On the road to the Land of Rain, a convoy visibly laden with supplies traveled through a sparse stretch of woods. All the personnel escorting the supplies were Konoha ninja.
Notably, among the fierce-looking Konoha ninja were six children not even half an adult's height. The children crowded onto a wagon in the middle of the convoy, looking rather out of place.
"Our teacher is Lord Hokage's disciple!"
Although three days had already passed, they were still rather excited. The speaker was a bespectacled kid from Minato Namikaze's squad, whose name was quite memorable: Edogawa Konan.
Turning his head slightly, Shin'un glanced at Edogawa Konan speaking behind him. Honestly, that name still made Shin'un a little nervous. After all, the elementary schooler of death...
"Then does that make us Lord Hokage's grand-disciples?" Minato Namikaze's teammate, Yamamoto Kōsuke, picked up the conversation excitedly.
"They must have assigned us to Lord Hokage's disciple because they saw my talent!"
As soon as Yamamoto Kōsuke finished speaking, Uchiha Yūichi, sitting behind Shin'un, laughed as though he had heard something hilarious.
"Ha, you? Talented? I'd say you just got lucky."
"You!"
"You what? We're about to go to war. I suggest you recognize just how ordinary your talent is."
"I!"
"I what? With a disciple of the Hokage as your squad leader, you should go hide somewhere and count your lucky stars!"
Yamamoto Kōsuke was rather angry at Uchiha Yūichi's words. He wanted to argue back but had no idea what to say.
Fortunately, Minato Namikaze reached out an arm from beside him, offering him a way out.
"Enough. We're all comrades from the same village. Don't be like that."
"Sit down and watch our surroundings. The transport squad probably won't be attacked, but it's not impossible."
Shin'un turned around to look at Uchiha Yūichi, ready to stop him from saying anything more.
"Shut up!"
At Shin'un's words, Yūichi wanted to say something else, but his mouth opened and closed without him knowing what to say. In the end, he could only turn his face away and shut his mouth as Shin'un had told him.
There was nothing he could do. After thinking it over at length, Uchiha Yūichi realized that whether it was his strength as a ninja or the talent that represented his future, he apparently couldn't match Shin'un in either.
Watching Uchiha Yūichi turn his head away behind him, Shin'un was rather speechless.
Uchiha Yūichi had decent strength, decent talent, and reasonably decent character. He respected the strong and didn't bully the weak. His only problem was that he couldn't control his mouth. If they were all like this, no wonder the Uchiha Clan wasn't popular in Konoha.
"Sorry, Yamamoto Kōsuke."
Getting Uchiha Yūichi to shut up was one thing, but making him apologize was beyond what Shin'un could manage.
Helpless, and to keep this Yamamoto Kōsuke from sabotaging his squad at some critical moment in the future, Shin'un could only apologize on Yūichi's behalf for now.
"It's fine. It's just..."
At Shin'un's words, Yamamoto Kōsuke turned to glance at him and nodded, then glanced at Uchiha Yūichi on the other side of the wagon before turning away again.
Shin'un felt rather helpless at this, too. He could only exchange a smile with the equally helpless Minato Namikaze and stop meddling in his squad's petty affairs, instead beginning to watch the woods around the wagon as Minato Namikaze had suggested.
Honestly, Shin'un had no need to worry about ninja from other countries attacking the convoy. After all, the Hyuga clansmen traveling with them weren't just there for show.
As long as those Byakugan were there, no ninja could possibly evade the Hyuga clansmen's detection and launch a surprise attack.
Besides, the convoy was still essentially within the Land of Fire. Under normal circumstances, only ignorant, clueless bands of wandering bandits would dare target it.
"One kilometer ahead, thirty-four people are lying in ambush in the dense woods on the right. No signs of chakra. Presumed to be a band of bandits."
The veins around a Hyuga Clan ninja's eyes bulged as he formed hand seals, his Byakugan visibly active. The moment he spotted something in his field of vision, he called out a warning to those behind him.
"Another band of bandits?"
The jonin in charge of this transport squad, the one who had taken Shin'un's and Minato Namikaze's squads away three days earlier, used the Body Flicker Technique to appear beside the Hyuga ninja at the very front of the convoy.
"No signs of chakra this time?"
"Yes, I'm certain!"
"In that case, let those newly graduated genin practice on these few dozen people."
After confirming there was no development worth his attention, the jonin used the Body Flicker Technique again, arriving on Shin'un's wagon in the middle of the convoy.
"There's a band of bandits in the dense woods on the right side of the road, about a kilometer ahead. You rookies will be responsible for wiping them out."
After giving Shin'un and the others their orders, the jonin swept his gaze over them. Looking at these genin, who were even younger than his own child, his expression unconsciously softened.
"Don't worry. We've confirmed there are no traces of chakra among them, which means there are no ninja. As long as you work together with your comrades and don't get surrounded, even genin can win easily."
"You're all newly graduated genin. Drawing blood early will also help you survive on the battlefield later."
With that, the jonin vanished using the Body Flicker Technique.
Watching the jonin disappear from the wagon bed behind them, Shin'un and the others, seated at the front, exchanged looks.
"Let's go. Those bandits are a kilometer away. We need to finish the fight before the wagons get there."
In the end, Shin'un was the first to react. After surveying his surroundings, he immediately left with the Body Flicker Technique, with Uchiha Yūichi and Shiina Kō following close behind.
Seeing the other squad receding into the distance, Minato Namikaze turned to his teammates.
"Let's go, too."
Shin'un kept using the Body Flicker Technique, fierce wind whistling around his ears as he leaped through the canopy of the dense woods, with Uchiha Yūichi and the others following behind.
Soon, Shin'un spotted the dozens of bandits the jonin had mentioned in the dense woods ahead.
He signaled to Yūichi and the others following him, and they all stopped and concealed themselves in the thick canopy of a tree not far from the bandits. Minato Namikaze and his teammates arrived afterward and hid there as well.
"How does it look?" Minato Namikaze asked Shin'un as soon as he slipped into the canopy.
"Thirty-four in total. From an initial observation, none of them are ninja. With our abilities, we can wipe them out easily." Shin'un had already looked the bandits over several times from the moment he spotted them, so he answered immediately when Minato Namikaze asked.
Hearing Shin'un say they could easily wipe them out, Uchiha Yūichi stepped forward, his eyes glowing red. He drew a kunai and looked at Shin'un.
"Do we kill them?"