The Temptation of Returning to the Village

In the past two years, Yichen has not been idle. In fact, he has experienced far more battles than when he was on missions with the Team 18. Due to the prosperity of the trade routes, the number of ninjas sent by various countries to gather intelligence is so great that it infuriates Yichen.

Fortunately, Yichen has the advantage of Sensory Ninjutsu, and when he built the Supply Station, he specially set up a barrier that could amplify the range and accuracy of his perception. Therefore Yichen, no ninja who came to investigate could escape Yichen's perception.

Yichen always had only one attitude towards these ninjas: kill.

If it's Genin, Yichen only needs to assign one or two small teams to carry out the mission. If it's a chunin, Chunin and the other two can handle it by taking action or by sending more small teams.

If multiple Chunin are together, Yichen will not hesitate to take action personally. If it is a lone Jonin, Yichen will assess the opponent's strength, gather seven or eight Chunin, and then lead a team to surround and kill them.

Thanks to the existence of Sensory Ninjutsu and Camouflage Jutsu, Yichen has Baki.

The most troublesome situation is when encountering a squad led by an entire Jonin, or two or three Jonin coming together. In this case, Yichen will retreat into the core building and then notify the nearby patrolling Anbu and outposts.

Because they had communicated beforehand, they were notified by Yichen that they would not enter the Supply Station directly and alert the enemy. Instead, they would meet up at a distance and then work together with Yichen to hunt down the enemy.

In the past two years, Yichen personally Chunin at least forty or fifty Chunin, and with the help of his subordinates, Jonin more than thirty Jonin. He also cooperated with the Anbu and outposts Jonin kill more than twenty Jonin, including an Elite Jonin.

In the past two years, Yichen's subordinates have also suffered a relatively high casualty rate.

As the trade route expanded, Yichen's forces also grew, now numbering thirty Chunin squad. In the past two years, eleven squads have suffered casualties, with three squads completely wiped out.

However, compared to the results of the battle, these casualties were nothing in the eyes of the higher-ups.

In the past two years, Yichen has made great progress. First of all, his B-rank Sword Technique. The difficulty of mastering B-rank Sword Technique is indeed far beyond Yichen's imagination. Although Yichen has now mastered this B-rank Sword Technique, he is not yet proficient in it.

According to descriptions in swordsmanship manuals, to achieve mastery of swordsmanship, one can imbue a sword with Chakra without using Chakra weapon. This is quite amazing, and Yichen couldn't figure it out no matter what he did. He finally guessed that it must be something like Sword Qi. It is said that this kind of thing is common in the samurai world.

Although not a master, Yichen's swordsmanship is sufficient for battles between Jonin. With this level of swordsmanship, Yichen could even treat himself as Taijutsu Ninja when facing ordinary Jonin.

Yichen's initial motivation for practicing swordsmanship was to compensate for his weaknesses and to find opportunities to use Ninjutsu when enemies got close. From this perspective, Yichen's swordsmanship was already more than sufficient.

Besides swordsmanship, Yichen has also fully mastered several B-rank Ninjutsu, including the Water Style: Raging Waves, which has reduced the number of hand seals from 27 to 9.

The Rain Style: Light Rain Jutsu has been reduced from 13 seals to 5 seals, which is very close to the Water Style: Water Line Jutsu, which has been reduced to 3 seals.

As a killing move, the Rain Style: Heavy Rain Jutsu was reduced from 21 seals to 8 seals because Yichen focused on practicing it, which is only 3 seals more than the Water Style: Water Pressure Line Jutsu, which was reduced to 5 seals.

The Headhunter Jutsu, being Ninjutsu performed by sneaking beneath the enemy, increases the risk of being exposed for even a second's delay. Therefore, Yichen has been practicing it diligently, reducing his hand seals from 27 to 9.

Hardening Jutsu has been reduced from 24 seals to 15 seals, Earth Style: Earth Submergence from 31 seals to 19 seals. These two Ninjutsu do not require speed to perform, so they are practiced less.

In addition, Yichen's Close Combat Ninjutsu, Breaking the Cold Current, which he doesn't use much, now only requires 18 seals.

Besides B-rank Ninjutsu, the C-rank Ninjutsu he had learned before had also improved to some extent, with one or two seals reduced each time.

Among them, the Earth Style: Earth Clone Jutsu, due to its strong practicality, had its number of seals reduced by Yichen from 14 to 7. The Earth Style: Earth Submergence was reduced from 15 seals to 11.

The two C-rank Ninjutsu that I learned relatively late, Rock-Scattering Jutsu, were reduced from 19 seals to 9 seals. Water Bubble Jutsu was reduced from 20 seals to 13 seals.

The new Ninjutsu I learned in the last two years: a C-rank Genjutsu. This Genjutsu is used to deal with enemies who have lost the ability to resist, so Yichen hasn't practiced it much and still needs 19 more hand seals.

Two C-rank Fire Style Jutsu: one is the Great Fireball Jutsu, requiring 6 seals. This was reduced to so few seals only after Yichen had a clear direction based on his memories from his previous life. The other is the Fire Whip Jutsu, which he didn't practice much because it's similar to the Water Pressure Line technique he envisioned for the future; it still requires 18 seals.

A B-rank Fire Style Jutsu: Phoenix Fire Technique. It hasn't been long since I learned it; it requires 23 hand seals.

