Mission Hall

In the afternoon, the Delegation did not continue sightseeing but returned to their respective Post Station, presumably to submit intelligence.

Daimyo's Wife went to the Amusement Park, presumably to find Ren.

Izuna did not accompany them this time because the Ninjas rushed to the Mission Hall to accept missions after the Inauguration Ceremony. The Daimyo, who originally wanted to accompany his wife, decided to stay after seeing this scene.

Then he got to witness the scene he wanted to see.

Long queues formed in front of Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha's desks.

There are usually queues in the Mission Hall.

On the month-end settlement day, some Genin and Chunin who know their Strength is insufficient will come here to collect the previous month's payment and take on the next month's missions in one go.

The captains from each clan would crowd around the counter to check mission records and receive missions for the following month, which would then be distributed to a small group of elite Ninjas who were hostile to other clans and did not wish to come here to accept missions.

But today? Today, everyone—yes, except for the old man and a few stubborn middle-aged people—is crammed into this "spacious" Mission Hall.

Especially the line next to Hashirama.

The line stretched from the lobby entrance all the way to the corner of the corridor, winding and completely packed.

Those at the back of the line peeked ahead on tiptoe, while those who had finished their paperwork lingered by the window, only moving away sheepishly after being nudged by the elbows of those behind them.

Sitting behind the counter Hashirama felt he couldn't laugh anymore.

He didn't even have time to drink water after stepping down from the Appointment Ceremony. As soon as he sat down behind the counter, a row of faces were shoved in front of him.

He asked about the task requirements, checked the levels, and signed off on documents one by one, all while receiving praise in the process.

Praising him is fine, but please don't do it in a place like this! I've already been working very fast, but the line hasn't shortened at all!

Just when they managed to clear out one batch, a new batch poured in through the door, as if someone on the street was shouting through a megaphone, "The Hokage himself has taken on this mission, come quick!"

Am I working as the Hokage or a receptionist? No, if I weren't the Hokage, there probably wouldn't be this many people.

I can't take it anymore, I really want to run away.

The situation on the other side is even more difficult to describe.

The S-Rank Mission acceptance area is located deep within the hall, separated from the regular mission area by a half-height wooden fence.

S-Rank Missions are extremely difficult and dangerous; a single mistake could be fatal.

This area is usually deserted. Occasionally, a few Jonin will come in in groups, quietly complete the formalities, and then leave.

But now, even the S-Rank Mission acceptance area has a queue.

It's a bit shorter than Hashirama's Hashirama, but for an S-class team, the length of this group is already ridiculously long.

Those Jonin would rather find a few more people to temporarily form a team, just to qualify for S-Rank Mission —not for anything else, but so that when they submitted their applications, they could stand in front of Madara's desk and have a few words with him up close.

They had actually seen Ban in the Mission Hall.

At that time, Ban had just put his hair up and only occasionally appeared in the lobby, sitting behind the counter with his head down, reviewing documents.

At that time, everyone thought he was just an exceptionally handsome Uchiha.

The Uchiha Clan has plenty of good-looking members; it's not surprising.

Only a small number of Jonin had taken on S-Rank Missions knew who the face belonged to, and these Jonin were clearly not the type to gossip.

Today, when everyone was suddenly told that the Madara Uchiha who was reading the Five-Year Plan to thousands of people on the rooftop was the man standing right in front of them, everyone was stunned.

Having just been bombarded with Hashirama's speech, everyone was thinking that they absolutely had to go and accept the mission later.

They were determined that, whether it was building or fighting, they didn't want to experience that feeling again, where everyone around them was working hard while they were just doing nothing.

Then they were attacked at close range by Madara's Face Release.

The Ninjas stood there in a daze for a moment, their minds now filled with thoughts of:

I want to take on S-Rank Mission!

"Are you guys out of your minds?" Ban looked at the young man with disdain, making him shudder. "No, I think you're both sick and a bit dim-witted. If you didn't understand the danger of S-Rank Missions, that would be one thing, but you clearly knew it was dangerous and still insisted on making up the numbers? You're really overestimating yourselves."

The young man Yūki and said, "But Lord Madara! All the members of our team are already Jonin! I feel that with our Strength..."

"Don't you understand me?" Madara unleashed his murderous intent. "Get out of the way if you don't want to die. Next."

The young squad walked away, looking rather flat.

"No sensory Ninja, danger, next."

"Just promoted, lacks experience, and it's unsafe without an experienced mentor. Next."

"Unacceptable."

"Too weak."

"No."

After rejecting several people and teams in a row, Ban couldn't hold back any longer.

He slammed his fist on the table, his voice dripping with murderous intent. "Don't you even understand that this is a mission where you could die at any moment! Those who aren't Strength enough, can you please stay away from me! Weaklings are truly ugly! They're an eyesore! Get out of my sight! Or do you really want to be beaten up?! Very well! I'll beat you all half-paralyzed, so you can forget about Ninjas for the rest of your lives!"

Several small teams and individuals in the queue quietly left.

The team that was directly rebuked didn't feel humiliated at all; instead, they started discussing it in hushed tones.

"Lord Madara is so handsome!"

"And it's very imposing!"

"Yes, even his insults are so skillful, truly worthy of being Lord Madara!"

Ban looked disgusted upon hearing these words, but since the person had already left, he couldn't really chase after them to beat them up.

