"B-rank missions aren't as exciting as I imagined… Those Grass shinobi ran the moment they saw us. Isn't that a bit too cowardly?"
Team One had taken on a escort mission under Hizashi, but although they'd run into a squad from the Village Hidden in the Grass, the enemy retreated immediately.
Asuma, who'd been fired up at first, now looked bored. He walked alongside the carriage, complaining to Kurenai.
"What did you expect?" Feiyu rolled his eyes. "B-rank missions can involve ninja fights, but shinobi aren't idiots. If they see the enemy is too strong, they'll just give up."
Hizashi nodded calmly.
"Correct. Even when missions conflict, shinobi rarely fight to the death immediately. First, they assess the enemy's strength and then decide whether to continue."
"From B-rank missions onward, running into hostile ninja becomes common. If every B-rank job required a life-and-death battle, even if the Five Great Villages tripled their shinobi numbers, they'd be wiped out within a few years."
To him, this was simply normal mission experience.
For more ordinary squads, Grass shinobi might still test the waters. But after spotting a Hyūga with activated Byakugan? against a famous clan like Hyūga, a minor village like Grass didn't even dare probe. Retreating immediately was the smartest choice.
The Byakugan couldn't match the Sharingan's peak combat potential, but its awakening rate crushed it. Nearly every Hyūga could use their dōjutsu.
Their upper limit might not match Uchiha elites, but their lower limit was unmatched—an adult Hyūga was at least an elite Chunin. No other clan in the shinobi world could boast that.
They completed the escort smoothly. Without civilians slowing them down, a three-day journey became a two-hour sprint.
Over the following days, Team One continued tackling B-rank assignments.
Most were internal Fire Country escorts. With the war only beginning, the interior remained relatively safe, and with Hizashi's Byakugan shining like a lighthouse in front, most enemies chose to withdraw.
But after enough missions, someone was bound to push back.
Roughly twenty percent of B-rank missions ended in a fight—and Team One finally hit that twenty percent.
"This is our sixth B-rank mission. Don't tell me the enemy will politely step aside again."
Asuma chewed on a stalk of grass, radiating teenage restlessness, practically wishing an enemy jōnin would leap out of the bushes.
"Don't get careless," Kurenai warned, eyes sharp.
"This time is different. We're on a warfront mission. The odds of encountering enemy shinobi are actually lower than the previous missions, but if we do run into them, they absolutely won't retreat."
Team One was escorting medical scrolls to a frontline field hospital.
The hospital wasn't right on the front, but it was close enough that calling it "safe" would be a lie. With infiltration and guerrilla tactics being a shinobi specialty, encountering enemy infiltrators was perfectly normal.
Of course, Team One wasn't the only squad assigned. Konoha sent seven or eight teams simultaneously and allowed for the loss of two of them—this margin was calculated from the start.
That way, unless luck was catastrophically bad, at least five or six deliveries would reach the frontline, ensuring medical supplies wouldn't run dry.
Meaning their chance of running into enemy shinobi was roughly one in five or six.
"Stop. There's movement ahead. A small squad is lying in ambush."
Hizashi abruptly halted, raising a hand to block his students.
"You spotted someone? From which village?"
Asuma and Kurenai instantly tensed, excitement mixed with nerves, weapons already drawn.
But the first to act wasn't either of them.
The moment Hizashi spoke, Feiyu had already set down his scroll, lightning crackling around him as he shot forward like a bolt.
"Sand shinobi… Wait—he's even faster than before!"
Hizashi tried to stop him but only managed a surprised exclamation. Feiyu's speed had improved again.
Sakumo's soul had already taken over. After half a year of training, Feiyu's foundation had deepened dramatically—Sakumo could now exert seventy to eighty percent of his prime strength.
Which meant, realistically, they were looking at a quasi-Kage level combatant.
Terms like "Kage-level" and "quasi-Kage" were vague, but generally speaking:
a Kage-level shinobi was someone capable of leading a village
a quasi-Kage could fight a Kage for a period of time
Most famous independent shinobi fell into that quasi-Kage category.
against standard jōnin, they were overwhelming.
Unless the ambush ahead happened to include the Fourth Kazekage Rasa, or the puppet master Chiyo herself, Feiyu saw no reason to hesitate.
And realistically? Neither Rasa nor Chiyo would lower themselves to ambush supply routes personally. The enemy was most likely an elite jōnin with a few Chunin—nothing Feiyu feared.
Up ahead, the Sand squad had been patiently waiting, unaware Konoha forces were approaching. They had simply set up ambushes along likely routes.
But the moment a streak of lightning charged straight toward them, they reacted instantly.
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