Satoru's safe return left Nawaki and Mikoto wildly excited.
Satoru had indeed kept his word. He had really escaped from the hands of a jonin.
Orochimaru wore an expression that said, "Of course he did," and solemnly praised Satoru, making him curl his lip in disdain.
"Tch, I escaped on my own. You make it sound like you helped me escape..."
Satoru's quiet grumbling made Orochimaru turn and give him a meaningful smile.
"..."
The corner of Satoru's eye twitched, and he began to grow suspicious:
Orochimaru didn't notice anything, did he?
That guy learned my Enchantment Technique, yet there's been no movement from him at all. That's neither scientific nor magical...
"You all performed very well in this mission."
Orochimaru was summarizing the mission. To him, this trip had practically been a vacation.
Even during the final battle against the Sunagakure jonin, he had been suppressing his opponent the entire time.
If he had not wanted to provoke Sunagakure into sending forces to hunt them down, Orochimaru could have killed the man outright.
Although they were still within the Land of Wind, with their squad's mobility and combat strength, breaking through the border would not be a problem.
"Mikoto, you successfully proved your abilities and even awakened the Sharingan. From now on, you will come to understand its power."
"Nawaki, you can now use Rank B Ninjutsu in actual combat and flexibly employ the Nature Transformations of two types of Chakra."
"Satoru, you were the one who surprised me the most... Escaping from a jonin was far more difficult than the test back then."
Orochimaru gave Satoru a long look. The kid was still the same as ever, fond of hiding things.
But his outstanding leadership and planning abilities had been fully displayed.
Even so, the growth of the