"Retirement Mission"

Tigo found Yuhara to be a very unusual person.

The first time he stepped onto the battlefield, he was a complete rookie. However, despite being a rookie, he used a high-intensity Nintaijutsu to eliminate enemies and complete the mission at the most critical moment.

But Tigo knew Yuhara was one of Orochimaru's Test Subjects, so at that time, it was Orochimaru's skill, not Yuhara's.

After this mission ended, Yuhara returned to Konoha and underwent a month of training... Training was just a nice way of putting it; in reality, he was just working in isolation. However, when he returned to the battlefield for the second time, his strength was completely different.

Although Squad Z and Yuhara were acting separately at the time, with Squad Z on reconnaissance missions in the Land of Grass and Land of Rivers, and Yuhara on a special mission east of the Land of Rice, Konoha and Kumogakure were on the verge of a major battle. Being able to complete a special mission and return safely under such circumstances could indirectly prove Yuhara's strength.

Then came the third mission in the Land of Rain. Although the events in the Land of Rain were a tragedy, Tigo still personally confirmed Yuhara's destructive power.

As for now, returning from the Land of Rivers, even Tigo could tell that Yuhara's strength had already reached the genuine Jonin level... A sixteen-year-old Jonin wasn't exactly a prodigy, but considering Yuhara went from a novice to a master in just a few months, the fact was still too exaggerated.

The key was that what Yuhara had been doing during this time wasn't traditional training; he was just experimenting, and yet he achieved a leap in his strength... Indeed, knowledge is power, and technology is the primary productive force?

Tigo's assessment was largely correct. Yuhara's method of increasing his strength was indeed unconventional. During his first training, he made his unique "Magnet Release" practical through his own understanding. Now, his second training, based on Orochimaru's experiments, has led to the development of his own unique Cursed Seal.

Therefore, Yuhara's three-stage growth in strength was actually a form of opportunism. If he were placed in an arena and limited to only Taijutsu duels, he probably wouldn't even be able to defeat a Genin... Fortunately, no one would set such unreasonable rules, nor would anyone want to follow them.

Given that he knew the original story's intel and possessed such a foundation, Yuhara's rapid increase in strength wasn't that incredible. After all, a ninja's strength is always closely related to information.

Unfortunately, after these two training sessions, where he could normally use "Magnet Release" and Nature Energy, Yuhara's strength would likely not increase rapidly again. In fact, if no accidents occurred, Yuhara's peak strength was already visible... In a sense, the training Yuhara undertook was also a form of overdraft.

This was unavoidable. Due to bloodline limitations, all ninjas not born into certain families had a visible bottleneck in their strength.

After completing the development of his techniques, Yuhara spent the next few days adapting to his new state. However, about twenty days after their return to Konoha, their quiet training life once again came to an end.

One morning, when Yuhara and Tigo went to "check in" as usual, the ninja there informed them of new news... The two had been assigned to a new ninja team.

A new mission was about to begin.

According to the mission requirements, Yuhara and Tigo would meet their new team two days later.

There was a rather contradictory phenomenon in the later stages of the war: although the scale of wars between countries was gradually shrinking in real terms, the problem of insufficient troop numbers in each country was also becoming increasingly severe.

Just like last time, Yuhara and Tigo were joining a twelve-person ninja team. For Yuhara and Tigo, twelve seemed like a rather unlucky number.

Furthermore, since neither Yuhara nor Tigo were Konoha Ninja from the outset, this ninja team was similar in nature to the previous one they were part of.

Yuhara arrived at the assembly point just in time for the final gathering. After a brief scan of the new team, he immediately noticed this. The members of the new team were evenly distributed, consisting of...

The old, the weak, the sick, and the disabled; misfits and oddballs.

Yuhara couldn't help but frown, as the youngest ninja in the team looked only about eleven or twelve years old. This child was likely heading to the battlefield for the first time, and he even wore a slightly foolish smile on his face... He was a child who didn't understand what war was.

This gave Yuhara a very bad feeling.

"Carrying such large ninja tools, can they really be effective on the battlefield?"

A voice suddenly came from behind Yuhara.

Yuhara turned his head and saw a male ninja, about twenty years old, walking towards them.

The other person also had a smile on his face, but he didn't need Yuhara to answer the question. His eyes casually swept over Yuhara, then he walked past him and to the front of the team.

Yuhara immediately realized that the person's words implied he was "a poor student with too many stationery items," wasn't he?

"Allow me to introduce myself, I am Hayasegawa, a Konoha Chunin. I will be the captain of this miscellaneous squad from now on."

Once everyone was present, the ninja gave a simple self-introduction.

Perhaps due to being insulted immediately, Yuhara didn't have a good first impression of this captain. Although the man's face was always smiling, Yuhara felt that the smile carried a sense of condescension.

He hoped this was just his imagination.

Then Hayase began the mission briefing: "Everyone, don't be so serious. The upcoming mission is actually not dangerous. The war has reached this stage, and the village won't assign you missions beyond your capabilities."

There were various issues with these words, and Yuhara also confirmed that his feeling just now wasn't an illusion. What did "the mission is not dangerous" mean, and what did "they won't assign things beyond your capabilities" mean? Wasn't this captain just calling everyone here a bunch of weaklings?

Even though it was the truth, he shouldn't have said it so directly, right?

"Next, we will head east of the Land of Fire to carry out normal border defense missions. As everyone knows, Konoha and Kirigakure have long since achieved a de facto ceasefire, so the possibility of conflict is almost nil. Moreover, the actual location of our mission is closer to the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Hot Water."

This description was basically factual. At this time, there wasn't even a front-line camp for Konoha Ninja in eastern Land of Fire; they only relied on small outposts and scattered soldiers to monitor movements on the opposite bank.

Konoha and Kirigakure had tacitly agreed to a ceasefire, especially since many of Kirigakure's high-end forces had died unexpectedly a long time ago.

However, facts were facts, and small-scale battles could happen at any time. So, was it a bit careless for a squad captain to adopt such an attitude?

It turned out that not all captains were as friendly as Rindou or as responsible as Jian Dong when dealing with non-native combat personnel like Yuhara.