Land of River (1)
"… and upon successful completion of the mission, in my capacity as jounin squad leader I granted a two day vacation for my team to be spent in the Capital. I judged that after their tense, first mission outside the village where they encountered an unexpected complication in the mission, they needed a break for rest and recuperation. Following which, we promptly returned to Konoha, awaiting further missions. End report."
Asuma finished recounting the mission with a slightly proud smile to his father who sat at his desk reading through the mission report the jounin had submitted to the Konoha branch office in the Capital, eager to see the reaction of the man who had doubted his team.
However, the praise or even begrudging acknowledgement he had been expecting did not come.
The Sandaime put down the scroll and gazed at his son dismissively. After so many years, he could already see through his son's pretence of indifference. He could tell what Asuma was thinking, what he wanted to hear from him. Commendation, concession and maybe even an apology.
Hiruzen held no qualms satisfying his son's desire to be acknowledged. But that was only if he earned it. The mission as a whole was successful, but there were still many points he could criticize.
For instance, leaving his team of freshly graduated genin alone with the client to go off pursuing assassins was so thoughtless he could hardly believe it to be a decision made by a jounin. In a situation of imperfect information, his sole priority should have been staying by the side of the client and his team to protect them.
The only reason he could think of for such negligence was an unfounded confidence in his team. Was such confidence justified with a team that was only formed a month and a half prior? Hiruzen didn't think so.
But at the same time he held back his words of criticism. The Sandaime understood that there was nothing he could have said that would change Asuma's mind. The mission was successfully completed, while he and his team made it back safely unharmed. There wasn't much else he could ask for without seeming unreasonable.
Furthermore, Hiruzen also knew that the only reason why he was so hard on Asuma was because he was his son, and as such the Sandaime held what others might perceive as unreasonably high expectations for Asuma.
There was no point in souring their relationship further by needlessly pointing out the mistakes Asuma made when he would have heavily praised any other team leader who had done the same.
After the brief moment of silence where his father was silently appraising him, Asuma realized that the validation he was seeking would not be coming his way. The jounin found himself frowning, and as he turned to leave with a bitter expression on his face, his father called out after him.
"Good job, Asuma. You proved me wrong after all."
Asuma paused, unsure of how to process his feelings and uncertain of what his father was really thinking.
"Yeah, I got it." With that, he dismissed himself and left the Hokage's office, a shadow of a smile gracing his face.
Watching his son leave his office, Hiruzen nodded, satisfied with how he prevented another altercation from breaking out.
Standing up and pacing to the window, he looked in the direction of the Capital, stroking his beard.
How long has it been, fifteen, no, twenty years? Yeah, it was about twenty years since he helped that man take the throne.
Hiruzen could still remember the day Ichikawa Matsuhiro, now commonly known as the Daimyo of the Land of Fire, asked for his help to assassinate his siblings and political enemies. All so that Matsuhiro could become the next Daimyo. Such ruthlessness was rare even in the world of shinobi.
It seemed to the Sandaime that after twenty years, the next generation of princes are now starting to move to consolidate their influence and secure their seat on the throne.
He was glad that Asuma had returned to Konoha before the true conflict in the Capital began; before he was dragged into that ruthless competition.
"Seems like the Capital is going to get messy… best to stay out of that turmoil until Matsuhiro sorts things out." He muttered to himself as he recalled the man he respectfully addressed as Daimyo-sama in public.
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(Shinji POV)
After we returned from the Capital, things calmed down and we settled back into our usual pattern of D-rank missions and team trainings, a schedule that I more than welcomed.
Being stuck on the road and in the Capital where we couldn't use chakra made me feel stifled since I did not have the time to train. The moment I had the time and privacy, I had activated my Sharingan in my own home. For no reason other than missing the feeling of absolute clarity and awareness it gave me.
Sasuke welcomed me back in his usual tsundere manner, though I would have much preferred it coming from a girl, preferably a busty one. That brat had looked unimpressed after I recounted what had happened on the mission, like fighting off assassins and even killing one of them with my own hands seemed lacklustre in comparison to what he had expected of me. Did he think I was going off to rescue a princess from the clutches of an evil demon lord?
I also visited Hana after I returned, who in her usual habit of showing excessive skinship, had dragged me into her bosom when I showed up at her veterinary clinic. That was what I'd call a warm welcome.
I dived right back into training, rigorously pushing the limits of my body to raise my physical stats while my created shadow clones continue to grind levels in my skills. Priority was placed on my wind and fire nature chakra transformation.
Since I first acquired the skills, my [Wind Nature Transformation] and [Fire Nature Transformation], they only increased the damage dealt by wind and fire related skills by 15% each as well as reducing CP cost by 3%. Now, however, it looked something like this:
[Wind Nature Transformation] (Passive) LVL: 4
Increased efficiency in handling wind nature chakra
+60% damage dealt with all wind-related skills
-12% CP cost to all wind-related skills
[Fire Nature Transformation] (Passive) LVL: 3
Increased efficiency in handling fire nature chakra
+45% damage dealt with all fire-related skills
-9% CP cost to all fire-related skills
Under Asuma's tutelage who focused more on wind natured chakra, it levelled up at a faster pace than its fire counterpart. To supplement this skill, I also acquired more futon ninjutsu from the Uchiha Clan's jutsu repository.
