Hii Kōri's training life with his students thus began. Though calling it training, in the first month, Hii Kōri spent most of his time traveling while explaining various bits of knowledge to Yahiko and the others.
Such as the nature and transformations of chakra, methods of training the body, various knowledge useful for wilderness survival, as well as the logic and characteristics of ninjas from different villages, and analysis of the current situation.
As refugees who often couldn't eat enough, these three children's physical conditions were far from good. Attempting to refine chakra in this state would not only be inefficient but could also damage their bodies.
Hii Kōri had warned them of this when explaining chakra's nature and body training methods.
This month of running around, besides basic intelligence exploration, mainly aimed to help them improve their physical fitness, while practicing wilderness survival knowledge.
Leveraging experience accumulated from playing three roles simultaneously, Hii Kōri simply used makeup techniques to disguise himself as a weathered old man appearing forty or fifty years old.
This method of disguising oneself as another person using just bottles of powders and creams greatly amazed Yahiko and the others.
With this elderly appearance, genuinely withered white hair, and chakra sealed using Mind's Eye of the Kagura, Hii Kōri's group traveled unimpeded, successfully sneaking into positions closer to Konoha.
After all, unless a large-scale attack or accidental injury occurred, no matter how fiercely the ninjas fought, they wouldn't particularly target civilians without special circumstances. Who knew if they might be potential future clients? Kill one civilian today, lose one order tomorrow.
As ninjas from the most powerful of the Five Great Ninja Villages, Konoha's confidence from this identity allowed them such 'leeway' even in war.
Moreover, even if looting supplies, why target someone who clearly had nothing to loot, right?
An "old man" taking three kids around digging rocks and wild vegetables, or fishing with branches and fishing rods what supplies could he possibly have worth taking?
Though in Hii Kōri's view, this was also a manifestation of arrogance and laziness. But as a beneficiary of this attitude, what reason did he have to criticize?
As for Yahiko and the others, they had no trouble adapting to this running life either.
Forests and rivers provided plenty of edible things. Combined with Hii Kōri's dried rations and nutritional supplements, the children's nutritional needs were met. The only issue was the bland taste due to lack of seasonings.
But children who had wandered as refugees for nearly a year didn't care about such things days with enough food were good days.
With Hii Kōri able to cast Earth Release, even their accommodation improved considerably. Even when heavy rain came, he could create elevated caves with Earth Release, enough to shelter from wind and rain.
However now, whether to facilitate follow-up teaching or cover intelligence gathering, they needed a base. After finding a broken-down hut near a river, the four of them repaired it and temporarily settled there.
After a period of conditioning, the three children's physical conditions had mostly recovered, naturally allowing the next step of training.
Nagato's chakra nature was, as it should be, undetectable Yang. Yahiko's was Water. Konan's were Wind and Water.
Worth mentioning, this girl Konan's physical fitness even surpassed Yahiko's. Perhaps she had talent for Yang Release training as well.
The following days passed relatively peacefully. Hii Kōri taught them the Three Basic Techniques and 'Ultra Combat Style' techniques, occasionally venturing out to gather intelligence on that Spirit Transformation Technique user, while experimenting on Konoha ninjas.
But this was still a war zone no matter what, life couldn't be entirely uneventful.
Like now.
There was this persistent Iwa team that had somehow 'gotten lost' near the Land of Rivers, apparently intending to make some big news.
Hii Kōri knew exactly what these Iwa ninjas were plotting. Nothing more than causing trouble behind various lines, framing others, fanning flames to intensify conflicts while ruining Konoha and Suna's reputations.
Soldiers trained by that old potato Ōnoki always had this tune.
Truth be told, Iwa and Ame were quite similar. Not that they lacked talent, but besides Ōnoki himself, few top players could hold up the scene two jinchūriki not particularly harmonious with the village, maybe Ōnoki's son counted, then that was it.
Iwa's Explosion Corps member Kazura was quite famous, but he was a specialized ninja, not a top expert.
For the Five Great Ninja Villages, although this number is not rare, it is not flexible enough. This situation, combined with Ōnoki's personality, directly shaped Iwa's current combat style.
Hii Kōri was deeply moved by this 'ally's' behavior behind enemy lines.
Then he extended Spirit Thread Nerves, piercing through these Iwa ninjas' spines and cervical vertebrae without hesitation.
With their brain and spinal cord the two action centers invaded and forcibly connected by Spirit Thread Nerves, this Iwa team instantly became Hii Kōri's marionettes. The entire process took less time than Yahiko and the others needed to understand what happened.
Moved? Of course moved traveling thousands of miles to deliver Earth Release technique manuals right to him, he was so grateful to these international friends. ButI f he let these Iwa ninjas cause trouble nearby, the base he finally found would become unusable.
So they just had to die.
"Hey, Teacher, if you were to compare with Lord Hanzō, which of you is stronger?"
But such an overwhelming victory made it hard for the children to recognize his true strength level.
After all, they were only seven-year-old children, formerly ordinary civilians. Their horizons naturally differed from those of ninja children.
"Hmm... a ninja's strength is hard to explain and evaluate in a few words..."
As he explained this while harshly extracting ninjutsu knowledge and intelligence from these Iwa ninjas' minds, Hii Kōri's voice suddenly paused.
In these Iwa ninjas' memories, he read information about Iwa's Explosion Corps beginning operations as well.
