C-rank Escort Mission for Rookies, Undercurrents Stirring in Amegakure

The hall was empty, with several civilian staff members in charge of task classifications gathered around the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi.

Naruto glanced over and said bluntly, "You're the Hokage, yet you handle every little damn thing yourself. Aren't you afraid you'll work yourself into the ground one day?"

Back when he watched the anime, he had always seen the Hokage planted in the mission hall and assumed it was just because the protagonist needed him there.

Now he understood. From D-rank to S-rank, missions big and small all passed through the Hokage's hands.

It made sense when he thought about it. Holding the authority to assign missions was one way for the Hokage to strengthen his own faction. Lucrative jobs could be given first to ninjas from his side.

Yamato, standing nearby, nearly had his eyes pop out when he heard Naruto's words.

(ΩДΩ)!

"Ahaha... Lord Hokage, please don't take offense. Well, I'll definitely teach this kid some manners later."

Yamato scratched his head and gave the Third Hokage an apologetic smile. The Third had pulled him out of Root's filthy mire, and he had always remembered that favor.

What he did not know was that the Third had approved the experiments involving Wood Release cells.

The sole Wood Release ninja Danzo had painstakingly cultivated was ultimately poached by Hiruzen Sarutobi.

Hiruzen Sarutobi narrowed his eyes and waved a hand, apparently in a fine mood.

"It's nothing. He's just a child. It's a good thing that he worries about my health."

Yamato quickly plastered another smile across his face.

Naruto rolled his eyes at him, without much expectation for the mission itself.

With the Jinchuriki label hanging over him, jobs outside the village normally had nothing to do with him.

That Land of Waves mission last time—who knew what had gotten into the Third Hokage for him to assign it?

A Genin's usual starting point was nothing more than finding cats and dogs, running errands for the neighbors, or babysitting—nothing but miscellaneous D-rank chores.

The Third unhurriedly pulled out a scroll and said with a smile, "A mission just came in. It's a C-rank escort job. With the abilities you lot have, I think you can handle it."

Naruto froze when he heard that.

What the hell? Did the sun rise in the west today?

His very first mission was actually an escort job?

He stepped up to Yamato, craning his neck as he asked, "Gardener, what's the deal? It really is an escort mission that lets us leave the village?"

Yamato gripped the scroll, the corner of his mouth twitching nonstop.

From the first day they met, the nickname Gardener had been welded onto his head. How had a Wood Release ninja like him ended up as some flower-planting, hedge-trimming gardener?

He handed over the mission scroll.

It turned out that a wealthy merchant from the Land of Fields needed to travel to the Land of Grass for business, with the Land of Frost and the Land of Waterfalls lying between them.

Those two small countries were clearly unstable, so the merchant wanted to take a detour through the Land of Fire, which bordered both the Land of Fields and the Land of Grass.

Coming to Konoha to post the mission was, frankly, just paying protection money.

If ninjas from another village came to work on Konoha's territory and did not pay their toll, they would be branded spies and have their goods seized.

Calling it an escort mission was less accurate than saying they were to keep an eye on the merchant caravan and make sure they were not hiding any ill intentions.

The merchants had also hired quite a few mercenaries from their own country's Fuma Clan. Though the Fuma Clan had declined, they still had some Jonin under their command.

The Fuma Shuriken was a weapon unique to that clan, but with the world in chaos, the clan had been declining by the day.

Now, just to put food on the table, they could only take jobs that risked their lives.

When Jiraiya had wandered the Ninja World years ago, he had encountered a Fuma Clan ninja hired as a wartime mercenary and even fought him.

Naruto's team was to begin once the merchant entered the Land of Fire's borders, escorting him along the border all the way to the Land of Grass frontier.

Naruto nodded. Since the day he was born, he had been confined within Konoha's barrier and had never stepped outside it.

To people of the Ninja World, that was perfectly normal. Wars raged outside every day, with villages massacred and goods plundered as common as anything. Konoha was so peaceful that few ordinary people willingly left.

But for Naruto, who had lived in the global village of Earth in his previous life, this felt like being trapped in some remote mountain hollow.

At most, Konoha was only about the size of a small town from his previous life. Who would not grow sick of it after living there for so long?

Hana Inuzuka and Izumi Uchiha were the same. It was their first time being able to leave Konoha, and excitement was written all over their faces.

The three followed Yamato and bought everything they needed for the long journey.

Before long, the three arrived at Konoha's gates.

Kamizuki Izumo and Izumo Kamizuki had long since become the gatekeepers. After the three completed their departure registration, they headed straight for the meeting place agreed upon with the merchant.

At the same time, in Amegakure.

"Where there is light, there must be shadow. Since there are winners, there must also be losers. The two are bound together by cause and effect; they cannot be separated."

Obito, wearing a spiral mask, was feeding sweet poison to the person before him.

"But if we want to create a world with only winners, only peace, and only love, it's not impossible."

"As long as you're willing to lend me a hand, I'll tell you how."

Standing before him were the Six Paths of Pain, already forged.

He pointed toward the towering Rain Shadow Tower. "First, stage a coup. It's time to turn the page on Amegakure's internal strife."

"Go. It's time to make the first move in the game of peace!"