Ninja Appears

I had to admit, these two ninjas were really weak. Orochimaru subdued them with a single move.

"Ah! Tianqi's been killed!" Jiraiya cried out in panic to Orochimaru and Tsunade.

"Thump! Idiot, look carefully at what was killed." Tsunade punched Jiraiya on the head.

"Huh? How'd he turn into a piece of wood?" Jiraiya held his head and looked at the spot where Tianqi had been lying. There was no corpse there, only a piece of wood struck by a shuriken.

"Idiot, you don't even know the Substitution Technique?" Orochimaru looked at him with disdain.

Clap, clap, clap!

Tianqi walked out of the woods nearby, applauding as he came.

"Very good, very good, very good! Orochimaru, Tsunade, you did well. You'll definitely become outstanding ninjas someday."

"As for you, Jiraiya, if you can overcome this kind of situation, you can become an outstanding ninja too," Tianqi told the three of them.

"Not bad, not bad. I didn't expect you all to be so capable. You caught two ninjas in no time—except for that little brat." Tang He spoke excitedly. He hadn't expected these few to be so strong.

Hearing Tang He look down on him and seeing the looks the other three were giving him, Jiraiya felt terribly frustrated. How had I let myself get scared?

"Damn it! Next time, I'll be the first to attack!" Jiraiya punched the tree beside him, drawing blood from his fist.

"Idiot, it's not about being the first to attack. Tianqi had just warned us. Orochimaru and I both reacted, while you were still standing there like a fool." Tsunade went straight for the jugular.

"Wha..." Jiraiya thought about it and realized Tianqi had indeed warned them. He really hadn't reacted at the time.

"Wait, that's not right. Tianqi, ninjas shouldn't be involved in a C-Rank Mission." Orochimaru thought it through and realized something was wrong. How could ninjas be involved in a C-Rank Mission? Missions involving ninjas were usually B-Rank. Tsunade nodded in agreement.

"Let's not worry about that just yet. I'll look into it. For now, I have a mission for you: take care of those two ninjas. Tang He and I will find out what's going on. You can join us afterward." After giving his instructions, Tianqi led Tang He away.

"You want us to kill people? This..." The three exchanged glances, all of them hesitant. Even Orochimaru hesitated.

Meanwhile, Tianqi smiled at Tang He and asked, "Tell me, what's really going on?"

"What do you mean? I don't know what you're talking about." Tang He was still playing dumb.

"If you keep this up, I can just abandon the mission and return to the village. With ninjas involved, this is no longer a C-Rank Mission. Are you sure you want to keep pretending?" Tianqi said sternly.

"This, well... All right, I'll tell you." Tang He hesitated, then decided to come clean.

"Our Land of Hot Water has samurai, so we also have places where weapons are forged. We sell the weapons we make to some ninja villages, and our lives are pretty good. But two years ago, a powerful ninja came to our village."

"Not only did he seize the places where we made weapons, he also recruited a group of ninjas and threatened us into working for them. Our country's samurai couldn't beat them either. In the end, we couldn't stand it anymore and decided to fight back, but we were too weak."

"After discussing it, we decided to pool our money and hire ninjas to help us. But the ninjas who'd seized our land found out we planned to hire ninjas to deal with them, so they started hunting me down. I barely managed to make it all the way to the area near Konoha. Only then did those ninjas stop chasing me."

"But when I brought the money to Konoha, I found out we'd only collected enough to post a C-Rank Mission. But I had no choice, with them chasing me. So I used all the money to post a C-Rank Mission, hoping I could get back to the Land of Hot Water and find a way to raise more."

"Please, I beg you, help our Land of Hot Water!" After finishing, Tang He dropped to his knees in front of Tianqi.

"Come on, a man's knees are worth their weight in gold. Get up. I don't have a problem with it, but I'll ask my teammates first. If they agree, we'll continue the mission. If they don't, there's nothing I can do. I can't gamble with their lives." Tianqi wanted to continue the mission, but he still had to ask Jiraiya and the others what they thought.

"Thank you, thank you! I thank you on behalf of the people of the Land of Hot Water." Hearing that Tianqi was willing to help, Tang He thanked him repeatedly. As for the other three, he believed that as long as the Jonin in front of him agreed, his subordinates would surely agree too.

As they were talking, Jiraiya and the others came over from behind, still feeling sick.

"T-Tianqi, how did things go?" Tsunade asked, fighting the urge to throw up.

"I got the whole story. Are you all right?"

"Don't worry. This little thing is nothing to me, Lord Jiraiya." Jiraiya tried to act tough.

"Yeah, we can get over it." Orochimaru didn't look too good either.

"Is that so? The blood kept flowing, and the ninja's eyes were full of resentment. You're really fine? Impressive." Seeing how they looked, Tianqi started teasing them.

Sure enough, the three heard Tianqi's words and remembered what had just happened. They ran off to the side and threw up again.

Watching the three run off to throw up again, Tianqi couldn't help but sigh. Who would have thought that Orochimaru, who now threw up so badly after killing someone, would become a ruthless mad scientist who killed without batting an eye? How unpredictable life was.

"Ugh, Tianqi, you're awful," Jiraiya said, wiping his mouth.

"I was worried you hadn't thrown everything up. Now you've gotten it all out, so you'll be fine next time."

The three responded with a skeptical "yeah, right." As if we believed him. He was obviously just messing with us.

"Let's talk about the serious matter." Tianqi then told them what had happened to Tang He.

"That's the situation. We may face a Jonin and a group of Genin. We don't know yet whether there are any Chunin. The mission is already A-Rank. Whether we continue is entirely up to you. I won't force you."

"W-well..." The three exchanged glances. They could all see that the others wanted to give up. They could handle Chunin and Genin, but a Jonin would probably be too much.

"Tianqi, do you think we should continue?" Orochimaru asked Tianqi directly. He wanted to know what Tianqi thought.

"Personally, I hope you'll continue. But it's fine if you give up. There's no harm in being scared once or twice." Tianqi looked at Orochimaru, teasing him.

"I'm not scared! I'll continue the mission!" Hearing Tianqi say he was scared, Jiraiya immediately objected.

What an idiot. All it took was someone provoking him, and he took the bait. The other two cursed Jiraiya under their breath.

"Captain Tianqi, I think this mission is beyond our capabilities, and the enemy is too strong. We should give up." Orochimaru stepped forward and stated his opinion.

"That's right, Tianqi. There's no need for us to push ourselves." Tsunade began trying to persuade Tianqi too.

"You... you two..." Jiraiya stared at his teammates in disbelief. How had they gotten so scared?