After eating and resting, Seimei and Reina set out to find the target once more.
For the next five minutes, they examined the Rending Earth Bears' traces to determine their intended destination and adjusted their course.
Reina had a thoughtful look on her face before looking at Seimei, who was running beside her. She calculated their approximate destination and evaluated its position according to the map they had received.
She asked, "Did you notice? The location of our targets is very close to Hachijima town."
Seimei glanced at her for a brief moment before looking ahead once more. He replied, "I did. And I noticed that hours ago. It's nothing surprising, to be honest."
Reina narrowed her eyes and asked, "Are you thinking what I am thinking?"
Seimei confirmed, "I know what you are thinking, and I am thinking about the same thing, too."
At this, they looked at each other once more and exchanged a knowing smile.
Reina continued, "As far as I know, Hachijima town is ruled by one of the minor noble houses of the Daimyo's court. The trade is blooming there, earning the ruling noble family a lot of money in taxes."
Seimei nodded, "The town is prosperous, indeed. However, they should be having a little trouble with the merchant caravans entering or exiting the town lately."
Reina added, "Not should be. Nope. They must be having trouble with the merchant caravans in recent times."
Reina paused for a moment before continuing, "You know the group of Rending Earth Bears is located just ten to fifteen kilometers away from Hachijima town."
"If the map is correct, then this group of chakra beasts should have attacked several merchant caravans and killed quite a few merchants in the last couple of weeks. After all, they have been seen roaming frequently near the trade routes."
"This group of Rending Earth Bears has two A-rank, three B-rank, and several C-rank beasts. Their presence is indeed very dreadful. No merchant would want to risk their lives by traveling via those trade routes to do business with Hachijima town."
"Such a phenomenon should have already affected the economy of the town by now. The ruler of the town should be panicking right now."
"Tch! They must have issued an A-rank mission to Konoha to deal with the Rending Earth Bear group. And now, we are doing this mission for free."
Seimei smiled wryly and said, "Indeed, the ruler of the Hachijima town had issued an A-rank mission to deal with the Rending Earth Bears. Otherwise, Konoha ninjas wouldn't go out of their way to deal with these beasts—not until they actually threatened the safety of Konoha. After all, no one likes to do a free job that doesn't pay."
Reina retorted, "Aren't we doing this mission for free?"
Seimei coughed. "Cough, cough…Reina, we need to eliminate those chakra beasts to finish our Anti-Monster Combat Evaluation and graduate from the Academy. Don't mix things up."
Reina still said disdainfully, "Tsk, tsk. Still, a high-tier A-rank mission…the pay should be closer to 1 million ryo. And a large chunk of it will be gobbled up by your father. Seimei, I am taking the Elite Rending Earth Bear's core as compensation."
What could Seimei say? He could only smile awkwardly.
They continued their travels and talked to each other occasionally.
And in the blink of an eye, ten more minutes had passed.
At that moment, Seimei, who had reduced the precise search radius of his Tenseigan to two kilometers for extreme clarity, finally found seven Rending Earth Bears in his farsight detection range.
Of course, he had also detected several other chakra signatures a few more kilometers away, too.
So, he expanded Tenseigan's precise search radius to ten kilometers. Only after doing that could he clearly see the sources of the chakra signatures.
More Rending Earth Bears, including the A-rank, non-elite one.
As his mastery over the Tenseigan improved, he could expand or shrink the radius of the farsight vision. When he shrank the radius of his Tenseigan's farsight ability, he could witness and see everything within the reduced radius with literally 4K quality, not missing even a speck of dust.
However, he naturally had to bear the flood of information at the same time, which was manageable, thanks to his improved spirit attribute.
Of course, even if he shrank his Tenseigan's farsight vision, he could still detect chakra signatures of all things and living beings within a radius of twenty-five kilometers.
He just wouldn't see the source of the chakra signatures outside of the precise farsight vision radius.
But if he wished, he could always focus on a particular direction to see the sources of chakra in that direction and focus on a particular thing, without actually expanding the search radius of the 360-degree farsight vision.
For him, it was very convenient, to say the least.
It saved him from overloading his brain with useless information while still keeping his detection capabilities on to identify chakra signatures in the distance.
Seimei looked at Reina and said, "I have found seven targets approximately 1,700 meters away."
"One B-rank, three C-rank, and three D-rank Rending Earth Bears."
Reina grinned. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go and eliminate them."
With that, both of them activated the Body Flicker Technique and vanished from the spot.
In a little over fifteen seconds, their figure suddenly appeared on top of a thick tree branch. They quietly observed the seven chakra beasts roaming on the ground, nearly forty meters away from them.
