I founded the "Bragging Cult" in Naruto.

Chapter 135 A person who smiles at you all the time may not necessarily care about you; they might just be lusting after you.

In the sparse jungle, a dozen figures darted and leaped through the trees. Occasionally, waterfalls and flames would appear, and the earth would tremble from time to time. The number of figures gradually decreased.

"Is everything resolved?"

They stopped moving when only five people remained. After quickly regrouping, Tatsuma formed the Miko hand seal, touched the ground with two fingers, nodded, and said, "There are no more Rain Ninjas left."

"How did you get injured again? Do you think you don't have a left shoulder?"

At this moment, Tsunade came to Tatsuma's side, using medical ninjutsu while complaining. Tatsuma glanced at the wound, which was only the length of a toothpick and probably not even as deep as the toothpick itself, and said:

"It was just an accidental cut from a shuriken, it's nothing serious."

"What if these Rain Ninja tools are poisoned? There have been quite a few cases of poisoning among the main force."

Tsunade's tone still carried dissatisfaction. Tatsuma gave his teacher a strange look, after all, the shuriken that hit him was thrown by Tsunade.

However, his shuriken was knocked away by a Rain Ninja and, by sheer coincidence, grazed Tatsuma's left shoulder, who was fighting another Rain Ninja. It was an accidental friendly fire incident, but it seems to have activated the effect of training through combat.

In the blink of an eye, Tatsuma's wounds had completely healed. Orochimaru, having finished examining the corpses of several Rain Ninja, returned to the group and said:

"They are all reconnaissance ninjas and communications ninjas, probably helping the rear troops to scout the situation here. Judging from the intelligence they have gathered, they are unaware that the Land of Iron has decided to send troops."

Jiraiya nodded and said, "That's good. But we need to get back to the village as soon as possible. The countries here have all agreed to give way, so our mission is complete."

As he spoke, Jiraiya looked at Tatsuma and Minato and said, "Congratulations to you two. You've probably broken the village's record for the youngest ninja to complete an S-rank mission."

Minato smiled shyly, not taking it too seriously. Tatsuma was even less concerned, since he had already completed an S-rank mission last year, if the village hadn't refused to acknowledge it.

In twenty days, he traveled to five countries in succession, persuading the Iron Country to send troops and convincing the Country of Fields and the Country of Grass to give way. This was a mission that could rewrite the course of this war, and it was fully worthy of being called an S-rank mission.

Orochimaru said quietly, "It has only relieved some of the pressure. The Sand Village, Rain Village, Cloud Village, and the Mist Village, whose movements are still unclear, are all watching us with covetous eyes."

I imagine the last Shinobi World War was about this size, right?

In an instant, the slight joy of completing the mission vanished, but Orochimaru did not stop and continued, "According to the information that came from the village a couple of days ago, the teacher is preparing to conduct the ninja academy's graduation exam ahead of schedule and is encouraging early graduation."

Furthermore, the Chunin Exams will no longer be open to the public this time; instead, they will be conducted internally for promotion. They even plan to send Uchiha clan members and ninjas to exchange for Sakumo-senpai.

"The Chunin Exams," Jiraiya said, looking at Tatsuma and Minato. "Do you want to participate? Even though it's just a formality for you two, it would be good to raise your ninja rank."

Upon hearing this, Tatsuma instantly understood what Jiraiya meant: in the upcoming three-front war, Jiraiya did not want the two of them to be among the first batch of ninjas to go to the front lines.

Although preparations for the Chunin Exams are underway, it will still take ten to fifteen days to complete all the necessary arrangements. With the exams themselves and the subsequent team reorganization, it could take a month or even longer.

Thus, not to mention the battle against the Sand Village, the war against the Rain Village or the Cloud Village, which is very likely to break out, has already been underway for some time, and the first batch of combat ninjas will bring back a large amount of intelligence.

This intelligence will be a powerful tool for improving the survival rate of ninja teams in the future.

Currently, Danzo is in charge of the battle against Sunagakure. Even if Orochimaru and his two companions are to take on the role of frontline commanders again, it will most likely be against Amegakure or Kumogakure.

Therefore, the experience that Tatsuma and Minato had accumulated in their many battles against the Sand Village ninja last year would be useless. Postponing their deployment to the battlefield was extremely advantageous for them, which could be considered a little selfishness on Jiraiya's part.

Orochimaru and Tsunade both nodded in agreement with Jiraiya's idea, and Tatsuma also began to ponder it.

He knew that the Cloud Ninja would most likely not actually participate in this Ninja World War; at most, they would just be diverting the Konoha Ninja's forces, waiting for an opportunity, just like they were doing now.

Therefore, it is highly likely that he and Minato will go to the battlefield again, following Orochimaru and the other two, to fight against the Rain Ninja in the Land of Rain. Fighting the Sand Ninja in the Land of Rain would be much more effective, but the Rain Ninja are different.

The Sand Ninja are unfamiliar with the rainforest terrain, and most of their ninjutsu and chakra attributes cannot be fully utilized in the rainforest. This is why Danzo insisted on dragging the battlefield into the Land of Rain.

Although Danzo's actions angered Hanzo, leading to the escalation of the war, it must be said that his move to bring the battlefield entirely into the Land of Rain made the Sand Village's victory in the war against the Sand Village virtually unstoppable.

If it weren't for this reason, Tatsuma estimated that Hiruzen Sarutobi would definitely not have allowed Danzo to continue leading the Konoha ninja to stay in the Land of Rain, because fighting the Sand Ninja in the Land of Rain would be beneficial to Konoha.

