Leave the Village!
He fell in with the flow of people and headed straight for the Mission Hall.
The hall was bustling, crowded everywhere with ninja waiting to accept or turn in missions.
Behind the counter sat a Special Jonin named Tanaka Chuichi.
Tanaka Chuichi was leafing through the papers in his hand when he caught Chiba approaching the counter out of the corner of his eye.
He gave a faint, almost invisible curl of his lip.
He had some memory of this luckless fellow, Chiba.
A mediocre talent—a nobody who’d only survived the Third Shinobi World War by burying himself in a pile of corpses.
“What mission do you want?”
Tanaka Chuichi didn’t even look up, his voice edged with bureaucratic coldness.
“Tanaka-senpai, money’s been a little tight for me lately.”
“I’d like to take a higher-paying C-rank escort mission.”
Chiba rubbed his hands together.
And onto his face he forced a fawning smile.
“They’re all here.
Pick one yourself.”
Tanaka Chuichi shoved a stack of scrolls in front of him.
Chiba thanked him again and again and began rifling through them, keeping up the act.
His hands moved slowly, but his eyes swept over each mission at speed.
He couldn’t go straight for a mission to Tanzaku Town.
That kind of pointed searching would draw suspicion all too easily.
First he picked up a mission to the capital of the Land of Fire and looked it over, then shook his head—the “pay was too low.”
Next he pulled out one to the border of the Land of Hot Springs, and put it back, grumbling that “the road was too dangerous.”
He sifted back and forth through a dozen or so scrolls.
Open impatience began to show on Tanaka Chuichi’s face.
Just then.
Chiba’s finger came down on a slightly worn-looking scroll.
He made a show of hesitating for a good while before gritting his teeth and drawing it out.
“Senpai, I’ll take this one.”
Tanaka Chuichi took the scroll and glanced at it.
〔C-rank Mission: Escort a shipment of precious medicinal herbs to Kikyo Town in the western Land of Fire.〕
That town lay very close to Tanzaku Town—only half a day’s travel apart.
A mission with such a remote route, paying only a little above a normal C-rank, was usually one nobody wanted.
And so.
The look Tanaka Chuichi gave Chiba turned even more contemptuous.
Taking on such a wretched job just to earn a few thousand extra ryo.
He really was a good-for-nothing.
“Take the commission form.”
“Meet at the village gate at two this afternoon.”
Tanaka Chuichi stamped the mission seal and tossed the document back.
Chiba caught it with both hands and bowed over and over again.
The instant he turned away from the counter.
His hunched back straightened, so slightly no one would notice.
The first step had gone off without a hitch.
That afternoon.
Before the broad main gate of Konoha Village.
A caravan of three horse-drawn carriages was going through its final checks.
The caravan’s boss was a fat merchant named Yamada, at that moment mopping sweat nonstop with a handkerchief.
“Konoha only sent you?
Alone?”
Seeing Chiba walk up by himself.
Boss Yamada’s brows knit at once.
“Don’t worry, Boss Yamada.”
“I know this route very well—I can absolutely guarantee the herbs’ safety.”
Chiba stepped forward unhurriedly, his tone calm.
He’d played the toady in front of Tanaka Chuichi because the Mission Hall had been full of ninja.
Chiba didn’t dare expose himself carelessly there.
But Yamada, an ordinary man, got no such treatment.
“Get on the carriage, quickly.”
“Don’t hold up the schedule!”
Yamada grumbled a few dissatisfied words.
But to spare himself the steep cost of hiring a whole squad, he had no choice but to grit his teeth and take what he could get.
At that.
Chiba sprang straight up onto the frame of one of the carriages.
The gate guards were still that same old pair, Kamizuki Izumo and Hagane Kotetsu.
They checked Chiba’s mission papers and verified his chakra signature.
“Safe travels.”
Izumo waved a hand, signaling them through.
The carriage wheels rolled slowly forward, grinding over the white line at the village entrance that marked the edge of the barrier.
The moment he passed through the barrier.
The great stone that had been weighing on Chiba’s heart finally shattered for good.
The air of freedom flooded into his lungs through his nose.
He bowed his head, and a flicker of untamed ambition surfaced in his eyes.
That evening.
The caravan ran into a few wandering samurai who didn’t know any better.
With a few precise throws of his Kunai, Chiba dealt with the petty thieves without effort.
Watching how decisive and ruthless Chiba was.
Boss Yamada’s manner shifted from his earlier disdain to open flattery.
Night fell.
The caravan made camp in the woods.
Chiba volunteered to take the night watch.
He sat cross-legged on a thick tree trunk.
Once he’d confirmed there was no one around.
Chiba slowly raised his right hand.
No hand seals were needed.
A faint green light bloomed quietly in his palm.
An instant later.
A sapling as thick as a thumb sprouted straight from the surface of his skin.
Vivid green leaves, brimming with life, swayed gently in the night wind.
Chiba felt his scalp prickle.
This was Wood Release!
This miracle of creating life from nothing utterly defied the physical laws of ordinary ninjutsu.
Pour in more chakra.
And this thumb-thick little sapling could turn in an instant into a towering tree, one capable of strangling all things.
No wonder even a man as ruthless and arrogant as Uchiha Madara had run into wall after wall against Wood Release.
This simply was not a power any ordinary ninja could stand against.
A moment later.
Chiba withdrew his chakra.
The sapling withered on the spot, crumbling into a small pinch of ash that scattered on the wind.
He didn’t dare try anything on too large a scale.
Out here in the wild, causing too big a stir would only invite trouble he didn’t need.
His first task now was to find Tsunade.