Ancient Epic and Contemporary Masterpiece

On the third day at this camp, the ninjas here began replenishing their supplies and equipment.

Yuhara's squad was the last to arrive at the supply point. He followed behind his three teammates, mimicking their actions as they restocked their gear.

First, he unfastened his own ninja tool bag and placed it at the designated spot, then received two brand-new ones. After checking the shuriken, wire, scrolls, medicine, and other standard medical items inside, he clipped the new ninja tool bag to his waist.

The tool bag contained only the most conventional weapons and consumables. Yuhara continued following his teammates forward, where he next received a pack of ration pills—small, high-calorie, energy-dense items that served as the main marching food for ninjas.

Finally, he copied his teammates as they approached a tightly secured box guarded by two Konoha ninjas, pulling out a stack of long, paper-like bundles. These looked about the same size as the currency issued by the "Heavenly Bank." Yuhara picked them up casually, only to see that the center of the "Heavenly Bank note" wasn't printed with the Jade Emperor's portrait, but with a single, stark, and eye-twitching kanji:

Explode.

...For crying out loud, Explosive Tags.

Were these explosives just lying around for anyone to take? Based on Yuhara's memory, one box of Explosive Tags could level this camp with ease. At that thought, he nearly sent chakra jittering through his fingertips.

Luckily, Yuhara had steady hands. He silently took a deep breath, then carefully tucked the stack of Explosive Tags into his tool bag.

Carrying a pocketful of "bombs," Yuhara felt like he'd become a terrorist.

The four of them finished their resupply. As they left the supply point, Yuhara thought it over and quickened his pace to catch up to squad leader Jian Dong:

"Squad Leader Jian Dong, I've never used Explosive Tags before... Could you tell me how to actually use them?"

For his own safety and his teammates', he had to understand how this explosive worked—otherwise, if he accidentally "blew himself up" out of ignorance, that would be a truly unjust death.

Yuhara had no choice but to play the part of a clueless country-bumpkin ninja who'd never seen Explosive Tags. Technically, any ninja should know how to use such standard equipment, but if he claimed he'd never encountered them before, it probably wouldn't raise too many eyebrows.

Sure enough, his teammates just glanced at him, and then Jian Dong spoke up. "The Explosive Tags issued by the village are already charged with chakra and ready to use as high-power weapons. Before using one, you just need to 'trigger' it—but pay special attention to the blast radius..."

Jian Dong wasn't usually a talkative person, but she still explained the usage of Explosive Tags to Yuhara in detail.

In short, there were two methods: the "pull-type," which reacted to the user's own chakra, and the "trigger-type," which reacted to an enemy's chakra. The former was for thrown attacks, the latter for setting traps... It sounded no different from using fragmentation grenades.

Yuhara listened intently, nodding repeatedly to show he understood. However, after finishing her explanation, Jian Dong hesitated briefly before finally saying to him, "We're a reserve squad—we definitely won't be thrown into combat hastily. You... try not to use Explosive Tags unless absolutely necessary."

"..."

Yuhara felt a strong wave of distrust.

To be fair, given his situation, the fact that Jian Dong was still willing to let him carry Explosive Tags at all was already a sign of considerable trust. Think about it—who would let an untrained rookie throw grenades?

And since Yuhara had asked such a low-level question, his teammates now had a rough idea of what kind of ninja he really was... The "mature and reliable" image he'd painstakingly cultivated over the past few days was now thoroughly shattered.

This guy is basically useless on the battlefield—all three teammates silently thought the same thing.

An hour after the supply distribution, the twenty-four-man squad left the camp. Under Rindou's lead, they moved in a relatively tight formation toward the front lines.

Within the Land of Fire, it was relatively safe, so there was no need to spread out into a combat formation.

Up until departure, most of the squad—including Yuhara—had no idea about their destination or mission objective. Yuhara only knew they were heading north, which suggested the enemy was likely from Iwagakure or Kumogakure.

Most ninjas traveled on foot. Yuhara and the others maintained a moderate pace, taking care to rest regularly. By the standards of Yuhara's previous life, this would count as a forced march, but with his current world's Chunin-level physique, he found the running fairly easy.

Five days later, they reached the border of the Land of Fire. Beyond lay the highly dangerous combat zone.

Squad leader Rindou called everyone to a halt. Once the ninjas gathered in a circle, he pulled out a battle map and began explaining the mission:

"Our tactical objective for this mission is to eliminate Kumogakure's Elite Jonin, 'Koto.' Mission difficulty: A-rank. According to reliable intelligence, he's been operating in the eastern Land of Rice as part of a two-man team. That enemy squad is very strong—they've already killed several of our people, and the village has ordered us to eliminate that threat."

As he spoke, Rindou used a pencil to circle the enemy ninja's area of activity on the map.

"Next, we'll report to the Konoha forward base and get the latest mission intel. After that, the squad will head to the designated battlefield to search for the enemy, lock onto the target as quickly as possible, and complete the mission."

Twenty-four ninjas against a two-man squad—on paper, the numerical advantage was clear. But the problem was that Konoha's side was made up of Genin and Chunin, while the enemy was an Elite Jonin... The chance of total annihilation was far higher than the chance of success.

Otherwise, this mission wouldn't be A-rank.

Hearing the squad leader's explanation, Yuhara immediately understood Konoha's plan: use their own expendable cannon fodder to trade blows with the enemy's elite team. Win and it's a huge gain; get wiped out and no real loss... A correct, clever, and brutal decision.

At that moment, Yuhara's desire to escape Konoha skyrocketed.

"The difficulty of this mission goes without saying, but the war is in its final stages. As long as we persevere and accumulate advantages bit by bit on the battlefield, victory will ultimately belong to Konoha..."

After a pre-battle pep talk filled with lines like "Rebuilding Konoha's glory is our duty," the squad set off for the battlefield.

Soon after, they arrived at Konoha's forward camp. However, aside from squad leader Rindou, the squad didn't enter the camp, choosing instead to wait outside.

Within half an hour, Rindou returned to the squad with some news:

"Everyone, good news—the path ahead should be clear. Not long ago, Konoha's 'Yellow Flash' forced back Kumogakure's AB Brothers head-on. As a result, Kumogakure's forces have pulled back significantly along our route..."

It sounded like good news, but hearing a name like "Yellow Flash," Yuhara felt neither excitement nor familiarity. On the contrary, now that he was truly a part of this world, he only felt how impossibly distant such a legendary figure was from a lowly grunt like himself.

The "Yellow Flash" forcing back a powerful Kumogakure enemy—to Yuhara, it was no different from hearing that "the Great Sage Equal to Heaven just smashed through the Southern Heavenly Gate." It was all celestial affairs, epic and moving, but utterly out of reach.

Little people only get to write little stories.

So what was about to happen to Yuhara?

In short, a world-famous painting was about to unfold:

0.055 Kars at the Front Lines.