Carrying Out the Mission

Seeing that neither of his two teammates objected, Uchiha Gen simply took command of the team and began assigning tasks:

"I'll go alone to see the lord of River Valley Town and learn the specifics from the client. Ruri, Enju, you two split up and investigate other information in town so we can get a more complete understanding of the mission. Also..."

Uchiha Gen bit his right thumb, then swiftly formed hand seals with both hands.

"Boar—Dog—Rooster—Monkey—Ram."

The five seals were completed in rapid succession. As he slapped his right hand onto the ground, a thick cloud of white smoke erupted, and more than a dozen pitch-black Ninja Crows appeared in midair, cawing loudly.

"The Ninja Crows will keep watch on the surroundings and scout the terrain, just in case. They might even uncover some relevant traces."

Though these Ninja Crows had only just formed summoning contracts with him, and neither their combat ability nor coordination was particularly strong, they had all received the Uchiha Clan's basic training. Conducting a simple reconnaissance of this small town and its surrounding area would not be difficult for them.

Uchiha Gen had made arrangements in plain sight, in the shadows, and even in the sky. He was cautious to the extreme.

"You learned another new ninjutsu? I never saw you use it back at the academy."

Sarutobi Enju scratched his head as he watched the flock of crows scatter and fly into the sky.

Uchiha Gen offered no explanation. He merely looked at Sarutobi Enju and said, "Move quickly. We don't want to drag this out and make Senior Orochimaru dissatisfied. Try to finish gathering intelligence before five this afternoon. No matter how much information you find, return here to meet up at five."

Only then did Sarutobi Enju come to his senses.

If they failed Orochimaru's trial and were sent back by their jonin leader, it would indeed be humiliating.

At the very least, Biwako and the Third Hokage would definitely lecture him endlessly.

They really did need to hurry.

Before long, Sarutobi Enju and Utsuki Ruri used the Transformation Jutsu to disguise themselves as an elderly couple who had come from afar to visit relatives, then entered the town.

Meanwhile, Uchiha Gen simply adjusted his attire, making the red-and-white fan Clan Crest on his clothes more conspicuous before entering the town and questioning the soldiers guarding the gate.

The lord of River Valley Town bore the surname Hase. His ancestors had been retainers of the daimyo, and judging by rank alone, he could be considered a mid-ranking noble.

With his own fief and a population exceeding one hundred thousand, he ranked somewhere in the upper middle among the nobles of the Land of Fire. While he could not compare to the great nobles who held real power and commanded even the daimyo's attention, he was still far better off than those impoverished minor nobles who were about to lose even their fiefs.

A few minutes later, at the lord's estate.

"I never expected a member of the famed Uchiha Clan to come help my lord deal with the bandits."

A short, plump man wearing small round sunglasses led Uchiha Gen into the estate.

Uchiha Gen had never seen the daimyo's palace, but this estate was also decorated with painted beams, vermilion curtains, tiered terraces, and elegant pavilions, filled with aristocratic grandeur.

"You flatter me, Ito Family Retainer. This estate has such a thriving air about it; I imagine your lord and you must manage the household very well."

Uchiha Gen studied the servants passing by as he spoke to the Ito Family Retainer.

This man was named Ito No, the household retainer of River Valley Town's lord. His role could roughly be understood as that of a steward.

When a lord was capable and diligent, the household retainer was merely responsible for domestic affairs, servants, and arranging schedules. But if the lord had no interest in handling affairs, he might also entrust the management of government matters and the running of the territory to the household retainer.

As for which sort River Valley Town had, Uchiha Gen felt he would need to observe further.

What he had just said was a probe.

Unfortunately, the Ito Family Retainer merely laughed it off and glossed over the matter.

"Ha ha, you flatter me, Mr. Gen. I merely follow Lord Hase's instructions and handle a few insignificant matters. River Valley Town is what it is today entirely because of Lord Hase's wise leadership!"

The chubby Ito Family Retainer led Uchiha Gen into a pavilion.

A man even fatter than the Ito Family Retainer sat cross-legged on a tatami mat, stuffing pastries into his mouth.

He wore luxurious clothing, gold ornaments, and jade accessories. He was just rather ugly.

"My lord, this is the ninja sent by Konoha to deal with the bandits, Uchiha Gen."

