Konan and Haruna, the System Revealed

Only after the gray-clad jonin left did Su Zheng finally lower his guard and ease his tense body.

To ensure his Chidori landed, he had carefully planned everything and only struck when his opponent let down his guard. Though he had failed to kill him, resolving this crisis was still pretty good!

Su Zheng looked at the Sand Ninja trapped in the mire and decided to deal with him first. It had not been easy to capture someone alive; he had to get some information out of him.

Su Zheng formed hand seals and slapped the ground.

Earth Style: Mud Sculpting!

The slick mud within the swamp surged up, flowing over Chunin Ken's entire body before gradually hardening. It was an ordinary binding technique.

Su Zheng threatened viciously, "You dared to do this? Don't expect things to go well for you after falling into my hands. You'll get to experience all ten great tortures one by one!"

There was no expression on Chunin Ken's square face as he recalled Lord Zhencun's orders when assigning the mission: "If you are captured, destroy yourself voluntarily. If you dare leak any information, your entire family will be buried with you!"

Those harsh orders still rang in his ears! He had thought it would be a simple mission, yet he had fallen into the hands of a "genin" he had looked down on.

Scenes of his family flashed through his mind, one after another.

"No. For my family's glory, I must make this sacrifice!"

The mud sculpting was not yet complete. He still had a chance. Looking at Su Zheng so close before him, Chunin Ken revealed a cruel smile.

"Die with me!"

Boom! Boom! Boom!

A violent explosion erupted. The swamp where he stood was blasted into a huge crater, mud flying everywhere. Just as the three members of Akai Squad were about to step forward, they were drenched from head to toe by the splattering mud.

After the explosion, the swamp had completely vanished, leaving only a pitch-black crater and mud scattered all around it.

One member of Akai Squad cautiously stepped forward and cried sorrowfully, "Captain, Su Zheng sacrificed himself to save us. He..."

Just as the emotion was building, he was interrupted.

"Cough, cough, cough... Who are you saying died? Hurry up and pull me out!"

Su Zheng's filthy, disheveled figure appeared more than ten meters below, inside the former swamp.

Akai Ueyama hurriedly pulled him up, staring at him in astonishment, unable to understand how he was unharmed.

Su Zheng collapsed onto the ground and gulped in air as he explained, "When I saw him smiling at me, I knew he was up to no good. I immediately used an Earth Style jutsu to escape. I didn't expect that guy to still be able to use such a powerful technique while trapped!"

Akai wore an expression of sudden realization, then said awkwardly, "A Zheng, I'm sorry. Before this, I thought you only had the title of 'genius' because of Lord Hanzo. I was being petty. Please forgive me, and thank you for saving us."

The change from "brat" to "A Zheng" said everything. It took a life-or-death experience to clear up the misunderstanding!

Su Zheng waved his hand, showing that he did not mind. He responded, "All right, I'm used to this sort of thing. You guys clean up the battlefield while I rest."

The members of Akai Squad stopped dwelling on it as well, and the barrier between the two squads silently disappeared.

After the battlefield had been cleaned up, Su Zheng's teammates arrived as well. They seemed to be doing fairly well.

At that moment, Akai walked over and said, "There were three chunin. Aside from the one who was blown up, the other two corpses have been stored in scrolls. You must accept these spoils of war!"

They had saved his squad's lives, so of course he had to give them these spoils.

The spoils were nothing more than ninja tools, medicine, scrolls, and the like. Su Zheng did not refuse and accepted everything.

Su Zheng checked everyone's condition and suggested resting for a while.

Other than Su Zheng, who had suffered no serious injuries, everyone else was wounded. More importantly, their Chakra was nearly depleted. Resting and recovering would be best.

Besides, ever since the battle began, there had not been a single sound from the town. It was extremely strange.

After discussing it, they decided to investigate. As ninja, protecting the villagers of their own country was only right!

The transport squad cautiously searched each room, but there was no one on the outskirts of town. Everything seemed to have been rummaged through and left in complete disarray!

Inside several houses at the center of the village, they found a large number of civilians. All of them were unconscious and had likely fallen under genjutsu.

Chunin Akai was about to step forward to dispel the genjutsu when Su Zheng stopped him. "Captain Akai, it would be best to use clones. There could be traps!"

Su Zheng had already displayed his combat strength, so no one doubted him. Everyone formed hand seals. "Water Clone Jutsu!"

They used Water Clones to dispel the genjutsu cast on the civilians.

Suddenly, Su Zheng's Water Clone discovered an Explosive Tag attached to someone's body. Once the genjutsu was dispelled, the Explosive Tag ignited. Su Zheng immediately tore off the person's clothes and threw them out the window.

