Chapter 22 Return
the other side.

Shizuko Mizutani was guarding the mountain path, her mind racing. Sometimes she was worried about the safety of Qingming and Ryosuke, and sometimes she was wondering what she would do if the enemy came.
Time passed slowly as she waited anxiously.

I don’t know how long it took, but suddenly a burst of hurried footsteps came from a distance.

Shizuko Mizutani woke up instantly, her spirit stretched to the limit at this moment.

'who is it? ’

"Qing Ming? No, his footsteps are not that heavy."

"Ryosuke? That's not right. The steps are too big. They are the footsteps of an adult."

"It's the enemy!"

In an instant, Shizuko Mizutani got the answer.

At this moment, all the thoughts in her mind disappeared.

Without much hesitation, Shizuko Mizutani leaned over.

On the mountain road, two bandits were running quickly, one in front and one behind.

While running, don't forget to look back from time to time.

There was fear on their faces, as if they were worried that something was catching up with them.

swoosh~
Suddenly, a sound of breaking air came from the side.

The bandit in front hadn't even seen what was coming when his calf was pierced by a kunai.

"what!"

A scream came out of his mouth, and then he stumbled and fell heavily to the ground, rolling several times, looking very embarrassed.

The bandits behind saw this and stopped immediately. They looked nervously in the direction where the kunai came from, and then they saw a little girl half a person's height walking out of the woods.

At first glance, his eyes were drawn to something on the girl's forehead.

Just a while ago, two demons wearing the same thing slaughtered dozens of them, and now they encountered another one.

This terrified him greatly.

However, when he saw the girl's pretty face, a glimmer of hope arose in his heart.

Without any hesitation, he fell to his knees on the ground and cried, "Please spare me, I joined them out of necessity and have never done anything evil.

I have two children at home, about your age. If I die, they won’t survive.

They are so small and so pitiful.

Please, for the sake of the child, let me go, I will never do bad things again."

As he spoke, he kowtowed several times with such force that his forehead bled.

The miserable appearance made Shizuko Mizutani feel a little bit of pity, and she thought to herself: "Is what the other party said true? If it is true, then I will kill him, kid."

Just as Mizutani Shizuko was struggling with her inner thoughts and unable to make up her mind, and the bandit showed a look of relief on his face, a kunai suddenly shot from a distance and accurately pierced his throat.

Qing Ming flashed in front of the bandit, then suddenly pulled out his kunai, letting the blood splatter.

Then, he walked up to another frightened bandit and calmly stabbed his kunai into his chest, ending his life.

"Qing, Qingming."

Shizuko Mizutani looked at Qingming and stammered.

"Don't think too much when doing tasks."

Before she could continue, Qing Ming waved his hand and interrupted, "Don't forget the mission requirements."

After saying this, he walked down the mountain on his own.

Mizutani Shizuko stood there, stunned for a long time, and then murmured: "Kill all the bandits."

That’s right, the requirement of their mission this time is to kill all the bandits on Xiaohei Mountain. Letting any one of them escape would strictly speaking be considered a mission failure.

It’s not that Qingming is so obsessed with the mission, he is not Kakashi. The reason he did this is just to let Mizutani Shizuko understand that the mission is just a mission.

Thinking too much when performing a task can easily lead to mistakes.

In the foreseeable future, for a long period of time, their Class 17 will be a whole and will carry out tasks together. Qing Ming doesn't want to be dragged down by stupid teammates one day.

So, be cruel when it is time to be cruel.

Of course, this is also a temporary measure. It is impossible for him to do whatever the village asks him to do. If so, he will become a task tool like the Root Ninja.

When he becomes stronger, he can naturally make a choice.

At this stage
Just be a good tool!

······
Down the mountain.

The three of them gathered together again.

Furukawa, who had disappeared for several hours, also reappeared.

His eyes swept over the three people one by one, and finally he just said "Not bad", and then led the three people towards the village.

Perhaps considering the insecurity outside, Furukawa had no plans to sleep outside and prepared to take them back overnight.

Qingming wholeheartedly agreed with this.

If possible, he would like to stay in the village.

Unfortunately, this is simply not possible.

In fact, from now on, he would have to leave the village from time to time to carry out missions.

Now I just hope Furukawa can take it easy and not take on too many C-level tasks.

······
In a flash, several hours passed.

Early the next morning, Qingming and the others returned to Konoha Village. The journey was uneventful and so smooth that Qingming felt it was unreal.

"Sure enough, I am not the protagonist, the world does not revolve around me."

Qingming couldn't help but feel a toothache when he thought about how Naruto would eventually reach S-rank in any mission.

"Fortunately, I don't have the aura of a protagonist, so I won't be so unlucky."

Qingming secretly rejoiced in his heart.

"Okay, let's go back and rest."

Walking into the village, Gu Chuan stopped and said, "There are no missions in the next three days, so you can relax for a while."

"Goodbye, teacher!" ×3
Qingming and the other two replied weakly.

"Okay, let's go!"

Furukawa waved his hand, signaling them to leave.

After saying goodbye to his two companions, Qingming hurried towards the Uchiha clan's territory.

After returning home, Qingming sat on the chair for a while before taking off his equipment.

Although the mission only took one day, it felt to him as if a much longer time had passed.

He also went from being an ordinary person who had never killed a chicken to an executioner with more than 20 lives on his hands.

Although he convinced himself that these people deserved to die, and even had the leisure to pay attention to the mental state of his teammates, he still felt uncomfortable when he thought about it now.

The scenes before those people's death kept replaying before his eyes, making it impossible for him to muster the energy to practice.

However, no matter whether you can cheer up or not, you can't give up your cultivation.

Qing Ming forced himself to calm his mind, and began to practice the "Art of Reflecting the Heart" methodically, just like a beginner.

There were no accidents during this mission, and not much chakra was needed to kill those bandits, so he still had plenty of chakra in his body.

This certainly cannot be wasted.

So, Qingming started to improve his proficiency in the 'Art of Reflecting the Heart'.

Looking at the proficiency increasing little by little on the panel, Qingming's heart calmed down unconsciously.

Soon, the chakra was exhausted and Qingming began to refine the chakra again.

After the chakra was full, he practiced the "Heart-Reflecting Technique" again.

Just like that, after two rounds of practice, it was already noon. Qingming could no longer hold on, so he washed up casually and fell asleep.

In the bedroom, Qingming had no idea what he was dreaming about, his brows furrowed and relaxed from time to time.

(End of this chapter)