My Neighbor's Rabbit Eats Pellets

Ye Yuexin thought for a moment and decided this was the one. He handed it to Itachi Uchiha, who looked it over and had no objections.

Much like in the original story, Itachi was very kind-hearted and did not enjoy overly bloody missions.

Once the mission was selected, Itachi Uchiha tore it off the board and handed it to the clerk at the counter.

The two of them then submitted the information forms they had filled out upon graduating from the academy. The clerk processed the registration, and with that, the mission was officially assigned to them.

A copy of the mission details was handed to Ye Yuexin. Looking at the deadline, he saw there were only three days left.

There was no time to wait until tomorrow to set off, so he said, "Let's go back and prepare our gear. We'll meet at the village gate in an hour."

Ye Yuexin didn't have much to pack, but since this mission required staying out of the village overnight, he tidied up his room a bit. He didn't need to carry anything on his person.

That's right—when ninjas go out on missions, they are no different from ascetics, sleeping in the open and eating in the wind.

Ye Yuexin simply placed a few pre-prepared military ration pills into the pouch at his waist, just in case.

Afterward, he headed toward the Konoha gate.

Upon arriving, he saw Itachi Uchiha already there. He hadn't expected Itachi to be faster than him.

However, seeing the large backpack on Itachi's back, he knew Itachi had prepared much more thoroughly than he had.

He couldn't help it; he lacked experience in this area.

After a quick verification at the gate, the two of them stepped out of the village.

This wasn't Ye Yuexin's first time leaving the village. Konoha was relatively relaxed about the comings and goings of its own villagers.

Ye Yuexin had left a few times to train outside the village. As long as one returned within the day, no application was required.

Strict checks were reserved for ninjas, as they often stayed away for long periods when on missions. No one could guess what might happen out there, so leaving the village required rigorous screening—specifically, a travel permit. Permits for missions below A-rank were usually included with the mission documents.

The mission site was quite far away. Ye Yuexin and Itachi discussed it and decided to travel through the forest, as ninjas usually did on missions. The reason was that they could leap between the trees, and the branches provided good elasticity.

By using chakra, they could jump great distances, whereas on flat ground, they would have to constantly maintain their chakra flow.

Along the way, whenever they felt tired, they would take a break, always ensuring they kept at least half of their chakra in reserve.

Unless it was an urgent mission, this was standard procedure. It was what they had been taught at the ninja academy, and Ye Yuexin felt it was correct; one really did need to be prepared for sudden danger while out in the field.

After resting three times, Ye Yuexin and Itachi finally arrived at the village by dusk.

The entire village consisted of only a few dozen households and wasn't very large.

The two of them briefly notified the village chief and then headed toward the mountains. A ninja's movements must be covert, so this time, aside from the chief, no one in the village knew of their arrival.

Along the way, the rice paddies on both sides were riddled with holes—likely rabbit burrows. It seemed the speed at which these rabbits dug was no less impressive than that of rats.

Not far away, a white sphere was still busy digging into the dirt.

With soil flying, it appeared that this was a Big-Toothed Rabbit.

Just as Ye Yuexin was thinking this, Itachi Uchiha took action. In an instant, a kunai was launched.

With a sharp shriek, the Big-Toothed Rabbit was pinned to the ground by the kunai through its hind leg.

That damn shriek startled Ye Yuexin. It didn't sound much different from a human scream, just higher-pitched and thinner.

It was the first time Ye Yuexin had learned that rabbits made such sounds.

He quickly followed after Itachi.

A pure white rabbit the size of a washbasin lay on the ground, baring its teeth at them, looking quite fierce.

Looking at it now, you had to admit—if you ignored those two side-by-side fangs, this breed of rabbit was actually quite cute and round.

It must have been because they had no natural predators lately and had too much to eat, causing them to get fat. This Big-Toothed Rabbit was truly bold, wreaking havoc on the crops in broad daylight.

It was almost dark now; Big-Toothed Rabbits generally hid in their burrows during the day and only came out to forage at night.

With night falling, Ye Yuexin felt they needed to come up with a plan.

But for now, eating was the priority. Didn't they have fresh ingredients right here? They wouldn't need to eat those military ration pills. Ye Yuexin looked at the rabbit in Itachi Uchiha's hand with great interest.

He had been looking forward to seeing Itachi Uchiha star in a "true fragrance" moment, but to his surprise, Itachi was even more decisive than he was.

There was no "Oh, the bunny is so cute, why would we eat it?" followed by "Ah, this is delicious" kind of plot.

"What should we do next?" Perhaps because he was used to being with Ye Yuexin and knew he had more tricks up his sleeve, Itachi Uchiha asked for his plan.

"For these kinds of social animals, it's better to wipe them all out at once," Ye Yuexin said, answering Itachi's question. "Otherwise, if we only take out a few, the rest might hide."

A while later.

Watching the sky grow darker, he continued, "We'll use bait to lure them out, then surround and attack them together."

No sooner said than done, Ye Yuexin and Itachi found a flat area and began placing dry straw around the perimeter. Itachi understood the plan as soon as he saw it, and both began to work, encircling the area with the dry straw.

This formed a simple trap. Since they weren't dealing with ninjas, Ye Yuexin felt there was no need for anything overly complex.

Once finished, he said, "This should work. We'll place the bait inside, and once the Big-Toothed Rabbits are all in, you use Fire Style to ignite the straw and box them in. I'll go in and finish them off."

Itachi Uchiha nodded in agreement.

Ye Yuexin continued, "You go ahead and set the bait; I'm going to prepare some gear." He intended to whittle some wooden stakes.

After all, ever since he started practicing the Li Flying Dagger technique, he hadn't used shuriken or kunai. He felt the hidden weapons of this little island nation really weren't all that great.

Dealing with a few rabbits now didn't warrant the use of throwing knives, just as one wouldn't use the Heavenly Sword to slaughter a chicken.

He had originally felt that things would proceed smoothly, but after Ye Yuexin returned from whittling wood, he was left somewhat dumbfounded.

Guess what he saw...

Itachi Uchiha was actually sticking dango into the ground.

Damn it, it was actually dango...

And three-colored dango at that.

Ye Yuexin felt a sudden headache.

He said, caught between laughter and tears, "Have you ever seen a rabbit eat dango?"

"I have. My neighbor keeps one, and it really likes the dango I bring it," he replied quickly and calmly, his tone certain.

That tone was so confident, as if it were only natural for rabbits to eat dango.

At that moment, Ye Yuexin really wanted to ask who gave him the courage to speak with such certainty.

At the same time, he couldn't help but wonder if he shouldn't have teamed up with Itachi while the future god was still in such a naive, adorable state.

The young Itachi and the Itachi god from the anime were like two completely different people.

As expected, an Itachi who hadn't experienced the battlefield was just an unevolved Digimon.

Watching Itachi's backpack, which was already half-empty, Ye Yuexin suddenly felt he should give it a try as well.

After all, in the world of anime, nothing was certain.

One couldn't judge things by the common sense of his past life. What if the little bunnies here actually had a taste for this?

[New book released... I suggest adding it to your library and letting it grow before reading. Your support is needed... Thank you, everyone.]