When the two brothers, Yūta and Yūto, saw their captain again, they did not rush forward in anger to question him. Instead, they fell into deep confusion, their emotions extremely low.
In their unsuccessful ninja careers, this was yet another heavy blow.
Moreover, with their captain revealed to be a spy, they would also be implicated. Being summoned to ANBU for questioning was unavoidable, and it was even possible that they would no longer be able to remain ninjas in the future.
Higashino Makoto, on the other hand, felt that for them, this might actually be a good thing. In his view, the two brothers were truly unsuited to being ninjas; no matter what they did in the future, it would be better than being a ninja.
The ninja world places extreme emphasis on intellect and physical talent. Powerful bloodlines can bring those talents to their utmost potential, yet the two brothers clearly had nothing of the sort.
They were already nearly adults, yet their chakra reserves were pitifully small. At most, they could use the basic Three Body Techniques and throw a few shuriken. Even the nine-year-old Uzuki Yūgao, when facing such "seniors," could take on ten of them alone.
At this moment, the two brothers had already realized that perhaps it was time to face a choice. The dream they had shouted during their school days—of becoming Hokage after growing up—had ultimately been defeated by merciless reality.
In their eyes, Captain Ritsu, who had decent strength, had been tied up by juniors who had just graduated, like a stray dog by the roadside. And when the explosive tags detonated in the cave, Higashino Makoto had easily used ninjutsu they could not comprehend to lead them all the way out.
Just like Inuzuka Kiba among the future Konoha Twelve, no matter how unwilling he might be to accept it, he still had to face the gap between himself and Uzumaki Naruto. He did not have the Uzumaki constitution, did not have the Nine-Tails as a cheat, did not have one of the Sannin as a teacher, did not have the identity of Asura's chakra reincarnation, and did not have the Sage of Six Paths opening privileges for him.
At the start, he had only one dog; at the end, he still had only one dog.
After a while longer, Gekkō Kumomi finally appeared. Not only that—behind him followed two ninjas wearing animal masks.
This was ANBU. They nodded to the three of them—Higashino Makoto's group—as a sign of approval for the contributions of this rookie team, and then they took Captain Ritsu away, bringing Yūta and Yūto back to Konohagakure as well.
Once you are connected to a spy, whether you knew it or not, you are definitely going to have to go through ANBU procedures.
"Not bad. I'm very satisfied with how you handled it!" Gekkō Kumomi gave his students a thumbs-up.
Higashino Makoto only smiled faintly. Gekkō Hayate, however, was a little excited—he had finally earned his father's approval once.
Uzuki Yūgao deliberately put on an angry face. "Sensei, was this your real purpose? Was accompanying us on D-rank missions just a side thing?"
"Oh? Yūgao seems unhappy. But sorry—you've got it backwards. Your growth is what truly matters. As for what happened today—an accident. It was only an accident."
"Then what exactly is going on?"
Gekkō Kumomi thought for a moment, then still explained, "Well, some time ago, ANBU caught a high-ranking Iwagakure spy in the village, but that guy committed suicide in advance. His brain was destroyed, so they couldn't read out any useful intelligence, and the lead on his spy network got cut off."
"Quite a few people had been in contact with him, and Captain Ritsu's squad was one of them. But right now it's wartime—ANBU doesn't have that much manpower to investigate, and besides, it isn't suitable to make too big of a commotion."
"ANBU knew I was leading a genin team, so they asked me that if I ran into certain suspicious targets, I should investigate a bit on the side. The result—you saw it. That guy Ritsu really did have a problem."
"Aren't you afraid we might be in danger?"
"If a guy like that can take you out, then it means you can only go this far." Gekkō Kumomi looked seriously at Uzuki Yūgao. "What do you think a ninja is? A ninja must always maintain sharp instincts, able to notice and stay wary of anything unreasonable in time."
"Alright, then this time, do we count as having earned merit?"
"Of course you do. This is a standard B-rank mission."
"Great!" Uzuki Yūgao excitedly waved her fists. Now, on her genin record, there would be a mid-to-high-level mission entry she could boast about.
"Alright, Yūgao. Sensei—he's actually been protecting us in secret the whole time."
"I knew I couldn't hide it from you, Makoto. That perceptive ability of yours really is convenient. But don't get complacent. I can't stay by your side forever. Hurry up and grow—become someone your companions can rely on, and more importantly, someone you yourself can rely on."
Gekkō Hayate asked, "Sensei, are we still continuing today's mission?"