Boom! The blast wave shattered the window glass and made the door creak violently.

Everyone's pupils contracted. Thankfully, Su Zheng had warned them, or they might have been ruined here.

But Su Zheng thought of some unlucky bastard who had died to an Explosive Tag!

The group became even more careful and quickly finished handling the situation. The crowd gradually woke up, shouting and clamoring until the place descended into chaos.

Su Zheng and the others left the remaining matters to Captain Akai. The three of them went outside to rest.

Su Zheng looked at Shota, who was wrapped in bandages in several places, and burst out laughing. "Look at you. What a mess you're in. That was a deep lesson, wasn't it?"

Shota humbly accepted it, then analyzed the situation seriously. "It really was. That chunin was very clever. My casting speed was too slow. Every time I was about to finish, he interrupted me. And he wouldn't come close, leaving us no chance at all. I just didn't expect him to mess up."

Maki also put on a serious expression. "We lack combat experience. Otherwise, he never could have hurt us."

After a pause, she said proudly, "My man is very strong!"

The first half had been quite good, so why had the second half turned into a declaration of love? Watching them comfort each other, Su Zheng rolled his eyes.

After Akai finished settling the civilians and organizing the documents, he brought several children outside.

After the two incidents, everyone had vaguely begun to regard Su Zheng as their leader and sought his opinion on everything.

"A Zheng, some of these people are locals, while others are refugees fleeing from war. They came here believing they could escape the war, but they never expected this place to be affected as well."

"And they have lost all their money. There are also two children. They fled here as refugees too."

Su Zheng followed the voice and saw two girls.

"This is... Konan." The screen in Su Zheng's mind lit up.

One girl had blue-purple hair tied into a bun, pale orange-yellow eyes, and delicate features. She was being shielded behind another girl with short black hair.

Su Zheng stepped forward, crouched down, and smiled gently at the black-haired girl. "Don't be afraid. We're here to protect you. What's your name? What happened here?"

The black-haired girl answered boldly, "My name is Haruna, and she is Konan. We're both war orphans. We thought this place was safe, but a group of people suddenly came today. They took our money and locked us up. After that, we don't remember anything."

Then the girl revealed a pleading expression and asked, "Big brother, can you take us in? Don't worry, we're very capable. We can wash clothes and cook!"

Konan tightly gripped her friend's hand, unable to understand why Haruna was asking the boy before them to take them in. He was quite good-looking, but that gleaming forehead protector meant he was a ninja. Ninja had destroyed their home.

Haruna had no time to explain. On the way over, she had been wondering what kind of person could command several ninja. She had not expected it to be a young boy.

After the war, Haruna had learned many things. She was clever and perceptive. In this chaotic era, how could they survive without relying on the strong?

Haruna's words greatly surprised everyone, including Su Zheng. He had still been thinking of a reason to adopt them, yet she had unexpectedly given him an assist.

Su Zheng saw through the girl's thoughts but did not expose her. Instead, he felt an intense bitterness. At such a young age, she already had to think about survival. War truly was tragic!

Su Zheng took a deep breath to calm himself. Looking sincerely at Haruna, who was pretending to be composed, and the somewhat timid Konan, he said, "I'm an orphan too. I can understand your pain. Are you willing to trust me?"

Haruna pulled Konan along and nodded wildly. She was about to bow in thanks when Su Zheng pulled her up and gave Maki a look.

"Come on, big sister will take you to eat something delicious!" Maki turned around and led the two little girls away.

Su Zheng looked at the silent crowd and said, "War has brought too much suffering to this country. I've experienced it myself, so I don't want them to go through my pain. Since we've met them, I want to take them in. What do you all think?"

Shota had no objections. He naturally had to support his good brother.

Akai actually admired Su Zheng greatly. At such a young age, he could understand the pain of war and still protect the weak. That was truly rare!

Everyone agreed, and the matter was settled!

Akai had a question. "These Sand Ninja are very strange. They seemed to know about our operation beforehand. But what's strange is, why did they rob civilians of their money? There's no reason for them to come specifically to do that!"

Su Zheng could not make sense of it either. This mission had been strange from the start, and he thought of that ambiguous smile.

Could it have been him? Killing him merely because he refused to return to the family did not seem like sufficient reason!

With no clues, everyone stopped dwelling on it. The matter would be reported to their superiors.

The transport squad rested in the town for half an hour. After discussing it, Maki and Shota stayed behind to look after the girls while Su Zheng and Akai Squad continued the mission.

They still had to transport the supplies, as well as meet his uncle Hanzo.