Chapter 7

Kotaro enjoyed the use of his new eyes for a few more minutes but he soon felt the strain of the technique. It was constantly draining chakra from his body at a much higher rate than when he first activated it.

'I guess I need to train with these eyes more to reduce the strain they put on me.'

Kotaro stopped supplying chakra to his eyes which stopped the Byakugan and the drain that they were having on him.

"These eyes are amazing, Granny! I could see everything in this room."

Chiyo nodded as if she knew that.

"Of course. I wouldn't give you something shabby. But you must practice with those eyes in order to use them to their fullest potential. And the best way to do that is with life and death situations. I will have you take on several C and B rank missions by yourself over the next few months so that you can get used to your eyes as fast as possible."

Kotaro had no issue with that. He had gone on several missions by himself before so taking on new missions was nothing too difficult for him. If his eyes failed him, he could always fall back on his original skills

Over the next 3 months, Kotaro went from mission to mission as he began to master his new eyes. He wanted to have them when he went to Konoha for the Chunin Exams but not because of the exams. Instead, it was in case there was an emergency during the trip. He always wanted to keep a trump card in his pocket.

His missions ranged from escorting very important caravans of goods that helped to ensure one less Suna resident died from their lack of farmland to taking out bandit camps that would raid such caravans.

With each mission, his skill with the Byakugan had reached higher and higher levels. He could even be said to have skills comparable to a member of the main branch of the Hyuga Clan.

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Several Suna shinobi were walking along with a caravan of resources for the village. This was an important shipment since several of their most powerful shinobi would be leaving the village during the Chunin Exams so they were like squirrels in the winter, hoarding their resources.

The caravan had 23 carriages in total with 15 shinobi guarding them. Of these ninjas, 8 consisted of squads of 3 genin led by a jonin, 6 were chunin, and the last was Kotaro himself.

While the others were walking along with the caravan, Kotaro was lying on top of the central carriage while playing around with a ballon. The ballon was over 50 meters high in the sky that was attached to a long string.

"Tsk. That bastard is just lazing around again," a genin with blue hair complained while looking at Kotaro lying on top of the carriage

His friend pulled on his ear and glared at his fellow genin

"Hush. What if he hears you?"

"So what if the bastard hears me! He isn't anything special! All he has is Lady Chiyo and Lord Kazekage backing him. If not for them, he would be nothing."

"But I heard that he has completed several C and B rank missions all on his own," the third member of their team said quietly

"He's the Kazekage's kid. They can make up as many rumors as they want about him. I'm sure that even that monster's history of completing B-Rank missions alone is all false."

The blue-haired genin was so focused on his rant that he ran into his jonin teacher. It was only then that the 3 genin looked around and saw that the entire caravan had been stopped.

"All 3 of you, get in battle positions. You and the other genin are to guard to carriages and merchants. Do not move too far away from them or you will end up dead."

Kotaro could also hear the jonin and nodded at their assessment. He could tell that they had been surrounded by a large number of people, but he wasn't sure about their numbers.

'Byakugan!'

Kotaro stared at the sky while he activated the technique so he wasn't afraid of anyone seeing the change in his eyes. Kotaro's vision instantly expanded.

'Let's see. About 100 ordinary bandits, 10 genin, 5 chunin, and a single jonin are among them. This is probably the work of another village working with some local bandits if they have this many shinobi among their ranks. And since 'he' is among them, that must mean that rumors of him defecting are true.'

Due to Kotaro's previous training over the past few months, his Byakugan was capable of seeing as far as 150 meters away from him. He was also able to see the chakra signatures in other beings so he could get a relative assessment of their strength through just a glance after so much practice.

Just as Kotaro was thinking about how to handle them all without risking the cargo, the enemy appeared on both sides of the caravan.

On the right, 3 of the enemy genin were leading the 100 bandits. On the left, there was the rest of the shinobi of the raiding force. The one standing at the front wore a standard Suna shinobi uniform with half of his face being covered by a turban.

When the other jonin saw who was leading the raiding force, their faces paled.

"Shit! Baki, you bastard! How dare you betray Suna?!"

Baki looked at the jonin who spoke before ignoring him. He raised his left before bringing it down.

"Kill them all. Make sure you don't damage the carriages."