Public Outrage

"Don't worry. Leave it to me. It'll be fine." Facing Shinnosuke's doubts, Nawaki replied confidently.

Trusting their teammate, the other members of the squad stopped trying to dissuade him. Nawaki had never let them down.

The Third Hokage asked sternly, "Are you serious, Nawaki? Once you accept a mission, you have to complete it within a day. Otherwise, it'll count as a failure. You won't receive any payment, and the failure will be recorded in your ninja file as a stain that follows you for the rest of your life. You should know that no one has ever failed a D-rank mission. Any ninja who does would become a laughingstock throughout the entire Shinobi World! Have you thought this through?"

Might Dai chimed in with a warning. "Young man, there's nothing wrong with having youthful energy and passion, but you still need to know your limits. Don't just charge in recklessly!"

Nawaki thought to himself, If I really became a laughingstock throughout the entire Shinobi World, I'd probably earn quite a few Wish Power points, wouldn't I? What a shame the cost would be so steep. After that, I'd basically never be able to earn Wish Power through my reputation again. It'd be a one-time deal—not worth it.

Nawaki raised his head and said solemnly, "I would never joke around with the village's missions! Protecting the village is my ninja way! If I accept a mission, then I'm sure I can complete it! Just watch—I'll prove my resolve! Ninja Art: Multi-Shadow Clone Technique!"

"Poof, poof, poof..." After a series of sharp pops, eighty identical copies of Nawaki appeared in the Hokage's office.

"Each Shadow Clone here has as much chakra as an ordinary Genin. If we work in pairs and supplement our efforts with ninjutsu, we should be able to finish every mission, right, Teacher?"

"What kind of jutsu is that? How did he make so many clones?" some newly graduated Genin asked curiously.

"That's an A-rank forbidden jutsu. It divides the original's chakra equally among every clone. When a clone disappears, all of its experiences are transferred back to the original. If the user isn't mentally strong enough, they can easily get hurt or even die, which is why it's forbidden! Ordinary people can't learn it," a Special Jōnin explained.

"Eighty clones with the strength of Genin. His chakra reserves already exceed those of most Chunin! What terrifying talent!"

"He's the genius young clan head of the Senju Clan, descendant of the First and Second Hokage!"

"He's so handsome." There were fangirls everywhere.

The Third Hokage was stunned by Nawaki. "You've already grown this strong? Since you've made up your mind, I'll leave all these missions to you!"

"Ah! This is youth! I can feel my blood boiling! Let's give it our all, young man!" Who else would say something so embarrassing, if not that certain Bowl Cut?

Afterward, Nawaki took the mission slips and split up to work all over the village. For cleanup jobs, he used Fire Release to burn the rubbish to ashes, then washed the area clean with Water Release. Building work was done directly with Earth Release. Land clearing? Fire Release and Earth Release left the fields fertile and level! Wild beasts? Shunpo and Finger Pistol—and they could have the meat for an extra meal.

With their ninjutsu working in tandem, the eighty Shadow Clones completed every mission in just one morning. Their total payment came to a hundred thousand ryō, equivalent to the fee for completing a B-rank mission!

And with small gains adding up, the Wish Power and reputation he'd earned that day had risen again, returning to where they'd been a year ago.

If he took every D-rank mission in the village each day, he could make millions of ryō a month, along with plenty of reputation and Wish Power. Nawaki even hoped things could keep going like this forever, but he knew that was impossible!

Sure enough, a week later, word spread quickly throughout the village about how fast and efficient Nawaki was at completing missions. Everyone started requesting him for their missions. He was efficient, and his fee was the same as everyone else's, so of course they chose the faster Nawaki. Time was money, after all.

Konoha also had to honor the clients' reasonable requests. In just one short week, the village, which had originally been short on manpower, suddenly had far too many ninja to go around. One person's excessive efficiency had left the village's Genin teams with no missions to take. These newly graduated Genin couldn't safely take on C-rank missions, so they had no choice but to sit idle.

But these ninja relied on mission payments to fund their training, and some from poorer families also needed to help support their households. How were they supposed to get by without mission pay? So they started spending every day in the Hokage's office, hoping the Third Hokage would resolve the problem.

That morning, everyone had gathered in the Hokage's office again. "Teacher, hurry and give me the mission slips! Lately, clients have been demanding that missions be completed faster and faster. We need to get moving!" Nawaki urged him, ignoring the resentful looks from the other Genin teams around him.

The Third Hokage had finally had enough. Looking troubled, he said, "Um... Nawaki, as you can see, ever since you started taking D-rank missions with your Shadow Clones, the other Genin teams haven't had any work for quite a while! Could you take a little break? Clients have the right to request specific ninja for their missions, but ninja also have the right to refuse..."

Before the Third Hokage could finish, Nawaki interrupted him. "That's too much! Protecting the village is our squad's belief! For the past year, you wouldn't let us take C-rank missions, and we put up with that. But now you're even trying to stop us from taking D-rank missions! Lord Hokage, why are you targeting us like this?"

"Yeah! Old man, what are you trying to do? Why won't you let us take missions? Isn't accepting missions what ninja are supposed to do?" Shinnosuke finally erupted, too.

Uchiha Hikari nodded in agreement. "We've all been working so hard for the village. What Lord Hokage is doing really is too much!"

Torifu Akimichi, who knew the reason behind all this, opened his mouth, but in the end he could only sigh. He simply couldn't find a reason to stop his three subordinates from acting in the village's interest. Their selfless devotion to the village was exactly the kind of thing a guiding Jōnin should support. If he didn't actively encourage it, he would already be failing in his duty; stopping them outright would be completely indefensible.

Hearing Nawaki and the others, the Genin who had previously resented them began to chatter among themselves.

"With their squad's strength, Nawaki and the others should be able to take C-rank missions!"

"The Third Hokage made them do D-rank missions for more than a year?"

"Genin teams who graduated at the same time as them have already started taking C-rank missions, haven't they?"

"Why would the Third Hokage do that?"

"Who knows? I heard his son, Shinnosuke, was arguing with him about it for ages."

"Come to think of it, the Third Hokage really has gone too far. Now he won't even let them take D-rank missions. He's completely cutting off their livelihood!"

"Honestly! Earlier, I blamed Nawaki for being stingy. He's so strong, yet instead of taking higher-ranked missions, he was competing with us newcomers for D-rank work. I never thought the Third Hokage was behind all this!"

"Stopping ninja from taking missions? The Third Hokage has really gone too far this time!"

"Yeah! We've had no missions for days. I still have a younger brother to support!"

"I'm almost out of money for my training, too!"