Cleverly Erecting Banners

In the early morning, the faint starlight faded as the sky turned a pale, fish-belly white, carrying a biting chill.

Hanyu and his squad had already gathered at the main gate of Konoha.

"Everyone is here. We depart now. Destination: the front lines of the Land of Rivers. The mission time limit is set for three days." After sweeping his gaze over all the squad members, Hanyu issued the order to move out. At a time like this, no one would ever "get lost on the path of life"; for a ninja, even the slightest delay in a mission was an unforgivable crime.

Aside from the ninjas on duty at the village gate, no one else came to see them off, and sentimental farewells were non-existent... In Konoha, such small departures were happening every single moment.

A battlefield where life and death were uncertain was naturally worrying, but it had long since become a matter of habit, and besides... would anyone truly worry for Hanyu?

Perhaps there was someone.

After leaving the village in the morning, the pace of Hanyu's squad was not particularly fast; one could even call it unhurried. This was not due to Hanyu's laziness, but because once they arrived in the Land of Rivers, they would likely be thrown into battle immediately. If they rushed forward without regard for the consequences, they would be forced to fight in an exhausted state, which would undoubtedly increase the probability of failure. Therefore, as long as there was sufficient time, rushing at full speed was by no means a clever approach.

The squad moved forward at a steady pace. Seven hours later, the group stopped for a brief rest, then continued until nightfall. After completing the day's travel plan, they stopped at a predetermined location to rest and replenish their strength.

Nara Nagisa handed a bowl filled with hot soup to the other three, saying, "Everyone, eat something hot. If we keep going further, I doubt we'll have the chance to enjoy food like this. You know, the rations for ninjas on the front lines are all Military Ration Pills."

Because of the weather, hot food was always more palatable than cold.

"Military Ration Pills? That's not bad either; I think the taste is fine." Hanyu reached out to take the bowl and said this... it sounded a bit like he was being contrary.

"Captain, are you sure there's nothing wrong with your sense of taste?" Nara Nagisa found Hanyu's answer hard to believe, and the other two felt the same; they couldn't fathom anyone thinking Military Ration Pills tasted good.

That stuff was edible, certainly, but there was no need to mention the taste.

Hanyu shook his head without offering further explanation. He genuinely felt the taste of the Military Ration Pills wasn't bad, which didn't mean there was anything wrong with his taste buds... If anyone had been ravaged by the increased-dosage, extra-strength Senju Secret Medicine for three consecutive months like he had, they would also find Military Ration Pills to be quite decent.

They might even consider Military Ration Pills a delicacy, the kind you wouldn't get tired of even after eating them for months.

The three subordinates looked at each other, and at this moment, they finally realized that their captain seemed a bit... special. Well, to put it nicely, one should use the word "special" to describe him.

In fact, his sense of taste was definitely a bit off. For instance, this bowl of soup in his hand had both color and aroma, yet he felt it lacked that "certain flavor"... He didn't know what the original Senju Secret Medicine tasted like, but the kind Hanyu took felt particularly potent.

More importantly, he had reached the "second course" of treatment. The good change was that the dosage was no longer as exaggerated as eating it like a meal; he only needed to pop one pill into his mouth every day. The bad change was that Sanshao was clearly a "pragmatist"—the secret medicine she concocted focused solely on efficacy, not taste. Furthermore, the better the efficacy, the worse the taste.

The only thing worth being happy about was that Hanyu's efforts were rewarded. The effect of the secret medicine was obvious; although he had been a ninja for a very short time, Hanyu could guarantee that his chakra reserves were definitely higher than those of his teammates.

Having consumed the "Golden Fertilizer," he was growing sturdily, and if the price was merely terrible taste and perhaps some temporary issues with his sense of taste, then this trade was absolutely one hundred percent worth it.

"Next, Chichiwa, Renjuro, hurry up and rest. Nara and I will take the first watch, and we'll swap in the second half of the night." After eating in a hurry, Hanyu made these arrangements.

Compared to his previous night travel, this time was undoubtedly much safer; after all, this was the heart of the Land of Fire, not the border. But because of what happened last time, Hanyu's actions had naturally become more cautious... Besides, for ninjas marching in the field, setting up sentries at night was the most normal thing in the world.

The others had no objections to this arrangement. Upon hearing the order, Chichiwa shifted her body, leaning against a large tree, then covered herself with a thin felt blanket and lay down in her clothes, her weapon placed right by her side.

Renjuro simply lay down on the withered grass on the other side.

A ninja's physical constitution was indeed different from an ordinary person's. If they were civilians, camping in the wilderness in such winter weather would result in nothing but them freezing into stiff corpses.

"A rare weapon, isn't it?" Nara Nagisa noticed Hanyu's gaze directed toward Chichiwa and spoke up.

"Hmm, it's a bit... retro." Hanyu calmly withdrew his gaze, showing not a hint of embarrassment at being caught peeking at someone else... It would be more accurate to say he was looking at her face rather than her weapon.

