Ninja Appears

Those two ninjas were truly weak; Orochimaru subdued them in a single move.

"Ah! Brother Tianqi is dead!" Jiraiya yelled at Orochimaru and Tsunade, his face filled with panic.

"Bang! Idiot, look closer. What was killed?" Tsunade, seeing Jiraiya's state, punched him directly on the head.

"Huh? It turned into wood?" Jiraiya, clutching his head, looked at where Tianqi had been lying. There was no corpse, only a piece of wood struck by a Shuriken.

"Idiot, don't you even know the Substitution Technique?" Orochimaru shot him a look of disdain.

Clap, clap, clap!

Tianqi emerged from the nearby woods, clapping as he walked.

"Very good, very good, very good! Orochimaru, Tsunade, you did excellently. You will surely become outstanding ninjas in the future."

"As for Jiraiya, if you can overcome this situation in the future, you too can become an outstanding ninja," Tianqi said to the three of them.

"Not bad, not bad. I didn't expect you all to be so capable, capturing two ninjas so quickly, except for that brat," Tang He said excitedly. He hadn't expected these few to be quite strong.

Hearing Tang He look down on him, and seeing the gazes from the other three, Jiraiya felt incredibly stifled. Why was I so scared?

"Damn it! Next time, I'll definitely be the first to act!" Jiraiya punched a nearby tree, his fist bleeding.

"Idiot, it's not about being first. Brother Tianqi just warned us. Orochimaru and I both reacted, but you were still like an imbecile," Tsunade delivered a soul-crushing blow.

"Wh... what..." Jiraiya thought about it. Brother Tianqi had seemed to warn them. He really hadn't reacted at the time.

"That's not right. Bro... Brother Tianqi, C-rank missions shouldn't involve ninjas," Orochimaru thought carefully and also found something amiss. How could ninjas appear in a C-rank mission? Ninjas usually appeared in B-Rank Missions. Tsunade nodded in agreement.

"That's not urgent for now. I'll look into it. For now, I have a task for you: deal with these two ninjas. Tang He and I will go understand the situation first. You'll follow," Tianqi instructed before pulling Tang He away.

"You want us to kill people... this..." The group exchanged glances, hesitation appearing on all their faces, even Orochimaru hesitated.

Meanwhile, Tianqi was smiling as he asked Tang He, "Tell me, what exactly is going on?"

"What's going on? I don't know what you're talking about," Tang He continued to play dumb.

"If you keep this up, I can completely abandon this mission and return to the village. The appearance of ninjas means this is no longer a C-rank mission. Are you sure you want to keep pretending?" Tianqi said to Tang He with a serious expression.

"Th-this... alright, I'll explain," Tang He hesitated for a moment before deciding to confess.

"In our Land of Hot Water, because we have samurai, we also have places to forge weapons. We sell the forged weapons to some ninja villages, and we live quite well. But two years ago, a powerful ninja came to our village."

"He not only occupied the place where we produce weapons but also recruited a group of ninjas and threatened us to work for them. The samurai of our country couldn't defeat him either. In the end, we couldn't stand it and decided to resist, but our strength was too weak."

"After much discussion, we decided to pool money to hire ninjas for help. But the ninjas occupying our land also found out we were trying to hire ninjas to deal with them. They started chasing me all the way. I struggled and finally managed to reach near Konoha, and those ninjas didn't continue to pursue me."

"But when I arrived at Konoha with the money, I discovered that the money we pooled was only enough to issue a C-rank mission. However, I had no choice facing the pursuit, so I used all the money to issue a C-rank mission, hoping to return to the Land of Hot Water and find a way to raise money again."

"Please, I beg you, help our Land of Hot Water!" Tang He said, then immediately knelt before Tianqi.

"Alright, a man's knees are made of gold. Get up quickly. I have no problem with it. I'll ask my team members. If they agree, then we'll continue this mission. If they don't, I can't do anything. I can't gamble with their lives." Tianqi wanted to continue the mission, but he still had to ask Jiraiya and the other two for their opinions.

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

While they were talking, the three of them walked over from behind, groaning as they walked.

"Tian... Brother Tianqi, how did the situation turn out?" Tsunade, suppressing the urge to vomit, asked Tianqi.

"I've understood the situation clearly. Are you all alright?"

"Don't worry, this little thing is nothing for Jiraiya sir," Jiraiya said, feigning strength.

"Yes, we can overcome it." Orochimaru's complexion was also not good.

"Is that so? Then with blood flowing continuously and the unwilling eyes of ninjas, you're actually alright? Amazing." Seeing them like this, Tianqi started to tease them.

As expected, when the three heard Tianqi's words, they recalled the scene from earlier and immediately ran to the side to vomit again.

Watching the three run off to vomit again, Tianqi felt a sense of emotion. Who would have thought that Orochimaru, who would vomit to death over killing someone now, would become a devilish scientist who killed without batting an eye in the future? Truly, life is unpredictable.

"Pfft, Brother Tianqi, you're too mean," Jiraiya said, wiping his mouth.

"I was afraid you wouldn't vomit cleanly. If you vomit cleanly this time, you'll be fine next time."

Hearing Tianqi say this, the three of them gave him a sarcastic "heh." I believe you, my foot! You're clearly just messing with us.

"Let's talk about serious matters." Tianqi then told the three about Tang He's situation.

"That's the situation. We might encounter a Jonin and a group of Genin. Whether there are Chunin is temporarily unknown. The mission rank has already become A-rank. Whether to continue the mission is entirely up to you to decide. I won't force you."

"Th-this..." The three looked at each other, seeing the desire to give up in each other's eyes. Chunin plus Genin would be manageable, but a Jonin might be too much.

"Captain Tianqi, I believe this mission has exceeded our scope, and the opponent's strength is too great. We should give up," Orochimaru stepped forward directly, stating his opinion.

"Yes, Brother Tianqi, there's no need for us to push ourselves," Tsunade also began to persuade Tianqi.

"You, you..." Jiraiya looked at his two teammates in disbelief. How did they become so cowardly?