"Rin, Mikoto!"
While Nawaki was cursing himself in his heart, he was also worried about them.
Although both of his comrades came from prominent ninja clans of Konoha, neither of them could be considered a qualified ninja.
To a certain extent, they were both victims of their families' struggles.
No, to put it another way, they should be considered beneficiaries.
Originally, with their status, their fate was to stay in their clans, marry a designated clan member, and then support their husbands and raise their children.
However, due to some special reasons, they had been able to enter the Ninja Academy to study.
For Mikoto, this might just be a place to expand her social circle.
But for Rin, this might be her only chance to leave that small room.
He, Nawaki, had had a bad reaction to killing.
In his opinion, their reaction might be much more severe than his own.
If he couldn't appear before they had a stress reaction and were in danger, he might regret it for the rest of his life.
Under these circumstances, he desperately squeezed out the chakra he had refined in his body, using all of it to strengthen his physical condition.
Never before had he wished he had learned his great-granduncle's Flying Thunder God Technique.
That way, when his comrades were in danger, he could appear by their side in an instant and offer them a helping hand.
"When this mission is over, I'll ask Sensei Li to teach me the Flying Thunder God Technique!"
Such a thought flashed through his mind.
Although he had been young at the time, he still remembered that his sister had given the research materials on the technique from his grandfather to someone.
If nothing unexpected happened, that person was Sensei Li, right?
After all these years, he should have already completed his training of the technique.
Thinking of this, a trace of fantasy rose in his heart again.
If Sensei Li was the kind of person who was hard on the outside but soft on the inside, then when Rin and Mikoto were in mortal danger, would he appear and save them?
However, when he arrived at the battlefield, he knew he had been overthinking it.
At this moment, the two girls were in a standoff with three bandits.
This stronghold had a total of seventeen bandits.
Among them, after he had killed the leader, the bandits knew they had been attacked by a ninja and had fled in all directions.
Then, he had killed another one, and the blood that had splattered on his face had triggered his first-kill stress reaction.
It was at this moment that Rin had acted, using her daggers to clean up the fleeing bandits.
However, Li Anshi had only given her ten daggers in total.
Therefore, of the fifteen who had fled, only five had made it safely down the mountain and had run into the two girls.
With the help of Rin's Byakugan, Mikoto had used a "Great Fireball Technique" to kill two of them.
This was the reason why there were only three bandits in front of them now.
"Kill!"
Before, the three bandits had been startled by the two girls, afraid that they would attack them and they would follow in the footsteps of the others.
They had been frightened by Mikoto's fireball just now.
So, they hadn't dared to attack them.
And the two girls, because it was also their first time killing, had not yet recovered from the mental shock of easily taking a life.
At this moment, seeing Nawaki arrive, the three bandits' hearts hardened, and they raised their long swords and charged at them.
Although there was only one on his side, and two here, he had easily killed the leader, and these fleeing people had seen it with their own eyes.
The comrades who had died one after another while fleeing, in the eyes of these three bandits, had been killed by him.
They couldn't be blamed for this.
Rin's daggers were, after all, a replication of Li Anshi's technique.
The speed at which she threw them was something even an ordinary ninja couldn't see clearly.
How could ordinary people like them possibly see it?
Therefore, in the hearts of these three remaining bandits, he was an experienced and powerful ninja who killed without blinking.
The two girls in front of them, although Mikoto had used a ninjutsu to kill two of their comrades, in their eyes, he was still more terrifying.
So, after seeing him appear, they didn't dare to waste any more time and chose the weaker direction to break through.
Because all the daggers in her hand had been thrown, Rin stood in front of Mikoto, her expression grave, and she took a Gentle Fist stance.
Compared to them, because she had activated her Byakugan, she had seen his reaction after killing.
Similarly, after Mikoto had used the Great Fireball Technique to kill the two bandits, the chakra in her body had also become quite turbulent.
In other words, in the Byakugan's field of vision, the current Mikoto was almost like she was under a genjutsu.
As for Rin, the slaughter with the daggers and the black and white vision of the Byakugan meant that the effect on her was minimal.
After the three bandits had charged, she took a deep breath.
"Eight Trigrams—Two Palms!"
A faint trigram pattern appeared in her eyes.
Then, her chakra erupted, and she instantly rushed in front of one of the bandits, her palms striking out.
Splat—
The Gentle Fist of the Hyuga clan was mainly to inject chakra into the enemy's body, severing their meridians, so that their chakra could not flow freely, thus sealing it and making them powerless to resist.
But if the enemy was an ordinary person, there was no need to strike their pressure points. She could just directly inject her chakra into their body, causing great damage.
After all, the inside of a person's body was much more fragile than the outside.
And that was what she was doing right now.
The bandit who had been hit by her two palms was directly and severely injured, and a large amount of blood spurted from his mouth.
However, the weakness of the Gentle Fist was also here.
Because it mainly relied on chakra to cause damage inside the enemy's body, there was not much external force.
Although the bandit was severely injured, he was not knocked back by her.
"Die!"
Raising his long sword high, he slashed down at her.
