Naming Is Hard

"Shiro, didn't you say you wanted to become an Archer someday? Why haven't we seen you practice?" Chosuke asked doubtfully.

Seiyu chimed in from the side, "Yeah, I don't think I've ever seen you use one."

"Now that you mention it, that's true. There doesn't seem to be anyone in the village who specializes in archery, and hardly anyone even uses bows. This might be troublesome for you. Why don't you reconsider?" Yamada said worriedly. As their teacher, Yamada's advice was quite reliable. After all, there really were very few people in the world of Hokage who used bows, especially ninja. But Shiro had his own ideas. Nuke Sword Immortals were still pretty cool, after all. Of course, he couldn't tell them that yet, so he could only joke, "Only third-rate Archers use bows. True Archers pull out blades!"

"..."

"..."

"..."

Seeing that he didn't want to explain, the three of them stopped asking. Only Yamada said, "It's good that you have your own ideas." Then that was it! Just like that! All of Shiro's wild ideas were completely stifled.

A week passed quickly. After a week of training, Shiro had made very limited progress. He wasn't a genius, after all, and such a short time wouldn't bring much change. His proficiency with Reinforcement Magecraft had improved, and the speed of his reinforcements had increased slightly. Projection Magecraft, however, remained the same. Limited by his Chakra reserves, he could currently only project weapons like kunai and Shuriken. The duration had increased somewhat, but it still couldn't be used in actual combat and could only serve to gain experience.

It was worth mentioning that Shiro had learned many ninjutsu through Projection Magecraft. Theoretically, he understood their casting principles and precautions, but he simply couldn't use them. More accurately, there were some ninjutsu he couldn't use. Shiro roughly summarized the issue and discovered that the ninjutsu he could use were all those without elemental transformation. Aside from Wind Release, he couldn't use the other four elemental releases. He had encountered Yin-Yang Release too rarely to try it, but he probably couldn't use that either. Shiro's current guess was that the origin of Magecraft conflicted with Chakra attributes. After all, he had never heard of anyone from Type-Moon or Hokage being unable to use Magecraft or ninjutsu beyond their own origin or attributes. They merely had lower power and greater consumption.

Shiro didn't know whether that guess was correct, but it was currently the most plausible explanation. Still, that didn't mean those ninjutsu were useless. Of course, they were completely useless to Shiro right now. His Chakra couldn't even sustain both Magecraft spells, so where would he find extra Chakra to use ninjutsu? Thus, Shiro had only learned a C-rank Wind Release: Great Breakthrough to make up for his lack of ranged attacks.

In the future, he could use them to teach others or enrich his own foundation of knowledge.

That day, Team Yamada, having trained for a week, gathered in front of the Hokage Office Building. After all, ninja earned their income through missions. Not every ninja was like that blond idiot, with enough money to post missions just so he could rest at home.

Of course, Team Yamada didn't need to take on cat-catching missions. After all, they had participated in the battle that made the Sannin famous, even if they had only been small fry standing nearby and listening to the commentary shout "so gay." Still, they were small fry who had seen the world, weren't they?

After a week of training, Chosuke and Seiyu had become increasingly skilled at flaunting their affection. Right now, the two of them were shamelessly hugging in front of the Hokage Office Building.

"I'm saying, can you two mind your public image? I'm already stuffed," Shiro finally couldn't help protesting.

"Hehe, if you can't stand it, you can go find one yourself!" Chosuke said provocatively to Shiro.

"..." Do you think everyone is a pervert like you? You're only seven!

Just as Shiro was wondering where to begin with all the complaints in his head, Yamada came out of the building. "What are you talking about?"

"We were talking about when Shiro's going to get a girlfriend. Hehe."

"I'm saying, Seiyu, you're only seven. Don't you think this is too early? You should focus on training. Shiro is already a fair bit stronger than you two," Yamada said helplessly.

"Exactly. All you do is talk about love and romance. That's the wrong path!" Shiro said happily from the side. He had finally found an ally!

"Tch. If you can't find one, you can't find one. What excuses are you making? Anyway, sensei, what's our mission?"

Shiro had originally wanted to argue, but everything was shoved back down his throat. After all, the prevailing mindset was that missions came before everything else.

At the mention of the mission, Yamada's teasing expression disappeared. He said seriously, "This mission is to wipe out a group of bandits!"

"Kill people?" Hearing that, the three children fell silent. Though they had experienced a year of war, most of what they had done on the battlefield had been logistical work. They weren't accustomed to killing, so all of them grew quiet. But no matter what, the mission still had to continue.

"Alright, let's set off quickly. It's a little far," Yamada said. Though he wanted to comfort them, this was something they had to work through themselves. He could only take things one step at a time. Because they had detailed intelligence, Shiro and the others didn't linger much along the way.

Even so, it took them a week to arrive. "Yamada-sensei, can't we take a closer mission next time? This one is far away and doesn't even pay much," Shiro complained from the side.

