"Hyuga Hyakusho? That's just what my father hopes I'll master in my lifetime—the Hyuga Clan's powerful Eight Trigrams technique, One Hundred Twenty-Eight Palms!"
Hyuga Hyakusho stared at Zhou Duan with a deeply troubled expression. If it weren't for that weird potion in Zhou Duan's hand, I'd have already gone up and fought him to the death.
"Captain, I hope you won't joke like that again."
"Now that everyone's shared what they can do, I'll briefly assign our tasks."
Zhou Duan acted as if he hadn't heard Hyuga Hyakusho at all and launched straight into the assignments. Hyuga Hyakusho, still unwilling to let it go, considered his own abilities and the power of Zhou Duan's potion. Then he suddenly realized that, when it came to an important task briefing, there really was no point in dwelling on anything else. A little prank like making fun of someone's name could just be put behind him!
"During the operation, we'll keep the usual formation for a squad on the move. I'll take point. Hyuga Hyakusho, you'll be behind me on the right. Watch for danger on the right, and activate your Byakugan once every three minutes so we don't waste Chakra. If anything unexpected happens, sound the alarm and keep your Byakugan active;
Nawaki, you'll be behind me on the left. Watch for danger on that side;
Minato, you'll bring up the rear. Keep an eye out for attacks from behind;
If we run into enemies, Hyuga Hyakusho and Nawaki, focus on holding them off. Minato and I will deal with them as quickly as possible, then come back to help you. Don't try to be a hero, and..."
Zhou Duan held the potion bottle and stared hard at Nawaki, the threat in his gaze unmistakable.
"Especially you, Nawaki. In combat, you can only use Earth Release without my permission. No Water Release, and you're limited to D-rank techniques. Don't give me that sour look. A ninja with the powerful aptitude to wield two chakra natures—and who's still only a genin—is bound to attract plenty of attention from the Sand Ninja!
"If you had the strength of your Senju Clan elders on the battlefield, I wouldn't say anything. But your combat experience is in the negatives. If you give yourself away, you'll be the first to die!"
After Zhou Duan finished, Namikaze Minato and Hyuga Hyakusho both nodded. They had no objections to the plan. Nawaki, though unwilling, still nodded reluctantly under the threat of Zhou Duan's potion bottle.
"Reporting in! Hatake Shudan and the Fifth Squad have arrived to rendezvous!"
A road cut through the towering forest in front of Zhou Duan and his companions. More than a dozen carts loaded with supplies stood in an orderly line. Their drivers came in all shapes and sizes, but every one of them looked vicious and menacing. Some were murderous bandits; others were prisoners from rival ninja villages whose chakra pathways had been destroyed, leaving them unable to cultivate Chakra. They'd been sent here to transport supplies. The reason they drove the carts willingly was Konoha's promise: although the hope was slim, anyone who managed to deliver supplies twenty times and survive would earn their freedom!
Around them stood more than twenty ninja, nearly all newly graduated genin, with only a few older chūnin among them. A lean ninja with a cold gaze stood atop one of the supply carts, staring intently at Zhou Duan and his group from the moment they appeared.
"Code word!"
"Transport snake!"
"Do you have the item?"
Zhou Duan nodded, took a half-circle-shaped wooden piece marked with a sealing symbol from inside his clothes, and tossed it over. The lean ninja caught it and fitted it together with another wooden piece in his hand. The two halves joined seamlessly, then burst into flames and burned to ashes in an instant!
"Identities confirmed. Fifth Squad verified!"
The lean ninja's gaze softened, and his voice was no longer cold. The others also relaxed a little. Even within Konoha's borders, infiltrating ninja might cause trouble. If they couldn't take on Konoha's ninja, they could target the supplies instead—and that sort of thing happened often enough!
"I'm Karui, captain of the Sixth Supply Team and the only jōnin here. We have five squads. The four chūnin and I each lead one, and you'll lead the fifth. We expect to reach Bee Village, one of our supply outposts in the buffer zone between Konoha and the Land of Wind, in six days. Once we get there, our escort mission will be complete. After that, we'll head straight to the battlefield!"
"As for patrols, two squads will go out each time and search a circular area. Everyone else will guard the supplies!"
Karui paused.
"Shudan, because of the staffing shortage, your squad doesn't have a chūnin leader. But once your patrol shift is over, you can join the other chūnin when they teach. You can ask questions too. As long as it's not too confidential, they'll teach you."
