"So as long as the other battlefields reach a decisive outcome first, reinforcements will arrive, and things here will improve!" Hyuga Himon said excitedly.
He had been at the Iwagakure front for more than two months.
During that time, with Qingye as their main fighting force, neither he nor Yūhi Kurenai had faced any serious, life-threatening danger. Even so, he was still on edge.
Take that Iwagakure Jonin from before. Even though Himon had struck first with a sneak attack, the man had blocked it without a scratch, then sent Himon flying with a single counterblow!
Himon could barely defend against attacks like that. If the man had landed two or three more, Himon figured he would have been seriously injured.
Now, Konoha was stuck on the defensive at the Iwagakure front. They had no idea when Iwagakure might launch a full-scale attack. How could Himon not be worried?
But Qingye immediately poured cold water on his hopes. "That's just the ideal scenario. We don't even know how long our defenses can hold, and Iwagakure might not give us the chance to wait for reinforcements."
"Then what are we supposed to do?" Yūhi Kurenai asked, her confidence shaken.
"There's nothing we can do. Stock up on more Explosive Tags."
Qingye sighed softly.
Hyuga Himon began wondering whether he should find a way to take out a loan.
Their fifteen-day garrison assignment came to an end.
The three members of Qingye's squad returned to Konoha's shinobi camp with the corpse of an Iwagakure Jonin and two Iwagakure Chunin who were barely clinging to life.
After leaving the mission report to Yūhi Kurenai, Qingye went straight back to his own tent.
He had just defeated an Iwagakure Jonin without a scratch or much effort, so it was easy to imagine the stir that would cause in the Konoha camp.
But after his previous head-on battle, in which he had single-handedly killed an entire Tokubetsu Jonin squad, Qingye had more or less gotten used to this sort of thing.
The hastily erected tent was extremely bare.
There was bedding, a low table, and a wooden cabinet. The last two had been made on the spot from trees nearby.
A small bottle sat on the rough wooden table. After returning, Qingye picked it up and poured out some blood, smearing it across his palm as he formed hand seals.
"Summoning Technique!"
With a poof, a crow landed on Qingye's palm.
Its feathers were smooth and clean, and its eyes bright. After being summoned, it gave its wings a little flutter and greeted Qingye.
The Uchiha Clan had summoning contracts of their own. Most commonly, their summons were Ninja Cats or Ninja Crows, though some had contracts with animals like Ninja Hawks.
But unlike the Sarutobi Clan's monkeys, the Uchiha Clan's summons weren't generally meant for combat. They provided various kinds of support instead.
Qingye was fortunate enough to have some talent in Space-Time Ninjutsu, which allowed him to master the Summoning Technique.
After graduating from the Ninja Academy, he had signed contracts with a Ninja Cat and two Ninja Crows. He generally used the crows to deliver messages.
Qingye took the letter from the bamboo tube on the crow's leg, unfolded it, and read through it quickly. His mood grew heavier.
The letter had come from the Uchiha Clan in Konoha. Qingye usually relied on these letters to keep up with the state of the Shinobi World War.
This one said that on the Kumogakure front, Minato Namikaze had repelled the A and B duo for the third time. He had also killed a large number of Kumogakure shinobi and nearly made it out unscathed.
As the letter explained, the major fighting on the Kumogakure front would probably not continue.
From then on, there would likely be only small-scale clashes, which meant Minato Namikaze could be transferred here at any time.
"The repayment period for the Three-Tomoe Sharingan has less than half a month left... This is torture!"
If he still had a month or two to repay the loan, he wouldn't be getting his hopes up.
But with so little time left, if Minato Namikaze arrived a little later, and the Battle of Kannabi Bridge came a little later, Qingye could finish repaying this Chakra Loan and immediately take out another one. Then he could get another Talent Enhancement!
With that, he wouldn't have much to fear in the Battle of Kannabi Bridge—or even in the entire Shinobi World War.
Damn Kumogakure! Couldn't they hold out a little longer?!
"Open Attribute Panel."
Qingye murmured to himself, then went straight to the stats.
[Stats: Spirit 6 (7), Stamina 8, Strength 5, Speed 8, Ninjutsu 7, Hand Seals 6, Genjutsu 8, Intelligence 9] Total: 58 points.
More than two months of combat and training had only raised his Taijutsu level from Stamina 7 to Stamina 8.
With this level of strength, he had only a Fifty-Fifty chance of surviving the battles to come.
"I've barely got any Explosive Tags left—just what I earned from the last two months of missions... Less than a thousand altogether!"
"And there's not much money left at home, either."
It was all that Iwagakure Jonin's fault!
He was a Jonin, for heaven's sake, yet he didn't even have a bounty.
During Qingye's two and a half years as cannon fodder, most of the Explosive Tags he had spent so lavishly had come from the bounty of a good Samaritan on the Kirigakure front.
Back then, Qingye had run into a good Samaritan named Raiga Kurosuki on the battlefield. Seeing him gravely wounded and suffering, Qingye couldn't bear to see anyone in such pain, so he stepped in and put an end to his suffering.
As thanks, Raiga Kurosuki's corpse was taken by Qingye to the Exchange Center and turned into a bounty.
Qingye had even asked him at the time. Raiga Kurosuki hadn't said he objected.
That one job had brought Qingye a bounty of thirty-five million ryo!
Between that money and the inheritance left by the parents from this life, whom he barely remembered, Qingye had bought a huge supply of Explosive Tags. That was how he had made it through his Genin and Chunin days alive.
Otherwise, he would have died on the battlefield long ago!
But after the time with Raiga Kurosuki, Qingye hadn't been so lucky again... Once, on the Kirigakure front, he had run into an elite Jonin from the Kaguya Clan. In the end, he had only killed him by pretending to be dead and launching a surprise attack.
The explosion had left nothing of the body, so there was no bounty to claim.
The great battle was about to begin, and he didn't even have four digits' worth of Explosive Tags. What was the point of heading into battle like that except to die?
"Just a few days left..."
Qingye stared at the remaining repayment time on the system panel.
Lately, he had sometimes wondered whether he should just defect.
He could avoid the battle, where his survival was anyone's guess, then wait until the next loan opportunity came around in a few days. He wouldn't mind becoming a rogue shinobi.
After all, Qingye had no qualms whatsoever about defecting!
Of course, it was just a passing thought. The moment he thought it through, he knew he couldn't do that.
Defecting outright was too crude!
Wouldn't faking his death be better than defecting directly?
But faking his death wouldn't be easy to pull off. By comparison, faking an injury might be more practical.
He could pretend to get hurt in battle, avoid the coming conflict, and make it safely through the final stretch of the repayment period.
But that had its own problems!
How was he supposed to fake an injury?
In a fight, one slip in controlling the situation and a fake injury could turn into a real one!
Besides, Medical Ninjutsu in this Shinobi World was good enough that an ordinary injury would heal in three to five days. Even a serious injury involving bones wouldn't take long to recover from.
And if he deliberately got injured, what if something unexpected happened? What if Konoha's defenses failed and, while he was recovering in camp, the Iwagakure army came straight through? He wouldn't even know what killed him!
"This is tough!"
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