First Battle, Double Kill!

Ye crouched in the shadow of the tree canopy at midnight, staring intently at the two figures below as they rummaged through their loot.

Knife marks, bloodstains, scattered banknotes.

These were two stray dogs that had just licked the blood from their chops.

Nohibi had just given the order to slit their throats, his tone as casual as if he were telling Ye to grill fish.

Ye said nothing.

He understood that, for a ninja, obeying the tactical judgment of an experienced captain was an ironclad rule for survival.

Those in higher positions had a far sharper sense for the situation than he did.

But when he drew his kunai, his palms were covered in cold sweat.

As a soul from a peaceful era, this was his first time killing someone alive.

His heart raced wildly in his chest.

Fear?

Nerves?

Or the excitement of some deeper instinct?

He could not tell. He truly could not tell.

Ye licked his dry lips and glanced to the side.

Nohibi had one hand on his sword hilt, his eyes half-lidded as he did not urge him on. His breathing was as steady as an old dog's.

Yet the fingertips resting on the hilt had already turned faintly white, and his knees had bent slightly.

It was the stance of someone whose muscles were fully tensed, ready to force his way in and save someone at any moment.

A fledgling needed to see blood. Nohibi was waiting for him to cross this hurdle himself.

Ye took a deep breath of the cold air, thick with the scent of soil.

He opened his eyes.

The scarlet Two-Tomoe activated instantly.

He swallowed all that messy moral hesitation.

Chakra burst from beneath his feet, shattering the bark. His entire body became a black shadow as he lunged down from ten meters in the air!

But those two wandering ninja, stray dogs who had lived by the blade for years, possessed viciously sharp instincts.

The burly man suddenly looked up, twisting his neck aside at an unnatural angle.

Ye's kunai had been aimed straight for the back of his neck, but in the final half inch, his wrist involuntarily paused.

After all, Ye was a soul who had crossed over from a peaceful era. He could not quite bring himself to strike.

That hesitation of a fraction of a second allowed the burly man to turn his head and avoid the vital point. The kunai scraped past his shoulder blade, tearing only a shallow bloody groove.

At the same time, his opponents showed no mercy. The two instantly displayed the vicious skill of Peak Chunin.

The burly man grunted, turning with the momentum as a fist the size of a bowl smashed toward Ye's ribs.

The other man, tall and thin, followed seamlessly. He had already circled into Ye's blind spot, driving his kunai straight at Ye's heart from behind!

They attacked from front and back, sealing off every dead angle.

Less than two seconds had passed from Ye's failed strike to being forced into a desperate situation.

Only then did the burly man see his attacker's face clearly.

A seven-year-old child in a Ninja Academy uniform?!

The shock lasted in the burly man's eyes for only half a second before it was replaced by extreme wariness and killing intent.

Because a Chunin-level Chakra aura, no weaker than theirs, was erupting from inside this brat!

Who cared how old he was on the battlefield? Kill him first!

Up in the tree canopy, Nohibi was about to draw his sword and forcibly intervene, but he stopped himself at the last moment.

At the brink of death, Ye's Uzumaki Constitution began operating madly.

His powerful dynamic vision and immense Chakra forcibly made up for his weakness of resolve.

He did not panic and form hand seals. He relied purely on his body's instincts.

The instinctive memories of the Mastered Substitution Technique activated instantly!

"Poof!"

White smoke exploded.

The burly man's heavy punch and the thin-faced man's poisoned blade struck their target at the same time, but they only smashed a bloodstained substitution log.

Wood chips scattered as the poison corroded black pits into the log's broken surface.

Behind a tree trunk five meters away, Ye pressed his back against the bark and gasped for breath.

His hands would not stop shaking, and cold sweat instantly soaked his back.

If the maxed-out Substitution Technique had not saved him, that blade would have pierced straight through his heart.

Ye clenched his back teeth tightly as his mind raced.

He clearly realized that his combat mentality was extremely immature.

His resolve was too weak for close-range exchanges. Whenever he launched a killing blow, he instinctively hit the brakes.

Then he absolutely could not trade blades with these two old dogs. He had to create distance and crush them with firepower!

Ye slipped his right hand into his ninja tools pouch, a thought flashing through his mind.

Three talismans slid between his fingers.

[Never-Exploding Explosive Tag.]

Ye charged out from behind the tree, his movements wildly exaggerated.

