(THREE MONTHS LATER)
Ⅰ
"Is everyone in position?" my uncle asked through the radio earpiece. His voice was low and steady as he stood far behind us, observing the event.
I glanced at my teammates, checking if they were in place. Each of them was hiding behind the trees, eyes gleaming with determination. They gave me a quick nod, showing that they were ready.
"We've all set, uncle," I replied in a hushed tone.
Our mission was to apprehend the target. It had been on the run for days and the client wanted us to bring it in for justice. According to the latest information, the target was last seen in the forest. It would only appear in broad daylight when the sun beams brightly into the woods. We had been waiting for it to show itself for nearly an hour.
Then, as if on cue, the target had just appeared at the spot where we could see it. I soon notified my uncle that our target was in the area.
"Okay. Team 10, approach it slowly." The four of us slowly emerged from our hiding spot and moved toward the target. We did not want the target to run away immediately, so we lowered our heads and crouched silently.
Once we were within range, my uncle commanded us to stop. He wanted to be certain that the target had completely lowered its guard. After a few seconds of waiting, my uncle gave us the go sign to apprehend her. "NOW!"
We immediately pounced on the target before it noticed us. Ino was able to pin it down with a tight hug. When the target was being caught in Ino's arms, the target continued to struggle with a hiss.
"MEOW!" The target furiously tried to escape from Ino's hold, clawing at her with all of its might. Its claws were almost near to Ino's face.
"Can someone help me here?!" Ino exclaimed. Her voice sounded frustrated as she faced away from the claws while firmly holding down the cat.
Chouji hurried over to help, calming down the frenzied target. As the two struggled to keep it restrained, I looked over to Shikamaru, who let out a lazy sigh.
"What a troublesome cat…" he muttered. He kept his hands in his pocket while watching. Knowing his character well enough, he wasn't going to join them to assist. 'A lot of work' he would always complain. He chose to stay away from it, playing it safe.
My uncle's voice came in as it cut through the scene. He asked if we had the target.
I replied. "Yes, uncle. The target is secured: Torah is now in our custody."
"Good. Now we can report to the client right away. Mission complete."
As soon as my uncle was about to end the transmission, Ino's frustration could no longer be contained, and she raised her voice. Her outcry echoed throughout the quiet forest, forcing the birds to flee away from their nest and our ears to ring.
"CAN'T WE GET A BETTER MISSION THAN THIS, ASUMA-SENSEI?! THIS IS NOT WHAT I SIGNED FOR!"
Ⅱ
When we showed the owner that we had captured her cat Torah, she immediately grabbed it and pulled it into her arms.
"Oh, thank you! Thank you so much for finding my cat!" She happily said. Her eyes twinkled in tears as she was overjoyed to see her pet safely returned. She hugged it tightly, never wanting to let it go.
However, little did the owner know, the cat was struggling to get away from the embrace. It was showing the same furious look when we apprehended. Watching how Torah didn't like to get its whiskers rubbed by the owner's cheek, we soon understood why it was on the run in the first place.
"She sure loves Torah," Chouji said.
"Yeah. I… kinda feel bad about bringing her back," I replied.
"You shouldn't be." Ino disagreed. "The owner missed her cat a lot, so it deserved all the love." She narrowed her eyes with her arms crossed at the enraged beast. She was still mad at the cat for almost clawing her face.
My uncle ignored her comments and stayed polite with the client. "You're welcome, ma'am. Glad we could help."
The madam thanked us once more and handed over the mission fee to the receptionist: One thousand ryou (一千両). Quite a hefty sum of money to find a missing pet.
Normally, it would cost the clients between five hundred to eight hundred, so a thousand ryou was unheard of. But knowing how she had missed Torah so much, one thousand was something that she was willing to pay.
As the madama left the room, we could see Torah had given up on running away. It was meowing weaklyーaccepting its fate.
Ino coldly smirked at the sight. She was delighted to see the cat's defeat.
My uncle then walked over to the receptionist and collected the remaining sum of eight hundred ryo. The village would take a twenty percent cut of the client's money as a management fee: Giving us the rest.
