For the next half-month and more, the lives of Team 7 were completely filled with missions.
--Catching a stray pet cat turned into discovering it had been stolen, following the trail to bust a thief's den.
--Helping an old granny find her lost heirloom, finally fishing it out from a crevice in the riverbed while rescuing a drowning child along the way.
--Escorting a merchant caravan to a neighboring town, encountering a few bandits on the road who were scared pissless by a single Fire Release from Jiraiya.
--Cleaning out a sudden appearance of large piranhas in the river, with Tsunade punching one per fish and blowing the whole river full of fish slices.
--Helping farmers drive away a herd of wild boars that came to steal crops, as Orochimaru precisely marked the location of the Wild Boar King with a few Shuriken...
Missions came one after another, from D-rank to C-rank, from simple to slightly complex, and the cooperation among the three grew increasingly tacit.
That evening, Team 7 dragged their exhausted bodies back to Konoha.
Finally... finally back...
Jiraiya hung across a utility pole by the roadside like a dried-up salted fish. "I'm exhausted..."
Tsunade was no better, rubbing her shoulder with a bitter expression.
"Escorting the caravan for three days straight, my legs hardly feel like my own."
Although Orochimaru still remained expressionless, his clothes had a few extra tears and his hair was somewhat messy—obviously, today's final mission hadn't been that easy.
Hiruzen Sarutobi walked in front, glanced back at the three disciples, and the corners of his mouth curved up slightly.
"Stop complaining, the final mission is already complete."
He paused. "You all did well these past few days."
Hearing this, Jiraiya instantly came back to life and jumped down from the utility pole.
"Teacher!