Heading Toward Chunin

Heading toward Chunin. Barbecue Q.

"Haah..." Yuan Wei patted his belly, wearing a satisfied expression. "I'm stuffed!"

Lin Ke let out a soft breath as well, his little belly round and bulging. Limited by money, he had not eaten anything good in a long time. The things he grilled for himself in the wild were already decent if they were barely edible.

On top of that, they had just finished a battle. Stuffing himself was an incredible feeling.

Xia dabbed at her mouth unhurriedly. "Yan Shui Teacher, if we pass the assessment, will we start taking missions tomorrow?"

"That's right. Starting tomorrow, gather at the Hokage Building at seven in the morning." Nara Yan Shui nodded. As a bachelor and a jonin, he did not have many expenses, so he could still afford to treat his subordinates to a lavish meal now and then. Looking at Lin Ke's hair, which had yet to recover, he asked, "Your hair..."

"Do you want to have it checked at the hospital?"

It had turned an unhealthy grayish white after a single battle. No matter how he thought about it, that seemed like a problem.

"It's fine."

Lin Ke touched his hair. It felt a little rough, but it was still hair overall, and he felt no discomfort. It was merely a superficial effect caused by the Substitute. It would not harm his body, and even if there were any hidden effects, they would disappear completely once the Substitute dispersed.

After thinking for a moment, he added, "It's a side effect of the technique. It should be fine once my hair grows back."

Shave his head bald when he got home?

Forget it. He would rather live with a head of gray-white hair.

He cared about his appearance too, okay? His short nine-year-old body already bothered him enough. If he turned bald too...

No. Absolutely not.

"Mm." Nara Yan Shui responded, with no intention of prying into his subordinate's secret technique or Kekkei Genkai. He took a sip of the iced water beside him, rose to his feet, and said, "That will be all for today."

As he took out his wallet and walked toward the counter, he said, "See you tomorrow."

The three members of Fifth Squad also stood and followed him out of the barbecue restaurant. Just as they were about to go their separate ways, Lin Ke suddenly called out to his two teammates, "Hey."

They both looked over from different directions.

The little face Lin Ke had kept tense all this time broke into a smile. "Please take care of me from now on."

Even though it had only been an exercise, he was somewhat moved that the two of them had honestly stood in front of him after he had bullied them.

The word "companions" was bound to carry a different sort of emotion in a fight to the death.

Xia glanced at him, then turned and left.

Yuan Wei first shrugged helplessly, then gave him a thumbs-up and flashed a toothy grin before leaving.

Lin Ke did not mind. From the beginning, he had not expected to form any sort of bond with the team. As long as their relationship did not become too strained, that was enough.

With the training they had received at the Ninja Academy, as long as there was not too much conflict between them, they could still manage basic coordination and trust in battle.

As long as he had no way to resolve the flaws of the Substitution Technique, he badly needed two shields who trusted him to hold the line until he could summon a sufficiently powerful Substitute.

"Very good. Step one: become a genin."

"Complete."

Lin Ke stretched his body, which was a little sore after the intense battle, and his smile brightened further.

"Next step—"

"Head toward chunin." One month later, at the mission assignment desk.

We're getting another low-paying mission, aren't we? Lin Ke looked at the smiling staff member and sighed inwardly.

D-Rank Missions were simple tasks that required no combat and carried no risk to life. Their rewards ranged from five thousand ryo to fifty thousand ryo, though most hovered around ten thousand. Split among four people, the amount each received was pitifully small.

And once a task reached the point of being posted as a mission, it was not something that could be completed in a moment—

For example, their last D-Rank Mission had paid twelve thousand ryo. It was a mission Nara Yan Shui had specially selected, requiring them to clear garbage from a stretch of the Nanga River riverbed. It had taken them a full ten days to finish cleaning it up.

Of course, the main reason was that Yuan Wei and Xia had spent more than five days adapting to treading water. Lin Ke had worked away for three days before his two teammates joined in. Their combined contribution to the entire mission was probably only about the same as his, but Nara Yan Shui had been fair in distributing the reward and gave Lin Ke a larger share.

Likewise, Fifth Squad's first D-Rank Mission had been to help a construction site fell and transport timber. His two teammates had similarly wasted quite a bit of time practicing tree climbing, so he had received more of the reward.

D-Rank Missions might not seem difficult, but they were tasks ordinary people either could not do or found too troublesome, which was why they hired ninja. Even for ninja, they still consumed a great deal of time. Otherwise, why would people throw in thousands or tens of thousands of ryo?

Their third mission was probably going to be much the same.

That was what Lin Ke thought.

As a teacher, Nara Yan Shui was unquestionably superb. In the manga, Hatake Kakashi only began teaching his students tree climbing to improve their chakra control after they encountered ninja on their first mission outside the village. Yet Nara Yan Shui had chosen commissions that could be carried out alongside training for their first two missions.

It was a little awkward from Lin Ke's perspective, though. Treading water and climbing trees were things he had played around with in his first year at the Ninja Academy. At his current level, improving his chakra control required slow, gradual refinement. There would be no short-term improvement at all.

So for him, missions were simply a way to earn money.

"Third Hokage, please give us a C-Rank Mission," Nara Yan Shui said.

Huh?!

Lin Ke was a little surprised. He had thought—

"As for a C-Rank Mission, I think you should be able to handle one now." Nara Yan Shui turned and smiled.

C-Rank Missions generally only involved the possibility of injury. They would not encounter ninja. With two qualified genin and one genin whose secret technique gave him the strength of an elite chunin once activated, completing a C-Rank Mission would be a piece of cake.

"Since you have considered it, Yan Shui... Let me see. This one, then. I'll leave it to you." The smile on the Third Hokage's face did not change in the slightest as he handed over a mission detail sheet.

Nara Yan Shui glanced at it, then passed it to Lin Ke, who stood beside him.

"Cull the overpopulated wild beasts in the Death Forest... The reward is thirty thousand ryo!"

When they heard him read out the details, Yuan Wei and Xia perked up as well. Mixing missions with training was not bad. Doing simple tasks while constantly honing themselves felt fine, but...

D-Rank Missions were just too boring.

They treated ninja entirely as tools—though, come to think of it, ninja had traditionally been regarded as tools.

The reward for C-Rank Missions ranged from thirty thousand to one hundred thousand ryo. Since this mission to clear out the overpopulated wild beasts in the Training Grounds had been issued by the village, it was understandable that the reward was at the minimum standard.

Most importantly, they could finally fight.