Perhaps I Should Just Defect

"So, as long as the other battlefields are decided first, reinforcements will arrive and our situation here will improve!" Hyuga Himon said encouragingly.

He had been on the Iwagakure battlefield for over two months now.

During this time, although Aoba was the main combatant and he and Yūhi Kurenai hadn't encountered any serious life-threatening dangers, he was still very panicked.

Like that Iwagakure Jonin from before, he managed to take his preemptive sneak attack without taking any damage, and in turn, he was sent flying with just one exchange!

He could barely parry attacks like that. Another two or three would likely leave him severely injured.

Currently, Konoha was on the defensive on the Iwagakure battlefield. He didn't know when Iwagakure would launch a full-scale attack, so how could he not be panicked?

However, Aoba immediately doused his hopes with cold water: "That's just an ideal scenario. It's still unknown how long our defense line can hold. Iwagakure might not give us the chance to wait for reinforcements."

"Then what should we do?" Yūhi Kurenai was also losing confidence after hearing that.

"There's nothing we can do. Let's just stock up on more Explosive Tags,"

Aoba sighed.

Hyuga Himon began to consider if he should find a way to get a loan later.

The fifteen-day garrison mission ended.

Aoba's squad of three returned to the Konoha ninja camp, bringing with them the corpse of an Iwagakure Jonin and two half-dead Iwagakure Chunin.

After handing over the mission report to Yūhi Kurenai, Aoba returned directly to his single-person tent.

This time, he had defeated an Iwagakure Jonin without taking any damage, and it was foreseeable that it would cause quite a stir in the Konoha camp.

But after experiencing the previous battle where he single-handedly killed a Special Jonin squad, Aoba was already accustomed to such things.

The temporary tent was very simple.

There was bedding, a table, and a wooden cabinet. The latter two were made from surrounding trees.

On the rough wooden table was a small bottle. After returning, Aoba picked up the bottle, poured some blood from it onto his palm, and formed hand seals:

"Summoning Technique!"

With a bang, a crow landed on Aoba's palm.

The crow's feathers were soft and clean, its eyes bright. After being summoned, it flapped its wings twice and greeted Aoba.

The Uchiha clan also had their own contract summoning beasts, usually Ninja Cats and Ninja Crows, with some people also contracting animals like Ninja Hawks.

However, unlike the monkeys of the Sarutobi clan, the Uchiha clan's summoning beasts were generally not used for combat but for auxiliary functions.

Aoba was quite lucky to have some talent in Space-Time Ninjutsu, which allowed him to master the Summoning Technique.

After graduating from the Ninja Academy, he had contracted a Ninja Cat and two Ninja Crows. These two Ninja Crows were usually used for delivering messages.

He took out the letter from the bamboo tube on the crow's leg, quickly unfolded it, and read it. Aoba's mood became even heavier.

This letter was sent from the Uchiha clan in Konoha. Aoba usually relied on it to understand the situation of the Great Ninja War while on the battlefield.

The letter stated that on the Kumogakure battlefield, Minato Namikaze had repelled the A and B combination for the third time, and had almost retreated unscathed after killing a large number of Kumogakure ninja.

As the letter said, the major battles on the Kumogakure side were likely coming to an end.

From now on, there would probably only be small-scale conflicts, and in that case, Minato Namikaze might be transferred at any time.

"The repayment period for the Three-Tomoe Sharingan is less than half a month away... This is agonizing!"

If there were still one or two months left for repayment, he wouldn't have any expectations.

But with so little time left, if Minato Namikaze arrived any later, and the Battle of Kannabi Bridge came any later, by then he would have paid off his Chakra Loan and could immediately take out another one to boost his talents!

In that case, not only would the Battle of Kannabi Bridge pose little danger, but the entire Great Ninja War would also pose little danger to him.

Damn Kumogakure, couldn't you hold on for a little longer?!

"Open Attribute Panel."

Aoba muttered in his mind and then looked directly at the stats.

[Stats: Spirit 6 (7), Body 8, Strength 5, Speed 8, Ninjutsu 7, Hand Seals 6, Illusion 8, Wisdom 9]

A total of 58 points.

These two months of combat and training had only improved his Taijutsu level from 7 to 8.

With this strength, whether he could survive the upcoming battles was probably only a Fifty-Fifty chance.

"The Explosive Tags I have left are basically just the ones obtained from the mission rewards for the past two months... less than a thousand in total!"

"There isn't much money left at home either."

It was all that Iwagakure Jonin's fault!

Despite being a Jonin, he didn't even have any bounty.

You must know that the Explosive Tags Aoba had lavishly used during his two and a half years of being cannon fodder were mostly from the bounty gifted by a great benefactor on the Kirigakure battlefield.

At that time, Aoba encountered a great benefactor named Raiga Kurosuki on the battlefield. Seeing him severely injured and in great pain, Aoba couldn't bear to see him suffer and helped him end his suffering.

As a reward, Aoya took Raiga Kurosuki's body to the underground bounty exchange and turned it into a bounty.

Aoya had asked at the time, and Raiga Kurosuki hadn't disagreed.

That one job directly brought Aoya a bounty of thirty-five million Ryo!

With that, plus the inheritance left by his two unremarkable parents in this life, he exchanged them for a large number of Explosive Tags. It was with these that Aoya safely passed through the Genin and Chunin stages of strength.

Otherwise, he would have died on the battlefield long ago!

But after that incident with Raiga Kurosuki, Aoya hadn't been so lucky again... Once, on the Kirigakure battlefield, he encountered an elite Jonin from the Kaguya Clan. In the end, he had to pretend to be dead and launch a surprise attack to kill the opponent.

After the explosion, not even a corpse was left, so naturally, there was no bounty.

With the great war imminent, and not even four digits worth of Explosive Tags in hand, what difference was there between participating in the war and seeking death!

"There are only a little over ten days left..."

Aoya looked at the remaining loan repayment time on the system panel.

He had been thinking lately whether he should just defect!

Avoid that battle where life and death were uncertain, and wait for the next loan opportunity ten days later. At that time, it wouldn't matter even if he became a rogue ninja.

Anyway, Aoya had no psychological burden about defecting!

Of course, he was just thinking about it. If he thought rationally, he wouldn't do it.

Direct defection was too crude a method!

Wouldn't finding a way to fake his death to escape be better than directly defecting?

But faking death wasn't easy to operate. Relatively speaking, faking an injury might be a more feasible option.

Pretend to be injured in battle, and use it to avoid the upcoming great war, safely passing through this last period of loan repayment.

But this also had problems!

How would you fake an injury?

If you lost control in a fight, faking an injury could turn into a real one!

Moreover, with the level of medical ninjutsu in this ninja world, ordinary injuries would heal in three to five days, and even severe injuries wouldn't take too long to recover.

Also, if he deliberately got injured, what if something unpredictable happened? For example, if Konohagakure couldn't hold on, and while he was recovering in the camp, the Iwagakure army directly pushed through... He wouldn't even know how he died!

"It's difficult!"