The correct way for the Uchiha to rise

However, a struggle flashed in Uchiha Kiyoshi's eyes as he looked at the bandits lying on the ground.

“Let’s kill them. They have a lot of lives on their hands anyway, so it’s like eliminating a scourge for the people. Besides, we’ll be fighting bandits soon, so we need to get used to killing first. Otherwise, if something goes wrong, we’ll be finished. We should also talk to Rope Tree and the other guy when we get back.”

Under the bandit's terrified gaze, Uchiha Kiyoshi pulled out a kunai and stabbed it into the bandit's heart.

Looking at the bloodstains on his hands, Uchiha Kiyoshi forcibly suppressed the nausea in his heart and kept comforting himself.

"They're all arsonists, murderers, and looters; killing them wouldn't be a big deal. Calm down, calm down. Whew~"

Forcing himself to calm down, Uchiha Kiyoshi took one last deep breath, and with his somewhat weak body struggling to maintain his composure, he erased the traces and returned to Ryugetsu Village.

Throughout the entire process, Uchiha Kiyoshi was completely unaware that Orochimaru was watching from the shadows. Of course, even if Uchiha Kiyoshi knew, he wouldn't be surprised; it's just standard procedure, and many teams' first missions are like this.

The shadow clones of Orochimaru were secretly keeping watch, and the same was true for Nawaki and the others. Since Orochimaru had not yet experienced the meat grinder-like war, he was not so indifferent to life and still cared about the lives of his students.

Orochimaru was quite satisfied with Uchiha Kiyoshi's actions. Although some of his techniques were a bit clumsy, the process was correct, and he was ruthless enough to endure killing someone for the first time, which was commendable.

Back in Ryugetsu Village, Uchiha Kiyoshi had returned to normal. After waiting for about half an hour, Nawaki and the other two also returned.

"We found nothing suspicious around us, and there was nothing special about the direction the bandits came from. We couldn't find out where they came from or what their characteristics were."

"That's right. I interrogated a bandit into revealing that their group was only recently formed. However, for some reason, their four leaders brought them here and haven't been coming out much. According to the bandit, their strength is that of a seasoned genin. The four leaders might even be at that level, so this mission will be quite challenging. You two will each take on one of them, and I'll hold off the two strongest ones while you come to their aid as soon as possible."

Let's take a rest; we'll move out tonight.

At night, outside the Green Mountain, Uchiha Kiyoshi and two others appeared at the entrance of the bandit's den.

Looking at the sentries chatting, Uchiha Kiyoshi was speechless. Could these bandits really be idiots? It's one thing to establish themselves around Konoha, but they're so careless about patrolling.

However, precisely because of this, Uchiha Kiyoshi harbored a sense of unease, feeling that something might go wrong with this operation.

Chapter Thirty-Six: Action

"These people are too arrogant. Are even the lookouts so careless?"

Upon arriving at the bandit stronghold's gate, seeing the disorganized state of the bandits' patrol personnel, Rope Tree chuckled.

"Don't underestimate them. Although they are a bit unprofessional, we can't be careless. If something goes wrong, we could be killed. Be careful in a moment, and don't let your carelessness lead to your own defeat."

In fact, Uchiha Kiyoshi had guessed that Orochimaru was likely watching from the shadows, but he still didn't mention Orochimaru's existence to them. Instead, he hoped to put some pressure on them and prevent them from making careless mistakes.

At the same time, Uchiha Kiyoshi also reminded them of some details, including what he had thought of during the day.

"You all need to be careful. This is your first time killing someone, so you might experience discomfort. Be mindful and don't overlook this."

Uchiha Kiyoshi didn't explain why it was "you all" instead of "we." Nawaki didn't notice this detail either, nodding to indicate that he understood. Only Sarutobi Saku was quick-witted enough to notice this, glancing at Uchiha Kiyoshi thoughtfully.

"No wonder Qing looked a little pale when he came back this afternoon. Did he kill someone? That bandit who was being interrogated?"

Fortunately, Qing reminded me, otherwise Nawaki and I might have really run into trouble.

Seeing that Nawaki might not have taken it to heart, Uchiha Kiyoshi patted him on the shoulder and reminded him again, "Be careful, be very careful, don't make a mistake the first time you kill someone."

Seeing that Uchiha Kiyoshi had emphasized this to him twice, Nawaki took it to heart. He knew Uchiha Kiyoshi wouldn't harm him; if he had reminded him, there must be a reason. At worst, he could just stay away from others when it came time to kill.

After giving instructions to the two men, Uchiha Kiyoshi began preparing for the operation.

