Chapter 226
By the time Taichi returned to the squad tent, it was already around four in the afternoon.
Yōhei and Saori had also returned from training and were currently chatting inside the tent.
From the sound of it, they were discussing Taichi's earlier analysis of genjutsu.
Apparently, Yōhei had decided to once again challenge his greatest weakness and attempt learning genjutsu properly.
He simply couldn't let go of the incredible amplification the Mangekyō Sharingan provided to illusion techniques.
The moment he saw Taichi lift the tent flap and walk in, Yōhei immediately brightened.
He quickly explained his thoughts and eagerly asked for Taichi's opinion.
"This…"
What was Taichi supposed to say?
The determination to challenge oneself was certainly admirable.
But knowingly throwing yourself against a wall despite understanding your own limitations wasn't exactly wise either.
"You can try."
"But don't invest too much time into it."
"If there's no progress, know when to stop."
"Time is extremely precious right now."
"Every bit of strength you gain means one more chance to survive on the battlefield."
That was the only answer Taichi could give.
At the same time, he pulled out a scroll from his ninja pouch and handed it over.
"These are some notes I made while studying genjutsu."
"Hopefully they'll help."
The moment Yōhei accepted the scroll, the carefree smile on his face disappeared.
He held the notes solemnly and nodded heavily.
"I'll keep things in moderation."
"Don't worry."
Taichi patted Yōhei's shoulder before walking past him.
Seeing Yōhei already rushing off to study the scroll, Taichi simply smiled and ignored him.
Instead, he stopped in front of Saori and pulled out the sealing paper and special ink he had exchanged for earlier.
"Saori."
"I'm going to make a sealing tag."
"Come help me."
Saori's eyes instantly lit up, and she nodded without hesitation.
She naturally understood that Taichi wasn't actually asking her to help.
He simply wanted her to observe and learn.
A sealing tag of that level contained valuable knowledge in every single step of its creation.
Even just watching the process would be immensely beneficial.
"Yōhei, coming along?"
Taichi casually called out.
"You two go ahead."
"I know the sealing symbols, but they definitely don't know me."
"I'd rather study your genjutsu notes."
Without even lifting his head, Yōhei waved dismissively, urging them to leave quickly and stop disturbing him.
Taichi chuckled and led Saori out of the tent.
The two walked slowly through the camp while discussing their understanding of sealing arts.
Or more accurately—
Saori talked while Taichi occasionally added a few pointers or corrected flaws in her understanding.
Back when Taichi first started learning sealing techniques, the two of them had once studied together as equals.
At the time, Saori had been the one teaching him foundational sealing theory.
Yet now, their roles had completely reversed.
As Saori sighed inwardly at how quickly things had changed, they finally arrived at an open clearing within the forest.
This was Taichi's usual training ground.
All trees within thirty meters had been cleared away.
Aside from the uneven ground littered with small craters, the place was quite suitable.
Saori looked around in confusion.
There wasn't any proper table or workspace for creating sealing tags.
Was Taichi planning to train instead?
She looked at him with puzzled eyes.
Taichi merely smiled without explaining.
Walking toward the edge of the clearing, he rapidly formed hand seals.
Earth Release chakra surged through his body before he slammed a palm against the ground.
Instantly, the soil before him softened under the influence of chakra, turning into a swamp-like mud slurry resembling the Underworld Swamp technique.
Bubbles occasionally rose from the muddy surface.
Then, as chakra continued flowing in, the muddy terrain rapidly flattened and hardened.
Its earthy yellow color deepened into dark brown stone.
Within only a few seconds, the entire muddy field transformed into a perfectly smooth stone platform.
This was an application of Earth Release nature transformation.
Using chakra to alter the properties of soil itself and shape it into whatever form you desired.
If one's control was precise enough, even constructing an entire building directly from earth wasn't impossible.
Of course, that level of manipulation was unimaginably difficult.
Most ninja preferred simply casting normal jutsu instead.
Saori stared at the flawlessly smooth stone surface with slightly parted lips.
She fully understood how absurdly difficult it was to achieve this level of precision through pure chakra control.
This kind of effortless display was exactly the sort of thing that truly shocked experts.
If it had been Obito witnessing this, he probably would've just widened his eyes and shouted:
"Ninjutsu is so convenient!"
"Taichi…"
"You're planning to draw the sealing formation directly onto this?"
"Does it really require such a huge area?"
The stone platform was already over fifteen meters wide.
She had never imagined a single sealing tag would require a sealing array of such scale.
"It can't be helped."
"There wasn't any suitable flat ground nearby."
"So I just made one."