After Karui finished speaking, the four chūnin on the team nodded in unison. The genin here all had fairly good aptitude. Teaching them some basic knowledge cost them nothing, and helping them grow quickly would give the chūnin an extra hand!
"All right, now that everyone's here..."
With Zhou Duan's squad reporting in, the team was complete. Karui didn't waste any more words.
"Move out!"
"Mm—! Ugh—! Mmph!"
"Eight Trigrams Gentle Fist!"
Thud!
"Ugh—! Mm—! Hngh!"
"Eight Trigrams Sixteen Palms!"
Thud!
Amid a series of low, barely audible groans that made no sense, Hyuga Hyakusho's sharp cries, and the dull thuds of fist after fist landing, Senju Nawaki was sent flying again and again. By now, Nawaki was bruised and battered, his clothes in tatters. He looked as if he'd been tossed into a pack of wild wolves and mauled for days. When Nawaki collapsed again, wheezing like a dying dog, Zhou Duan silently climbed down from the supply cart, pried open his mouth, and poured in a bottle of red potion. Nawaki's injuries visibly began to heal. Then Hyuga Hyakusho, who'd been waiting for him, slapped him back to the ground once more!
Even the jōnin, who were used to life-and-death battles, and the prisoners, who'd endured their share of torment, couldn't help but stare at such a level of sheer ruthlessness. It wasn't that they'd never seen anyone cruel before. But there weren't many who were this cruel to their own people!
"Zhou Duan, you've been putting Nawaki through this for five days..."
Namikaze Minato sat on the cart. For once, he seemed shaken, his usual composure replaced by worry and discomfort.
"Are you sure this won't cause problems?"
"Problems? What problems could there be?"
Zhou Duan looked baffled.
"I'm using the most effective method I can in the time we have to improve Nawaki's combat ability!"
Zhou Duan pointed at Nawaki, who was being beaten in the clearing, and explained to Minato:
"That idiot Nawaki can use advanced ninjutsu, but his fundamentals are absolutely awful. He has great aptitude, yet he can't even beat an average genin. An enemy won't give him a chance to stand around and charge up a big technique, so the only way to train his fundamentals is to beat him like this!
"Luckily, we have Hyuga Hyakusho from the Hyuga Clan on our squad. He can block Nawaki's chakra pathways so Nawaki can't gather large amounts of Chakra, which keeps him from getting carried away and instinctively using advanced ninjutsu. And my potion stimulates Nawaki's unusually resilient body and helps it recover!
"You've seen the results after five days of this. Nawaki's hand seal speed, evasive footwork, defense, and attacks have all improved significantly! You have to admit, none of the chūnin in our squad is as good at this as I am. Even Karui, the jōnin, hasn't questioned my training method!"
Zhou Duan had initially held out a little hope of learning from the chūnin, but soon realized they didn't know more than he did!
Since arriving in this world, he'd relentlessly studied all kinds of ninja knowledge and had spent a long time picking Hatake Sakumo's brain about battlefield tactics. Because of the war, Konoha Academy's teaching was also heavily focused on cramming: I'll teach you as much as you can learn!
So Zhou Duan had eagerly watched a few chūnin teach the genin in the spare moments during the supply run. Half a day later, having learned not a single new thing or technique, he'd left with Minato, who was just as disappointed.
Zhou Duan's words left Minato with no choice but to nod, but that wasn't what he'd been asking.
"I understand all that, but I'm worried Nawaki won't be able to take it psychologically. If he keeps getting beaten down, he'll start to resent it, and that could hurt the team's unity!"
"Minato, I think you still don't quite understand creatures like Nawaki!"
Zhou Duan patted Minato on the shoulder, took out the antidote to the gag potion he'd given Nawaki because he couldn't stand Nawaki's over-the-top, chūnibyō battle cries, and poured it into Nawaki's mouth. Nawaki had just been knocked to the ground by Hyuga Hyakusho again.
"Nawaki, the road to becoming strong is hard. If you want to become the Hokage everyone loves, are you willing to keep enduring this pain?"
After five straight days of getting beaten until he could barely manage daily life—setting aside his patrol shifts, of course—Nawaki, with his face battered almost beyond recognition, had eyes burning with fighting spirit. Yet when he looked at Zhou Duan, there wasn't a trace of anger in his gaze.
"Zhou Duan, you and Hyuga Hyakusho are both my best friends!"
Zhou Duan turned to look at Minato, his meaning plain in his eyes.
There's no need to worry about any of that. The guy's an idiot!
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