Orders

"Ah!"

A short, miserable scream rang out.

Expressionless, Uchiha Qian pulled his short sword from the chest of the Rock Ninja before him, finishing off the last of them.

He stood and looked around. Quite a few Leaf Ninja were doing the same thing as him.

All around them, the ground was littered with the corpses of ninja from both sides.

Today was the twentieth day since his Physical Constitution stat had broken through, and also the final day this group of theirs was to carry out their garrison duty.

Only, more than twenty kilometers away, the Rock Ninja facing off against them seemed unwilling to simply let them leave, and had actually launched an attack today.

Fortunately, they held the home-field advantage. After paying a certain price, they repelled the invading enemy.

As for why they had suddenly attacked?

Uchiha Qian did not want to think about that question. In any case, they were going back tomorrow. Whatever the other side was planning, it had nothing to do with him.

After cleaning up the battlefield, Uchiha Qian returned to the Town Outpost with the other Leaf Ninja.

As soon as they got back to the outpost, Furukawa was called away to attend a meeting.

Seeing this, an inexplicable sense of foreboding rose in Uchiha Qian's heart.

Facts proved that his premonition had not been wrong.

In less than half an hour, Furukawa returned, and with him came a very bad piece of news.

Tonight—more accurately, three hours from now—all of them would be divided into four squads and launch an attack on the Rock Ninja outpost more than twenty kilometers away.

This order had been issued directly by Main Camp. They were not allowed to refuse.

Moreover, theirs was not the only outpost to receive the order. Almost every outpost on the front line that was facing off against Iwagakure had received the same command.

In other words, this was a full-front offensive.

Could this be Orochimaru's revenge? Isn't this way too childish!?

Aside from both sides suffering losses, what meaning does this have? Konoha doesn't even have the advantage in troop strength on the Rain Country Battlefield. This kind of exchange is completely meaningless...

Uchiha Qian was utterly puzzled.

At the same time, he felt a deep, thick malice. He had clearly been only one day away from going back, yet this had suddenly happened.

If the order had not been aimed at every front-line outpost facing off against Iwagakure, Uchiha Qian would have suspected that either he or this outpost had been deliberately targeted.

Forget it. In any case, this mission doesn't have any objective that absolutely has to be completed. I'll just slack off when the time comes.

Thinking this, Uchiha Qian opened the Proficiency Panel.

Within his field of vision, a pale blue screen quietly appeared:

[Name: Uchiha Qian

Age: 11

Physical Constitution: 7→8

Spirit: 9

Chakra: 3450(5027→6100)

Bloodline: Sharingan · Single Tomoe (160/1000)→(271/1000)

Skills: Chakra Refining Technique: lv3(762/1000)→lv3(986/1000)

Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique: lv2(30/500)

Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique: Lv2(101/500)→lv3(12/1000)

Fire Release: Fire Dragon Technique: lv2(13/500)

Demonic Illusion: Shackling Stakes Technique: lv1(110/200)→lv2(5/500)

Body Flicker Technique: lv2(375/500)→lv3(225/1000)

Shadow Clone Technique: lv0(5/100)

Leaf-Style Swordsmanship: lv3(1/1000)→lv3(430/1000)

Mind Reflection Technique: Lv4(186/2000)→lv4(716/2000)

Ninja Tool Throwing: lv3(570/1000)→lv4(3/2000)

Chakra Control: lv3(180/1000)

Three Body Technique: lv3(0/0)]

Originally, Uchiha Qian had been worried that after coming to the front-line outpost, he would not have time to train. Who would have thought that the Rock Ninja would be unexpectedly quiet?

This gave him a fairly stable training environment.

Therefore, over the past month, the skills he had focused on had all improved considerably.

First was his chakra. Twenty days ago, his Physical Constitution stat had unexpectedly broken through, the shackles on his body had been opened, and along with that, his Chakra Limit had begun to grow.

It took about half a month for it to rise from 5,027 points to 6,100 points.

After that, however, it got stuck.

After all, it was only a one-point increase in his physical constitution. The potential it brought was limited, and it was only enough to increase his chakra by this much.