"Of course. Whatever you do, see it through from beginning to end. Cherish the time you spend doing D-rank missions—this is the last day of what we agreed on. If you want to do D-rank missions again, you'll probably have to wait until you're grown up and serving as team-leading jōnin yourselves."
...
After the mission ended, Team Three received two days of rest.
Two days later, they would officially leave the village to carry out missions and face new challenges.
This could be considered Konohagakure's final bit of gentleness. Even with manpower shortages, if children were to be sent onto the battlefield, they still had to be given a period—long or short—to adapt.
In this regard, each village had its own approach, but overall they were largely the same. Only Kirigakure was special: their ninjas, before heading out, had already accumulated sufficient killing experience on their own companions.
After all, those with poor talent were just experience packs anyway—it was better to let their own people farm them first.
That was why Kirigakure had the nickname "the Village of Three Mores": more lunatics, more perverts, and more rogue ninjas.
During the two-day break, Higashino Makoto rarely lived such a leisurely life. Aside from his fixed daily training, during the day he would either watch the scenery of Konohagakure from the Hokage Rock, or bask in the warm spring sunlight by the river.
Life isn't only about training—it's also about enjoying moments of leisure. Only then can one truly feel the joy of being alive.
For someone who had died once, this was especially important.
Training was to ensure he could keep living. Being a ninja was to live a more thrilling and exciting life. There was no contradiction between the two.
After all, he wasn't like those senior transmigrators—either born into the Uchiha clan, constantly worrying about lacking strength and getting stabbed to death by Itachi on the night of the massacre; or born into the Hyūga branch family, struggling day after day against the Caged Bird curse seal on their forehead; or an orphan, constantly afraid of standing out too much and ending up on Danzō's little notebook, only to have a classic "you regret, I'm the Hokage" exchange play out in the Hokage's office.
Nor would he cause himself trouble by trying to change the so-called ninja world or alter anyone's fate.
Having come to the ninja world for nine years, the only thing he had truly changed was probably the three people who had grown up with him since childhood. Uchiha Shisui awakened the Sharingan because of him. As for what came after—that could wait until later.
Gekkō Hayate? He certainly wouldn't be allowed to die young.
In the end, Higashino Makoto had once discreetly asked his parents about it and confirmed that he had no Senju bloodline at all—he was an utterly ordinary commoner, pure to the core, with no need to struggle under pressure to recreate the glory of the Senju.
If there were no natural energy cheat, the limit of his life would be that of an ordinary jōnin, like Higashino Jirō. When facing those gods of the Fourth Shinobi World War in the future, he would be nothing more than a stray dog by the roadside.
If that were truly the case, then at this moment he should have embarked on the life-burning path of the Eight Gates, or taken the risk of approaching Orochimaru to see whether scientific research could change his fate.
To be honest, neither of those paths was friendly to him. The Eight Gates had a high ceiling, but only one chance to bloom.
As for research, he knew himself well enough. He wasn't cut out for it. Conducting research required not only a solid theoretical foundation, but more importantly, that spark of creative inspiration.
So the effort he was putting in now was entirely dependent on cheating. There was nothing to be ashamed of about that—only by cheating did this world have a future.
As for his current strength, the development of his own offensive and defensive methods had already come to a temporary halt. The same was true for medical ninjutsu and the second-stage chakra training—they had all reached the limits of this body.
The advancement of chakra toward the dual extremes of yin and yang had almost completely stagnated.
This was no longer a matter of effort. Rather, instinct told him that forcing things further might be dangerous.
Why were Kurama Yakumo and Uchiha Itachi peerless in genjutsu, yet their bodies deteriorated so quickly? Why did Kaguya Kimimaro possess formidable bodily regeneration, yet still could not cure his bloodline disease?
The most absurd case was Senju Hashirama—he possessed the most extreme vitality of all shinobi, yet didn't even live to sixty before dying.
Thus, Higashino Makoto surmised that without an extraordinary constitution, forcibly pushing yin–yang attributes higher was not a good thing.
Everything would have to wait until white natural energy was cultivated to the third stage, when his body entered a constant Sage Mode, before any change might occur.
As for his current strength? Higashino Makoto truly wasn't sure. This was something you only knew after fighting. In any case, jōnin like Gekkō Kumomi posed absolutely no threat to him.
And as for Kage-level shinobi? Maybe one day he could try throwing a sack over Sarutobi Hiruzen and see what happened.
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