Chiba Shun's gaze swept across the four men. After a quick look at the terrain and a careful check of the surrounding area to make sure no one else was hiding nearby, he began to form hand seals.
To be honest, he did not think much of a four-man team of Chunin.
If this had been back when he had just advanced to Jonin, he would have needed to think of a way to retreat safely with the three children in tow. At that time, even though the Third Raikage had promoted him, he had not truly grasped what it meant to fight as a Jonin. His style had still been that of a Chunin—Chunin-level swordsmanship, mixed with a few low-level jutsu.
But things were different now.
His fingers blurred through four quick seals, and he cast Earth Release: Earth Clone Technique. A sturdy earth clone split away from him to stand guard over the three children, while he himself rushed straight at the enemy.
Only then did the four wandering ninja realize something was wrong. Whether it was the speed of Chiba Shun's hand seals or the chakra fluctuations released by the Earth Clone, both told them the same thing.
This was not a soft target. This was a Jonin.
Still, there was no way for them to back down now. One of the four immediately peeled off to circle toward the side, clearly intending to harass the earth clone and strike at the three children.
Chiba Shun ignored him completely.
As he closed the distance, he began forming hand seals again. The three in front of him were already bracing to meet him—one preparing ninjutsu, the other two shifting into formation.
"Earth Release: Earth Wave Technique!"
The B-rank jutsu, now simplified by him to eleven hand seals, came out at a terrifying speed. Five seals per second. To the four enemy Chunin, it looked absurd.
The ground beneath them shuddered violently. It was not just a simple ripple running across the earth. The entire area covered by the technique had already been flooded with Chiba Shun's chakra.
Trying to remain steady on ground controlled by someone else's chakra was no easy thing.
One of the three men in front of him collapsed outright and could not get back up. His body was no longer obeying him properly. The other two were thrown off balance just enough for Chiba Shun to capitalize.
He flicked out four kunai in one smooth motion.
The man already on the ground took two of them and immediately lost the ability to fight. The other two each got one.
Those kunai were never meant to finish them off. Chiba Shun only wanted to disrupt them.
Just as they were starting to adapt to the churning earth under their feet and regain some balance, the kunai arrived. To avoid them, they had to shift their footing again—and the moment they did, they lost their stability for a second time.
That second was all Chiba Shun needed.
He formed another seal.
Body Flicker Technique.
He flashed between them so suddenly it felt like he had vanished and reappeared at the same instant. Twin blades gleamed.
By the time the two men understood what had happened, their throats had already been cut open.
Without pausing, Chiba Shun turned and finished off the wounded man on the ground with another slash. Then he lifted his head and looked toward the last remaining enemy.
That man had been trying to angle around and attack the three children from the flank. But before he had even managed to complete the maneuver, Chiba Shun had already wiped out his three companions.
The man froze for half a heartbeat.
Then he turned and ran.
Chiba Shun did not chase recklessly. He accelerated after him, his speed clearly superior. This time, he used another Body Flicker to close the gap, then formed four fast seals.
"Earth Release: Earth Spear."
A jagged spear of earth burst up from behind the fleeing man and pierced straight through his leg.
"Ahhh!"
The cry tore through the road as he crashed to the ground, instantly losing his mobility.
Chiba Shun did not approach right away. He stopped more than ten meters away and watched the man coldly.
"Were you people specifically sent here to deal with us?"
The rogue ninja stopped screaming, shot him a resentful glare, and stubbornly refused to answer.
Chiba Shun felt a flicker of regret.
He still had not learned any genjutsu. If he had, he could have solved this with a single illusion instead of bothering with questions. Still, it was not as though he had no options.
There were no hidden enemies nearby. At least, none that he could sense.
That meant he had time.
First, he crippled the man's hands. Then he took out a kunai wrapped in fine silk thread, flicked the thread loose, and used it with practiced precision to bind the man by the neck.
After only a short while, the rogue ninja's resistance broke. Under Chiba Shun's calm, efficient interrogation, he spat out everything he knew.
They had not run into Chiba Shun by accident. They had come because someone had put a bounty on his head through an underground bounty agency.
Ten million ryo.
Chiba Shun muttered under his breath, "I'm on the underground bounty board? And for ten million ryo? Is Konoha behind this?"
He immediately shook his head.
"That shouldn't be it. If Konoha wanted to kill me, they wouldn't need to rely on bounty hunters."
Danzo's influence in Konoha had expanded enormously since White Fang's death. If Danzo truly wanted him dead, he could just send a proper elite team after him. There would be no need to use the underground world.
That made the situation even more troublesome.
Aside from a great village like Konoha, who else would spend ten million ryo just to get rid of him?
And there was another problem.
How had these people found him so quickly? He had only just left the Land of Lightning, yet they had already been waiting for him.
He turned the question over in his mind several times, but no answer came. Maybe he did not know enough yet. Maybe he simply did not want to know.
Either way, there was no point staying here.
He had the earth clone clean up the battlefield while he gathered the three children and prepared to move on.
The children had behaved better than he expected. They had not panicked. Ayana and Shosuke had even thrown kunai from a distance to help distract the last Chunin.
