Three days had passed since the reorganization of Ao’s squad.
During those three days, aside from occasionally offering some guidance, Ao had simply taken the three youngsters through four of the simplest D-rank missions.
This was also meant to help Tachibana Kenji and Zabuza Momochi, who had only recently become genin, become familiar with the entire process of receiving and carrying out shinobi missions.
Shinobi missions were divided into five ranks, from D to S.
D-rank missions were usually the simplest assignments and required no combat.
They included things like looking after pets, fishing, farming, and similar tasks.
C-rank missions were somewhat more difficult, with the possibility of injury during the assignment.
However, they generally involved ordinary people as opponents, such as capturing dangerous beasts or eliminating bandits.
B-rank missions were considerably more dangerous and could involve combat against hostile shinobi.
They already required at least a chūnin to undertake, and the missions could even include dangerous operations such as assassinating shinobi or infiltrating enemy organizations as spies.
As for A- and S-rank missions, only jōnin were qualified to accept them.
These missions often involved crises or classified matters concerning an entire shinobi village or nation.
They could require confronting the elite combat forces of other countries, or even wiping out entire shinobi units.
Although the squad leader, Ao, was a jōnin, a jōnin leader in a newly formed squad primarily served as an instructor and would not normally participate in the missions themselves.
Therefore, when the squad accepted missions, they were still evaluated according to the combat capabilities of the three genin.
For the time being, they would only take D- and C-rank missions.
Ao was more than happy with this arrangement.
He could watch his students run around handling everything while Mei Terumi, who had graduated a year earlier and already had some experience, guided them.
He could simply stand off to the side, collect his pay, and take it easy.
Unfortunately, Kirigakure was different from Konohagakure.
The village itself did not place much importance on D-rank missions, and with the recent preparations for war, there were even fewer of these missions available.
So Ao agreed that today they would take a C-rank mission and get some practical experience.
Tachibana Kenji was quite pleased with this.
Just as she had previously suspected, the system indeed recognized the official missions issued by a shinobi village.
During the four D-rank missions over the past two days, she had received five Gold Coins for each one.
In addition to her daily missions and achievements, she now had another way to earn Gold Coins.
Today, she could finally find out how much a C-rank mission was worth.
After looking through the available missions for a while, the four of them left the Mission Center.
After exiting the Mizukage Building, Mei Terumi was still somewhat dissatisfied and began complaining.
“Teacher Ao, did you deliberately pick this ‘rescue children kidnapped by pirates’ mission to make things difficult for us?
We might as well have taken that other one and captured a pregnant tiger shark for a noble of the Land of Water.” Ao felt a little embarrassed at that.
But it was understandable why Mei thought this mission was so terrible.
This particular mission had been posted by villagers from a remote area near the border of the Land of Water.
The low reward was only one problem.
Because the villagers themselves had little access to information, missions of this sort generally came with only the most basic intelligence, such as the name of a particular sea area and the general location where a group of pirates had been sighted.
Moreover, most pirates remained at sea for long periods when conducting raids.
Finding them across the vast ocean was undoubtedly difficult.
Low pay, a long journey, and troublesome objectives—this could be said to be one of the least worthwhile types of C-rank mission.
“There wasn’t much choice.
The village has been reducing the number of available missions recently because we’re preparing for war.
But those major clans still need to cover their members’ expenses, so they’ve been taking missions like crazy.
C- and B-rank missions are in extremely high demand.” Tachibana Kenji had learned a little about this while chatting with Saigyoji Keiko and Kisame Hoshigaki over the past two days, so she spoke up to explain the situation for Ao.
“What Tachibana said is correct.
But this mission isn’t completely without advantages.
Since it was only posted recently, the client apparently hasn’t left the village yet.
We can talk to him first and get some information.” Seeing Tachibana Kenji come to his defense, Ao immediately picked up the conversation.
Ao also knew that Mei was only complaining verbally.
When it came time to carry out the mission, she would still give it her full effort.
Zabuza, meanwhile, continued to stand beside them with his usual cool, silent expression.
Oh, no.
It was a cool expression behind a face wrapped in bandages.
…
The three youngsters arrived at the inn where the client was staying.
They had to admit, it was surprising that Kirigakure, one of the Five Great Shinobi Villages, could have an inn this shabby.
The “black” sign hanging above the entrance was so filthy that, if the characters for “inn” had not still been slightly raised and visible beneath the grime, no one would have been able to tell that this was an inn at all.
Looking at the entrance, half of which was covered in vines, the four of them pushed the door open with resigned expressions.
For the sake of giving his students experience, Ao would basically only observe during this kind of simple mission.
“Hello.
We’re looking for Hugo.” As the senior member of the group, Mei Terumi naturally stepped forward to ask the question.
The woman at the front desk did not say a word.
She merely raised her chin and pointed toward a plainly dressed young man sitting absentmindedly in the corner of the lobby.
The young man’s haggard face bore the obvious characteristics of a coastal fisherman.
He wore a very simple short shirt and trousers, both covered with numerous salt stains left behind by dried seawater.
His skin was dark and rough from years of exposure to the wind and sun.
Years of fishing and rowing had also left his arms and shoulders unusually muscular.
However, he had apparently been troubled by something lately.
A lack of proper food and sleep had left him looking haggard and weak.
Tachibana Kenji instinctively analyzed the man in the corner.
He was most likely the client who had posted the mission.
The three youngsters quickly walked over to him.
Although Mei’s voice at the front desk had not exactly been quiet, the man’s mental state was clearly such that he had not noticed it.
Only when the three of them approached did the middle-aged man raise his eyes and look at them.
“May I ask what brings you three Shinobi-sama here?” The three were unmistakably dressed as shinobi, and each wore a Kirigakure forehead protector.
Naturally, Mr.
Hugo would not mistake them for ordinary children.
There was even a hint of respect in his voice.
Given Mei Terumi’s personality, she had no reason to be bashful.
She straightforwardly introduced the three members of the squad and explained that they had come to learn the details of the mission.
The man’s face became sorrowful as he began speaking in a low voice.
“Our village is an ordinary settlement near the border of the Land of Water.
We make our living by fishing.
Although life is poor, we have always been very happy.” “…” Seeing that the man seemed prepared to launch into a lengthy speech, Tachibana Kenji immediately felt somewhat speechless and could only interrupt him.
“Get to the point!
What useful information do you have?” The sudden interruption left the fisherman momentarily stunned.
Mei Terumi shot Tachibana Kenji a somewhat reproachful glance, but she did not contradict her.
The man continued.
“There are roughly thirty or forty pirates who attacked our village.
They only have one ship.” “Not only did they rob us of our possessions, they also kidnapped seven children.
The money and other belongings don’t matter.
We only hope that the Shinobi-sama can bring our children back.” The man managed to rein in his emotions somewhat and looked at the group expectantly.
“Kidnapped hostages aren’t necessarily still alive.” Zabuza calmly pointed out the problem.
Mei Terumi, however, could not bear the thought and spoke up.
“If the pirates specifically kidnapped children, then there must be a reason.
They wouldn’t kill them so quickly.
If we can find the pirates’ hideout, we might be able to rescue the children.” “That depends on whether we can find their hideout.” Tachibana Kenji appropriately reminded Mei of the problem.
But at that moment, the man named Hugo spoke up hesitantly.
“I…
I might know where the pirates’ hideout is.”
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