Solo Mission

Takuma stood in the mission briefing hall of the Hokage Building, staring at the dense rows of request forms on the bulletin board. For the first time, he felt the true weight of the words "on his own."

"C-rank missions require a three-man squad. You're alone, so you can only take D-rank," the ninja at the mission desk said, flipping through the registry without looking up. "Next."

Takuma tore a request form off the board and handed it over.

The ninja glanced at it, then looked behind him—confirming there were no teammates, no jonin leader, just this one genin brat. "...Are you serious?"

"I'm serious."

The request read: Herbal shop urgently needs twenty stalks of Moonlight Grass. Collection site: Konoha's back mountain. Reward: 3,000 ryo.

The back mountain was in the northwest corner of the village; crossing two ridges would lead toward the Valley of the End. Takuma had never been there, but he had heard his father mention it—the ruins of the old Senju Clan estate were nearby, though they had been abandoned since the Second Shinobi World War, leaving only a few foundation stones buried in the weeds.

He left the village with a medicine basket on his back. The basket was borrowed from the shop owner; it was made of rattan and larger than he had imagined, feeling like a turtle shell as he carried it.

"Moonlight Grass grows on the edge of cliffs. The leaves glow at night, but during the day, look for the silver veins on the underside," the owner, a lean, wiry old man, said, his mustache twitching. "Don't go picking weeds and bringing them back. Last time, some kid brought me a basket of wild onions."

"Wild onions are pretty tasty, too."

The owner glared at him.

The road out of the village was quiet. There were no teammates to chat with, no jonin leader to offer instructions, and even the birdsong was sparse. It wasn't until Takuma had walked for a while that he realized what this silence meant—there was no one to keep watch, no one to read the map. Everything had to be done by himself.

This was a solo mission. All responsibility rested on his own shoulders; there was no one to share the burden, and no one to blame if things went wrong.

The terrain of the back mountain was far more complex than the training grounds. The bushes were dense, vines hung down from the trees, and the fallen leaves on the ground were thick enough to bury his ankles. Takuma used a kunai to hack through the branches blocking his path, and it took him about forty minutes to reach the first cliff.

The cliff wasn't high, maybe ten meters or so, and the rock face was covered in various climbing plants. He crouched down and began flipping over leaves one by one, just as the owner had taught him.

The Moonlight Grass was smaller than he had expected; the leaves were only the size of a thumbprint and hugged the ground so closely that they were impossible to notice without careful inspection.

There was quite a bit growing along the cliff edge, but it was scattered. Takuma searched inch by inch, crouching and shuffling for nearly two hours before he had picked nine stalks. His knees ached, his neck was stiff, and his back was scorched by the sun.

"Eleven left." Takuma straightened his back and stretched his shoulders, his bones popping.

He had pretty much cleared this section of the cliff, so he would have to find a new spot for the rest.

Before he could turn around, the bushes behind him shook violently, and a dark shadow charged toward him, accompanied by a foul, fishy stench.

Takuma instinctively turned sideways, but he was still clipped. The massive impact sent him flying; he flipped in the air and crashed onto the gravelly ground at the edge of the cliff. The medicine basket fell from his back, rolled twice, and the Moonlight Grass scattered everywhere.

An adult male wild boar, with a shoulder height of over two meters and tusks as long as his forearm, was pawing the ground with its front hooves, its small eyes locked onto him.

The first thought in Takuma's mind was: There are wild boars in the back mountain? The mission form didn't say that.

The second thought was: This pig is way too overpowered.

Takuma didn't have time to stand up; he rolled to the side. The boar charged past, grazing his clothes, its tusks plowing into the ground and sending gravel flying. Half a second slower, and those tusks would have plowed through his stomach.

He scrambled to his feet and retreated two steps—his heels hit the edge of the cliff, and loose stones tumbled over the side, taking several seconds to hit the bottom.