He slapped the three Explosive Tags toward the pair in a triangular formation, then rapidly retreated and shouted, "Art is explosion!"

The two wandering ninja looked up, and the Explosive Tags were nearly pressed against their faces.

The inscriptions on the talismans were perfectly clear under the moonlight.

The burly man's face instantly turned pale. They had no idea how powerful these Explosive Tags were, but taking them head-on at this distance would certainly kill them.

Without another thought, the two plunged headfirst into the muddy pits on either side.

They covered their heads with both hands and stuck up their asses, their blast-resistant posture textbook-perfect.

Then—

"Pfft."

A wisp of cheap pink smoke, barely thicker than mosquito-repellent incense, lazily drifted out from the center of the Explosive Tags.

There was no explosion, no shockwave.

The three Explosive Tags lay in the mud, letting out an incredibly weak muffled pop before falling completely silent.

The mud-covered burly man raised his head from the ground, with mud still stuffed in his nostrils.

He immediately realized that a seven-year-old brat had made monkeys out of them with duds.

Rage, humiliation, and disbelief twisted across his face as veins bulged from his neck all the way to his temples.

"You little—!" The burly man roared as he sprang to his feet.

[Ding! Guard-Break Points from wandering ninja · burly man: +444!]

[Ding! Guard-Break Points from wandering ninja · thin-faced man: +388!]

[Ding! Guard-Break Points from wandering ninja: +888!]

[Ding! Guard-Break Points from wandering ninja: +999!]

A series of pleasant system notifications rang out in his mind.

While the absurd ninja tools completely shattered their composure, Ye had already finished forming his hand seals.

The muscle memory he had desperately drilled dozens of times on the riverbank last night erupted completely.

Snake—Ram—Monkey—Boar—Horse—Tiger!

His hand seals blurred into afterimages.

Chakra flooded into his chest as if it cost nothing.

No more fighting fair. Die for me!

"Fire Release: Fire Style: Fire Ball Jutsu!"

Boom!

A violent fireball several meters wide tore across the ground.

The two unlucky men had only just crawled out of the mud pits. Before they could finish speaking, they were swallowed by the blinding firelight.

Their screams lasted only half a second.

When the flames faded, only two smoking lumps of charcoal remained, giving off the pungent smell of roasted meat.

Ye's legs went weak. He leaned against a scorched tree and gasped heavily.

Firelight reflected in his Two-Tomoe, while his hands were still trembling.

His stomach churned violently, and the nausea lodged solidly in his throat.

Looking at the two piles of charcoal on the ground, Ye furiously reflected on himself.

He was still too naive.

If he had not forcibly broken the situation with his Constitution, Chakra, and system tools, he would have been the one to die tonight.

Those who never cultivated good deeds in life deserved to kill and set fires.

Overwhelming others through sheer power was satisfying, but he had to immediately make up for the weakness in his mindset!

This habit of going soft had to change!

He firmly engraved that trembling sensation into his heart. Next time, he absolutely could not hesitate in the slightest.

Crunch.

Nohibi jumped down from the tree, crushing dead branches beneath his feet.

The first thing he did was heavily slap Ye on the back of the head.

"That moment of hesitation nearly got you killed. Learn from it when we get back."

The Living Yama spoke calmly.

Then his large hand slid down and gave Ye's shoulder a heavy squeeze.

Nohibi's eyes were filled with undisguised fervor. "But you saw blood in your first battle and still killed two veterans in return."

"You brat were born for battle!"

Ye nodded, silently calming his heartbeat.

Nohibi said nothing more. He pulled out a sealing scroll and spread it open, storing the two charred corpses inside.

Ye shot him a puzzled look and could not help asking, "Why collect the bodies?"

"Those two were on the Security Force's wanted list. They're unofficial Kumogakure spies."

Nohibi rolled up the scroll, stuffed it back into his ninja tools pouch, and grinned coldly.

"We can exchange their bodies for a hefty reward from the village."

"Even a mosquito leg is meat. No reason to leave it behind."

Nohibi patted his ninja tools pouch, stood up, and strode toward the depths of the forest.

"Come on. The border situation is unpredictable. We need to leave quickly."

Ye straightened up and gave the scorched earth one final look. His trembling gradually subsided.

The two quickly cleared away the traces of the battlefield, vanishing into the night once more as they sped toward the northeastern defensive line.