Chapter 33: Heading to the Battlefield

"You've come, Feiyu."

A kind smile appeared on the Third Hokage's face, and he looked at Uchiha Feiyu, that troublemaker, with a benevolent expression.

The Third Hokage had long since known that Uchiha Feiyu had injured the Anbu ninja, but clearly, this old man did not care about that point.

What surprised the Third Hokage somewhat was that Uchiha Feiyu, who usually had no motivation at all, actually looked a bit improved this time, his serious aura quite different from usual.

"Lord Hokage, is there a mission?"

Uchiha Feiyu asked, which directly left the Third Hokage stunned; if the Third Hokage remembered correctly, this should be the first time this death-fearing Uchiha had asked for a mission.

"Uh... actually, it's nothing... I was just asking if you have any thoughts about raising your ninja rank?"

"I heard that when you were on a mission this time, you ran into a squad from Sunagakure. Feiyu, you directly killed their squad leader and two team members. According to later investigations, you directly killed one Special Jonin and two Experienced Chunin."

"With your current strength, continuing to be a Genin is really too much of a waste, so I intend to raise your ninja rank. I wonder what your opinion is?"

"After my ninja rank is raised, I won't be able to stay in my squad anymore, right?"

Uchiha Feiyu spoke very calmly, and the Third Hokage nodded helplessly; such a thing was impossible to hide from him.

"In other words, Lord Third Hokage, you hope for me to go to the battlefield?"

"Hmm, the battle between Konoha and the Sand Ninja is no longer as intense as it was in the beginning. If you have the mind for it, you can go there to get some training."

"With your current strength as an Elite Jonin, it is basically unlikely that you will encounter any major danger."

Uchiha Feiyu did not care about the Third Hokage's persuasion, but instead asked directly:

"At present, the leader of the ninja army fighting against the Sand Ninja should be Lord Orochimaru, right!"

"That's right, it is Orochimaru."

The Third Hokage found Uchiha Feiyu's question a bit strange. After receiving the answer, Uchiha Feiyu nodded and said:

"Since that's the case, participating in the war is no problem. When do we depart?"

Uchiha Feiyu's straightforwardness caught the Third Hokage off guard, which instead made him hesitate a bit.

This brat is so proactive, does he have some ulterior motive? If the Uchiha before him performs a great service on the battlefield, will it cause a shock to the current distribution of power in Konoha?

Although Uchiha Feiyu had no foundation either in the Uchiha Clan or here in Konoha, when all was said and done, he was still surnamed Uchiha. If he really displayed peerless strength and earned huge prestige, the possibility of the Uchiha Clan defecting would not be small.

After all, Uchiha Feiyu was both young and full of talent, and coupled with his surname, every point hit the Third Hokage's concerns, so it was not surprising to have such thoughts.

It was just that because of this suspicion, shelving the combat power of an Elite Jonin during a war was undoubtedly irrational. Not to mention that according to Uchiha Feiyu's previous personality, if he really had the intention to shelve him, the other party would probably go with the flow and would not be able to contribute for the entire war.

Thinking of this, the Third Hokage still nodded:

"I didn't expect you to be quite proactive this time, Feiyu. After you rest for two more days, depart with the team supporting the front line the day after tomorrow."

"Also..."

The Third Hokage smiled at the corners of his mouth and took out a Chunin flak jacket:

"From now on, you are a Chunin!"

After saying goodbye to his team leader and two companions and having a farewell meal, three days later, Uchiha Feiyu, wearing a Chunin flak jacket, joined the team supporting the Konoha front line.

The number of people in the entire team was not large, totaling only a hundred or so; ninjas themselves did not advocate for large-scale army operations.

At the head was a Jonin, and there were two Special Jonin as the team's deputies. Chunin already belonged to the middle management, totaling only ten people. As for the nearly one-hundred-person Genin team, they were all experienced adult ninjas.

Unless they were at their wits' end, Konoha clearly would not send young ninjas to the battlefield; everyone understood the principle of killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.

Generally, unless their talent was truly outstanding, ninjas under fourteen years old at the beginning of a war mostly performed logistics work and would not enter the front-line battlefield.

Everyone was a ninja, and the team of over a hundred people began to advance silently. It took about a day to arrive at Konoha's current front line.

The place where Konoha and the Sand Ninja were currently fighting was not within their own country, but rather in the Land of Rivers. The small countries between the major powers were originally buffer zones, and they inevitably became battlefields during wars.

Therefore, the hatred that small countries like the Land of Rain had for the major powers was only natural. After all, every time they fought, the major powers lost their ninja reserves, while the small countries were almost beaten to pieces.

The front-line position had a very familiar name—Kikyo Pass. Uchiha Feiyu vaguely remembered that in his previous life, Naruto had such a Battle of Kikyo Pass, and the winner was also the Konoha side; at least he didn't have to worry about it being as tragic as the battle with the Rock Ninja.

In the war with the Rock Ninja, Konoha was truly fought to the point of exhaustion. If it weren't for Namikaze Minato's Flying Thunder God to save the day, it was estimated that the ninjas on the front-line battlefield would have been wiped out. Even if they finally won, the remaining ninjas were one in a hundred, which was extremely tragic.

Even if Uchiha Feiyu was currently very short of life to sacrifice and also wanted to collect some Soul, he would not be crazy enough to want to participate in that kind of battle.

After arriving at the front-line camp, the Jonin leader and the two Special Jonin went to report to the front-line commander, Orochimaru, while the ordinary Chunin and Genin were simply dispersed and assigned.

Uchiha Feiyu was still thinking about how to meet Orochimaru when the Jonin who walked out of the front-line command post called him directly:

"Chunin Feiyu, Lord Orochimaru asks you to come to the command room!"

Hearing this, Uchiha Feiyu's eyes lit up, and he went straight to the command post.

He discovered that he seemed to have underestimated the weight of Elite Jonin-level strength. After all, in the original work, the strength of both sides in most battles was not lower than Elite Jonin, but in reality, ninjas of this level were few and far between in the entire Ninja Village.

Uchiha Feiyu did not know that even on the front line of this kind of battlefield, the number of ninjas at the level of Elite Jonin was only four, and this was because the war had just begun and manpower was relatively abundant.

Two or three years later, when several other Ninja Villages acted simultaneously and the fighting was more intense, each front line would have at most two or three Elite Jonin to assist, in addition to the Shadow-level commander.

Therefore, even though Uchiha Feiyu was only a fourteen-year-old boy now and only had a Chunin title, Orochimaru would still personally summon him.

(End of chapter)