Naruto: Cultivating to Immortality

Chapter 26 Cannon Fodder Troops

The war against the Rain Ninja ended just like that, and the Konoha ninjas began cleaning up the battlefield before returning to their front-line headquarters.

Hyuga Kanan's squad returned to the logistics transport team. His squad had suffered no casualties and was in good condition. They naturally resumed their escort mission. The Anbu squad did not return to continue their mission; after all, Konoha's frontline troops were less than five kilometers ahead, so there was no need for such a large escort.

The transport convoy arrived at the front-line base camp without any incident, and Hyuga Kanan officially completed his first C+B-level escort transport mission.

They thought that after arriving at the camp and handing over the supplies, they would quickly pick up the seriously wounded and escort them back to Konoha. However, Hyuga Kanan's team was wrong. A whole week passed at the camp, and they were not given any task to pick up and escort the wounded. They were only told to wait, and that a task would be arranged soon.

Hyuga Kanan spent the week holed up in a tent, diligently refining the soul energy he had gained from the previous battlefield, enjoying a peaceful and quiet time.

This was a great harvest; he secretly obtained at least a hundred soul energy orbs from his Qiankun Inheritance Jade, all of which were the slowest drifting ones.

Hyuga Kanan also wanted to collect those much larger, faster-moving clusters of soul energy, but fearing that intercepting these powerful clusters would attract the attention of the Sage of Six Paths, he could only secretly steal these small clusters that were clearly not worth the Sage of Six Paths' attention, and dared not intercept too many.

When Hyuga Kanan saw those dense clusters of soul energy, his mouth almost watered. In the end, he suppressed his greed and waited until most of them drifted away before intercepting the few remaining slowly drifting clusters of soul energy.

Safety is the most important thing! Hyuga Kanan kept telling himself not to put himself in danger because of greed.

During the week, aside from going out for meals and to use the restroom, Hyuga Kanan spent most of his time quietly refining the intercepted soul energy, increasing his soul power by nearly double.

At this moment, the soul power in Hyuga Kanan's mind was almost transformed from gas into liquid after continuous absorption and compression. It was only one step away from transforming soul power into divine consciousness power.

Focus your consciousness on the Qiankun Inheritance Jade to check your current cultivation progress:

Personal Panel

Host: Hyuga Kanan

Realm: Intermediate Qi Refining

Physical attributes: Five Elements Body

Cultivation techniques: Taoist Qi Refining Techniques, Taoist Spirit Nourishing Methods

Physical strength: Internal organ training

Soul strength: 100 times that of an ordinary person (in the process of soul transformation)

When Hyuga Kanan sensed the soul transformation indicated by the ancient jade, he was overjoyed. It seemed that as long as he waited for the transformation to complete, he would be able to convert his soul power into divine consciousness power.

Once he possessed divine sense, he would no longer fear the Sage of Six Paths' large-scale soul consciousness probing and scanning. Unless the Sage concentrated his entire soul to examine him, the occasional scrutiny he used to receive wouldn't easily detect anything amiss. After all, once he possessed divine sense, he would be no different from the Sage of Six Paths in terms of quality, only in quantity. Power at the same level couldn't be easily detected. Therefore, he wouldn't have to live in constant fear, worrying about being investigated and eliminated at any moment. He could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

Suppressing his joy, he knew it wasn't time to be reckless. This was just the beginning of his journey; he still had to pursue a higher realm until he finally shattered the void, ascended to immortality, and achieved eternal life.

The next day, Hyuga Kanan's instructor, Yamanaka Ryuichi, was summoned away. Hyuga Kanan thought they were finally going to be assigned the mission of escorting the wounded back to Konoha, but Yamanaka Ryuichi returned quickly. Without giving any instructions to the team members, he immediately prepared his equipment and prepared to leave. He only told the three of them that he had a separate mission and that the rest of the team should wait for further instructions before leaving. However, seeing the guilt and sorrow in Yamanaka Ryuichi's eyes, Hyuga Kanan had a bad feeling.

Hyuga Kanan's intuition was correct.

The defeat of Hanzo the Salamander and his Rain Ninja forces on the battlefield marked the success of Konoha's first step in its plan.

With one less major adversary, the Land of Rain still faces pressure from ninjas from the two great nations of Iwagakure and Sand Village, whose numbers are nearly twice that of the Konoha front.

In fact, if the opponent were only a single ninja village like Sand Village or Rock Village, Konoha would have already concentrated its forces to defeat them. After all, Konoha's ninjas, in terms of both quality and quantity, could overwhelm any other major power.

However, Konoha has never experienced a one-on-one war, and the other major powers are not idiots. One-on-one? Don't be ridiculous. Unless the territories are swapped, the fertile land, excellent natural environment, and best financial situation of the Land of Fire can attract more people and families to join Konoha. This would give Konoha a natural advantage in having more outstanding talents to become ninjas. This is the deepest foundation and wealth that Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha left for Konoha.

Unfortunately, Konoha will not make exchanges with other major powers.

