Land of Waves (1)

Weeks passed after my talk with Hinata, and on the surface nothing much changed after we spoke. Hinata became a lot more decisive and confident after our conversation, and sure enough her status information changed accordingly to reflect that.

Team Ten continued undertaking missions, though only D-ranks since there was a limit to how many C-rank missions a freshly graduated genin team like us could take. And I continued accumulating EXP from these missions as well as other quests generated by the System. My stats and skill levels continued growing under Asuma's wing as well, learning new jutsu and even creating some skills of my own.

To prevent myself from being so blind once more, I began using [Observe] regularly on the people around me. Fortunately enough, there were no other surprise confessions awaiting me aside from the more obvious ones like Kaori.

Speaking of whom, I occasionally found the time to catch up with the girl.

After failing the 'true' genin exam along with Sakura, they were attached to the unofficial genin corps where the two of them were tested once more for their aptitudes, so that the village could know where to assign them that best fit their talents.

The result was that Sakura was assigned to the Konoha Hospital to undergo an apprenticeship with the various medic-nin working there. The village judged that with her excellent chakra control and strong memory, the path of medicine was the most suited for her.

It was good that her talent was not wasted in some other branch. Though she may not be learning from the best of the best, that is Tsunade of the Sannin, hopefully when the legendary Slug Queen returned to the village, Sakura might be able to get her attention with her talent.

Kaori on the other hand… that girl had it the roughest. According to what she said, the village found her to be completely devoid of anything that resembled talent. Chakra reserves, pitiful. Chakra control, which because her miniscule reserves should be excellent, subpar. Physical competencies, see chakra reserves. Intellect, nothing to write home about.

This was the fate of a person judged to be below mediocre, not even reaching the standards of the most ordinary shinobi. People like her weren't exactly rare. You know, people who did not excel or were even considered mediocre at any one discipline. It was extremely unfortunate, however there was nothing Shinji could do about it.

Sure, he felt sorry listening to her story, and he extended his deepest sympathies for her plight. But how could he help a person who had absolutely zero aptitude in the shinobi arts?

Look at Rock Lee for example. While he lacked any talent whatsoever in ninjutsu and taijutsu, he excelled at martial arts and physical ability. Not to mention his tenacity and sheer bullheadedness when it came to training. His skill and proficiency in chakra enhancement absolutely dwarfed any other genin his age, with a possible exception being myself.

So while he may have been mocked as being a talentless ninja, it was simply an absolute falsehood. No one could label him as being talentless until they encountered Kaori, who, objectively speaking, was the epitome of talentless.

As a result of her lack of talent or even mediocrity in any field, she was assigned to an administrative role in Konoha. Specifically, the janitorial department. Officially, she was the shinobi liaison for a department made up entirely of civilian workers. Unofficially, she was the coffee girl. Someone who would never see any real action on the battlefield because the village judged her as too much of a liability to even act as cannon fodder.

Furthermore, it was already too late for her to drop out from being a shinobi. Having received the monthly stipend from the village and sponsored education at the Shinobi Academy for four whole years, the moment she graduated, Kaori was locked into a contract that compelled her to fulfil her part of the bargain.

Unlike the other kids who had parents who could pay for the expensive tuition fees the Shinobi Academy charged for their tutelage, Kaori received the equivalent of a bonded scholarship. Meaning, while other shinobi could retire even a month after graduation, provided they signed the equivalent of a non-compete agreement, Kaori did not have that luxury.

Five years was her minimum term of service before she was allowed to retire. Ten years if she wanted the generous pension schemes and tax deductibles. Any thing less than that required debilitating illness or crippling injury to waive off the contracted years.

Calling it a slave contract would be too much, since she received appropriate compensation proportionate to the work she did, plus she did also receive a monthly stipend and a fully sponsored education during her time at the Academy.

But given that her work amounted to bringing coffee to her superiors and other employees at the janitorial department, her salary was a pittance compared to the other genin completing actual missions. Sufficient for her basic subsistence, but not much left over for luxuries or even savings.

Hearing her story, I couldn't help but thank the stars above that I was not reincarnated without the Gamer System. Otherwise, I would undoubtedly have been as pitiful as her, given my utter lack of talent without the System artificially boosting my capabilities. Except for cooking – that was one thing I was confident in excelling at even without the Gamer System. But being a chef in the Naruverse is just… a wasted opportunity, no?

All I could do was wish her luck, and if, in five years' time she needed financial aid or any other support, I would do my best to help her. Until then, I could only smile and listen when she needed a comforting presence or a shoulder to lean on.

Anyways, today we were not undergoing another training session overseen by Asuma. Instead, we were being summoned for another C-rank mission. Thank god Team Seven were already out on the Land of Waves mission, otherwise I would have been worried Sasuke and Naruto would have missed the mission that would solidify their bond and strengthen their resolve.

It was about four days since they left the village, Gozu and Mezu should have already been dealt with, so this should roughly be the time they encountered Zabuza, right?

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(Four days ago, Land of Fire, main highway to Land of Waves)

It has only been half a day since Team Seven, and Shikamaru has already questioned his decision to become a shinobi in the first place seven times. Those questions happened regularly, at roughly 30 minute intervals. Mostly a result of Naruto's incessant jabbering, Sasuke's brooding, Kakashi's nonchalance and their client's off-putting alcoholic odour.

