Icha Icha Paradise Is Just So-So

"Here, your first mission payment."

At the Hokage Building's mission counter, Kakashi Hatake, acting as their team leader, submitted the mission report. Once the client confirmed the settlement, he collected the payment and split the 10,000 Ryo evenly among the four Genin.

Tap. Wu Yu flicked through the crisp new banknotes. 2,500 Ryo—based on his years of experience living in the ninja world, that was roughly equivalent to a little over a thousand yuan in his previous life.

Ninjas really did make good money!

"Team Kakashi's next mission..." Behind the mission assignment counter, the Third Hokage puffed on his pipe and pulled another sheet from the stack. "Clear weeds from the farmland in the southwest district. Mission payment: 9,000 Ryo."

"Huh?" Naruto Uzumaki said in disappointment. "Why is it another boring mission? Ughhh!"

Before he could finish, Wu Yu and Sakura Haruno clapped hands over his mouth from either side and dragged him outside.

"That's the Hokage!" Sakura complained.

"It's easy money. What's wrong with that? You looking for trouble?" Wu Yu complained as well.

"What a bunch of idiots."

Sasuke said that, but an hour later, as he mechanically pulled and hoed weeds in the field, he had to silently agree with Naruto. This kind of mission was just unbearably boring.

He glanced at Wu Yu's Shadow Clone nearby, which was also pulling weeds. Then he silently formed the cross hand seal and, with a Poof, made a Shadow Clone of his own. His original body quietly found a tree and began tree-climbing practice.

During their group training at his house on the afternoon before the Survival Exercise, Wu Yu had guided Sakura through tree climbing and water walking. Sasuke wasn't blind—he had seen it all long ago. He had used his Sharingan to observe the trick of concentrating Chakra in Sakura's feet while she trained, so he already understood the principle behind the exercise.

Seeing Sasuke do that, Naruto refused to be outdone. He created twenty Shadow Clones in one go, but there weren't enough trees around the farmland for them all. He could only reluctantly cut the number down to ten. Everyone passionately climbed trees with both feet, then promptly fell flat on the ground in unison.

Naruto simply could not grasp the trick. While Sasuke wasn't paying attention, he slipped over to Kakashi Hatake, who was reading by the edge of the field, and asked, "Kakashi-sensei, what's the trick to tree climbing?"

Kakashi Hatake glanced at Sasuke over there, then at the eight or nine Narutos on the other side, and sighed inwardly. Fortunately, Sasuke knew moderation and hadn't made as many Shadow Clones for training as Naruto had... Only someone like Naruto, who possessed the Nine-Tails' incredible recovery power, could withstand the severe strain that "Multiple Shadow Clones to accelerate training" placed on the mind and brain.

He briefly explained the essentials of tree climbing to Naruto, who walked away looking half-enlightened and half-confused.

Honestly, Kakashi never felt that climbing a tree required any special trick. Back then, he had simply lifted his foot and walked right to the top. He hadn't found it difficult at all...

He lowered his gaze, though his attention was not entirely absorbed by the world of his erotic novel.

"Who exactly impersonated Rin..."

The matter had remained lodged in Kakashi's heart, impossible to shake off.

If it had been an enemy, then why had they truly used Medical Ninjutsu to treat him? But if it had been a Konoha comrade who came to help him, why transform into Rin?

Whose prank was it? But among the people he knew, someone who both knew Medical Ninjutsu and liked pranks... was there even such a person?

Suddenly, his hand felt lighter. Icha Icha Paradise had actually been snatched away.

"You're awfully careless, huh?" Wu Yu flipped through the famous pornographic novel. "Let me critically assess just how good this book really is..."

"..." Kakashi Hatake said, "You were the one who taught Sasuke and Naruto to use Shadow Clones to speed up their training, weren't you? That method is too dangerous, especially for children who don't know their limits."

Without even looking up, Wu Yu said, "Relax, they're not that stupid. After Sakura realized she couldn't handle training with even one Shadow Clone, she never used one again. Sasuke only uses one at most to help out. As for Naruto... he doesn't seem to understand the situation, but he's the type who relies on bodily memory. He won't actually make a fatal number of Shadow Clones to train."

"And you?" Kakashi asked. "Haven't you always complained that your physical aptitude is poor? From my perspective, your basic physical conditions are even worse than Sakura's."

