The Forefront

When the convoy was attacked, Yamashiro Baiyun had handed the intelligence he recovered from Nishikawa Jiken to Mo Jingxian.

With the Jonin Yamashiro drawing away the pursuers, he carried the intelligence back to the frontline base.

The situation had been too urgent at the time; the two had hastily devised a plan before splitting up.

Unexpectedly, Karura pursued them relentlessly, but fortunately, Mo Jingxian ultimately managed to bring the intelligence back.

Orochimaru inspected the intelligence scroll; the seal was still intact, and only then did he set it down with satisfaction.

"You have worked hard on your journey, Genin Mo Jingxian. This counts as the completion of an A-rank mission."

"Thank you, Commander Orochimaru."

"Very well, you may withdraw."

Mo Jingxian bowed, preparing to take his leave.

"Oh, right, Yamashiro Baiyun has also returned. You may go and see him."

"Understood, sir."

After Mo Jingxian walked out of the command tent, Orochimaru picked up the scroll on the table and carefully compared it against other records.

"The records are truly detailed!"

"There is no helping it; this is war. If it weren't for this Genin bringing the intelligence back this time, otherwise..."

Shikaku mentioned Mo Jingxian, and a smile curled the corners of Orochimaru's lips.

"That Genin just now is a very interesting person."

"Oh? Commander Orochimaru knows him?"

"Of course I do, and you should have heard of him as well."

Shikaku was somewhat surprised by Orochimaru's words.

"I would like to hear the details."

Orochimaru was in a good mood, a playful smile on his face.

"His previous name was... Uchiha Sen."

"So it was him."

Shikaku recalled it; he had heard of such a person before setting out, though he hadn't paid much attention to it at the time.

Not knowing what he was thinking, Orochimaru turned his gaze toward the direction of Konoha.

"That teacher of mine has become obsessed with a false sense of balance, unable to see the Ninja World for what it truly is."

There was no way to respond to that, so Shikaku remained silent for a moment before changing the subject.

After Mo Jingxian came out, he began inquiring about the location of the Jonin Yamashiro's quarters.

After searching in several places, he finally saw this old acquaintance at the base hospital.

Looking at the Jonin Yamashiro, who was wrapped up like a mummy, Mo Jingxian did not know what expression to wear.

Yamashiro Baiyun was quite happy to see him arrive.

"I knew you had a tough life, kid. You really did come back safe and sound."

Mo Jingxian walked to the window, helped open the transom to let in some air, and then sat down.

"How did you end up like this? Was the enemy that troublesome?"

Yamashiro Baiyun rolled his eyes while lying on the bed.

"Nonsense, Sunagakure's Magnet Release user Rasa and Gale user Dafangang Qihu—would you say that's troublesome or not?"

"That is indeed quite troublesome."

Mo Jingxian nodded in agreement.

"Then how did you survive?"

"I was lucky. I ran into a reinforcement unit. Rasa must have had his reservations, so he retreated early."

"Mm, indeed."

The two chatted for a while longer, and seeing that Yamashiro Baiyun only had external injuries, he felt much more at ease.

"You still have your mission scroll on you, right?"

"I have it."

"That's good. Go turn in your mission in a bit; I expect new orders will be issued immediately."

"I know. Just rest and recover."

Mo Jingxian took his leave, feeling much clearer in his heart.

Regardless of anything else, the two belonged to the same camp and had the camaraderie of fighting side-by-side; naturally, he did not want any accidents to befall Yamashiro Baiyun.

Turning in the mission and replenishing supplies took another few hours of busy work.

After a quick meal at the camp, Mo Jingxian hurried to the field hospital with his new assignment.

Calling it a hospital was a stretch; it was merely a patch of open ground cordoned off with tents, and the medical equipment couldn't compare to what was in Konoha.

Mo Jingxian found Takeuchi Koda and handed him the mission scroll.

"Why did they send another fresh graduate brat over?"

Takeuchi Koda frowned, though he still took the scroll.

"Mo Jingxian, right?"

"Correct."

"From now on, your task is to assist the medical ninja in treating the wounded. They will tell you what they need."

With that instruction, Takeuchi Koda hurried away.

Mo Jingxian shrugged; to put it bluntly, he was just a glorified errand boy.

He busied himself at the field hospital until evening before dragging his exhausted body back to his quarters.

Four people shared a tent, and since no one was in the mood for small talk, Mo Jingxian collapsed and fell straight to sleep.

His first night at the front-line base was peaceful, passing without incident.

The work assigned to Mo Jingxian was relatively simple, consisting mostly of helping the medical ninja with menial tasks.

Perhaps because the war had just begun and both sides were still in the probing phase, there weren't many casualties being sent in.

During his work, he noticed many young faces.

Through interaction, he learned they were all newly graduated genin from the Ninja Academy.

Konoha was quite humane; knowing that novices needed an adjustment period, they threw these graduates into logistics to gain experience for a while.

Thinking about it carefully, it made sense; these people were Konoha's assets, ninja cultivated with a massive investment of manpower and resources.

Naturally, the village hoped they would grow, which also aligned with the principle of maximizing benefits.

During this time, the deputy director, Takeuchi Koda, came by for an inspection, but he didn't say a word, merely taking a look before leaving.

There was plenty of downtime, and it would be boring if he didn't find something to do.

The young ninja gathered together, their topics of conversation mostly revolving around Konoha's star ninja.

Mo Jingxian didn't join in; he used the rare spare time to sort out the things he needed to do next.

Contact Orochimaru, gain his trust, and trade for Hashirama Cells.

