Chapter 43: Chapter 43 : Side Mission 1
This is just a side mission and if you wish you can skip it. I just wanted to add a mission and since I got a chance after making a few changes in the fic, I added this up. It's not important in the story (My first time writing a new mission so go easy on me)
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[Shika's POV]
Another day and another mission, though I was living the peaceful grind and now that I have enough money to retire, leaving the world saving bullshit on both sons of destiny, I still wish to get stronger.
Part of the reason why my insecurity about my own strength exists is because of my own existence. I definitely have changed things, in ways which I have no idea, the moment I came to this world or a character like Shika Nara appeared who wasn't there in the anime, things could go horribly wrong.
What if the war happened and this time the so-called destiny didn't work out, what if this wasn't that one future which Steven saw?
I have no magical stone to see the future but even if I have one I plan not to leave my happy life here on some prophecy which I don't believe and probably is already a half-cooked plot line due to my arrival here.
And thus, even after not getting pressed for money I'm taking yet another mission out of the village, you can improve so far by just training after all, real-life experience is priceless no matter the case.
It was still the usual boring C rank mission and I would pray that it remains this way, my past experience with C ranks is not very good but fingers crossed.
Why C rank some might ask? After all, I'm strong enough now to at least take a B-rank mission right? Well yes, but my own rank doesn't let me take one you see.
Only Chunin are allowed to take B rank or above missions, as a Genin I can't. Yet another reason to quickly grind and take the Chunin exam.
Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with C-rank missions, they are perfectly fine. Not as dangerous as some A-rank or S-rank missions and nowhere as boring as D D-rank mission.
It's just my past with C ranks which has the tendency to turn way higher than my pay grade which is bothering me on taking this mission.
Sigh…
As I got closer to the Hokage office, I saw the familiar hustle and buzzle of Shinobi, I didn't know most of them, it hadn't been more than 2 months since I came here and I devoted the majority of my time on grinding me as off so there was little to no time for socializing.
I'm no good at small talk and here people have no time for that either. Many keep to themselves if it's work time, in fact, it's not very different from real-life Japan in that regard.
Ignoring most I directly went to the mission lady, that is what I have been calling her for better or for worse.
"Another C-rank mission please," I said while slowly nodding my head to greet her. In all this time I have seen that she wasn't the kind of a lady who would waste her time on casual talk, the first time I came for a mission was an exception, she wasn't chatty but rather was looking out for me.
So, I too keep it professional though building a good rapport with the person responsible for handing out missions ranging from "I have to clear someone's lawn, How boring…" to "Why the fuck a Genin like me getting gang by this mission nin or have to infiltrate into the enemy nation"…
Yeah, if there is one person with who you wanna have a good relationship then it has to be her, not just me but everyone should.
"Another C rank huh? you really are not like any other Nara I have encountered…" She gave me another look, typical Nara would never look for a mission by themselves or take the most simple D-rank boring missions and be happy with the meagre pay overtaking a troublesome draggy mission out of the village.
Of course, once you go above the Rank of the Genin then the C rank missions are not available for you period, D ranks are only for Genin, it's village's way to help them out financially.
"It's been twenty days since I took a mission Umiro San," I replied with a smile, knowing that it was just her way to say hello long time no see…
Grunting she took out a mission and handed it over to me. I took it and went through it quickly.
"An Escort mission again…" I can't help but let out a grunt remembering what happened in the land of waves.
"You have to escort some merchants from the land of Konoha to the capital. They are hiring to protect themselves from any kind of bandit attacks, you up for it." Umiro asked knocking her eyebrows up.
'Hmm… on paper, it sounds simple, but even for a ninja bandits could be dangerous, let alone a solo genin like me.
Of course, I also get why the woman showed me this in the first place, if there is one person who get to know about the missions done and handed out beside Hokage himself then it's her. She knows what I'm capable of.
