Young Ninja, a Resolve to Die

In the dense forest beneath the black night, explosions from Explosive Tags rang out one after another. The blazing orange-red flames, accompanied by occasional flashes of lightning, kept flickering through the forest as fierce winds howled without end.

Amid the whistling wind, a Konoha Youngster ninja carrying four blade pouches leaped continuously from tree to tree. The katana in his hand kept cutting through the taut Steel Wires and ropes around him. Whenever danger struck, he would turn and unleash one or two low-level Lightning Style techniques, or fling several Kunai carrying Explosive Tags. After easing the danger behind him, he continued fleeing.

Several dozen meters behind the Konoha Youngster ninja, Sand Shinobi leaped through the trees and ran across the ground, relentlessly pursuing the fleeing Konoha Youngster ninja ahead as though they would not stop until they killed him.

Unfortunately, as strands of Steel Wire and ropes snapped, sharp arrows and Kunai whistled out from the surrounding dense canopy. Some of the Kunai carried lit Explosive Tags, while others severed hidden ropes and Steel Wires elsewhere, triggering even more traps and sending further arrows and Kunai flying from multiple directions.

The pursuing Sand Shinobi had no choice but to chase with all their might while desperately dodging the arrows, Kunai, falling logs, and trees blasted apart by Explosive Tags, or using Earth Style and Wind Style ninjutsu to defend themselves.

The countless traps around them greatly slowed their pursuit. Massive logs suspended by ropes would suddenly swing out from concealed locations, while blasted trees lay across the path ahead.

Several already-lit Explosive Tags were attached to every one of those logs and trees. Not only did they repeatedly block the Sand Shinobi’s ninjutsu attacks, they also forced them to halt their pursuit temporarily to evade and defend against the traps and explosions.

If there had not been so many densely packed traps and mechanisms, mixed with such a large number of Explosive Tags, they would have caught up to the Konoha Youngster ahead long ago. He was only a Genin, after all, and they could have brutally tortured him to death. Yet those traps had not only prevented them from catching the young ninja ahead, but had also caused them to lose seven or eight men, even though their opponent was merely a Konoha Genin.

This dense forest had been carefully filled with traps, mixed with countless Explosive Tags that made them deeply wary. This had been calculated from the beginning—a carefully arranged battle of one man against thirty.

"Damn it! To think a Genin has driven us to this point."

At the rear of the pursuing Sand Shinobi, a middle-aged Sand Shinobi Jonin who had just roughly stopped the bleeding from his severed left arm gritted his teeth and continued the chase. A thirty-man squad, including three Jonin and twelve Chunin, had suffered seven or eight casualties because of one Genin brat. Even he had lost an arm to an Explosive Tag. The traps here were simply too numerous and too dangerous.

If they had not confirmed that the boy truly knew too much intelligence about Sand Village—intelligence that could even tip the balance of this war—why would they risk their lives to pursue him into a trap he had carefully prepared? Why would they continue desperately hunting this Konoha Youngster after witnessing so many deadly traps, without first clearing them?

Finally, beneath a thick, flourishing tree, the youngster stopped and turned to form hand seals.

"Wind Style: Impact Wind."

With no massive logs or trees blocking the way, the Sand Shinobi finally seized their chance. A high-pressure Wind Style: Wind Pillar shot swiftly from the mouth of a Sand Shinobi Chunin and struck the youngster in the chest before he could finish forming his seals.

Bang! With a dull impact, the youngster was blown into the tree behind him by the powerful wind pillar. His chest instantly caved in, flesh and blood mangled as mouthfuls of blood spewed from his mouth.

"I… really… have… reached… the end… haven’t I?" His broken words rang out as the youngster weakly looked at the mangled wound on his chest. The agonizing pain and collapsed chest made Yueguang Han clearly realize that most of his breastbone had nearly shattered. Broken bones had deeply pierced his organs, which had also ruptured. He knew he would not survive.

"It is the end!" More than twenty Sand Shinobi jumped down from the trees ahead, their eyes filled with boundless fury as they stared at the severely wounded youngster. Yet they did not rush to kill him immediately.

Ignoring the more than twenty Sand Shinobi who had descended from the trees, Yueguang Han recalled the life he had lived since transmigrating here. Amid the intense pain and approaching death, his memories after transmigration and his life before it flashed through his mind like a slideshow. A satisfied smile rose sincerely onto his lips.

After dying, he had transmigrated and been born into the Gekko Clan, to a family formed by an ordinary Chunin couple. They named him Yueguang Han.

Once he learned that this was the world of Naruto, he had held grand ambitions and a keen awareness of the dangers to come. Relying on a transmigrator’s foreknowledge and maturity, Yueguang Han trained desperately every day—practicing swordsmanship, strengthening his body, refining Chakra. He often trained until he was utterly exhausted and covered in wounds, while hoping that he might receive the cheat ability found in novels.

