They delivered Harada to the market town on the afternoon of the fourth day.
The town was small but busy, a cluster of wooden buildings around a central square where merchants had set up stalls and buyers moved between them in loose crowds. Harada guided his wagon to a warehouse on the east side of the square where a man in a stained apron was waiting with a clipboard.
The inventory check took an hour. Every crate opened. Every item counted. Every piece of merchandise inspected, compared against the manifest, and checked off. Mikoto stood by the wagon with her genin and waited.
Harada emerged from the warehouse. He walked up to Mikoto and looked at her for a moment.
"Not a single thing missing…" he said.
"I’m glad." Mikoto smiled.
He grunted. "Maybe I was wrong about you," he said. "Maybe that vest does mean something."
Mikoto took the envelope and bowed. "Thank you for trusting me, Harada-san. Or at least, for trusting the person who gave me the vest."
He grunted again. He looked at the three genin behind her. His mouth opened like he was going to say something. Then it closed. He turned and walked back to his wagon.
"Safe travels!" Mikoto waved after him.
He waved without turning around.
They left the market town and started the walk back to camp.
The road home was quieter than the road out.
The boys talked. They talked about the market town. They talked about what the stalls were selling. Chōza talked about a food stand he'd smelled from across the square that sold grilled squid on sticks. Inoichi talked about getting a haircut soon, his hair was getting a bit too long. Shikaku said nothing about anything for the first hour, then asked Mikoto how much they were getting paid for the mission.
"The pay rate for C-rank missions usually varies between 30,000 and 100,000 ryō. And then that’s split between the members who went on the mission." she said.
"That's not an exact number."
"You’ll see when we get back to camp."
He put his hands back in his pockets.
They didn't talk about the bandits. Not on the road. Not at camp that night. Not the next morning.
But Mikoto noticed the way they avoided the topic.
They were thinking about it. She knew because she thought about it too. The difference was that she'd been seeing things like that for a while now and had learned how to handle them.
They would learn too. In time.
They reached camp the following afternoon. Mikoto filed the mission report, turned in the payment envelope, and walked out of the command tent.
"Good job, boys!" she announced to her genin, who were waiting outside. "First C-rank, successfully completed!"
Chōza pumped his fist. Inoichi smiled. Shikaku leaned against the tent post.
"Do we get a break?" Shikaku asked.
"Unfortunately not. We have a new mission already."
His head dropped.
"A C-rank came in while we were gone. Perfect timing. Reports of civilian caravans going missing along a trade route about twenty kilometers northwest. Three in the last two weeks. No survivors found, no bodies either. Local farmers think it's bandits. Some think it's wildlife."
"What do you think?" Inoichi asked.
"Well, we gotta go investigate, silly." Mikoto tapped his forehead.
They left the next morning.
The trade route northwest of camp wound through dense lowland forest. The trees grew so thick the sun barely reached the ground. The road was narrow and overgrown in places, branches reaching across like fingers trying to close a fist.
They asked at the first farmstead they passed. An old woman with a bent back and sharp eyes.
"Three wagons gone in two weeks. The first one, they found the wagon overturned about five kilometers up the road. Goods scattered everywhere. Big gouges in the wood, like something with claws had torn it apart." She shared with them.
"Did anyone see what did it?" Mikoto asked.
"My nephew said he saw something in the trees. Big. Green. Moved fast." She shook her head. "He won't go near that road anymore."
They moved on. The next farmstead, two kilometers further, had a similar story. A merchant had set out with a cart of grain and never arrived. They found the cart a day later, smashed, with deep cuts in the wood and drag marks leading into the forest.
"The drag marks went northeast toward the ravine. Nobody followed them." The farmer said.
They followed them.
The trail was easy to read. Broken branches. Gouged earth. Something large and heavy had dragged something even larger through the underbrush. The drag marks cut a path through the forest floor like a scar.
Shikaku walked beside Mikoto, studying the marks.
"The pattern is wrong for a mammal… There are no paw prints. Just... lines."
"Insect legs." Chōza brought up.
"You know what it is?" Inoichi asked.
"I ate fried insects before. They have legs like this." Chōza pointed out.
“...” Inoichi opened his mouth. Chōza glared at him daring to say something. “I’m not gonna.”
“If you were, I’d have to pop ya.” Chōza grinned while holding a raised fist already ready to be thrown.
“I’m not gonna say it! Chill out!” Inoichi raised his hands.
“Good.” Chōza put down his fist.
“Still thinking it, though.” Inoichi muttered.
“You little!” Chōza punched the place where Inoichi’s arm was previously at.
Inoichi ducked low to the ground while laughing, running ahead. Chōza shouted after him as he chased from behind. Shikaku chuckled as he kept his eyes sharp on their surroundings.
“Good job, Shikaku-kun. Never let your guard down during a mission. I’m going to have to remind those two knuckleheads.” Mikoto pulled back her sleeve with a clenched fist.
“Sucks to be them.” Shikaku smirked.
They found the nest thirty minutes later. A shallow ravine where a stream had dried up, leaving a muddy depression surrounded by overhanging rocks. The remains of the missing caravans were scattered across the ravine floor. Splintered wood. Torn canvas. Shattered crates. And bones. Animal bones mostly, from the mules and horses that had pulled the wagons. But Mikoto saw a human femur half-buried in the mud.
Inoichi's nose wrinkled. "It smells terrible."
"Like a dead animal." Chōza said.
"Like a bunch of dead animals." Shikaku corrected.
