This morning, Uchiha En arrived at the meeting point, ready to begin today's training.
However, by 8 o'clock, Asana hadn't arrived. Asana was never late, which made Uchiha En feel a bit strange.
Uchiha En and Yamanaka Teruzuki waited for half an hour, but Asana still didn't show up. The two of them grew anxious and decided to go to the Hyuga Clan's camp to check on her.
Halfway there, they happened to run into Asana, who was jogging towards them.
Her clothes were covered in dust, and there were bruises on her face, indicating she had clearly encountered something.
"Asana, what happened to you?" Yamanaka Teruzuki asked anxiously.
"Did someone from the Hyuga Main Family in your camp do something to you?" Uchiha En also asked with a cold expression.
Hearing this, Asana quickly waved her hand and said, "No, you've misunderstood. It's not convenient to talk here. Let's go somewhere less crowded."
Led by Asana, the three arrived at a secluded spot. After Asana activated her Byakugan to confirm no one was around, she said, "Here's what happened: This morning, as I was walking to our meeting point, I encountered Lord Orochimaru's Earth Clone.
He must have been deliberately waiting for me on the road. Lord Orochimaru said he wanted to test my strength, and then his Earth Clone fought me.
I was no match for Lord Orochimaru's Earth Clone. Even using Rotation was useless. Lord Orochimaru easily found a weakness in my Rotation and shattered it with a single strike. The injuries on my face were from Lord Orochimaru when he broke through my Rotation."
"Orochimaru stopped you just to test your strength?" Uchiha En asked.
"Of course not. After Lord Orochimaru's Earth Clone defeated me, he said that I should have the strength of a regular Chunin and could now undertake this mission. After saying that, Lord Orochimaru threw this mission scroll to me and then dispelled his Earth Clone."
After hearing Asana's words, Uchiha En took the mission scroll from her hand and opened it.
Uchiha En quickly scanned the contents of the scroll. The general gist was that Orochimaru had received intelligence that the Kirigakure were planning to sabotage the water sources near the Konoha Camp.
Orochimaru had immediately dispatched people to guard the two main water intake points, but he hadn't assigned anyone to the remaining smaller water sources.
However, these small water sources were connected to Konoha's main water intake points by rivers, so if the enemy poisoned the small sources, it could gradually affect the water quality.
To prevent the enemy from tampering with the small water sources, Orochimaru ordered their squad to depart immediately and patrol the surrounding water sources.
This mission was not far from the Konoha Camp, and even some distance from the battlefield. The only thing they needed to guard against was potentially encountering Kirigakure.
The three of them returned to organize their equipment and set off half an hour later.
There were a total of six water sources near the Konoha Camp. The two larger, closer ones were already guarded, meaning they were responsible for patrolling the four smaller water points.
Following the map, the three advanced for about twenty minutes before arriving at the first small water source, a small pool formed by mountain spring water.
Asana collected a water sample, knelt down, and performed a simple poison identification, finding no poison in the water.
"Asana, you can do that too!" Yamanaka Teruzuki asked, somewhat surprised.
"I've studied some Medical Ninjutsu before, and I learned basic poison identification along with it," Asana replied.
"Studying Medical Ninjutsu? Asana, do you want to become a Medical Ninja?" Yamanaka Teruzuki continued to ask.
"Yes, I've dreamed of becoming a Medical Ninja to save lives and heal injuries since I was a child," Asana said with a straight face, making it up.
"So your dream, Asana, is to become a Medical Ninja! En, what's your dream?"
"My dream... to live well!" Uchiha En thought for a moment before answering.
"What an ordinary dream."
Uchiha En smiled slightly at this. His dream was not ordinary at all. It was currently the Third Great Ninja War, and living well certainly meant surviving the Third Great Ninja War first.
He also had to safely get through the subsequent Nine-Tailed Fox's Rampage and the Uchiha Clan Downfall.
But that was just surviving; it wasn't living well. To live well, he had to resolve certain unpleasant people and matters, such as the Konoha higher-ups.
"You've only asked us, Kagetsu, what's your dream?" Asana asked as she stood up.
"My short-term dream is the same as En's: to survive the battlefield of the Third Great Ninja War first!
As for a longer-term dream, I hope I can lose a little weight, then be promoted to Chunin soon, and find a beautiful, gentle, and obedient wife. Then my life will be complete."
"You have a lot of demands. If someone is beautiful, gentle, and obedient, why would they end up with you?" Uchiha En retorted unhappily.
"If a Ninja can't marry, they can marry a civilian! There are many civilians who meet my requirements. In fact, if I think about it, Asana is quite good: beautiful, elegant, and from a prominent family. It's a pity the Hyuga Clan can't marry outsiders.
And Asana's personality is too cold for me; I still want someone gentler."
"I don't meet your requirements, I'm sorry to disappoint you," Asana said expressionlessly.
Yamanaka Teruzuki's neck recoiled at her words. He had gotten too carried away and almost forgot Asana was right there: "Ahem, Asana, I just said that casually, I didn't mean anything by it, please don't be angry."
"Don't worry! Asana isn't that petty," Uchiha En said with a smile.
"Is that so? I'm actually very angry right now. If we weren't on a mission, I would have severely—"
"Someone's coming!" Yamanaka Teruzuki suddenly turned his head to look to the right.
After several days of torture from Uchiha En's genjutsu, Yamanaka Teruzuki's sensing range was already close to 50 meters. He had kept his sensing active while the three of them were chatting.
Hearing this, Uchiha En and Asana simultaneously activated their Sharingan and Byakugan, then both looked to the right.
"It's just two ordinary people, with no Chakra in their bodies," Asana said.
"Why would ordinary people be here? They should be avoiding this place since it's near the battlefield, shouldn't they?" Uchiha En said.
"En, do you mean their proximity might be related to the Kirigakure?"
"I don't know, but it's always better to be careful." With that, Uchiha En created a Water Clone and walked towards the two people.
As he got closer, Uchiha En noticed that the two people were not old, appearing to be about his age. The boy was taller and the girl shorter, and they bore some resemblance, suggesting they were siblings or otherwise related.
"Who are you? What are you doing here?" Uchiha En asked.
(PS: Here's something interesting, I'll just write it directly into the main text during the free period. Yesterday afternoon, I went to a pharmacy to buy medicine and met an old lady. The old lady used her medical insurance card to buy medicine. For some reason, she remembered having 640 yuan left on her card and took 600 yuan worth of medicine. But when she swiped the card, the pharmacy staff told her there was only 330 yuan left, not enough money.
The old lady got agitated and started throwing a tantrum in the pharmacy, insisting that the pharmacy had secretly swiped her card. No matter how the pharmacy staff explained, it was useless.
They had no choice but to call the police. The police came and checked the old lady's medical insurance card transaction history, then told the old lady, "You bought 300 yuan worth of medicine on November 19th." The old lady denied it, insisting she hadn't.
The police could only help by checking the surveillance footage, and indeed, the old lady was seen buying medicine in the November 19th footage.
Even with the evidence right there, the old lady still wouldn't admit it, crying and making a scene, saying the police were colluding with the pharmacy to swindle her medical insurance money.
Left with no other option, the police contacted the old lady's relatives. A little while later, the old lady's son arrived and forcibly dragged her away.
It was truly speechless. The old lady spoke clearly and coherently, definitely showing no symptoms of Alzheimer's. She was simply throwing a tantrum. Bad people really do get old!)
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