New Teammates

"I still need to recover as quickly as possible."

Gazing at the three tomoe in his scarlet eyes in the mirror, Qingye mused.

Now that his Sharingan had advanced to three tomoe, his ability to see through things had improved considerably.

But the rest of him might not have kept pace!

His perception, reaction speed, and physical speed all needed to work together in harmony to truly improve his combat strength.

Otherwise, he might end up like Sasuke during the Chunin Ninja Exams: with two tomoe in both eyes, but a body that couldn't keep up with his reactions, leaving him to get thoroughly beaten by Rock Lee.

At the thought, Qingye couldn't wait to give it a try. But the moment he moved, he pulled at the knife wound on his chest, and sucked in a sharp breath from the pain.

"Th—! I think I got a little carried away."

Qingye lowered his head and looked himself over.

Right now, only his right hand and left leg were in working order.

Even a slight movement might aggravate the wound on his chest.

For the next couple of days, he could only practice forming Hand Seals with his right hand.

Three days passed in the blink of an eye.

Under the care of the Tokubetsu Jonin Medical Ninja, the burn on Qingye's right leg had nearly healed. Even the knife wound on his chest had recovered remarkably quickly.

At most, it would take another two days for both injuries to heal completely.

Medical Ninjutsu really was amazing.

While he was training, someone came to summon him. Still leaning on his crutch, Qingye followed them to the commander's tent in the Konoha camp.

"Uchiha Qingye."

The commander, Shikaku Nara, looked up and said, "The bodies of the three people your squad encountered have been recovered and identified. One was a Tokubetsu Jonin, and the other two were Chunin. Your squad's mission has still been rated an A-rank mission, with a reward of one million ryō."

Qingye nodded, indicating he had no objections.

The reward for an A-rank mission ranged from 150,000 to one million ryō.

The exact amount depended on the mission's difficulty and how well it had been completed.

This time, he had killed all three opponents rather than merely defeating or driving them off, so the reward had been raised to the maximum for an A-rank mission.

"As for your two teammates and their contributions..."

"Yeah, they helped a little with taking down those two Chunin," Qingye said.

That was a lie.

One of those two unlucky guys had been killed instantly by the opposing Iwagakure Tokubetsu Jonin. The other had been taken out by the two Chunin working together.

Neither had put up much of a fight!

Then Qingye had been surrounded by three Iwagakure ninja, which was why he'd ended up so badly injured.

Shikaku Nara blinked. "I see... Then I'll give each of them a reward of 100,000 ryō, and the remaining 800,000 will be yours. Does that work?"

Judging by the condition of the bodies, there was no sign that those two had contributed much.

But that wasn't his concern.

Qingye nodded. "Sure. Also, use my entire share of the reward to request Explosive Tags."

In a fight, Explosive Tags were far more useful than Kunai or Shuriken!

Explosive Tags had gone up in price during the war. They now cost 2,000 ryō each.

After setting aside a total of 200,000 ryō for the families of those two unlucky guys, he could still request 400 Explosive Tags with his remaining 800,000 ryō!

That would be enough to last him a while.

"There's one more thing I wanted to ask you about. Do you have any thoughts on your new squadmates?" Shikaku Nara asked.

Qingye was taken aback.

He was actually asking what Qingye thought?

Before this, his squadmates had always been assigned to him directly. No one had ever really considered his opinion.

After all, anyone below Jonin rank was either assigned to logistical work like escorting supplies or used as cannon fodder. There wasn't much point in carefully considering who should be paired with whom.

Was this because he'd taken down a Tokubetsu Jonin in a direct fight for the first time and was finally being taken seriously?

The good news: no more cannon fodder duty!

The bad news: he might have to take on more dangerous missions from now on...

"Send me a Sensory Ninja!"

Qingye answered at once.

With a Sensory Ninja who could detect danger before it arrived, his odds of staying safe would improve dramatically!

Shikaku Nara didn't seem surprised at all. "No problem. Anything else?"

"As for the other one... preferably a Medical Ninja."

"That might be difficult. I'll do my best to arrange it," Shikaku Nara said with a helpless shake of his head.

Even though Konoha had been putting a lot of effort into training Medical Ninjas in recent years, there still weren't enough of them.

Besides, in his view, it was better to keep the precious Medical Ninjas at camp to treat the wounded than to send them to the front lines on missions.

On the battlefield, Medical Ninjas were often targeted first. Their combat strength was relatively low, yet they could heal their teammates and get them back into the fight.

"Someone will deliver the Explosive Tags to you. Your new teammates should arrive within the next couple of days, once the arrangements are made."

During wartime, every part of Konoha's operations ran at full speed.

By the next afternoon, a large number of reinforcements had arrived at Konoha's camp on the Iwagakure front.

Qingye didn't even have time to seek out his new teammates first. His gaze swept quickly over all the arriving ninja, and only after confirming that Minato Namikaze's squad wasn't among them did he breathe a sigh of relief.

Thank goodness.

It looked like the Battle of Kannabi Bridge was still some time away.

"Qingye~"

A girl with beautiful red eyes and long, slightly wavy hair cascading down her back waved enthusiastically at him. "Long time no see!"

Yūhi Kurenai had been Qingye's classmate at the Ninja Academy.

Someone else was following behind Yūhi Kurenai.

His Byakugan was unmistakable, and the Konoha Forehead Protector covered the Cursed Seal that marked him as a member of the Branch Family.

"Hahaha!"

Seeing his new teammate, Qingye couldn't help bursting into laughter. He tossed his crutch aside, spread his arms, and hurried toward them.

"Huh?"

Yūhi Kurenai's face flushed.

Th-this...

What was Qingye doing?

Was he going to hug her? It had been a while since they'd seen each other, sure, but still... this wasn't appropriate, was it? There were so many people around!

"Hahaha, Himon! I can't believe it's you!"

While Yūhi Kurenai was still hesitating awkwardly, Qingye passed her by and threw an arm around Hyuga Himon's shoulders.

Hyuga Himon had been Qingye's classmate at the Ninja Academy, too.

He was considered quite talented, even by the standards of the Hyuga Clan.

Qingye had told Shikaku Nara he wanted a Sensory Ninja, but he hadn't expected to get someone from the Hyuga Clan with the Byakugan!

After all, among Sensory Ninjas, the Hyuga's Byakugan was much more useful than what the Yamanaka Clan, Aburame Clan, or Inuzuka Clan could offer!

With the Byakugan's ability to see through things and scout from a distance, they could keep track of everything from traps to enemy movements!

"..."

Yūhi Kurenai's expression froze as she watched Qingye greet Hyuga Himon with such enthusiasm. A while later, when he still hadn't paid her any attention, she finally couldn't hold back.

"Hey!"

"There's someone else here, you know!"

What did he mean by leaving a beautiful girl like her standing off to the side?!

"Oh, right! And you too, Kurenai. It's been a long time," Qingye said, finally turning to greet her.