"Next, we're definitely going to face some skepticism."
Xingzhuo gave his two teammates a heads-up.
"Skepticism?" Lingyin paused, as if she'd thought of something. "The kind where people look down on us because we're young?"
Xingzhuo nodded in agreement. "Exactly that kind."
"Oh, we shouldn't have to put up with that kind of skepticism. It's like..." Lingyin trailed off without finishing.
"Then how should we deal with it?" Yuto humbly asked.
Xingzhuo had already prepared an answer. "Usually, I mean when other young ninjas face skepticism, they can only do their jobs well for the client and dispel their preconceived notions."
As he spoke, he waggled a finger. "But we're different."
Lingyin chimed in with a joke. "Should we beat up the client to prove how strong we are?"
As she spoke, she swung a small fist, as if trying out the Strength of a Hundred that Yuto had taught her.
Lingyin was still a hundred thousand miles away from mastering the Strength of a Hundred.
"Beat up the client?" Yuto's eyes lit up at the suggestion. He even seemed eager to try it.
As for Xingzhuo, he felt as though he'd misheard "beat up the client" as "beat up the mother-in-law." In his mind, Lingyin appeared, beating up a faceless wicked mother-in-law.
He activated his Byakugan to check whether something was wrong with his brain, then dismissed the idea:
"Of course we're not beating up the client. If we do that, word will get around, and no one will come to Konoha to post missions anymore."
"Of course, if we ever have no choice but to beat up a client, we'll have to make sure they can't spread the word."
The two who had been joking around lost their enthusiasm once they understood what Xingzhuo meant.
Lingyin was the