Part because almost all the missions I took have heavily altered reports and when that happens the missions are directly handled by Hokage's end and not her as usual. Just the simple fact that all my reports were handled by Hokage would be enough for her to believe that I'm stronger than your usual genin.
"Thank you, I'll take the mission." Smiling I waved my hands and exited. She was right, I was no ordinary Genin. I can take the mission.
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Once again in my hurry, I didn't see the mission reward, though I wasn't doing this mission for a reward, I got enough money but I would have taken the mission if I had known that the payment it not that great in this mission. Make sense why the merchant was waiting in Konoha for so long and none of the Shinobi took the mission.
"45,000 Ryo" I can't help but sigh, it was still better than the first mission I took so there was that. And I can't complain when I have so much money thanks to Gato so I guess I'll just take the mission for the experience purpose.
With that in mind, I finally reached the hotel where the client was staying, he was a lightly obese man with a big moustache.
Nothing out of the blue, a simple escort mission from Konoha to the capital. Will take 3 days at the pace the Merchant vagrants will move and it is pretty safe seeing we are going to move with the most developed road in the entire land of Fire.
After all, it only would be an idiot who wouldn't make a road between the Capital of the kingdom and the military stronghold.
Good connectivity between the Capital and Konoha is super important or in war times, things could go dire.
Shinobi might not use the roads but carts do, and people do. So the possibility of facing bandits in that road would be almost nill.
"Ready…" Asked the fat merchant to which his entire crew nodded. There were only three charts and 7 men beside the merchant. It makes sense why he was so stingy when it comes to the mission price, his business was relatively small in nature.
"Ready…" I too nodded and and took a step out of the Konoha's gate for yet another adventure waiting for me…
xxx
[Word Count: 1250]
Chapter 44: Chapter 44 : Side Mission 2
[Shikas POV]
Escorting is a boring mission. I didn't feel this boredom the first time when I was travelling to the Land of Waves due to the nature of that mission and since I had team 8 with me.
However, now since I'm the only shinobi here escorting this small merchant caravan to the capital, the boredom has finally started to weigh on me.
The company was boring and the journey was long. Nothing to do so I just took out a Fuinjutsu scroll and started reading it after putting one of my dogs into the guard duty.
It was a three-day long journey, didn't have to be that long but since it was a merchant caravan one couldn't compare its speed to a normal shinobi jumping on top of the trees.
On the first day, we didn't face any issues, everything was fine and we left the general area of Konoha very safely.
It was the next day when we finally saw some action.
*WUff Wuff…
My concentration was broken exactly when I started to understand the complex equation in the Fuinjutsu scroll, or at least I wish to believe that as that way I can blame my lack of progress on the dogs.
Hearing the barks I knew that something wasn't right. Looking around I found that the caravan had already entered into a forest area.
Though there was a well-built road here but it still went through a forest, those people in the capital can't clear out an entire forest to build a road after all.
And that is the reason this area was the most unsafe.
From Bandits to enemy shinobi, anyone could hide here and no one would be wiser.
Hearing the barks it was easy to get that the dog got someone's scent.
Just as I was about to act, I noticed the ruffling and shuffle in the bushes.
The caravan was immediately stopped while 8 figures stood in front of the caravan.
'Okay, point notes, dogs might be able to find them but it's obvious that if they start barking then the other party also will get alert.' I berated myself for not ordering the dog to stay low upon finding someone nearby.
Now neither side had an element of surprise.
"Bring out everything valuable you have, be quick." That was a generic dialogue for a bandit.
I was still sitting inside the caravan, reading the scroll so they hadn't seen me yet. So maybe I still have an element of surprise in my hand.
Since I usually have one Clone dormant inside my shadow, I directly exchange position with the clone and the clone goes out to take my place while I travel through the shadows to see how many people are there and whether they have any shinobi with them or not.
"10 people in total, 8 are in front while two are hiding behind so that none can escape." It was pretty easy to see what they were going for since those two are hiding, separate from others then I rather handle them first.
