Bieshu Feifan was fighting the fire when he discovered that the supplies being burned were not food, weapons, or medical supplies at all.
They were combustible garbage.
Bieshu Feifan's expression immediately darkened. They were probably bait.
No wonder more than half of the three hundred-odd people were kids barely into their teens who had just graduated.
Bieshu Feifan stopped fighting the fire and went to treat the wounded instead.
After treating the wounded all night, Bieshu Feifan was somewhat disappointed. He had not found any dead Uchiha or Hyūga.
Although he had taken advantage of last night's chaos to absorb Hyūga Shupi's Byakugan ocular power, it had not directly increased Bieshu Feifan's combat strength.
As the sky gradually turned pale with dawn, the Jōnin, who had rested all night, issued another order: the main force would keep moving.
"Lord Jōnin, our supplies have already been destroyed. Why are we still moving forward?"
Finally, a Genin on the verge of a breakdown summoned the courage to ask, putting particular emphasis on the word "supplies."
Following that Genin's question, quite a few young Shinobi who had mentally fallen apart voiced the same doubts.
But none of the Jōnin leading them answered.
"Anyone who refuses to advance out of fear will be treated as a rogue ninja."
As one Jōnin swept a piercing gaze over them, the Genin did not dare ask any more questions.
After last night's battle, however, most of them had completely lost their romanticized ideas of Shinobi life and their yearning for it.
Of the three hundred-odd people who had set out, around a hundred had been killed last night. Almost all were Genin, especially those who had graduated just days ago.
Looking at the corpses strewn across the ground, Bieshu Feifan did not feel too frightened. He inwardly counted himself lucky that he had slaughtered pigs in his previous life and was used to blood and slit-open bellies.
But Bieshu Feifan fell silent too. He had never expected them to be nothing but bait.
And even after all this, they still had to keep going to the front.
"Bieshu, you're still alive!"
Just as Bieshu Feifan was feeling bleak about his prospects, a voice came from behind him.
Bieshu Feifan turned to look. It was his classmate, Omori.
Bieshu Feifan glanced at Omori and gave a casual nod without speaking.
Back in class, Omori had often mocked Bieshu Feifan's intelligence for not being able to speak until he was over four, then flaunted his superiority over having learned to speak at one.
"Bieshu, do you think Lord Hokage deliberately sent us here to die?"
Omori showed no reaction to Bieshu Feifan's coldness. Instead, his face was full of anguish.
Enough anguish to make him question his life.
This was nothing like the Shinobi life he had imagined.
Bieshu Feifan did not want to talk to him. The two of them were hardly on good terms.
But after looking around, Bieshu Feifan understood. Almost all their classmates who had graduated together a few days ago had been wiped out last night. Bieshu Feifan was the only one left nearby.
"Classmate Omori, this is the Will of Fire. Didn't you learn about it?"
At Bieshu Feifan's words, which sounded partly teasing and partly serious, Omori burst into tears.
"But didn't Lord Hokage say we were young shoots that needed protection? Why isn't anyone protecting me?"
Bieshu Feifan smacked his lips.
"Foolish Omori, use that intelligence that let you speak at one and think back carefully. When did Lord Hokage ever say you were a young shoot that needed protection?
"What Lord Hokage said was that the Will of Fire meant sacrificing yourself for the village.
"Only useful people are young shoots. Lord Hokage, for instance, is a young shoot who needs protection. We're the sort who need to be sacrificed."
As Omori cried, Bieshu Feifan said with a smile:
"Classmate Omori, those powerful Chunin and Jōnin are young shoots too. Didn't so many of us die last night precisely to protect people like them, who are useful to Konoha? Look at them. Hardly any of them died, right?"
Omori had already noticed that the Jōnin and Chunin had suffered almost no losses, and that they had not come to protect them last night. He immediately cried even harder.
"What are you crying for?"
Just then, an authoritative voice roared at them. Bieshu Feifan and Omori looked up to find a Shinobi with a scar-covered face beside them. He was a Chunin leading the group.
