"Fire Release: Fireball Technique!"
A fireball two ters in diater burst from the crowd and roared toward Kyoshin's main body.
The air distorted wherever the fireball passed, and a wave of heat rushed forward.
Kyoshin ford hand seals and slamd his palm onto the ground. A wall of earth rose in front of him.
The instant the fireball collided with the earth wall, Kyoshin lowered his center of gravity and circled to a spot with a clearer field of view, all while continuing to form hand seals.
The mont he found the ninja, Kyoshin swung his arm, sending a wind blade slicing forward at high speed.
The man's eyes widened. He clearly hadn't expected soone to cast two ninjutsu in such a short amount of ti.
He barely dodged the wind blade, only to realize Kyoshin had sohow already closed the distance.
Slash!
Kyoshin pulled his ninja blade out from flesh and blood.
At the sa ti, the last rogue ninja was also dealt with by the shadow clones.
In barely two minutes, the entire camp had turned into a scene from hell.
Blood stained the ground red, and corpses lay sprawled everywhere.
One shadow clone walked toward the fence and untied the people the bandits had abducted.
Kyoshin stood in the center of the camp, his breathing beneath the mask as calm and steady as ever.
He swept his gaze across the surroundings, confird there were no survivors, then dispelled the shadow clones, allowing the combat experience to return to the original body.
Nobutoshi and Kumiko leapt down from the rock wall and landed beside Kyoshin.
There was less laziness in Nobutoshi's voice now, "Not your first ti killing soone, huh?"
Kyoshin replied, "Ran into plenty of bandits on the way to the Hidden Stone Village."
"Alright then~" Nobutoshi scratched his head. "Still, during missions, try not to reveal too much about your past. Just answering 'yes' would've been enough."
"Mission complete. Let's head back."
By the ti the three returned to the Hidden Stone Village, night had already fully fallen.
They went to the Tsuchikage Building to submit the mission report.
Onoki looked at Kyoshin, a satisfied smile appearing on his face. "Good work. Go get so rest."
"Yes." Kyoshin saluted, then turned and left.
Onoki looked toward the other two. "Well?"
"He perford far beyond expectations," Nobutoshi said slowly. "He's seen blood before. We should increase the difficulty a bit."
Onoki gently shook his head. "These things need to be done step by step. You two should head back and rest as well."
———
The barren mountains along the Land of Earth's border looked especially grim at dawn.
Wind passed through the cracks in the rocks, producing mournful whistling sounds. Sand and dust swept across the ground and struck the black rock walls with dense crackling noises.
Nobutoshi stood atop a towering stone pillar, the eyes beneath his wolf mask scanning the valley below.
Kumiko hid within the shadows ten ters to his left. Beneath the owl mask, only half her face was visible, her entire body nearly fused with the rocks themselves.
Kyoshin crouched to Nobutoshi's right, his youthful features hidden beneath the fox mask.
"The target stronghold is in the hollow three hundred ters ahead," Nobutoshi's voice was transmitted directly into their ears through chakra.
"According to intelligence, there are twenty-three bandits total. Five are suspected rogue ninja with weak chakra signatures, probably around genin level. The rest are ordinary bandits."
Behind the mask, Kyoshin's Sharingan slowly rotated. Through the narrow slits in the mask, he could clearly see smoke rising from the valley and hear faint sounds of noise and commotion.
"What about the hostages?" Kumiko asked in a cool tone.
"According to intelligence, the bandits kidnapped seven villagers from nearby settlents. Three won and four n."
"They're being held in a wooden cabin on the eastern side of the stronghold," Nobutoshi answered.
"Our top priority is rescuing the hostages. After that, exterminate the bandits completely."
"I'll launch a frontal assault and draw their attention."
"Kumiko will infiltrate to rescue the hostages while clearing the outer sentries."
"Kintsuchi, use your Sharingan to observe the battlefield. Deal with any stragglers imdiately, and stay alert to the surroundings."
"Understood." Kyoshin nodded.
Nobutoshi reminded him, "Kintsuchi, this is training for tactical coordination. Do your part."
Kyoshin naturally understood that and nodded again.
If that weren't the purpose, the ones sent here would've been a squad of chunin instead.
Nobutoshi leapt from the stone pillar while forming hand seals in midair.
"Earth Release: Rock Pillar Technique!"
A massive stone pillar three ters thick erupted from the ground and slamd directly into the center of the bandit stronghold.
BOOM!
Half the wooden houses collapsed instantly, and dust filled the air.
The panicked screams of the bandits imdiately rang out.
"Enemy attack!"
"It's ninja!"
"Grab your weapons!"
Nobutoshi landed and ford hand seals once more.
"Earth Release: Earth Flow Wall!"
Three thick earth walls burst upward from the ground, sealing off all three exits of the stronghold.
A crossbow bolt whistled toward him.
Nobutoshi casually swung his ninja blade and knocked it aside with ease.
The battle officially began.
Kumiko's figure flickered through the shadows. She was astonishingly fast, like a gray phantom. Almost nobody noticed her approach at all.
Standing on higher ground, Kyoshin's three-tomoe Sharingan allowed him to clearly see everything.
Two elite jonin were practically playing house with a bunch of trash mobs, and they even deliberately let five bandits escape.
Those five bandits fled toward the valley exit in a panic.
Kyoshin threw five shuriken. They traced bizarre arcs through the air, colliding with one another and changing direction before precisely striking the backs of the five bandits' necks.
At the sa ti, Kumiko rescued the hostages.
Nobutoshi, anwhile, was surrounded by bandits and the five rogue ninja, the situation looking dangerously unstable.
'Wait...'
This was definitely a test for him.
An elite jonin versus a group of bandits plus five rogue ninja.
And the result was the elite jonin supposedly being pushed into danger?
Behind the mask, a thoughtful look appeared on Kyoshin's face.
Rather than a mission, this felt more like an examination.
If his teammates weren't Kumiko and Nobutoshi, and if the enemies had been much stronger instead...
His task was to deal with stragglers and stay alert to the surroundings.
But if his teammates fell into danger, he couldn't abandon his post, yet he also couldn't just stand by and watch.
So how should he handle this situation?
If his main body joined the battle, that would clearly violate the assignnt.
Use shadow clones to assist?
That would reduce the combat power of his main body. And if enemy reinforcents appeared at that mont, he would no longer have enough strength to deal with them.
Very quickly, Kyoshin made his decision.
He took out several kunai from his ninja pouch and tied steel wires and explosive tags to their handles.
After lighting them, he threw them toward the enemy formation surrounding Nobutoshi.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Below, Nobutoshi slowly dodged attacks while paying close attention to Kyoshin's choice.
The mont he saw the explosive tags, approval appeared beneath Nobutoshi's mask.
Explosive tags could effectively disrupt the enemy and support teammates in danger, while consuming very little chakra. At the sa ti, they allowed the person responsible for keeping watch to remain at their position.
"He has teammates! Kill him first!!!"
One of the rogue ninja shouted furiously.
'Oh?'
'Who exactly did you say you were going to kill?'
Now that Kyoshin had already written his answer to the test... There was no longer any need for Nobutoshi to hold back.
His figure vanished from the spot as he used the Body Flicker Technique to leave the enemy formation, raising his hands into seals.
"Earth Release: Rock Mountain rge!"
Nobutoshi's chakra rapidly spread through the ground from his hands, covering nearly half the bandit camp in an instant.
Rumble! Rumble! Rumble!
Two small mountains rose from either side of the camp, then violently slamd into each other.
In the blink of an eye, wooden houses, rocks, small trees, enemies...
Everything was crushed and buried within the artificially created mountain.
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