Seimei paused for a bit to reminisce about those gruesome days three years ago when he had to kill one human each week to get used to the feeling of taking the lives of his own kind.
It was nothing short of horrifying, even if he knew that he had to take this step one day.
However, humans were miraculously adaptive beings. For their survival, they could adapt to any situation and evolve.
And the same thing happened to Seimei.
His emotions were still intact. He could still feel love, sorrow, happiness, anger, hatred, joy, hope, serenity, pride, excitement, satisfaction, anxiety, amusement, and every possible human emotion.
His experiences of killing humans didn't turn him into an emotionless killing machine.
That was never the goal.
He just became capable of taking lives without much emotional burden. If he needed to kill someone to achieve his goals and to protect everything he held dear, he would now do it without batting an eye.
No more shaking. No more freezing at the sight of blood and gore. No more vomiting. And no more mental agony or unnecessary overthinking.
His mind was at peace.
He had turned into a true Shinobi in every possible way, except for receiving his official ninja ID and rank. Well, he would get them when he graduated from the Ninja Academy.
He was already in the fourth year of class 1-S. There was no rush!
Thinking this far, he quickly put a stop to his wandering thoughts and joined his temporary teammates to collect the evidence of their mission completion and clean up the battle scene.
Cleaning up the battlefield was especially important.
After all, if they left the charred and mutilated corpses of these bandits in the open, they could easily lead to infection, plague, and worse, they could attract chakra beasts here.
So, to avoid troubling the nearby towns, the townsfolk, and the people guarding those towns, they must clean up the battlefield.
It was standard Shinobi post-battle procedure.
As long as there wasn't an emergency, they were trained to do it.
Otherwise, if those corpses attracted powerful chakra beasts, they could attack the nearby human settlements.
And it would mean more work for the ninjas of Konoha, the recognized military faction of the Land of Fire, who were already being stretched thin with tons of work.
Konoha had more than 200,000 officially recognized active Shinobi, and yet they were still being overworked.
It looked like Seimei would still have to work himself to the bones even after transmigrating and becoming a superpowered individual who could control multiple elements of nature.
Honestly, how was it any different from becoming an overworking workhorse for those merciless capitalist bosses in his previous world?
Well, at least, the boss here was from his family. More accurately, his father, Senju Tobirama.
Ah!
But it wouldn't spare him from overworking, would it?
It seems my misfortune of being an overworking corporate slave also transmigrated to this world along with my soul.
Fortunately, in this life, I at least have enough stamina to push through all the missions, no matter how tiring they get.
All thanks to my Otsutsuki bloodline and rapidly strengthening vitality and physique.
Thank you very much for donating your bloodlines to me, my real father, and my mother.
It is truly a remarkable bloodline that drives people to overwork while sustaining peak productivity for days without sleep.
What was that common Chinese proverb from the Xianxia novels again?
Yeah, I remember now.
If my previous life's boss knew I had such a miraculous capability to overwork now, he would have crossed mountains of swords and raging oceans to beg me to work for his company again.
Oh no! My thoughts are wandering off again.
Focus on the cleanup, Seimei.
Although Seimei kept thinking about random things, his battle scene cleanup speed was super-efficient.
Thinking about one thing and doing another thing was never a problem for him.
As an overworking corporate employee from his previous world, his multitasking skills were insane.
So, Seimei and his temporary team didn't even take five minutes to bury all the corpses and cover up all traces of battle using masterful applications of Earth Release.
"Phew, it's finally done," said Seimei as he wiped out the non-existent sweat from his forehead.
The leader of the Genin team nodded and replied, "Yes, thanks to your Earth Release Jutsu, we could clean up the entire battle scene."
"None of us in my team has the innate affinity for Earth Release chakra, so cleaning up a battle scene of similar proportion with such meticulousness usually takes us anywhere from ten to fifteen minutes."
Seimei smiled and responded, "That's what I should do, Takeshi-senpai. Due to my status as an academy student, I needed to team up with an experienced team to complete a C-rank mission."
"I thought I would have to wait a couple of days, but thankfully, you guys let me tag along with you."
The Genin team leader, Takeshi, who was only fifteen this year, nodded before calling his teammates back.
Then, he said, "Alright, guys! Since we are done here, it's about time we head back to the village."
"It will still take us about two hours to reach the village."
"Okay, captain," said Mizuraha, a fourteen-year-old kunoichi (kunoichi means female ninja), who was one of the team members of Takeshi.
There was another aloof guy who was also fourteen, and he simply nodded to show his approval.
Before teaming up with them, Seimei had already checked their chakra level with his Tenseigan.
The team leader, Takeshi, had already crossed the minimum chakra reserve requirement of an average Chunin.
According to his observations, Takeshi's current chakra capacity should be around 3,200 units.
Mizaraha and the aloof guy's chakra reserves were also reaching 2,000 points.
If they trained hard, they should be able to cross the 2,500-unit threshold within a few months and reach the average chakra capacity of a civilian Shinobi who had just reached the Chunin level.
Of course, chakra capacity didn't give a clear picture of a ninja's actual combat prowess. But it did help in assessing the rough power level of other ninjas.
Takeshi and his teammates' skills in Taijutsu and Ninjutsu had already reached Chunin standards, according to his observations during the battle against the bandits just now.
Now, all they needed to do was carry out more missions to earn more merit and then participate in the Chunin assessment.
And right now, Konoha's Chunin exam only requires the participating Genin to go through a combat assessment, a written test, and a merit count.
Or you needed to graduate from the S-class of the Central Ninja Academy while completing various missions during the last two academic years.
How did Seimei know that?
Come on! His father was the goddamn Second Hokage now. As his filial and obedient son, it was only natural to be privy to this information.
Seimei kept his thoughts to himself and started traveling back to Konoha with the Genin team.
For the first half an hour, everything was fine.
They were maintaining a good speed and had already crossed around 30 kilometers.
However, at that moment, Seimei, who kept his Tenseigan active, picked up a massive disturbance in chakra around eight kilometers away from their current location.
Sensing this, he turned his head toward the direction the chakra disturbance was coming from.
His Tenseigan glowed in a majestic ocean-blue light, which further highlighted the rotating, tendril-like silvery-white flower petal construct converging toward his black pupils.
It peered through the distance and let Seimei see what was going on in the distance in a crystal-clear black-and-white vision.
And sure enough, there was a fight going on eight kilometers away.
According to the chakra signature he picked up, and what he saw through his eyes, it seemed a group of chakra beasts besieged one Chunin and three Genin from Konoha.
However, something else was even more troublesome.
Six unidentified people, possibly rogue or independent Shinobi, were lurking around and watching the battle between the chakra beasts and Konoha ninjas.
Among these six individuals, their visible chakra capacities indicated that there was one Elite Chunin, two Chunin, and three Genin.
Clearly, something fishy was going on.
Even if the Konoha ninjas successfully eliminated the chakra beasts, they would probably be ambushed by these unidentified ninjas.
I just came here to complete a single C-rank bandit extermination mission.
But now, there's trouble ahead.
Sigh!
Well, it doesn't matter.
They are my fellow Konoha ninjas.
I should save them first and deal with those shady guys.
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