The boar turned, white steam puffing from its nostrils as it pawed the earth. Takuma locked eyes with it for a second, his brain calculating rapidly—shuriken might not penetrate the boar's hide, his kunai was too short, Water Style wouldn't work on the unstable cliff edge, and Earth Style required time for hand seals. He had explosive tags, but the distance was too close; the blast wave would knock him off the cliff, too.

His gaze drifted past the boar into the woods behind it. In the direction the boar had come from, the bushes had been smashed into a clear trench. At the end of the trench, he could vaguely see a fallen tree covered in vines, next to a sunken pit.

The boar launched its third charge. Takuma didn't dodge; he jumped straight up—the boar charged with its head down, its tusks grazing the soles of his shoes. He stepped on the boar's back for leverage, flipped behind it, and ran the moment he landed.

The boar skidded for several meters before it could stop. It turned around to find its prey had already vanished into the woods. The boar let out an angry howl and gave chase.

Takuma ran hunched over through the brush, the vines whipping his face painfully, but he didn't dare stop. The sound of the boar's footsteps grew closer, the thud of its hooves crushing dead branches sounding like a war drum.

The fallen tree was right ahead. The trunk was so thick two people couldn't wrap their arms around it, and the pit left by the upturned roots was just big enough to hide a person. Takuma slid into the pit, backed against the trunk, and formed hand seals.

The boar charged, heading straight for his hiding spot, its tusks aimed at the figure visible through the gap in the trunk.

Then, it stepped into the trap Takuma had hastily dug with Earth Style.

The boar suddenly lost its balance while running at high speed; its front hooves sank into the earth, and its entire body flipped over, its back and head slamming hard into the fallen trunk.

The trunk emitted a dull thud, shaking loose flakes of bark. The boar was knocked unconscious, lying on its back with its tusks jammed into the wood.

Takuma crawled out of the pit and stood beside the boar, panting. He looked down at the unconscious beast, remained silent for a moment, and then suddenly cursed, his voice loud and echoing through the empty mountain forest.

When the sun began to set, Takuma headed down the mountain with a basket full of Moonlight Grass. Halfway down, he suddenly stopped, turned around, and went back up.

He brought the boar down, too.

The boar had mostly regained consciousness, but its tusks were still stuck, and it couldn't break free. Takuma grabbed the boar's hind legs and dragged it all the way down the mountain. The boar let out angry grunts as it bumped along, but it was too dizzy from the dragging to put up any resistance.

The gate-guarding chunin saw Takuma dragging a half-dead boar toward him and his expression twisted subtly. "...Didn't you go to pick herbs?"

"A bonus gift."

The herbal shop owner opened the door to a knock and saw Takuma first—covered in mud and leaves, a red welt on his face from a vine, and a small twig stuck in his hair. Then he saw the boar being dragged behind him, and his eyes widened like dinner plates.

"Twenty stalks of Moonlight Grass," Takuma said, handing the basket to the owner. "Count them. This pig almost knocked me off a cliff, so I figured I shouldn't suffer for nothing and brought it back."

The owner looked down to count the grass, then looked up at the boar, his lips trembling for a long time before he managed to say: "This... this is worth way more than the Moonlight Grass..."

"Then pay me what you think is fair."

In the end, the shop owner paid the 3,000 ryo for the grass and bought the boar at market price. He even threw in a pork hot pot—made from the boar's meat, so fresh it was still steaming. The broth was brewed with the shop's own nourishing herbs; goji berries, angelica, and codonopsis were all added in generous amounts, and white steam rose, carrying the scent of medicine and meat.

Takuma sat at a low table in the back courtyard of the shop, facing a bubbling pot of hot pot all by himself.

He fished out a slice of meat with his chopsticks and shoved it into his mouth, wincing from the heat. It was delicious. He picked up his cup and tapped the rim with his chopsticks.

The crisp sound rang out three times in the courtyard.

"To Team 12."