After receiving it, my grandpa began to comment on how well we were doing with the past few missions.
"It's good to see your team doing well, Asuma. I'm amazed that Team 10 hadn't raised a single word about how mundane it has been." my grandpa said, sitting in the center of the room. He was in charge of assigning missions to us, based on our skills. Right now, the missions we had been taking so far were D-ranked. Most of the Genin would start from this level to gain some experience and an understanding of what it is like to take on a mission. And about the missions being mundane… he wasn't wrong about it.
"Thanks, old man." my uncle replied. "I believe they began to understand what it's like to be a shinobi. They were quite eager to get this mission done. Can you believe it?"
We muttered under our breath, giving a sidelong glance at our Jounin. There is a bit of bitterness towards the lie he has just said. However, my uncle did not flinch when we gazed at him. He still kept his composed demeanor with his hands in his pocket.
"Well then, I hope their enthusiasm continues." my grandpa chuckled as he blew a cloud of smoke from his pipe. We said a quick goodbye to him and left the tower.
Ⅲ
Arriving at the training field, where we usually have our short team meeting, Uncle Asuma looked at the four of us with a satisfied smile.
"What a day!" he said. "Getting praise from the Hokage, now that's something we should celebrate! A spectacular day for all of our hard work to be recognized!"
Whenever my grandpa praises our work, my uncle always makes it dramatic. This has been the fifth time he has done it and it has gotten to a point where we are not falling into this shenanigans.
"Could you cut the crap, Asuma? We are not falling for it." Shikamaru replied with a sigh.
"Oh?" My uncle's eyes blinked as his satisfied smile slowly shifted to a curious expression. "What did I do?"
"You know what you did." Ino stepped in. "In the beginning, you said to us that this mission was going to be special. It would be exciting. So I thought we were going to take out some bandits or spy on enemy territory. But I never thought we were going to find a lost cat!" She threw her arms up high, releasing the frustration she had kept in her chest.
A playful grin appeared on my uncle's face. His hands were on his hips. "Well, you did say that you were all willing to take any missions that were available for us. I just took your word for it." He replied.
"But you lied to us Asuma-sensei…" Chouji added.
"Me? Lied?" My uncle shook his head, pretending to be unaware. "I didn't lie."
"Yes, you did!" Ino protested. "If you had told us that we were going to find a lost cat, we wouldn't get our hopes up high! For the past three months, all we have done so far was helping with other people's chores. I mean seriouslyーseriously! Is this what shinobis are supposed to do?!"
Her frustration was palpable, and I agreed with her.
Growing up, I had imagined that we would be doing some action like espionage for our first mission. My grandpa used to tell me a story about a shinobi whose hair was white and long had singlehandedly taken down the enemy's entire operation by discovering its weakness.
I was amazed to hear that story and I wanted to do something just like it. But, had I known our first mission was walking the Daimyo's dog, and later on, we would be helping other people with their errands for the next three months, I might have thought twice about getting so excited.
"Why should I tell you?" My uncle raised his brow. "It's not a big deal. And if I told you, the mission is a mission. We have to do it. Besides, during my days I did the same thing when I was a Genin."
"But, wasn't it the wartime back then? Most of the missions you had done were recon and surveillance. Right, uncle?" I clarified.
"Exactly! When I heard it from my dad, I thought we were gonna do something similar!" Ino crossed her arms, pouting.
"Too bad the village is not at war, Ino." my uncle chuckled. "But, to be honest, I wouldn't recommend you all to carry out those missions while you are young. You should enjoy the ones you are doing it. It's peaceful and it's safe. You'll thank me for it."
"Thank you for it?! Are you serious, Asuma-sensei?!" Ino placed her hands on her hips, "How could we enjoy the missions when you won't allow us to use our ninjutsu? You would always remind us that 'Relying too much of your powers won't make you a great Shinobi one day.'" She mimicked his voice perfectly, and the rest of us except my uncle stifled a burst of laughter.
What she had said was true. We weren't allowed to use our abilities for the mission, and my uncle stated that relying on our power was a bad thing. But, it's quite contradicting when you see the others using their powers every day. So, why are we not allowed to use it?