With his hands forming a hand seal, and taking advantage of the moment when he could fully concentrate, Uchiha Kiyoshi used the newly learned Earth Spike Technique.

"Pfft! Pfft!"

Two shots later, the two bandits on lookout were pierced by the earth spikes. They didn't even have time to cry out before they lost their lives. They were stuck on the earth spikes without falling to the ground.

Although Uchiha Kiyoshi had psychological issues, he would still attack opponents two major realms below him. There was also another situation where he would launch the first attack when ambushing an enemy. These were things Uchiha Kiyoshi revealed during hunts while at the Ninja Academy.

"action!"

As Uchiha Kiyoshi gave the order, Nawaki and Sarutobi Saku darted out from both sides, easily leaping over the fence and entering the village.

At this point in time, the four Matsuoka brothers are all in the "forbidden zone," making it the best time to act. They should first wipe out their subordinates and then deal with the leader.

According to the plan, the three men were each responsible for a specific area and were tasked with killing all the bandits.

Having been accustomed to killing beforehand, Uchiha Kiyoshi showed no mercy, dispatching several minor characters in just a few moves. This time, however, it wasn't as disgusting as before. Suppressing his nausea, Uchiha Kiyoshi continued to another area to eliminate more enemies.

In ten minutes, Uchiha Kiyoshi completed his mission, leaving no bandits alive in the entire western region.

Uchiha Kiyoshi suppressed his nausea again and headed to another area, the one where Nawaki was. He wasn't worried about Sarutobi Saku, but he was afraid something might happen to Nawaki, since given Nawaki's personality, Uchiha Kiyoshi couldn't be sure what to do. Uzumaki Naruto, who had a similar personality, had initially reacted very strongly.

Arriving at Nawaki's location, Uchiha Kiyoshi breathed a sigh of relief. Nawaki was unharmed, but he was likely affected by the killing; he couldn't quickly defeat three bandits who were only slightly stronger than ordinary people.

"You should feel weak and powerless all over."

Uchiha Kiyoshi had also had this feeling and immediately recognized Nawaki's symptoms. Without wasting any time, Uchiha Kiyoshi stepped forward and directly helped Nawaki kill the bandits.

In fact, to make Nawaki more adaptable, Uchiha Kiyoshi was quite cruel, and even he himself was affected to some extent.

The three of them finally met in a small room; all three were pale and extremely weak.

Sarutobi Saku killed someone normally and returned after resolving the battle; Uchiha Kiyoshi, although he had killed someone before, it had only been a short time, and to be honest, his resistance was so-so. In addition, in order to make Nawaki adapt, the last few enemies were killed in a rather cruel way, so his face was also very pale.

Nawaki suffered the most. It wasn't just the nausea after killing that bothered him; the way Uchiha Kiyoshi killed those people at the end really upset him. He vomited for two or three minutes before he could barely recover.

"Here, have some water. There are only four of us left, just bear with it."

Uchiha Kiyoshi took a water bottle out of his ninja tool bag and handed it to the two people.

"We acted quickly and quietly just now. It seems that the four leaders didn't react in time. Let's take this opportunity to recover."

The three men acted swiftly and quietly, and the same was true for Rope Tree. Although he confronted the three bandits for a while, the area that Uchiha Kiyoshi arranged for him was far from the "forbidden zone," so it did not attract the attention of the four people inside the forbidden zone.

The four Matsuoka brothers had a fortuitous encounter in their childhood, obtaining a samurai training manual. Although it wasn't a mainstream manual for ninjas, they knew it was their chance to change their fate. Through arduous training, they achieved some success. However, because their martial arts skills were not inferior to ordinary people, their newfound power led to a twisted mentality, eventually resulting in acts of arson, murder, and robbery.

Two months ago, the four brothers encountered a severely injured Rain Ninja. Working together, they managed to kill him and obtain many valuable items, including a method for cultivating chakra. After a month of training, the four managed to refine their own chakra. Although they couldn't use ninjutsu, the chakra's enhancement to their bodies significantly increased their strength.

This made them even more unbalanced, and the four of them decided to fish around Konoha!

A month ago, the four formed a group and came to Ryugetsu Village, burning, killing, and looting. However, they did not kill everyone, hoping that the villagers would go to Konoha to issue missions and that they would kill the ninjas who came, thereby obtaining more ninjutsu.

For the past month, they had been continuously training their chakra, and fearing that Konoha would discover them beforehand, they had not shown themselves, always telling the outside world that the four of them were samurai. They weren't stupid; if they were identified as ninjas, the mission level would be at least B-rank, and they wouldn't be able to deal with one or even several Chunin.

Unfortunately, they were destined to fail this time.