Bowing at the waist, the Ito Family Retainer addressed the fat man on the tatami.

"Oh, a Konoha ninja. Hey, kid, since you're an Uchiha ninja, you must be pretty strong, right? I heard you can all breathe fire. Is that true?"

Lord Hase looked Uchiha Gen over with an exceptionally "wise" expression.

The latter frowned slightly.

He roughly understood the situation within the lord's household now.

Because Lord Hase's idiotic demeanor... did not seem to be an act.

After apologizing to Uchiha Gen, the Ito Family Retainer hurried over to persuade Lord Hase.

He was likely saying things such as how the lord's body was precious, how ninja techniques were too powerful, and how the lord might accidentally be injured.

"Is that so? That powerful? Then I'll leave the bandits to you. Ito, I'm going to the capital for a few days of fun. I'll leave the house to you."

The lord patted his huge belly, sending waves of flesh rippling across it. He slowly rose to his feet and left with the support of a maid.

After bowing to see the lord off, the Ito Family Retainer turned back to look at Uchiha Gen.

"Since Lord Hase has entrusted the matter entirely to us, I'll have to trouble you to cooperate, Ito Family Retainer."

"Of course, we will do our best to cooperate. But... is Mr. Gen the only one here to carry out the mission? It's not that I don't trust Konoha's ninja, but those bandits are exceptionally cunning. Without sufficient manpower, I'm afraid..."

The Ito Family Retainer looked at Uchiha Gen with some hesitation.

After all, no matter how one looked at it, the ninja before him was far too young, and he was alone.

If he had not recognized the Uchiha Clan Crest and known of the Uchiha Clan's strength, he might already have started showing them attitude.

Uchiha Gen took a small sip of tea before answering the Ito Family Retainer.

"It's fine. My teammates are still outside gathering information related to the bandits. We even have a Jonin on the team, so our capabilities are absolutely not a problem. I merely wanted the lord who issued the mission and his retainer to explain the situation to me in greater detail."

"Very well. Actually, River Valley Town had no bandits a year ago. It was only as the effects of the Ninja World War grew more severe that this group of bandits emerged."

The Ito Family Retainer sighed at Uchiha Gen.

"Were they refugees who fled over from the border?"

Uchiha Gen asked.

"No, it's more than that. If that were all, it wouldn't be nearly so troublesome. The real problem is the bandits' true identities. They have considerable ties to the town's residents."

Just as I thought.

If it had really been that simple—if they could simply find and eliminate the bandits, then recover the tax money—Orochimaru would not have needed to put this mission out as a trial for them.

There had to be some deeper meaning behind it.

"The mountains surrounding River Valley Town are rich in mineral veins. The quality of the iron ore even ranks among the best in the entire Land of Fire. To meet the demand for war supplies required by the Ninja World War, the Daimyo had long ago issued orders requiring every lord with iron ore resources in their territory to provide sufficient iron ore.

"Because River Valley Town's iron ore is of high quality, the Daimyo's demands are also greater. But that does not mean our output is high.

"As the rich surface deposits were depleted, the miners had no choice but to go deeper underground and excavate ore that was harder to extract.

"And in order to meet the Daimyo's quota, we..."

"You drove the miners too hard, so they were forced into the mountains and became bandits? And since they have family ties with the townsfolk, they can hide among the people in their daily lives, stay well-informed, and be impossible to root out?

"As for robbing the tax shipment... if they're ordinary people and yet dared to rob taxes, that means someone was desperate enough that they could no longer survive, right?

"So what percentage of taxes do you collect in your territory?"

Faced with Uchiha Gen's string of questions, the Ito Family Retainer looked quite surprised.

This young ninja seemed rather clever. He had managed to infer so much information from just a few words.

"The territory's tax rate used to be fifty-fifty. But after the miners all fled, we had to spend money hiring additional miners to meet the Daimyo's quota. Yet there definitely wasn't enough time, so we also needed money to purchase iron ore from other lords and temporarily satisfy the Daimyo's demands. That was why the tax rate was changed to sixty-forty afterward."

That tax rate was truly high.

Of the fruits of their hard labor, fifty or sixty percent had to be handed over.

Perhaps in the past, fifty percent had left many people balanced right on the edge. Life would not have been easy, but they would not starve to death either. Yet this additional ten percent had become the last straw that broke the camel's back.

