Mission Continues

Let's briefly sort out the mission ranks carried out by ninja.

Based on the three ninja ranks of Genin, Chunin, and Jōnin, ninja missions were divided into five levels.

Following the order of the twenty-six letters, there were four ranks from highest to lowest difficulty: A, B, C, and D.

And above A-rank Missions were S-rank Missions, which were even more difficult.

There was no need to say much about D-rank Missions. Ever since the three members of Team 7 had become ninja two months ago, those were the only missions they had carried out.

Though D-rank Missions were also ninja missions, they were more like tasks ordinary people could complete—only, "if ninja were hired to do them, things would be resolved faster."

Take Madame Shijimi, whose pet cat always went missing. If Tora had hidden on the roof, an ordinary person might have needed to find another solution.

But a ninja only needed a light jump to land on the roof.

Therefore, D-rank Missions held no danger whatsoever for ninja.

They were merely odd jobs like babysitting, finding pets, or helping with farm work.

C-rank Missions were somewhat more closely tied to the nature of ninja. Violence might occur during them, but the targets of that violence were only ordinary people capable of posing a physical threat.

A ninja who could use ninjutsu dealing with such ordinary people was simply an adult bullying children.

"...Mr. Tazuna, when you submitted your request to Konoha, the staff member responsible for registering it should have explained the ninja mission ranking system to you, correct?"

After dealing with the Demon Brothers' corpses, Kakashi looked at the fidgeting Tazuna and asked.

Naruto had used the Subterranean Decapitation Technique to imprison the Demon Brothers, sparing both their lives.

But as ninja who had attacked them—and rogue ninja at that—Kakashi could not allow the Demon Brothers to keep living.

Having obtained the information he needed from them, Kakashi disposed of the Demon Brothers on the spot.

That was the norm in the ninja world: killing and being killed.

Even the Hidden Leaf Village, the most peaceful of the Five Great Nations, resolutely followed this law of survival.

Now that he had obtained the information, Kakashi had abandoned his previous easygoing attitude and confronted Tazuna in an interrogative tone.

Tazuna said nothing, as if he believed that by neither admitting nor denying anything, he could muddle his way through Kakashi's questioning.

"...Mr. Tazuna, I know you may have circumstances you cannot speak of. But we entered into a contract with you because the mission you reported to Konoha was a C-rank Mission."

Kakashi glanced at Naruto and the others before continuing. "According to a mission's rank, the village assigns ninja of corresponding strength to carry it out—my subordinates only graduated from the Ninja Academy not long ago. It was because yours was a C-rank Mission that Lord Hokage assigned my team to it."

"You concealed the mission's true difficulty. It has already reached B-Rank."

While Genin could still be assigned C-rank ninja missions under the regulations,

B-Rank missions that required fighting ninja could only be accepted by ninja with the strength of Chunin or above.

The maximum reward for a D-rank Mission was fifty thousand ryō.

The minimum reward for a C-rank Mission was thirty thousand ryō.

The reward for a B-Rank mission ranged from eighty thousand to two hundred thousand ryō.

But B-Rank missions could hardly ever hire ninja for the minimum listed reward.

One only needed to look at the mission rank reward rates to understand Tazuna's reason for falsely reporting the mission rank.

The reward Tazuna had paid Konoha fell between the high end of a D-rank Mission and the low end of a C-rank Mission.

With such an ambiguous price, he had hired ninja to carry out a B-Rank mission.

"This is not merely a matter of the reward. Falsifying information can lead ninja like us to make wrong judgments. This request of yours has already exceeded my team's capabilities."

Kakashi defined the nature of Tazuna's actions.

What he had done was extremely vile, and its severity needed no further explanation.

No matter what unspeakable hardships Tazuna had, no matter how he tried to dress up his actions,

what this drunken old man had done was still, in essence, "pushing children into a pit of fire."

Tazuna clearly knew how irresponsible his actions had been—not only toward the ninja protecting him, but toward himself as well.

If Tazuna's earlier silence had been deliberate, then now he truly had nothing to say.

Seeing that Tazuna was unwilling to discuss matters with him, Kakashi no longer bothered to spare his client's feelings.

Kakashi turned his gaze back to the three members of Team 7. "This mission is still too early for you. Let's return to the village first. I'll report the details to Lord Hokage."

Naruto had no objection. Team 7's battle with the Demon Brothers had already given Kakashi enough grounds to place them on the list for the upcoming Chunin Ninja Exams.

As long as Kakashi had such an intention, Naruto was confident that before the Chunin Ninja Exams arrived, he could turn Kakashi's "considering nominating them for the Chunin Ninja Exams" into "officially participating in the Chunin Ninja Exams."

Of course, if they could go to the Land of Waves as in the original story, Naruto would have around half a month of free life without surveillance waiting for him, which was rather tempting.

But it was better to avoid trouble when possible.

Deep down, Naruto had none of the so-called sense of duty or honor that ninja were supposed to have toward completing missions.

With his counter-surveillance abilities, Naruto was actually far more at ease in the familiar environment of the village.

So whether they continued to the Land of Waves or turned back now,

Naruto could accept either outcome.

After considering it, Naruto decided not to voice an opinion.

What surprised Naruto was that Sasuke had not voiced an opinion either.

He had thought that someone like Sasuke, who harbored hatred in his heart, would eagerly seize every opportunity to become stronger.

But thinking back carefully, when Kakashi had prepared to terminate the mission and return in the original story, Sasuke had not objected either.

It seemed that before Itachi Uchiha appeared in Konoha again, Sasuke had still been full of reason.

Only after encountering Itachi again had Sasuke become obsessed, pursuing power at all costs.

Meanwhile, the Naruto of the original story had failed to recognize his own strength or the danger of a B-Rank mission. He had not even blamed Tazuna for complicating the situation by falsely reporting information.

Instead, he had loudly insisted on continuing the mission.

If Haku had not been someone who, even through a long life as a rogue ninja, had never lost his kindness, the Naruto of the original story would have had to bear responsibility for causing Sasuke Uchiha's death through his own arrogance and stupidity.

Since Sasuke also had no objection, he, like Naruto, left the decision of whether to continue protecting Tazuna to Kakashi.

Given Kakashi's personality, since he cherished his companions in the village, he should have immediately decided to abandon the mission.

But there were always exceptions.

That saying truly applied under any circumstances.

In the original story, Sakura, who had clearly advocated returning to the village, spoke up at this moment.

"Kakashi-sensei, I... I think we should continue the mission."

With neither Naruto nor Sasuke objecting to ending the mission, Sakura was unexpectedly the one who wanted to continue it.