Ice Release's First Display of Might

BOOM!

Amidst the constant roar of explosions, both Konoha and Rock Ninja were frantically carving out new corpses on the battlefield, striving to slaughter as many enemies as possible.

Explosive Tags, jokingly referred to as "portable Fire Release," were one of the favorite weapons for ninjas of all nations on the battlefield. Even a Genin who knew absolutely no ninjutsu could achieve considerable lethality if they used this tool properly.

Even though they were currently being used by individual ninjas one by one, the number of lives they reaped far exceeded that of various ninjutsu and secret techniques; they were, in truth, the number one killing tool on the battlefield.

On the battlefield, the ninjas of both sides were carving out different combat zones, fighting incessantly. Even in a state of war, ninjas did not truly fight like an army; they still operated in squads, engaging in skirmishes within a certain range.

Because of this, even though the total number of ninjas on both sides combined was only in the thousands, they occupied a space that would normally require tens of thousands of regular troops to fight in. This could be considered the best reflection of the pros and cons of the ninja profession.

Powerful ninjas possessed the strongest individual combat capability, standing at the pinnacle of all professions, but the diversity of ninjutsu also meant that ninjas lacked the ability to conduct large-scale group warfare. Regardless of quantity or combat style, the squad system was the only way for ninjas to fight in groups.

The area where Qi was located was just one such segment. As for his seemingly flashy intrusion, it was not worth mentioning on this battlefield. Genin from clans who possessed secret techniques were countless in the ninja world; they didn't make people feel particularly surprised. Only those frogs at the bottom of the well who never left their homes would think they were special.

But his intrusion still had an effect. His arrival greatly boosted the morale of this Konoha squad, and the scattered ice spikes also disrupted the Rock Ninja's formation. If you didn't dodge that stuff, it would cost you your life...

However, once the balance of two evenly matched sides is broken, the result is often a miserable death. Thus, the Rock Ninja squad inevitably proved this point.

SPLAT!

The sound of sharp weapons piercing flesh rang out one after another. In the blink of an eye, the remaining ninjas on the Rock Ninja side met a terrible fate. Three or four Rock Ninja were killed by Konoha ninjas before they even had a chance to fight for their lives.

"Success!"

Having just landed, Qi clenched his fists with some excitement.

With this, they could face the second wave of the Rock Ninja squad with a numerical advantage!

"Hah!"

Suddenly, a wild roar came from behind. Qi turned his head to see a Rock Ninja, who had appeared from nowhere, lunging at him with a Kunai, even though he was already covered in wounds.

Without the slightest hesitation, Qi immediately activated Ice Release. A substantial block of ice crystal quickly formed above his head and then slammed fiercely in front of the Rock Ninja. Accompanied by the dust kicked up by the impact, the battered Rock Ninja was instantly sent flying, tumbling to the ground.

"There's one more alive!"

"Finish him!"

"Kill!"

Before the Rock Ninja could even crawl up, several Konoha ninjas appeared around him. They unleashed a flurry of long and short weapons, immediately hacking him into a pulp.

In the chaos, this Rock Ninja's head was sliced off by a Konoha ninja's blade. After tracing a graceful parabola in the air, it landed precisely at Qi's feet and rolled a few times. On the mud-covered face, a pair of eyes that refused to close seemed to express the lingering resentment he held in life.

This made Qi very awkward... The Ice Release he had intended to use for a counterattack was only halfway through its hand seals...

War between ninjas and combat between ninjas are truly two different things...

Seeing the carnage before him, this thought flashed through Qi's mind involuntarily.

He had fought quite a few battles; if judged by his current level, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say he was battle-hardened. Unfortunately, combat and war were ultimately different.

As far as combat went, he basically only needed to fight people of his own level—the Genin tier. But that tier, at its peak, only reached the level of a Special Jonin, not even touching the level of a true Chunin, let alone the fact that he had always been fighting one-on-one...

But on the battlefield, there were only sides, no levels. You fought whoever you ran into, depending entirely on your luck. Naturally, no one would fight you fairly; this Rock Ninja was a prime example.

"Hey, rookie over there! What are you doing? Hurry up and recover your stamina while you can; the Rock Ninja will be up here soon!"

A surviving Konoha ninja, who happened to see Qi standing there in a daze, shouted quickly. He had seen too many rookies die on the battlefield due to mental issues rather than a lack of strength.

"This is no place to be spacing out!"

This shout woke Qi up in time, making him wish he could slap himself...

What kind of bird-brained personality do I have? To actually space out on the battlefield...

"But is it okay to rest here? Can't they attack us from a distance?"

Since his teammates hadn't come up yet, Qi temporarily gathered with the survivors of this Konoha squad. Ninjas who were left alone on the battlefield often died miserable deaths. Jonin were an exception, but he was still a hundred thousand miles away from the level of a Jonin; he didn't have the ability to play the lone wolf.

"At this distance, it's fine! The Rock Ninja prefer close-quarters combat, and besides, they have to conserve their Explosive Tags!"

