Tsunade Wants to Investigate

"Lady Tsunade, we have investigated. There was indeed a crazed wild boar in the Forest of Death. It broke through the protective fence at the northwest corner this morning, destroying the fields of a village near Konoha and the village chief's home."

"Later, the village chief came to Konoha and posted a mission to eliminate the wild boar. The Mission Squad assessed it as a C-rank mission, and it was accepted by Uchiha Yoichi of the Uchiha Clan at 9:30 this morning."

"Uchiha Yoichi has now completed the mission. The carcass of the wild boar was taken by the client, and he just arrived in Konoha to submit the mission completion report."

"This is the file the Anbu collected regarding Uchiha Yoichi, Lady Tsunade."

The Anbu recounted the details of the investigation Lady Tsunade had requested, but as he reported on the wild boar going crazy, he failed to notice the anger on Tsunade's face as she bit her finger.

Crazed wild boar? That was her trying to find a way to escape!

"Yo, Tsunade, it's rare to see you not drinking in the morning. So you've been here studying wild boars?"

A grating voice reached her, instantly giving the rage in Tsunade's heart a place to vent.

Tsunade reached out, grabbed Jiraiya, who was nearly two meters tall, and slammed him into the wall. With a loud bang, the wall shattered into countless cracks, centered around Jiraiya's human-shaped imprint.

"Jiraiya, besides you, what other ninjutsu can turn someone into an animal? And where were you last night?"

"Tsu-Tsunade, what's wrong with you? I was just joking with you!"

Seeing Tsunade clenching her fists until they cracked, Jiraiya immediately recalled the time he had nearly died. He hurriedly waved his hands to answer her questions.

"I was with Minato last night. He created a new ninjutsu—it's quite impressive—and he intends to teach it to me."

"As for the Frog Transformation Technique you mentioned, I should be the only one who knows it. It's a ninjutsu from Mount Myōboku; no one else knows it."

Upon hearing this, Tsunade knew Jiraiya wouldn't dare lie to her, and she let out an unwilling "Tch."

To be toyed with like that and nearly die—if Tsunade were expected to just let it go as if nothing happened, she certainly wouldn't be satisfied.

But this kind of thing sounded beyond the common sense of a ninja. Although Tsunade wouldn't claim to be in the top three of Konoha's strongest, she was still among the elite. Who could silently shove her consciousness into the body of a wild boar?

Even the Forbidden Technique: Spirit Transformation Technique couldn't do that, could it?

"Tsunade, what's wrong?"

"None of your business!"

Tsunade snorted coldly and turned to leave. She prepared to go ask the Third Hokage.

A ninjutsu capable of stuffing a human consciousness into an animal's body—perhaps her teacher, the Professor of Ninjutsu, would know something about it. There was also one other thing weighing on Tsunade's mind.

That Uchiha brat!

Although she couldn't blame the Uchiha brat for the beating she received while he was completing the mission, Tsunade just couldn't let this grudge go. She also remembered vaguely hearing something about a "superpower," as well as that Lightning Release Chakra Mode.

The Anbu had just handed her Uchiha Yoichi's file, and Tsunade decided to ask the Third Hokage about that as well.

After completing his C-rank mission, Uchiha Yoichi headed toward Qingchuan Town in the southern part of the Land of Fire.

The journey was somewhat long, taking about half a day at Uchiha Yoichi's normal travel speed.

Among ninjas, there are many who cannot endure the monotony and the daily grind of killing, leading quite a few to leave their villages or defect. However, these ninjas often possess no skills other than killing.

Once they leave their villages, they can only rely on force to plunder wealth to satisfy their desire for enjoyment.

This B-rank mission was a request posted by a merchant association in Qingchuan Town. A violent organization backed by a ninja had been seizing their goods and threatening their business.

Since the samurai under the merchant's command were useless, he had no choice but to post a mission at Konohagakure.

Not long after leaving Konohagakure, Uchiha Yoichi took off his forehead protector and changed his clothes.

A Konohagakure forehead protector is both a deterrent and a danger. At his age, if his identity as a Konoha ninja and a member of the Uchiha Clan were exposed, he might face even greater peril.

Upon arriving at Aoki Town, Uchiha Yoichi met with the employer to understand the mission. He used the Transformation Technique to take on a fierce appearance, which immediately dispelled the employer's concerns about him being alone, and the man revealed all the intelligence he possessed.

After listening, Uchiha Yoichi left with a curt, "Wait for news."

Afterward, he gathered some information on his own and even seized an opportunity to use genjutsu on two of the ninja's subordinates to extract further details.

Although Uchiha Yoichi did not specialize in genjutsu, after awakening the Sharingan, the clan would provide two Sharingan genjutsu techniques: one for offense, and the other, Mirror Heaven and Earth Turn, for defense.

His genjutsu skills were average, but they were more than enough to deal with ordinary people. He successfully obtained enough intelligence: the target was a rogue ninja from Kusagakure named Akutagawa Jiro.

Uchiha Yoichi did not underestimate the ninja world; those who were careless here ended up dead.

After confirming that Akutagawa Jiro's strength was mediocre, Uchiha Yoichi stalked him and waited for an opening. He first used shuriken to seal off all of the target's escape routes, then unleashed a Great Fireball, burning Akutagawa Jiro and his two subordinates to death.

"That's more like it. It was that wild boar that was special, not my shuriken throwing skills that were trash."

Uchiha Yoichi said with satisfaction; his shuriken technique just now could truly be called an inescapable net.

Dealing with a rogue ninja from Kusagakure was not difficult. Having been away from his village, playing around and indulging himself for so long, it was hard to say how much strength he even had left. The mission being labeled as a suspected B-rank was likely because this rogue ninja had once used some intimidating ninjutsu.

Uchiha Yoichi searched Akutagawa Jiro's base and found a money box. Inside, besides several hundred thousand ryo, there was a well-preserved ninjutsu scroll.

"As expected, it's the Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique. I've heard that Kusagakure is good at imitating the ninjutsu of other villages. Isn't this just an inferior version of the Uchiha's Great Fireball?"

This ninjutsu had no value in being practiced. When it came to Fire Release ninjutsu, no family or even any village in the ninja world could compare to the Uchiha Clan.

Therefore, Uchiha Yoichi spat out a ball of flame and destroyed the scroll directly; turning it in wouldn't earn him any rewards anyway.

After dealing with Akutagawa Jiro and cleaning up the scene, Uchiha Yoichi returned to the employer to inform him that the mission was complete. However, Uchiha Yoichi told the employer to wait half a month before going to Konohagakure to report the mission's completion.

This way, Uchiha Yoichi could stay out for another half-month, which was enough time for him to have a good look around.

He had been in the ninja world for over a year. The first six months were spent desperately practicing ninjutsu, fearing he would die the moment he hit the battlefield. The last six months were spent getting used to the life of a ninja, though his career path had been quite rocky; even now, he was still branded with the label of someone who intentionally used his teammates.

Konohagakure wasn't as good as Hashirama Senju made it out to be—this whole "the village is a big family" talk. It had only been a few decades since its founding, and it was already beginning to rot.

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