Chapter 82: Promise

Dong Shilang stood to the side with his hands in his pockets, a backpack on his back, and a small tanto at his waist, silently watching as Yuzhibo Zhe comforted his mother.

【Reality really is worlds apart from the anime!】

【I never expected that, in the TV show, the Yuzhibo clan rarely appears on screen, yet such a touching scene would actually happen!】

Gazing at the touching scene unfolding before his eyes.

Dong Shilang silently thought to himself.

Fortunately, whether it's older sister Mei Xiang or the parents of his companion Yuzhibo Yan, they are all active ninjas.

They have a rough understanding of the C-rank missions undertaken by newly formed ninja squads.

So he only exchanged a few words of concern verbally, and did not come to see them off like Yuzhibo Zhe's mother did.

Otherwise, at this moment, not only Zhe would have a headache, but Dong Shilang and Yan would as well.

So-called C-rank missions are generally things like delivering messages or escorting—tasks that require leaving the village but do not involve combat.

Even if combat does occur, the opponents are merely ordinary bandits and the like—targets who cannot use chakra.

Even if, by some chance, a situation arises involving combat between ninjas, the opponents would merely be some wandering ninjas who, by accident, obtained a method to extract chakra and thus succeeded.

Besides having slightly stronger taijutsu due to chakra giving them a bit more strength and physical fitness than ordinary people,

they are completely lacking in ninjutsu and genjutsu.

There's no way, aside from family inheritance and instruction from the ninja village, to achieve any accomplishment in chakra application—it's extremely difficult.

This has also caused the price of ninja corpses on the black market to skyrocket, because many wandering ninjas hope to study the secrets of ninjutsu this way, and of course the major ninja villages are also involved, seeking to better understand their opponents' weaknesses.

In ninja missions, once combat involving chunin or higher-ranked ninjas occurs, the mission rank immediately jumps from C-rank to B-rank or even higher.

Even if they encounter wandering ninjas with chunin-level strength, having the elite jonin Yuzhibo Chongzheng as their guardian means there is no problem at all regarding safety.

Of course, if your own luck is bad and you run into an elite squad from another village secretly infiltrating a foreign country to carry out a covert mission, that's another matter.

However, such squads are usually paired with corresponding sensory-type ninjas, in order to minimize contact with foreign ninjas as much as possible.

To achieve the effect of information secrecy.

Even if, within foreign territory, they encounter a ninja squad on a mission, they will detour widely to avoid any contact.

And the jonin leading the team, upon encountering such a situation, will feign ignorance and take no further action, in order to guarantee the safety of the team members behind him.

As for two squads colliding head-on, that situation basically never happens.

Not to mention the presence of sensory ninjas, the jonin leading the team are usually the elite among elites.

Stumbling into an enemy and then getting into a skirmish—such a thing generally does not happen to elite jonin.

Usually both sides become aware of each other's presence, at most merely probing each other, neither showing their faces, and then each goes on with their own mission.

On the main thoroughfare of the Yuzhibo compound, a young man in his thirties was slowly walking up from a distance.

He wore an ordinary green jonin vest, black three-quarter pants underneath, and high-top ninja sandals, carrying a backpack not much different from Dong Shilang's and the others'.

The person arriving was precisely the jonin instructor of Dong Shilang and the others, Yuzhibo Chongzheng.

"Ah! It's Lady Rihui! Long time no see, I've been rude."

As Yuzhibo Chongzheng walked over, upon reaching the torii gate he saw Yuzhibo Rihui lingering, reluctantly telling her son something.

And Yuzhibo Rihui is precisely the name of Zhe's mother.

As the younger brother of the clan chief, Chongzheng knew Yuzhibo Lizhe's father, and by extension had also met Zhe's mother a few times.

But after Zhe's father passed away, the other party began to live a secluded life, which made things feel a little unfamiliar.

While greeting her, he also performed a bow.

The ninja world ultimately originated from Japan, and in many respects it's a copy. Even this habit of bowing at the drop of a hat is learned by imitation.

This left Dong Shilang, a modern person from the 21st century, quite unaccustomed.

Merely taking a rough glance at the scene, Chongzheng figured out what had happened before his arrival.

"Lady Rihui, please rest assured; although I cannot guarantee your safety one hundred percent,"

"but I can promise you that, before my life ends, Zhe will surely remain unharmed!"

Yuzhibo Chongzheng looked at Zhe's mother with a solemn expression, saying each word slowly and deliberately.

This was not just empty words from Yuzhibo Chongzheng; it was a vow he set for himself from the moment he began serving as their instructor.

For this goal, he will not spare his own life.

【Instructor Chongzheng really is something else, even saying something like that!】

Beside them, Dong Shilang, who had taken in all of this, looked somewhat surprised at the solemnly promising instructor, and also thought somewhat surprisedly.

During his time at the ninja academy, thanks to his still-decent interpersonal relationships,

He had heard of many ninja squads whose, during missions, the instructor jonin would return either harrowing or safe, but the genin members of the squad were not so fortunate.

Some suffered losses of varying degrees, or unlucky ones were completely wiped out—this also happened.

And the village could not possibly punish these leading jonin too severely.

As long as they had some "reasonable" justification, nobody would excessively blame them.

On one side are a few genin; on the other, the village's pillars of support—the Third Hokage will weigh this balance quite well.

Of course, if there's someone your squad looks up to as a junior who dies silently in your squad~~~

If you don't have a strong backing, it's best to prepare to flee early.

Upon hearing these words, Lady Rihui, who single-handedly raised her child and devoted her whole heart and mind to her son, did not show any delight at Yuzhibo Chongzheng's promise.

Instead, she faced Yuzhibo Chongzheng with utmost solemnity, tidied her appearance slightly, and performed a proper ninety-degree bow.

Without uttering another pleading word, her waist remained bent for a long time and her shoulders trembled slightly, revealing her uneasy heart.

And Instructor Chongzheng also accepted her bow with equanimity.

Even if it was clan members out early in the morning, or ninjas who witnessed this scene, they merely watched silently as it unfolded.

Nor did anyone rudely come to disturb them.