You Did Well, but Don't Do It Again Next Time

Before long, Yugao Gekko led the team into a village called Yoshida Town, where they met the client for the mission.

The client was an old man named Yoshida Inamori. His hair and beard were completely white, and he leaned on a well-worn cane polished smooth with age. He was the village chief.

Village Chief Yoshida was still in fairly good spirits. He greeted the four members of the team warmly, then, after the mission details were settled, led them to the farmland outside the village.

A small river wound through the area, with forests all around like a wall. Terraced fields of varying heights dotted the many low hills beside the river.

The dry fields on higher ground were planted with wheat. At this time of year, the wheat seedlings had already formed ears, but hadn't yet turned golden. They were a lush, vibrant green.

Below, along both banks of the river, stretched a series of paddy fields. They had all been leveled, like mirrors embedded in the earth, and farmers were already hard at work in quite a few of them.

That's right. Higashino Makoto's group of three had been assigned to plant rice seedlings.

According to Village Chief Yoshida, several families in the village were getting on in years, and their children had gone away to seek their fortunes, leaving them short on labor. So every year during the busy farming season, they posted D-Rank Missions in Konoha and hired ninjas to help out.

D-Rank Missions were expensive for them, but ninjas were incredibly capable. One could do the work of ten people, so it was well worth the cost.

Of course, Konoha wasn't stupid. They wouldn't work the Genin like oxen. After an assessment, a fixed area of land to be cleared counted as one D-Rank Mission. Yoshida Town's request today amounted to five missions.

Sending ninjas with Supernatural Power out to farm? In some Dark Cultivation World, those muddy peasants would probably be turned to ash on the spot.

I'm a Cultivator, after all. If I'm going to farm, it'll be Spirit Rice for a Foundation Establishment Great Power.

But this was the strange Shinobi World. A mission was a mission, and a ninja was someone who endured everything.

After showing them which fields they'd be working on, Village Chief Yoshida left. There was no need to say anything more. He'd seen this plenty of times over the years and knew ninjas learned incredibly quickly, even if they looked like mere children.

Higashino Makoto didn't actually need to learn. He'd grown up in the countryside in his previous life, knew how to raise rice seedlings and plant them, and had done it himself.

Still, he pretended to learn alongside Hayate and Yugao, standing in the field with the farmers. As it turned out, the process was no different from what he remembered.

There wasn't much more to it: pull up the seedlings, tie them in bundles, carry them to the edge of the field, and toss them out.

Ninjas were ninjas. You could tell they were different from ordinary people just by watching the details.

The three of them worked incredibly fast. After a brief look, they'd already calculated how far apart to plant each bundle of seedlings. When tossing them, they even used Shuriken-throwing techniques. Each bundle landed precisely where it needed to, as if measured with a ruler.

People often said they couldn't be in two places at once when they were busy. The thing was, ninjas really could use the Clone Technique. Gekko Hayate and Uzuki Yugao could both use the Shadow Clone Technique, too.

So the three formed Hand Seals. Hayate and Yugao only dared to make two clones each, unlike Higashino Makoto, who made more than ten with a series of poofs.

So saying one ninja could do the work of ten people when it came to farm labor wasn't a figure of speech. It was a fact.

To conserve Chakra, neither Hayate nor Yugao used Water Walking. They simply took off their shoes and stepped into the paddy, not caring in the least that their feet were getting muddy.

Uzuki Yugao, a fair-skinned, pretty young girl, didn't complain. She hadn't even frowned before stepping into the field.

Ninjas had never considered themselves noble cultivators. For a thousand years, no one in this world had tried to instill such an idea in them. On the contrary, the notion that ninjas were tools had become deeply ingrained.

Higashino Makoto had no interest in changing that way of thinking. Or rather, there was no need for him to change it. The changes had already begun.

Ever since the system of one village per country was established several decades ago, ending the era when ninjas were bound by family ties, large numbers of commoners without clans had begun becoming ninjas.