But this made sense after all, Suna had already started fire coverage. Other areas aside, now when anyone in Ame or the Konoha forces in the Land of Rain mentioned 'explosion,' the first thing they thought of wasn't Iwa's Explosion Corps, but Suna's big air raid.
Even Hii Kōri himself hadn't initially imagined that improved sealing techniques would indirectly reduce production costs for exploding tags.
Cheap, good-quality exploding tags, Rasa threw a whole box at once!
It would be strange if Iwa's Explosion Corps missed this chance to explode while beautifully shifting blame. This team was meant to disrupt the situation.
Quickly clarifying the logic, Hii Kōri continued explaining to the three children about combat logic that seemed simple but actually had many influencing factors.
"Abilities mastered, compatibility with enemies, environment, weather, psychological factors... Under different conditions, conclusions drawn can be worlds apart..."
"For example, Konoha's White Fang is a sneak attack ninja with extreme speed. In one-on-one situations, sneak attacks, or against Suna's puppeteers, his advantages are infinitely amplified."
"If facing another ninja of roughly the same level but lacking the ability to quickly close distance, in the same environment, they could never single-handedly eliminate an entire puppeteer unit."
"As for Hanzō... he's probably quite representative as an all-rounder. Even including Kiri's ninjas, his Water Release is second to none. His taijutsu foundation is quite solid, and his weapon the kusarigama is relatively uncommon, making him even harder to deal with."
"Combined with his large summoned beast and poison, he has almost no shortcomings."
"If pressed, his only flaw is probably that his methods have been figured out. Without new tricks, both he and Ame will have a hard time going forward."
Hii Kōri also explained to Yahiko that this war between Konoha, Suna, and Iwa essentially had nothing to do with Ame. Rather, Hanzō was half-voluntary, half-coerced by Ame and the Land of Rain's public opinion dilemma to proactively declare war on these three villages.
Though Yahiko's emotions were quite intense at first, after calming down, he accepted this reasoning.
As for Ame and Hanzō's dilemma, Yahiko and the others could understand.
In great power conflicts, ninjas from weak allied nations largely served as 'advance forces' cannon fodder. But considering Ame's fighting power, if Ame tilted toward any side in this war and thoroughly declared an alliance, the great power wouldn't treat them too badly.
However, the Land of Rain's geographical location meant that even if they favored any of Fire, Wind, or Earth, they'd actually receive little effective shelter, instead becoming that country's barrier.
Admittedly, Ame, as a village specializing in 'assassination,' wouldn't be deployed as advanced forces in armies. But the lives of the Land of Rain's citizens equally couldn't be guaranteed, and moreover, Hanzō's lifelong 'independence' banner would be folded.
Since they couldn't prosper either way, better make everyone suffer.
"So Teacher, in a fair one-on-one, would you lose to Lord Hanzō?"
Truth be told, after receiving the promise that they could later go to Suna for training and learning, and then return to the Land of Rain to rebuild their homeland, Yahiko's obsession wasn't so deep anymore.
For three children whose families had all died, they were each other's only reliance. Yahiko held such intense dreams partly to guide his softer companions' direction.
Now, there would also be Hii Kōri as their teacher.
"Hmm... if it's now, probably wouldn't lose."
Tilting his head thinking for a few seconds, Hii Kōri responded vaguely.
"More importantly... let's take this opportunity to hold your 'coming of age ceremony.'"
Pulling over those Iwa ninjas, Hii Kōri flipped his wrist, producing three kunai.
He crouched down to eye level with Yahiko and the others, speaking in a calm tone: "This is your last chance. If you don't want to kill, don't want to become ninjas stop here."
"Even if you quit, it's fine. I'll still take you to Suna. Despite appearances, I have some influence in the village raising you till you're fat and happy wouldn't be much burden."
In a suffocation silence, Nagato originally the most timid of the three was first to take the kunai from Hii Kōri's hand, slitting two Iwa ninjas' throats.
Feeling the warm blood splashing on his hands, he tremblingly took a deep breath, then followed Hii Kōri's teaching stabbed their hearts twice more.
Seeing this, Yahiko and Konan
no longer hesitated, finishing the remaining Iwa ninjas together.
Yet after the brief shock and adrenaline surge, Yahiko and Konan never having killed before—collapsed to the ground as if with all their strength, gasping heavily.
"In this era, killing is a very low-cost behavior. The test is merely one's own inner contradiction. After all, humans acquire greatest wisdom not to take fellow humans' lives, but to create something."
"Wanting to extract oneself from cruel things is also understandable human nature, right? When killing, if your hands don't touch blood, you won't know the pain. Without real feeling, you can treat it as unrelated to yourself."
Hii Kōri didn't pull them up. He manipulated shadows to devour the corpses and bloodstained earth cleanly, ensuring no trace of blood smell remained, then returned to his disciples, looking down on them from above.
"Welcome to the realm of 'ninjas.' Though there's nothing congratulatory about devoting yourself to this profession that stains hands with blood, for you, this is an unavoidable step."
"Well, thinking about it for killers, ninjutsu really is convenient. The Sage of Six Paths, who created ninjutsu, probably never envisioned it evolving into this situation."
"What if he did?"
Somehow, Nagato, who had wanted to say something to Hii Kōri, instead asked this. When Hii Kōri looked at him, he realized what he'd said and turned away rather uneasily.
"Then the Sage of Six Paths is a bastard."
Hii Kōri's expression unchanged, he calmly and confidently repeated: "If he foresaw this, he's the most bastard dog in the entire world."
***
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