Heading to the Land of Sea, Mei Terumi's Ambush

Minato Namikaze blinked.

He had nearly failed to keep up with Qingye's complete one-eighty shift in attitude.

However, judging by the outcome, Qingye seemed willing to agree to his request.

"...A two-man team?"

Minato Namikaze hesitated slightly.

Qingye spread his hands and explained, "Kakashi and I are both jonin. Isn't that perfectly normal?"

Two jonin, plus a chunin as dead weight—even if she was a Medical Ninja, she was still dead weight.

"Besides, if Kakashi and I are on the same team, the missions we take afterward definitely won't be easy. Having Rin continue with us would only put her in greater danger."

"And with Rin's medical ninjutsu, she'd be able to make the most of her abilities by treating the wounded in the rear."

Qingye laid it out calmly.

Minato Namikaze nodded as he considered it.

It did seem like the more appropriate arrangement.

That way, Rin would certainly be safer in the main camp as well.

"My thinking was too limited. Thank you, Qingye."

Minato Namikaze thanked him sincerely. "Well, is there any ninjutsu you want to learn, Qingye? Just name it, and I'll do my best to make it happen."

Even the Flying Thunder God Technique could probably be taught if he reported it to the Third Hokage.

Though he couldn't guarantee whether Qingye would be able to learn it.

"Mm... I don't need any particularly special ninjutsu."

Qingye frowned and thought for a moment before saying, "That ninjutsu you created, Minato—the Rasengan. I'm somewhat interested in that."

"Just the Rasengan?"

Minato Namikaze couldn't help confirming again. "Only that? Qingye, you could choose a more valuable ninjutsu."

His Spiralling Flash Super Round Dance Howl Style Two was a hand-signless ninjutsu, so it was indeed rather rare.

But compared to the Flying Thunder God Technique he also possessed, as well as the Four Symbols Seal, Eight Trigrams Seal, and the like, it was far inferior.

"The Rasengan is enough."

Qingye confirmed it.

The others probably wouldn't be so easy for him to learn anyway. He might as well borrow a Chakra Loan to learn them later.

As for the Rasengan...

He wasn't that interested in forming spinning spheres, but he was very interested in Boruto's invisible, throwable version of the Rasengan that incorporated Lightning-nature chakra!

"...All right."

Minato Namikaze was somewhat helpless and could only make a mental note of it.

He would make it up to him elsewhere in the future.

Outside Konoha.

Qingye looked at Kakashi's clearly unusual gait, then at his calves and the footprints on the ground. Raising a brow, he asked, "Kakashi, are you doing weighted training too?"

"Yeah."

Kakashi stared at Qingye, competitiveness rising in his heart.

He had been regarded as the greatest genius among his peers since childhood, yet now someone had surpassed him!

How could he possibly stand for that?

He had to catch up to Qingye!

The last time he saw Qingye ask Guy for advice on weighted training, Kakashi had followed suit and added weights to his legs as well.

"Not bad."

Qingye gave him a thumbs-up. "Remember to make the weights easy to take off. Otherwise, they might affect you if you run into an unexpected battle."

"I know that," Kakashi replied sullenly.

On the other side, Nohara Rin took out a medical kit and opened it to show him. "This is a gift to celebrate us becoming teammates, and to celebrate your promotion to jonin, Qingye. There's also a protective charm I specially asked for inside."

Qingye: "..."

Why did this protective charm look somewhat familiar?

Did you all go to the same shrine?

"Uh, is something wrong?"

Seeing Qingye's reaction, Nohara Rin grew a little flustered. Had she given him the wrong thing?

She had seen the naming style Qingye used for the Ninja Cats before and thought he might like this sort of thing, so she had prepared it specially.

"No, I really like it. Thank you, Rin."

Qingye took out the charm and put it away, then stowed the medical kit in the backpack on his back.

Then he turned to Kakashi and held out a hand.

"..."

Kakashi turned his head awkwardly. "You want a gift for your promotion to jonin too?"

When he had heard from Minato-sensei that their new teammate would be Qingye, he naturally had no objections, but he had not given much thought to anything else afterward.

A gift for becoming a jonin...

Come to think of it, Obito still owed him a gift for his promotion to jonin.

At that thought, Kakashi's mood darkened somewhat. "I'll make it up to you later."

"Then I'll look forward to it. I hope you won't disappoint me when the time comes."

Qingye smiled and pulled out a map. "Ahem. Now that we're a new team, I'm the captain. You'll follow my command during future operations. No objections?"

Kakashi and Rin nodded.

Having personally experienced the Battle of Kannabi Bridge, they knew Qingye's strength better than anyone.

"Our destination this time is the Land of Sea."

Qingye pointed to an archipelago off the southeastern coast of the Land of Fire on the map.

The Land of Sea was an island nation located overseas from the Land of Fire, situated between the two great nations of the Land of Fire and the Land of Water. Relatively speaking, it was closer to the Land of Fire.

Mist Village's latest invasion was aimed at the Land of Sea.

At present, of the Land of Sea's four main islands, the largest, Main Island, and another, Kijin Island, remained under the control of Konoha Ninja. However, the other two main islands, Taro Island and Jiro Island, had already been occupied by Mist Village ninja.

Their three-person team was heading to Main Island in the Land of Sea as reinforcements.

Rin would remain at Konoha's camp on Main Island as a Medical Ninja, while he and Kakashi would take missions as a two-man team.

"Right now, we're heading to the port at the Land of Fire's border. From there, we'll set sail for the Land of Sea."

The three of them immediately set off.

After traveling continuously for half a day, they successfully arrived at the border of the Land of Fire.

The weather was excellent that day, clear and cloudless, with barely any wind or waves on the sea.

Ahead, Konoha's outpost near the port stood clearly visible beneath the autumn sunlight.

"Wait!"

Kakashi suddenly called for them to stop, his nose twitching. "I smell blood!"

"...Kakashi, your nose is pretty sharp."

Qingye glanced sideways. The outpost ahead was still thirty or forty meters away. "Could it be that you have Inuzuka Clan blood too?"

"..."

Kakashi rolled his eyes.

"People up ahead, come out!"

Qingye raised his guard and shouted, "If you want to lure us over, shouldn't you at least have someone pretending to be a sentry out in the open?"

There was not even a visible guard in sight.

Clearly, something had happened to the outpost by the port!

"Hehehe..."

A crisp young girl's voice, carrying a seductive lilt, drifted over. "You're quite vigilant. Come to think of it, are all the male ninja of Konoha this handsome? That's one thing you're far better at than us Mist Village ninja."

As she spoke, a wave of mist rolled in.

Within the outpost ahead, more than a dozen figures faintly emerged through the fog.

"This mist..."

Qingye narrowed his eyes.

Judging by the other party's voice, their age, and the clearly abnormal color of their Chakra under the Sharingan's vision, it was distinctly different from the Chakra color of the Mist Technique Qingye had seen before on the Mist Village battlefield!

The identity of the people before them was already obvious.