New Mission

That morning, Uchiha Yuan went to the assembly point to prepare for today's training.

However, 8:00 arrived and Hyuga Asana still had not shown up. Asana was never late, which made Yuan feel a bit strange.

Yuan and Yamanaka Kizuki waited for half an hour without seeing Asana arrive, so the two grew somewhat anxious and prepared to head over to the Hyuga Clan camp together to check on her.

Halfway there, they happened to run into Asana, who was jogging toward them.

Her clothes were covered in dust, and she had bruises on her face; it was obvious she had run into some trouble.

"What's wrong, Asana?" Kizuki asked with an anxious tone.

"Did someone from the Hyuga Main Family at your camp do something to you?" Yuan also asked with a cold face.

Hearing this, Asana hurriedly waved her hands and said, "No, you guys misunderstood. This isn't a good place to talk. Let's go somewhere with fewer people."

Led by Asana, the three of them came to a relatively secluded spot. After Asana activated her Byakugan to confirm that there was no one around, she spoke. "Here is what happened. This morning, on my way to our meeting place, I ran into Lord Orochimaru's Earth Clone.

"He must have deliberately waited for me on the road. Lord Orochimaru said he wanted to test my strength, and then he used his Earth Clone to fight me.

"I was no match for Lord Orochimaru's Earth Clone. Even using Rotation was useless; Lord Orochimaru easily found the flaw in my Rotation and shattered it with a single blow. The injury on my face is from when Lord Orochimaru broke through my Rotation."

"Orochimaru intercepted you just to test your strength?" Yuan asked.

"Of course not. After defeating me, Lord Orochimaru's Earth Clone said I should have the strength of an average chunin and could go execute this mission. After saying that, Lord Orochimaru threw this mission scroll to me and then dispelled the Earth Clone."

After listening to Asana, Yuan took the mission scroll from her hand and opened it.

Yuan quickly glanced over the contents of the scroll. The general meaning was that Orochimaru had received intelligence indicating that Kirigakure Shinobi wanted to sabotage the water sources near the Konoha Camp.

Orochimaru had immediately dispatched people to guard the two main water intake points, but he had not arranged personnel for some of the remaining smaller water sources.

However, these small water sources were connected by rivers to Konoha's main water collection areas. If the enemy poisoned the minor water sources, it could slowly affect the water quality.

To prevent the enemy from tampering with the minor water sources, Orochimaru ordered their squad to set out immediately and patrol the surrounding water sources.

This mission was not far from the Konoha Camp, and even some distance away from the battlefield. The only thing they needed to guard against was the possibility of encountering Kirigakure Shinobi.

The three of them returned to tidy up their equipment, and set off half an hour later.

There were a total of six water sources near the Konoha Camp. The two larger, closer water sources were already guarded, which meant the four smaller water source points were the ones they were responsible for patrolling.

Following the map, after advancing for about twenty minutes, the three of them arrived at the first minor water source. This was a small pool formed by gathering mountain spring water.

Asana collected a water sample, squatted down to perform a simple poison identification, and did not find any poison in the water.

"You even know how to do this, Asana!" Kizuki asked with some surprise.

"I studied some Medical Ninjutsu in the past, and I learned basic poison identification along the way," Asana replied.

"Studying Medical Ninjutsu? Asana, do you want to become a Medical Ninja?" Kizuki continued to ask.

"Mhm, ever since I was little, my dream has been to become a Medical Ninja who saves lives and heals the wounded," Asana spouted nonsense with a straight face.

"So your dream is to become a Medical Ninja, Asana! Yuan, what is your dream?"

"My dream? To survive, I suppose," Yuan thought for a moment and replied.

"What a very ordinary dream."

Hearing this, Yuan smiled faintly. His dream was far from ordinary. Right now, it was still the Third Great Ninja War, and to survive, the very first thing he had to do was make it through the Third Great Ninja War alive.

The subsequent Nine-Tails' Rampage and Uchiha clan annihilation night also had to be safely weathered.

