Uchiha Kyosuke and his group of four were completely outmatched. Surrounded by seven Cloud ninja, they were gradually being cornered.
The Special Jonin spoke: "These four are from the Uchiha Clan. Be careful not to damage their eyes when you kill them!"
Just as Uchiha Kyosuke and the others were starting to think that Yasu had abandoned them, his voice suddenly rang out from behind.
"You four are really weak. Chunin level, and from the Uchiha clan at that, yet you only managed to kill two Genins and one Chunin before ending up like this. Truly disappointing."
Uchiha Kyosuke and the others were pleasantly surprised to hear Yasu's voice.
However, hearing his berating, they grumbled inwardly. Being ambushed by four Chunin, two Genin, and one Special Jonin, they were already doing well just to be heavily injured. Expecting them to counter-kill was asking too much.
While observing from the tree trunk, Yasu had already assessed the strength of this Cloud ninja squad.
To him, they weren't much to look at.
Using the Body Flicker Technique, he instantly appeared in front of two Cloud ninja Genin.
Yasu's Body Flicker Technique was so fast that it startled the Cloud ninjas.
As the two Cloud ninja Genin frantically tried to attack him, Yasu casually threw two kunai, directly piercing their necks.
Then four cloud ninja Chunins charged towards him simultaneously.
"Thunder Breathing, Second Form: Rice Spirit!"
The moment Yasu launched his attack; he unleashed a five-hit lightning-shaped strike.
The four Cloud ninja Chunins didn't even see the trajectory of his attack clearly before they were knocked to the ground, each with extremely large wounds. They were barely breathing and wouldn't last much longer.
The Cloud ninjas couldn't see his attack trajectory clearly, but Uchiha Kyosuke and the others did.
Their eyes widened as they stared at Yasu in disbelief.
Was this the power of the Thunder Breathing?
Uchiha Kyosuke had learned the this jutsu before.
However, his training in the Thunder Breathing hadn't gone smoothly. The power of this jutsu in his hands was too weak, and it consumed too much chakra, making it impractical to use in battle.
Therefore, he had basically stopped using Thunder Breathing after learning it.
But now, seeing Yasu use the Thunder breathing completely overturned Uchiha Kyosuke's perception. How could the power of this jutsu be so immense?
It was as if he hadn't learned the Thunder Breathing at all, but learned a fake one.
Yasu looked towards the only remaining Special Jonin.
The Special Jonin snapped back to his senses and immediately turned to flee.
And Yasu wasn't in a hurry to chase him. Instead, he said to Uchiha Kyosuke and the others: "Now do you know how useless you are? So, from now on, behave yourselves in front of me. Listen to my orders, and I won't make things too difficult for you. But if you make any small unwanted moves, you'll have nowhere to run."
"Thunder Breathing, Fifth Form: Heat Lightning!"
His ninja blade unleashed a high-heat lightning-shaped slash, directly piercing the fleeing Cloud ninja's chest.
He then sheathed his ninja blade and looked at Uchiha Kyosuke and the others, asking: "Understood?"
Uchiha Kyosuke and the others shivered and immediately replied: "Understood!"
"Since you understand, then go clean up the battlefield. Cut off their heads and bring them back so the sensory ninjas can analyze them."
Yasu then leaned against the tree trunk, waiting for them to clean up the battlefield.
After the mission was completed, he took the four back to the camp to hand over the mission.
...
The situation in the Land of Hot Water gradually stabilized after Konoha sent reinforcements.
Orochimaru arranged for ninjas to eliminate the Cloud ninja strongholds, and the process went very smoothly.
Because the Cloud ninjas had been too successful in the Land of Hot Water previously, there were too many small strongholds, and they couldn't handle them all now.
Often, one stronghold would be eliminated by Konoha ninjas, and another would be attacked.
Now, the Cloud ninjas were also starting to gather their ninjas, proactively reducing the number of strongholds.
Because the ninjas from the Hidden Sand and the Hidden Mist didn't gain any advantages against the Konoha ninjas on the battlefields of the Land of River and the Land of Waves, they only observed each other, and there weren't any serious conflicts.
And although the Mist ninjas had stationed ninjas in the Land of Waves, they didn't make any moves and didn't directly engage with the Konoha ninjas.
Therefore, the Land of Hot Water was considered the most intense battlefield.
The Raikage of the Hidden Cloud Village also didn't want to expend too many ninjas before the war officially started.
After all, the Konoha ninjas currently in the Land of Hot Water were all elites.
So, the Hidden Cloud didn't want to send its own elite ninjas into the Land of Hot Water yet.
So now, they were gradually confronting the Konoha ninjas, not going all out easily.
The gradual stabilization of the four battlefields allowed Konoha to catch its breath.
Konoha also began to dispatch its Genins to the battlefield for training.
After all, the fastest way to improve strength was on the battlefield.
Three years passed quietly.
On the battlefield of the Land of Hot Water, the two most active people were Yasu and Minato Namikaze.
During these three years, Minato had successfully learned the Flying Thunder God Technique, and his mission completion rate was as high as one hundred percent.
At the same time, through his personal charisma, the Konoha ninjas stationed in the Land of Hot Water were very convinced by Minato Namikaze.
And Yasu also had a mission completion success rate of one hundred percent, without failing a single mission.
However, only Uchiha Kyosuke, Uchiha Ryuhei, Uchiha Keiichi, and Uchiha Jin still followed behind him.
Minato used his personal charisma to convince others.
And in everyone's eyes, Yasu had no human touch at all, so no one wanted to approach him.
In these three years, Minato had never fought Yasu again, just burying himself in missions, seemingly wanting to compete with him on missions.
And Yasu didn't care about missions at all. His goal was witness points.
Because he intercepted the credit that Minato should have obtained, he now had almost 6000 witness points.
But because the situation was now stable, the witness points he obtained were a bit less.
Now, both he and Minato had been promoted to Jonin.
During this period, Yasu frequently corresponded with Kushina and had returned to Konoha several times to visit her.
Due to her special nature, Konoha didn't allow Kushina to go to the battlefield but instead had her stay in Konoha.
She had some complaints to him about this, but there was nothing she could do.
And a dazzling genius had already appeared in Konoha.
Kakashi Hatake.
Kakashi Hatake graduated from the Ninja Academy last year at the age of five and then went to the Land of Grass, where he followed his father, Sakumo Hatake, and fought actively on the battlefield.
This year, Kakashi had already become a Chunin.
And in Yasu's memory, a major event would happen next year.
That was Sakumo Hatake's suicide.
In his view, Sakumo's suicide should allow him to gain witness points.
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