The Konoha ninja who had just reminded Qi answered casually, then pulled a Military Ration Pill from his ninja pouch and swallowed it.

Qi knew about this stuff; it seemed to replenish chakra and stamina, though it appeared to have some side effects...

"This stuff... it doesn't seem good to eat too much of it..."

Qi couldn't help but ask. Subconsciously, he still found it hard to shake off some of the concepts from his previous life.

"First time I've seen a rookie like you, even though your strength is quite high..."

The ninja was probably being asked this question for the first time, and a look of disbelief appeared on his face.

"If you die on the battlefield, you won't have the energy to worry about the future, right? In our line of work, we're short-lived to begin with. Thinking about what happens later is too much of a luxury for us. You'd better get used to it, or you'll die."

Although the words were harsh, they were the truth. From what Qi understood, there were very few ninjas in this world who would worry about the future of their bodies when they started fighting.

And the one who had taken this to the extreme was his current master, Orochimaru, who would later simply treat his own body as spare parts, swapping them out at will...

"I understand, thank you..."

Knowing he had asked a stupid question, Qi honestly admitted his mistake.

"Don't mention it. Rookies are all like that, one more dense than the last. You're not bad, even if you are a bit strange."

"..."

Qi felt that he absolutely loathed the title of "newbie" by now.

He began to rest in place to recover his stamina just like the others; this style of combat, which would never appear on a formal battlefield, was actually quite common in the ninja world. Ninjas were never a regular army, so naturally, they did not employ the tactics of one.

During this process, Uchiha Xiu and the others finally arrived, making the strength of this squad even more formidable.

The so-called rest was actually just replenishing stamina with a Military Ration Pill and tending to a few wounds. Once all this was settled, this new squad began to advance in the direction of the Rock Ninja.

Hyuga Tong was crucial at this moment; the auxiliary utility of his Byakugan on the battlefield was far superior to the Sharingan.

Soon, the group entered an area filled with large amounts of rubble. When the earth walls of the Rock Ninja army had collapsed earlier, massive amounts of mud, stone, and dust had been scattered everywhere, forming a significant belt of debris on the battlefield.

"Rock Ninja spotted! They are lying in ambush in the rubble to our front right!"

Tong suddenly roared in a low voice.

"Eight people in total!"

One had to admit that the reconnaissance capability of the Byakugan was truly incredible. Those eight Rock Ninja genin likely never imagined that their hiding spots had already been completely exposed to the Konoha side.

If there had been a chunin among them, it might have been different, as they could have relied on special methods to evade Hyuga Tong's detection. But since they were of the same rank, there was no chance. The Byakugan had no other special talent, but it loved to play at breaking through rank limitations; things of the same level posed no difficulty to it. Even the genjutsu of an Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan could be broken by the Byakugan once it reached a certain stage.

"They probably know they don't have the advantage in numbers, so they want to use this method to take us out?"

A genin acting as the temporary squad leader nodded.

Being a leader wasn't just about having high strength; it required organizational ability. Organization and individual combat were two different things. Although the group with Qi possessed the strength of special chunin, their own organizational skills were nothing to write home about, so the position of leader was naturally handed to someone with experience.

Furthermore, this genin was originally a squad leader from the first wave of troops.

"Everyone, let's play along with their scheme. We'll just approach like this and catch them off guard. When engaging with Rock Ninja, pay special attention to your feet. Their genin also include members of prominent clans, and many of them possess bizarre abilities."

He said this primarily for the sake of Uchiha Xiu and the others who had arrived later; he didn't want his own people to lose their lives due to some inexplicable sense of superiority.

"Understood."

Having witnessed true ninja warfare, Uchiha Xiu had long since abandoned that kind of pointless vanity. He wasn't an idiot, and now he would firmly commit any information to memory.

"We will be careful."

"Qi, I'll leave it to you to use your ninjutsu to disrupt the enemy. What is the time limit for your ninjutsu?"

As the group pretended not to notice anything while approaching the Rock Ninja's position, the leader asked Qi.

"There are eight of them, and they are spread out over a fairly wide area. Can you take them all out at once? If not, use the distance you feel most confident in, and leave the rest to us."

"No problem..."

Based on the positions Tong had just pointed out, Qi roughly estimated the distance between the Rock Ninja and finally nodded.

"At this distance, it's perfectly doable! Even those hiding in the ground using Earth Release, I can flush them out!"

Having a powerful bloodline limit was certainly convenient; fighting opponents of the same rank was such an advantage... No wonder so many people wanted to collect them.

Of course, the most powerful ones were undoubtedly the three great ocular techniques, which covered every field from individual duels to group brawls. The Cloud Ninja had always coveted the Byakugan; the Byakugan of the Hyuga clan could be awakened by anyone, and no other ability could compare to its enhancement of group combat power.

The reason the Konoha ninja army could be so powerful was absolutely inseparable from the contributions of the Hyuga clan.

"Thump... thump..."