And those miners who had fled into the mountains to become bandits were, coincidentally, related to some of these townspeople. That one was someone's cousin, this one was another family's uncle.

They probably had no idea that it was a tax shipment bound for the Daimyo. Seeing money and supplies, they simply put their heads together and robbed it.

Uchiha Gen finally understood.

No wonder Orochimaru had said this mission had been carefully selected.

Not only did they have to expose those people, they also had to interrogate their own consciences.

These bandits were all pitiful people driven into desperation, but as ninja, since they had robbed the taxes, they had to be thoroughly eliminated.

Would they choose the mission, or their conscience?

This sort of trial that loved testing human nature really did fit Orochimaru's usual style.

Should they simply kill them all and be done with it?

In Orochimaru's eyes, if they could not even harden their hearts enough to do that, they probably would not be able to pass his test.

Uchiha Gen asked the Ito Family Retainer for some additional information before leaving the lord's residence with a small booklet filled with notes.

By evening, at exactly five o'clock.

The three of them regrouped in the woods outside River Valley Town.

As for Orochimaru, he had already vanished somewhere, and no one knew what he had gone off to do.

More than a dozen Ninja Crows fluttered down from the sky.

"Let's pool our information."

Uchiha Gen took out two packets of dried meat from his clothes. As he fed the Ninja Crows, he spoke to his two teammates.

"Nothing useful. Most of the townspeople were evasive, and we couldn't get them to reveal the bandits' numbers or location."

Sarutobi Enju shook his head regretfully.

"They weren't being vague—they were deliberately avoiding the subject. Enju and I investigated separately. Then I went to a tavern and paid a waiter for information. Not long after I left, someone blocked my way in an alley. I captured them, locked them up somewhere secluded, and interrogated them with genjutsu.

"Quite a few of those bandits have ties to the townspeople. Some of the residents are even their relatives. Both sides often help each other through difficult times. This time, it was because the lord raised taxes and many townspeople could no longer survive that even more people went into the mountains to become bandits."

Utsuki Ruri sat cross-legged on the ground, staring at Uchiha Gen as though hoping he would make a decision.

"Well, that's roughly the same as what I learned, though my information focused on a different aspect."

Uchiha Gen tossed the remaining packet of dried meat to the flock of crows for them to divide among themselves. He then explained what he had learned at the lord's residence before summarizing.

"Obviously, Orochimaru-senpai deliberately set this up to test us. If we can't harden our hearts and complete the mission, then we'll have to go back to the drawing board."

Utsuki Ruri spoke softly:

"So what we need to do next is find these people, wipe them out, and recover as much of the tax money as possible?"

Sarutobi Enju said in a low voice:

"Is there no other way? They... are just ordinary people driven into this by necessity."

"There is."

Uchiha Gen clapped his hands, looked at the flock of Ninja Crows that had finished feeding, and dispelled the Summoning Technique.

"What is it?"

"Reincarnate now, go down to the Pure Land, and maybe you'll get to see the First Hokage or the Sage of Six Paths. Beg them to come back to life, quell the wars of the Ninja World, reshape the entire Ninja World's system, and make the Daimyo and nobles willingly give up part of their interests to the people who create wealth. Then not only would what happened here never happen again, but more than ninety percent of the problems in the entire Ninja World could be solved."

"Let's not make such impractical jokes."

"Then there's no other way. Don't forget: no matter what unexpected circumstances arise, ninja must treat completing the mission as their supreme rule. Everything comes second to the mission. That is clearly written in the ninja code and is a key topic on Ninja Academy exams.

Ninja are tools for completing missions, not heroic envoys of justice. Softheartedness and indecision are hardly flattering words when applied to a ninja.

Of course, we don't want to be tools, but reality leaves every ninja with no choice—unless you become strong enough that no one can surpass you, strong enough that everyone else combined still cannot defeat you. Then, like the First Hokage, you can use absolute strength to make the entire world yield to your ideals.

As for now, we're just three Genin. Even if you're the Hokage's son, you still can't bring about change."

Uchiha Gen looked at the troubled Sarutobi Enju and spoke calmly.

"Then we can at least do what we can, right? For example, can we capture them without killing them?"

This kid...