On both sides of the road, one bandit was hiding ready to jump from his place to stop anyone who would want to run away. Neither realized that a shadow was creeping towards them right.
The next second the shadow morphed, biding them making them immobile. But that is not all, from shadow came creatures.
Before they could even shout for help, their throats were blocked and soon both lost their lives.
—-
"What's taking so long? Bring out all the valuable things which you have with you… quick." Shouted the man who looked like the boss of this bandit.
For the time being I label him as a leader. After my shadows was done taking care of those two hidden bandits, I went upfront under the shadow of my shadow clone.
"You, shinobi why are you not doing anything." the fat merchant came out with his hands up and whispered to me so that those bandits wouldn't hear him.
Clone remained silent, there was no reason to attract unusual attention towards him while I took care of these bandits.
It was a good thing, that before going out clone turned himself into a normal boy rather than a shinobi not to attract attention.
"But now that I think about it, do I even need to be this secretive to take them down like an assassin." I ponder, I'm already pretty strong thanks to Zabubza's skills and all this training.
But I guess this habit of playing assassin won't go away any time soon.
Smirking to myself I just formed a hand sign when I saw there was nothing extraordinary about this group.
No shinobi in hiding, no more hidden bandits for plan B and lastly I got all of them close in one place when they came closer to the caravan.
Soon shadow spread around the place, both clone and I worked together and used Shadow Possesion to strangle all the bandits.
"What… what's going on." Shouted the Bandit.
"Shinobi!… that brat is a ninja. Take him out, hurry." The leader shouted but it was already way too late. All of them were already captured by the shadow.
"Way too easy…"
—-
After I bound them to a tree, I finally came to the fat merchant as he seemed to want to ask something of me.
"You need something ?"
"Ah yeah, we're missing someone." He said though I could sense a hint of hesitancy or urgency in his tone, I couldn't say it for sure.
"Missing someone? Who," I looked around, I could see almost everyone there. No one was missing.
"That…it's a girl who was supposed to be in the cavern but maybe she ran away in all this ordeal." Replied the merchant.
"Girl ?" I can't help but ask since I didn't notice any girl in the cavern. There were only men.
Though the phase ran away sounded strange.
"She ran away… why ?" Though I have no idea where this fat man was hiding a girl but that has nothing to do with me.
"Are you an idiot, the girl got scared of the bandits and upon getting a chance she ran for it." He shouted, his logic did seem to be right but there was still something which was making me unsure.
"Okay, tell me how the girl looks, I'll find her." What else I could say at this point? He was paying for this escort mission, quite little for all this hassle he was putting me through but still can't leave a defenceless girl alone in this jungle.
"She's around 16 or 17. Haszel hairs and eyes." Replied the merchant to which I just nodded.
Making a clone I was ready to send him to find this girl when the fat man spoke again.
"One minute, you are not going yourself ?" Asked the fat merchant sweating a little, it was a little hot but he sweat a lot.
"Don't worry, my clone is very similar to me, he can find her…" I just offhandedly wanted to make the fat man assured but he then tossed a bag at me which surprised me.
I thought it was a bomb or at first, shinobi training makes you suspect even opening your wardrobe, who knows there is a bald man with a dagger ready waiting for you.
But then a very familiar jiggle of coin made me instinctively catch the pouch. This was a coin pouch no doubt about it.
"This…" I asked, not sure what the man was trying to pull here.
"For your extra effort. Make sure that you bring the girl back safely. And don't listen to that girl. She has a tendency to run away. Just bring her back." Said the merchant.
Now this was really suspicious.
I slowly jiggled the pouch and by the weight and sound, I could tell that it at least had more than 20,000 ryo.
50% of the original rewards just to find this girl.
"Bring her safe to us and there will be more…" As if he read my mind, he said.
And that was when I realized that this mission too is not as simple as it seems.
xxx
[Word Count: 1370]
Who do you think that girl is ? What the fat merchant hiding ?
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