MSIN: Chapter 176
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"So, you really want to go on this mission as a 'one-man team'? You don't need any help from your teammates?" Orochimaru's hoarse voice echoed behind Haori. His gaze towards Haori held a strange kind of curiosity.
That kind of dangerous mission, insisting on doing it alone, for many ninjas, "alone" often wasn't a concern about their combat strength, but a fear on a psychological level. For them, having a teammate or not was a completely different mindset.
But Haori was clearly not like that.
"Yes, I've made up my mind. Orochimaru-sama, you don't need to keep confirming." He looked straight ahead, not turning his head as he spoke.
The two of them were standing on a bare cliff about ten meters above sea level. Haori's gaze was fixed on the sea in front of him, where the tide was rising and falling, and the reefs were sometimes exposed and sometimes hidden.
Further ahead, the sea and the sky met.
Beyond that line, in the distance, out of sight, was the Land of Water.
Several days had passed since the previous surprise attack on Kirigakure. Once the war resumed, the pace might be fast or slow, but it wouldn't stop until it ended.
So, even though they had just fought a battle, Konoha was already planning a new operation.
Judging from the results and the casualties they had suffered, Konoha's previous operation could be considered very successful. They had destroyed a large amount of enemy supplies that were used for group operations, taken out a stronghold, killed 600 to 800 enemies, suffered less than 200 casualties, and eliminated high-level enemy forces like Kisame Hoshigaki.
After this operation, Orochimaru decided to press his advantage and further strike at the enemy's intelligence and logistics systems, hoping to gain a systemic advantage for Konoha in the upcoming war.
The specific mission arrangement was to send some ninjas to infiltrate the Land of Water.
This included obtaining, mastering, and transmitting intelligence about Kirigakure's operations, reconnaissance, infiltration, and sabotage of enemy actions, and also, if possible, eliminating small enemy forces while avoiding exposure and ensuring safety.
To summarize Orochimaru-sama's combat philosophy, it could be condensed into five words. It's called the enemy's rear area… cough, the enemy's rear area ninja team.
And the ninjas who carry out this kind of mission naturally require boldness, meticulousness, and high strength. They should be good at disguise and role-playing, skilled in one-hit kills, technical sabotage, and running away.
High-level missions require high-level ninjas to carry them out. Jōnin Haori could also be considered a high-level ninja.
The operation was still carried out in teams. According to the different mission details and the specific situation of the ninjas, there were four-person teams, three-person teams, and two-person teams participating in the mission.
Two-person teams were almost the minimum, but Haori requested to act independently.
"You're quite confident in your skills..." Orochimaru seemed to be sighing.
It was just a simple sigh. There was no praise or criticism in it.
But Haori shook his head. Making this decision was certainly related to his judgment of his own strength, but it wasn't the most important thing. The most important thing was that it was more convenient for him to do many things alone.
Although he couldn't call himself an all-around player, his skills were indeed quite balanced and comprehensive. Ninjutsu, taijutsu, genjutsu, although the latter was slightly weaker, he understood them all. In terms of sealing jutsu and barrier jutsu, because Kushina had taught him without reservation, he could almost be classified as one of Konoha's TOPs. Not to mention, he was intelligent, had unique ideas… and most importantly, he was also very good at escaping.
On the enemy's territory, this last point was extremely important.
In contrast, while there were some benefits to having teammates, it wouldn't really improve Haori's combat power. On the contrary, it would be limiting… To give a simple explanation, if he didn't have Konoha people following him, he could fire his cannon whenever he wanted. But if he had Konoha comrades, to avoid contradictions in his words and to prevent his instant super electromagnetic cannon from attracting the attention and fear of certain people, he would have to seal that sharp technique.
Daring to make this decision, the idea of "individuality over teamwork" was very important.
Haori sometimes thought like this. It wasn't strange that one ninja could be better than a team of ninjas.
There's a joke that says that Naruto is a story about "teamwork." But according to Haori's ambiguous memory, he only remembered that the story ended with a team of cheaters fighting another big cheater. – It has to be said that his memory and summary were very accurate. Team 7 getting together to fight Kaguya wasn't called teamwork. If Team 10 had taken down the boss together, that would have been teamwork.
No matter how nicely you put it, the real situation is this simple: individual strength trumps everything. If one person can complete something alone, why add a second person?
"It has nothing to do with confidence. It's more convenient for me to act alone… I'm very confident in my disguise. If I add teammates, it will only increase my burden and the possibility of exposure." Haori said.
He was a disguise master in another sense. He was self-taught from a young age… In a way, wasn't he disguising himself by being in Konoha?
However, these words, which almost explicitly expressed "teammates are a burden to me," didn't make Orochimaru feel disgusted or arrogant. On the contrary, he appreciated this statement.
Orochimaru was ultimately different from other Konoha ninjas. He had always maintained his own unique way of thinking and hadn't been poisoned by the "Will of Fire."
Because of his outstanding individual abilities, he also felt that teammates were a burden when leading many missions. Why use four people to do something he could do alone? And they were incredibly inefficient.
"If that's the case, then be careful. The mission starts in three days." Orochimaru warned. "Don't die in the Land of Water on this mission… That's my personal hope."
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Orochimaru still hadn't figured out certain things about Haori.
Why were his cells ordinary? Even compared to ordinary people, he had a much stronger adaptation to Lightning Release, but it wasn't beyond the "normal" range. Even though he was far from the Raikage's level, why was he immune to the negative effects of Lightning Release?
Orochimaru had seen Haori release that kind of "Lightning Release" that exceeded the limits of a ninja. He thought that his cells had a special resistance, but the result was the opposite. It made him think long and hard.
His research direction was clearly wrong. If he wanted to study Haori's abilities, studying ordinary cells wouldn't yield any results. He should at least study brain cells.
That was something that was difficult to explain using matter or physics. Concrete super-abilities were clearly not within Orochimaru's field of expertise.
"Understood…" Haori said. He basically understood Orochimaru's meaning. In any case, his so-called hope wouldn't be a superior's concern for a subordinate.
It was probably saying that even if Haori was going to die, he had to die in the Land of Fire. At least, he had to leave the research material behind.
......
Three days later, at night.
In the sea under the night sky, a white figure swam.
Then, a slug, larger than normal, landed on the shore and slowly crawled forward. It crossed the coast and reached the dense forest further inland. Then, Haori emerged from the slug's body.
Because the wound on his waist hadn't fully healed, and to be more stealthy, he had done this armed swim.
He had quietly infiltrated the Land of Water.
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