Mizukage's Pokémon Ninja Scroll

Chapter 38 New Mission

The next morning, the Hidden Mist Village was shrouded in thick fog as always.

Jianchuan Ju arrived at the training ground early today, mainly because today's daily tasks were a bit strange, as there were no training tasks as usual.

Instead, tasks like "greet ten people" or "walk ten kilometers" were generated. The system usually gives tasks that can be easily completed under the current circumstances.

This reminded Jianchuan Ju of the two times he had left the village before.

Considering that Qing didn't come to the training ground yesterday, Jianchuan Ju guessed that there might be some new task today.

Sure enough, not long after, Ao and Zabuza arrived at the training ground. Ao did not start instructing the two as usual, but instead said to wait for Mei Terumi to arrive.

Seeing Zabuza's "I knew it all along" expression, Tachibana Kanagawa became even more certain that today's training session was definitely not a simple one or a routine mission.

Not long after, Mei Terumi arrived at the training ground. She first looked somewhat embarrassed at Tachibana Kanagawa, who had listened to her confide in him the day before. Then she found that all three of them were staring at her, which puzzled Mei Terumi.

"What are you all doing standing here instead of training? Are you all waiting for me?"

Qing, who was about to speak, looked at his disrespectful disciple and immediately began to doubt himself.

Have I been too easygoing? Should I be more serious with them from now on?

However, after thinking about it, I realized I had important things to do today, so I put aside my complicated emotions for now.

For safety reasons, Qing first formed hand seals and used his sensory ninjutsu to confirm that there was no one else around before speaking to his two disciples who were still unaware of the situation and explaining the whole story.

"That's the general situation. Jonin Karatachi will assign us a mission today: to escort a shop assistant to the Land of Craftsmen to order ninja tools."

"Of course, although this mission is meant to cover up our covert investigation, if you don't want another failure record on your mission resume, we also have to complete this mission on the surface."

After listening to Qing recount the series of events, Jianchuan Ju felt that her imagination was still not rich enough. How could she just throw this kind of task to her team like this?

Although they have a Jonin named Ao leading the team, they still have too little information. Where should they even begin their investigation?

"We only have information suggesting a merchant from the Craftsman's Kingdom. Which direction should we begin our investigation from?"

Before Tachibana Kenkawa could even speak, Mei Terumi raised the same question to Ao.

Instead of immediately answering Terumi Mei's question, Qing asked the three disciples a question.

How much do you know about the Land of Craftsmen?

Seeing that neither of her teammates intended to speak, Mei Terumi replied directly, "The Land of Craftsmen is a small country located between the Land of Fire and the Land of Water. The country is severely lacking in military force, and the Craftsman Village is basically populated by highly skilled craftsmen. Its combat strength ranks among the lowest in the entire ninja world."

"However, thanks to the excellent ninja tool forging capabilities of Takumi-nin Village, their ninja tools are highly regarded among the five great nations. They not only produce regular ninja tools, but also frequently forge high-level weapons containing chakra metals. This allows them to be adept at navigating between the major nations."

Ao nodded. Mei Terumi was referring to what she learned in the Ninja Academy classroom.

"You're right, but what I'm going to say is that, due to various political pressures and the taxation of the Land of Crafts, the sale of all ninja tools and the import of materials in the Land of Crafts are actually strictly controlled by the leader of the Crafts Ninja Village. His status in the Land of Crafts is no less than that of the daimyo of the Land of Crafts."

Upon hearing this, Tachibana Kanagawa asked a question as if she had something on her mind.

"In other words, unless the smuggling was carried out by the leader of Takumi Village, but that doesn't make sense. Making a deal with an internal force in another country wouldn't bring him much benefit. On the contrary, it might offend our Kirigakure. For a small ninja village with little strength, it would be too much of a loss."

"Or it was done by some greedy people in the Land of Craftsmen. If that's the case, then the Craftsman Village, which has strict control over domestic materials and finished products, should know more or less where these things went."

"However, all of this is based on the premise that the merchant is indeed a merchant from the Kingdom of Craftsmen, or that the goods actually come from the Kingdom of Craftsmen."

Qing cast an approving glance and added.

"Yes, so this time our main target for investigation is the leader of Takumi Ninja Village. The ninja tool shop clerks that we are supposed to escort on our official mission will also be trading with the leader of Takumi Ninja Village under our escort, which will make it easier for us to conduct our investigation."

After meditating for a while, Terumi also raised her own question.

"So, how long should we stay? What if we can't get results from the investigation in a short time?"

"Don't worry, the person who issued the mission was arranged by Yagura Karatachi, and he will cooperate with us to stay longer. Besides, it doesn't matter if we don't find anything in the end, since it's just a private commission from Yagura Karatachi after all."

Zabuza, who had been watching his two teammates and Ao discuss the mission without being able to get a word in edgewise, raised his head slightly upon hearing Ao's last words, but still didn't say anything.

On the contrary, Tachibana Kanakawa agreed with Ao's words. To be honest, when he saw the village destroyed by pirates during the mission, and the children who were kidnapped and trained as assassins, he was also very angry and wanted to punish the murderers.

However, so many days have passed, and Jianchuan Ju has long lost his initial indignation. After all, in this chaotic ninja world, who isn't as worthless as grass?

Getting involved in the conflict between the commoners and the ninja clans for the sake of some strangers, and offending either side, was unwise for Tachibana Kanagawa.

Of course, if he had the strength of a Six Paths cultivator at this moment, the situation would be different. Jianchuan Ju might raise the banner of justice and punish these people.

"You despicable scoundrels, how dare you commit such an act! Outrageous!"

"Alright, now that you understand the details, let's go to the Water Shadow Building to pick up the mission."

Ao interrupted Tachibana's daydream of punching Pain and kicking the Six Paths of Pain by speaking again, and signaled his disciples to follow him to the Mizukage Building.

In cases like this, where the person who commissions the task designates a specific person to complete it, the village usually verifies the information and then notifies the task team to come and collect it.

However, since the Qing team has already arrived at the mission pick-up point, it saves the village some trouble.

Although the reward for a designated target mission is often higher than that for a normal mission, it is still only the price of a C-level escort mission.

The Green Team also needs to conduct a covert investigation.

Therefore, the entire squad, including Zabuza, didn't feel there was anything wrong with earning a little more money from Yagura.

Not wanting to attract too much attention, especially from the clan ninjas, they didn't rush off to the Land of Craftsmen immediately after receiving their mission.

Instead, he took his time, just like with any other mission, and first went to the ninja tool shop to meet the person who gave him the mission details.

They each went back to prepare for their departure before leaving Kirigakure with the shop assistant.

(End of this chapter)