Ambush (Fourth Update)

Though the cannon fodder camp had luckily avoided the golden sand, their strength still placed them at the very bottom of the battlefield. They had no ability to resist the Sand Ninja’s pursuit. The only survivors now were the elite squads from several teams, along with the four Kabaneri using Omni-directional Mobility Gear.

Xu Yue’s Wood Clone watched the four of them and kept mulling it over. It looked like he would need to find a way to protect them. They were living advertisements.

As cannon fodder, they had indeed "gloriously" fulfilled their duty and no longer needed to go to the battlefield. However, the battlefield cleanup duties could not be skipped.

If I’m not mistaken, they should be escorting the wounded back with my main body, then taking on some logistics tasks.

As Xu Yue’s Wood Clone cleaned up the battlefield and dragged out corpses crushed by the golden sand, he pondered this inwardly.

"Hey, Xu Yue, this is your first mission, right? You probably aren’t used to this yet. Let me do it."

At that moment, a muscular man from the Beiyang Army’s promotion squad came over to Xu Yue’s side and enthusiastically helped him deal with the corpse before him.

Seeing the faint disgust and nausea on the man’s face, it was clear that although he had gone through three missions, he was still somewhat unaccustomed to corpses that had died so miserably.

At first, everyone in the promotion squad had been hostile toward Xu Yue. Now, however, they were forcing themselves through their disgust to come help him, even showing a hint of ingratiation and flattery. The speed of this change in attitude left Xu Yue somewhat speechless.

"Then get to it. I’ll go take a look elsewhere."

Since someone had come over to do the dirty work, Xu Yue naturally would not refuse. Even if it was only a clone, it could still save some Chakra.

With someone else handling the dirty work, Xu Yue went looking for something cleaner.

After casually sweeping his gaze around, he spotted a corpse lying facedown at the edge of the golden sand, beside a patch of withered weeds.

It looked like a little girl, still just a child.

Xu Yue had a faint impression of her. She was a very cute little girl, one of the independent Reincarnators. He did not know whether she had been an adult who had used points to "alter her appearance."

If one did not look carefully, one would not even notice her.

But just as Xu Yue reached out and grabbed her foot to drag her away, he discovered that the previously stiff "corpse" suddenly moved.

"Ah!!!"

Along with a scream, Xu Yue suddenly saw fists filling the sky before his eyes.

Ora ora ora~

In an instant, Xu Yue’s Wood Clone took over a hundred punches. Even he had been unable to make any effective reaction or resistance.

If it had been a Shadow Clone, it would have exploded from the attack.

Uh, but a little girl’s hundred punches were really just that. It felt like being pounded on by kindergarten children.

What an absurd skill.

Xu Yue looked oddly at the little girl, who had escaped disaster by hiding in the grass and possessed that strange punching skill, analyzing the abilities she had.

The instant hundred punches were obvious enough, but what was that skill that drastically reduced her presence and let her escape disaster just by lying on the ground?

Hunter’s feign death? It did not seem like it.

It was somewhat like an ability from PUBG. It did not seem to be merely playing dead, but reducing one’s presence.

They had nearly finished clearing away the corpses before noticing her.

Xu Yue grabbed the little girl with big eyes, who looked as if she were about to cry, lifted her before him, and met her gaze. He was rather speechless at how lopsided her skill choices were.

Those two skills should both have been extremely rare, yet in her hands, they had become nothing but survival skills.

Could it really just be pure luck?

"Big brother, can you let me go?"

Seeing that even her ultimate move had been completely ineffective, the little girl looked at Xu Yue pitifully and spoke in a wronged tone.

"How old are you?"

Xu Yue’s Wood Clone remained unmoved and asked casually. When he saw the stiff expression on the "little girl’s" face, he understood. This was definitely someone who had altered their appearance.

But compared with those who altered their appearance to become prettier or more handsome, turning into a little girl was actually quite cost-effective. It could lower other people’s guard.

