Awakening

Meanwhile, Qi Shuang and the others followed Ao toward the area where numerous Mist ninja had gathered.

Although quite a few Konoha ninja had appeared along the way to block them, the four of them quickly dealt with them together, and nothing could stop their advance.

From this, Qi Shuang roughly understood that this new team he was in was far stronger in combat than the squad he had previously belonged to.

No wonder their superiors had sent them to carry out such an intense combat mission.

Take their team leader, Ao, for example. The chakra aura around him was clearly a level above Kamiya Ki's, and he was probably not far from becoming a jonin.

As for his other teammates, Zabuza and Mei Terumi had graduated a year before him. In other words, they had spent a year longer than him on this battlefield.

Especially Zabuza, who was known as the "Demon." When he killed, he did not even blink, treating it as casually and effortlessly as slaughtering chickens, without the slightest ripple of emotion.

Even Mei Terumi, the delicate and graceful-looking young girl, was extremely practiced at slitting throats. She was far beyond the likes of him, a "rookie" who had only been on the front lines for a few months.

The weakest member of the entire team was himself.

Although Qi Shuang had been forced to kill two people when he encountered Uchiha Tai's squad earlier, he was, after all, a modern man who had grown up in a civilized society. He still found it difficult to adapt to this savage battlefield, where human lives were treated as worthless as grass.

He still found killing difficult to accept and could not bring himself to do it.

Every time, he merely wounded his opponents severely, leaving the fatal blow to the other three.

After helping them "finish off" several enemies, the others seemed to notice something as well.

Zabuza continued to do as he pleased and paid him no attention.

Ao frowned and kindly reminded him, "Kid, this is a battlefield. If you aren't careful, you'll be the next one to die!"

"You show them mercy, but that doesn't mean they'll show you mercy!"

"If you don't want to die young, then put away that laughable compassion of yours!"

Qi Shuang nodded and said with a bitter smile, "I know this is wrong, but I just can't harden my heart enough to kill them outright. I always feel like there's an inescapable sense of guilt inside me!"

Hearing this, Ao gave him an amused look and said meaningfully, "Kid, from the moment you officially became a ninja, you already stepped through the gates of hell!"

"Do you really think being a ninja is some kind of compassionate profession?"

As he spoke, he pointed at the corpses strewn across the ground and said solemnly, "Stop thinking about whether you're guilty or not! We're already entangled in sin!"

"Captain Ao is right, little brother!"

Beside him, Mei Terumi hooked an arm around Qi Shuang's neck and pulled him over, teasing, "Although not a single one of these people was killed directly by you, you can't escape responsibility for any of their deaths!"

"Your hands are already stained with blood. Stop putting on that disgusting act of false compassion!"

At those words, Qi Shuang's heart tightened involuntarily.

He slowly raised his hands. Blood still stained the gaps between his fingers, and every streak of blood seemed to contain a wronged spirit crying out and questioning his hypocrisy.

At that moment, the sounds of explosions, fighting, and screams around him had never seemed so clear.

In the murky air, he seemed to smell an increasingly strong and strange scent.

He knew that was the smell of blood he had always avoided accepting—the smell of sin!

"Since my hands are already covered in sin, then let me become unforgivable!" he said with a helpless bitter smile.

There was no turning back from the path of a ninja. If he did not want to die, then others would have to die instead.

As his thoughts changed, his restless heart seemed to truly find its place. His soul felt as though it had undergone a baptism, and he felt as if he had genuinely integrated into this world.

He had become a true ninja!

"Very good, very good!"

Seeing the change in the new team member's eyes, Ao nodded, then said to the other two junior subordinates, "Later, if there are any enemies still clinging to their last breath, leave them for him to finish off!"

"Mm!"

Zabuza nodded without saying anything more.

"Don't worry, leave it to me!"

Upon hearing this, Mei Terumi immediately patted her little chest and said excitedly, "It was so hard to finally get such an interesting little brother. I'll definitely do my best to take care of him!"

Then, as if she had found a new toy, she turned to the little boy beside her and called out teasingly.

"Right, little brother Qi Shuang!"

Qi Shuang removed the little arm hooked around his neck and rolled his eyes at the girl so close to him. He said, "We're classmates who graduated in the same year. You might not even be older than me, 'Little' Mei Terumi!"

He deliberately emphasized the word "little."

Mei Terumi folded her arms and pouted. "I don't care. I'm stronger than you, graduated before you, and went to the battlefield before you. That makes me your senior, and I should be your big sister!"

Hearing this, Zabuza, who was beside them, twitched at the corner of his mouth. His expression turned somewhat ugly, as if he had remembered some unpleasant past.

Qi Shuang's face immediately fell, and he did not dare to argue any further.

Because he knew that if he continued arguing, he would get beaten up.

The previous night, he had already witnessed Zabuza arguing with Mei Terumi over some trivial matter and getting beaten up.

He was no match for Mei Terumi in the first place. If it came to that, he would certainly be beaten one-sidedly, and he had no inclination toward masochism.

So he could only remain silent.

Ao also felt a headache coming on when he saw this. He could only wave his hand and remind them, "Stop arguing! There are more and more Konoha ninja in the area! Stay alert, all of you!"

Perhaps because the Mist ninja were gathering in this direction, most of the Konoha ninja were also converging here to "meet the enemy."

The farther inward they went, the fiercer the fighting became. Explosions could be seen everywhere, and kunai occasionally flew over from some direction. It was impossible to tell whether they belonged to the enemy or their own side.

Just as Qi Shuang and the others were about to charge into the core of the battlefield, four Konoha ninja covered in blood rushed out from the side and blocked their path.

Judging by how they were gasping for breath, they had probably just endured a fierce battle.

"Kill these Mist bastards!" The eyes of the man at the head were completely white, with veins bulging at the corners. He was probably a member of the Hyuga clan. He shouted and immediately charged forward.

Ao, who was at the very front of the group, did not hesitate in the slightest. His fingers flashed, and he instantly formed a set of hand seals.

"Water Release: Iron Cannonball!"

He took a deep breath, his chest swelling high, then suddenly spat a sphere of water at the four men opposite him.

The water sphere swelled as it flew. In the blink of an eye, it had grown to the size of a washbasin, and in the next instant, it reached the Konoha ninja.

"Scatter!"

The Hyuga clan member at the front shouted loudly, and the other three immediately split off in different directions.

With a thunderous boom, the azure washbasin-sized water sphere slammed into the empty ground, leaving behind a pit roughly one meter in diameter.