Something moved in the shadows beneath the overhanging rocks.
It came out incredibly fast.
The giant praying mantis was the size of a grizzly bear standing on its hind legs. Its body was a sickly green, segmented and chitinous, with a triangular head that swiveled toward them. Its forelegs were the worst part. Raptorial limbs lined with serrated spines, each one as long as a kunai, folded against its thorax like a pair of swords waiting to be drawn.
It saw them. Its head tilted. Its mandibles clicked.
Mikoto stepped back.
"It's all yours, boys." she said.
The boys looked at her. They looked at the mantis. They looked at each other.
Chōza pulled his bo staff off his back. "Right… Okay. Big bug. I've got this."
He charged.
The mantis unfolded its forelegs with a snap. The serrated limbs shot out toward Chōza's head, blisteringly fast, something that would have caught him three weeks ago. It didn't catch him now. He ducked under the first strike, deflected the second with his staff, and drove the butt end into the mantis's thorax.
It barely noticed. The chitin was thick. The mantis hissed and struck again, both forelegs sweeping inward like scissors closing, aiming to trap Chōza's head between them.
"SHIKAKU!" Chōza yelled, backpedaling, using his staff to keep the limbs at bay.
Shikaku was already in position. He'd circled left while Chōza engaged, putting himself at the mantis's flank where its shadow stretched long across the ravine floor.
“Shadow Possession Jutsu successful.” His shadow surged across the ground and connected with the mantis's.
The creature froze mid-strike, its forelegs locked open, its head tilted at an angle that would have been comical if the thing hadn't been trying to eat his friend two seconds ago.
Shikaku's teeth clenched. The mantis was strong. Its body fought the jutsu, straining against the paralysis, and he could feel his chakra draining fast.
"Chōza! Now!"
Chōza didn't hesitate. He raised his right arm. Partial Expansion Jutsu. His fist swelled to three times its normal size, the fingers thickening, the knuckles becoming sledgehammers.
He brought it down on the mantis's head.
The impact was disgusting. The chitin cracked like an eggshell and the inside of the mantis came out in a spray of green fluid that went everywhere. Across Chōza's face. Across his chest. Down his arms. Into his mouth, which he had unfortunately left open.
The mantis collapsed in a wet heap of broken shell and green pulp. Legs twitching. Very dead.
Chōza stood there. He was green from head to waist. The smell was beyond description.
He gagged. He spat. He wiped his face with his hands, which made it worse because his hands were also covered.
"That… is the worst thing that has ever happened to me."
“HAHAHAHA!” From behind a rock, Inoichi fell onto his back laughing. He kicked his feet against the ground and held his stomach and couldn't stop.
Shikaku released the Shadow Possession and sat down on a boulder. He was chuckling.
"It's not funny!" Chōza yelled. Green dripped from his chin. "I can taste it! I CAN STILL TASTE IT!"
“Green looks good on you.” Inoichi laughed harder with tears coming out of his eyes.
A grin suddenly spread across Chōza's face.
"Oh, you think this is funny?" He spread his arms wide and started walking toward them. "Come here! Big hug! Friends share everything, right?"
Inoichi's laughter turned into a shriek. He scrambled to his feet and ran. Shikaku was already moving, hopping off the boulder and bolting up the ravine slope with his hands in his pockets, which made running harder but apparently not hard enough to sacrifice the aesthetic.
"GET BACK HERE!" Chōza bellowed, charging after them. For an Akimichi, he was fast. Faster than either of them expected thanks to Mikoto. He kept pace with Inoichi and was gaining on Shikaku.
"HE'S CATCHING UP!" Inoichi shouted.
"RUN FASTER!" Shikaku shouted back.
"YOUR HANDS ARE IN YOUR POCKETS!"
"IT’S GONNA BE A DRAG TO TAKE THEM OUT!"
Mikoto watched from the ravine floor, giggling. She let them run for a while. Then she pulled a scroll from her pouch, unrolled it beside the mantis corpse, and sealed the remains into the scroll. Evidence for the mission report. She rolled the scroll up, tucked it away, and walked after her genin at a leisurely pace.
She found them fifty meters up the trail. Chōza had caught Inoichi and was bear-hugging him while Inoichi screamed and flailed as if he was being doused in acid. Shikaku was watching from a safe distance with his arms folded, still chuckling.
"You're getting green on my everything!" Inoichi yelled.
"GOOD!"
"Chōza, I'm sorry I laughed!"
"NO YOU'RE NOT!"
"YOU'RE RIGHT, I'M NOT! IT WAS HILARIOUS! HAHAHAHA!!!"
Mikoto cleared her throat. All three of them looked at her.
"Mission complete, boys. The mantis is dealt with. We'll report back and confirm the trade route is clear." She looked at Chōza. "And I’ll clean you up."
"Please…" Chōza begged. Green dripped from his elbow.
Mikoto sprayed him and Inoichi down with water jutsu. The two spent ten minutes making sure Mikoto hit every spot while Shikaku sat on the bank and provided unhelpful commentary. The smell lingered despite her help.
"Thank you, Mikoto-sensei."
"You earned it. That was some good teamwork."
"It was a gross kill."
"You’ll get better as you go."
They walked back to camp. Three genin and their sensei, tired and satisfied, with a sealed scroll containing the remains of a giant praying mantis and a story that Chōza would spend the rest of his life trying to live down.
That night, for the first time since the bandit mission, all three of them slept without dreaming about their sensei or corpses.