"I'm not going, not going, not going to the Land of Bears. It's too dangerous." Aburame Tetsumaru shook his head like a rattle drum.
Orochimaru spread his hands. "Then there's nowhere else to go. The remaining missions are all in the Land of Rain."
"Are there any missions in the Land of Grass?"
"No."
"Any missions in the Land of Rivers?"
Orochimaru simply smiled without answering.
Aburame Tetsumaru scratched his head and sighed. "Fine, I was being stupid. Missions in the Land of Rivers must belong to the Land of Rivers Legion."
"Orochimaru-sama, just tell me. What should I do?"
"Simple. Lead some rookies."
Another graduation season had arrived. This year's graduates were being sent to reinforce the front, while the graduates from the previous two years had all been assigned as replacement soldiers. The result had been devastating losses, causing deep dissatisfaction throughout Konoha.
The Hokage himself was especially displeased. He decisively changed this year's arrangement, requiring every graduate to follow an experienced Chunin. The survival of those graduates would also become an important evaluation criterion for their supervising Chunin.
In the Land of Rain, Deputy Commander Orochimaru was responsible for this work. Recently, he had been grabbing Chunin everywhere, trying to stuff graduates into their teams.
Every Chunin had once been a graduate themselves. How could they not know how troublesome those brats were?
Besides, the truly elite graduates had long since graduated early and been sent through various channels to Jonin as disciples. The ones being assigned to Chunin now were ordinary talents who graduated on schedule, unpolished rookies without any foundation or inheritance.
With the Ninja Academy's current teaching standards, ordinary graduates barely had any combat ability at all. Taking even one along would severely reduce a team's combat strength, and if the kid died, it