A Rookie's Life of Missions

A ninja's main source of income is completing missions. ●⌒Top Says

The tasks that ninjas can perform range from caring for children to assassinating daimyo, and are divided into five levels: S, A, B, and D. Generally speaking, Genin can only accept level 1 and D tasks.

As for Sakura, a fledgling ninja who has just become a ninja, she usually only takes on D-rank missions, ranging from babysitting, running errands, delivering messages, to doing farm work. After the initial novelty wears off, even Sakura, who was mentally prepared, begins to feel impatient.

Especially during the busy farming season, Team 7 took on farm work for almost a month, making Sakura almost doubt whether she was a ninja or a farmer. If it weren't for seeing other teams doing the same tasks, which made Sakura and the others feel much more at ease, Sakura would have suspected that Naruto would have jumped out to protest.

As the team leader, Kakashi would seize every opportunity to transform the missions into a form of training when instructing Team 7. For example, he would require Sakura and the others to forbid using clones or Ninjutsu and to rely solely on their hands to till the fields. After a month, Sakura discovered that her physical strength had actually improved significantly.

Sometimes, certain missions are purely designed to test a ninja's endurance—this was Kakashi's reasoning when he accepted the mission to clean up river debris and led Sakura and her two companions to an incredibly smelly riverbank.

Sakura, who has a slight case of mysophobia, vomited the moment she smelled it.

Kakashi looked at his student with a smug grin and shook his head. "These days, ninjas are still too pampered!"

Even Sasuke, who always had a cold face, broke his composure and his expressions became extremely varied. Sakura, who had vomited and turned pale, felt her stomach still churning. Only Naruto looked slightly better—especially when he realized that he was the one who had performed the best.

With long faces, the three members of Team 7 reluctantly took on the role of garbage collectors. Kakashi didn't restrict their use of Ninjutsu, Naruto, who had the highest tolerance, created over a thousand shadow clones to help pick up the trash. They had only cleaned half of it when tragedy struck: when Naruto released the Shadow Clone, he was overwhelmed by the stench emanating from them and fainted.

Kakashi broke out in a cold sweat. As expected of the ninja with the highest unpredictability, he had actually been knocked unconscious by the stench! He hurriedly took Naruto to the hospital, leaving only Sakura and Sasuke by the river.

The two of them had to finish cleaning the remaining section of the river... Sasuke carefully examined the remaining length, his face turning ashen. Then, looking at Sakura, who was vomiting repeatedly and whose fighting power had dropped to zero, Sasuke realized that he would have to do the rest of the work himself. His face instantly turned from ashen to red, then from red to white, as if his face had been dyed.

Finally, after vomiting five times, Sakura turned evil.

"Aaaaaah!! I can't take it anymore!" Either you explode in adversity, or you die in it!

"Sasuke, get out of the way! Let the professionals handle this!" Stimulated by the endless stench, Sakura performed beyond her usual ability, lifting a hundred meters of river water into the air in an instant, revealing the dark riverbed!

Sasuke was stunned. The river, like a giant serpent, flew into the air under Sakura's control. Its length of over a hundred meters was extremely grand and spectacular when viewed up close. Every sway in the air was powerful and awe-inspiring. Finally, the giant serpent crashed into a filter screen, filtering out the garbage and turning into a surging torrent that flowed down and merged into the river.

Sakura was also startled by herself. She had only wanted to vent her anger at first, but she didn't expect to be able to do it to this extent. This was also due to her good Chakra manipulation, which allowed her to control so much Chakra at once.

Sakura carefully placed the remaining trash on the ground, then turned to look at Sasuke. She saw Sasuke's eyes widen, his mouth agape, a look of shock on his face. Sakura burst out laughing.

Sasuke quickly straightened his face and turned away, "What are you laughing at!"

Just as Sakura was about to speak, her body suddenly went limp, her Chakra and stamina completely exhausted, and she collapsed to the ground, utterly drained.

"Ouch, that hurts! I overexerted myself, and now I'm completely exhausted!"

Sasuke quickly tried to save face by mocking Sakura: "Hmph... Who told you to be so overconfident!"

Sakura tried, but found that she didn't even have the strength to support herself. Her whole body was limp and she couldn't muster any strength, so she raised one hand and looked at Sasuke.

Sasuke immediately understood Sakura's meaning, but for some inexplicable reason, he pretended not to understand and replied, "What!"

"Pull me up!" Sakura rolled her eyes at Sasuke and said matter-of-factly, "Carry me to the hospital to rest!"

"Hmph, women are such a hassle!"