The Nara sighed for what seemed to be the umpteenth time, wondering what a peaceful and decidedly untroublesome life he would be living right now if only he hadn't been forcefully entered into the Shinobi Academy.

His team was currently on their way to the Land of Waves, escorting their client to the Land of Waves after Naruto annoyingly demanded for a C-rank mission. The loudmouthed blonde had never let his desire to perform 'cooler' and more 'exciting' missions go unheard. But it got even worse when over the last few months Team Ten's team went through two C-rank missions compared to their team's zero.

That was unacceptable in Naruto's eyes, his whining growing louder and more irritating as the days of performing peaceful and tranquil D-ranks went by, until the Hokage, for some inexplicable reason, agreed to assign their team a C-rank mission.

Team Seven was subsequently greeted by a foul-mouthed, drunk old man who insulted their team's competencies at first glance. That was the second time that day Shikamaru sighed deeply and commented to himself how troublesome everything was.

Fast forward to now, and Shikamaru was ready to defect just so he could run away from the responsibilities of being a shinobi; though on second thought, leading a life as a missing-nin was also way more troublesome than whatever meagre freedom defecting would bring him.

Their journey would continue being boring, uneventful and soul-suckingly annoying… or so Shikamaru thought before he noticed an inconspicuous-looking puddle in the middle of the road. It really wasn't difficult to deduce that a trap or some sort of ambush awaited them after seeing the puddle of which its existence was incongruous to the sunny weather they were having. Not to mention that it hadn't rained for weeks too.

Seriously, was it too much to ask for a peaceful, uneventful mission?

Shikamaru sighed and turned to Kakashi, noticing that Sasuke had similarly came to the same conclusion and like himself was turning to their squad leader for further instruction.

"Eh? Why is there a puddle on the ground? Did it rain in the morning?" Naruto suddenly asked, pointing to the puddle.

The Nara facepalmed. Ever since Team Seven and Team Ten regularly trained together in what Shinji had called inter-team training sessions, Naruto was becoming sharper when it came to spotting traps. His obvious weakness with genjutsu was ruthlessly exploited by the opposing team, so much so that Naruto had to get better at spotting inconsistencies in the environment to avoid being caught in a trap.

However, it was also readily apparent that his skill at reading the atmosphere was still severely lacking.

Sasuke rolled his eyes, as did Kakashi who looked disappointed at his most mischievous student's lack of forethought.

None of them were surprised when two enemy shinobi leapt out of the puddle, rebreathers covering the bottom half of their face while each were equipped with a single large, clawed gauntlet on their left and right arm respectively. A bladed chain coming out of one gauntlet was attached to the other.

"DIE!" Gozu yelled, as they dashed towards their team.

Kakashi blankly looked on, his mask concealing his expression, "Go handle them. I'll intervene if it looks like any of you kids need saving."

Upon receiving his jounin squad leader's permission, a confident smirk adorned Sasuke's face as he activated his Sharingan, "Understood. Shikamaru, plan?"

The Nara settled into a stance, but the tension was relieved immediately after. Their enemies were… slow. Compared to Shinji, they moved at a snail's pace. "No need. Just go wild you two. I'll back you up. Oh, and don't break their chain."

The Uchiha sped forward, already unsheathing his wakizashi upon receiving the go ahead from his team's strategist. The genin of Team Seven had clearly defined roles – Shikamaru was the tactician, strategist, and performed as a general support specialist; Naruto and Sasuke were the brawlers, the fighters, the heavy assault specialists… in other words, they were the brawn while Shikamaru was the brain.

"You really think you have the time to chat!?" Mezu shouted, clearly incensed over the easy-going atmosphere their targets were adopting. They may be missing-nin, abhorred for abandoning their village, but damn it they had their pride too!

"Against you punks? We could talk about the weather and still take you two fools down." Sasuke taunted as he moved in to attack. His Sharingan eyes gave him absolute clarity of vision, and with this clarity was an awareness of not just how his enemies moved, but also how he should move his own body.

The Uchiha weaved into range, ducking under an attempted strike from one of the Demon Brothers and his wakizashi sliced into the thigh of another.

"This brat-!?" Mezu gritted out as Sasuke's wakizashi cut into his leg.

A clawed gauntlet dove towards Sasuke's chest but was parried by his blade. The poison tipped claws clashed against his sword for a moment before Gozu opened his hand and grabbed on to the wakizashi, his armoured gauntlet protecting his palm from the sharp edge.

"Got you!" Gozu hissed out as his brother went in for the killing blow.

Sasuke's confident smirk never left his face as before the clawed gauntlet could even reach his body, Naruto jumped in and landed a kick on Mezu's face.

"Took you long enough." Sasuke remarked while channelling chakra into his family's ancestral blade, Satori before violently ripping it out Gozu's metalled grasp while leaving a deep gash on the missing-nin's palm.

"Pfft, still saved your ass, didn't I?" Naruto shot back as he formed a handseal, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Two dozen shadow clones popped into existence and moved, each settled in to a fighting stance, their fists and feet pointed towards the downed Mezu.