However, that was merely surviving; it could not yet be considered living well. If he wanted to live well, he had to eliminate certain eyesores and troubles—such as the higher-ups of Konoha.

"You're only asking us, Kizuki. What is your dream?" Asana asked as she stood up.

"My short-term dream, like Yuan's, is to first survive on the battlefield of the Third Great Ninja War!

"As for a more distant dream, I hope I can lose a bit of weight, promote to chunin as soon as possible, and then find a pretty, gentle, and obedient wife. Then my life will be complete."

"You have quite high demands. With someone pretty, gentle, and obedient, would your turn ever come?" Yuan said in a annoyed tone.

"If a ninja can't marry one, I can marry a civilian! There are quite a few civilians who meet my criteria. Actually, come to think of it, Asana is pretty good—pretty, has a good temperament, and comes from a prominent family. It's a pity the Hyuga Clan doesn't intermarry with outsiders.

"Besides, Asana's personality is too cold; she doesn't suit me. I still want someone a bit more gentle."

"I don't meet your criteria, and I've disappointed you. I'm truly sorry," Asana said expressionlessly.

Hearing this, Kizuki shrank his neck. He had gotten too carried away and almost forgot that Asana was right beside him. "Cough, cough. Asana, I was just speaking casually, no other meaning. Don't be angry."

"Don't worry, Asana isn't that petty," Yuan said with a smile.

"Is that so? I'm actually very angry right now. If we weren't still on a mission, I would fiercely—"

"Someone's coming!" Kizuki suddenly turned his head to look to the right.

Over the past few days, under the torture of Yuan's Genjutsu, Kizuki's perception range had approached fifty meters. While the three of them were chatting just now, he had also kept his perception active the entire time.

Hearing this, Yuan and Asana simultaneously activated the Sharingan and Byakugan, then looked to the right at the same time.

"Just two ordinary people. There's no chakra in their bodies," Asana said.

"Why would ordinary people appear here? This is close to the battlefield, so they should be staying far away to avoid it, right?" Yuan said.

"Yuan, do you mean their approach might be related to Kirigakure Shinobi?"

"I don't know, but being careful is always the right choice." After saying that, Yuan split off a Water Clone and walked toward the two people.

After walking closer, Yuan discovered that the two people were not very old, looking about his age. The boy's build was taller and the girl's was shorter, and their appearances bore some similarity. They should be siblings or have some other familial relation.

"What are you people? What are you doing here?" Yuan asked.

(PS: Let me mention an interesting thing, I'll just write it directly into the main text since it's the free period. Yesterday afternoon, I went to the pharmacy to buy medicine and ran into an old lady. The old lady was swiping her medical insurance card to buy medicine. For some reason, she remembered that she still had 640 yuan in her medical insurance card, and she picked out 600 yuan worth of medicine. As a result, when it was swiped, the pharmacy staff told her there was only 330 left, and the money was not enough.

The old lady got anxious and started making a scene and rolling around on the floor in the pharmacy, insisting that the pharmacy had secretly swiped her card. No matter how the pharmacy staff explained, it was no use.

There was no choice but to call the police. The police came and checked the swiping history of the old lady's medical insurance card, and then told the old lady: "You bought 300 yuan worth of medicine on November 19th." When the old lady heard that, she refused to admit it, insisting she hadn't.

The police had no choice but to help pull up the surveillance footage, and as a result, the surveillance from November 19th showed the old lady buying medicine.

With the evidence laid out right there, the old lady still wouldn't acknowledge it. She cried and made a fuss, even claiming the police and the pharmacy were conspiring to cheat the money in her medical insurance.

Left with no alternative, the police could only contact the old lady's family. After a while, the old lady's son arrived and dragged the old lady away by force.

It's truly speechless. This old lady spoke with clear logic, one point after another; she definitely didn't have any symptoms of senile dementia. She was simply making a scene. Bad people really have grown old!)

I'll update an extra chapter today to round it up to 100,000 words.