"These forehead protectors are proof of military merit."
As if sensing Konan's confusion, Hyuga Wuye spoke without turning around.
"Oh... ugh."
Konan had only just opened her mouth when a bloody stench invaded her nose and mouth. Her stomach churned, and she nearly threw up.
"If you plan to become a ninja, you need to endure this smell until you're completely used to it."
Hyuga Wuye showed no inclination to go easy on her.
Before he had gone to war himself, his big sister had forced him to kill chickens for an entire day and smell chicken blood all day...
"Yes, Teacher."
Konan instinctively changed the way she addressed him.
At a time like this, Hyuga Wuye was her teacher, not Brother Wuye who made her blush.
"Konan."
After collecting the forehead protectors, Hyuga Wuye stood nonchalantly amid the sprawled corpses and turned back with a smile. "Did you understand how I tricked them all to death?"
Konan furrowed her brows as she recalled what had happened, then looked up. "Teacher was never there in person from the beginning. You used a Shadow Clone Technique with half your chakra; and because a shadow clone is condensed from chakra, you could use the Paper Person of God to completely transform the shadow clone's body into paper—that is, a Paper Clone Technique. Then you covered its body with explosive tags and added another layer of clothing."
"That caused those ninja to misjudge things from the start. They mistook Teacher's paper clone for your real body, so they fought over it and nearly perished together in the end."
She paused and thought some more. "And Teacher's tactics weren't meant for a direct fight. You gathered both sides' ninja together, using yourself as bait to draw them into surrounding you."
The more Konan thought