As they got closer and closer to the Rock Ninja's position, Qi felt his heartbeat becoming increasingly rapid. Whether it was excitement or nervousness, this was his first time attacking so many enemies at once.

Most importantly, the timing of his technique had to be precise. If he did it too early, the Rock Ninja would react immediately and change tactics; if he did it too late, then "playing along with their scheme" would turn into actually falling for it.

Three seconds... two seconds... one second...

"Now!"

Just as his side stepped into the Rock Ninja's ambush circle, Qi suddenly let out a loud roar, slammed his palms together, and poured out his chakra with full force!

"Six-Directional Seal!"

"Rumble..."

Accompanied by a deafening roar, a large number of sharp, bone-chilling ice spikes erupted violently from the ground, piercing through the obstacles above them or launching them into mid-air.

Not only that, but in the surrounding air, countless ice crystals of various shapes appeared one after another, smashing fiercely toward the locations where the Rock Ninja were hiding!

"Ah!"

"What is this!?"

"Captain! Save me!"

Screams and curses rang out almost simultaneously. The Rock Ninja, who were just about to launch their attack, were suddenly met with a catastrophe.

The Konoha ninjas were excellent actors. The Rock Ninja were fully convinced that the other side had fallen for their trap and were even about to launch their own attack in the next moment. Who could have expected that the prey would suddenly become the hunter!?

In particular, the two Rock Ninja hiding underground using Earth Release had no chance at all; they were pierced through by the ice spikes, and the subsequently expanding ice crystals tore their bodies apart. As soon as they emerged from the earth, they became chunks of mangled flesh, scattering from mid-air.

Sudden strikes were often the most effective. Caught off guard, the Rock Ninja lost half their numbers in a single exchange. Aside from the two Rock Ninja in the ground who were killed instantly, those on the surface didn't fare any better; one was skewered by an ice spike that appeared beneath his feet, and another failed to dodge the surrounding ice crystals and was crushed to death.

If these four Rock Ninja had surrounded Qi in a head-on battle, it might have been Qi who died, but under these circumstances, it was naturally them who perished.

Not only that, but what rained down from the air, besides flesh and blood, was pitch-black mud containing chakra. This was clearly the result of destroying a large number of Earth Clones. It was evident that the Rock Ninja's ambush had been well-planned, with all sorts of preparations made, just waiting for a thunderous strike. If not for Qi's Ice Release, the Konoha side would likely have suffered casualties even if they had won.

"Kill!"

Seeing this scene, the genin squad leader was overcome with wild joy. The power of Qi's ninjutsu far exceeded his expectations. It seemed that this time, his side might not even lose a single person.

Without even needing to use Explosive Tags, relying purely on simple ninja tool attacks, the remaining four Rock Ninja forced into mid-air by Qi's Ice Release became sitting ducks; each of them had at least a dozen holes in their bodies, and they had all breathed their last before even hitting the ground.

Being caught in mid-air was already a major taboo, and since these Rock Ninja had even had their clones destroyed by the Ice Release, they were all in their true forms! A group of genin exposed in their true forms, suspended in mid-air with no way up or down—what could they do but die?

Furthermore, the Konoha ninja, fearing these men might not be thoroughly dead, rushed up the moment their corpses hit the ground to deliver finishing blows and dismember them, not even giving them a chance to play dead...

Even Qi had grown accustomed to this method of slaughter by now; in the profession of a ninja, as long as one died in battle, there was basically no hope of leaving behind an intact corpse. If the enemy didn't dismember you, your own side wouldn't let the enemy take your body away, and if it couldn't be carried off, it would generally be disposed of even more ruthlessly than the enemy would have.

"Everyone, hurry up and retrieve your ninja tools. We don't need to push forward for now; we're almost out of our main force's maximum support range. Let's wait for the other squads to catch up first!"

The captain, his face covered in blood, smiled broadly.

"It was too satisfying to kill today, but everyone, don't be negligent. On the battlefield, anything can happen! From now on, our mission is to hold the line!"

After speaking, he patted Qi on the shoulder.

"Well done. Counting the first support mission, this is your second contribution. When we return, we will submit a request for your commendation!"

"This time... let's count it toward Tong's record. If he hadn't pinpointed the enemy's position, I wouldn't have been able to pull it off..."

Qi was panting slightly. That last move had consumed a significant amount of energy; although it wasn't enough to drain his chakra entirely, he still needed to seize the time to recover. This was a battlefield, after all—if your chakra ran low, you would die very quickly.

"You're both the same, so there's no need for modesty. A tactic like this can only be used once. The Rock Ninja's rear guard will surely have seen the situation here clearly. The next time we clash, it will be a real, head-on confrontation."

The captain nodded in approval.

"You all should hurry and recover. After all, regarding the coming battles, I can no longer promise that everyone will definitely survive."

I've been way too busy lately, so I can't keep a stable update schedule. Plus, I'm going on a trip for three days starting tomorrow, so here's a chapter for now—everyone, just take a look.