About half an hour later, the three people, who had basically recovered, began to move and, led by Uchiha Kiyoshi, arrived at the so-called "forbidden zone".

The "restricted area" is nothing special; there are no barriers or anything like that. It's just a large area that has been designated as a restricted zone.

The location of the four Matsuoka brothers was quite easy to find; there was only one building in the entire restricted area, so they must have been training inside.

Uchiha Kiyoshi climbed up the wall and took a quick look around.

Inside the courtyard, all four Matsuoka brothers were present, training and refining their chakra.

Uchiha Kiyoshi also took the opportunity to assess the situation. The four of them didn't have much chakra, only about one or two kilos. They must be quite old, their bodies had already developed, and with the training of samurai, they had only refined their chakra for two months to accumulate this much.

However, without any instruction, the four of them probably haven't learned ninjutsu yet. Even the Three Body Technique isn't something one person can learn so quickly by figuring it out on their own.

After summarizing the situation and assessing the strength of both sides, Uchiha Kiyoshi, feeling that there were no problems, gave orders to Nawaki and the other person.

The three people formed hand seals simultaneously.

"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough"

Water Release: Water Arrow

Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique

The three ninjutsu were completed almost simultaneously, heading straight for the four Matsuoka brothers who were completely unprepared.

The effect was quite good. Under the sneak attack, even with the enhancement of chakra and quick reaction, the four brothers were seriously injured after taking several ninjutsu.

(Here's a point to note: Chakra can significantly boost physical abilities for a short period, which is a major component of a ninja's combat power, especially for chunin and genin. Furthermore, with chakra amplification, the body's resistance to ninjutsu also increases greatly. Otherwise, the various fire-style techniques in the original work that couldn't kill people would be too illogical.)

Uchiha Kiyoshi was the first to find the two oldest ones and rushed forward.

Matsuoka Ichiichi and Ichiji, as expected of samurai, had considerable combat experience, managing to hold their own against Uchiha Kiyoshi.

On the other side, Nawaki and Sarutobi Saku faced two injured opponents, making things much easier for them.

In particular, Nawaki, who had the most chakra, kept using ninjutsu, which was a huge counter to Matsuoka Ichi, who didn't know ninjutsu. Nawaki was also the first to be killed.

After defeating their opponent, Nawaki also helped Uchiha Kiyoshi stop Matsuoka Iji, greatly reducing the pressure on Uchiha Kiyoshi.

When facing such a samurai, the power of ninjutsu is greatest. Nawaki was even able to overpower Matsuoka Iji, and his performance was no less impressive than that of Uchiha Kiyoshi.

Sarutobi Saku also quickly dealt with Matsuoka Izan and joined the battle in Nawaki.

Seeing that the situation was hopeless, Matsuoka Ichiichi stared at Uchiha Kiyoshi with bloodshot eyes.

Seeing Matsuoka Iichi run off to one side, Uchiha Kiyoshi quickly followed to prevent him from escaping. But as soon as he caught up, Matsuoka Iichi suddenly turned around, and his fierce eyes gave Uchiha Kiyoshi a chill down his spine.

Matsuoka Ichiichi grinned, looking at Uchiha Kiyoshi with a hint of madness in his eyes.

"not good!"

With this thought in mind, Uchiha Kiyoshi didn't have time to do much and shouted it out to remind Nawaki and the other two.

"boom!!!"

The entire courtyard was affected by the explosion.

Orochimaru outside also suddenly realized what was happening and rushed over.

Chapter Thirty-Seven: The Post-War

The enormous sound reverberated throughout the top of Qingshan Mountain.

Orochimaru rushed to the scene after hearing the commotion, only to find that the entire courtyard where the battle had taken place had been completely transformed.

A large crater appeared, surrounded by a mangled corpse, and the air was thick with the stench of blood.

Orochimaru frowned and searched for the members of Team 3.

"Hmm~ Damn, it's an explosive tag. Where did a bunch of bandits get explosive tags? Luckily, Qing warned us in time."

At that moment, a cursing voice came, and a figure swayed as he stood up. It was vaguely recognizable as Nawaki. Orochimaru breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this; Uchiha Kiyoshi had given them a heads-up, so the three of them should be safe.

Sure enough, after searching, they found a figure not far from the rope tree, dressed in Konoha ninja attire. Although there was no movement, the undulating body indicated that the person was still alive.

However, Orochimaru quickly frowned again. He couldn't find Uchiha Kiyoshi. After carefully counting, including the corpses and the two from Team 3, there were only six people. Where had Uchiha Kiyoshi gone?

"Ahem... I'm here."

A weak voice came from behind one of the walls, and upon closer inspection, it was indeed Uchiha Kiyoshi's.