The Assistant Instructor Mission, Qi Luna's "Thoughtful Intentions"

"This is Yahiko. I've reached Position B!"

"Copy. I've reached Position A, too!"

"No problems over here, either!"

"Move!"

At the command, three figures darted out from behind a corner or a utility pole and pounced on the cat sleeping beneath the eaves.

The blazing sunlight gilded Konoha in gold. On a bench in Konoha Park, Yahiko slumped without a care, looking utterly listless. Even his orange hair seemed to have drooped.

He was still holding a cage containing a furry tabby cat that struggled nonstop. Tora angrily scratched at the iron bars on one side of the cage.

(The cat owned by the wife of the Land of Fire's daimyo was named Little Tiger, but that was the one Naruto and the others caught, more than twenty years in the future. So Tora here was Little Tiger's predecessor, not the same cat.)

"Another boring D-rank mission. This time we had to catch the daimyo's wife's runaway cat, Tora. Last time, we weeded the Herb Garden. The time before that, we cleaned up trash in the Konoha River. And the time before that... Brother Qi Luna, when can we take on some high-rank missions?"

"We're outstanding ninja who can already spar with Jiraiya! Doing these boring D-rank missions all day is such a waste of our talents! Our youthful passion's about to be buried under all this trivial stuff..."

Beside him, Konan carefully put away the special paper she had used to catch Tora. Her long blue hair fluttered in the evening breeze, and her delicate brows furrowed slightly. Her voice was calm, but there was a hint of resentful displeasure in it.

"It really does waste a lot of unnecessary effort. And Tora runs away all the time; he's several times more alert than an ordinary cat. But catching him doesn't seem to have done much to improve our abilities..."

Nagato silently straightened the Forehead Protector that Tora had messed up while struggling. A trace of helplessness showed in his Rinnegan beneath his red hair.

He didn't complain, but his slightly pursed lips and the brief confusion in his eyes clearly showed that he, too, had begun to question the point of carrying out missions like this.

Standing before them, Uzumaki Qi Luna clasped his hands behind his head. Seeing his disciples down in the dumps, understanding flickered in his eyes, and the corner of his mouth curved in a faint smile.

"Feel like you're being treated unfairly? Think your time and your 'abilities' are being wasted? Believe ninja should spend more time and effort improving their strength?"

His gaze swept over the three of them before settling on Tora, who was still baring his teeth.

"A mission is a mission, no matter its rank, its contents, or whether you like it. Gathering accurate intelligence, observing your surroundings carefully, waiting patiently for the right moment, analyzing every possibility involving the target, making sound judgments, and preparing strategies for different situations... Those are all essential fundamentals for a ninja!"

"A ninja is someone who can endure what ordinary people cannot. You need perseverance and conviction that never waver! Until you truly understand what it means to be a ninja, accumulating this kind of experience is essential!"

He paused and looked toward the Ninja Academy in the distance, bathed in sunlight. The children's noisy outdoor lesson carried over from the grounds. Then he changed tack.

"If you find it boring... go back to the Ninja Academy and take a look at the village's younger generation. Maybe you'll learn something there..."

"Huh?"

The three of them stared at him in surprise.

But Qi Luna had already set off toward the Hokage Building.

After turning in the mission, Qi Luna asked Sarutobi Hiruzen for an assistant instructor mission at the Konoha Ninja Academy. He gave Madam Shijimi's Tora a sympathetic glance, then led Yahiko and the others to the Konoha Ninja Academy.

A short while later, Qi Luna and the others arrived at the Academy training ground. They found a group of five- and six-year-old tykes awkwardly practicing the most basic body coordination.

A river, about ten meters wide, had no proper bridge. The only way across was a few logs spaced far apart from one another. The students lined up, each trying to make their way across.

"Whoa!"

"Splash!"

"This is so hard!"

"Teacher, isn't this way too difficult?!"

The river wasn't rushing; in fact, it was quite calm. Even so, several students fell off the logs, and the scene soon descended into chaos. The young Chunin instructor in charge of the first-years looked rather helpless.

Qi Luna brought Yahiko and the others over to the young Chunin and briefly confirmed the mission.

"Yamada, sorry to trouble you. You can leave the rest to my disciples."

The Chunin instructor named Yamada looked as if a great burden had been lifted.

"Ah, Qi Luna, thank you for taking over!"

The newly enrolled first-year students looked curiously at Nagato and the others, chattering among themselves.

"Wow! It's Senior Nagato, the top student who applied for early graduation a while ago!"

"And Senior Yahiko! I heard his Body Flicker Technique is even faster than an ordinary Chunin!"

"Senior Konan is so pretty! Her Paper Style techniques are so elegant, too!"

Looking at the crooked, chaotic scene before him, Yahiko's irritation from catching Tora was immediately replaced by a bemused sense of responsibility.

Nagato watched a girl who had been trying hard for ages but still couldn't keep her balance. She had fallen off the slippery log more than once, and his eyes softened without him realizing it.

Konan went over to a student with blue hair like hers and gently showed her how to adjust the flow of her chakra.

"Hey! Spread the chakra evenly under your feet, but don't use too much! If you just pour it all out at once, you'll only slip faster!"

Yahiko crouched beside a clumsy, chubby boy and couldn't help calling out instructions. His short orange hair bounced as he moved.

"That's it. Little by little. Focus on feeling the flow of your chakra..."

Nagato patiently corrected the girl's movements and chakra control. The Rinnegan clearly reflected the chaotic flow of chakra beneath her feet.

"Relax your body. You can't force chakra out through sheer strength..."

Konan's voice was like a clear spring, calming the nervous child beside her.

The three of them quickly settled into their roles as "teachers," earnestly guiding the bewildered children.

Seeing the children beam with joy over even the smallest improvement, a strange sense of fulfillment welled up in Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan.

So guiding others and watching them grow little by little could be rewarding, too!

The frustration they'd felt over their tedious, boring missions lately gradually faded away.

"Brother Qi Luna, did you have to do lots of D-rank missions back then, too? When you taught us, did you feel the same way we do while teaching these kids?"

Seeing the Academy students' training get back on track, Yahiko finally found a moment to ask. He looked at Qi Luna with admiration, thinking of all the care he'd put into this lesson.

But Qi Luna was caught off guard by the question, and he couldn't help falling into thought.

"Of course not!"

"That guy's mission record only has one C-rank mission. Everything else he's done has been B-rank or higher! He's never had to do those boring D-rank missions."

Just then, a small figure entered through the training ground's entrance.