章 3: Back in the Field
Reiko stepped into the mission assignment wing of the academy. He had arrived especially early to avoid having to wait longer than he needed to. Regardless, there remained shinobi — the early risers and the strict, disciplined-types — who arrived before he did anyway.
He entered the room with the mission desk and stood behind a jonin-led three-man cell. Reiko didn't recognize any of the kids in the squad, so they were likely graduates from the class a year ahead of him.
He was one of the few in his class who did not receive a jonin teacher. He supposed that the village deemed him to not be worth it. There were only so many jonin, after all. Instead, he was cast off to sail the shinobi life as a lone genin. It meant more freedom, in any case.
Reiko felt the petty desire to make the village appear silly by not giving him a jonin-sensei. Granted, they were absolutely correct in not doing so; his skills and abilities were diabolically bad, but it would still be fun to do all the same.
After a few minutes, the jonin squad accepted a mission and departed the room. Reiko stood alone before the assignment desk, and all of those present turned to stare at him, save one.
The long and obtusely bent desk was littered with sheets of papers and stacks of binders. The third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, sat directly in the middle with multiple advisors at either side.
In particular, and the man that caught Reiko's attention, was a chunin in the standard Konoha flak jacket. He had shoulder-length white hair, a skull cap, and just the dumbest grin on his face.
'Instructor Mizuki.' He was the man who gave Reiko's unit the C-rank mission that nearly killed him and… 'A future traitor.'
Hiruzen looked upward from the paper in front of him, removed the pipe from his mouth, and gave Reiko a once over.
Hiruzen paused, as though jogging his memory. "Reiko-kun? Hmm… if memory serves, you were part of Chunin Touma's unit?"
"Yes, Hokage-sama."
"The report I read said you were left in critical condition. It's good to see you up and out of the hospital so soon." Hiruzen blew out a puff of smoke from a hit of his pipe. "I'm glad the village has not lost such a promising young shinobi."
"I do not deserve your praise, Hokage-sama," Reiko said.
'I'm the last person you should be saying that to,' he added in his thoughts.
The Hokage only smiled. "Have you already come for a new mission? With the injuries you sustained, you should take some time off, no?"
Reiko shook his head. "I would love nothing more, Hokage-sama, but I need to pay my bi— err, serve the village."
Hiruzen laughed. "It's alright, I understand the kind of situation you're in. I will grant you what you need."
"Thank you…" Reiko said genuinely. He was worried that he would be flat-out denied, considering he'd only been discharged recently.
His left leg had yet to become fully responsive, and he still had to acclimate to throwing shuriken and kunai with his maimed left hand.
From what little testing he had done the previous day, he'd inherited the identical level of skill — the knowledge and muscle memory — from the previous Reiko. Simply because the system said that his shurikenjutsu was 'Level 2' did not mean that he magically possessed the ability to throw with four fingers. He was limited to only what the previous Reiko was capable of. Of course, he could still improve his skills on his own.
Hiruzen turned to Mizuki. "Give him the new mission from Ohagi-dono."
A flash of understanding crossed Mizuki's face. "Right away, Hokage-sama."
Mizuki flipped through a binder and stopped on a particular page. He removed the page and slid it forward. "Genin Reiko, your mission."
Reiko eyed it curiously, walked forward, and took it into his four-fingered hand. The whole desk of advisors moved their attention to where his missing finger should have been in unison. Hiruzen remained unbothered by it, as he had likely seen far worse in his long career as a shinobi.
Reiko carefully peered through the mission information.
'D-rank, naturally,' he thought, but he was not disappointed in the slightest; he was only grateful.
'Another letter delivery mission… Isn't this in bad taste?' Reiko peeked at Hiruzen's face, but the man maintained his usual sagely elder demeanor.
'Tanzaku? Did such a place appear in the show? I don't remember…'
'The job is to deliver a private letter to a woman who lives in this town. The letter itself isn't anything sensitive on a state-level, but it's highly emphasized that I should not, under any circumstances, open it.'
Reiko's eyes moved to the final, most important part of the mission assignment — the pay.
'Nine-thousand ryō.' Reiko's eyes widened. 'Nine-thousand?! That's way more than I've ever been paid for a D-rank, and I'm taking the mission alone so…'
Reiko slowly looked up at Hiruzen, who was silently watching with a smile.
