Unexpected Visitor

Fires flared throughout the forest, and explosions boomed without end.

At times, wind blades swept through and severed tree trunks. At others, raging torrents surged up. The battle was incredibly fierce.

The moment Yue flashed beneath a tree, a shadow suddenly darted down the bark from above. As it reached directly over his head, the black mass bulged, revealing a man's upper body. Holding a dagger, he wore a vicious grin as he prepared to strike.

But the Yue he stabbed was merely a clone.

A flash of light soon streaked in from elsewhere.

It cleaved the man's body in two with a single slash.

Yue flipped down to the ground and looked toward a rogue ninja fighting his father in the distance.

He then rolled his neck and surveyed the battlefield.

Kusagakure's people were spread across the area, fighting Amegakure's forces.

Just as he had expected, those people had finally come.

And today was already the second wave they had sent. The previous attack had taken place two days ago.

There were over thirty enemies in total. On their side, aside from Yue and his father at this outpost, Captain Takahashi and one other person, Kusagakure shinobi from another border outpost had also come to reinforce them. Judging by the situation, Amegakure's group clearly would not let this go. The conflict would likely continue for quite some time. After fighting for a while, the enemy would retreat if they lacked an absolute advantage. Although they claimed to be seeking revenge and wanted to kill the Kusagakure shinobi guarding the border, their battle plan seemed more like an attempt to harass and wear them down first.

"Still, getting to see all sorts of ninjutsu is pretty interesting."

Yue thought to himself.

It would offer him some unseen help if he chose to research ninjutsu on his own in the future.

The village had already received their message and dispatched reinforcements, but the distance was considerable, so they would need time to arrive.

Before the follow-up forces reached them, they had to hold out.

"Perfect opportunity!"

Just as Yue appeared to be observing the battlefield, a delighted voice approached.

"Hehehe... A brat like you was actually sent to take part in this kind of battle? Kusagakure really has no one left, huh?" A rogue ninja with a sharp, monkey-like face sneered. Then he aimed one palm at Yue. "Water Release: Water Prison Technique."

In an instant, a large volume of water engulfed Yue's real body, making it difficult for him to breathe and hard to control his body against the powerful current.

But Yue did not lose his balance, because his physical body was strong enough.

Being unable to breathe for a short time posed no threat to him at all.

And even with the water obstructing him, his physical strength still allowed him to make certain movements.

His speed would simply be much slower.

Within the sphere of water, Yue stared coldly at the rogue ninja who believed victory was already his. The mark on the man's forehead protector indicated that he came from Kirigakure.

Kirigakure had yet to enter its Blood Mist rule, but its culture had always been the worst among the Five Great Shinobi Villages, filled with bloodshed and oppression. Simply put, it was far from healthy. Even without Obito meddling to intensify the situation, the Kirigakure of this era already revealed hints of the future Blood Mist Village.

One had to know that even before Obito controlled the Fourth Mizukage, Kirigakure had already earned the name Blood Mist Village.

And among the Five Great Shinobi Villages, Kirigakure had always had the highest number of rogue ninja.

Blade light suddenly flashed.

"Hm?"

The Kirigakure rogue ninja's expression changed. Despite the turbulent currents within the water sphere, the boy could still swing his blade freely and slash at the arm he had inserted into the Water Prison.

Fortunately, he was alert enough to break the technique in time and pull away.

Yue was soaked from head to toe, but he did not launch a second attack.

Instead, he studied his opponent.

As expected of someone from one of the Five Great Shinobi Villages. His judgment of close-range timing and the speed of his attacks were both astonishing.

He was in a completely different league from the others on the battlefield.

One could tell whether a ninja was outstanding from how they used ninjutsu. Most weaker ninja relied on their surroundings when casting techniques. Water Release, for example, was much easier to perform where there was water. At a sufficiently high level of strength, the most outrageous example was Tobirama. When his Impure World Reincarnation self fought Hiruzen Sarutobi, even while surrounded by flames, he could create wave-like Water Release techniques out of thin air. It was terrifying.

Not only was this Kirigakure ninja extremely proficient with his technique, he had also reached the level of basically ignoring the environment.

"You're no ordinary brat... In a place like Kusagakure, someone like you should be nurtured carefully. How could they bear to send you out to die at such a young age? They really don't cherish talent at all..." the rogue ninja teased.

"I'm not that young. There have been people who went to war at four or five, even seven or eight... As someone who once belonged to Kirigakure, you should understand that better than I do, shouldn't you?"

"True... Compared to them, you're doing alright. I'm just surprised that a small hidden village could produce a so-called genius like you. They should treat you like treasure." The rogue ninja laughed. "Well... I can imagine the dirty state of some villages too. They're probably all the same... Where is there any real peace or freedom?"

"We're all just pawns."

"Don't worry, I'll make it quick. I love killing geniuses most of all."

"Your standards for judging geniuses are really low..." Yue said coldly.

Yue was not putting himself down. In his eyes, true geniuses were at least people like Shisui Uchiha, Minato Namikaze, or Itachi. Kakashi barely counted as one too.

With his knowledge of the original story, he had a clear ranking of ninja strength in his mind.

Not just anyone could claim the word genius.

Jiraiya had knocked out Special Jonin Ebisu with just one move, making a summoned toad stick out its tongue. Jonin Asuma could take down nine or more Sound Village ninja at Chunin level or above in the blink of an eye. Itachi could use a single Tsukuyomi to create an absolute gap in strength between himself and Kakashi, reducing Kakashi's combat ability to zero. Jonin Kakashi had fought Land of Earth ninja Hiruko evenly, but when Minato appeared, the pressure alone made the Land of Earth's Jonin feel powerless. In one battle, only four people remained on Konoha's side, yet Minato Namikaze used the Flying Thunder God Technique to instantly eliminate around fifty enemies in an extremely short time, including many powerful Jonin and Chunin-level fighters. What kind of combat power was that?

