Sacrifice

"I don't know them. Try asking the teams behind us." The man shook his head.

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

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

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

Hyuga Kaze kept asking all the way down the line, and a bad feeling gradually rose in his heart.

"Hara Shunpei and Oizumi Ryoya?" A voice suddenly came 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, his brow tightly furrowed as he tried to recall.

"Were they... both pretty tall? One had long hair and was kind of... fat? The other..."

Hyuga Kaze's expression brightened, and he hurriedly added,

"That's 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 very back of the convoy. I'll take you there."

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

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

The long-haired ninja led Hyuga Kaze to a weary middle-aged Jonin in a green vest and briefly explained the situation.

"They sacrificed themselves..."

The Jonin in the vest lowered his head. His voice was heavy, filled with undisguised grief.

"Sacri... 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 fairly good. The border they had been stationed at only bordered small countries.

The risk had not been that great, so how had they suddenly been sacrificed?

"They should have returned long ago." The Jonin's voice was low and repressed.

"But they were temporarily reassigned to gather intelligence within enemy territory... and walked into an ambush."

"Even their bodies never came back..."

Hyuga Kaze could no longer hear what the ninja in the vest said afterward.

The Jonin said something else after that, but Hyuga Kaze could no longer hear him.

He turned around blankly, his eyes hollow and his thoughts in complete chaos, simply walking forward without purpose.

He did not even react when Hyuga Qingchuan called him.

Having suddenly learned that the two had sacrificed themselves, Hyuga Kaze could not accept it for a while.

Hyuga Qingchuan watched him standing there in a daze and did not disturb him.

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

Even for a ninja accustomed to life and death, it was difficult to accept all at once.

For the next several days, Hyuga Kaze remained in a muddled state.

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 walked out without saying a word.

Hyuga Qingchuan had been keeping an eye on him.

Judging from the direction he was heading, he was probably going to the training grounds.

"Is he... planning to resume training?"

After all, since retiring due to his serious injury, Hyuga Kaze had only taken the simplest D-rank missions and had not done any proper training in a long time.

But after thinking it over briefly, Hyuga Qingchuan's heart abruptly sank.

He was very likely planning to undertake that C-rank mission to eliminate the 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 three calls before Hyuga Kaze finally came back to his senses in a daze.

Only upon seeing that it was his son did a faint spark return to his vacant eyes.

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

"That mission to eliminate the bandits—I can help," Hyuga Qingchuan said bluntly.

"Oh, that one..." Hyuga Kaze waved a hand and spoke in a deliberately relaxed tone.

"I've already figured out who to team up with. Don't come make trouble. Just focus on school."

But Hyuga Qingchuan knew he was lying.

For a mission that had already been accepted, finding teammates at the last minute was simply unrealistic.

Unless mission personnel had been assigned by their superiors and had no choice, people generally chose familiar, reliable teammates for such commercial missions.

No one would feel comfortable entrusting their back to a stranger. In the Shinobi World, there were plenty of people who stabbed their teammates in the back.

What was more, Hyuga Kaze lacked mobility.

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

"Dad, my archery has made new progress. At the very least, I can help you pick off any bandits that slip through."

Hyuga Qingchuan decided to reveal some of his abilities. The original owner had actually been tinkering with archery all along, though he had never succeeded.

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

Looking at his son's unprecedented earnestness and initiative, Hyuga Kaze suddenly felt a trace of comfort.

His son used to care only about playing around and rebelling, but recently, he had suddenly matured considerably.

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

"If only 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 secretly shook his head.

This child had been rebellious since he was young. He thought learning 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 telescopic vision and become a ninja who killed in a single strike.

But bows were enormous and inherently inconvenient to carry while carrying out missions.

Furthermore, the power of an arrow was entirely limited by the material of the bow itself.

No matter how powerful the archer was, they could provide only negligible enhancement to an arrow.

So what if he never missed? At most, his arrows could break through the defenses of some Genin.

Against certain Chunin and Jonin, those arrows were like toys before them.

Not to mention Hyuga Qingchuan's level, where he began missing shots after just over ten meters.

The Hyuga Clan had endured for a thousand years. The Gentle Fist passed down through those generations might not be the strongest, but it was at least the most suitable.

If archery had been suitable for 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 to offer help, and Hyuga Kaze did not want to discourage him.

He patted Hyuga Qingchuan on the shoulder and said,

"You're still young. When you're a little older, come help Dad then, all right?"

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

Dragging that heavy leg, he continued firmly toward the training grounds.

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

Hyuga Kaze's impression of him remained fixed on the past, when he had been a good-for-nothing. He was convinced that Hyuga Qingchuan would only get in the way if he went.

But Hyuga Qingchuan could not really blame him.

Without the Stone Tablet's favor, with the original owner's pitiful strength, going along really would have made him dead weight.

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

He only needed 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!