage; instead, it strengthened his will and noticeably improved his strength.

It was similar to when Yichen defeated Kenbon. That victory had given Yichen confidence in himself.

Shinohara, meanwhile, had strengthened his will through peril.

The principle behind both was more or less the same.

Kitsuchi was very pleased. Although he had not taught Team Five much, under his leadership, all three members had undergone a small transformation. That showed he was a very successful Squad Leader Jonin.

Still, there was something lacking. The three worked together seamlessly in battle, but when fighting alone, none of them possessed a decisive finishing move.

Take Yuki Kagami, for example. With sufficient preparation, he could unleash a B-rank Ice Needle Rain.

But none of Yichen's group had such a technique yet.

Kitsuchi could guess that Yichen was already developing an upgraded version of Water Style: Water Line Jutsu. It would become his signature offensive technique in the future.

As long as Yichen was given time, Kitsuchi believed he would certainly succeed.

But Shinohara and Tana had yet to find paths of their own.

Looks like I should fulfill my responsibilities as a Squad Leader Jonin. From now on, I'll pay attention to the two's personalities and strengths and see how I can help them find their direction, Kitsuchi thought.

But for now, he said, "Set out. We're taking on another pursuit mission."

"Ah~~~~" Yichen and the other two cried out in misery.

Their last mission had been considered a failure. It was their first failed mission, and as young people, they still found it hard to accept having such a blemish in their records.

So they did not care much for such thankless, exhausting missions.

"Hahahaha." Kitsuchi laughed happily. He had gone through the same thing back then, so how could he not understand what they were thinking?

But ninja had to learn to accept failure. If they always believed every mission had to be completed, the inevitable result would be death—death from not knowing when to advance or retreat.

Ignoring their protests, Kitsuchi accepted another pursuit mission.

And so, Yichen and the other two began running all over the Ninja World with Kitsuchi, tracking rogue ninja everywhere. But the results were meager. Over the next two years, Team Five killed only four Chunin-level rogue ninja.

Thus, over those full two years, they completed only four B-rank Missions.

Of course, missions to hunt rogue ninja were not available at all times, so they also carried out quite a few C-rank missions during those two years.

Over those two years, they traveled through the small countries surrounding the Land of Earth and even visited distant nations such as the Land of Whirlpools.

But the Five Great Nations had not yet all signed peace treaties, so they had not gone to the other four great nations.

And today, the Tsuchikage's Office Building was about to announce a piece of news: the Five Great Nations had officially ended the war.

As of yesterday, the last two of the Five Great Nations, the Land of Lightning and the Land of Fire, had also signed a peace treaty.

From that moment onward, when leaving the village and encountering ninja from other great nations, they could no longer simply fight and kill as before.

Instead, they had to avoid contact whenever possible. Unless their missions conflicted, there would no longer be scenes of ninja from two great nations fighting to the death.

Of course, that was only on the surface. In the shadows, there would certainly be no shortage of backstabbing.

From this day forward, the Ninja World entered a period of recovery. Judging from the previous two Ninja World Wars, peace in the Ninja World was destined not to last long. The last war had also planted many seeds of future conflict among the nations: hatred.

There were far too many war orphans like Yichen. Who knew how many children had already decided, after becoming ninja, to seek revenge against enemy nations?

The situation in the Ninja World had now settled into peace, and all the great nations were assessing the losses suffered by each side during the war.

Konoha had suffered the greatest losses among its ordinary ninja. The number of ninja in the entire village had already reached a critical threshold.

That was why, even though the great nations had long since ended their large-scale warfare, they had still delayed signing a peace agreement. They were unwilling to accept it. Konoha had clearly been on the verge of collapse; they had been just a little short.

At that point, if any one of the other four nations had stepped forward and stabbed Konoha once more, Konoha might have crumbled.

But the other four nations were wary of one another, so none dared to make the first move. In the end, they dragged things out until they could only accept it.

Yet in terms of High-end Combat Power, not a single one of Konoha's Kage-level experts had died. Not only had none died, but the Legendary Sannin had also emerged.

However, after repeated failures, Tsunade had become thoroughly disheartened. Not long after the events in the Land of Whirlpools, she left Konoha.

It was precisely Tsunade's departure, coupled with Jiraiya's disappearance, that had allowed the War State to continue until now.

At the time, Jiraiya first spent some time recovering from his injuries at Mount Myōboku, then returned to the Land of Rain to teach his three young disciples.

A full three years had passed before Jiraiya finally returned to the village.

Seeing that no one was willing to take the lead, and that Jiraiya had returned to Konoha, the other four nations finally gave up one after another.

Iwagakure had suffered the lightest losses in this war, not because of Yichen's contributions, but because Iwagakure had a large ninja population. In a war of attrition like this, Iwagakure could endure the most.

