Unfortunately, at this critical moment, before the Chunin could make a move, another person came leaping over at high speed. He didn't pause at all, landing on the surface of the water. The Land of Earth's Jonin was sweating, his expression grim. He glanced at his companion, who was about to charge forward, and shouted.
"Hey, Fu, retreat! Those two aren't ordinary opponents. I can't even sense their chakra anymore. Let's get out of here for now." The Jonin clearly wasn't a match for the female Jonin and Kakashi. Realizing something was wrong, he immediately ran off into the distance.
Hearing that Li's chakra had vanished, the Chunin named Fu changed expression. He gave Yang Xing a long look, then turned and left without a backward glance.
Yang Xing watched quietly, but didn't pursue them.
It was obvious that this group was just a collection of puppets, pawns sent out ahead of the main force. There was no need to chase them. It would only waste chakra.
"Is everyone all right?" The female Jonin hurried over. Seeing that everyone was safe, she finally breathed a sigh of relief. She looked especially surprised to find that Yang Xing was unharmed, too.
She was about to ask how the little guy had managed to escape.
But Anko's cry made everyone turn around.
"Ah, the mist is clearing! Sensei, the shore is over there. The village!"
The mist had clearly lifted, and the sight on the shore drew everyone's eyes. The scene before them made some of the people on the boat forget the battle and everything that had happened.
They were simply stunned by what they saw.
The land was in ruins, its very crust deformed. Houses of all sizes had been destroyed.
And the lake's reddened waters were an even more shocking sight.
With the village destroyed, in an era when ninjutsu was so powerful, there was probably no one in the entire village who had managed to escape alive.
This was the Shinobi World War. This was what battles between nations looked like.
The ones who always died were innocent civilians.
Compared to what lay before them, everyone had already forgotten how fierce the battle had been.
The female Jonin's face had gone pale. She gritted her teeth, and after forcing herself to look away, she said, "Let's go ashore. There might still be survivors."
"It looks like the Anbu Ninja are in grave danger, too." As the boat glided forward, the Jonin sensei stared at the scene ahead and murmured, "This can't be right. Given Konoha's strength, those people shouldn't have had a chance to do this."
By afternoon,
no matter how grim the scene was, their Warring States-era education in Konoha had kept them from showing much grief.
Near dusk, several kilometers from the ruined village, they set up a few tents and began making dinner.
After a fight and all that tension, they needed to relax.
Besides, Kakashi, Yang Xing, and the others were soaked from fighting in the lake. They needed to dry their clothes by the fire.
They lit a fire and rested.
At least for now, this wasn't the time to pursue the group of Earth ninjas. But returning from here wasn't an option, either. The mission wasn't over, and they still had another village to investigate.
Even though they knew the next village was likely in dire straits, they couldn't just leave.
That was Konoha's way. The mission came first.
The group gathered around the fire to warm themselves. Compared to earlier in the day, the mood was still much too somber.
They split into two groups. Anko's team had to prepare food and the like, so only the battered-looking Kakashi and Yang Xing's group remained by the fire.
In other words, Kakashi's team.
Around the flames, the four of them sat quietly, lost in thought.
Kakashi was the first to speak, poking at the fire. "Hey, I have a question for you."
He lifted his head and looked straight at Yang Xing.
"What?" Yang Xing looked up, surprised.
"Yang Xing, if you'd been fighting him, what chance would you have had of beating that Jonin?"
Kakashi's question made Rin Nohara and Obito turn to look. They understood now that Yang Xing was no ordinary fighter. He had clearly been hiding his strength from the start, and his skill was every bit as good as Kakashi's.
Now that they understood how strong Yang Xing was, all three of them were curious about just how capable he really was.
"About fifty percent." Now that Obito and the others had seen his various ninjutsu, Yang Xing had no reason to keep hiding his abilities.
"If it had been fifty percent, then with me there, we probably could've kept him here." Kakashi sounded regretful. Not having managed to stop the Jonin had clearly put him in a bad mood.
Or rather, Kakashi was upset that he hadn't gotten his revenge.
"Hey, hey, that guy was just a pawn. If we push ourselves too hard, things might not go well later. The Land of Fire isn't what it used to be, and neither is Konoha." Yang Xing lowered his voice, his tone heavy. "The more strength we save, the better our chances of surviving."
"Yeah." Kakashi lowered his head and stared at the fire.
It seemed he understood that, too.
Yang Xing's words left the others silent as well. The start of a war was never a good thing.
The strange atmosphere made Yang Xing unable to sit still. Perhaps it was because he was a transmigrator that he couldn't bring himself to feel grief over the destruction of a village. Perhaps it was because he didn't feel much attachment to Konoha.
Sitting here and brooding wouldn't suit his personality, and he couldn't force himself to feel sad, either.
"I'm going to take a leak!" Yang Xing tossed out an excuse and got up for some air. The mood was too oppressive.
Yang Xing stood and headed toward the woods.
Before he reached them, a notification in his ear caught his interest.
"Mission complete! Rank A mission activated. Accept? If accepted, the number of missions remaining will decrease."
"Of course I'll accept." Yang Xing took out his phone and pressed the accept button. Seeing that he had two attempts left, he couldn't help smiling. "I can't believe I completed the mission to survive three days so easily. It hasn't even been three days—barely two. I wonder how the system calculates it. Maybe the mission ended automatically once the danger was over."
"B-rank mission completed. Three-star rating."
"Three-star rating?"
That made sense. Yang Xing was sure he would've gotten five stars if he'd stopped that Jonin or killed him outright.
But there was nothing to be done about letting him escape. It would've been a waste to activate the Sharingan and chase him down just to kill him.
Even without the five-star doubled reward, the three-star reward was pretty good.
The basic reward alone was already great!
"An Evolution Fruit, and a special achievement: Undying Cockroach, a green unique achievement. What the heck is that? Well, this buff seems pretty good. Running Away Is My Specialty: agility increased by 50 percent. Are you kidding me? I didn't run away! I didn't run at all! What kind of ridiculous achievement is this?"
Undying Cockroach (Unique Achievement) Endurance +100 percent; a chance to become immune to one ninjutsu below S-rank each day. Running Away Is My Specialty (Ordinary Achievement) Agility +50 percent.
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