Unreliable Special Mission

Minato reached out and pressed a hand onto Naruto's head, ruffling the same little blond hair he had himself. Half amused and half exasperated, he said, "Where do you get so much nonsense from?"

"That's how it is! I thought you'd tell me something like Thirty Minutes to Teach You Cultivation, or put together a Bo Feng Hou Xiong's Complete Guide to Cultivation or something..."

"There's no such thing." Minato said helplessly, "Looking at you, you clearly have no intention of resting quietly. Then I'll give you a special mission."

"What special mission?"

"A tracking mission. This afternoon and tomorrow morning, I want you to find chances to monitor four people. As long as you stay within a hundred meters of them for thirty minutes without being discovered, you succeed."

"Who am I tracking?" Naruto had just a tiny bit of confidence in his stealth skills. Though he was not especially good at hiding, he had the Mind's Eye of the Kagura.

Not only could it be used for sensing, it could also conceal his Chakra. Even ordinary Sensor Ninjas would have a hard time detecting him through his Chakra.

Minato said, "Lady Tsunade, Jiraiya-sensei, Kakashi, and... Kushina."

"Pfft, tracking those people? Isn't that hell-level difficulty?" Even within Konoha Village, where they would not be quite as vigilant, it was still not something Naruto's half-baked infiltration skills could handle.

"As long as you succeed with even one of them, there'll be a reward."

"What reward could you possibly give me?" Naruto narrowed his eyes. There were no Ninjutsu he particularly wanted to learn right now, and he had saved up quite a bit of pocket money over the past half year since becoming a Special Jonin. He did not think Minato could offer anything tempting.

Minato blinked and smiled brilliantly. "How about I don't pursue your responsibility for repeatedly taking people out of the village without permission during this period?"

"..." Naruto fell silent for a moment, then jumped up and shouted, "You're abusing public office for private gain, Hokage-sama!"

"So you want me to put righteousness above family, then? How about I confiscate all your mission rewards?" Minato pretended to ponder it. "Come to think of it, I rather miss the days when my son would come hesitantly asking me for pocket money, looking all embarrassed..."

Naruto grabbed Minato's hand where it was stroking his chin. "I'll take the mission."

Whether Minato meant to test Naruto's qualities as a ninja or simply wanted to give him something to do, since Naruto had accepted it, he decided to take it seriously.

Waiting outside their homes for half an hour while they slept definitely did not count, and giving them advance notice would be cheating.

But aside from sleeping, there were other times when their vigilance would drop.

For example, Jiraiya while gathering material, Kakashi while reading, or Kushina while haggling. The difficulty of hiding in the shadows and monitoring them should drop dramatically at times like those.

So Naruto chose... Tsunade.

Because Naruto had sensed Tsunade's Chakra leaving the Izakaya. Tsunade's Perception Ability should be in the negatives when she was drunk, right? The plan was perfect!

Naruto acted at once. After leaping across several rooftops, he landed soundlessly several hundred meters away from Tsunade, transformed into an utterly ordinary passerby, and followed behind her.

Tsunade staggered along for a while, then moved her feet and turned into an alley. She even poked her head out to inspect the surroundings. Only after confirming that nothing was amiss did she push open a small door and squeeze inside.

Naruto was puzzled. Why was she acting so sneaky?

He followed over and imitated Tsunade, pushing open the little door. Then, with a thump, pain exploded across his forehead and sent him flying backward.

That familiar force—Naruto did not even need to look up to know it was Tsunade's forehead flick. He could not maintain the Transformation Technique and reverted to his original appearance.

"What, it's Naruto. I thought Shizune had followed me." Tsunade folded her arms beneath her 106 centimeters and asked, "Why are you following me?"

"Tsunade Nee-san, couldn't you go a little easier?" Naruto got up while rubbing his forehead and complained.

Then he suddenly noticed that Tsunade was speaking remarkably clearly and asked in surprise, "You're not drunk?"

"Of course not. How could I d..." Tsunade cut herself off, her gaze drifting slightly.

Changing the subject, she said, "So why exactly are you following me? Did Shizune send you?"

Naruto replied, "It's a test my dad gave me. He told me to try tracking several people and see whether I could avoid being discovered. It didn't work out."

"Then I hereby declare that you've failed. You can leave now." Tsunade hurried to send Naruto away and had no mood to ask why Minato had given Naruto such a task.

Naruto was not so easily brushed off. Staring into her eyes, he said, "Were you about to say you came here to gamble? I don't remember Konoha having any legal casinos."

"What gambling..." Tsunade came over and helped pat the dirt off Naruto, casually using Medical Ninjutsu to stop the pain and swelling of the bump on his head.

Naruto pushed her away in disgust. She reeked of alcohol. The claims in novels that beautiful women had body fragrance, fragrant sweat, and the like were all lies. They got sweat stink and alcohol stink too.

Tsunade said pitifully, "Naruto, you have no idea how hard things have been for your sister. Over the past half year or so, who knows what got into the police force? Every black casino in Konoha, big or small, got shut down. This is the only one left!"

Naruto remained unmoved. "So?"

"So can you help keep it a secret? At least let your sister finish gambling this one time! I had to pretend to sneak out for drinks just to fool Shizune!"

Worried that Naruto would refuse, Tsunade blinked her big eyes and added, "I'll give you half the money I win. I can give you all of it!"

...Was there any more unreliable empty promise than that? So she had deliberately gotten herself covered in the smell of alcohol and pretended to be drunk just to fool Shizune?

Poor Shizune was probably holding Tonton right now while dealing with all the work Tsunade had dumped on her! Sakura Bro might even have been pressed into service too.

Watching Tsunade, at her age, still acting cute and begging to gamble, Naruto felt that getting her to quit a gambling addiction of half a lifetime was probably impossible. "Then I'll tell the police force after you lose everything."

"Good Younger Brother!" Tsunade happily slipped through the casino door.

Naruto estimated Tsunade's savings and the speed at which she lost money, figuring that waiting ten minutes before reporting it was already giving her too much credit.

By then, the righteous Konoha Military Police Force would execute a precise operation, shut down the underground casino, recover the stolen money, and return it to the elderly victims who had been deceived—Tsunade might look young, but she really was already past fifty.

Naruto then began to wonder why he had been exposed. He had clearly hidden his Chakra, and there were no obvious flaws in his Transformation Technique. Could it be that Tsunade, guilty as a thief, had been especially cautious?

That was a little too ridiculous...

Once the time was right, Naruto made his way to Police Headquarters like he knew the place by heart, played the part of a helpful Sunshine Citizen once more, and chose Jiraiya as his next target.

There was no helping it. Kakashi was together with Guy, though Naruto had no idea whether they were training or competing. He had no desire to challenge the instincts of the Blue Beast.

And Kushina was training her students—deliberately delivering himself into the Reconnaissance Squad's training session would have been far too stupid.

That left the Old lecher, who was honestly staying in his office.