Led by Kakashi, Uchiha Sora met his two teammates in the ANBU.
One of them was actually someone he knew!
With long purple hair, delicate features, and a figure that had already developed distinctly feminine curves, she was none other than Uzuki Yugao!
"Sora, it's you!" Uzuki Yugao exclaimed in delighted surprise when she saw him.
"Yugao, looks like we're going to be teammates again." Uchiha Sora smiled in greeting.
"Yes, I should have realized the gifted teammate from the Uchiha Clan that Captain Kakashi mentioned would be you." Uzuki Yugao was thrilled. Then she looked at the male ANBU member beside her.
The male ANBU member was not yet twenty and looked about the same age as Kakashi.
He had an ordinary face and seemed rather quiet. On meeting his new teammate, he merely gave Uchiha Sora a slight nod. "My name is Eagle."
"I'm Uchiha Sora. I look forward to working with you." Uchiha Sora smiled.
After the introductions, Kakashi gave his orders. "I have a mission for you right now. It isn't particularly difficult, so consider it a chance for the three of you to learn to work together. I'll be accompanying you on this mission as well."
"Yes, Captain!" the three replied.
The ANBU had a strict hierarchy. As their squad captain, Kakashi was responsible for assigning their regular missions.
This mission was actually related to the recent Chunin Ninja Exams.
Ninja from their ally, Sunagakure in the Land of Wind, had been attacked by another faction on their way home. They were now trapped at the border of the Land of Fire, waiting for reinforcements from Konoha.
The three nodded, put on their masks, and followed Kakashi toward the mission site.
According to the mission briefing, the Sunagakure group consisted of ten people. Aside from the jonin leading them, there were only three chunin escorts; the remaining six were genin.
Among their attackers, at least two had jonin-level strength, while several others were at chunin level.
"I'll support the Sunagakure jonin. The three of you should adapt to the situation and take care of the others first," Kakashi explained their tactics along the way.
Traveling at full speed, the four soon reached the Land of Fire's border, close to the mission site.
Uchiha Sora quietly left a Flying Thunder God Kunai nearby, giving himself a fallback escape route.
After all, he was now too far from the Flying Thunder God Formula coordinates near Konoha. If anything unexpected happened, he would be unable to sense them.
"There's movement up ahead!" Kakashi suddenly waved for the three to stop.
"We'll split up, then coordinate once we're on the battlefield!"
With that, Kakashi rushed out first.
Uchiha Sora, Uzuki Yugao, and Eagle split up as well, approaching the battlefield from different directions.
Uchiha Sora took the northern route, where two ninja were attacking a Sunagakure chunin.
That Sunagakure chunin was an elite puppeteer. Although the two enemies were steadily forcing him back, he was still managing to hold on.
But his defeat was only a matter of time.
Neither enemy wore a forehead protector, making their origins impossible to determine, but they were using Earth Release ninjutsu.
Uchiha Sora watched from the sidelines for a moment, then leaped into the fray without further hesitation.
Drawing the short sword from his back, he poured wind-nature chakra into it and swiftly slashed at one enemy's back.
"Gale Slash!"
The wind-nature chakra formed a razor-sharp wind blade along the short sword. As he swung, it shot forward, striking straight at the Earth Release ninja.
Sensing something wrong behind him, the Earth Release ninja was horrified. He hurriedly turned to respond, his arm suddenly hardening into stone as he raised it in front of himself.
Slash!
The wind blade cut across the stone arm, leaving a deep gash that streamed blood.
The Earth Release ninja had stopped Sora's attack at the cost of an injury.
But a moment later, an enormous fireball engulfed him head-on!
Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!
"Aah!!"
Unable to dodge, the Earth Release ninja was struck by the fireball. His entire body burst into flames, and he fell to the ground, rolling before he soon went still.
After killing one enemy, Uchiha Sora charged at the other.
Seeing his companion killed in a surprise attack, the man was badly shaken. He hastily threw down a smoke bomb and prepared to flee.
"Shadow Clone Technique!" Uchiha Sora immediately created dozens of shadow clones, sending them all charging into the smoke to slash wildly through it.
Before long, a scream rang out. The ninja had never expected Uchiha Sora to overwhelm him with sheer numbers. Before he could escape, the indiscriminate barrage of slashes severed one of his arms.
"Over here!" Hearing the sound, the shadow clones immediately pounced toward its source.
Stab! Stab! Stab!
Dozens of shadow clones thrust their short swords into the man.
The ninja was instantly turned into a pincushion.
As the shadow clones dispersed along with the smoke, Uchiha Sora shook his head.
Too weak!
Enemies at this level could not help him hone his abilities at all.
At this point, would it take at least a renowned jonin like Kakashi to put any pressure on me?
Putting those thoughts aside, Uchiha Sora immediately headed in another direction.