Swoosh—
She jumped back, and the bandit's long sword slashed past her, leaving a deep gash on the ground.
Bang!
"Rin!"
From his perspective, he had not seen her dodge the attack.
He had only seen that after the three bandits had charged, she had rushed towards them, and in front of one of them, had been cut down by his raised sword.
"Haaah!"
Thinking that something had happened to her, his eyes were about to split.
"Rasengan!"
He spread his hands, and a huge amount of chakra gathered in his palms, forming two fist-sized spheres.
This time, he did not use them to attack the enemy.
He pressed his hands on the ground, and instantly, the Rasengan in his palms erupted with a huge roar.
Boom!
The ground was blasted into two one-meter-wide circular craters, and he was sent flying by the force of the explosion, towards the three bandits.
This was a method he had come up with in his desperation to get to the battlefield as quickly as possible.
And this method, as he had expected, had successfully sent him high above them.
"Die!"
In mid-air, another chakra sphere appeared in his palm.
"Rasengan!"
As he passed over the bandit who had attacked her with the long sword, he let out a loud shout and directly slammed the Rasengan in his hand onto the bandit's head.
Splat—
Without any surprise, the bandit's head, along with most of his body, was directly blasted into a bloody pulp.
Unable to dodge in time, the scattered blood and gore drenched her entire body.
The white robes of the Hyuga clan instantly turned blood red.
After landing, he turned to look, and the sight of her, drenched in blood, entered his eyes.
"Damn it!"
"You all deserve to die!"
Thinking that something had happened to her, the only thought in his mind now was to kill all the enemies and avenge his comrade.
He then formed another Rasengan in his palm and charged at the last two bandits—
Boom!
…
"Rin, are you alright?"
After he had appeared, Mikoto also let out a sigh of relief.
Safe!
As a classmate and a teammate, she still recognized his strength.
Otherwise, she wouldn't have taken his words "unless he falls, he won't let her and Rin be harmed" seriously.
She then hurried forward, supported Rin, and asked.
"Yes, Nawaki came just in time. I'm not injured."
After nodding lightly to her, Rin looked at him with some unease. She felt that his chakra was a bit off right now.
If his previous chakra had given people a positive and upward feeling, then now, it had a hint of coldness.
Chakra was a product of the fusion of a ninja's physical and spiritual energy.
Now that his chakra had changed, it must be that his spirit had changed.
A cold chakra meant that the negative emotions in his heart had already suppressed the positive ones.
The original purpose of the Sage of Six Paths in spreading chakra was to use it to connect everyone's hearts, so that they could understand and tolerate each other.
Hundreds of years later, although chakra had already been used as a tool for battle, by sensing the other party's chakra, one could judge their personality based on its aura.
A warm chakra represented an upright and trustworthy person.
A cold chakra represented a problem with one's personality or disposition. Without understanding the situation, everyone's first impression would be to not get too close.
"Nawaki..."
…
"Tsk, he's still too young..."
Not far from the three of them, Li Anshi shook his head and sighed softly.
"Hmph!"
Tsunade crossed her arms and let out a cold snort, very dissatisfied with his performance on this mission.
Before, when he had gone to investigate alone and had acted alone, although from the team's configuration, even she had thought he was a fool, if he had been able to complete the mission on his own, she wouldn't have said anything.
At his current age and strength, to be able to single-handedly wipe out a bandit stronghold on his first killing mission was quite good.
However, his subsequent performance made her feel that her education of him had been too relaxed.
Of course, she could also understand the post-killing stress reaction.
However, what made her feel that he was a disappointment was that he had not yet confirmed the situation of his two comrades, and his disposition had already changed. The meaning of this was self-evident.
A ninja's "ninja way" was closely related to their own chakra.
Just like her, once she had determined her future path, she would walk it unswervingly.
Even if she would encounter all kinds of difficulties and hardships along the way, she was confident that she could overcome them all.
With such a firm heart, the chakra refined from her own spirit would become stronger and stronger, eventually allowing her to enter the ranks of the "Kage."
Someone like him, who could easily change his life goals and cause his chakra to change, could be considered to have a weak mind.
Without enough "caliber" to carry the "Kage," how could one possibly carry the chakra of a Kage?
From the change in his chakra, both Li Anshi and she knew that in the future, if he wanted to truly break through to the "Kage" level, unless he awakened the Wood Release of the First Hokage, otherwise, without experiencing some hardship, tempering his own heart, and making himself unswervingly committed to his own future, it would be almost impossible for him to break through to the "Kage" level.
Originally, she had had high hopes for him, hoping that he would become a pillar of Konoha in the future.
But from his performance now, perhaps Elite Jonin was his limit.
"Alright, Tsunade."
"He's just a child. His disposition is not yet fixed."
"Besides, his mental fluctuations have not yet subsided."
"Let's wait until he has confirmed the situation of his comrades."
"If he can find his original heart, then this matter can be considered to have tempered his disposition, allowing him to walk more firmly on the path he wants."
"Of course, if he so easily changes his life goals, I will also give him targeted guidance according to his situation."