However, after the enemy changed to the Rain Ninja, the disadvantaged side became Tatsuma. At the end of last year, he spent three months infiltrating the Land of Rain. Tatsuma's entire sensory team had to be extremely careful to avoid the Rain Ninja's detection.

Once the battle breaks out, Konoha's jungle warfare against Sand Ninja will instantly turn into a disadvantage, because Rain Ninja are better at it, and with the advantage of home ground, Rain Ninja know how to use the terrain of the Land of Rain to launch offensive, defensive, and ambush operations.

To figure out the fighting style and formation of the Rain Ninja, countless Konoha ninjas would have to sacrifice their lives. In such a situation, even Jonin wouldn't dare to guarantee their own safety, let alone Tatsuma and Minato.

After thinking it through, Tatsuma took a deep breath and said bluntly, "I understand. Then Minato and I will stay in the village to participate in the Chunin Exams."

Minato was somewhat puzzled, but he didn't say anything. After all, Tatsuma had always been the one in charge between the two of them, and he trusted Tatsuma's judgment and decisions.

Hearing Tatsuma's answer, Tsunade nodded in satisfaction. In fact, she was very afraid of hearing Tatsuma refuse, and she was also afraid that Tatsuma would say something like "follow the teacher's arrangements," which was a bit hypocritical.

Since they could see through their intentions, they accepted it frankly, and that's what Tatsuma did. This made Tsunade feel that her disciple was more pleasing to the eye than some hypocritical people in the village.

Orochimaru nodded in satisfaction and continued, "The Chunin Exams are usually held in teams of three, but your situation is a bit special. I think the teacher will understand and make appropriate arrangements."

If possible, Orochimaru even wanted to keep the two of them out of this war. After all, given the talent that Tatsuma and Minato have shown, it's not impossible that they could catch up with the three of them, or even surpass them, in time.

The unpredictable environment of war can produce many strong individuals, but it also causes many talented people to perish. Orochimaru had high hopes for the future of the two of them and therefore did not want them to die young.

"Haha~ Alright, let's hurry back to the village. Oh, and you two should remember to review the coded translation. The Chunin Exams really care about that."

Jiraiya stood up, a smile returning to his face, but Orochimaru rolled his eyes and said, "I don't know who misinterpreted the village's cipher a couple of days ago, we need Tatsuma and Minato's help to correct it."

Upon hearing this, Jiraiya blushed, then glared angrily at Orochimaru, mimicking his sarcastic tone, and said, "I wonder who it was that said they would never use veiled insults to criticize me."

Orochimaru narrowed his eyes and said, "Since you've put it that way, I'll grant your wish. You! Jiraiya! You bottom-of-the-barrel! You need two students to help you correct the ciphertext deciphering and translation! Are you satisfied now?"

"What am I satisfied with?! Besides, I just misread it! It's not a translation error!"

Jiraiya was so angry he jumped up and down. Their bickering brought smiles to Tsunade's face, as well as Tatsuma and Minato's. The somewhat dull atmosphere from before was completely broken.

After resting on the spot and covering up the surrounding traces, the group of five set off again, heading towards Konoha in the Land of Fire.

Along the way, they encountered several Rain Ninjas or some wandering ninjas, but with the five-person team, four of them basically cleared the stage without taking any damage, while Tatsuma only suffered an injury that would heal itself if he didn't get treatment quickly.

Orochimaru even mocked Tatsuma, saying that Tatsuma is Tatsuma and his left shoulder is his left shoulder, and blatantly said that Tatsuma's brain did not have a comprehensive understanding of his body and had missed the left shoulder.

Orochimaru had been really looking forward to Tatsuma, who had been reminded of him again, making another leap forward. Unfortunately, it seemed that what Orochimaru said was true, as Tatsuma's left shoulder was always injured in battle.

The only progress was that the wounds were getting smaller, but even the smallest wounds could be dangerous, so Orochimaru was still very dissatisfied.

Even when they were near Konoha, he proposed to spar with Tatsuma and teach him how to fight. However, during the sparring, Tatsuma never showed any weakness in his left shoulder, which was completely different from a real battle.

After some research and thought, Orochimaru could only guess that it was because Tatsuma's mind was too tense during the battle, making it impossible for him to treat the war with a normal mindset. As for the solution, he could participate in more battles in the future.

After all, ninjas eventually come to regard battles as a part of life and can then treat them with a normal mindset, especially when encountering ordinary enemies.

After three days, they finally returned to Konoha. This time, Tatsuma and Minato were also brought in for a report, but Orochimaru and the others did all the talking while Tatsuma and Minato were just standing there as punishment.

Only when Hiruzen Sarutobi cast the illusion technique "Will of Fire" on the two of them at the very end did they get a little screen time, but Hiruzen Sarutobi didn't mention the reward at all.

After their reports, Tsunade and Jiraiya recommended Tatsuma and Minato to participate in the Chunin Exams. Hiruzen Sarutobi naturally had no objections. However, the Chunin Exams were still being prepared, and the method by which the two would participate in the exams needed further discussion.

After finishing his performance review, Jiraiya took Minato to train before the next mission, while Tatsuma planned to go home and study Tobirama Senju's notes on his own.

"Master, Lord Orochimaru, is there anything else? If not, I'll be leaving now."

"Yes!" *2

Just as Tatsuma was politely saying goodbye and preparing to turn and leave, Tsunade and Orochimaru spoke in unison. Tatsuma was a little confused, but when he looked up, he met Orochimaru's shining eyes.

"Tatsuma-kun, your physical exam hasn't been done yet. Your teacher and I may be leaving the village soon, so we need to make sure you're healthy first."

Orochimaru's tone was surprisingly warm, but given his pale face and overly fervent thirst for knowledge, Tatsuma thought: I don't believe you for a second!

(End of this chapter)