Sasuke snorted dismissively, reached out and pulled Sakura up. Sakura was now two centimeters taller than him. Sasuke down slightly, and Sakura naturally wrapped her arms around Sasuke's neck, pressed against his back, and leaned her body completely against Sasuke's back. Her pink hair gently brushed against Sasuke's cheek in the wind.

The warm breath touched Sasuke's cheek, Sasuke feel his face flush.

In Sasuke's mind, Sakura has always been a formidable rival and a strong woman. Even when he saw her faint during the test, it was just because she had fought to exhaustion against an even stronger opponent, and it did not diminish Sakura's strong image.

This was the first time Sasuke had seen Sakura, who was so dependent on others and not assertive. Her soft voice, gentle movements, and soft body pressed against him made Sasuke blush.

Sasuke lifted Sakura's thigh, and the smooth, fine fabric of her skin stirred a ripple in Sasuke heart. Just as he was about to suppress this emotion, he heard Sakura chuckle in his ear.

"What are you laughing at!" Sasuke felt like he was being mocked, but then he immediately realized that Sakura definitely wasn't laughing at his current nervousness.

Given Sakura's personality, she probably didn't even realize it...

"I was thinking about that expression you made just now, hahaha, so funny, hahaha," Sakura laughed without any restraint. "I never thought you could make such an expression!"

When did I start having this illusion that she was a cute, soft girl...? Sasuke's face was throbbing with anger. "Say one more word and I'll throw you down!"

"No! Sasuke -nii, I was wrong!" Sakura quickly admitted her mistake with an embarrassed smile. She keenly sensed Sasuke's slight nervousness, and although she couldn't figure out why Sasuke was nervous for a moment, she quickly made a joke to lighten the mood.

They remained silent the entire way.

The next task wasn't so insane after all. Considering that Naruto and Sakura had both been hospitalized, Kakashi chose an easy and rewarding task—to help the Daimyo's wife find her lost pet cat.

As it turned out, this pet cat with Ninja Cat blood could actually use Chakra and was extremely agile. Catching it without hurting it made Team 7 spend the whole morning eating dust.

"I bet this cat has already escaped from its training level! It's so hard to catch!" Sakura complained on the way back to turn in the quest. "These kinds of quests are so boring! Kakashi-sensei, what's our next quest?"

The Lord Hokage happened to be patrolling the mission assignment area, picked up the mission list, glanced at it, and said, "Hmm, you could either help Shijū look after his children, or go to the neighboring village to help buy things, or help harvest sweet potatoes..."

"No—no more of these low-level tasks!" Naruto waved his arms and complained to the Lord Hokage. "Helping to take care of children, running errands, doing farm work, cleaning up trash—we've done these things more than ten times already! Our elite group can't waste our time on these boring tasks; we need more important missions!"

Sakura and Sasuke silently gave Naruto a thumbs up for his declaration.

Konoha has a large number of Genin —many of whom lack sufficient talent and remain Genin their entire lives. They are the main force in completing these numerous low-level missions. Meanwhile, promising ninja groups like Team 7 typically start by doing the lowest-level missions for two or three months to adapt to ninja life before they can choose slightly higher-level missions.

The Lord Hokage looked helplessly at the excited Naruto, exhaling a puff of smoke. "Alright—since you're so insistent, I'll give you a mission... protect someone!"

Let me introduce you—please come in.

A disheveled, alcohol-smelling middle-aged man emerged from the next lounge. Sakura's heart skipped a beat—wasn't this Tazuna, the bridge-building expert from the original story? Accepting this mission meant she was about to face a real, life-or-death battle between ninjas...!

"What the hell... are these the ninjas responsible for protecting me? Expressionless, pretty faces, and a short, dumb-looking guy!" Tazuna really can't control his mouth after drinking. The power of his sharp tongue even made Sakura, who always prides herself on being calm, want to punch him.

As for Naruto, after discovering that he was the shortest of the bunch, he rolled up his sleeves and charged forward.

"Please don't do this," Kakashi pressed Naruto's head down, stopping his outburst. Naruto was utterly exasperated by Naruto's overprotective nature and impulsiveness. "My subordinates are very strong...!"

"Tch... I'll prove to you I'm not just a pretty face," Sakura glared at Tazuna, then called out to Sasuke and Naruto, "Let's go, time for training, you expressionless guy and that short, silly goose!"

"Don't call me expressionless! Do you want to fight, you pretty face?!" "I told you, I'm not a shorty!" After agreeing on a meeting time, the three of them left noisily.

The Land of Waves... Even though it would be a very dangerous mission, Sakura felt an unquenchable sense of anticipation and excitement—a longing for battle!