The old man looked at Shin, surprised. "You're so young, and you're already taking missions?"
Shin hugged the Heaven Cloud Sword and smiled. "A ninja's strength isn't always measured by age."
The old man nodded in agreement, then looked him over again. "You're Uchiha Shin, aren't you?"
"How do you know?" Shin touched his face in confusion. Do I have my name written on it or something? He was certain he'd never met the old man before.
He took a good look at the old man. He seemed to be in his fifties, an advanced age for someone to reach during the Warring States Period. He wore the Uchiha Clan's customary loose black robe and looked remarkably spry. What stood out most was his left eye, which had sunken completely into its socket, as if someone had gouged the eyeball out. Shin couldn't help looking twice.
Noticing Shin's gaze, the old man didn't take offense. Instead, he smiled. "The Uchiha have produced two peerless geniuses, Uchiha Madara and Uchiha Shin. Their names have spread throughout the entire clan. It wasn't hard to guess who you were, coming here to take a mission at your age without even trying to hide it."
He chuckled, then pointed to his left eye. Most people with a disability hated having others stare at it, but he was different. He even spoke proudly of it. "This left eye, you see? About twenty-five years ago, I was fighting for my life against the Senju on the battlefield. They had me surrounded, and with my life in danger, I awakened my Sharingan. Unfortunately, there were too many of them, and I still couldn't beat them. I thought I couldn't let them have my eye after I died, so I gouged it out myself and crushed it. Just as I was about to dig out my right eye, the clan's reinforcements arrived. The clan recognized my loyalty and stopped sending me to the battlefield. They gave me a job handing out missions, and I've been doing it ever since."
Shin listened in silence. The old man had only said a few words, but Shin could still imagine how dire his situation must have been. He wouldn't have destroyed his own Sharingan unless he'd truly had no other choice.
"I got carried away telling you all that and forgot you came here to take a mission. Come on, since this is your first time, I'll explain how it works."
The old man smiled, and when Shin nodded, he began. "The clan has two kinds of missions. The first are bounty missions commissioned by other clans or organizations. For example, a small clan might pay us a great deal of money to handle something they can't manage themselves. We assess the difficulty and assign the mission to our ninjas to complete. The other kind are missions issued by the clan itself, also called clan missions. The pay might not be as high as for bounty missions, but you can earn ninjutsu scrolls. Clan missions are usually more dangerous, though. Sometimes, when things are urgent, they're assigned by force, and you're not allowed to refuse. I remember the last time we fought a major battle against the Senju Clan. The clan missions came one after another, and every Jonin and Chunin who wasn't on the battlefield was sent out. In the end, we had no choice but to send children your age on missions, too. The casualties were awful."
Uchiha Shin nodded. I see.
"Also, we roughly divide missions into ranks based on difficulty. See this pile of white papers? Those are the lowest-ranked, white-level missions, suited to Chunin. The ones written in gray are gray-level missions, meant for Special Jonin. Above those are black-level missions, which are generally assigned to Jonin. Missions above black level can only be accepted by Elite Jonin or higher, and they aren't posted here. The clan leader assigns them directly.
"Of course, that isn't an absolute rule. If war breaks out and we're short on people, black-level missions may be assigned to a team of Special Jonin. Take a look." He pushed some of the different missions in front of him toward Shin.
At that, Shin carefully read through the missions before him. White, gray, and black. It seemed these were the forerunners of the ranking system used after Konoha was established. The current system was crude, though, and sometimes misjudged a mission's difficulty. It was nowhere near as precise as the systems later used by Konoha and the other ninja villages.
He was sure the Senju Clan had a similar way of evaluating missions.
He casually looked through the white-level missions and found that most were relatively simple, often involving escorting someone or gathering intelligence. A Chunin could handle them, and the rewards were all money.
Shin wasn't interested in those. He was looking for missing-nin or targets on wanted lists so he could hunt them down and increase his points.
Without a second thought, he set the white-level missions aside and started looking through the gray-level ones.
The first sheet had a large character meaning "kill" written on it, circled in blood-red ink to indicate an assassination mission. The details were written below.
Mission: Assassinate a general of the Mingling Clan
Deadline: Valid for three months
Strength assessment: The Mingling Clan is not a ninja clan. It is a force in northern Land of Fire. The general is guarded day and night by three Special Jonin. There is also a samurai of unknown strength.
Mission difficulty: Gray
Mission reward: 30,000 ryō
Recommendation: Accept with five Special Jonin or two Jonin.
After reading it, Shin frowned. The rest seemed fine, but what was this about a samurai whose strength was unknown? He remembered samurai being mentioned in the original story as a profession that ninjas had made obsolete, one that survived only in the Land of Iron.
After thinking it over, he set the mission aside. The current mission rankings were unreliable. They'd assigned it a rank without even knowing the enemy's strength.
Of course, Shin was confident he could complete it alone, but there was no point. Fighting a Special Jonin wasn't much of a challenge for him now. He wanted to take on a Jonin.
With that in mind, he pushed the gray-level missions aside and started looking through the black-level ones. The very first mission caught his eye.
Mission: Eliminate the rogue Blood Ninja.
Deadline: Before he escapes the Land of Fire.
Strength assessment: Blood Ninja, formerly a Jonin of the Kigen Clan, was known as Blood Ninja because he liked to leave a bloody handprint on his victims after killing them. He was also called Blood Hand. A month ago, for reasons unknown, he raped the Kigen Clan's young lady and brutally murdered her. He also killed two of the Kigen Clan's Special Jonin and wounded a Jonin. He is currently on the run, and the Kigen Clan has issued a wanted notice across the Ninja World. The latest intelligence says he was seen in the northwest of the Land of Fire a day ago. He may be trying to escape to the Land of Earth.
Mission difficulty: Black
Mission reward: 80,000 ryō
Recommendation: Since Blood Ninja is stronger than an ordinary Jonin, it is recommended that two Jonin work together, or that an Elite Jonin accept the mission.
Shin tore the page from the stack. "I'll take this mission."
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