The roles of Kushina Uzumaki and Hyuga Rinka

Resting in the wilderness inevitably meant limited comforts. Even with Tsunade and her companions taking turns keeping watch, a good night's sleep was hardly guaranteed.

Fortunately, they were no ordinary people; they were already ninja. Recently, Tsunade had made them take on all sorts of bizarre missions. They had cleaned public restrooms, cleaned ranches, tidied up after livestock, and shoveled manure—and they had done plenty of it.

As a result, Uchiha Yi and the others had grown accustomed to even the hardest, most exhausting work.

Tsunade's missions had not significantly improved their strength, but they had tempered their character.

Early the next morning, they washed up briefly, ate something, and hurried toward their destination. By noon, they finally reached a valley.

"This is the place. Take a short rest, then eliminate the enemies inside." Tsunade studied the valley for a moment before telling the three of them, "This time, you decide how to fight."

Uchiha Yi turned to Hyuga Rinka beside him. "Sorry for the trouble."

Hyuga Rinka nodded slightly and formed a hand seal. "Byakugan! Activate!"

The scene inside the valley instantly appeared in her Byakugan. "There are six chakra signatures inside. Three aren't particularly strong, two are fairly strong, and one is very strong."

"All right, leave the strongest one to me. Can you two handle the other five?" Uchiha Yi drew the Sword of the Thunder God from his back. Tactics were of little use here. The valley was naturally easy to defend and difficult to attack, with only one passage offering easy access.

"Can you see the traps?" Uchiha Yi asked next.

"The Byakugan can see many things, but there are plenty of traps it can't detect." Hyuga Rinka shook her head slightly.

"Yi, why don't you let me do it? If nothing else, I can use the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique to trigger all the traps." Kushina Uzumaki was eager to try. She had found a way to contribute.

In terms of strength, she was nowhere near Uchiha Yi. Even Hyuga Rinka was stronger than her for the time being, and with her Byakugan, Rinka was also more useful.

That left Kushina Uzumaki deeply frustrated, but things were different now. She could use the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique to spring the traps.

"No need. Let me do it!" Uchiha Yi's eyes instantly transformed into the Three-Tomoe Sharingan. He expected plenty of traps inside; explosive tags and kunai were only the most basic kinds.

He was confident in his speed. As long as he moved fast enough, those hidden weapons would never hit him. And if he truly had no other choice, didn't he still have the Flying Thunder God Technique?

His Flying Thunder God Technique was simply relatively slow to activate, making it unsuitable for fighting powerful opponents, and its range was short.

He could not replicate Minato Namikaze's performance in his battle against Obito Uchiha, but it was more than enough to deal with ordinary ninja.

"Check whether there are any places with flammable materials," Uchiha Yi told Hyuga Rinka.

"Plenty. Their houses are all wooden, but there's a water source inside the valley." Hyuga Rinka's voice was somewhat subdued as she considered how to attack.

Uchiha Yi hesitated for a moment before asking Hyuga Rinka and Kushina Uzumaki, "How many explosive tags do you have?"

"Explosive tags? Let me look!" Kushina Uzumaki rummaged through her belongings, pulled out a stack of explosive tags, and handed them to Uchiha Yi.

Uchiha Yi took the tags, then turned to Hyuga Rinka. She silently took out a Storage Scroll and handed it to him. "This is full of explosive tags."

What kind of teammates have I ended up with? Just look at Kushina Uzumaki's explosive tags—there must be dozens, if not a hundred.

And Hyuga Rinka even uses a Storage Scroll to store hers. You really come prepared for missions.

I can't even afford to stock up on a few explosive tags. If I had this many to take into the battle space, I'd have been slaughtering everything in there long ago.

"Thanks. Wait for me to flush them out! Stay at the valley entrance," Uchiha Yi instructed the two girls. Then he glanced at Tsunade without asking for her help. He knew this was her test for them.

Uchiha Yi was not the timid sort. Instead, the Uchiha blood in his veins began to boil.

"Yi, be careful," Kushina Uzumaki quickly cautioned him.

"Don't worry. All it'll take is a fire." Uchiha Yi smiled confidently, then vanished before their eyes in a flash.

"What a fast Body Flicker Technique." Hyuga Rinka clenched her fists. She had thought she already understood Uchiha Yi's strength well enough.

Yet she had never even forced him to use his Body Flicker Technique. The gap between them was far too wide.

Tsunade folded her arms across her chest and snorted softly. "That brat is hiding plenty more."

As she spoke, Tsunade frowned slightly. For some reason, her bust seemed to have been growing larger lately, and she was having trouble getting used to it. Sometimes, being too big was not necessarily a good thing.

It got in the way far too much during combat.

Hyuga Rinka fell silent. Uchiha Yi really had concealed his abilities far too well.

Rather than charge straight into the valley, Uchiha Yi darted around its edges, taking out wire and rigging various little devices on the trees.

Only after a long while did Uchiha Yi take a deep breath and rush into the valley.

With a burst of speed, Uchiha Yi easily broke into the valley.

His forceful entry triggered the traps inside. Countless kunai and shuriken shot toward him at once, but a shimmering lightning glow enveloped his body. His speed increased further, allowing him to pass effortlessly through the trap-filled area.

At the same time, he kept swinging the Thunder God Sword, knocking aside every hidden weapon that came at him.

"Who's there?!" Uchiha Yi's sudden intrusion quickly put everyone in the valley on alert.

But what greeted them was an enormous fireball.

Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!

A fireball roughly ten meters across hurtled toward them. They scattered to dodge it, and as they moved out of its path, the houses behind them burst into flames.

As the houses caught fire, explosions rang out along the valley's edges. Burning trees rolled down into the valley, followed by another earth-shaking rumble as countless rocks tumbled down after them.

Meanwhile, Uchiha Yi swiftly retreated out of the valley.