Dawn painted a pale sky above, and the air was sharp with cold.
Haseo and his squad had already gathered at the main gate of the Hidden Leaf Village.
"Everyone's here. We move out now. Our target is the front lines in the Land of Rivers, and we must complete our mission within three days." After scanning all members of his team, Haseo gave the order to depart. No one here would dare waste time or fall behind—there was no room for hesitation when lives were on the line. Even the slightest delay would be considered a grave crime by any ninja.
Except for the ninja stationed at the village entrance, there was no one else to see them off; sentimental farewells didn't exist… In the Hidden Leaf, small expeditions like this happened constantly.
Though the battlefield brought uncertainty about life and death, people had long grown accustomed to it. And besides… did anyone really worry about Haseo?
Maybe someone did worry, deep down.
After leaving the village in the morning, Haseo's squad didn't move particularly fast—it could even be described as unhurried. This wasn't due to laziness on Haseo's part, but because once they arrived at the Land of Rivers, they might immediately be thrown into battle. If they rushed recklessly without thinking, they'd have to fight exhausted, which would greatly increase the chance of failure. Therefore, as long as time allowed, rushing full speed ahead was never considered wise.
Maintaining a steady pace, the squad marched forward until stopping seven hours later for a brief rest. Then they continued onward until nightfall, completing that day's travel plan before halting at their predetermined resting point to recover strength and replenish supplies.
Nagisa Nara handed a bowl full of hot soup to each of the other three squad members, saying, "Eat something warm while you can; once we push forward, we probably won't get another chance to enjoy food like this. You know, once we're at the front, the only thing keeping us alive'll be Military Rations Pills."
Because of the cold weather, warm things always tasted better than cold ones.
"Military Rations Pills? Well, they're not bad. I think the texture's actually okay," Haseo said while accepting the bowl from her, his tone sounding slightly argumentative.
"Captain, are you sure your taste buds are working properly?" Nagisa couldn't quite believe his response, nor could the other two. They found it hard to imagine anyone genuinely liking the taste of Military Rations Pills.
Sure, they were edible—but the taste? Something no one wanted to talk about.
Haseo shook his head without offering more explanation. He truly thought the pills tasted fine. That didn't mean anything was wrong with his sense of taste… [Immortal Descending from the Heavens!] If someone experienced the same enhanced version of Senju's secret medicine for three months straight like he did, they too would start thinking those Military Rations Pills were actually tasty—maybe even gourmet. They wouldn't mind eating them continuously for months on end.
The other three exchanged glances. At this moment, they finally realized their captain was indeed... special—well, to put it nicely, "unique" might just be the right word to use.
Haseo's sense of taste had definitely gone slightly wrong. Take the bowl of soup he currently held, for example—it looked and smelled perfect, yet when he tasted it, something was clearly missing. He had no idea what the original Senju Secret Pills tasted like, but the ones Haseo had taken before were extremely potent.
More importantly, he was now on the "second treatment phase." The positive change was that the dosage had become far less extreme compared to earlier days when pills were basically consumed like regular meals; nowadays, he only needed a single pill per day. The downside, however, was that Sansho was clearly a "practical" type—her crafted Secret Pills focused solely on effectiveness, disregarding flavor entirely. In fact, the more effective the pill, the worse it tasted.
The only good news was that Haseo's efforts were paying off. The effects of the Secret Pills were obvious. Although he had only recently become a ninja, Haseo could confidently say his chakra reserves now surpassed those of his teammates.
Thanks to King Kelaa, he was growing strong and steady. And if the price was nothing more than an awful taste and possibly some temporary loss of taste sensation, then this trade-off was absolutely worth it one hundred percent.
"Next, Chichio, Renjiro, you two should rest quickly. I'll take the first night watch shift with Nara, then you'll switch over later," Haseo added. This time, however, he wasn't referring to an encounter from his past life, but rather recalling that several months ago, during the night he spent in Konoha Hospital, he must have encountered Chichio as well... not for any particular reason, except that the weapon resting beside her hand appeared somewhat unique.
Compared to the last time he traveled at night, this journey was significantly safer—the group was deep within the Land of Fire, nowhere near the border. However, due to the events from last time, Haseo naturally became more cautious in his actions. Besides, it was perfectly normal for ninja traveling outdoors to set up night sentry rotations.
No one objected to this arrangement. Upon hearing his order, Chichio moved her body and leaned semi-reclined against the base of a large tree, covering herself with a thin blanket while remaining fully dressed, her weapon placed right beside her hand.
Renjiro simply lay down flat on the dry grass on the other side.
Ninja indeed possessed physical qualities far beyond ordinary people. If common civilians attempted to camp out in such cold wilds during winter, they'd end up nothing more than stiff corpses frozen solid—with no other outcome possible.