If it had been a brutal decisive battle like the First Shinobi War, Iwagakure would likely have suffered the most.

That was because Iwagakure currently had only one Kage Level fighter. In times of war crisis, it had to rely entirely on its two Jinchuriki.

If the war had escalated back then and one of Konoha's Kage-level experts had traded lives with Ōnoki—

Then Iwagakure would very likely have been carved up by the other four nations once they smelled blood.

The Land of Wind in particular. Its land was the most barren, and it could be said that it was indiscriminate when expanding outward. Occupying a piece of the Land of Fire would have been ideal, but seizing some land from the Land of Earth would also have been good.

The Land of Lightning and the Land of Earth faced each other across the sea. It was hard to say whether those brutes might cross the ocean to claim a share.

Standing beneath the Tsuchikage's Office Building and listening to Ōnoki announce the news of peace, Yichen did not feel much. He was already a qualified ninja. The only difference between wartime and peacetime was the intensity of battle.

Even in the peaceful era, he spent his days carrying out dangerous missions one after another.

Listening to the civilians cheer, Yichen felt somewhat out of place. Fortunately, Ōnoki's speech did not last long, and the crowd soon dispersed.

Yichen had no mission today. Tana and Shinohara would be taking the Chunin Assessment before long, and Team Five would soon disband.

The village had not yet decided his assignment, and Yichen did not know where he would be sent in the future.

He might lead a small squad as a Chunin, or he might be assigned to a special organization to carry out missions. Who knew?

He might as well visit the Barrier Team. Two years had passed, and it seemed their research had finally made new progress.

Over the past two years, Yichen still visited the Barrier Team from time to time, but he no longer participated much in the experiments. He came only to learn about their new experimental ideas and various data.

The Barrier Team was now conducting a crucial experiment. Before it began, they had analyzed the situation and concluded that there was a high chance of successfully deciphering one of the Fire Domain fragments.

But the experiment had not gone smoothly. It had already failed many times, yet after repeated failures and minor adjustments, signs of success had begun to appear.

Back then, Yichen had left the Barrier Team with two fragments. One concerned absorbing Natural Energy, while the other concerned autonomously generating Fire Release.

The one now showing new progress was the fragment related to Natural Energy.

Since the experiment carried a certain degree of danger, it was arranged in a valley outside the village, with Anbu guarding the surrounding area.

After Yichen arrived at the valley, he easily received permission to enter. He was a frequent visitor here and had authorization approved by Ōnoki.

After entering the valley, Yichen was surprised to find that Ōnoki was there as well. He did not know whether Ōnoki had just arrived from the Tsuchikage's Office Building, or whether the one at the building earlier had been a clone.

No one paid much attention to Yichen's arrival. He looked over the research data on the table, then turned toward the new round of experiments that was about to begin.

With some anticipation, he asked Mizuhara, "Captain Mizuhara, judging from the data, the last experiment was already very stable. This time, we should succeed, right?"

Mizuhara nodded without speaking. He was even more nervous than Yichen. Over the years, Yichen had successfully transitioned into a combat ninja, but Mizuhara was a professional Sealing Ninja. He had devoted far more thought to researching these two fragments than Yichen had.

Uzumaki Yumi, standing nearby, said, "The success rate for absorbing Natural Energy is very high, but someone raised a new issue yesterday. How are we supposed to deal with the gathered Natural Energy? Will it keep accumulating until it suddenly explodes?"

Over the past few years, Uzumaki Yumi had become quite familiar with Yichen. She knew Yichen was the advocate of this research project, so she did not hide anything from him.

Yichen thought about it. It was true—he had forcibly split apart the S-rank Sealing Jutsu known as Fire Domain. The absorbed Natural Energy was originally converted into flames, but now that channel of consumption was gone. What should happen to the accumulated Natural Energy?

Unable to think of a solution for the moment, Yichen could only take things one step at a time.

Before long, everyone had finished preparing. Then more than a dozen seal masters simultaneously used Sealing Jutsu to activate the reconstructed sealing technique, built around the Fire Domain fragment as its core.

Yichen had estimated that this sealing technique was probably A-rank, and one of the more complex A-rank techniques at that. Given Iwagakure's resources, no one could use this sealing technique alone.

It could only be performed through the cooperation of more than a dozen people like this.

The dozen or so people sat in more than a dozen different positions, each with an Anbu nearby. They were there to provide rescue if anything went wrong. Natural Energy was simply too terrifying; if it went out of control, no one knew what might happen.

Not long after the Sealing Jutsu began, Ōnoki's body visibly jolted. Yichen, who noticed this, felt his heart stir. Could it have succeeded?

Yichen hurriedly crouched down and used Sensory Ninjutsu. But his level was still far too low. The experiment had only just begun, and he could not sense anything yet.