Becoming a Genin

To have been entangled with a Jonin for so long, Li Yi felt he had already done quite well. Yet, time was simply not on his side. He had been keeping his head down in the village, only to end up caught in this ridiculous mess; he felt quite desperate.

He could only hope that this massive firework would draw the attention of the Konoha ninja.

At this moment, the Jonin clearly understood the purpose of Li Yi's ninjutsu. He chuckled and said, "Kagami, your disciple is quite something."

As soon as the Jonin finished speaking, the Hidden Mist Technique dissipated. Li Yi froze for a moment, then let out a long sigh of relief. This Jonin was a friend of his teacher; it was just a false alarm. He had thought it was illogical to be attacked by a Jonin while hiding away in Konoha, but now it finally made sense.

Presumably, this was a test from his teacher.

Sure enough, Uchiha Kagami stepped out at this moment. He first nodded to the Jonin before looking at Li Yi, saying, "Not bad. It seems you haven't been slacking off lately."

Li Yi scratched his head, and the Jonin added, "Solid fundamentals and you know how to save yourself. You have the talent to become a ninja."

Li Yi didn't know who this Jonin was—he could even use the signature Water Release of the Hidden Mist Village—but since he was being praised, Li Yi politely expressed his gratitude.

After the Jonin body-flickered away, Uchiha Kagami said, "With your current quality, you are already qualified to be an excellent Genin. Tomorrow, I will recommend you to the Third Hokage to become a Genin. You might need to leave the village for missions, so prepare yourself."

Li Yi nodded quickly. Although he wasn't particularly eager to become a Genin, since Uchiha Kagami had said so, he likely had no right to refuse. After all, practicing chakra and learning ninjutsu while refusing to become a ninja would be considered deviant.

"Alright, go back and rest." After Uchiha Kagami finished speaking, he body-flickered away once more.

Li Yi could only return home. This time, he would likely become a ninja and truly step into the ranks of the shinobi.

Fortunately, Uchiha Kagami would be accompanying him, otherwise, Li Yi would have been genuinely panicked.

That afternoon, Li Yi received his Konoha forehead protector, which meant he was officially a Genin of Konoha.

With the protector in hand, Li Yi had no desire to be unconventional and obediently tied it around his forehead. Kosuke watched from the side, and after Li Yi became a Genin, he smiled and said, "Li Yi, congratulations on becoming a true ninja."

Li Yi smiled; becoming a ninja meant he would eventually have to step onto the battlefield.

For this, Kosuke specially treated Li Yi to a meal of grilled meat to celebrate.

The next day, when Li Yi woke up, he saw Uchiha Kagami waiting at his door. Li Yi quickly said, "Teacher."

Uchiha Kagami nodded and said, "Since you have just become a ninja, I will take you to accept some simple missions so you can get familiar with the process."

As he spoke, he led the way. Li Yi followed behind Uchiha Kagami toward the mission hall, where many Konoha ninja gathered to accept assignments.

Because the war had not yet ended, there were many refugees and bandits. These people affected the stability of the Land of Fire. Any group that turned to banditry would face strikes from Konoha, but if they settled down to build villages, Konoha would even provide them with protection. This was an unspoken rule among the Five Great Nations.

Due to the wars, refugees were inevitable. As long as they settled down peacefully and cultivated the land, the Five Great Nations were quite tolerant. However, once they started causing trouble and seeking gains without labor, they had to be prepared to be wiped out.

After looking around the mission hall, Uchiha Kagami picked a mission for Li Yi to exterminate a group of mountain bandits. Killing was the first lesson for a ninja, as the profession was primarily based on assassination.

Li Yi had long been mentally prepared. Ever since he returned to the Konoha camp with Kosuke, he had already witnessed such things, so he felt no resistance. If he wanted to survive in this Naruto world, these things were indispensable.

After showing his exit permit at the village gate, Uchiha Kagami led Li Yi toward the location of the bandit den according to the mission scroll.

When they were close, Uchiha Kagami vanished with a body-flicker. The rest was Li Yi's mission; the fact that Uchiha Kagami had accompanied him this far was already an extraordinary favor.

Li Yi took a deep breath, gripped his Ryujin Jakka, and walked up the mountain.

This was a bandit den without any real ninja; it was just a group of refugees who had occupied the mountain to rob passing merchant caravans and civilians. They had only been issued a bounty after provoking a caravan belonging to a high-ranking official of the Land of Fire.

Li Yi did not rush in blindly. Although the intelligence stated there were no ninja, he needed to scout and judge for himself, so he created a Shadow Clone to explore while he guarded the entrance.

Soon, the Shadow Clone popped. Li Yi cursed under his breath. Wasn't there supposed to be no ninja? Why had his Shadow Clone been destroyed?

Receiving the feedback from the clone, Li Yi realized he had been sent back by a Fire Release technique.

In other words, there was a ninja among these bandits who could use Fire Release.

However, based on the clone's feedback, this guy was likely just a Genin, not a Chunin or Jonin, as the Fire Release used was a very common Fireball Jutsu.

Having made his assessment, Li Yi took a kunai from his ninja pouch and threw it, hitting two patrolling bandits. Li Yi then rushed in at high speed, his Ryujin Jakka slicing across the necks of the bandits one by one.

Since he was in this chaotic world, there was no room for womanly kindness. The mission objective was to wipe them all out, which meant no survivors. Regardless of why they had taken to the mountain, if they were in a bandit den, their fate was sealed.

Li Yi's blade showed no mercy; whoever he saw, he struck down.

After being killed by Li Yi, a wisp of transparent thread was absorbed by the Ryujin Jakka in his hand. At first, Li Yi hadn't seen it clearly, but later on, he realized it was indeed absorbing those transparent threads.

Li Yi was baffled and didn't know what this phenomenon was, but thinking about how his Ryujin Jakka was a Zanpakuto, a bold idea began to form in his mind.

Could it be that to activate Ryujin Jakka, he had to kill many people? Could it only be activated by relying on this soul energy?

For now, Li Yi wasn't sure, but he would take it one step at a time and eventually find out.

"Fire Release: Fireball Jutsu!" At this moment, a burly man on the roof formed hand seals and spat out a large fireball toward Li Yi.

His Shadow Clone had been destroyed by this man's sneak attack, and now that the guy was repeating the same trick, how could Li Yi not be prepared?

As the fireball rushed toward him, Li Yi threw a kunai directly at it. Attached to the back of the kunai was an Explosive Tag—the only one he had. There was no helping it; these things were expensive, and this particular tag had been given to him by Kosuke.