There, Uzuki Yugao and a Sunagakure chunin were facing three attackers together.
The Sunagakure chunin was clearly badly injured and had almost completely lost the ability to fight. Yugao's support alone was hardly enough to hold them off.
Fortunately, Yugao was skilled with a sword and had quick reflexes. Even against three enemies, she was only at a slight disadvantage.
As soon as Uchiha Sora arrived, Yugao unleashed Konoha-Style Swordsmanship: Crescent Moon Dance!
Yugao and her two shadow clones held their katana and suddenly attacked the three ninja from three different directions, executing a graceful sequence of moves.
Uchiha Sora smiled faintly at the sight. His figure flickered, and he appeared behind one of the ninja with the Body Flicker Technique. While the man was occupied with Yugao's swordsmanship, Sora's sword, edged with a wind blade, pierced his body.
The ninja fell, and Uchiha Sora exchanged a knowing smile with the real Yugao in front of him.
Poof! Poof!
Meanwhile, Yugao's other two shadow clones had been struck down by their opponents and vanished in white smoke.
The fight immediately became two against two.
"Leave them both to me." Uchiha Sora's eyes turned scarlet.
His Three-Tomoe Sharingan came into the two ninja's view.
"What? Those are Sharingan! This is bad! He's an elite from the Uchiha Clan!" The two enemies clearly feared the Uchiha Clan. At the sight of Sora's three tomoe, panic crossed their faces, and they hurriedly tried to flee.
But their reaction was still too slow.
The moment they saw Sora's Sharingan, they had already fallen under his genjutsu.
Binding Technique!
The two stood rooted to the spot, their bodies rigid and unable to move, their faces covered in terror.
Genjutsu: Shiranui!
The next instant, their bodies began burning from the feet upward as though they were sheets of paper.
Once the flames had consumed them completely, the genjutsu finally ended.
In the real world, the two collapsed to the ground, twitching all over.
Uchiha Sora walked over and ended their lives with one thrust each.
"That's just like you, taking them down with a single genjutsu," Yugao said admiringly.
"Let's go support our other teammate." Uchiha Sora smiled and headed in another direction.
However, by the time they reached Eagle's position, he had already killed all three of his enemies.
Clearly, Eagle's abilities were far from ordinary as well.
After regrouping, the three headed toward where Kakashi was fighting.
Even from a distance, they could sense a wild surge of lightning.
"Lightning Blade!" When they found Kakashi, he was pulling his hand from an enemy's chest.
Faint threads of lightning still crackled around his hand.
Uchiha Sora's Three-Tomoe Sharingan focused on the flow of chakra in Kakashi's hand as he tried to analyze how it worked.
Unfortunately, he had no lightning chakra nature and knew nothing about Lightning Release. Even with the Sharingan's perceptive abilities, he could not learn Kakashi's ninjutsu in such a short time.
Two corpses lay beside Kakashi.
These were the two jonin among the attackers.
"We need to take all these bodies back to Konoha for processing." Seeing the three arrive, Kakashi continued, "You're all new to the ANBU, so I'll teach you how to handle bodies now..."
With Kakashi demonstrating on-site, Uchiha Sora and the other two quickly learned the ANBU's method of handling corpses.
They took out sealing scrolls, sealed the bodies inside, and put them away.
At that point, the rescued Sunagakure ninja came over to thank them. After exchanging a few pleasantries, the Sunagakure group said their goodbyes and left.
Uchiha Sora and the other three also prepared to return to Konoha and report on the mission.
"All right, you all performed very well this time and completed your assigned tasks admirably. That shows you're capable of handling ANBU missions. I hope you'll keep up the good work next time!" Kakashi said, summing up the mission.
Suddenly, footsteps sounded nearby.
They were accompanied by a sinister, raspy laugh. "Very good, very good. Kakashi, you've developed quite an air of leadership."
"Who's there?!" All four were startled. Kakashi's expression changed as he looked toward the newcomer.
The man wore loose clothing. Beneath his long black hair was a pale yet handsome face.
His snake-like eyes radiated danger. Merely being stared at by him made their skin crawl.
"You're Orochimaru!!!" Yugao could not help exclaiming.
"Orochimaru, you've only just defected, yet you've already shown yourself! Aren't you afraid we'll capture you and take you back?" Kakashi asked coldly.
"Heh, Kakashi, perhaps those words would be more appropriate coming from the other two Sannin. As for you, you're still a little too green." Orochimaru mocked Kakashi mercilessly.
Clearly, Orochimaru did not consider the current Kakashi a threat.
Kakashi gritted his teeth inwardly. Of course he knew that. His earlier words had merely been a bluff!
If he had been alone, he would not have feared Orochimaru. Even if he could not win, he could still escape.
But now he had three ANBU rookies with him! Escaping with them would not be nearly so simple!
Before you continue