Sacrifice

"I don't know them. Ask the teams behind us." The other person shook his head.

"Okay, thank you... thank you..."

The light in Hyuga Kaze's eyes dimmed slightly. He turned and hurriedly asked the next limping squad.

"Don't know them." Two more people shook their heads.

Hyuga Kaze kept asking along the way, and a growing sense of dread filled his heart.

"Hara Shunpei and Oizumi Ryoya?" A voice suddenly called from behind him.

Hyuga Kaze spun around and saw a long-haired ninja.

"Yes! Yes! Do you know them?" he asked urgently.

The long-haired ninja stroked his chin, brow tightly furrowed as he struggled to recall.

"Were they... both fairly tall? One had long hair and was a bit... chubby? The other..."

Hyuga Kaze's expression brightened, and he hurriedly added, "Right! The other one was bald! He had a very noticeable scar on his forehead!"

"Then it should be them." Prompted by that reminder, the long-haired ninja nodded with certainty. "Their captain is at the back of the column. I'll take you to him."

"Okay! That's wonderful! Thank you! Thank you so much!"

Hyuga Kaze thanked him repeatedly and followed the long-haired ninja toward the end of the column.

The long-haired ninja led Hyuga Kaze before a weary-looking middle-aged jonin in a green flak jacket and briefly explained the situation.

"They were sacrificed..."

The flak-jacketed jonin lowered his head. His voice was heavy, carrying undisguised grief.

"Sac... sacrificed? How could that be?!" Hyuga Kaze cried out in shock, as if struck by lightning.

They were two chunin, and their Body Flicker Technique was quite good. The border they rotated through was only adjacent to small countries.

The risk had not been particularly high. How had they suddenly been sacrificed?

"They should have returned long ago," the flak-jacketed jonin said in a low, suppressed voice. "But they were temporarily reassigned to infiltrate enemy territory and gather intelligence... They walked into an ambush."

"Not even their bodies came back..."

Hyuga Kaze could no longer hear what the flak-jacketed ninja said after that.

The flak-jacketed jonin continued saying something, but Hyuga Kaze could no longer hear him.

He turned around blankly, his eyes hollow and his thoughts in utter chaos, walking forward without any destination.

He did not even react when Hyuga Seisen called out to him.

Having suddenly learned of the two men's sacrifice, Hyuga Kaze could not accept it for the moment.

Seeing his dazed state, Hyuga Seisen did not disturb him.

Two close friends who had lived and died together were suddenly gone just like that.

Even ninjas accustomed to life and death found it hard to accept at first.

For the next several days, Hyuga Kaze remained muddleheaded.

Until after dinner on the fifth day, Hyuga Kaze unusually and silently put on the ninja tool pouch he had not used in a long time, then headed for the door without saying a word.

Hyuga Seisen had been keeping an eye on him.

Judging by the direction he was heading, he was likely going to the training ground.

Was he... getting ready to resume training?

After all, ever since retiring due to his serious injury, Hyuga Kaze had only taken on the simplest D-rank missions and had not trained properly for a long time.

But after giving it some thought, Hyuga Seisen's heart suddenly sank.

He was very likely planning to carry out that C-rank mission to eliminate the mountain bandits by himself!

The mission deadline was approaching, yet the teammates he had originally agreed upon would never return.

He immediately chased after him and grabbed Hyuga Kaze's arm.

"Dad..."

It took Hyuga Kaze three calls before he finally came back to his senses in a daze.

When he saw it was his son, a trace of life returned to his vacant eyes.

He forced out a faint smile. "It's you... Finished dinner?"

"I can help with that mission to eliminate the mountain bandits." Hyuga Seisen got straight to the point.

"Oh, that mission..." Hyuga Kaze waved his hand and said with forced ease, "I've already figured out who to team up with. Don't come make trouble. Go to school properly."

But Hyuga Seisen knew he was lying.

For a mission that had already been accepted, finding temporary teammates was simply unrealistic.

Unless mission personnel had been assigned by their superiors and had no choice, everyone sought out familiar, reliable teammates for this sort of commercial mission.

No one felt at ease putting their back to someone unfamiliar. There were plenty of people in the ninja world who stabbed their teammates in the back.

What was more, Hyuga Kaze had no mobility.

If he could casually find someone to form a team with, he would not have spent the past few years carrying out simple missions.

"Dad, my archery has made new progress. At the very least, I can help you snipe any fish that slip through the net."

Hyuga Seisen decided to reveal some of his abilities. The previous owner of this body had actually been tinkering with archery all along, but had never succeeded.

Now that he suddenly knew ninjutsu related to archery, it would not be too difficult for others to accept.

Seeing his son so proactive and serious for the first time, Hyuga Kaze suddenly felt a trace of comfort in his heart.

His son had once cared only about playing around and rebelling, but recently, he had suddenly matured a great deal.

He trained diligently now, had developed a sense of responsibility, and even knew to worry about his father's mission.

It would be even better if he put more of that effort into the Gentle Fist...

At that thought, Hyuga Kaze's gaze softened somewhat.

As for helping with the mission?

Hyuga Kaze shook his head inwardly.

This child had been rebellious since he was young. He thought practicing the Gentle Fist was too grueling and refused to put in the effort.

Every day, he obsessed over learning archery from him, saying he wanted to make use of the Byakugan's long-range vision and become a ninja who killed in a single strike.

But bows were huge and inherently inconvenient to carry while on missions.

Moreover, an arrow's power was entirely limited by the material of the bow itself.

Even if the wielder possessed immense strength, they could provide only negligible reinforcement to the arrow.

What did it matter if every shot hit? The arrows they fired could, at most, break through the defenses of some genin.

To certain chunin and jonin, such arrows were no different from toys.

Not to mention Hyuga Seisen's level, where he began missing from just over ten meters away.

The Hyuga Clan's Gentle Fist had been passed down for a thousand years. It might not be the strongest, but it was at least the most suitable.

If archery had suited the Hyuga Clan, it would have been developed long ago over those thousand years.

Still, it was rare for his son to take the initiative and offer to help, so Hyuga Kaze did not want to discourage him.

He patted Hyuga Seisen on the shoulder and said, "You're still young. Help Dad once you're a little older, alright?"

Hyuga Seisen wanted to say more, but Hyuga Kaze had already turned away.

Dragging that heavy leg, he continued resolutely toward the training ground.

Watching Hyuga Kaze's unusually stubborn back, he let out a helpless sigh.

Hyuga Kaze's impression of him was still fixed on the good-for-nothing he had been in the past, convinced that he would only be a burden if he went.

But it really was not Hyuga Kaze's fault.

Without the Stone Tablet's favor, with the previous owner's pitiful strength, going would indeed have meant dragging everyone down.

However, changing Hyuga Kaze's fixed impression of him was simple.

He just had to let him see it with his own eyes, feel it for himself...

That he now possessed strength enough to threaten him, and even fight alongside him!