A huge number of wandering ninja operated throughout the Land of Fire. They came from all kinds of backgrounds: some were the remnants of small shinobi clans, others were defectors from various villages. But with so many hidden villages across the shinobi world, as long as a missing-nin didn't come from one of the Five Great Villages, most of them couldn't cause any real large-scale damage.
After all, the strength of small hidden villages was middling at best. Defectors from those minor villages were usually nothing special. Many so-called jonin from those places couldn't even beat elite chunin from the Five Great Villages. They were little more than a nuisance.
Things only became complicated when the troublemakers were backed by one of the shadow villages.
But none of that had anything to do with Bei Yuan Feng. Even after completing the mission, he couldn't just walk away. As team captain, he still had to file a mission report.
"Why am I a ninja and still stuck writing summary reports? How is that fair?"
Dealing with wandering ninja meant the mission had exceeded its original classification. They earned more money for the extra danger, sure, but it also meant having to redo all the paperwork.
Still, aside from the mission reward, Bei Yuan Feng had gained something unexpected. The bandits' stash turned out to hold over ten million ryo. It was all loot they'd stolen from traveling merchants and hadn't had time to move elsewhere. Naturally, it fell straight into the hands of Bei Yuan Feng and his two teammates. But they couldn't just keep everything; tasks like this always required turning in part of the haul.
In the end, Bei Yuan Feng decided to hand over half to the village, following standard practice. That was enough for the village to quietly look the other way. The remaining half would be split among the three of them: three million ryo to Bei Yuan Feng, and one million each to the other two.
Neither Hyuga Keiko nor Xiangtian Yuanlong had any objections. Without Bei Yuan Feng, they would've died back there, and besides, even one million ryo was a staggering amount of money.
For the kind of missions they could accept, and at their speed of completion, a normal chunin couldn't save up a million ryo in an entire lifetime.
And that didn't even factor in how often chunin died on the job.
By the time Bei Yuan Feng finished his mission report, it was already late at night.
He wasn't in a hurry to sleep. Instead, he opened his diary.
Why do I still have to write reports in the shinobi world? Does that make sense? Xiangtian Yuanlong nearly screwed up this time. In a world this dangerous, being cannon fodder is exhausting. You can die any moment out here. It's not like I've got some kind of protagonist halo.
In the Hatake clan compound
Kakashi sensed the diary update. He opened it quickly, only to find Bei Yuan Feng ranting out of boredom again.
Protagonist halo?
What was that supposed to mean?
Kakashi wasn't sure, but with a name like that, he could vaguely piece together the idea.
His lips twitched. The part about Bei Yuan Feng's teammate nearly dying didn't bother him at all. He'd lived through so many incidents like that that it barely registered anymore.
But when he read Bei Yuan Feng's complaint about writing mission reports, he actually laughed. He knew that pain very well. For most ninja, paperwork was more torturous than fighting.
Still, the Sharingan really is useful. After awakening it, my Chakra reserves jumped by at least a third. No wonder people always say you run from an Uchiha in a one-on-one. Two-on-one is the bare minimum to stand a chance.
Too bad there aren't many Sharingan battles to look back on. The classics are basically just two: the brief clash between Five-Five Kai and Itachi, and that ocean fight where everyone flooded the battlefield.
Awakening the Sharingan?
Kakashi's breath hitched.
What had he just read?
Awakening the Sharingan?
Everyone knew the Sharingan was the unique Kekkei Genkai of the Uchiha clan. Outsiders didn't just awaken it out of nowhere.
He had one himself, but that was a dying gift from his teammate Obito. Since he wasn't an Uchiha, he couldn't deactivate it, which meant it constantly drained him. His Chakra reserves, which should've been decent thanks to the Hatake bloodline, had turned into a weakness.
But his Sharingan wasn't awakened. It was implanted.
Only Uchiha clan members could awaken the Sharingan. Or at least people with Uchiha blood.
Kakashi quickly grabbed Bei Yuan Feng's file.
It clearly stated that his ancestors were ordinary Leaf villagers. Did that mean somewhere far up his father's or mother's lineage there was a thin trace of Uchiha blood?
It was the only theory that made sense. Bei Yuan Feng's family clearly wasn't part of the Uchiha clan, and there were no records of intermarriage.
If there really was Uchiha blood in his ancestry, it must've been from the Warring States era, long before the founding of the village.
And even then, it would've been extremely diluted. Otherwise Bei Yuan Feng's family wouldn't have such average shinobi talent.
But judging from how he awakened his eye, it fit perfectly with how Uchiha typically awakened the Sharingan. He must've witnessed Xiangtian Yuanlong nearly die, felt that crushing moment of desperation, and triggered the dormant Uchiha blood in his veins.
Kakashi could almost picture the scene.
He'd seen it before. One of his teammates had awakened the Sharingan under the same kind of pressure and turned the battle around.
The more he read, the more shocked he became. The idea that Bei Yuan Feng had Uchiha blood at all was unbelievable. That such diluted blood could still awaken a Sharingan was even more incredible.
If that were true, then besides Itachi and Sasuke, there was now another person in the entire shinobi world with Uchiha blood?
Though whether he truly counted was… debatable.
But Sharingan battles?
In the past, that wouldn't have been surprising. The Uchiha clan often sparred among themselves.
But now? It was practically unheard of.
There was only Sasuke left in the entire village, and himself if he counted as half.
Five-Five Kai and Itachi's brief clash?
Kakashi knew who Five-Five Kai was. That part was obvious.
But Itachi… who was that supposed to be?
He had absolutely no idea.