The Crucial C-Rank Mission

Time flew by, and it was already May.

Team 7's survival exercise had taken place two months ago.

Over the past two months, Team 7 had continuously carried out missions assigned by the village, steadily building their teamwork.

Under Kakashi's leadership, Team 7 was now beginning to look like a truly coordinated unit.

Naruto had also developed his own impressions during this time.

The most obvious one was that ninjas made money incredibly fast!

As a team made up of newly promoted Genin, Team 7 could only accept D-rank missions.

These missions were nothing more than ordinary jobs with no trace of the shinobi world to them, like finding lost pets or helping with farm work.

Yet even such D-rank missions offered high commissions ranging from five thousand to fifty thousand ryo.

Even after the village deducted taxes and the payment was split among the members of the ninja team carrying out the mission... it was still a considerable income.

And occasionally, wealthy people such as Madame Shijimi, the wife of the Land of Fire's Daimyo, would issue a D-rank mission that was merely to find a cat, yet raise the commission to the D-rank maximum of fifty thousand ryo.

So Naruto had saved up quite a bit of money over the past two months.

He had never expected that, after working himself to death in his previous life without making any money, he would start showing signs of financial freedom after only two months as a ninja in this life.

However, Naruto also understood very clearly that while he could make money so easily as a Genin partly because ninja missions paid well, it was inseparable from the immense shelter of Konoha.

As the strongest of the Five Great Nations, the Land of Fire and the Hidden Leaf Village's reputation drew countless people from within and outside the country to entrust their missions to Konoha's ninjas.

Genin could live so comfortably during peacetime probably only in Konoha. That might not be the case in the other great nations.

The Land of Earth had once made use of Akatsuki's combat strength because of reduced military forces and the loss of a large number of commissions.

The Land of Water's Blood Mist Policy had resulted in years of isolation.

Sunagakure in the Land of Wind had even reached the point of deciding to take the risky step of attacking Konoha just to keep the village running.

The Land of Lightning was still expanding its military strength, and its methods were extremely violent.

In truth, as long as one shifted their gaze slightly away from Konoha and looked toward the entire shinobi world, it was easy to realize that the shadow left behind by the Third Shinobi World War had yet to fade.

This so-called peace had lasted only a brief dozen or so years.

Konoha had merely maintained its position as the dominant power, allowing the village to recover its vitality so quickly on the surface. But its hidden decay was no different from that of the other four great nations.

If he wanted to defect from Konoha, he had to understand that Konoha's current peace did not represent the entire shinobi world.

Conflict was still the main theme of the shinobi world.

Naruto warned himself inwardly.

Once he failed to make the right judgment, danger would become difficult to handle when it arrived.

"Then Team 7's commission to find the lost cat Tora has now concluded."

Third's voice interrupted Naruto's thoughts.

The tangled thoughts in his mind had taken no more than a blink in the eyes of others. Naruto's brief moment of distraction had not drawn anyone's attention.

At the center of the mission assignment counter in the Hidden Leaf Village, Third used a brush to black out a section of the commission form, indicating that the mission was complete.

With a pipe between his lips, his gaze moved over Team 7 before finally settling on Kakashi. "Among the teams that graduated this year, Kakashi, the team you lead has completed the most missions so far."

Hearing the praise in Third's words, Kakashi scratched his head with great humility. "You flatter us, Lord Third Hokage."

"That is simply the truth. There is no flattery involved."

Third took a deep drag from his pipe. There were three teams that had successfully become Genin this year: Teams 7, 8, and 10.

Based on each team's mission completion records over the past two months and the reports from their supervising Jōnin, Team 7 was the team with the highest degree of coordination.

And the reason for that...

Third looked at Naruto.

At that moment, Naruto was staring at the cat struggling desperately in Madame Shijimi's arms.

Naruto had contributed even more than Kakashi to the team's cohesion. Based on Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno's personalities, he interacted with his two companions as though prescribing the right medicine for their ailments.

Over the past two months, the other two teams had always ended up arguing, but Team 7 had never had such a problem.

That was all because Naruto always skillfully resolved the conflicts between the three members of Team 7.

