The Best Transfer Order

At that moment.

At Iwagakure's logistics camp.

Konoha's Shinobi were fighting hard to tear through Iwagakure's defenses, charging straight toward the center where the supplies were stored.

Just as the fighting grew fierce, the Aburame Chunin in charge of reconnaissance,

suddenly vanished with a poof.

He was gone.

The sudden development shocked every Konoha ninja who saw it.

One Chunin couldn't help exclaiming,

"That Aburame Chunin-he sent a clone?"

The Jōnin leading the team was also shocked, but remained silent.

His original plan had been for them to draw the enemy's fire.

Then the Aburame Chunin would locate Iwagakure's supplies and send insects carrying Explosive Tags to destroy them.

He had known from the start that the one accompanying them was a Shadow Clone.

But now, the Aburame Chunin's clone had dissipated without taking any damage.

An ominous thought immediately arose in the Jōnin's mind:

Could the Aburame Chunin have been killed?

Bieshu Feifan hadn't expected the Aburame Chunin to pursue him with his real body.

Although he didn't know what the man had been thinking, Bieshu Feifan was furious now.

Konoha's Shinobi weren't good people either. Every last one of them was either thinking about making him cannon fodder or trying to kill him personally.

At this point, the last trace of Bieshu Feifan's anime-inspired rosy view of Konoha shattered completely.

Whichever village he was in, things were actually much the same.

Strength was what mattered.

Even in Konoha, there was only one Naruto, while there were plenty of "Danzos."

After resting briefly and treating the wound on his right shoulder, Bieshu Feifan sorted through the supplies the Aburame Chunin had dropped.

Quite a lot of them were usable, especially the Explosive Tags, of which there were many.

Bieshu Feifan found an intact stack of Explosive Tags beneath the man's half-corpse.

There were also several Kunai.

After packing everything up, Bieshu Feifan intended to leave.

Then he habitually scanned his surroundings with the Byakugan and froze.

What had he just spotted?

That fellow Shimura Daio had actually run back!

Bieshu Feifan's first thought was that he had already betrayed Konoha.

Now that he had killed the Aburame Chunin who knew what had happened, Bieshu Feifan no longer intended to become a rogue ninja immediately.

Watching Shimura Daio running desperately toward him from several hundred meters away, Bieshu Feifan touched his Kunai, considering whether to meet him.

Before he could decide, several people pursuing Shimura Daio soon appeared in Bieshu Feifan's field of vision.

They were Iwagakure Shinobi, three of them, and judging by the amount of chakra they had, they were probably all Genin.

Shimura Daio had originally intended to use the search for Bieshu Feifan as an opportunity to escape, and he had been prepared to become a rogue ninja.

If he followed the Jōnin and Chunin into an assault on an already-prepared Iwagakure camp, a Genin like him would surely die.

But shortly after running off, he had run straight into an Iwagakure squad attempting to circle around and flank them.

Fortunately, the Iwagakure Chunin leading them hadn't considered him worth the trouble and had only sent three Genin after him.

Otherwise, Shimura Daio would probably have breathed his last already.

Still, being pursued by three Iwagakure Genin had been rough on Shimura Daio, and he had taken two Shuriken in the back.

If not for his vest, he would have been done for.

Seeing that he was nearly at the woods of the Land of Rain, Shimura Daio ignored his injuries completely and ran forward desperately.

"Don't let that Konoha bastard get into the woods!"

Watching Shimura Daio sprint toward the woods, an Iwagakure Genin shouted himself hoarse, then felt for his Shuriken. The distance was a little too great, so he didn't throw it.

Just as the three Iwagakure Genin stepped into the woods,

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

Several sounds of rushing air rang out. Three javelins.

And attached to the javelins were Explosive Tags.

"Scatter!"

Boom!

Before they could dodge, two of the three Iwagakure Genin were killed on the spot by the sudden ambush.

The remaining one howled, falling to the ground and writhing.

Hearing the explosion, Shimura Daio whipped his head around, leaping aside as he gripped a Kunai and guarded against the direction the javelins had come from.

It was too dark for him to see who was there.

"Daio, my friend, finish him off!"

With one last Iwagakure ninja remaining, Bieshu Feifan didn't want to risk going over.

Nor did he want to waste an Explosive Tag on someone gravely wounded, so he simply let Shimura Daio finish the job.

Hearing the familiar voice, Shimura Daio immediately brightened. Without another word, he doubled back and claimed the kill.

When the two met up, they found that both of them were injured.

The wound on Bieshu Feifan's right shoulder was severe and still seeping blood.

Two Shuriken were stuck in Shimura Daio's back, still embedded in his flesh.