This was a long-term plan, and the prerequisite was possessing equivalent combat power—or at the very least, strength that would make the man wary.

The acquisition of strength came from two aspects.

One was the Balance of Fate; there was no need to overthink this, as the more reputation points he gained, the stronger he would become.

The good news was that fighting enemies yielded a large amount of reputation points; he had only fought a few battles and already had 310 points saved up.

The bad news was that he had to stay alive.

Higher risk meant higher reward; that much was understandable.

The other direction for improving his strength was his own cultivation.

This sounded like a platitude, but it was anything but.

Take his previous battle against Kushimaru Kuriarare and Raiga Kurosuki as an example; if not for his ability to forcibly shift his internal organs, he would have been a goner.

This technique, or perhaps physical talent, was something even jonin did not possess.

Therefore, his previous development of his body had been insufficient, and it had to be incorporated into his training plan moving forward.

As for his chakra, there was even more to be done.

Following his insights into the water element, the active substances hidden within his chakra had increased significantly, which was why his techniques were fundamentally different from traditional ninjutsu.

Especially after incorporating the principles of sealing jutsu, his techniques had infinite potential for growth.

Being more agile and more bizarre were merely the surface appearances.

This proved that his previous hypothesis was correct.

Ninjutsu had structure, logic, and frequency; it was programmable.

The elements were the underlying operating code of this world, sealing jutsu was the language, and ninjutsu was merely an operating interface.

Therefore... his cultivation had to start from the bottom up.

To verify his hypothesis, Mo Jingxian silently gathered a sphere of water in his palm.

Then, he slowly channeled his chakra into it.

He carefully observed the changes in the water mass; when his chakra accounted for one-tenth of the whole, he was able to manipulate the water into a fixed ninjutsu.

Following his hypothesis, he incorporated the sealing jutsu runes into it.

He slowly sensed the changes within, ready to make fine adjustments at any moment.

The chakra within the water sphere began to grow sluggish, no longer maintaining its activity.

As the two reached a point of equilibrium, the mass of water in his hand began to deform.

The water sphere seemed to possess a consciousness of its own; its overall shape began to stretch, and in a few moments, a water bird appeared in his palm.

The water bird transformed into a tree, then a flower, and finally into a ninja.

Mo Jingxian smiled as he watched the changes in the water mass in his palm. This was merely a small trick; the foundation of the ninjutsu remained the Water Dragon Technique.

However, the line of reasoning was correct: using the Principles of Sealing Jutsu to increase the proportion of active substances.

"Water Body Flicker," "Water Substitution," and "Mist of Vitality"—these three ninjutsu had already been integrated into the "Water Dragon Technique."

As his understanding of the water element deepened, more techniques would be integrated into it in the future.

This also proved that ninjutsu was merely an operating window; the architectural logic was already fixed, and it did not possess the authority to manipulate the water element directly.

Thus, the direction for his subsequent cultivation became clear.

Comprehension of the water element was the root, while mastering more water-style ninjutsu was the shortcut.

No world was composed of a single element, and the Ninja World was no exception.

By analogy, wouldn't it be a logical progression to grind out mastery talents for other elements?

He was thinking a bit too far ahead; he pulled his thoughts back to reality.

Calculating based on his current strength, he was roughly at the level of an elite Chunin.

He was walking the path of Nintaijutsu, and by continuing to develop according to the aforementioned viewpoint, he would soon experience a surge in strength.

Through two encounters with elite Jonin, Mo Jingxian had straightened out his cultivation path, laying a solid foundation for his future development.

Days passed one by one.

Mo Jingxian seized every spare moment to cultivate, gradually converting his accumulated potential into strength.

Half a month later, an order arrived, signaling that his leisurely days had officially come to an end.

Early July.

Near the entrance of the Konoha camp, Mo Jingxian handed his warrant to the team-leading Jonin, Nara Shikuta.

At this moment, two other Genin were present, a boy and a girl, who looked like rookies who had just graduated.

Nara Shikuta finished his inspection, stamped the warrant with his unique seal, and returned it to the three of them.

"I am your supervising Jonin, Nara Shikuta.

I specialize in Shadow Possession-type ninjutsu. Now, please introduce yourselves."

The handsome-looking boy was the first to step forward.

"Hello everyone, my name is Shinju Ishikawa. I specialize in Taijutsu and medical ninjutsu. I look forward to working with you all."

The boy's answer was standard and proper; his upbringing and etiquette were impeccable.

"Mo Jingxian, specializing in Nintaijutsu and Genjutsu. Combat record: killed a Chunin puppeteer and escaped from three elite Jonin."

As soon as the words fell, the scene suddenly went quiet.

Both rookies stared at him with shocked expressions.

[Reputation from Shinju Ishikawa +1]

[Reputation from Ayako Hyuuga +10]

Hm?

It was her, the Hyuuga girl who had once inexplicably gifted Mo Jingxian 5 reputation points.

The two outsized gifts had left a deep impression on him, and now he had finally met her in person.

However, Mo Jingxian did not show it immediately; he would leave it for later observation. There was no need to rush.

He was destined to take a high-profile route from here on out, so he had thrown out his combat record directly.

Doing this had another benefit: it would avoid many unnecessary troubles in the days to come.

After the two newly graduated Genin had properly digested the information for a while, the Byakugan girl stepped out, blushing, to introduce herself.

"Ayako Hyuuga, twelve years old. Specializes in reconnaissance and Gentle Fist. Hobbies include flower arranging. I look forward to your guidance."

Reconnaissance, combat, and medical capabilities—all were covered.

It was a very standard combat squad.