New Mission

He truly was a very charismatic man. It was not just that he was handsome; otherwise, with Tsunade's standards, she would never have fallen for him, much less remained unable to forget him for years after his death.

In terms of personality, Dan Katō really was like the few scenes shown in the original story: a gentle, handsome man. Yet beneath that gentleness, he was highly opinionated. He treated everyone and everything with calmness and cheerfulness, never constrained by trivial details or traditional conventions.

That was evident from how, among all of Konoha's jonin in the original story, he alone supported Tsunade's proposal to train Medical Ninjas. Of course, Meikyō felt that wanting to woo a woman probably accounted for a large part of it.

Early in the morning, bright sunlight spilled across the earth, awakening the vitality of the entire world.

Three days had passed since the last mission in Tetsuseki Town.

This mission could only be considered an ordinary C-rank mission. After splitting the payment with his captain and teammates, Uchiha Meikyō received just over ten thousand from the village's reward.

A C-rank mission for genin did not pay much to begin with.

Fortunately, including the extra money he had made before, he had earned another two hundred and fifty thousand ryo, greatly filling up Meikyō's little treasury. This gave him more funds to acquire resources and support his training.

Uchiha Clan Compound, a training ground.

"Uchiha Style: Instant Fire Blade!"

"Uchiha Style: Moonlight Slash!"

"Uchiha Style: Sword Leap Flame!"

At the center of the training ground, Uchiha Meikyō, dressed in light training clothes, continuously swung the wakizashi in his hand as he practiced his swordsmanship.

After a long while, the rising sun hung high overhead, and Meikyō's clothes were soaked through with sweat. Only then did he hurriedly stop.

Sword Leap Flame really is difficult. As Grandpa Yu said, to execute this move perfectly, I have to combine Fire Style with swordsmanship, then add Wind Style enhancement on top of it. Judging from what I just did, I can only produce an empty imitation. To truly bring out this move's power, I probably need to train Swift Wind Blade to a sufficient level before I can better master the technique of integrating Wind Style into swordsmanship.

After finishing his training, Meikyō sat beneath the shade of a tree. As he applied special ointment to his arms to heal the slight muscle damage caused by excessive training, he carefully reviewed his performance.

As a form of nintaijutsu, the Uchiha Style Swordsmanship system was remarkably comprehensive and suited nearly every Uchiha.

Its foundation naturally centered on combining swordsmanship with Fire Style, but throughout the Uchiha clan's thousand-year history, other predecessors had incorporated ninjutsu of various attributes into it, greatly enriching and refining the Uchiha Style Swordsmanship system.

Sword Leap Flame was one such technique. It combined Wind Style and Fire Style with swordsmanship, allowing the user to slash out wide-ranging sword aura infused with both wind and fire Chakra. However, it was extremely difficult to learn, and Meikyō still could not execute it completely.

There were many reasons for that. One was that Meikyō's mastery of Wind Style was somewhat lacking, and his swordsmanship was also just short of the mark. But more than that, perhaps it was because his body had not fully matured yet. That naturally affected the performance of moves related to taijutsu.

Still, Meikyō was fairly satisfied with his current strength.

In private, the three members of Kato Squad had sparred with each other before. After several rounds, Meikyō had won more often than he lost, gradually pulling ahead of his peers.

Not to mention that Inuzuka Ryo and Aburame Nami were both ninjas qualified to receive the village's focused training. Their talent was exceptionally outstanding, and there was a high chance that they would grow into jonin in the future.

On one hand, the Sharingan bloodline was indeed incredibly useful in battle. On the other, his own talent and hard work were important reasons why his strength had reached its current level.

The original owner of this body had already been one of the most outstanding students in his Ninja Academy class, with a good chance of competing for top student. In terms of physical aptitude as a ninja, he was undoubtedly a genius.

Perhaps he was still some distance from freaks like Uchiha Itachi and Hatake Kakashi, who could graduate and become chunin at five or six, then become jonin or even awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan at twelve or thirteen. But by ordinary standards, he was absolutely a genius.

Furthermore, perhaps because two souls had fused after he crossed over, Meikyō had discovered that his Mental Power was exceptionally strong.

Having a photographic memory was no exaggeration; it had truly become one of his abilities. In fact, with the Sharingan activated, he could remember even finer details.

His comprehension had also improved tremendously compared to both the original owner and his pre-transmigration self. This would be enormously helpful in learning ninjutsu and genjutsu.

At the very least, when he showed Uchiha Yu the two basic genjutsu he had just learned yesterday, the latter had been surprised that he had mastered them in such a short time.

After finishing his training and returning home, Meikyō rested briefly, took a cool shower, changed into clothes suited for action, packed his Ninja Tool Pouch, strapped the wakizashi to his back, and headed for the Hokage Building.

Dan Katō believed that although Meikyō and the others had performed fairly well during the mission in Tetsuseki Town, it had not achieved the evaluative effect he wanted. So, he planned to take on another mission today to further temper his students.

"Meikyō, over here!"

Standing in a corner, Inuzuka Ryo waved and called out to Meikyō.

Meikyō walked straight over to his teammate.

"Where's Master Dan? Hasn't he arrived yet?"

"I'm here."

Dan Katō appeared behind him at some point.

"This mission is still intended to let you see more bloodshed, and it is also somewhat connected to the previous mission."

Smiling, Dan Katō took a mission scroll from his Ninja Tool Pouch.

"It has been confirmed that over the past year, Hida Yuichi, a noble of Tetsuseki Town, has been continuously smuggling Iron Ore to enemy countries for profit. The Sand Ninja attack four months ago is suspected to have been deliberately arranged by him to draw Sunagakure's ninjas in, allowing him to destroy some evidence and muddy the accounts. After all, once Suna had attacked, losses were inevitable, and Hida Yuichi could use that to explain the missing Iron Ore."

"Now, following a decision by the daimyo of Kyoto and the village's higher-ups, ninjas will be dispatched to arrest Hida Yuichi."

After speaking, Dan Katō tossed the ninja scroll to Meikyō.

"After being robbed by mountain bandits like Okamoto Ichiro during the previous Tetsuseki Town mission, Hida Yuichi hired a large number of samurai to protect himself. Compared with mountain bandits, they should provide a better test for you."

During the previous Tetsuseki Town mission, while Meikyō and the others gathered intelligence, Dan Katō had also collected information there.