A new day dawned across the five nations. Kyosuke continued his flawless performance at the Konoha Academy, Ooka Shin scoured the war-torn Land of Rain for medicinal herbs to treat Kanae, Kiichiro continued his grueling swordsmanship training as a wealthy merchant's son in the Land of Lightning, and Mishu stayed locked in his home in the Bloody Mist, relentlessly refining his Chakra and drilling his hand seal speed.
Over in the Land of Wind, Tasaka Sensuke met up with Pakura.
She didn't waste a single word on pleasantries. The moment he arrived, she turned and headed directly toward the mission coordinates. Sensuke had to burn chakra just to struggle to keep up with her baseline travel speed.
Fortunately, Pakura was intentionally holding back; otherwise, Sensuke would have been left eating dust in the first ten minutes.
During a brief lunch break, Pakura finally explained the parameters of their mission.
"The Land of Rivers has a City Lord who has historically employed Sunagakure for protection," she said, her tone strictly professional. "However, the old City Lord passed away recently. The new City Lord immediately broke our contract and turned to employ Konoha shinobi instead. It just so happens that the new City Lord's younger brother has hired us to assassinate him. Therefore, for the financial benefit and reputation of the village, this mission must be completed."
Sunagakure's funds had always been notoriously tight. The Daimyo of the Land of Wind constantly cut their budget, forcing the Third Kazekage to literally use his Magnet Release to mine Gold Dust just to subsidize the village's finances.
A high-profile assassination mission from a wealthy town could yield a massive reward. Sunagakure simply couldn't afford to pass it up, which was why they had dispatched a powerhouse like Pakura to execute it.
As they resumed traveling, Pakura laid out the intelligence and assigned Sensuke his role.
"We will act separately. We will each conduct our own infiltration and reconnaissance. When the time comes, your task is to act as the vanguard and draw fire. It would be best if you could lure away a portion of the inner guards; that will create the opening I need to complete the assassination."
It was essentially a suicide mission for a Genin, let alone an Academy student. Sensuke rolled his eyes inwardly, but on the surface, he nodded with absolute solemnity. "Understood."
A few days later, they arrived at the outskirts of the target town and split up. Pakura vanished into the shadows, and Sensuke began his work.
Step one: Reconnoiter the environment.
It was already late at night. The streets were mostly empty, and the entire town was shrouded in darkness, save for a few scattered lanterns.
Standing perfectly still on the roof of a civilian house, Sensuke observed the town's layout under the dim moonlight.
It was a typical feudal town, dominated by a towering, multi-story Tenshukaku—a castle keep—in the dead center, surrounded by houses of varying heights.
The northern district featured wide, paved roads and sprawling manors; likely where the wealthy elite lived. The southern district was a labyrinth of cluttered, disorganized shacks and narrow, twisted alleys; definitely the slums. To the east lay a small commercial pier adjacent to a wide, flat river that shimmered under the moon. To the west, a stretch of dense mountain forests and rolling hills offered heavy cover.
I need two absolute retreat routes, Sensuke analyzed. One heading east for a water escape, and one heading west into the mountains. I need to avoid the wealthy district entirely—too many lanterns and open sightlines.
Having mapped his escape vectors, Sensuke opened his ninja tool pouch. Moving silently through the slums and the eastern alleys, he spent hours setting a network of tripwires and traps to delay any pursuers and buy himself precious seconds.
By the time he finished, it was the dead of night. He estimated sunrise was only an hour or two away. The town was dead silent, locked in the deepest phase of sleep. It was the perfect moment to strike.
Sensuke coated his kunai and short sword with a matte, non-reflective paste to kill the shine of the steel. He then popped a potent detox pill into his mouth, tucking it safely against his upper palate. Sticking to the darkest shadows of the street corners, he silently dashed toward the Tenshukaku.
The keep was surrounded by a high perimeter wall of earth and stone, patrolled by several heavily armed samurai guards.
Sensuke watched from the shadows, quickly memorizing their patrol routes and timing their rotations. Taking advantage of a ten-second blind spot during a shift change, he scaled the wall like a spider and dropped silently into the inner courtyard. He immediately ducked behind a decorative rockery, using the manicured trees as cover to advance toward the main doors.
But after taking just three steps, Sensuke froze.
The courtyard was too quiet. There wasn't even the chirping of insects.