Yet whenever he returned home exhausted after training, his kind father’s concern, his gentle mother’s pained expression, and the way she tenderly bandaged him would fill him with strength again. While pleased that he was sensible, they repeatedly warned and comforted him, telling him not to train too hard, to spend more time with other children, and that it would be fine even if he did not become a ninja. Many people in the clan had not become ninja either. Though they possessed no power or status, they had been a very happy family.

Although his talent was poor, and even after desperately training and refining Chakra, at twelve years old he still possessed only the Taijutsu strength and Chakra reserves of a Genin, he had remained ordinary despite all his effort. The so-called cheat ability he had hoped for had never appeared. But whenever Yueguang Han returned home to be with his parents, he felt every bit of that hard training was worthwhile. He was full of energy every day. Even without a cheat ability, he could still be someone who worked hard.

Unfortunately, that beautiful family had been destroyed when the Sand Shinobi began the war. In Konoha’s forty-fifth year, the second year of the war, his kind father and gentle mother had both died on the battlefield.

A single casualty notice left him as the only one remaining in that happy family. He became hopeless and listless. It was also the first time since he began training that he had fallen into despair, the first time he had not gone to train.

After languishing for a month, he resolutely applied to the village to go to the battlefield. He sold everything valuable in his home, including the house itself, and used all his money to purchase a large number of Explosive Tags, Kunai, and even hunters’ iron arrows and longbows. Then, carrying his katana and a determination to die, he came to the battlefield and began carefully planning.

As a transmigrator who had also loved Naruto in his previous life, Yueguang Han naturally knew why the Third Kazekage had disappeared, as well as some important intelligence about the Sand Shinobi during the Third Shinobi World War.

During an escort mission, he had quietly left the team. He spent half a month choosing this place and carefully setting up its traps. After lying in wait for a month, he finally succeeded in drawing a thirty-man Sand Shinobi squad into pursuing him without mercy. The Sand Shinobi would not easily believe someone as young as him, but after he revealed important information from the story concerning the Kazekage and Sand Village, they had no choice but to believe him. To prevent the information from leaking, they had pursued him with all their strength.

"Hahaha… cough, cough… cough!" At last, thinking of the results of his careful preparations, Yueguang Han burst into hearty laughter. Violent coughing mixed with his laughter as mouthful after mouthful of bloody foam and organ fragments spilled from his mouth. Only the unyielding will forged through his relentless training allowed him to remain conscious.

"Brat, you’re about to die, and you can still laugh? We’ll pry everything you know out of your mouth." Watching Yueguang Han laugh, a Sand Shinobi clenched his fists and spoke coldly. The surrounding Sand Shinobi all gritted their teeth as they stared at the severely wounded youngster lying on the ground, close to death.

If they did not want to pry from him how he knew Sand Village’s important intelligence, they would have begun taking brutal revenge and torturing him to death long ago, even though the youngster’s wounds were already fatal.

"Hahaha… cough, cough!" Seeing the hatred on the faces of the Sand Shinobi before him, Yueguang Han laughed again. The laughter tugged at his wounds, causing another fit of violent coughing. Blood mixed with pieces of organs sprayed from his mouth. The Sand Shinobi around him could no longer endure it and began walking toward Yueguang Han.

"Because… I… never… intended… to return alive! This place… is the grave… I chose for myself! And I can still… enjoy… your despairing expressions!"

After the laughter faded, Yueguang Han looked at the Sand Shinobi drawing closer and spoke in broken fragments. Though death was certain, he did not care in the slightest. As he spoke, he laboriously reached out and pulled open the front of his clothes, revealing more than a hundred Explosive Tags plastered across his chest.

A sizzling sound had already begun. Those Explosive Tags had been lit. At the same time, the sizzling of lit Explosive Tags sounded from within the youngster’s clothes around his hands and feet.

At the same time, Yueguang Han released the hand he had kept clenched tightly. A blackish-green Steel Wire rapidly slipped free from his hand. Behind him, a huge stone suddenly dropped from the tree, bound with countless Steel Wires that connected to the canopy of the tree against which he leaned. The wires extended outward, linking almost every tree in the area. Now, as the stone fell, boards suspended by blackish-green Steel Wires dropped from the surrounding trees. Each board was covered with several Explosive Tags that had just been lit.

"Damn it!"

Seeing the hundred-plus lit Explosive Tags on the youngster’s chest, and the same lit Explosive Tags on the boards falling from the surrounding trees to encircle them, the gathered Sand Shinobi’s eyes turned bloodshot. They scattered in every direction at top speed or used every ounce of strength to cast Defensive Ninjutsu.

"Too late… What a pity I won’t get to see it!" Watching the Sand Shinobi, their eyes bloodshot as they desperately struggled to survive, Yueguang Han’s head drooped weakly. The world in his eyes finally went completely dark.

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