After being shouted at, Omori no longer even dared to cry.
"You lot-yes, you ten Genin. From here on, I'll be leading you."
The scar-faced Chunin gathered the Genin near Bieshu Feifan and began explaining.
"We need to pick up our marching pace now. Stay close to me and reach the battlefield as quickly as possible."
As he spoke, the Chunin gradually picked up speed, and the ten Genin followed with grim faces.
So they really were going to the battlefield. After what had happened last night, every one of these underage Genin wore an ugly expression.
As they ran, the Chunin grew faster and faster, and Bieshu Feifan found it increasingly difficult to keep up.
The others were the same. They were all cannon fodder rushed through their training and barely had any chakra.
Looking at the ten painfully slow Genin, the Chunin spat.
"Useless. Every graduating class is worse than the last."
Despite his curses, the Chunin slowed down a little, allowing the ten Genin behind him to barely keep up.
For the Chunin, traveling like this was far too slow.
But for Genin like Bieshu Feifan, keeping up required an all-out sprint.
The Chunin had no intention of slowing down any further. Listening to the increasingly labored breathing of the ten Genin, he threatened:
"If anyone dares stop, I'll slaughter him myself."
Sure enough, not long afterward,
with a thud,
a Genin who had exhausted his chakra collapsed to the ground.
He twitched all over and foamed at the mouth, utterly spent.
The Chunin immediately stopped and turned around.
"Get up."
The Chunin roared and kicked the fallen Genin in the stomach.
But rather than making that Genin get up, it only made him convulse even harder.
Seeing this, Bieshu Feifan, whose lungs had nearly burst from running, inwardly counted himself lucky that he was not the one with the worst stamina.
Still, Bieshu Feifan took advantage of this rare opportunity to gulp down air.
Seeing that the boy really was too exhausted to move, the Chunin let out a heavy breath, his face grim.
Then he looked at the two oldest Genin in the group, both of whom looked thirteen or fourteen.
"You two, take turns carrying this useless piece of trash. Keep up."
The two Genin he had called on looked grim. If they had to carry someone as well, their lungs might burst too. But
neither dared disobey the order, and they hauled the boy off the ground and onto a back.
Fortunately, this time the Chunin slowed down considerably. But whenever he looked at the half-dead Genin, he could not help cursing:
"Useless."
The other Chunin leading groups behaved much the same way as the one leading Bieshu Feifan.
The farther they ran, the gloomier the weather became. Then, on a night of pouring rain, the two-hundred-strong contingent successfully reached the front.
Seeing the countless makeshift tents in the heavy rain, Bieshu Feifan and the others looked even grimmer.
Here,
it was cold, damp, and raining hard.
Just as Bieshu Feifan and the others were bent over, gasping for breath, a Konoha Ninja in a Jōnin vest came to receive them.
"Right on time, Inoue Chunin."
The Chunin leading Bieshu Feifan's group bowed slightly and said modestly:
"Completing missions on time is a Shinobi's duty."
"Good."
After that brief courtesy, the Jōnin receiving them turned his gaze to Bieshu Feifan and the other nine Genin and frowned.
"The quality of Genin keeps getting worse."
Immediately upon arrival, Bieshu Feifan's group of ten was broken up and reorganized, returning to four-man squads.
This time, Bieshu Feifan and Omori were assigned to the same squad, along with an unfamiliar Genin of sixteen or seventeen whose eyes were numb.
As for their leader, he was an Uchiha-a Genin.
"From now on, I'm your captain, Uchiha Kun."
The young Uchiha, only twelve or thirteen and dressed in clothing bearing a design resembling Ping-Pong Paddles, briefly introduced himself, then led Bieshu Feifan and the other two to a tent.
Looking at the Uchiha before him, Bieshu Feifan unconsciously licked his lips. He wondered whether he had awakened his eyes. If he had, would absorbing him give Bieshu Feifan the strength of a Genin?
At that thought, Bieshu Feifan's gaze on Uchiha Kun gradually grew eager.
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