As he spoke, Taichi pulled out a storage scroll and unsealed its contents—
Three palm-sized sealing papers and a large amount of special ink.
These were all premium-grade materials custom-made by the logistics department.
Just these supplies alone would cost nearly one hundred thousand ryō on the market.
And that was only because of Taichi's recent war contributions.
Otherwise, ordinary people wouldn't even qualify to purchase them.
Saori stepped forward and stood quietly behind him.
Taichi placed one of the sealing papers at the center of the stone platform.
Then he dipped his brush into the ink and began writing.
Starting from the central symbol on the paper, he extended the sealing array outward one symbol at a time.
His strokes were smooth, steady, and incredibly fast.
Clearly, every symbol had already been engraved into his memory.
There wasn't even the slightest pause for thought.
Behind him, Saori observed with complete focus.
This was a complete sealing formation being laid out from beginning to end.
Taichi was openly revealing every structure and principle in sequence, allowing someone of Saori's level to understand at least seventy to eighty percent of it.
Such opportunities were unimaginably rare.
Very few sealing masters would expose their personal knowledge so openly and without reservation.
Roughly an hour later, Taichi finally completed the final symbol and lowered his brush.
Straightening up, he stretched lazily.
A series of cracking sounds echoed from his spine and joints.
"Ah… that feels good."
"Pretty lucky this time."
"Finished it in one attempt."
"I honestly expected a few failures first."
Then he turned toward Saori.
"Anything you didn't understand?"
Saori's face reddened instantly.
At first, she could follow most of the process.
But after the halfway point, her comprehension had dropped to barely fifty percent.
Seeing her embarrassment, Taichi immediately reassured her.
"There's nothing embarrassing about not understanding."
"If you don't get something, ask."
"That's the entire reason I brought you here."
Hearing that, Saori finally relaxed and began asking about every part she hadn't understood.
Taichi patiently answered each question one by one.
For concepts that were too advanced, he simply told her to leave them for later and revisit them after improving her sealing proficiency.
The two continued in this question-and-answer rhythm until Saori finally ran out of questions.
By then, another full hour had passed.
Taichi glanced at the darkening sky and knew they couldn't delay any longer.
He stepped into the center of the formation, preparing for the final stage of creation.
Meanwhile, Saori retreated outside the array and watched carefully.
Taichi rapidly formed hand seals.
Massive chakra fluctuations surged from his body.
The moment the final seal was completed, chakra poured through the hand he pressed against the central symbol—
And flooded directly into the sealing paper.
At that moment, the entire sealing array seemed to come alive.
The countless symbols twisted and flowed like living creatures, rapidly contracting toward the central rune.
In barely two or three seconds, the massive formation completely collapsed inward.
When Taichi finally stood up again, a jade-like sealing tag rested in his hand.
Smiling faintly, he walked over and placed the newly completed seal into Saori's hands.
"So?"
"What do you think?"
Saori smiled as well, though her expression carried obvious frustration.
"It's incredibly difficult."
"I realized that even if I completely memorize the entire formation, I probably won't be able to attempt creating one until I reach jōnin level."
"The chakra consumption is just too terrifying."
Taichi nodded in agreement.
"That's true."
"But you can always improve it later."
"Besides, this is something designed to save your life."
"If it can be carried around conveniently, then a higher chakra cost is understandable."
After thinking it over, Saori also felt that made sense.
Nothing in the world was perfect.
Unless your sealing mastery had already reached a godlike level—
But formations of that complexity were far beyond ordinary people anyway.
Afterward, Taichi completed the remaining two sealing papers as well.
Unfortunately, while one succeeded, the other failed.
Still, a two-thirds success rate was already far better than before, and Taichi seemed quite satisfied.
By the time Taichi and Saori returned to camp, it was already around ten at night.
After exchanging goodnights, everyone quickly went to sleep.
Tomorrow would be the day Taichi returned to the village.
The next morning, Taichi woke up early as usual.
After finishing his daily training routine, it was already seven o'clock.
When he returned to camp, the entire place was bustling with activity.
The medical camp in particular was especially busy.
Large numbers of wounded ninja were being loaded onto transport wagons.
They would be escorted back to Konoha by Taichi and the hundred ninja selected for return duty.
"Taichi! Why are you still here?!"
"Come quickly!"
"Lord Jiraiya's been looking everywhere for you!"
Before Taichi had even walked far into camp, Yōhei's anxious voice rang out nearby.
Judging from his expression, he had clearly been searching for quite a while.
Yōhei rushed over in a few quick steps, grabbed Taichi by the wrist, and immediately began dragging him toward the command tent.
At the same time, he continued grumbling nonstop.
"Early this morning, Lord Jiraiya already sent people to find you."
