Ever since the second week after that team dinner, Minato had already left Konoha to carry out a classified mission outside the village.
Rumors said the fighting on the southwestern border had grown intense. Sunagakure's main puppet corps had already been deployed, swarming the Land of Fire's defenses like locusts. The shadow of war was beginning to loom over Konoha, and even the missions assigned to fresh genin like them were starting to pile up.
At this stage, Konoha had not yet fallen into the nightmare of fighting on four fronts at once, so manpower was still relatively sufficient.
But the Land of Fire was vast, bordering the Land of Rain, the Land of Rivers, the Land of Grass, and the Land of Hot Water. No matter how many outposts were stationed along the borders, a full lockdown was impossible. And in times like these, when war was about to break out, rogue ninja, missing-nin, spies, and bandit gangs all became much more active.
So, for newly graduated genin teams, the "daily routine" became things like patrolling the areas within 50 miles of Konoha, investigating suspicious individuals, wiping out bandit groups, and keeping supply routes clear.
These missions weren't especially difficult, and each team was issued a number of signal flares. Usually, no team operated more than ten kilometers away from another. If they encountered an enemy they couldn't handle, they were supposed to fire the signal immediately and call for nearby squads to reinforce them.
Minato's team had never needed to use theirs.
After all, with two monsters like Kakashi and Mikami Yuu in the squad, each of them carrying one weaker teammate—Kakashi paired with Obito, Yuu bringing Rin—anything short of a jōnin turned into a one-sided slaughter. How quickly the fight ended mostly depended on whether Mikami Yuu felt like getting serious.
He usually did not.
Over the last few missions, Mikami Yuu had barely used the Three Basic Jutsu or Great Fireball at all. Instead, he'd mostly been using Phoenix Sage Fire, Dragon Fire, and Hatake Swordsmanship, trying to turn real combat into training and farm affection from them.
Unfortunately…
Most of the enemies they ran into weren't very strong. A lot of them couldn't even use ninjutsu. Most fights were over before Mikami Yuu had even put in real effort, which left Phoenix Sage Fire and Dragon Fire frequently dissatisfied, like they hadn't gotten their fill.
He still had to go back afterward and keep training on his own just to earn the affection from the [Practice] option.
Soon enough, the group escorted the civilians they'd rescued back to a nearby town.
After a short rest, they began the return trip to Konoha.
Kakashi went to the mission hall to file the report. Rin went to Konoha Hospital to help out. Mikami Yuu, meanwhile, headed alone to the training grounds in the southern part of the village.
They were still keeping up the special training routine, though compared to before, both the intensity and time spent had been reduced a little, and they weren't always acting together anymore.
Mikami Yuu didn't know the exact state of Kakashi's and Obito's training progress.
But as for himself, he had already started trying to practice water-walking in fast-moving rivers—and even beneath waterfalls. That kind of training was both difficult and dangerous. Only because he had Substitution and Transformation as a safety net did he dare push himself that far.
Right now, Mikami Yuu stopped in front of the waterfall at Naka River, took off his outer clothes and shoes, then looked up at the torrent crashing down from a cliff dozens of meters high like a silver dragon. After taking a deep breath, he rushed forward, instantly feeling the crushing pressure slam into him.
Splash—!
Just a few seconds later, a slight lapse in chakra control was enough for the freezing water to wash him off. Fortunately, he activated Substitution in time and retreated to the side. After a brief rest, he tried again.
Time passed slowly.
At first, Mikami Yuu could only last three seconds before being thrown down. Then, little by little, he managed to steady himself under the pounding current, and eventually began trying to sidestep and turn within that pressure, improving by small increments.
Just as he fell out of the waterfall again and was about to catch his breath, he suddenly sensed something. Almost on instinct, he glanced sideways and caught sight of something mask-like flashing between the bushes.
Then—
Whoosh!
A sharp cutting sound tore through the air!
Mikami Yuu reacted on instinct, twisting to the side. A cold metallic glint passed just centimeters from his face—it was a sharp kunai. It flew straight past him, struck the smooth rock wall behind the waterfall with a click, then was carried away by the current.
"Who's there?!"
Mikami Yuu's pupils narrowed. He flipped backward at once and landed on a jutting rock, lowering his center of gravity as he faced the dense cluster of trees to the right of the waterfall. That was where the kunai had come from, and he had also faintly seen a white mask flash there.
Mist swirled. Tree shadows trembled. It looked as though no one was there at all.
Then suddenly—
Fwoosh!
A violent gale tore through the thick water mist without warning, like an invisible battering ram slamming straight at Mikami Yuu! The wind pressure was so fierce it actually carved out a fan-shaped vacuum zone across the water's surface.
"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!"
"…Water Style: Water Formation Wall!"
Mikami Yuu formed hand seals and released his jutsu at once.
From the standpoint of elemental advantage, Fire would have been the right answer here.
But this environment was saturated with water. If he used Fire Release recklessly, the instant cloud of steam would blind him and put him at a disadvantage. And besides, this place naturally favored Water Release. Even though Mikami Yuu's Water Release proficiency was still relatively low, the terrain itself would let him produce solid results.
[Water Formation Wall: Master, is it finally my turn to protect you? Please don't worry—I'll give it everything I have!]
[Water Formation Wall affection +2!]
In that lightning-fast instant, chakra surged through Mikami Yuu's body and pulled at the deep pool beneath him, along with the massive volume of water plunging down from the waterfall beside him. With a crash, a thick ring-shaped wall of water rose around him, wrapping his whole body, and slammed head-on into the incoming gale!
Boom—!!!
The deafening explosion made the water wall shudder, twist, and deform violently, with droplets blasting outward in every direction. But in the end, it held. It wasn't completely broken.
Mikami Yuu narrowed his eyes and peered through the spray toward the forest on the other side, trying to pinpoint the attacker's exact location. But the enemy seemed to have anticipated that response. Not only did they refuse to show themselves, they followed up with another Water Release.
Along with several piercing whistles, highly compressed, rapidly spinning lances of water shot upward from the river beneath the waterfall like the tongues of venomous snakes, lunging straight at Mikami Yuu with shrill, slicing screams—
Water Style: Water Fang Bullet!
This time, Mikami Yuu finally used the thing he was best at:
"Fire Style: Great Fireball!"
A massive orange-red fireball seven or eight meters across burst from his mouth!
The reason it was only orange-red instead of blazing white was twofold. First, a few hundred degrees was already enough to counter this attack. Second, the other side's identity was uncertain, but they were most likely not spies from another village—more likely some ill-intentioned rat from inside Konoha itself. Mikami Yuu didn't want to reveal too many trump cards in front of someone like that.
If he couldn't find the enemy, then he wouldn't bother.
Better to create a visual blind spot and look for a chance to retreat.
~~~
Patreon(.)com/Bleam
— Currently You can Read 70 Chapters Ahead of Others!