Only after they bandaged each other's wounds did Shimura Daio have the strength to speak.

"Feifan, my friend, I thought you'd already become... left Konoha. Want to go together? We could watch each other's backs."

Bieshu Feifan smiled.

"Daio, my friend, I was actually considering that, but haven't we just killed three Iwagakure ninja? That's battle merit. We don't need to leave anymore."

Hearing this, Shimura Daio slapped his thigh hard, his numb-looking face suddenly twitching all over.

"Right! What was I thinking? You're the clever one, Feifan. Otherwise, I'd have become a rogue ninja for nothing."

Seeing Shimura Daio even blurt out the words "rogue ninja," Bieshu Feifan inwardly shook his head. Too rash.

"Daio, my friend, next we'll get our stories straight and head back with the spoils from those three."

Then, while coordinating their story with Shimura Daio, Bieshu Feifan quietly activated his Sharingan and planted hypnotic suggestions in him.

Just like his Byakugan, Bieshu Feifan's Sharingan didn't give him red eyes either. Everything looked normal.

It wasn't until noon the following day that Bieshu Feifan and Shimura Daio returned to Konoha's camp in the Land of Rain in a sorry state.

After giving their names and the mission they had been carrying out, the two were actually summoned straight to the highest command room there.

It was a large tent, with Shinobi patrolling around it twenty-four hours a day.

As soon as they lifted the tent flap, warm air blew against their faces.

Sitting at the command desk was a white-haired young man who wasn't bad-looking.

Jiraiya.

Bieshu Feifan recognized him at first glance.

On either side of Jiraiya were several other Shinobi with terrifying presences.

Jōnin.

"Sit."

Jiraiya gave the instruction, then looked at the somewhat trembling Bieshu Feifan.

"Tell me about your mission. Why were you two Genin the first to return?"

Before Bieshu Feifan could speak, Shimura Daio plopped onto a stool and snorted.

"My clan uncle is Hokage Advisor Shimura Danzō."

"Yes, understood. Now tell me about your mission."

Jiraiya paid no attention to who Shimura Daio's clan uncle was. Right now, all he cared about was how the raid on the Iwagakure Supply Station had gone and why only two Genin had returned.

"There was a Sarutobi Jiububang in our team who called himself Koshino Naka. He's an Iwagakure spy. This raid was ruined because of him."

Shimura Daio calmly delivered the news he most wanted to share.

At once, the expressions of all the senior officers in the tent changed.

Sarutobi-that meant a member of Lord Hokage's clan.

But Jiraiya paid no attention to this Sarutobi Jiububang who called himself Koshino Naka.

"How did the mission go?"

Although he asked, Jiraiya had already lost hope upon hearing the word "spy." He was merely still clinging to a slim chance.

Bieshu Feifan's right shoulder was still bleeding, but none of the senior officers in the tent cared.

Although Bieshu Feifan was somewhat annoyed, he didn't dare leave the big shot's question unanswered.

"We completed our mission to lure the enemy. Iwagakure's Shinobi chased us for tens of thousands of li, and we barely escaped with our lives. We came back specifically to deliver intelligence."

As he spoke, Bieshu Feifan took out the spoils from the three Iwagakure Genin they had killed.

"This is the information we collected on Iwagakure's Shinobi. Lord Jiraiya, please tell Lord Hokage that this Shinobi he personally invited to graduate is a qualified Genin. Even as bait, I did a solid job."

Listening to Bieshu Feifan mention bait over and over, Jiraiya and the other senior officers frowned slightly, but didn't reprimand him.

Because it was the truth, and he was expressing his dissatisfaction.

Bieshu Feifan didn't actually want to speak like that either, but he had asked around. Few Shinobi who returned alive after serving as bait could speak calmly.

A somewhat aggressive tone was the norm.

Jiraiya didn't care at all about intelligence on three Iwagakure Genin. He didn't even pay attention to what Bieshu Feifan had taken out, instead continuing to ask about the raid.

But Bieshu Feifan and Shimura Daio both said only that they didn't know. They had drawn away dozens of Stone Ninja and had had no ability whatsoever to go back and look.

After questioning them at length, the senior frontline officers obtained no useful intelligence. They learned only that these two Genin had barely returned alive.

Seeing that he couldn't get anything more out of them, Jiraiya dismissed the two for the time being.

Later, as Bieshu Feifan lay in his tent, he received a written transfer order.

Opening it, Bieshu Feifan immediately leaped up in excitement.

The order instructed him to return to Konoha to rest and recuperate.

Bieshu Feifan nearly shed tears of joy.