"But you'd disappeared before dawn."
"That's why I got dragged into helping search too."
Taichi finally understood what was going on.
Still, he had no idea why Jiraiya was looking for him so urgently.
Picking up his pace, he followed Yōhei forward.
Before they even reached the command tent, they spotted Jiraiya and Shikaku waiting halfway down the path.
"Lord Jiraiya, I found him."
Yōhei finally released Taichi and respectfully bowed.
"Jiraiya-sensei."
Taichi greeted calmly as well.
"Very good, Yōhei."
"I was starting to wonder where this brat had run off to."
Jiraiya laughed while praising Yōhei, but the moment he turned toward Taichi, his expression became stern.
"You knew today was the day you'd return to the village, yet you disappeared at dawn without telling anyone where you were going."
"No organization."
"No discipline…"
Taichi was completely dumbfounded.
You just finally found an excuse to lecture me, didn't you?
Still, he didn't bother arguing.
Instead, he simply stood there mentally drifting into another world.
Seeing Taichi's utterly shameless expression, Jiraiya almost burst out laughing.
For a brief moment, he suddenly remembered how his own teacher used to scold him in exactly the same way.
The resemblance was almost identical.
Perhaps this was exactly how Hiruzen-sensei had once felt.
After spacing out briefly, Jiraiya quickly recovered and stopped lecturing.
Instead, he got straight to the point.
"This return convoy…"
"I plan to appoint you as the team leader."
"What do you think?"
"Me?"
Taichi was genuinely surprised.
Leading such a large group was entirely new territory for him.
It wasn't danger that worried him—
It was his age.
He feared others might not truly listen to him.
"Yes. You."
"And I believe you can handle it."
Jiraiya looked utterly confident.
Even Shikaku and the others nearby were smiling approvingly.
At that point, what was left for Taichi to hesitate over?
Wasn't it just an escort mission?
Sure, there were more people than usual—
But with his abilities, it would still be easy.
"Alright."
"No problem."
"Leave it to me."
"I'll bring everyone safely back to the village."
"That's more like it!"
"That's exactly how my disciple should sound!"
Jiraiya laughed loudly and slapped Taichi heavily on the arm.
"Come on."
"Let's head to the camp gate."
"It's almost time."
"I'll announce your appointment there."
The group followed Jiraiya toward the main entrance of the camp.
"Taichi, did you pack everything already?"
"Judging from this situation, you'll probably depart immediately after the announcement."
Walking beside him, Yōhei quietly reminded him.
"I packed everything yesterday."
"It's all inside storage scrolls."
Taichi casually patted the ninja pouch strapped to his thigh.
Yōhei secretly gave him a thumbs-up.
As expected of Taichi—
Always fully prepared.
Soon, the group arrived at the camp entrance.
The area was already packed with people.
When Taichi had passed through earlier, it had still been empty.
These people really moved quickly.
The noisy crowd gradually fell silent as Jiraiya and the others approached.
Countless gazes turned toward Jiraiya, filled with admiration and gratitude.
Jiraiya motioned Taichi forward with a wave of his hand before addressing the returning ninja.
"This person…"
"I doubt I need to introduce him."
"I'm sure everyone already knows who he is."
The crowd instantly erupted with excitement.
"Of course!"
"That's Lord Taichi!"
"He's the one who killed the tailed beast!"
"Lord Taichi saved my life!"
"Alright, alright!"
Jiraiya hurriedly calmed everyone down before continuing.
"Since everyone knows him already, that makes things easy."
"For this return trip, I'm officially appointing Matsushita Taichi as your convoy leader."
"Follow his commands during the journey."
"Yes, sir!"
The crowd responded in unison.
Clearly, nobody had any objections to Taichi leading them.
Jiraiya waved for Taichi to return to formation.
Once Taichi stood at the very front of the convoy, Jiraiya stepped forward again and addressed everyone preparing to return home.
"This war…"
"We achieved an unprecedented victory."
"Lord Hokage specifically ordered that the hundred ninja who have remained on the front lines the longest, along with the severely wounded, return to the village."
"First, so you may represent all frontline ninja and receive the cheers of the villagers."
"And second…"
"Because Lord Hokage understands the hardships you've endured through these endless battles."
"So this is also your chance to finally rest."
Jiraiya looked at the emotional faces before him and stepped forward once more.
Then, in a booming voice, he shouted:
"Now!"
"Raise your heads high!"
"Straighten your backs!"
"And return proudly to the village!"
"Let your families in the rear know this—"
"The heroes of the front lines…"
"Are finally coming home!"
"Home!"
"HOME!!"
"HOME!!!"