Chapter 37: The "Retirement Mission"

Daigo felt that Habara was a very unusual person.

The first time he went to the battlefield, he was a complete novice. However, as a novice, he used a high-intensity ninjutsu body technique at the most critical moment to eliminate the enemy and complete the mission.

However, Daigo knew that Habara was Orochimaru's experimental subject, so at this time, it could be said that it was Orochimaru who was amazing, not Habara.

After this mission ended, Habara returned to Konoha and underwent a month of training... Training was just a nice way of putting it. In fact, he was just working behind closed doors. But when he returned to the battlefield for the second time, his strength was already different.

Although Z Squad and Habara were acting separately at that time, Z Squad was performing reconnaissance missions in the Lands of Grass and Waterfalls, and Habara was performing a special mission east of the Land of Fields. However, at that time, Konoha and the Cloud almost had a major battle. Being able to complete a special mission and return safely under these circumstances could indirectly prove Habara's strength.

Then there was the third mission in the Land of Rain. Although what happened in the Land of Rain was a tragedy, Daigo still personally confirmed Habara's attack power.

As for the present, returning from the Land of Rivers, even Daigo could see that Habara's strength was already at the level of a genuine jonin... A sixteen-year-old jonin was certainly not a genius, but considering that Habara had gone from a rookie to a master in just a few months, this fact was still too exaggerated.

The key was that what Habara had done during this period was not traditional training. He was just doing experiments, and then he gained a cross-stage growth in strength... Sure enough, knowledge was power, and technology was the primary productive force?

And Daigo's view was generally correct. The way Habara increased his strength was indeed unconventional. The first time he trained, he made his own "Magnet Release" practical with his unique understanding. The second training he was doing now was to complete the development of his own unique Cursed Seal on the basis of Orochimaru's experiments.

Therefore, Habara's leapfrog-like increase in strength was actually taking advantage of loopholes. If he were put into an arena and limited to using only taijutsu, he probably wouldn't even be able to defeat a genin... Fortunately, no one would make such unreasonable rules, and no one would want to abide by them.

Under the premise of knowing the original plot and having such a foundation, it was not so incredible that Habara could quickly increase his strength. After all, a ninja's strength was always closely related to intelligence.

Unfortunately, after these two trainings, that is, being able to normally use "Magnet Release" and natural energy, Habara's strength probably couldn't be rapidly improved again. It could even be said that if nothing unexpected happened, Habara's limit strength was already visible... In a sense, the training that Habara did was also a kind of overdraft.

This couldn't be helped. Based on the problem of bloodlines, the strength bottleneck of all ninjas who were not from that family was visible.

After completing the development of the technique, Habara spent the next few days adapting to the new state. But about twenty days after they returned to Konoha, the quiet training life came to an end again.

This morning, when Habara and Daigo went to "check in" as usual, the ninja there informed them of new news... The two were assigned to a new ninja team.

A new mission was about to begin.

According to the mission requirements, two days later, Habara and Daigo met with the new team.

In the later stages of the war, there was a relatively contradictory phenomenon, that is, although in reality, the scale of war between countries was gradually shrinking, the problem of insufficient troops in various countries was also becoming increasingly serious.

Like last time, the ninja team that Habara and Daigo joined this time was still a twelve-man team. And for Habara and Daigo, twelve seemed to be an unlucky number.

In addition, neither Habara nor Daigo were truly orthodox Konoha ninjas, so the nature of this ninja team was the same as the previous team they were in.

Habara arrived at the assembly point almost at the last minute, and then he just glanced at the new team and immediately discovered this point. The composition of the new team members was very even. They were...

The old, the young, the sick, the disabled, and the misfits.

Habara couldn't help but frown, because the youngest ninja in the team looked only eleven or twelve years old. This child should be going to the battlefield for the first time, and he even had a somewhat silly smile on his face... He was a child who didn't understand what war was.

This gave Habara a very bad feeling.

"Carrying such large ninja tools, can you really be effective on the battlefield?"

A person's voice suddenly came from behind Habara.

Habara turned his head and saw a male ninja in his twenties walking over.

The other party also had a smile on his face, but he didn't need Habara to answer this question. His eyes glanced lightly over Habara, and then he walked past him to the front of the team.

Habara immediately realized that the meaning of this person's words just now was to say that he was "all talk and no show".

"Let me introduce myself. I am Hayasegawa, a chunin of Konoha. Next, I will be the captain of this mixed squad."

After everyone had arrived, that ninja gave a simple self-introduction.

Perhaps because he was insulted at the first moment, Habara's first impression of this captain wasn't good. Although this person had a smile on his face all the time, Habara always felt that there was a bit of a condescending feeling in this smile.

Hopefully, this was just his illusion.

Then Hayase began to explain the mission: "Everyone, don't be so serious. The next mission is actually not dangerous. The war has reached this stage, and the village will not assign you tasks that exceed your abilities."

There were all kinds of problems with these words, and at the same time, Habara confirmed that his feeling just now was not an illusion. What did he mean by "the mission is not dangerous"? What did he mean by "will not assign tasks that exceed your abilities"? Wasn't this captain just saying that this team was full of weaklings?

Although these words were true, how could he just say them out loud?

"Next, we will go to the east of the Land of Fire to perform normal border defense tasks. As everyone knows, Konoha and Kirigakure have already achieved a substantial ceasefire, so the possibility of conflict is almost zero. Moreover, the location where we will actually perform the task is closer to the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Hot Springs."

This description was basically true. At this time, there was not even a Konoha ninja forward camp in the east of the Land of Fire. They only relied on small outposts and a small number of scattered soldiers to monitor the movements on the other side.

Konoha and Kirigakure had already tacitly ceased fire, after all, a long time ago, Kirigakure's high-end combat power had accidentally suffered a lot of casualties.

However, facts were facts. Small-scale battles could happen anytime, anywhere, so wasn't it a bit incautious for a squad captain to have such an attitude?