He was a bit annoyed by Ino's impression. But he shrugged it off as he explained the reason. "It's because I want you all to be able to handle the task without depending on your abilities. There will be times when Team 10 needs to assist the other team, and if you use up all of your chakra, you'll be in trouble for the next mission."
It made sense. However, we found it questionable.
"I'm not sure we would be exhausted that soon, Asuma-sensei," Chouji remarked. "If we helped water the garden."
"Painting the fence white."
"Cutting down the trees for wood."
"And… collecting waste for fertilizer," I concluded right after Shikamar's and Ino's statements.
The four of us started to feel sick, just remembering how dirty and disgusting it was to collect all that stuff for an elderly farmer. We had to take a long bath afterward due to how strong the smell got onto our clothes.
Before lingering our thoughts on that event, my uncle cleared his throat to snap out of it.
"I get your point. You might think it wouldn't hurt a bit to use some of your chakra to get the job done. But let me tell you this. Even with a small amount of chakra usage could make a huge difference. I don't want you all to get so used to it by depending on it. Plus, you need to appreciate right now how simple these missions are. Because in the future when you start doing A-ranked or higher-level missions, you will notice that I was right. You might even think that D-ranked missions were the best missions in your career." There was a knowing smile tugged at his lip.
Hearing that nonsense, we shook our heads. "No, we won't."
"You will." He insisted, "You all will. Now, let me give you all the cut of the reward." He quickly brought out the money clip and split the fee among usーFifty ryou(五十両) each.
"Fifty Ryou?! All for that effort, Asuma-sensei?" Ino complained.
"Why? What's wrong with it?" My uncle responded.
"What's wrong with it?" She narrowed her brow. "It's not enough."
"Not enough?" He crossed his arms. "I think it's enough for finding the madam's cat, Ino."
"But look at my clothes!" She spread her arms to let us see how dirty her clothes were. Her attire was covered in a bit of dirt and scattered with bits of fur. "That cat made a lot of mess! It's gonna cost me thirty ryo to get these clean."
"Thirty ryo?!" I raised my brow. "You pay that much? Don't your parents wash it for you?"
"No." She replied. "Because these clothes are specially made. Can't you tell?"
Shikamaru, Chouji, and I exchanged bewildered looks. None of us had a clue how different this time was since she always wore the same thing.
She sighed in disbelief and began to explain how specially made it was by telling us in detail. "This blouse is made of silk dyed in purple, using purple mallow to get this rich color. The same thing can be said about my apron skirt. Compared to the ones I had, this set is more comfortable and appealing in broad daylight."
Hearing that, I couldn't help but ask, "If it's that well made, why would you wear it for a mission?"
"Because I'm the leader!" She confidently replied. "As a leader, I need to look presentable."
It was a mistake that I have asked. I should have known that she would do such a thing to show off her leadership.
"If you are a leader Ino, you should be aware that earning money is very hard.," My uncle intervened. "Being a shinobi isn't about living a fancy life. It's about dedication and perseverance. You need to manage your resources and use it wisely. That also includes the amount of money you have left in your pocket when you have to buy the necessary tools for the mission. Surely, you have already learned that by now, right?" He inquired.
Then, Shikamaru stepped in as he nodded. "Yes, I do Asuma."
"That's good! Thenー"
"But I also have learned something else too. About you."
"Oh? What you have learned?"
"Well, what I have learned is…"
There was an expecting smile on my uncle's face, assuming that Shikamaru would say something nice about him.
However, betraying his expectations, Shikamaru began to criticize him in detail. "You'll keep forcing us to do all the tasks by ourselves without lending us a hand. Oh sure, it's all part of the learning experience, but what happens if we get sick in the middle of it? Would you bring us to the hospital or leave us be? And if you do take us, would you cover the cost? You said that shinobi is about dedication and perseverance, right? So, that means we have to be so dedicated that we stay at our posts even if we feel sick, and keep quiet about it out of sheer perseverance?"
He cast a side-long glance at my uncle after concluding it. My uncle was taken aback by how harsh it sounded when Shikamaru laid it out like that. "Well, umm…"
"You know that sounds a lot like… What's it called ?"