Seimei mentioned, "There is another group of Rending Earth Bear four kilometers away. We can deal with them after killing these seven."
He looked at Reina and asked, "As for these lots…do you want to deal with them? Or should I take action?"
Reina smirked and replied, "Let me finish them off."
Seimei reminded, "Fine. But do kill them as quickly as possible. Don't play with your prey."
Hearing this, Reina pouted. "I know, I know. I won't delay when it comes to missions. It will affect our final test scores, after all. Do you have so little trust in me?"
Miss, did it mean that you would have fooled around and taken your sweet time playing with these chakra beasts if it didn't affect our test scores? Seimei complained mentally.
Seimei sighed and said with a hint of resignation, "Alright, do whatever you want."
"Hehe…"
Reina chuckled and jumped down from the tree.
The moment her feet touched the ground, the fire release chakra detonated beneath her legs.
Fire Release: Exploding Body Flicker
Boom!
Scorching hot blue fire detonated beneath her feet, propelling her figure forward like a rocket.
Her speed was so fast that before the Rending Earth Bears could even look up to see what caused the explosive sound, Reina's figure already appeared before one of the C-rank beasts standing a little far away from the ground.
Shiing!
Reina drew her ninja short sword, channeled fire chakra through it, and swung it at the chakra beast's neck in one smooth motion.
The red-hot blade sliced through the C-rank Rending Earth Bear's thick fur, skin, muscles, and bones like a hot knife through a block of butter.
The bear's head flew into the air as Reina's figure stopped five meters behind its back.
The whole set of events happened in less than one second.
To the weaker ninjas and common people, it would look like Reina had disappeared with a detonation, turning into a streak of blue flame, before appearing behind the C-rank Rending Earth Bear in less than one second. And the bear's decapitated head suddenly flew upwards all of a sudden.
But a seasoned ninja, such as Seimei, could catch all the motion without missing a frame.
Thud!
The head of the dead bear dropped to the ground, and its body fell on the ground as well. Deep red blood gushed out of its decapitated neck like high-pressure water coming out of a pipe, pooling beneath the dead beast's body.
At this moment, the remaining six chakra beasts, including the B-rank Rending Earth Bear, understood what transpired.
They were utterly enraged and roared at Reina, ready to charge at her at a moment's notice.
"Roar"
"Roar"
The C-rank and D-rank Rending Earth Bears charged at Reina, while the B-rank one prepared to unleash a deadly innate skill.
But the moment the B-rank beast looked at Reina's pair of glowing crimson eyes with three pitch-black, rotating tomoe, it suddenly froze.
Genjutsu: Sharingan
The B-rank Rending Earth Bear suddenly felt very disoriented. Its body was completely paralyzed by a powerful Sharingan Genjutsu, powered by Reina's deep mastery of Yin Release and overwhelming ocular power.
Naturally, the innate skill the chakra beast tried to release also failed.
Reina wasted no time and used the Body Flicker Technique to appear behind the paralyzed beast.
Next, she swung her blade at its neck, decapitating and killing the B-rank Rending Earth Bear as well.
Meanwhile, the two C-rank and three D-rank Rending Earth Bears that were charging Reina suddenly stopped as they saw Reina's figure disappear all of a sudden.
Thud! Thud!
Hearing the sound of a heavy body falling on the ground, they turned their necks, only to see the B-rank beast die.
And their target was sheathing her ninja blade beside the corpse.
The five Rending Earth Bears were suddenly bewildered.
Numerous question marks couldn't help but appear over their heads.
The Chakra Beasts: This human was in front of us just now. How the heck did she arrive behind us?
But Reina gave them no time to muse.
Blue flames suddenly ignited on her palms. The flames were so hot that the air around Reina twisted in heat, but she was completely unharmed.
Reina smiled at the still-confused Rending Earth Bears and said, "Goodbye!"
With that, she brought her hands together and pushed them forward at the chakra beasts.
Fire Release: Azure Flame Stream
Boom!
Like a flamethrower, a stream of violent azure flames burst outward from her palms with tremendous force. By the time the azure flames reached the five beasts, they expanded to seven meters in width before engulfing them.
The fiery stream continued to travel for twenty-five meters and burned for four seconds before Reina finally retracted the Jutsu.
The ground affected by the azure stream was completely melted, turning into magma.
As for the five Rending Earth Bears…
No signs of them remained, not even ashes.
Seeing this devastating scene, Seimei opened his mouth to say something. But he closed it at the next moment.
He just gave Reina a thumbs-up, which Reina returned with a victory sign.
Seimei jumped down from the tree and asked, "Shall we go meet the next group of chakra beasts then?"
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