Scorching sun
Beneath the rugged landscape of the Primeval Forest...
Sasuke darted swiftly through the winding branches, his scarlet Sharingan constantly spinning as it captured every scene.
"When it came to gathering intelligence, the Byakugan really was superior...
The moment it was activated, it could instantly collect every real-time image within a one-kilometer radius.
My Sharingan could remember everything it saw and instantly capture and analyze all traces, but it did not improve my field of vision by much.
With my current Chakra, I could only use it continuously for a little over ten minutes, and even less in battle.
Looks like I needed to interact more with Hinata or Neji and see if I could unlock the Byakugan.
If I had the Byakugan, I could easily gather intelligence and detect enemy movements in advance..."
Feeling his Chakra rapidly drain away, Sasuke deactivated his Sharingan, stopped, and mused silently.
So far, he had only found traces of a single wild boar...
That was nowhere near enough to humiliate Naruto and claim a reward!
"No, I had to outsmart them...
If this kept up, I'd wear myself out before I found the wild boar herd!
I didn't have Naruto's absurdly huge Chakra reserves to waste..."
Sasuke slammed a hand against the tree trunk and said in a low voice, breathing slightly heavily.
"Smack..."
Just as Sasuke was considering how to outsmart them, a pine nut fell in front of him.
Sasuke glanced to the side and saw a lush green pine tree beside him.
Nearby, no fewer than dozens of Pine Trees stood scattered throughout the forest, their branches thick with foliage...
"That's it...
Wild boars were beasts that loved the smell of Pine Oil."
Sasuke's gaze sharpened. He leaped backward and formed Hand Seals with both hands.
Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique...
After quickly completing the Hand Seals in midair, Sasuke opened his mouth and spat out a fireball straight at the pine tree.
Pine Trees were highly flammable trees with especially high resin content.
The instant the fireball struck, it was ignited with a boom...
At once, the burning pine tree released the scent of Pine Oil with doubled intensity...
In less than two seconds, Sasuke could clearly smell Pine Oil in the air!
"A wild boar's sense of smell is twice as strong as a dog's. I'm sure they'll catch the scent and come running soon...
Now I just needed to strengthen the smell and wait for the rabbits to come to me!"
Sasuke smiled confidently, tapped off the ground, formed Hand Seals, and rushed toward the other Pine Trees.
To avoid causing a forest fire, Sasuke specifically chose Pine Trees in relatively open locations to ignite...
A short while later
More than a dozen Burning Trees dotted the green forest, while the smell of Pine Oil drifted in every direction along with thick smoke...
"Huh? Who was so bored they were setting fires in the forest??
Whatever, I'd already talked big!
There was no way I could lose to Sasuke! Shadow Clone Technique..."
Naruto ignored the thick smoke and formed more Shadow Clones to search for traces of wild boars.
At the same time
Sakura, who had seen the smoke, frowned before continuing to follow the wild boar tracks...
One hour later
"I see. You used the scent to make these wild boars come to you on their own.
So this was your method, Sasuke.
But my requirement was intelligence gathering...
How was this supposed to improve your ability to gather information?"
As Sasuke leaned against a tree trunk to recover his Chakra, Kakashi suddenly appeared and spoke lazily.
Under the trees near them,
Twenty or thirty wild boars of varying sizes were already running about in confusion, sniffing around for Pine Nuts...
"Didn't you say that ninjas were those who broke the rules?
Our ultimate goal was to drive away the wild boars. Intelligence gathering was only the process.
Besides, I didn't alert the enemy. These wild boars didn't even know I existed!
By the way, Teacher Kakashi, why did you come over here??"
Sasuke brushed the fallen leaves off himself and stood, showing no awareness whatsoever that he had broken the rules.
"Because of the Burning Trees you made. I was afraid you'd accidentally burn down the entire forest.
These trees and woodland were valuable assets to the nearby villagers..."
Kakashi gave Sasuke a dead-fish stare and put away the Icha Icha Paradise in his hand, his face full of helplessness.
If he had known Sasuke had burned them so safely, he would not have bothered making the trip...
"The wild boars nearby have more or less all gathered here...
Now was the best time to drive them away!
Teacher Kakashi, should we act now?"
Sasuke's eyes shifted as he looked at the wild boar herd below and seized the chance to suggest it.
To humiliate Naruto, nothing was more convincing than completing the mission early!
"Well, it could only be done this way...
If we didn't act now, it would be much harder to gather them again next time."
Kakashi nodded helplessly in agreement. This mission had now lost its value as training for Team 7.
Naturally, they had to end it quickly!
"Then let's begin..."
A faint smile curled across Sasuke's lips. He stylishly drew his Shuriken and charged straight at the wild boar herd.
"Oink, oink, oink..."
"Squeal..."
"Snort, snort..."
As Sasuke fired three Shuriken at lightning speed, the wild boar herd instantly erupted into chaos and scattered in all directions...
"So impatient...
I hadn't even told him which direction to drive them in. What a pain..."
Kakashi's mouth twitched. His hands blurred into afterimages as he completed the Hand Seals in the blink of an eye.
Ninjutsu: Shadow Clone Technique...
With a poof, two clones burst out through white smoke, one to the left and one to the right, blocking off two directions.
"Drive them all to the forest ten kilometers west of here. There's a Wildlife Habitat over there..."
Kakashi appeared in front of Sasuke as he spoke, then tapped off the ground and blocked another direction.
"Ten kilometers..."
Sasuke muttered, swiftly picking up a nearby branch and throwing it out...
3:30 p.m.
"What was going on...
Why was even Teacher Kakashi nowhere to be seen!"
"Exactly. Sasuke-kun was nowhere in sight either..."
"Hmph, Sasuke must not have dared come back because he couldn't find the wild boars.
Even I only found two piglets with the help of Shadow Clones..."
"Naruto, don't badmouth Sasuke-kun behind his back.
There was no way he couldn't find the wild boar herd...
But why did you bring these two piglets back??"
"Hehehe...
No adult wild boars spotted us anyway, so what was wrong with bringing them back!
This was proof that I'd surpassed Sasuke!!"
Out in the fields, Naruto and Sakura stood on the ridge between the plots, trading lines with high spirits.
Beside them, the client stared at them with a face full of black lines, his mood sinking to rock bottom...
This ninja team really was more unreliable than the last!
"Sorry, Naruto...
You couldn't surpass me."
Sasuke's voice suddenly rang out behind them.
Naruto and Sakura immediately wore completely different expressions as they turned around together...
"Hmph, I found two piglets and a Wild Boar Nest.
As long as we went there, we'd definitely find those annoying wild boars...
What did you find, Sasuke?"
Naruto immediately lifted the piglets at his feet, his face filled with pride.
"Naruto, you did well...
But sorry, the mission is over!
Sasuke gathered almost all the wild boars together, and we already drove the wild boar herd ten kilometers away."
Kakashi followed behind Sasuke and laid everything out directly, startling both Naruto and the client...
Especially Naruto. The smile on his face had not even had time to fade.
Before the sudden cruel reality slapped him hard across the face...
Looking at the two piglets in his hands, Naruto only felt a burning pain across his cheeks...
"Sasuke-kun is so cool, that's amazing..."
As Sakura stared at him with bashful admiration, a reward notification also sounded beside Sasuke's ear.
[Mission complete. Reward obtained: 0.2 Chakra...]
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