Of course, Chiba Shun had never brought them along because he expected them to be useful against real opponents. They were still children. He had brought them to broaden their horizons.
Expecting them to fight Chunin was absurd. But if, later on, they ran into bandits or Genin-level enemies, then giving them a chance to act would make sense.
Ayana, however, surprised him.
After the fighting ended, she took the initiative to ask whether she could seal the bodies into a scroll.
Chiba Shun looked at her in surprise. "You can already use sealing scrolls on your own?"
Ayana nodded, her expression full of eagerness.
Chiba Shun shook his head. "No need to seal them all. Just seal the leader—the one skilled in ninjutsu."
"The other three aren't worth wasting scrolls on. They've only just reached Chunin level and don't have any especially valuable techniques. In the future, we'll only bother sealing people if they're Jonin, or Chunin with special skills."
There was one thing he left unsaid.
Sometimes the bodies of allies also needed to be sealed away.
The four Chunin did not have much worth taking. Their cash amounted to only a few thousand ryo. Their weapons were nothing special, and Chiba Shun did not dare use them anyway.
Ayana carefully sealed away the body of the Chunin who had specialized in ninjutsu. After that, the group finished tidying the battlefield and resumed their journey toward the Land of Grass.
Because of the bounty on his head, Chiba Shun changed his appearance soon after.
The ninja academy taught basic disguise, and while he was no master at it, making himself look like a middle-aged ninja was not difficult. The three children did not need much—just a change of clothes. Chiba Shun also put away his Kumogakure forehead protector.
After the disguise, the bounty hunters stopped appearing.
But trouble still did not disappear.
They ran into bandits, wandering ninja, and rogue ninja more than once. In most cases, Chiba Shun chose to intimidate them into leaving rather than start a fight.
When they encountered smaller groups, he let the three children step forward and gain some practical experience.
The children's performance could not be called good, but after seeing blood and going through real combat, their bearing began to change. They were no longer just academy students sheltered behind walls.
Of the three, Shosuke performed best. If not for his limited chakra reserves, he would already have looked every bit like a proper Genin.
After passing through the Land of the Moon, Chiba Shun led the children into the Land of Hot Water, where he treated them to the country's famous hot springs.
Of course, the baths were separated by gender.
Even after becoming a Jonin, Chiba Shun had not actually seen much of the world. Aside from his trip to Konoha and the mission where he followed the Third Raikage to negotiate an alliance with Hiruzen Sarutobi, he had barely left the Land of Lightning.
This was his first time soaking in a proper hot spring.
After enjoying one of the Land of Hot Water's few true luxuries, they set out again.
By then, the Jashin cult had already begun spreading through the country. Chiba Shun noticed them recruiting followers from a distance, but he made no move to interfere.
After the Land of Hot Water came the Land of Rice Fields—and that place was truly chaotic.
The moment Chiba Shun and the others crossed into it, they stumbled into a large-scale battle.
Both sides had dozens of men. Each side also had a Jonin leading them.
These were not Jonin from a great ninja village, and their methods were clearly rougher and less complete than those of big-village ninja. But Jonin were Jonin. Reaching that level meant their willpower and chakra had already undergone real tempering.
On top of that, each side had a large number of subordinates.
Chiba Shun had no desire to get dragged into a conflict between forces like that.
He immediately intended to steer around them—but before he could, one of their scouts spotted him.
At once, both sides reacted. Not wanting an outsider near the battlefield, one side immediately sent two small teams—eight men in total—to intercept Chiba Shun and the three children.
Chiba Shun had no interest in trouble, but if trouble insisted on finding him, then there was nothing to do but end it quickly.
He took a breath.
His fingers flew.
Fifteen hand seals in roughly three seconds.
Then both palms struck the ground.
"Earth Release: Mountain Earth Technique!"
The earth shook.
Two massive stone formations surged up from opposite sides and slammed together with terrifying speed. The eight attackers—none of them stronger than Chunin—had no time to escape.
Boom.
There were no screams.
No fountains of blood.
But everyone present knew exactly what that sound meant.
The movements on both sides of the larger battle slowed for an instant. More than one person was so distracted by what they had just seen that they nearly got themselves cut down.
Then the chaos settled, and both forces separated.
Now it was no longer just their war.
The two sides, along with Chiba Shun and his three students, faced off in a wary triangle of tension.
Chiba Shun did not even glance at the ordinary fighters. His eyes went straight to the two Jonin.
"We're just passing through," he said evenly. "I'd appreciate it if you could show a little courtesy."
One of the Jonin—the very one who had just tried to drag him into this—snorted in irritation. He turned toward the other leader and shouted, "Yukawa! Let's put our grudge aside for now. We kill this guy first, then settle who lives and dies afterward. How about it?"
The opposing Jonin rolled his eyes and looked at Chiba Shun instead.
"You heard him," he said lazily. "I was planning to let you leave, but Sakamoto Kei here doesn't seem willing."
Then he smiled.
"How about you and I work together instead?"
Sakamoto Kei's expression darkened instantly.
"Yukawa! This territorial dispute is an internal matter among the Sound ninja. How dare you drag in an outsider?"
Yukawa ignored him completely. His eyes stayed on Chiba Shun, waiting for an answer.