Innate Ox-Horse Saint Body

Innate Ox-Horse Saint Body. The next day, morning, Hokage Building.

"Yawn~"

Lin Ke yawned. He looked listless, yet inexplicably excited. "Morning."

Yesterday afternoon and evening, he had been utterly engrossed in developing his Transformation Jutsu. He had gone to bed at one-thirty in the morning, but the more he tossed and turned, the more ideas filled his head. He got back up to put some of them into practice, and by the time he finally fell asleep, dawn was nearly here.

Sometimes, when developing ninjutsu and watching himself grow stronger bit by bit, it really felt amazing.

"Morning." Yuan Wei and Xia greeted him in unison.

With a "whoosh," Nara Yan Shui appeared before the three of them, having teleported from who knew where. Smiling as he told a blatant lie with his eyes open, he said, "Looks like all three of you rested well."

Well... his two teammates glanced at Lin Ke, who was yawning nonstop, and silently agreed not to say anything.

The four entered the mission assignment office. Early morning was peak time for genin squads led by jonin to come pick up missions. The ninjas were fairly well-mannered—aside from certain people—and basically kept quiet as they waited in line.

Soon, it was Fifth Squad's turn. Nara Yan Shui greeted the Third Hokage seated inside. "Third Hokage, please give us a D-Rank Mission."

The three exchanged glances, but it was awkward to say anything in the mission assignment office.

"Alright." The Third Hokage smiled at the three new-generation genin, giving Lin Ke a particularly kind look. He pulled out a mission slip from below and handed it over. "This one."

Nara Yan Shui took the mission sheet and led Fifth Squad out of the mission assignment office. Xia, the tallest of them all—surprising, right?—had already seen what it said: Take care of a merchant's child.

D-Rank Missions were nothing but picking up trash, finding cats and dogs, helping with planting and harvesting, or looking after children. But they had just successfully completed a C-Rank Mission.

And children... they were the worst, weren't they?

Xia thought to herself, completely ignoring the fact that she was a child too.

Once they were outside, Nara Yan Shui told the three their mission objective.

"Huh?" Yuan Wei's voice rose in disappointed confusion. "Why, Yan Shui Teacher? We just did such a good job on a C-Rank Mission."

Well said, Yuan Wei!

Xia thought to herself smugly.

Probably because you two showed too many problems.

Lin Ke immediately understood the reason. He could see the various issues his two teammates had; how could a jonin fail to notice them?

The ninja mission-ranking system did not exist solely to protect ninjas. It was one thing for immature genin to get hurt while carrying out high-ranking missions. The greater problem was the damage to the village's reputation if a mission failed.

A genin squad led by a jonin could certainly accept higher-ranked missions, since the jonin could clean up any mess if something went wrong. But that was undoubtedly like pulling seedlings up to make them grow faster. Missions beyond their abilities would breed arrogance in young people—

Just like Yuan Wei and Xia right now. They were already looking down on D-Rank Missions and could not wait to show off their skills in C-Rank Missions.

A jonin could not play nanny forever. Fifth Squad would disband sooner or later. By the time real danger arrived, regret would be too late.

Keeping them in check now was, instead, a form of protection for his subordinates.

Nara Yan Shui first glanced at Lin Ke, whose expression remained calm, and smiled to himself. Then he took out his notebook, tore out two pages, and handed them to his other two subordinates.

They recorded the problems that had arisen during their time in the Death Forest—more precisely, the problems the two of them had displayed during their actions—as well as details they had failed to notice when killing the wild beasts. Lin Ke had mentioned most of those issues during his guidance yesterday and the afternoon before, but some of them were things even Lin Ke had not noticed.

Do not think minor habits do not matter. If they were the Nine-Tailed Jinchuriki or the Uchiha Clan's orphan, then sure, it would not matter—those people would be piloting Gundams later anyway. But for low-level ninjas, any mistake, bad habit, or unnecessary movement could cost them their lives in close combat.

Yuan Wei and Xia had initially been somewhat unconcerned, but after reading the notes, they had nothing more to say. They obediently accepted continuing with D-Rank Missions while training on the side.

Still need to train.

No notes for me?

Lin Ke looked up at his Team Leader Jonin. Seeing the smile on the man's face, he suddenly understood.

Nara Yan Shui was genuinely training him as a chunin. He had to review the problems in every action himself, constantly improve himself, demonstrate more, and develop coordination skills until he was recommended for promotion to chunin.

Nara Yan Shui nodded lightly. "Then let's get moving, you three."

For immature subordinates, he patiently nurtured them. For subordinates with the drive to advance, he offered opportunities for promotion.

Such was a jonin's wisdom and ability to teach. —Time flew by, and the years passed like a shuttle—

That was right, it was time once again to skip over the tedious mission-completion process that was neither meaningful nor worth explaining in detail.

In the blink of an eye, two months passed. During that time, Fifth Squad completed another five D-Rank Missions.

Those five D-Rank Missions were taking care of a merchant's child, helping with planting, helping with planting, helping with planting, and searching for a lost pet cat.

Since April marked the spring planting season, the village received a huge number of farming-related missions. Fifth Squad consequently became field laborers as well, toiling away at farm work.

They were literally working like oxen and horses!

Fortunately, all three members of Fifth Squad had at least reached the third level of the Ox-Horse Prajna Skill. With strength exceeding that of three oxen and three horses, if they had been in Japan in Lin Ke's previous life, would they not have earned the title of Ox-Horse Sage?

No, Farming Sage.

They were not constantly doing missions. They also had plenty of time for training in between, more or less like an ordinary genin squad.

Yuan Wei and Xia had never had much to be proud of in the first place. The root of their inflated confidence had been having someone to back them up. Once their jonin teacher pointed out their mistakes and their thigh-of-a-teammate remained silent, they naturally settled down and obediently worked on their basics bit by bit.

Lin Ke naturally had no objections. In any case, he had never expected to become a chunin in a day or two. There was still over a year until the Konoha Crush, and Shippuden was even further away, so for now, time was still fairly plentiful.

Even if the Third Hokage and Nara Yan Shui wanted to promote him, a mission record of seven D-Rank Missions and one C-Rank Mission made promotion to chunin highly unlikely.

Unless his strength was exceptionally outstanding, they would certainly need to assess much more than that.

His development of the Transformation Jutsu had gradually been perfected, and he had even formed an entirely new combat system of his own.

Thus, just as everything was changing for the better, in mid-June, on an afternoon after a mission, Nara Yan Shui approached him alone and raised a question—