Wu Yu smiled. "That used to be true, but don't I have senjutsu? My ability to keep myself alive is pretty good now."

Kakashi recalled that after Wu Yu entered Sage Transformation, he could even merge with nature itself. Not even the Sharingan could detect any flaw in the flow of his Chakra... He could not help nodding. Then, at a speed Wu Yu could not react to, he took back Icha Icha Paradise.

"That's all it's got?" Wu Yu patted his butt and stood up. "Mediocre."

"Heyyy!" The client waved to them from a nearby ridge between the fields. A small handcart sat beside him, and he had actually brought them lunch.

"I was originally going to criticize you. Same D-Rank Mission, yet it only pays 9,000 Ryo." Wu Yu opened his lunch box. "But since lunch is included, I'll let it slide."

"Thanks for the food!" Naruto grabbed his chopsticks and dug in.

Sasuke and Sakura ate much more quietly.

The client sat on the field ridge, grabbed the towel hanging around his neck, and wiped his sweat. Looking at Sasuke's and Naruto's Shadow Clones still clearing weeds in the field as if they were competing, he laughed. "You gave me quite a scare earlier. I thought the village had sent so many Genin for the mission. I was thinking, there's no way I could afford that, hahaha."

They ate their lunch, enjoyed the cool breeze blowing through the fields, and chatted casually. It was quite peaceful and pleasant.

Kakashi said, "I thought you would seize even mealtime to train, Wu Yu."

"Huh?" Wu Yu froze, biting his chopsticks. "Do I give people the impression that I train every second of every day?"

You've become completely obsessed with training, okay?

Sasuke and Sakura rolled their eyes. Naruto scratched his cheek. "Wu Yu, are you playing dumb?"

Wu Yu said, "I really don't think so. It's just that when I realize there's nothing else to do, I train for fun—I said before, didn't I? Researching Chakra is really interesting!"

"Someone like that... in a way, he's pretty terrifying..."

The three members of Team Seven thought in unison.

"But training Yin Release Chakra is kind of difficult." Wu Yu tapped his empty lunch box with his chopsticks. "It feels really abstract! Sakura, it's honestly amazing that you mastered it in just half a day!" What he really wanted to say was that it was absurdly abstract.

Kakashi spoke up then. "If it feels abstract and hard to grasp, then make it concrete."

Under Wu Yu's surprised gaze, Kakashi reached out and removed his forehead protector. He aimed one hand at the Konoha symbol in its center, and in an instant, the leaf-shaped emblem vanished before the eyes of the Genin and the client.

"You can think of it as the most basic, most basic Genjutsu. If it touches even a little of another person's Chakra, this concealment effect will disappear," Kakashi explained. "Once you can produce this effect, you will have made an initial start in Yin Nature Transformation. Keep training afterward by finding targets with larger areas and concealing them with Chakra."

"This method is great..." Wu Yu praised. He touched the forehead protector with one finger, and sure enough, the moment the Chakra gathered on his hand made contact, it was like popping an illusory bubble. The vanished Konoha symbol reappeared on the forehead protector.

"Anyway, that's basically what Yin Release is." Kakashi handed the forehead protector back to Wu Yu. "Creating possibilities from impossibility—confinement, restraint, sealing, memory interference, mental intrusion... things like that."

Wu Yu nodded, then suddenly asked, "Kakashi, how many Chakra natures do you have?"

"You mean that..." Kakashi Hatake said calmly. "Basically... I know a little of all seven attributes."

What?! Sasuke Uchiha was stunned, nearly dropping his chopsticks.

He knew how difficult it was to train Lightning Nature Transformation, and only afterward had he realized how fortunate he was to be born able to use Fire Release Nature Transformation. That was why he understood even more clearly just how terrifying Kakashi's talent was, possessing all seven nature transformations.

Sakura, on the other hand, thought it was nothing special. Her training in Yin Nature Transformation had gone quite smoothly, so she imagined training in other nature transformations would not be too difficult either. Maybe it was like grinding through practice questions at the academy—as long as you put your mind to it, you could always finish them all...

Naruto was much more confused. Turning his head from side to side, he asked, "What have you all been talking about since earlier? What's with all this 'release' and that 'release'? Are we going somewhere to eat something delicious?"