After my graduation as a genin, Sasuke had also allowed me entry into the genin-section of the Uchiha Clan library, greatly increasing my access to higher level ninjutsu, genjutsu and taijutsu scrolls.
However, futon ninjutsu scrolls were rare even in the jutsu library of the famed Uchiha clan. Likely because shinobi with wind-affinities were much rarer compared to say the Land of Wind.
On the other hand, katon ninjutsu scrolls were abundant – greatly increasing my repertoire of destructive fire techniques.
Genjutsu was another branch of the shinobi arts I was dipping my toes into, to round out my skills as a jack of all trades. Back when I was still an academy student and could thus only access the academy section, genjutsu scrolls found there only covered the basics. Many of them theory textbooks and only a few containing proper genjutsu techniques. The genin section posed no such limitations.
As for taijutsu, although there were more advanced forms of martial arts available, I decided not to learn them. I thought it prudent to focus on the ones I had yet to master instead of cluttering up my skill list with a bunch of martial arts techniques I only had a shallow understanding of.
I also continued my experiments to create new skills. From what I could tell, the efficacy of self-created skills like [Flash Step] and [Shinkyoken] surpassed techniques learned from scrolls. I figured that continued trial and error could produce another of such skills.
What I focused on primarily was the infusion of wind or fire nature chakra into skills like [Power Strike] and [Chakra Enhancement]. The results… well, I achieved moderate success.
It wasn't long before we were assigned another C-ranked mission. This one, however, was completely different from what I had been expecting…
Unlike our previous mission, this time we were handed the mission scroll at the mission assignment office proper.
"Your mission, should you choose to accept, is simple. You are to travel to the Land of Rivers and set fire to the crops of a certain farm." The mission assignment staff member, an administrative chuunin explained as he picked up a mission scroll from the pile on the desk and offered it to us, "Details are in the mission brief."
Hinata gasped, "Set fire to a farm? But w-why?"
The chuunin narrowed his eyes before glancing at Asuma.
The jounin nodded and put a hand on Hinata's shoulder, "You should know by now our job isn't to ask questions. Besides, we haven't even chosen to accept the mission, how can we ask for information about it?"
The Hyuuga nodded in understanding before silencing herself.
Why? I mused in my head. There could be a dozen different reasons. Another farmer wants to get rid of the competition, a merchant wants to buy the land of the farmer, or the farmer might just have offended a petty, wealthy person. Truth is, it didn't matter what the reasons were. As long as someone was willing to pay the right amount, they could hire our services.
I would admit that the prospect of doing something that would lean so heavily against the doctrine of altruism the system implicatively preached was slightly disconcerting. It served as a sufficient wake up call, reminding me that not all of our missions involved performing universally 'good' acts. At times, we might be called to assassinate a monk, spy on a saint, or commit arson on an innocent farmer like now.
Asuma stepped forward, "Land of Rivers hmm… wasn't there a hidden village set up there? Tanigakure (Hidden Valley Village) I think it was called. Any possible conflict of interest?"
"Irrelevant. Research suggests the farmer shouldn't be wealthy enough to hire shinobi guards nor does he have any family members who might have ties there. Otherwise, this wouldn't be a C-rank mission." The mission desk chuunin answered.
"Are we entering the Land of Rivers officially?" I asked, slightly taken aback when every pair of eyes in the room shifted towards me. Did I speak out of turn?
Infiltration into another nation, even if they were allied or under some treaty, was problematic – especially given our identities as shinobi. Having to sneak in under guise would bump up the difficulty of the mission up to B-rank, or at least clearly not suitable for fresh genin.
The chuunin sized me up for a moment before cracking a slight smile, "You got a smart cookie with you there Asuma-san. Yes, your team will be entering officially, not that it would be a concern in the first place. The border between the Land of Fire and Land of Rivers is pretty porous, so there shouldn't be guard patrols or anything unless you get too close to Tanigakure or the Land of Rivers' capital city."
I appeared frazzled by the compliment as I realized what I had mistaken as offense was actually a glint of recognition in the other shinobi's eyes, "Ah, I see. Thank you."
Asuma took the offered scroll, "Team Ten accepts the mission."
The moment my jounin squad leader spoke those words, a system notification called for my attention.
[Quest Alert!]
[Slash and Burn]:
Successfully complete the mission!
Set Hatanaka Farms crops on fire
(Bonus) Burn the crops yourself
Rewards:
+5000 EXP
(Bonus) New Title
[Accept? (Y/N)]
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[Quest Alert!]
[Don't Burn That Farm]:
Prevent your team from successfully completing the mission!
Hatanaka Farm crops are not set on fire
?
?
Rewards:
+10000 EXP
?
?
Failure:
New Title
?
[Accept? (Y/N)]
[Note: Accepting [Slash and Burn] will automatically lock off [Don't burn that farm] and vice versa]
Huh? The system actually generated two different quests with contrasting objectives. This had never happened before… Looks I can only choose one.