Seeing that the other battlefield had fallen silent, the students cautiously approached. The first thing they saw was Inoshita Rino lying motionless on the ground, his face covered in blood.
"Rino-sensei!"
"Rino-sensei, sob... I'll never make you angry again, please just wake up!"
The noise was grating on Shangguan Mo's already frayed nerves. Still shaken from the fight, he snapped, "What are you crying for! Rino-sensei isn't dead!"
Seeing the students staring at him blankly, he closed his eyes in frustration. "If I were him, I wouldn't have been killed by the enemy, I'd have been angered to death by you all. He just fainted."
After their instructor woke up, and with no medical supplies or anyone who knew medical ninjutsu, Shangguan Mo ended up carrying him on his back, leading the students on the path back to the village.
Upon their return, Shangguan Mo and a recovered Inoshita Rino immediately reported all the intelligence they had gathered to the village, including several hidden locations of the Cult of Jashin within the Land of Hot Water. From that day on, the nation that had forgotten war began a daily campaign to eradicate the evil cult.
This operation received strong support from the Daimyo of the Land of Hot Water, who allocated several years' worth of funding, weapons, and medical supplies to Yugakure at once. With his own citizens being captured and the entire country in a state of panic, many villages in the western and southern regions had been completely abandoned, their inhabitants terrified into fleeing to other countries. This was a direct threat to the foundation of the nation. If he kept losing his subjects, what would a Daimyo even rule?
Time flowed like water, never to return. In the blink of an eye, Shangguan Mo had finished his third year at the Ninja Academy. The time was now the end of Yugakure Year 8. The people of the village were curiously flocking to the main gate to watch the spectacle, but Shangguan Mo had shut himself in at home.
The nearly three-month-long eradication campaign was still ongoing, though with less intensity than before. Many Yugakure ninja were gradually returning to the village. The Cult of Jashin, having suffered a severe blow, had abandoned their strongholds and gone deeper into hiding within the country. The heated battle in the Land of Hot Water seemed to be finally coming to a close. Today was the day the last batch of warriors returned, and the villagers naturally went to welcome the heroes who had brought them peace.
Shangguan Mo's Home.
"Heroes... they're always the first to die, hehehe..." A meaningful, slightly mocking laugh escaped Shangguan Mo's lips. Shaking his head, he pushed those thoughts aside and looked down at a goshawk tied up in his room. The hawk was half a person tall and was glaring at him with furious eyes. A patch of its gray-white feathers on its left wing was stained crimson, clearly from a recent injury.
Shangguan Mo looked at the system information and fell into thought.
[Goshawk]
Rank: D
"They're both living creatures, so why is the Goshawk's rank D while the others are only E? Could it be that the ranking is based on more than just strength? Does intelligence play a part?"
Seeing the remarkably human-like anger in the goshawk's eyes, he wasn't sure. He had stumbled upon this hawk foraging in the winter cold this morning, and an idea had sparked in his mind: a flying summoning beast! The moment the idea formed, it grew uncontrollably. He had waited for it to perch on a branch, then pierced its wing with a shuriken, bringing it to the ground.
He glanced at his status panel again.
[Host: Shangguan Mo]
Race: Human
Summoning Beasts: Earth Dragon Beast (E), Earth Beetle (E), Iron Hedgehog (E), Self-Destructing Fly x100 (E)
Life Points: 220
Chakra: 150
These mutated flies were the second generation he had synthesized over the past few months. Feeling that his E-rank summons were becoming less helpful, he had shifted his focus to synthesizing support-type beasts. In the future, when his own strength increased, these mutated flies would be invaluable for reconnaissance.
[Summoning Beast · Self-Destructing Fly]
Rank: E
Species: Diptera Muscidae Insect
Attribute: Fire
Abilities:
Dynamic Vision (Passive): The eyes of the Self-Destructing Fly are composed of thousands of fine pixels, providing an extremely wide and clear field of view and the ability to rapidly perceive motion.
View Sharing (Passive): The Self-Destructing Fly can share its visual perspective.
Super Fertility (Passive): The lifespan of the Self-Destructing Fly has been doubled by the system, but it still only lasts for a maximum of two months. During this time, they can lay 1000 - 2000 eggs, which, if hatched successfully, will automatically become the host's summoning beasts.
Self-Destruct: Modified by unstable fire-attribute chakra, the Self-Destructing Fly has an extremely volatile temper and may self-destruct at the slightest provocation. The power of the explosion is equivalent to 1% of an exploding tag.
System Evaluation: Art is an explosion!
"One percent of an exploding tag's power... that's some 'explosive' art right there..." Looking at his second-gen fly's stats, he wasn't sure if he was satisfied or not, but he was mostly speechless. This Self-Destructing Fly was the product of him experimenting with his own fire-attribute chakra affinity. Its three passive abilities made it an almost perfect E-rank support summon. But its only active skill, [Self-Destruct], had a power level that truly moved him to tears.
"A suicide attack that's only as powerful as 1% of an exploding tag? It's like it wants to put on a fireworks show for the enemy..." He complained internally. The fly's only attack skill was an insult to art...
Thinking of Deidara's explosive clay, and then looking at his fly's "art," he was tempted to synthesize some pure reconnaissance flies. But he couldn't bear to lose the three incredibly powerful passive abilities.
"I only have 150 chakra points, which probably isn't enough to synthesize a D-rank goshawk, but..." Doubt appeared on his face. But soon, the desire for a D-rank summon grew stronger. This was a rare flying creature. If it was modified by the system, maybe he too could soar through the skies, achieving the same effect as the few flight-capable ninjutsu in the ninja world.
"I can't fly, but my system can surely give me wings..." He was already imagining himself riding a great eagle like Sasuke, and he finally stopped hesitating.
He had already determined his own chakra natures through repeated experiments. Wind and Fire! He hadn't experimented much with fire, which had resulted in the flawed Self-Destructing Fly. But he had been studying his wind nature for a while now.
A ball of pale blue chakra gradually formed in his left hand, becoming more and more condensed, its color slowly changing to a whitish-blue. His face scrunched up in concentration, beads of sweat forming on his forehead. For him now, performing a nature transformation without hand seals was still a strain. But, he finally did it.
When he felt a faint but real cutting sensation in the air, he quickly placed his other hand on the goshawk's head and shouted, "A sage blesses your crown, the system grants you long life!"
-------
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