"Exactly. We rushed the entire way, and I barely got to bathe," Seiyu complained as well.

"Hehe... hehe, I understand. It won't happen again next time," Yamada said with an apologetic smile. This time, he had woken up late, causing all the better missions to be taken already, so he didn't have much confidence in his words. But they were still carrying out a mission, and he knew what mattered most. He continued, "Alright, make your preparations. We're moving out!"

"Yes!" x3

At once, Shiro and the others stopped fooling around. After making their preparations, they began the operation.

"Most of the enemies this time are ordinary people, so I'll watch from the side. Shiro will command the operation," Yamada said.

"Yes!" x3

Seiyu and Chosuke had no objections, since Shiro was the strongest. Shiro didn't hesitate either and immediately decided to split up. With Reinforcement Magecraft, Shiro was significantly stronger than the other two, and Yamada was there to protect them, so nothing should go wrong. Still, he assigned the two of them the easier task: sneak in from behind and carry out assassinations. Shiro, meanwhile, would charge in from the front and draw attention.

After saying that, Chosuke and Seiyu began circling toward the rear, while Shiro waited in place for a while. Once he roughly estimated that Chosuke and Seiyu had reached their positions, Shiro began moving.

"Trace on!"

With a thought from Shiro, blue lines began appearing across his body! Then Shiro suddenly rushed forward!

"So that's Reinforcement Ninjutsu! It looks amazing every time I see it. Such a boost with so little Chakra! And this kid has gotten faster again!" Yamada thought in shock as he watched Shiro charge out.

Shiro didn't know what Yamada was thinking. He didn't have much time.

Besides Reinforcement Magecraft, he also activated Projection Magecraft, projecting one of Yamada's Shuriken into his pocket to gain Yamada's combat experience. Shiro had yet to awaken Mind's Eye, an innate ability, so he couldn't adapt to the suddenly enhanced strength on his own. He could only borrow it. With his current Chakra reserves, maintaining two Magecraft spells at once was strenuous.

"Enemy attack!"

Shiro had no intention of hiding himself. First, there wasn't enough time. Second, he was going to conduct a real assassination! Naturally, the other side discovered him. Shiro had expected that shout, so he wasn't too surprised. Chosuke and Seiyu, on the other hand, were startled.

"Wasn't this supposed to be an assassination? Did we learn it wrong?" At that moment, Chosuke and Seiyu deeply doubted what they had been taught.

Meanwhile, though Shiro was surrounded, he fought as if he were knocking down children with a single punch each. With Reinforcement Magecraft empowering him, every one of those bandits went down in one punch! Just as Shiro was immersed in the thrill of mowing them down—

Suddenly, the bandit he had just punched transformed into a log with a bang!

Substitution Technique! Ninja!

Those two words had only just flashed through Shiro's mind when he felt a fierce gust of wind beside him. He barely managed to evade the kunai thrown from behind before a kick sent him flying!

"You're really a disgrace. Full-fledged ninja, yet you've become bandits," Shiro mocked the two after getting to his feet.

"Hmph, how could you people from the great ninja villages understand our hardships? We—"

"Enough!" The ninja who had thrown the kunai was interrupted by his companion before he could finish. "Deal with him quickly!"

"Heh, you understand the situation pretty well. But don't you think it's too late?" Shiro mocked from the side.

Boom! At that moment, as though to support Shiro's words, a loud explosion suddenly echoed from up the mountain.

"Damn! Explosive Tags!" x3

Obviously, the "x3" made it clear that this explosion was not part of Shiro's plan. Of course, surprise was surprise, but outwardly he remained calm and seized the opportunity!

Earth Release: Double Suicide Decapitation Technique!

The ninja who had thrown the kunai was instantly dragged underground.

"What?!"

His companion turned in horror. He hadn't expected there to be an ambush! He froze for a moment. Naturally, Shiro wouldn't let that chance go. He rushed forward!

"Trace on!"

At the same time, he concentrated Chakra and reinforced his right fist! He threw a vicious punch, directly shattering the rogue ninja's heart!

The battle ended smoothly, a victory that had been expected. They were only two rogue ninja, and the kind who hadn't even fully learned the Three Basic Techniques!

Moreover, they had Yamada's assistance. That was right, Yamada had been nearby ever since the two ninja appeared. More accurately, Yamada had been standing beside those two the whole time, yet they hadn't noticed him at all. This showed the gap between rogue ninja and ninja from the great villages.

Though those two were weak even among rogue ninja, Yamada was only a Chunin. Shiro once again felt glad that he had been reborn in Konoha.

"What are you spacing out for, brat? Hurry up. Let's go check on Chosuke and Seiyu. They even used Explosive Tags. There aren't any ninja up there, but we should get up there quickly anyway."

"Alright." Only then did Shiro remember that he had two teammates.