The wars that followed produced a great many Rogue Ninjas. They might not have had the nerve to oppose the Ninja Villages, but they certainly had the nerve to run wild in the world of ordinary people—and plenty of it.

Then everyone discovered: Damn, it turns out ninjas can live this kind of carefree life.

Was there any point in using their power to bully ordinary people who couldn't fight back?

The Rogue Ninjas who kept beautiful women on both arms and raked in piles of money told you, You can't even imagine how good I've got it.

At some point, the commoners of the Shinobi World had begun addressing ninjas respectfully as "sir," trembling with fear whenever they saw one. This change was good for ninjas, but a disaster for ordinary people.

But that was the way of the world. Even the ordinary world Higashino Makoto had lived in before couldn't achieve so-called equality for all, let alone this world of ninjas wielding supernatural power.

Any attempt to promote the idea of equality in this world, or to believe that the color red could change it, was completely unrealistic.

The villagers of Yoshida Town once again witnessed the efficiency of ninjas at work, even though they saw it several times every year.

In the paddy fields, smooth as mirrors, more than a dozen figures moved with lightning speed, planting green seedlings one by one. The fields were turning into rice paddies at an astonishing rate.

A week's work for an entire family could be finished by one ninja in less than a day.

Every time they saw this impressive sight, the villagers couldn't help thinking, What a waste that ninjutsu isn't used for farming.

It was like saying that an emperor must use a golden shoulder pole to carry manure.

Everyone understood the logic, but it was never realistic. Emperors didn't carry manure, either.

For Higashino Makoto's group of three, planting seedlings was just the task they'd been given by the village. They didn't resent it at all. In fact, they found it quite interesting and refreshing.

Higashino Makoto even felt as if he'd gone back to working in the fields with his father in his previous life. Those childhood days really were something to remember.

But if someone wanted them to do this every day, year after year—

That would be a different matter. Whoever suggested it would die.

Before long, thanks to the efforts of the three, the mission was complete at around three in the afternoon. Higashino Makoto couldn't help thinking, Chakra is great. Chakra is wonderful. After working for most of the day, he hadn't even developed a sore back.

Gekko Hayate and Uzuki Yugao were only a little tired, too.

Gekko Hayate was about to suggest they wash the mud off themselves when Uzuki Yugao looked at the villagers who were still working. "Hey, there's still plenty of time. Let's keep helping them so they can finish and go home earlier."

Hayate glanced at Higashino Makoto. The latter gave a slight shake of his head but said nothing.

Yugao was a kind girl, but sometimes, being eager to help wasn't a good thing, especially for a ninja.

Yugao Gekko had disappeared after assigning them the task in the morning. She didn't reappear until dusk, and when she returned, she found Uzuki Yugao and the others receiving praise from the villagers.

The rows of paddy fields along the river, which had been smooth as mirrors that morning, were now planted with seedlings. Green sprouts dotted the silvery water, making a lovely sight.

After confirming with Village Chief Yoshida that the mission was complete and getting his signature, Yugao Gekko led her students out of Yoshida Town.

On the way, Uzuki Yugao happily told her teacher about the team's good deed.

After listening, Yugao Gekko didn't praise her right away. Instead, she glared at Higashino Makoto and Gekko Hayate. The two immediately looked away and admired the fiery clouds of the sunset.

"Yugao, you did well, but don't do it again next time!"

Yugao Gekko offered no further explanation. Instead, she stood in the forest outside the village, apparently waiting for something.

Gekko Hayate said quietly, "If we help every time, the villagers might start having unnecessary expectations when they post missions in the future, which could cost the village.

"It'll also make things awkward for our teammates who get assigned the same mission later."

Uzuki Yugao didn't quite understand, but she knew she might have done something foolish.

Only after another seven or eight minutes did Yugao Gekko speak. "All right, let's go. It's not far, so we can take our time walking back."

It was a rather strange decision.