There was no special meaning behind it; it was just that, aside from lacking a touch of allure, Hanyu felt Chichiwa looked somewhat like a girl who had left a deep impression on him in his past life—a beauty named Tomie who looked very pretty when she smiled.

"I think I might have met her before," he added. However, Hanyu wasn't talking about his past life this time; he felt that on that night he had spent at the Konoha Hospital a few months ago, he must have encountered Chichiwa... if for no other reason than the weapon placed by Chichiwa's side was somewhat unique.

It was a bow.

Bows and arrows, as weapons, had long since ceased to be the mainstream choice for ninjas. As mentioned before, ninjas were a profession that placed extreme emphasis on agility. Objectively, this attribute led to the extremely low lethality of projectile weapons like shuriken, thrown kunai, or bows and arrows.

Unless it was a surprise sneak attack, throwing ninja tools from a distance was very easy to dodge; but if there was a good opportunity for a sneak attack, why use projectile weapons?

Not to mention ordinary projectile weapons, even the Kagutsuchi shot by some people—was the hit rate really that high?

Therefore, bows and arrows had long since exited the stage of ninja combat, and Hanyu's evaluation of Chichiwa's weapon as "retro" was quite objective. Ninjas were assassins, not archers.

However... Hanyu turned his gaze to Nara Nagisa. Although the bow and arrow were awkward weapons, if there was someone from the Nara clan in the squad, then Chichiwa's room for performance would be completely different from the norm... Ninjas were agile, and archers had hit-rate issues, but if the team had strong crowd control, that was a different story.

"Were you in the same squad as Chichiwa before?" Thinking this, Hanyu asked Nara, though the information he had indicated that the two should not have been teammates in a previous squad.

Nara shook his head as expected and said, "Not exactly, but we knew each other before. I've coordinated with Chichiwa on certain missions... Actually, upon returning to the village this time, we were supposed to be promoted to Chunin, but we were temporarily notified that we had been assigned to a new squad."

"..." This was something Hanyu had never known before.

He had assumed everyone was a Genin, but it turned out the others had been forcibly held back in rank... Teacher Sanshao, what a privilege.

"This probably has something to do with me. If it weren't for me, you all should have become Chunin by now." After thinking for a moment, Hanyu decided to tell the truth.

"Even if you are the captain, the formation of a new squad isn't something you can decide." Nara still shook his head. What he said was indeed reasonable; Hanyu couldn't decide such things, but what Nara didn't know was that while Hanyu couldn't decide, Sanshao could.

Nara continued, "Besides, even if your presence caused our promotion to Chunin to be delayed, it doesn't matter. On the battlefield, there is no distinction between Chunin and Genin; there is only the distinction between ninjas who survive and those who die."

Nara didn't seem to care about whether they could be promoted to Chunin in time. Compared to the later generations where Genin would clamor about needing to become Chunin, the Konoha ninjas coming off the battlefield at this time didn't particularly care about such things. If for no other reason, it was simply because war and slaughter had left them numb. What did it matter if one was a Chunin? Was the survival rate on the battlefield much higher than that of a Genin?

True enough, not being promoted to Chunin didn't matter. The situation in Konoha was somewhat special; ability and rank were often inverted. Jonin were prone to fighting to a draw, while Genin were often the strongest... Hanyu tried hard to suppress such a cynical thought.

"Besides, I think you might be a decent captain now... That's Lightning Release, isn't it?" Nara said, having seen the occasional arc of electricity flickering on Hanyu.

Even during idle chatter, Hanyu never forgot to practice diligently.

"Yes, the new jutsu is more difficult than I imagined, so I must seize every moment," Hanyu replied.

Lightning Release was the third type of jutsu Hanyu was learning, but what he meant wasn't that Lightning Release was harder to practice than Fire or Water Release, but that the third type of jutsu was far more difficult to master than the first two... If being a dual-element ninja was a concrete and feasible goal that a large portion of ninjas could achieve with effort, then being a triple-element ninja truly required talent.

Currently, Hanyu could use Water and Fire Release fluently, but his Lightning Release was still stuck at the stage of chakra nature transformation; he couldn't yet use Lightning Release ninjutsu... This progress was slower than the training plan Sanshao had set for him, so he had to hurry to catch up.

"Captain..."

Lost in thought regarding cultivation issues, Hanyu became slightly distracted, forcing Nara to offer a reminder.

"My apologies, I was thinking of some other matters... but you don't need to be like this. We're about the same age, so you can just call me by my name. However... Nara, once we arrive at the battlefield in a few days, you must be extra careful—even more careful than that."

This warning left Nara Nagisa feeling utterly bewildered.

Yet Hanyu knew that in all sorts of stories, characters in a squad who were exceptionally kind, good-natured, or possessed the "nice guy" trait were often the ones who died the fastest during dangerous missions.

Nara Nagisa had, quite invisibly, set a rather ominous flag for himself.