"Consider it a formal apology from myself for the events of your last mission. It was my mistake for allowing it to be improperly designated as a C-rank mission," Hiruzen began.
"Hokage-sama—" Reiko wanted to say that it was his choice to accept the offer to fill in, but Hiruzen continued before he could say anything:
"It will be difficult for you to take on too many missions while in recovery, so let this single mission aid you in earning that time off with the piece of mind that your pockets will survive."
Reiko wouldn't retort. "Yes, Hokage-sama! Ah, but—" A pressing question formed in his mind. "—for the pay to be so high. Wouldn't giving such an important mission to someone in my condition be problematic?"
Mizuki snickered under his breath but coughed into his hand to cover it up when all eyes turned to him.
"Yes, well…" Mizuki began, "The patron of this mission is rather insistent that this be a shinobi matter. The large reward aside, you can be assured that you are more than sufficient for the completion of this mission."
Noting Reiko's lack of response, Mizuki continued, "While I can't disclose the contents of the letter, let's just say it's not something that would attract the eyes of shinobi similar to the ones that attacked you before."
Hiruzen nodded to demonstrate his agreement.
"I understand." And Reiko was relieved to hear it. In his current state, he could not afford to take on dangerous missions alone. Being attacked by enemy shinobi would certainly spell his end.
"I wish you the best of luck on the completion of your mission, Reiko-kun," Hiruzen said.
Reiko turned to leave, but as he took a step, he froze. "Hokage-sama, if I may—"
"Yes?" Hiruzen asked, curious.
"—who were the shinobi that attacked us?"
"We don't know quite yet. It would be dangerous to jump to any conclusions without more evidence, but not to worry, we're investigating. Although the letter was lost, the important thing is that no lives were. So long as Leaf shinobi live, so too does the Will of Fire burn."
Reiko nodded solemnly at those words. "…Will I need to fill out a report?"
Hiruzen shook his head with a small smirk. "That won't be necessary. I've already grasped the situation from the reports of Chunin Touma and the rest of his unit."
"Then I will take my leave."
~~~
Reiko, shirtless, stood before the mirror in his apartment's minuscule bathroom.
He traced his finger across the scar that lined his torso from under the right side of his rib cage to his left hip. It felt soft, as though the wound would tear back open if he applied it with too much tension.
It was the scar of a battle he never experienced and may well have been the very thing that sealed the fate of the previous inhabitant of the skin he now wore.
He hid the scar behind a wall of bandages that covered the entirety of his torso. The feeling of the bandages tightly compressed against his body gave him the piece of mind that the wound would not reopen. He wrapped his left hand in much the same way.
Leaving the bathroom, Reiko began packing the supplies he would need for the mission, which wasn't much. From what he gathered in town, Tanzaku resided within the borders of the Land of Fire, though it was a fair bit away from Konoha. His supplies consisted of some food rations and survival gear should he need to camp outside, all of which was sealed inside a scroll and tucked neatly away into his leg pouch.
He wore the standard long, black pants and accompanying sandals with a long-sleeved midriff shirt.
Having finished his preparations, Reiko's attention was pulled to a panel that had appeared in front of him.
[New Mission: "Love me, Lady Nyoko!" Deliver the letter from Mister Ohagi to Lady Nyoko in Tanzaku Quarters. Reward: 40 XP, 2 Attribute Points]
'I don't think I need to open the letter to know what's on it.'
~~~
"What do you think, Hokage-sama?" A man in a boar mask asked, "Could it be him?"
The Hokage had returned to his office, and his only company was the ANBU who knelt in front of his desk.
Hiruzen took a puff of his pipe. Resting his eyes and leaning back in his chair, he answered, "No, I do not believe that to be the case. Common sense would dictate that the one most injured is likely the one most innocent."
"Shinobi are crafty," the ANBU agent said.
"That they are, but one straight out of the academy? An underachieving one at that?"
"He could harbor a grudge for being passed on by the jonin. It's a decent-enough motive, and we've already cleared the rest of Squad Touma."
Hiruzen opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling, lost in thought. "It's not him; I'm sure of it."
"If you're positive, Hokage-sama, then I'm sure that's the case. Would you like me to at least keep an eye on him?"
"Don't bother. Rather, there's somebody else I need you to watch carefully…"
"Of course, Hokage-sama. Who might it be?"
Hiruzen looked down at him. "Chunin Mizuki."
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SillyCat
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