Third suddenly recalled Naruto's dream of becoming Hokage during the Scroll of Seals incident.

It seemed Naruto was working hard to grow toward that dream.

A wave of gratification rose in his heart. Third removed the pipe from his mouth, exhaled a pungent cloud of smoke, closed the commission form in his hand, and made his decision.

"Team 7's next mission will be to protect someone. The mission rank is C-Rank!"

Third voiced the decision in his heart.

Third's words made Naruto's expression turn serious.

While Naruto had been staring at Tora, Madame Shijimi, carrying Tora out of the mission assignment area, had passed another person entering the mission room.

The newcomer was a slovenly old man holding a bottle of alcohol, looking thoroughly drunk, and wearing reading glasses.

"The client has arrived."

Naruto was not the only one who noticed the newcomer. Third spoke again at just the right moment, confirming the man's identity.

"Team 7's C-Rank mission is to escort Mr. Tazuna, a bridge-building expert, back to the Land of Waves and protect his personal safety until the bridge in the Land of Waves has been completed!"

So it really was Tazuna!

Because Naruto was not as close to Third as he had been in the original story, the method of pestering Third into giving him a C-Rank mission was not feasible.

While Naruto had been staring at Tora, he had been thinking about how to get Team 7 out of the whirlpool of D-rank missions as quickly as possible.

Before he could settle on a method, Third had unexpectedly taken the initiative to assign Team 7 a C-Rank mission.

In Naruto's plan to defect, the Joint Chunin Exams that would arrive soon were a crucial part of his plan.

He was not the Naruto from the original story, so he could not talk-no-jutsu the Nine-Tails. Although the Eight Trigrams Seal imprisoning the Nine-Tails still worked, more and more Nine-Tails chakra was leaking out.

Therefore, he had to ensure that Karin, who would come to participate in the Chunin Ninja Exams, became his companion. Karin possessed sealing techniques just like Kushina Uzumaki, and she could help him suppress the Nine-Tails.

Moreover, Karin had no sense of belonging toward Kusagakure, the village that had caused her mother's death.

Naruto was also confident that after the Chunin Ninja Exams, he could persuade Karin to join his side when he defected.

However, the Chunin Ninja Exams that would begin soon were not normally something Genin like Naruto and the others, who had graduated less than half a year ago, could participate in.

Naruto had considered why Kakashi had allowed the three members of Team 7, who had only recently graduated from the Ninja Academy, to take the exams in the original story.

The most reasonable explanation was the Land of Waves Incident, which had been called a C-Rank mission but had actually already become a B-rank Mission!

The Land of Waves mission had allowed Team 7 to grow rapidly, making Kakashi judge that Team 7 was capable of handling the Chunin Ninja Exams.

But with the precedent of Umino Iruka dying during the Nine-Tails' Rampage, Naruto did not know exactly when Tazuna would send his commission to Konoha.

Naruto had already given up on encountering Tazuna again as he had in the original story.

That was why Naruto had worked so hard over the past two months to bring Team 7 together. When the time came, he only needed to find a way for Team 7 to take on one or two genuine C-Rank missions.

Once Kakashi saw Team 7's ability to cooperate, Naruto could persuade Sasuke, who had always been eager to grow stronger quickly, to join him in convincing Kakashi to let Team 7 participate in the Chunin Ninja Exams.

If that still did not work, Naruto had a backup plan, though it was less effective.

For example, he could directly strike up a conversation with Karin when she came to Konoha for the exams.

But without the identity of a Chunin Ninja Exams participant, approaching a ninja from another village so inexplicably...

Naruto would very likely catch Danzo's attention again. And Karin was not the kind of fool who easily trusted people. In the original story, Sasuke had only gained Karin's favor through a series of coincidences.

...That backup plan was both dangerous and unreliable.

So Naruto had been planning all kinds of possibilities.

But now...

Looking at Tazuna before him, Naruto felt that some things would still be encountered by fate, even after everything had changed.

Just like now, Team 7 had still accepted Tazuna's commission—and every problem Naruto had just been worrying about vanished completely at that moment.