"Child labor?" I added with a sly smile.
"Oh, yeah! That's the one!" he looked back at me, smiling back.
"No, no." Ino jumped in, with a teasing smile on her face. "It's gotta be worse than child labor, you two."
"Really? How so?" Chouji curiously asked. He too knew what was going on but pretended he didn't.
"Well, it's because we are Asuma-sensei's slaー"
"Okay, okay! ENOUGH." my uncle interjected. "Before you lay another word of how harshly I'm treating you all, here!" he flipped some bills toward us. Each of us received an extra fifty ryou.
Ino maintained her taunting expression, pushing her luck to get more. My uncle heavily sighed and gave her another extra.
"Happy now?" my uncle asked.
"Oh. Thank you, Asuma-sensei~" she chimed sweetly, pocketing the money with a grin.
"You kids are really…" he shook his head as he put the rest of the bills back into his wallet.
"Now that everyone has gotten their payment, I need to attend an important meeting right away. Tomorrow we'll do some training in the morning and maybe some missions in the afternoon. Dismissed."
As he turned to leave, Ino called out playfully, "Don't forget to say 'hi' to Kurenai-sensei~!"
Her mischievous comment almost caused my uncle to trip over his own feet, but he caught himself just in time. He turned back to us in a mild surprise. "How did you—"
We all knew that this "important meeting" was actually to meet with Kurenai-sensei at her place.
He saw us how we were smiling at him. He chuckled softly, slightly amused rather than annoyed. He continued on his way, leaving us behind.
"So, what do you guys want to do?" I asked.
"Nothing much," Shikamaru replied with a lazy stretch. "I think I'll head home and take a nap. It's been a while since I had a good sleep."
"You ALWAYS sleep, Shikamaru," Ino chimed in with her eyebrow raised. "Don't you have anything better to do?"
Shikamaru shook his head lazily. "Nah. It's such a drag to do anything else. On a sunny day like this, taking a nap is the best thing to do."
"I agree," Chouji replied, but then his stomach grumbled loudly, mirroring ours.
"Look like we're all quite hungry after all that running around to find that cat," I chuckled. "How about we grab some ramen for lunch? "
"Ramen? You mean Ichiraku's?" Chouji's eyes lit up.
"Yep."
"That sounds good! I've been craving a bowl from there!"
"What about you Shikamaru?" I turned to him.
He sighed a bit but didn't hide the small smile that tugged at his lips. "Yeah, a bowl of ramen would be nice."
"Ino?"
"Well…" Ino paused, tapping her chin thoughtfully. "As long as they have something that's not fattening," she agreed with a grin.
"Alright then. Let's go!"
Ⅳ
As we walked into the ramen stand, the savory aroma of pork broth immediately welcomed us in a warm embrace. There we found Naruto sitting at the counter, enjoying his meal.
"Hey, Naruto!"
"Oh hey, Darren!" he noticed me with a smile.
As soon as me and my friends took our seats, I began to ask how he had been.
"Doing fine, I guess," he replied with a shrug. "Been doing a lot of boring D-ranked missions these days"
"Same with us." I softly chuckled. "So, what was the mission you did today?"
"...Delivering mail," he replied, sounding not so proud of it.
"Really?" Chouji said.
"Yeah. The post office was running low with people so Kakashi-sensei took that mission for us. Saying that it will help us to be faster when delivering it." A hint of irony was there in his reply.
"Huh. He sounded like Asuma." Shikamaru jumped in. "It seems our Jounins would always find an excuse that it will be good for us whenever they choose the mission. But to be honest, though, they just want to see us suffer from it."
"Yeah." Naruto nodded as he took a few bites of his ramen. Then our ramen has just arrived. And we soon began to eat.
"So, Darren. How's your team? It must be strange having your uncle as a Jounin."
I paused for a moment, swallowing a bite of ramen before responding. "It was at first. But I have already gotten used to it."
"So, do you call him Uncle Asuma or Asuma-sensei?"
"Uncle Asuma. He didn't mind when I addressed him that."
