Tōji shot a glance at Akane. He had a feeling she'd slept through at least half her classes at the Academy.
The way this three-genin squad was put together, it was clear the Third Hokage had balanced for capability—one Izuno Natchi with a clan secret technique and decent taijutsu, one Kazamatsuri Tōji who was above-average and already knew two D-rank jutsu before graduation, and one Rai Akane who barely scraped by to graduate early…
Though to be fair, Akane wasn't even the dead last of their year. Iruka Umino was still at the Academy, scheduled for normal graduation next year.
Either way, Tōji envied Iruka.
Raicho continued clarifying everyone's positions—as the jōnin, he'd take the center once the search began, with the rest fanning out in a line. On his left would be Tōji. On his right, in order of proximity: Akane closer to him, and Natchi the farthest out.
Tōji only cared about one thing—was he safe? Actually, not bad. He wasn't the farthest from the squad leader. Not as safe as Akane, but way better off than Natchi.
Patting his well-stocked ninja tool pouch, Tōji gave himself a silent pep talk. "Two Exploding Tags in this bag!"
Sure, after this C-rank mission was done, he'd only earn about thirty-three hundred ryō. But those two halfway-decent Exploding Tags had set him back a total of six thousand ryō!
He'd sunk his entire net worth into insurance!
If he made it back in one piece, he could grind a few D-ranks, go through the motions at the Chūnin Exams, and then—bam—chūnin.
After all, these past few years had seen heavy attrition among chūnin and genin alike, making promotions much easier.
And as a chūnin, you could still take low-risk missions—with a much better commission split.
Low responsibility, good pay, close to home. Low rank, little power, minimal risk. That was Tōji's dream job!
But right now, Tōji was already neck-deep in his actual job.
Searching through a forest scarred by war wasn't exactly low-risk. Normally, they'd work in pairs at minimum.
But with Orochimaru calling the shots, a somewhat extreme decision didn't seem out of character.
Tōji put his Academy theory to use, slowly and methodically probing the woods step by step. He wasn't in a hurry—in fact, he was noticeably the slowest of the squad. But he stuck to caution, and Raicho didn't say a word.
Of course, Tōji didn't fall too far behind either. He didn't want to get too far from Raicho.
Looking at the map, if only the few squads present today were handling the job, it would take at least three days to fully sweep this battlefield.
Couldn't be helped. Kikyōyama was within the borders of Hi no Kuni—they couldn't afford to be careless. And on top of that, a formal ceasefire with Suna hadn't even been signed yet. This was still just a lull in the fighting.
Hence why Orochimaru was still stationed here.
Though, who knew when the Third Hokage would sideline Orochimaru for good.
According to the original timeline, Danzo Shimura had been pressuring Hiruzen Sarutobi to step down around this time, aiming to push Orochimaru into the seat. And Hiruzen was already looking into Orochimaru's forbidden human experiments.
Meanwhile, Tsunade was around this period growing sick of the village's political infighting. Having lost the two people she loved most, she'd soon leave the village with Shizune, who'd just become a chūnin.
Fortunately, Orochimaru's crimes wouldn't be exposed for a while yet—but when they were, and he fled the village, Jiraiya would follow in pursuit, ostensibly to hunt him down…
By then, with Konoha's White Fang dead by his own hand, and the Sannin scattering to the winds one by one, Konoha would be weaker than ever—just in time for the next wave of crises…
Right now, the Iwa invasion hadn't hit yet—but Tōji's teammate was already in trouble!
"Ahhh! Help!" It was Rai Akane's voice—coming from the center of their formation.
Tōji didn't have time to think. Protocol said he had to move—now!