Yichen has mastered the Nature Transformation of Fire Release, but because Fire Release is not his primary attribute and does not account for a large proportion of his Chakra, although he can use Fire Style Ninjutsu, the high-consumption Fire Release techniques are still very difficult to use. For example, this Phoenix Fire Technique is something that Yichen has only recently managed to learn.

In addition, Yichen Hand Seals speed has also been improved, from the original 4.7-5.2 seals per second to 5.0-5.3 seals per second. His Chakra reserves have also increased by more than double, from the original 3.2A to about 13A.

However, Yichen's greatest progress was not in any of the above, but in his Body Flicker Technique. Yichen's Body Flicker Technique completed the transformation from a single seal to a sealless technique.

The benefits this transformation brought to Yichen were unimaginable.

Yichen Yahiko recently made a leap forward in his Body Flicker Technique, sparred with Yahiko and his two companions again. The result of this battle surprised them greatly. Yahiko was no longer a match for Yichen. This was because Yahiko was Taijutsu Ninja, but Yahiko Body Flicker Technique required Hand Seals, and apart from the Body Flicker Technique, Yahiko's regular speed was not fast enough to overwhelm Yichen.

Therefore, Yichen kept the distance between the two at bay throughout the battle, and Yahiko didn't want to talk about how terrifying a Ninjutsu Ninja who couldn't be approached could be.

Konan didn't fare well this time either; the two ended in a draw. Yichen tried everything he could to defeat Konan, who could fly, but to no avail. In the end, Yichen hid by Earth Style: Earth Submergence. Neither of them could gain the upper hand.

Yichen still lost the battle against Nagato, but this time, he felt he had a bit of Fifty-Fifty spirit.

If Nagato's Rinnegan's various offensive methods weren't so insurmountable for Yichen should have been able to defeat Nagato, who was suppressing his strength at the Nagato stage.

That's right! Nagato was suppressing his strength when he fought Yichen. If Nagato had used his full power, Yichen would have been in front of Yichen almost Body Flicker Technique by the time he realized what was happening, and then, that would have been the end of him.

Nagato also knows the Hand Seal Body Flicker. When combined with the unique weapon, the Black Rod, the Body Flicker Technique is virtually invincible. Because once an enemy is touched by the Black Rod, they are almost incapacitated.

Add to that the strange abilities to absorb Ninjutsu, and Yichen could hardly imagine who in the Ninja World could stand against Nagato, Kage Level Nagato who concentrated the power of the Six Paths into one person.

After witnessing Nagato's strength, Yichen gave Nagato a toy—a fake dagger. This dagger was hollow in the middle; if you used it to stab an enemy, the dagger would retract.

Yichen hopes that if the situation from the original story were to reappear, Nagato could use this dagger to save Yahiko and then go to Konoha to settle scores.

That's right, Konoha. After two whole years, Hanzo could no longer hold back and finally contacted Danzo.

Yichen decided to return to the village to consult with Ōnoki about the next steps after receiving news that the Root organization was frequently active in the Land of Rain.

After all, if Yichen is going to cause trouble in the Land of Rain, then the Supply Station will need to be staffed by a new Jonin.

Yichen had another important matter to attend to during his return to the village: to advance to the rank of Jonin.

As several high-ranking officials mentioned earlier, Yichen's mission to open the trade route was his Jonin assessment mission. Now that Yichen has successfully completed the mission, he can return to the village to collect his rewards, the most direct of which is promotion to Jonin.

After discussing some important points with the newly appointed Supply Station captain, Yichen couldn't wait to return to the village.

Along the way, Yichen looked at his three subordinates and felt that they were moving too slowly, seriously slowing down his journey home.

Of the three, Chun, who was the slowest, looked at Yichen speechlessly. This guy was clearly Ninjutsu -type ninja like himself, but his speed was faster than his two Taijutsu -type companions. He was clearly the one who was a bug, but he was blaming the rest of us normal people.

Fu and Qingtian understood Chun's expression and felt a little embarrassed, especially Fu. He used to be the fastest in the whole team, but ever since Yichen learned the Hand Seal Body Flicker, Yichen had taken that title. Whenever he thought about how he now needed three hand seals to perform a Body Flicker Technique, and that he could only perform it once each time, Fu felt like crying.

Yichen was unaware of his three subordinates' feelings. All he wanted to do was get back to the village as soon as possible. Although he didn't have many friends in the village, it would be pleasant to visit familiar places.

They traveled non-stop until they finally arrived back in the village, just as Chun was about to collapse from exhaustion. Upon entering the village, Chun ignored Yichen's feigned concern and turned to leave.

Yichen scratched his head awkwardly, and instead of rushing to report to the Tsuchikage's Office Building, he decided to go back to his small room to rest for the night.

Back at his lodgings, Yichen had no desire to rest. Inside his small house, a black Ninja Cat was sleeping. This didn't surprise Yichen. Since leaving the Team 18, although he had seen Shironeko, Yichen Little Stone, and Purple Lightning less often, or even almost never, he still frequently met Shironeko Cat's Ninja Cat Dango.

Every time Dango returned to the village with the Shironeko, it would sleep in Yichen's hut, hoping to absorb Natural Energy, but it never worked. Yichen also got used to occasionally seeing Dango after returning to the hut.

But this time, Dango gave Yichen a completely different feeling than before.