Half an hour later, Mission Office.
"Chiba, you only needed to let us know. If there was anything you needed, you could have told us directly."
The duty ninja at the Mission Office was slightly taken aback as he watched the boy walk in from the cold curtain of rain, while the Leaf shinobi who had been about to leave froze upon seeing him. Then he noticed the large wet patches across the boy's shoulders and was nearly startled into speaking hurriedly.
At the same time, the departing Leaf shinobi also noticed the obvious wet stains on the boy's shoulders and his slightly damp hair. Their faces stiffened, and after exchanging glances, their expressions grew somewhat unpleasant, as if they felt embarrassed.
"No, this... this was nothing. It was only what I should do. As a ninja, I should follow ninja rules too. Besides, I suddenly thought of trying to use Water Release to keep out the rain. I didn't expect it to fail."
Hearing this and noticing the changes in the surrounding ninja's expressions, the drenched Chiba gave an embarrassed laugh, wiped the droplets from his face, and spoke.
Damn it, this rain came far too suddenly.
It was already overcast when I left, but it didn't look like it was going to rain. How did it start pouring the moment I went out and arrived here?
As he spoke, Chiba could not help glancing at the drizzling curtain of rain behind him, cursing his bad luck inwardly.
After leaving the cabin, he had just arrived at the Mission Office when he happened upon a whole room of ninja being assigned missions. Considering his current status in the village, he might disrupt them while they accepted missions—especially missions that looked quite important—so he had not entered. Instead, he had