So, if Konoha were besieged by other major powers, it would have no choice but to grit its teeth and endure it. Facing three enemies who are also major powers, even Konoha might not be able to guarantee its victory and protect the Land of Fire.

Although the ambitious Hanzo of the Salamander and his Rain Ninja have been defeated, the real war is yet to come, and the only way to achieve final victory is to defeat them one by one.

But are the other major powers fools?

Obviously, defeating them one by one requires countermeasures and sacrifices, and the rookie ninja in the transport team is the target of this sacrifice.

All the powerful ninjas in the transport team were transferred to the elite team. All the elite ninjas on the front line were concentrated, and Hatake Sakumo led the team to have a one-on-one decisive battle with the Sand Ninja. The goal was to quickly defeat the Sand Ninja and force them to surrender before sending reinforcements.

The remaining ninjas, led by Orochimaru, Jiraiya, and Tsunade, were tasked with holding off the Iwa ninjas at all costs, preventing them from providing support to the Sand ninjas on the battlefield.

Hyuga Kanan was unaware of the situation, but he had a vague sense of crisis that made him uneasy. This feeling came from a deep spiritual connection in his mind, and he knew that something that would threaten his life would happen soon.

This is a special feeling I have after absorbing a large amount of pure soul energy during this refining process. If I continue to evolve and comprehend it, I will be able to truly come into contact with the laws of time.

Hyuga Kanan didn't know why he felt this sense of crisis, but he couldn't continue training. He couldn't calm down and train at all, so he had to leave his tent and wander around the camp to recover his mind.

While wandering around the camp, Hyuga Kanan noticed something strange.

Now, all the instructors and powerful ninjas in the camp have accepted mysterious missions and disappeared. Only some lightly wounded soldiers and a group of new recruits remain, including genin like Hyuga Kanan. Among the chunin and above, only those seriously injured or whose combat abilities are impaired and cannot be treated are left.

When Xiang Jianan wanted to find out what was going on from the other people, he was told to wait patiently and that a mission would be assigned soon.

This made Hyuga Kanan even more uneasy. Wasn't his team's mission to escort the wounded back to Konoha for treatment? Why did the wounded seem so fearless, and why did their leader look so guilty and sad as he left? It felt like something was definitely going to happen that was detrimental to them.

A sense of crisis, an eeriness in the camp, and regret for the wounded soldiers constantly intertwined in Hyuga Kennan's mind.

Suddenly, Hinata Kanan realized a startling and unbelievable reason: they had been abandoned, whether as bait or as a frontline suicide squad, there was nothing he could do.

Can I leave on my own?

Hyuga Kanan began to think about how to deal with this incident, and worked hard to come up with a solution.

Leaving is tantamount to defecting from Konoha. Defection itself isn't a big deal, but whether one can successfully defect is another question. This is Konoha's frontline camp; leaving isn't so easy. There are barriers and guards all around. Leaving the camp will trigger a barrier reaction, leading to discovery and making it easier to be monitored or executed.

Even if he successfully defected, survival in the ninja world wouldn't be easy. After all, he was a member of the Hyuga clan. Even if the Caged Bird Seal couldn't kill him, Konoha would likely send hunting ninjas to hunt him down. Konoha couldn't let the Byakugan escape beyond the village's borders. Other ninja villages were eyeing the Hyuga clan's Byakugan covetously. If they discovered a Hyuga clan member outside Konoha, they would probably send ninjas to hunt him down as well. In that case, he would probably have to flee everywhere, with no time for leisurely training.

Don't be fooled by the numerous instances in the original story where defectors seem to thrive afterward. This is contingent on the village not being determined to track you down, or on your strength being so formidable that you have no fear of the pursuers. The ninja village will only abandon its manpower pursuit once it deems the cost of capturing you to outweigh your own worth, but it will still issue an arrest warrant for you to the underground gold exchange.

Therefore, defection is not an option for now.

So, it all depends on whether there's any chance of survival in this mission. Konoha wouldn't assign missions that are guaranteed to kill, otherwise no one would undertake them. Therefore, Hyuga Kanan needs to find a chance to survive within the mission itself.

Thinking of this, Hyuga Kanan sighed helplessly. Ultimately, it was still a result of his own insufficient strength. Otherwise, no matter the circumstances, as long as he was strong enough, he would be fearless in any mission, and even if he wanted to leave, he wouldn't have to worry about the consequences.

Hyuga Kanan understood, returned to his tent, suppressed all his frustration, and silently resumed his training. Improving himself was the best way now.

Ten days later, for the first time, an order was issued in the camp requiring everyone to assemble.

When Xiang Jianan arrived at the assembly point that day, he couldn't help but twitch his lips upon seeing the people present. This setup was tantamount to telling all the experienced people that this was a cannon fodder team.

Most of the new recruits from this transport team are here, along with a large number of genin. There are only a few chunin wearing Konoha standard vests, and they are all injured. As for jonin, sorry, none of them. Konoha isn't so extravagant as to use jonin as cannon fodder.