64 Chapter 64: Stealing the Formula

The next day, team Shikuro gathered in front of the Hokage's building since they were going to take their next mission.

Ken was the last one to arrive. Seeing Ken finally arrive, Shikuro said "Let's get our next mission. I hope you are all packed your supplies for a mission outside Leaf?"

The genins nodded. With that confirmed, they walked to the Hokage office. All the while, Itachi was glaring at Ken.

If it was up to Itachi, he would put Ken into a genjutsu in which Ken would never get to eat sweets.

Ken suddenly shivered as he looked at Itachi and asked innocently "What's wrong? Do I have something on my face or are you charmed by my handsome looks?"

"You lied!" Itachi said through gritted teeth as Kabuto and Shikuro's ears perked up, looking forward to watch the drama.

"Did I? Can you please enlighten me about how I lied?" Ken asked

"You said that holding hands with a girl could make her pregnant and as a result, I would become a father. But mother denied that it did not work like that whole laughing. Father looked at me weirdly for the whole day. Now, they must be thinking that I am stupid." Itachi said with watery eyes.

Shikuro stumbled a little as he heard this trying to hold his laughter.

"I thought that it was how it worked. I apologize itachi for giving you false information." Ken said with the most apologetic expression that he could muster. Shikuro could tell that it was a false expression but alas Itachi fell for it as he said "Since you did not know about that either, you are ok, after all, you tried to help me by giving that information even though it was false. Right?"

"Right Right" Ken nodded as he again fooled Itachi

'Itachi fans might start hating me if I made Itachi a fool so many times.' Ken thought

They entered the Hokage office where Hiruzen immediately told them their mission.

"Your mission is to get the formula about a special fertilizer that this company 'Xxxx' in the Land of Rice fields makes. This fertilizer has shown a good growth rate for crops. It would help our village and country a lot if we manage to produce it. But the company is not willing to give us their formula and they are selling these fertilisers to us at a very very high price. Thus, we have decided to just steal it."

"The company is quite big and is well guarded by Shinobi. There are most likely no jonins thus I am giving you this mission. But there might be one or two since the company might suspect that we might try to steal it. Shikuro has said that you would need stronger enemies for yourself to challenge so I decided to give you a much tougher mission."

"This seemed like a perfect mission for your team. It would be both challenging for you and safe since Shikuro could bail you out in case there is a Jonin. But remember to not rely on Shikuro as not every time you would have an elite jonin watching your back."

"Learn to survive yourself. We have Jonin instructors to teach you things and to put in crude words be your babysitter. But that would change once you become a chunin. You would have no Jonin sensei to lead you in C-rank missions or maybe in B-rank missions sometimes."

"You might even lead your own teams when you become a chunin. Then you would have to teach those Genins what Shikuro taught you as well as be responsible for their lives." Hiruzen lectured them

"Coming back to the mission details, I forgot to tell you that you might not be the only one snooping and looking to steal the formula from them. Both Iwa and Suna would want this formula for themselves." Hiruzen said which surprised the genin.

"As for why they would do that, Suna, well they have only sand around them and have to buy all of their food from the other nations. Its expenditure on Food and water is half that of their military expenditure which is quite a lot."

"Iwa while having more fertile land than Suna, is still not suitable for farming and still takes them a lot of care and time to grow crops. They have to buy from us or other fertile land countries mostly."

"It's still not a surety that they would try to steal it. But a very strong possibility. If you encounter them, You should reach a deal between yourselves to share the formula with each other. We don't want a

conflict on this. It would help their country's citizens who die from starving due to high food prices. Besides, the tension between our villages is reducing so it is best to keep it that way."

"Of course, if they are hostile towards you, you are free to eliminate them. I would prefer to do it without leaving a trace that it was your doing. We don't want to break our alliance with Suna or our temporary truce with Iwa."

"But would not that impact our country's merchants if the other countries started producing their own crops?" Itachi asked

"True but these Merchants are charging us a higher price due to supplying other countries food as well. Merchants would suffer and that's exactly what I want. Food would be sold at lower prices in our country. We would be able to stock more food for our village, outposts, and castles for safety in case of a siege or a famine. Besides, it's not like the other villages would be able to grow crops faster than us."

"Suna's dessert could never become fertile enough to grow crops even with the best fertilizer," Hiruzen chuckled as he said that.

"Any questions? No? Good, You can set off for your mission." Hiruzen said

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