"Retirement Mission"

Tigo felt that Yuhara was a very unusual person.

When he first stepped onto the battlefield, he had been a complete novice. Yet, as a novice, he had used a high-level Nintaijutsu at the most critical moment to defeat the enemy and complete the mission.

However, Tigo knew that Yuhara was Orochimaru's Test Subject, so at that point, the one who could be called impressive was Orochimaru, not Yuhara.

After that mission ended, Yuhara returned to Konoha and trained for a month... "Training" was merely a pleasant way to put it. In reality, he had just been shutting himself away and working things out on his own. Yet when he returned to the battlefield for the second time, his strength had already become completely different.

Although Squad Z and Yuhara had operated separately at the time, with Squad Z carrying out a reconnaissance mission in the Grass and Waterfall Countries while Yuhara performed a special mission east of the Land of Rice, Konoha and the Hidden Cloud had nearly engaged in a decisive battle. The fact that he had completed a special mission and returned safely under those circumstances was enough to indirectly demonstrate Yuhara's strength.

Then there was the third mission in the Land of Rain. Although what happened there had been a tragedy, Tigo had still witnessed Yuhara's offensive power with his own eyes.

As for now, after returning from the Land of Rivers, even Tigo could tell that Yuhara's strength had genuinely reached the level of a Jonin... A sixteen-year-old Jonin was certainly no ordinary genius, but considering that Yuhara had gone from a rookie to an expert in just a few months, the fact was still outrageous.

The key point was that what Yuhara had done during this period had not been training in the traditional sense. He had merely been conducting experiments, and then his strength had leaped across multiple stages... So knowledge really is power, and technology really is the primary productive force?

Tigo's view was broadly correct. Yuhara's method of increasing his strength was indeed unconventional. During his first training period, he had used his own unique understanding to make his "Magnet Release" practical in combat. His second training period consisted of developing his own unique Cursed Seal based on Orochimaru's experiments.

Therefore, Yuhara's three-stage leap in strength was actually a shortcut. If he were placed in an arena and restricted to using only taijutsu, he probably could not even defeat a Genin... Fortunately, no one would make such an unreasonable rule, and no one would want to follow it.

Given that he knew the original story's information and possessed such a foundation himself, Yuhara's rapid increase in strength was not all that astonishing. After all, a ninja's strength was always closely tied to information.

Unfortunately, after completing these two training periods and becoming capable of normally using "Magnet Release" and Nature Energy, Yuhara probably would not be able to increase his strength rapidly again. In fact, barring any accidents, the limit of Yuhara's strength was already clearly visible... In a sense, the training Yuhara had undergone could also be considered an advance on his potential.

There was nothing he could do about it. Due to bloodline-related issues, the bottleneck of every ninja who had not been born into that family was clearly visible.

After completing the development of his technique, Yuhara spent the next few days adapting to his new state. However, around twenty days after they returned to Konoha, their peaceful training life once again came to an end.

That morning, when Yuhara and Tigo went to "check in" as usual, the ninja there informed them of some new developments... The two of them had been assigned to a new ninja squad.

A new mission was about to begin.

According to the mission requirements, two days later, Yuhara and Tigo met up with the new squad.

In the latter stages of the war, there was a rather contradictory phenomenon. Although the actual scale of the wars between the various countries had gradually diminished, the problem of insufficient manpower in every country had also grown increasingly severe.

Just like last time, the squad Yuhara and Tigo joined this time still consisted of twelve ninjas. To Yuhara and Tigo, twelve seemed to be a particularly unlucky number.

Moreover, neither Yuhara nor Tigo was a truly orthodox Konoha Ninja, so this ninja squad was the same in nature as the one they had belonged to before.

Yuhara arrived at the assembly point just before the final assembly time. After sweeping his gaze across the new squad, he immediately noticed this. The members of the new squad were an even assortment of...

The old, the young, the sick, and the disabled. Oddballs and misfits.

Yuhara frowned involuntarily. The youngest ninja in the squad looked only eleven or twelve years old. This child should have been going to the battlefield for the first time, and he even wore a slightly foolish, innocent smile... He was a child who did not understand what war was.

The sight gave Yuhara a very bad feeling.

"Can you really be of any use on the battlefield while carrying such a huge ninja tool?"

A man's voice suddenly came from behind Yuhara.

Yuhara turned around and saw a male ninja in his twenties walking over.

The man wore a smile on his face as well, but he did not need Yuhara to answer the question. His eyes swept lightly over Yuhara before he walked past him and went to the front of the squad.

Yuhara immediately understood. Wasn't that man's implication that he was a "bad student with too many school supplies"?

"Let me introduce myself. I'm Hayasegawa, a Konoha Chunin. From now on, I'll be the captain of this mixed squad."

Once everyone had arrived, the ninja gave a brief self-introduction.

Perhaps because he had been mocked at the very beginning, Yuhara's first impression of the captain was poor. Although the man wore a smile the entire time, Yuhara always felt that there was a hint of condescension in it.

Hopefully, that was only his imagination.

Then Hayasegawa began explaining the mission. "There's no need to be so tense. The mission ahead is actually not dangerous. Now that the war has reached this stage, the village won't assign you missions beyond your capabilities."

There were all kinds of problems with those words. At the same time, Yuhara confirmed that his earlier impression had not been an illusion. What did he mean by "the mission isn't dangerous"? What did he mean by "won't assign you anything beyond your capabilities"? Wasn't this captain saying that everyone in the squad was a bunch of weaklings?

Although it was true, shouldn't he have avoided saying it so bluntly?

"Next, we'll head east of the Land of Fire to carry out a routine border-defense mission. As everyone knows, Konoha and the Mist Village have long since achieved a ceasefire in all but name, so the possibility of a conflict is virtually zero. Moreover, the location where we'll actually be carrying out the mission is even closer to the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Hot Water."

That description was basically accurate. At this point, there were not even any Konoha Ninja front-line camps in the eastern part of the Land of Fire. They relied only on small outposts and a few scattered troops to monitor activity across the border.

Konoha and the Mist Village had tacitly entered a ceasefire. After all, the Mist Village had accidentally lost quite a few of its top combatants long ago.

But facts were facts, and small-scale battles could break out at any time. So, as the captain of a squad, wasn't this attitude somewhat careless?

As it turned out, not every captain treated non-native personnel like Yuhara with the same friendliness as Rindou, or showed the same sense of responsibility as Jian Dong.