"It's a rather unusual weapon, isn't it?" Nagisa Nara remarked, noticing Haseo's gaze drifting toward Chichio.
"Mm, somewhat… old-fashioned," Haseo calmly replied, showing not even a hint of embarrassment over being caught looking—he hadn't been staring at her weapon just now; he had just been glancing at her face.
There was no ulterior motive behind it. It was just that, aside from lacking a bit of coquettishness, Chichio bore quite a resemblance to a girl who had left a deep impression on him from his previous life—a beauty named Fukiang, whose smile had been especially beautiful.
It was a bow. Bow and arrow had long since fallen out of mainstream use among ninja.
As previously mentioned, ninjas are a profession that highly values agility. Objectively speaking, this attribute makes the lethality of ranged weapons—such as shuriken, thrown kunai, or even arrows—extremely low.
Unless it's a surprise attack, targets can easily dodge attacks launched with ninja tools from a distance. And if you had the perfect chance to strike, why even bother with a projectile weapon?
Don't even talk about regular projectile weapons—was the hit rate of Kagutsuchi actually that high?
That's why bows and arrows had long since disappeared from ninja warfare. Haseo's description of Chichio's weapon as "retro" was actually spot-on. Ninjas were assassins, not archers.
However...Haseo shifted his gaze toward Nagisa Nara. Although a bow could be an awkward weapon, if someone from the Nara clan was present in the team, then Chichio's potential wouldn't follow standard rules at all...Sure, ninjas are fast and archers have trouble landing hits—but all that changes if your side has strong crowd control.
"Did you previously serve in the same squad as Chichio?" Thinking like this, Haseo asked Nara directly, though according to his information, the two shouldn't have originally been squadmates.
Nara shook his head as expected, replying, "No, but we knew each other beforehand. I've worked with Chichio on certain missions before…Actually, when we returned to the village this time, we were originally supposed to be promoted to chunin, but suddenly we were told we'd been assigned to new squads."
Haseo fell silent. He hadn't known this before.
He'd assumed they were all genin from the start, but it turned out the other side had their ranks forcibly held back...Sansho-sensei sure has some privileges.
"This probably has something to do with me. If not for me, you should already have become chunin," Haseo finally revealed after thinking about it.
"Even though you're our captain, forming a new squad wasn't ultimately your decision to make," Nara still shook his head. What he said made sense—the matter hadn't been under Haseo's authority. Yet what Nara didn't know was that although Haseo couldn't decide, Sansho could.
Nara continued, saying, "Also, even if due to your presence our promotion to chunin got delayed, it doesn't really matter much. On the battlefield, there's no difference between chunin and genin—only those who survive and those who fall in battle."
It seemed Nara honestly didn't care much about becoming a chunin right away. Compared to later generations, who would desperately chase after chunin status, these Leaf shinobi—fresh from war—weren't particularly concerned. The truth was, years of bloodshed had already dulled them. What difference did being a chunin make? Would survival chances on the battlefield really be significantly better than a genin's?
That was true enough. Advancement didn't matter much—Konoha was definitely unique in this aspect. Their strength-to-rank ratio was practically inverted: jonin often fought evenly with enemies, while genin were frequently the strongest...Haseo bit back that kind of comment with effort.
"Besides, right now I think you might actually turn out to be a decent squad leader…What you possess—is that Lightning Release?"
Nara spoke again. He had noticed occasional arcs of lightning flickering around Haseo. Even during casual conversation, Haseo never forgot to keep up his training.
"Yeah, this new Elemental Chakra Affinity is harder than I expected, so I need to hurry and make progress," Haseo replied.
Lightning Release was the third Elemental Chakra Affinity Haseo was currently learning. However, what he meant wasn't that Lightning Release was more challenging than Fire Release or Water Release. Rather, it meant that mastering a third affinity was far more difficult than acquiring the first two. If mastering two affinities was something most ninja could pull off with enough effort, then handling three really took natural talent.
Currently, Haseo could already fluently use both Water Release and Fire Release techniques, but with Lightning Release, he was still stuck at the stage of changing his chakra's nature. He couldn't yet utilize any actual Lightning Release jutsu... This pace was slower than the training schedule Sansho had set for him, so he needed to speed up and catch up.
"Captain..."
Getting lost in thoughts about training momentarily distracted Haseo, so Nara called out to him.
"Sorry, I was thinking about something else just now... But you don't have to be so formal. We're about the same age—just call me by my name directly. But... Nara, when we reach the battlefield in a few days, you've gotta be extra careful. Really watch your back."
This kind of warning left Nagisa Nara feeling puzzled.
Haseo, however, knew from experience that in every story, the squad member who was too friendly and always the "nice guy" usually died first on dangerous missions.
Nagisa Nara unintentionally raised a rather ominous flag for himself.
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