Instantly realizing the danger, Sensuke spun around to flee back over the wall, only to find his path blocked by two dark silhouettes dropping from the branches above.
"Konoha shinobi!" Sensuke hissed.
By the light of the torches mounted on the courtyard walls, the metal of their forehead protectors glinted maliciously.
According to Pakura's intelligence, the City Lord's personal guard was a standard four-man Konoha squad: one Jonin leader and three Chunin subordinates.
It seemed Sensuke had been utterly compromised the moment his foot touched the top of the wall. The Konoha Jonin had simply dispatched two Chunin to quietly dispose of the intruder while he remained inside to guard the target.
Honestly, Sensuke knew he didn't stand a snowball's chance in hell of defeating two veteran Chunin in a straight fight. Fortunately, his task was just to draw aggro, not fight to the death.
"Looks like you're just a Genin kid," one of the Chunin sneered, his hands resting casually on his weapons pouch. "You'd better surrender quietly. We wouldn't want to accidentally kill you."
The two Konoha shinobi used words to apply psychological pressure, but Sensuke wasn't fooled. Even as they spoke, they were perfectly positioning themselves to cut off his escape routes.
A low, unsettling buzzing sound filled the air. Dense clusters of small, black insects began swarming out from the Chunin's sleeves, rapidly forming a crawling carpet on the ground that completely surrounded Sensuke.
The Aburame Clan? Sensuke realized, a chill running down his spine. No wonder the courtyard was so quiet. The insects detected my chakra the second I crossed the perimeter.
Despite the lethal crisis, Sensuke's voice remained perfectly steady, showing no hint of a child's fear. "Psychological warfare? Against a Sand shinobi? Save your breath."
While speaking, Sensuke didn't hesitate. His hands blurred. He whipped out two pre-ignited explosive tags and hurled them directly at the thickest cluster of bugs.
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"
The tags detonated violently just a few feet in front of him. Sensuke simultaneously expelled a massive, pressurized gale from his lungs. The wind caught the explosion, transforming it into a roaring wave of shrapnel and flame that blasted toward the Konoha shinobi. The fire instantly incinerated the Aburame insects, blasting a ragged hole in their encirclement.
Without waiting for the flames to clear, Sensuke threw himself forward, riding the shockwave of his own jutsu. His body practically dove through the fading fire; the intense heat scorched his exposed skin, leaving it blistering and stinging fiercely.
"Pursue!" the Aburame Chunin barked.
Seeing a mere child actually break their trap, the two adult shinobi were furious. They immediately gave chase, their speed terrifyingly fast.
The Konoha Chunin were vastly superior to Sensuke in raw physical stats. Even though Sensuke utilized his pre-planned route, weaving through the dark, winding alleys of the slums, the complex environment didn't slow the veterans down for long. They closed the distance rapidly.
The moment they caught up, the skill gap became agonizingly clear. Their Taijutsu coordination was flawless. After just two brief, desperate exchanges of blows in a narrow alley, a kunai slashed deeply into Sensuke's left shoulder. Blood sprayed against the brick wall, and his left arm instantly lost all mobility, hanging uselessly at his side.
Where the hell is Pakura?! Sensuke panicked, gritting his teeth against the searing pain. As long as she makes her move, these two will have to retreat to protect their client!
Glancing back toward the silent Tenshukaku, Sensuke didn't dare engage in close combat again. He awkwardly fished out another explosive tag with his right hand and threw it blindly behind him.
For this mission, Tasaka Bussei had spent half his life savings preparing ninja tools to keep his son alive. This included three high-grade, incredibly expensive explosive tags.
They were expensive for a reason. The blast was deafening, tearing a crater into the alleyway and successfully forcing the pursuers to back off, buying Sensuke a few precious seconds to run.
Sensuke clamped his right hand over the gash on his left shoulder to staunch the bleeding, but the blood loss and the awkward posture severely crippled his running speed. Within moments, the Konoha shinobi were on him again.
"For a kid, your instincts are good," the second Chunin said coldly, appearing on a rooftop ahead of him. "But unfortunately, this is the end of the line!"
The shinobi threw a volley of shuriken, perfectly blocking Sensuke's forward path, while the Aburame Chunin rushed him from behind, brandishing a drawn short sword.
