"Sigh… my lazy days are officially over. Is this the heavens telling me I need to start working hard now?"
Since his so-called parents were already dead, there was no point in staying in that tiny village any longer. Akashō simply took the last bit of inheritance they left behind and set out.
"Reputation points… how do I increase them? Playing the hero… or doing evil?"
This damn system was a Villain Template system—most likely it wanted him to commit evil deeds.
Akashō changed into a set of intact clothes and wandered aimlessly along the road.
"By the way… those two guys earlier, they were the so-called ninja, right?"
He suddenly recalled the two he had met before—especially the second one, whose weapon had been quite strange.
So short… could it even stab anyone?
"Oh, right. The headbands they wore… they both had the same symbol on them. Is that some kind of special mark?"
As he traveled, his thoughts drifted all over the place.
Before long, he ran into a group of people heading in the opposite direction, carrying a large amount of luggage.
Judging by their appearance, they were all ordinary civilians. Moving in such a large group… could it be some kind of natural disaster?
"Hey, young man!"
Before Akashō could speak, an old man with snow-white hair waved at him from the group.
"Where are you headed? War's about to break out—why are you wandering around outside alone?"
"War?"
Akashō's interest was piqued. "What war?"
"The Land of Wind and the Land of Fire."
The old man explained, "I heard the Kazekage of the Sand Village went missing. They suspect he was abducted by the Leaf Village of the Land of Fire, so now they've started fighting."
"Sand Village… Leaf Village?"
Hearing these unfamiliar terms, Akashō scratched his head. Were ninja forces all organized by villages?
From the way the old man described it, even the ninja forces of the Five Great Nations were only at the scale of a single village… just how weak were these ninja?
"Alright, kid, hurry back and tell your parents to take you somewhere safe. Small countries like ours suffer the most when the great nations go to war."
After saying that, the old man shook his head and quickly caught up with the group.
Watching them leave—faces filled with exhaustion and reluctance to abandon their homeland, yet still hurrying onward—Akashō began to piece things together.
Thinking back to the two ninja he had killed earlier mentioning that their intel was wrong… those two were probably from either the Leaf Village or the Sand Village.
"So that means… even though I avenged those cheap parents, it's not completely settled yet."
"War… the battlefield… now that's a perfect chance to farm reputation points."
Akashō brushed his hair back, a strange smile appearing on his face.
However, although his Kokushibo template was indeed powerful, it had a fatal weakness—he couldn't be exposed to sunlight.
"With things this chaotic nowadays, and Kokushibo being restricted like this… I'll need to be more careful."
After some thought, Akashō continued along the road.
Since that group was fleeing the war, heading in the opposite direction should be right.
...
Night fell. In a dark, shadowy forest, several figures darted between towering trees.
"Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
A sudden shout shattered the silence, followed by a massive fireball lighting up a clearing.
"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!"
Another shout rang out. The gentle breeze in the forest instantly surged into a violent gale, scattering the fireball in all directions.
Moments later, the sounds of objects slicing through the air and metal clashing rang out, and both sides revealed themselves.
One side wore yellow-brown combat uniforms, with some having white cloth wrapped around their heads. The other side wore dark green combat gear. In terms of numbers, the yellow-brown side had six people, while the dark green side had four.
"The enemy has two jonin. What should we do, Captain? Retreat?"
A young Leaf Village chunin quickly assessed their opponents and began to feel hesitant.
"Don't let rank blind you."
The only jonin on the Leaf side snorted coldly. "You're already thinking of retreating before even finishing the probing phase? How did you even become a chunin?"
"By your logic, we might as well just line up all our ranks and compare them before a war—why bother fighting at all?"
The chunin lowered his head and said nothing more.
At that moment, a Sand Village jonin on the opposite side pulled out a scroll from his waist. With a puff of white smoke, a puppet appeared.
"The puppet masters stay back. The rest, move forward and harass them."
"Yes!"
Two more puffs of smoke sounded, and two bizarre-looking puppets appeared before the Leaf ninja.
"Three puppet masters… and one of them's a jonin. This is bad."
The Leaf jonin's expression darkened instantly. The chunin beside him opened his mouth as if to speak, but swallowed his words.
Wasn't he the one who said not to focus on rank?
Both sides crouched slightly, concentrating, ready to attack or defend at any moment.
Just as the tension reached its breaking point and battle was about to erupt, a clear sound of footsteps suddenly echoed into everyone's ears.
Reinforcements?
Both sides thought the same thing.
But what kind of ninja would make such a loud noise in such a silent environment?
Everyone diverted a bit of attention toward the source of the sound.
Through the gaps in the branches, illuminated by moonlight, a blurry figure gradually came into view.
When the figure finally stepped into the moonlight, both sides felt their scalps go numb.
"Six… six eyes!?"
Some of the less composed chunin couldn't help but whisper in shock, "What kind of monster is that!?"
Following the sound, Akashō looked over. Compared to these ninja, his vision was far better suited for the night.
Those dirt-yellow clothes… and the symbol on their headbands—no mistake, they were from the same group as the two ninja from earlier.
As for the other side, Akashō merely glanced at them. He couldn't tell anything useful anyway.
"Which side are you? Sand Village or Leaf Village?"
Akashō opened his mouth, his voice hoarse as he addressed the Sand ninja.
The Sand ninja exchanged glances. As trained shinobi, with so many allies present, they quickly steadied themselves.
"We are ninja of the Sand Village. Are you human or something else? If you have no business here, leave immediately. Do not interfere with our battle against the Leaf Village."
The Sand jonin answered in a low voice.
Akashō nodded. "Sand Village, huh? Then you're exactly who I'm looking for."
He stepped forward toward the Sand ninja. With each step, his speed increased.