After scanning around, they realized that only those with decent Strength remained before slowly taking their seats.

Hashirama couldn't help but laugh when he saw what was happening on his end.

Ban squinted at him, "What are you laughing at?"

Hashirama coughed guiltily and silently accepted the materials handed to him by the person in front of him.

Madara rolled his eyes. "Next."

Having witnessed this scene, the Daimyo seemed quite satisfied and then leisurely left.

Tobirama came from the Guard Corps's Temporary Office, pushed open the door to the hall, and immediately saw the two winding lines of people.

His expression froze for a moment.

Then, expressionless Earth Flow the corridor inside the hall, entered his Office through a side door, and left through the window.

I didn't give my Big Brother any chance to come and work overtime.

And Izuna?

Izuna is the one who issues the quest.

When they were making the plans, they had already accumulated a bunch of things they wanted to do.

Road Construction, Water Pipe Laying, constructed Training Grounds, and built schools.

Every task is short-staffed, and every task is on the "we'll deal with it after this busy period" Roster. There's just too much work going on lately, and they don't have the manpower to do it.

Now things are much better. So many Ninjas are flooding into the Mission Hall to take on missions; it's like a labor force falling from the sky.

The problem is, the budget is insufficient.

A ledger lay open in front of Izuna, the numbers on it circled repeatedly with charcoal.

Task payments cannot be delayed, material costs cannot be owed, and the tax reduction for the Commercial Street yielded almost no income in the first year.

He had to find a way to do the most with the least amount of money. So what he had to do was to package Construction Mission with other routine tasks and distribute them so that the Ninjas who took on the tasks could not only earn money, but also take the opportunity to improve the village's infrastructure.

There are two stacks of documents spread out in front of Izuna.

The stack of items was Roster Construction Mission, with items densely packed together, ranging from "reinforcement of the Third Naka River Section bridge piers" to "leveling of the foundation of the Commercial Street Foreign Trade Zone," with the required manpower and estimated working hours marked after each item.

One stack consists of regular mission assignments, all of which are well-paid and lucrative jobs—escorting caravans, Bandit Suppression, and gathering rare Medicinal Herbs.

With the budget ledger in hand, Izuna quickly separated the regular tasks and Construction Mission for the same location from the two stacks of documents, made simple attribute markings on them, and then had them delivered to the front desk in pairs.

A Wind Release Ninja lined up at the counter, saying he wanted to take on the B-Rank Mission to Bandit Suppression.

Hashirama nodded. "Bandit Suppression, right? Sure. But that mission only requires two people; you can't take it alone."

Just as the Wind Release Ninja was about to say, "Then I'll find another partner," Hashirama pushed a form in front of him. "But I have a better solution—the reinforcement of the Naka River bridge piers requires Wind Release to cut stone. If you take this job, the entire reward for this clearing mission is yours."

The Wind Release Ninja glanced down at the form. It listed the work period, payment, and acceptance criteria. This was too easy for him! His face lit up with joy. "Leave it to me, Lord Hokage!"

Another Chunin from the Hyuga Clan has arrived, wanting to take on a D-rank mission to Night Patrol the Commercial Street at night.

Hashirama pushed another form over. "The Night Patrol slots are full. However, the Central Hospital foundation requires Byakugan to see through things. You can just take a look during your patrol. Do you want to take it?"

The Hyuga Clan's Chunin picked up the mission list, carefully reviewed it, and nodded. "Receive."

A Jonin Uchiha and his team want to take on an A-rank mission to escort a caravan to Kyoto.

Hashirama nodded. "Okay, but on the return trip, you'll need to help with Road Construction markings, that is, marking the shortest round trip route. If you accept, this task is yours."

The Uchiha Jonin coldly and took the scroll away, "They really will stop at nothing to get us to work for them."

Hashirama chuckled dryly, thinking to himself that he really wasn't well-liked by the Uchiha people.

However, he didn't expect it to go so smoothly. He thought that with more hard work, everyone would hesitate, since they could get paid just by completing the task, and now they had to go through a roundabout way to do something else, which would definitely be troublesome for some people.

But now? Just as Izuna said, very few people are complaining about it, which is amazing.

He glanced back.

Seeing Izuna processing those documents as quickly as an octopus, I felt somewhat ashamed.

Has Izuna ever done something like this before? He seems quite skilled at it...

It takes me several seconds to look at a single image, but he knew exactly what was going on with just one glance. How did he manage to match tasks so quickly? Does the Uchiha have a one-click scanning function even without the Sharingan?... That's terrifying.

Izuna said that when he worked at Comic Conventions as a male worker doing checks and packing, it was much harder than it is now.

These low-level quest scrolls are all pretty much the same; they either ask you to eliminate bandits or provide escort, with the only slight difference being patrols. Aside from being careful about the location, they're not difficult to distinguish.

Second, the packing process is the same; just stuff both pieces of paper into a roll and you're done. It'll definitely be faster once you get the hang of it.

Rolling up scrolls is quite relaxing, but sorting through tasks here is so boring. Why don't we let my Shadow Clone do it?

So Izuna decisively ran away.

However, he himself did not slack off.

The Shadow Clone remained in the Mission Hall to continue screening missions, while he himself headed towards the Tower of the Sealing Squad.