Combined with those survival skills, she had made it through to this Promotion Mission and even survived the battlefield. It truly had not been an accident…

Xiao Mei was the name of the strange girl Xu Yue had picked up. One could tell at a glance that it was a codename, and a rather casually chosen one at that.

When Xu Yue brought Xiao Mei to Chu Yingxiong, Chu Yingxiong was quite surprised to find that there was another survivor.

Other than the Beiyang Army’s promotion squad, which had reacted quickly, the promotion squads of several other armies had all suffered losses. Anyone who could survive definitely had not done so by luck.

Chu Yingxiong even directly recruited Xiao Mei into the Beiyang Army’s "reserve" team as someone to be observed.

It was not only Xiao Mei. The other four surviving independent Reincarnators had also been recruited by various teams.

Aside from acknowledging their abilities, they seemed to want to observe the compatibility between the Omni-directional Mobility Gear and the Kabaneri, to obtain firsthand information…

The intensity of the fighting between the Land of Fire and the Land of Wind abruptly dropped to rock bottom. Aside from localized clashes, most areas had entered a standoff.

Some experienced veterans already understood that Sunagakure and Konoha were likely about to begin negotiations. The reason they had not yet started was merely that Sunagakure was still unwilling to bow its head, waiting for problems to arise along Konoha’s other defensive lines so that it would not suffer too badly at the negotiating table.

Konoha, meanwhile, was also pressuring Sunagakure to force them into signing an agreement quickly.

Overall, Sunagakure, with the Third Kazekage missing and the Fourth Kazekage severely wounded, was more likely to be unable to hold out.

Xu Yue’s Wood Clone also withdrew toward Konoha with the cannon fodder camp that had "retired after achieving merit," escorting the wounded under the protection of his main body and Minato Namikaze’s team…

"Kakashi, have you finally recognized the strength of our Uchiha Clan?!"

On the way back to the village, Obito Uchiha stood before Kakashi with a proud look on his face.

"The Uchiha are indeed an elite clan, but there will always be exceptions."

Kakashi wore his trademark dead-fish eyes as he spoke coldly. At this point, Kakashi was still as rigid as ever, always talking about missions and rules.

"Bastard, what did you say?! Boss Yue, he’s looking down on our Uchiha Clan. Beat him up."

Set off by Kakashi’s words, Obito Uchiha ran to Xu Yue’s side like a lackey and pointed at Kakashi as he spoke.

Xu Yue was even more speechless at the future big boss’s goofy personality. This had to be a fake Obito.

Thanks to his outstanding cooperation with Minato Namikaze on the battlefield, Xu Yue had gained a certain degree of fame, even though most of the glory had gone to the Yellow Flash.

Of course, most of Xu Yue’s fame had automatically been attributed to the Uchiha Clan.

After all the "training" and "guidance" along the way, Obito Uchiha, still a goofy crybaby, had completely given up resisting. Even if Xu Yue told him to come to his room at night, he would probably hesitate before refusing.

Compared with the smug Kakashi, Uchiha Yue was at least from his own clan. Lowering his head before him did not seem improper.

"Hm?"

Yet amid this playful atmosphere, Minato Namikaze at the front of the group suddenly stopped and raised a hand to signal everyone to halt.

The carts carrying the wounded all came to a stop. Some relatively lightly injured ninja who could still move also assumed guarded stances.

Obito Uchiha and Kakashi also stopped their usual bickering and became alert.

"There are quite a few of them, but they look like ninja from another village. They don’t want the wounded to return, receive treatment, and become fighting strength again."

Xu Yue leaped onto the roof of a cart and looked toward the forests on both sides, making a rough judgment inwardly.

According to the route shown on the map, this area should border the Land of Grass. It seemed the Land of Grass had completely sided with the Land of Earth.

The only question was whether it had always been this way, or whether it was the Reincarnators’ influence…

The fourth update is complete~ Thank you all for your strong support. There probably won’t be any more today~

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