What did ninja combat usually look like?
First, everyone tossed a few shuriken to feel things out. After all, if you carried shuriken and didn't throw them, how were you supposed to get reimbursed?
Then came one or two ninjutsu—burning through a good chunk of chakra.
After that, it was taijutsu, trading blows.
Finally, someone set a trap or used a decisive technique to end the fight.
As long as no one died halfway through, most battles followed this rhythm.
But who the hell fought like this—
throwing shuriken like they were free?
Crack.
The rock finally shattered.
Panic spread across the two men's faces.
Did this mean they were about to face that endless rain of shuriken again?
No.
Please no.
They couldn't block that.
They were already preparing themselves for death.
…Silence.
"Huh?"
Both of them stared at Hyūga Ming, who was standing there motionless.
Ming scratched his head apologetically.
"Sorry. I ran out."
WHY ARE YOU APOLOGIZING?!
"Brat!! Your turn!!"
The two of them snarled at the same time and charged forward.
The twisted expressions on their faces made them look downright ugly.
But then—
Something felt wrong under their feet.
They stopped and looked down.
Explosive tags.
"You son of a—"
BOOM!!
Fire and shockwaves swallowed them whole.
"I still have explosive tags, you know."
The wind whipped at Ming's clothes as he stood there, wearing an innocent expression.
It wasn't like he'd lost his mind and only thrown shuriken.
He'd noticed the shuriken supply running low long ago.
While blasting apart the rocks, he'd attached explosive tags to the last few shuriken and thrown them ahead of time.
The timing was perfect.
The moment they stepped onto them—
Explosion.
He'd said it before.
This was a shooting game.
And every shooting game needed explosives.
What was the point of the Byakugan if you didn't play ranged?
[EXP +156]
[EXP +135]
The two bodies were blown apart completely.
On the ground lay several glowing items:
A bronze saber.
A set of bronze armor.
A blue scroll with a white emblem.
A red money pouch.
[Bandit's Saber: +10–15 Attack]
[Bandit's Armor: +15 Defense]
[Skill Scroll: Fire Release · Unknown Flame]
[Money Pouch: 100 taels]
"A skill scroll!" Ming's eyes lit up.
He collected everything, then pulled the scroll out separately.
He'd always wanted more skills.
The ones he currently had weren't very helpful.
After all, he played ranged.
A whole kit of close-combat techniques was basically useless to him.
The Hyūga clan did have plenty of ninjutsu stored away—
Unfortunately, they were stubborn to the bone, obsessed with Gentle Fist and nothing else.
Only the main family possessed a decent number of ninjutsu scrolls.
Branch family members rarely got anything beyond Gentle Fist and Byakugan-related techniques.
Utterly hopeless.
If he wanted ninjutsu scrolls, there were only two official paths:
Work for Konoha.
Or kneel before the main family like a dog.
He'd chosen a third path long ago.
Farm mobs for skill drops.
And not just Naruto-world skills.
Other worlds' abilities could drop too—
though only from specific enemies, and entirely based on luck.
Ming used the scroll immediately.
A flood of ninjutsu knowledge poured into his mind.
[Fire Release · Unknown Flame (Lv.1)]
EXP: (0/100)
Trait: None
Unknown Flame was a D-rank technique.
It temporarily added fire damage to attacks.
"This one's actually pretty useful."
The real strength of Unknown Flame was that it could imbue weapons with fire—
Including shuriken.
"Flaming shuriken has real potential."
Ming began forming hand seals.
Snake → Goat → Tiger.
Only three seals.
When he finished, chakra began flowing steadily out of his body.
He thrust his palm forward—flames flickered and vanished.
Picking up a shuriken, he hurled it into the distance.
The shuriken ignited midair, flying like a small fireball.
"Decent power. Worth leveling."
There were two ways to level skills.
One was constant practice—though that didn't increase EXP, only skill proficiency once a level-up occurred.
The other was directly spending EXP from the EXP pool to upgrade the skill instantly.
Aside from Substitution Technique, which he'd boosted with EXP, everything else had been trained manually.
He checked his EXP pool.
[EXP Pool: 311 + 918 = 1229]
"Over a thousand this time," Ming muttered.
"Eight hundred more and I'll level up."
He focused again and equipped all the gear in his inventory.
Equipment:
Bandit's Left Leg Guard
Bandit's Right Leg Guard
Bandit's Right Hand Guard
Bandit's Saber
Bandit's Armor
There was no visible change to his appearance—
except the bronze saber now in his hand.
With a thought, it vanished.
Another thought, and it reappeared.
"Too bad there's no attribute panel."
Because he'd entered during closed beta, the attribute system hadn't been fully implemented.
That carried over here.
Otherwise, he could've seen his growth far more clearly.
Equipment durability had been hidden too—another unfinished system meant for the official release.
Unfortunately, he'd never made it to that point.
He kicked off the ground and charged uphill.
Maybe there were still mobs left.
If he could complete the full Bandit Set in one go—
That Sap skill was an early-game godsend.
He'd been eyeing it for a long time.
When he reached the mountain summit—
He found Tsunade and the Hyūga brothers waiting.
Tsunade's expression was unreadable.
Hiashi leaned against a tree, his hand wrapped in bandages.
Hizashi stood nearby, glaring at Ming with hostility.
Ming frowned.
"Where are the bandits?"
They didn't steal his kills, did they?
He scanned the area.
Not a single corpse in sight.
"They fled before we arrived," Tsunade said calmly.
This kid's killing intent was a bit too intense.
Charging up the mountain with a bronze saber in hand—
don't tell her he was here to help.
Ming sighed in disappointment.
He'd wasted time testing his new skill.
If he'd been faster, he might've caught them.
Tsunade glanced at Ming, then at Hiashi, her headache worsening.
This mission could hardly be called a perfect success.
One injured ally.
Enemies almost entirely wiped out—only seven or eight escaped.
And nearly all of the bandits' fighting strength—
Had been erased by Ming alone.
Not to mention that combat style…
Just thinking about the cost made her wince.
And the only injury came from internal conflict.
Utterly absurd.
This mission had been meant to temper Hiashi.
Not to let Ming go on a killing spree.
Tsunade didn't even know how she was going to report this.
Seeing there were no mobs left, Ming flicked his wrist.
The bronze saber vanished.
Even Tsunade couldn't tell where he'd stored it.
Ming turned and started walking away.
"Where are you going?" Tsunade asked.
"Cleaning up the battlefield," Ming waved without looking back.
He still had a mountain of shuriken to retrieve.
Those things weren't cheap.