Sensuke spun around, clumsily raising his kunai with his right hand to block the heavy downward strike. The clash of steel sent agonizing vibrations up his arm. Before he could recover, the Aburame Chunin delivered a brutal kick to his stomach, sending Sensuke flying backward. He crashed through the rotting wooden doors of an abandoned house, rolling violently across the dusty floorboards.
"Die!"
The Aburame Chunin rushed into the ruined house to finish the job.
Snap.
His foot hit a hidden tripwire.
Suddenly, a massive cloud of light-purple powder cascaded from the ceiling rafters, filling the enclosed space with a sickening, sour stench.
"Not good! It's aerosol poison!"
The two Konoha shinobi's expressions twisted in alarm, and they instantly leaped backward out of the house, coughing violently.
It was the final, most lethal trap Sensuke had set, using up his entire supply of military-grade toxins.
Lying in the center of the room, Sensuke had already inhaled a lungful of the toxic powder. A wave of intense, nauseating dizziness hit his brain. He immediately bit down on the detox pill resting against his palate, swallowing the bitter medicine before scrambling out the back window and fleeing toward the river.
Out on the street, the two Konoha shinobi looked grim. A swarm of specialized kikaichu bugs crawled rapidly over their skin, desperately absorbing the purple toxin from their pores. Although the bugs couldn't entirely neutralize a poison they had never encountered, they could temporarily suppress its onset, keeping the Chunin combat-effective.
The price, however, was massive. The bugs absorbed the poison and instantly died, falling from the shinobi's bodies like black rain.
"Dammit! That little rat!" the Aburame Chunin snarled. "We have to kill him before he reaches the perimeter!"
They knew the boy was severely wounded and couldn't get far. They readied themselves to resume the hunt—but the moment they took a step, a massive, roaring pillar of fire erupted from the top floor of the Tenshukaku.
The sheer heat could be felt all the way in the slums.
The two Chunin froze, their expressions draining of color. "The City Lord!"
Instantly abandoning the hunt for the bleeding Genin, they turned and sprinted desperately back toward the burning keep.
Sensuke didn't stop running. He dragged his battered body all the way to the eastern riverbank, wading into the freezing water to wash away his blood trail. He swam downstream for a mile before finally dragging himself onto the muddy bank at the designated rendezvous point. He collapsed against a tree, gasping for air, and clumsily began bandaging his shoulder.
It wasn't until the sky began to brighten with the dawn that Pakura finally appeared.
She looked significantly worse for wear. Her clothes were torn and scorched, multiple shallow cuts bled freely down her arms, and she walked with an unnatural, heavy limp in her right leg. However, her eyes were bright, and she looked down at Sensuke with genuine, profound appreciation.
"The assassination was a success," Pakura breathed, leaning against a nearby tree. "And you played a crucial role. I never expected a kid your age to successfully lure away and survive two veteran Konoha Chunin for that long."
A rare, small smile graced her lips. "Very good, Sensuke. You have officially passed my test. From this day forward, you are my disciple. I will teach you everything I know."
Sensuke, despite the agonizing pain in his shoulder, couldn't help but grin wildly. "Thank you, Master Pakura. I won't let you down."
That very afternoon, true to her swift and decisive nature, Pakura handed Sensuke a massive, heavy scroll. It contained not only the technical breakdowns of high-rank Wind and Fire Ninjutsu, but also her personal cultivation insights, chakra flow theories, and advanced combat knowledge that the Academy would never teach.
Holding the scroll, Sensuke finally realized the insurmountable gap between generic Academy schooling and true master-disciple inheritance. The Academy was designed to mass-produce functional cannon fodder; it required minimizing costs to function.
In contrast, master-disciple inheritance was elite, bespoke education. It required a Jonin to pour massive amounts of time, effort, and highly classified resources into a single person. No wonder Pakura had been so resistant at first. Raising an apprentice was an exhausting investment; a master had to be absolutely certain the student wouldn't die before paying dividends.
With Pakura's scroll securely in their shared mental possession, the Dream Five finally had access to high-level Ninjutsu. Their collective combat strength was about to skyrocket.
Every 100 stones = 1 EXTRA CHAP
-> 60 Advanced chapters Now Available on Patreon!!
-> https://www.pat-reon.co-m/c/Valfanfics
(Just remove the hyphen (-) to access patreon normally) If you like this novel please consider leaving a review that's help the story a lot Thank you