30 Time Skip No Jutsu (2)

After completing the Sand Serpent Infiltration chain quest, a period of intense mission farming began. Without ever resting, team 146 started to complete more missions than ever before, targetting the ones with the best ratio of rewards and time spent. 

[Mission: Merchant Assassination (D-rank)

Description: A corrupt merchant named Goro has been exploiting resources in the Oasis region, causing economic strain. Your team, Team n° 146, must discreetly eliminate Goro without attracting attention. Precision and stealth are essential for the success of this mission.

Rewards: 1,200 EXP, 30,000 Ryô, Increased Reputation with Sunagakure Village]

Somehow, the most rewarding missions were not necessarily correlated with the difficulty. In this mission that only took one day, Kaito managed to reap in a lot of EXP.

[Mission: Spy on Political Gathering (D-rank)

Description: A clandestine political gathering is scheduled to occur near Sunagakure's borders. Team n° 146, you must infiltrate the gathering, discreetly collect information about their discussions and plans, and promptly report back to Sunagakure.

Rewards: 800 EXP, 40,000 Ryô, Increased Reputation with Sunagakure Village]

D-rank mission after D-rank mission, the team grew stronger. After only a week of information gathering, which required no infighting at all, Aki managed to use her stealth skills to find out about the instigator of the gathering, which was the old village head who was rallying farmers with a cause of inserruction directed at the Damyo from the land of wind.

Relaying the information to Sunagakure, the feudal army arrested the man, and the situation calmed. Not all missions required infighting, and while Kaito was a bit disappointed not to get an opportunity to get EXP, it was a good mission as it allowed him to train his information gathering skills, which was an essential skill for shinobi.

[Your proficiency in the passive skill [Information Gathering] has increased slightly...] 

Sometimes, they would also take on more dangerous missions, jointly with other teams of genins from the Sungakure Genin Corps. Because these missions were ranked C-rank, the teams with which they worked were not their age, but older genins. After all, these missions were assignments reserved for the elite genins from the Sungakure Genin Corps, and only those who met the criteria could apply for it. Some of them were also compulsory, as Taki was fully aware of the assets they had become, with their fighting prowess they displayed in the last operation.

[Mission: Protect Diplomat on a Trade Mission (C-rank)

Description: Sunagakure has dispatched a diplomat on a crucial trade mission to the Land of Water. Team n° 146, your duty is to provide security and ensure the safety of the diplomat and their delegation throughout the journey. Beware of potential ambushes and threats.]

In this mission, the diplomat was of high importance as he was to speak with the Damyo from the land of Rivers. Soon after Tanigakure lost an outpost, they attempted frame Sunagakure for its actions and expressed their complaints using politics. However, Sunagakure had already created a huge pile of documents incriminating Tanigakure shinobi for acts of spying in the land of wind. Rasa intentionally spread the rumours of Tanigakure shinobi being the reason why the land of wind was going through a hard time.

This mission's goal was simple : protect the diplomat who would ask for compensation to the land of rivers' Damyo. 

The diplomat was attacked, but Tanigakure could not attack them directly, so they used bandits and samurai mercenaries from the land of Iron. These men were pretty strong, but they could only be considered low-genin level, their levels ranging from Lv. 10 to Lv. 15, except for one man who was Lv. 28. 

However, while they were physically strong, their techniques paled in comparison to Eiji, who easily took care of the Lv. 28 Samurai despite having a lower level. This was proof of his skills as a kenjutsu specialist, and the result of his immense growth during the Sand Serpent Infiltration.

The problem of this attack was not the individual strength of samurai, but their numbers. However, Kaito and Aki had developped a trump card against large numbers of enemies. For the past months, Kaito had managed to improve the Emi Can Petrifying Smoke Breath to D-rank, combining it with the shuriken launcher's paralysis gas. Because the hidden art was a forbidden jutsu that killed both allies and enemies indiscriminately, Aki would use her Futonjutsu [Sphere of Air] to protect the diplomat and the team from being hit by the massive poison.

Samurai were strong in close combat, but they were weak against poison, and the 30 samurai that were dispatched that day died. In this mission alone, Kaito managed to reach level 24.

This mission was eventually a success, and the economy increased by 0.2 point in the process.

The team only seldomly stopped, and continued to complete missions.

At some point, Taki increased their salary and assigned missions that were usually given to elite teams overseen by jonins and made of noble clan heirs. With more funds and missions, they truly bloomed. In the puppet brigade, Kaito had become especially famous for creating several C-rank puppets.

Unknowingly, a year passed, and team 146 went through a complete metamorphosis. Their previous weaknesses fixed, their strength further enhanced, and their experience much wider than before. From a simple, average genin team, they had become the pride of the Sungakure Genin Corps third platoon, an elite team that was used in key strategic missions.