Not to mention someone like Shisui...

Everything Yue could think of only deepened his understanding of what a "strong person" truly was.

Granted, because of factors such as his village, environment, bloodline, resources, and age, he could not compare himself to those characters. After all, he was still young. But without the assistance of the world of Bleach, Yue believed that even if he gave everything he had, he probably could not reach those heights.

Forget Minato or Shisui. Even compared to someone like Asuma, he would have a hard time.

Honestly, without buffs and protagonist plot armor, people like Naruto and Sasuke... did not even come close to being geniuses in Yue's eyes.

At present, he was a little older than Kakashi... But he had never been to Konoha and did not know how strong people like Kakashi and Asuma currently were, so it was difficult to speculate.

Still, he did his best to chase after some true "geniuses" through his own memories and knowledge. As for whether he had surpassed them, or how far behind he remained, he would probably only know after meeting them in person.

The Kirigakure rogue ninja did not take his words seriously and attacked with chilling killing intent.

Yue sprang up at the same time and met him head-on.

This chaotic battle lasted until nightfall.

Yue always maintained a certain distance from Ryoma, allowing them to watch each other's backs.

And Yue also wanted to protect his father.

Because the one meant to become a hero was not him, but Fuma Ryoma.

He was just a child. At most, he had stumbled into gaining a little "fame."

He lacked the qualifications, whereas Fuma Ryoma had put down roots in Kusagakure for so long. He had always worked diligently and contributed greatly to the village... With that foundation and accumulated record, all he needed was an opportunity.

After a full day of slaughter, only five people from Kusagakure remained alive.

Aside from father and son, there were only the leaders of the two outposts and one lucky Chunin left.

Swish, swish, swish.

After the enemy retreated, Takahashi and the other two quickly came to regroup, finding Ryoma and Yue.

They had thought Ryoma and Yue were dead, because they had searched the battlefield on their way over... Not one of their companions had survived.

Yet they had not expected the two to still be alive. Not only alive, but judging by the enemy corpses around them, they had killed quite a few.

Takahashi and the other leader exchanged glances, unable to believe it.

They vaguely felt that something was strange... but could not figure out what.

Thinking that the Special Jonin sent by the village had most likely been killed by Fuma Ryoma earlier, Takahashi instinctively assumed that Fuma Ryoma must have been hiding some kind of "method." He had the feeling that Ryoma was the sort who concealed his true abilities. He had been far too low-key in the past... As for Yue still being alive, that surprised them even more.

But the current situation did not allow them to think too much.

"You even took down a Kirigakure rogue ninja?"

As he approached, Takahashi caught sight of a corpse and his eyelid twitched.

"Are you two alright?"

He withdrew his gaze and asked with apparent concern.

"We're fine."

Although he had not suffered any fatal injuries, Fuma Ryoma had quite a few wounds and bloodstains on him. He had clearly endured several hard battles.

Yue, on the other hand... only seemed to have suffered a few minor injuries. Nothing serious.

"I just counted. Only five of us remain, while they lost twenty people," Takahashi said.

"Good thing they were a ragtag bunch. If they had been..."

The Chunin, who looked rather dull-witted, sighed, but wisely shut his mouth halfway through.

"These two waves were only probes. It probably isn't time for their full assault yet. Now they know that only a few of us are left... They must also have guessed that village reinforcements are on the way. So if I'm not mistaken, they'll definitely exploit the timing and send even more people."

Fuma Ryoma said, "The next battle will be the most critical. We won't have any further reinforcements... It could be in a few hours, or it could be tomorrow morning. We can only delay them."

"..."

The few of them looked at each other in silence.

The village's reinforcements would not arrive until tomorrow afternoon at the earliest.

The main reason was that they had initially not expected this group from the Land of Rain to be so troublesome.

After the people from the other outpost came to support them and blocked the enemy's first attack, they had assumed the matter was over.

So they had only reported the situation to the village and had not requested reinforcements.

By the time they sent someone back, it was already too late.

This was Captain Takahashi's failure of duty.

"Let's move the defensive line back..."

The other captain suddenly suggested, "If we avoid them, they'll probably retreat when they can't find us... And since they know our people are on the way, they definitely won't dare go too deep. Maybe..."

"To survive, we abandon the defensive line... We may live, but if this gets back to the village, you know what we'll face, don't you?" Ryoma said.

"..."

The three fell silent again.

"I have a plan. It might work."

Seeing that the timing was right, Fuma Ryoma covertly glanced at Yue beside him and suddenly spoke.

Takahashi and the other two had clearly lost their backbone. They needed someone to step forward.

Just as he was about to explain the battle plan in detail—

A strange voice suddenly came from behind them.

"Am I too late...?"

"Hm?"

The group was startled and turned toward the sound.

Including Yue, no one had noticed anyone approaching beforehand.

The newcomer leaped down from above, landed on the ground, and walked out from beneath the dim shadows of the trees. He raised a hand with a smile.

"Sorry... I couldn't make it in time. The moment I received the commission, I came as quickly as I could."

"So... what's the situation now?"

At last, they saw clearly that he wore Konoha ninja attire and a Konoha forehead protector.

He radiated a gentle presence.

But Yue's usually composed expression changed noticeably for once.

That striking head of golden blond hair.

Along with that appearance.

His pupils contracted as he recognized him at once.

Konoha's... Yellow Flash, Minato Namikaze!