"I see." he drank a cup of water. "So, what was the mission you did today?"
"Oh? You wanna know?" I raised my brow. "It was thrilling, to say the least."
"How so?"
"Well, we had to rescue a cat named Torah, and let me you, it was quite a challenge." I replied.
As soon as he heard the name Torah, he accidentally dropped his chopsticks. "Wait, Torah? You mean the Daimyo's wife's cat?"
I immediately looked back at him when he mentioned it. "How do youー"
"Because we had to find that cat a few days ago!"
My friends all stopped moving their hands as they looked at Naruto. We were all surprised to hear his team had to find the same cat.
"What?! Your team had to find that cat too?!" Chouji said.
"Yeah!" Naruto immediately nodded. "It was a nightmare! That thing kept slipping away at the last second, and we chased it all over the village!"
Ino sighed, shaking her head. "No wonder she was quick to run away. She must have known how we were going to catch her! I am not forgiving that cat."
Shikamaru smirked, leaning back in his seat. "Now we know why we had been waiting for her to appear for hours. But at least we won't see her again."
"I wouldn't count on that, Shikamaru." I cut in. "If what Naruto said is true, we might have to find her again."
"Oh, come on. Surely, other teams will take it, right?"
"Yeah, but with how things are going, I doubt my uncle would choose something challenging. He still sees us that we need more learning."
"You're right," Ino sighed. "If only there were a way to convince him."
We all fell silent, wondering how to convince my uncle.
Just as we were about to brainstorm some ideas, Naruto suddenly perked up and got our attention.
"Speaking of challenge, Team 7's got one tomorrow."
We all stared at Naruto in surprise.
"What is it?" Chouji asked.
"A C-ranked mission."
"A C-ranked?!"
"You are going on a C-ranked mission?!" Ino was surprised as well.
"Yep!"
"Wow, that's incredible! What's the mission about?" I leaned forward in interest.
"Our mission is to accompany a bridge builder to the Land of Waves. It's supposed to be dangerous, and we may have to deal with some bandits along the way, but we can handle it."
Shikamaru raised his eyebrow, skeptical but intrigued. "Quite a step up for your team, Naruto."
"How did your team manage to receive it?" Ino asked.
"Well, I told Gramps that I'm not the same kid pulling pranks anymore and…"
"He just assigned you one, just like that?" I raised my brow with amusement.
"Uh-huh! " Naruto nodded emphatically. "We were excited when we got it. Sasuke didn't show much but I could tell he was."
"I see." I smiled softly. "Since it's your first time leaving the village, try to stay sharp."
"Don't worry, Darren. You always worry whenever I do something." Naruto crossed his arms.
"Well, I have to keep an eye on you from time to time." I chuckled. "It just makes me nervous when you mess up."
"I don't mess up! Not anymore!" Naruto protested.
"You sure?"
"YES!"
He seemed confident. It had been a while since I last met him so I wasn't sure how much stronger he had become. The last time I saw him fighting was against Mizuki.
"Okay then. But like I told you, be aware of your surroundings. And always be careful."
"I will, Darren. I will." Naruto nodded, reassuring he would be fine.
"Good luck with your mission tomorrow, Naruto," Shikamaru chimed in, a faint smile on his face.
"Yeah. Make sure you bring back some stories. We wanna hear how it all went." Chouji said
"Oh, I'll have plenty! You just wait, Chouji." Naruto grinned.
Ino rolled her eyes but she too was concerned about Naruto. "Try not to make a fool out of yourself when you are on the road, Naruto. You could ask Sasuke-kun for help if you had done something wrong."
"Oh, sure. Like that'll happen!" Naruto scoffed off. "I think it would be Sasuke who needs my help. Not the other way around."
"Oh~? Quite confident you are~." Ino cast a teasing eye on him. "Well, do let me know when you come back. I hope to hear that you have saved him from danger~."
Naruto took the challenge and he accepted. "You bet it!"
With the four of us, wishing for Naruto's success on his first C-ranked mission, I only hoped that it would go smoothly. But as with everything in the shiobi world, only time would tell how things would unfold.