On the other hand, the Chakra Refining Technique had progressed just a little faster. In barely over a month, it had reached lv3 (986/1000).

As long as he did not die tonight, then after returning to Main Camp, it would take him no more than two days to grind it to lv4.

At that time, whether it was farming proficiency for other skills or increasing the Evolution Speed of his Sharingan, everything would enter the fast lane.

Speaking of other skills.

It could be seen that over the past twenty days, the proficiency of his Leaf-Style Swordsmanship had risen by another large margin, and the progress through lv3 was already almost halfway complete.

According to Furukawa, his swordsmanship could already rival some jonin.

Even Furukawa himself, if they only competed in close-quarters combat, could at most fight Qian to a draw.

In fact, if the fight dragged on a little longer, Qian might even have a chance of winning.

Incidentally, Furukawa was no longer a "one-armed hero." Orochimaru had reattached an arm for him.

Although it was not his own, at least he could form hand seals with it.

It was also from that moment that Qian learned Furukawa was actually one of Orochimaru's people.

Rounding it up, he could also be considered part of Orochimaru's faction.

Every time Qian thought of this, he found it rather damn ridiculous.

Putting aside how obsessed Orochimaru would become with the Sharingan in the future, once the man defected, being purged by the village afterward would be trouble enough.

However, Qian only thought about it briefly before ignoring it.

With the Proficiency Panel assisting him, if by that time he still did not have the ability to oppose Orochimaru, then whatever end he met would be deserved.

As for the village's purge.

When the time came, the fact that he had not rebelled against Konoha would already be giving Sarutobi Hiruzen face. If they still dared to purge him, did they really think he had such a good temper?

Drawing back his thoughts, Qian looked at Ninja Tool Throwing.

Thanks to the assistance of the Sharingan, its proficiency had already broken through lv3 and reached lv4 (2/2000).

At this point, with the cooperation of the Sharingan, he could already make Kunai and Shuriken dance in all kinds of ways.

Unfortunately, they were still flying tools in the end. Unless the enemy's level was truly too poor, it was still very difficult to kill an enemy directly with them.

However, as a support method, they were excellent.

In addition, lv4 still was not the limit of the Ninja Tool Throwing skill. It was just that accumulating proficiency from this point on had become relatively slow.

Aside from the skills above, the skills that had improved the most over the past month were Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique, Demonic Illusion: Shackling Stakes Technique, and Body Flicker Technique.

The former had impressively broken through the level of lv2 and reached lv3 (12/1000).

Now, when he used this technique again, not only was it faster, but its control was also more precise.

If he faced Shiroishi Kurato again now, Qian was confident that even without opening his eyes, he could suppress him for quite a while.

Of course, to achieve the same result as before, forcing the other party to counterattack, he would still need the Sharingan to predict the opponent's movements.

In addition, he had also tested it. Raising the level of Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique first before practicing Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique and Fire Release: Fire Dragon Technique could indeed speed things up.

It was just that his chakra was currently limited, and he did not intend to waste time on these two ninjutsu.

Once he raised Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique to lv4, or even lv5, then went back to practice these two ninjutsu, the speed would be even faster.

Moreover, after gaining Leaf-Style Swordsmanship, his need for ninjutsu had decreased greatly. For the time being, having one Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique was enough.

Not to mention, he also had Demonic Illusion: Shackling Stakes Technique and Body Flicker Technique as support.

Under Qian's deliberate attention, both of these skills had gone up by one level.

Among them, Demonic Illusion: Shackling Stakes Technique had risen to lv2. Its activation speed was faster, and its control effect on enemies was stronger as well.

Body Flicker Technique had risen to lv3. After activation, his movement speed was about twenty percent faster than before, making it even more effective whether for escape or surprise attacks.

It was precisely because of the improvement of these skills that Qian had little resistance toward raiding Iwagakure's stronghold. Otherwise, if he could not even keep his life, how could he care about so much?

In the end, strength was the foundation of everything.

Without strength, any wave could smash you to death. But with strength, even if a tsunami arrived, he could remain calm and unchanged.