Near the Konohagakure gates, Team 9 stood beside a merchant carriage, ready to depart.
"What's the delay? Why aren't we moving yet?" the fat merchant demanded, poking his head out of the window like an irritated turtle.
"It won't be long," Hayate replied evenly, like an underpaid service desk employee, which was probably the case for a Jonin taking a C-rank mission. "We're waiting for our last squad member."
Noticing the absolute lack of ducks Hayate gave him, the merchant scoffed in annoyance.
"Tch. Shinobi. What good are they if they can't even be on time?" he muttered before snapping the curtain shut.
"Sensei, why did you pick such an annoying client?" Kuro asked, scratching his ear lazily, "Is it too late to switch missions? I suddenly feel drain cleaning isn't so bad."
Thud
Hayate's fist connected with the top of Kuro's head.
"That's no way to talk about our client," Hayate said calmly.
Kuro clutched the bump forming on his head and complained. "But sensei—"
"It doesn't matter," Hayate cut him off. "As shinobi of the Leaf, it's your duty to uphold Konoha's image at all times."
The merchant scoffed at that from inside the carriage, but Hayate didn't even look in his direction, continuing to impart valuable advice to the next generation.
"If you leave a bad impression, the village loses customers, and that is going to affect everyone. Understand?"
It was a solid lecture; the only problem was that he himself didn't seem particularly interested in practising what he preached.
Kuro nodded anyway, still holding his head while giving a sloppy salute. "Understood, sensei."
"Good." Hayate nodded in satisfaction, but before he could move on, Kuro spoke up again.
"Sensei, Takumi is really dragging our village's name through the dirt by being late, isn't he?" He said, leaning towards Hayate's ear, "He really needs to be punished before the village's reputation falls any further."
A vein twitched faintly at Hayate's temple. On some days, he wondered what exactly he had done to deserve this team. He just wanted to scream at Kuro's face to let out some frustration, but his lungs didn't quite agree to that.
Cough Cough Cough
"Sensei, there are still a few minutes before the assigned time." Seeing Hayate's irritated coughing, Misaki quickly stepped forward, trying to smooth things over before Takumi got in trouble. "Takumi-kun is always right on time…"
"I'm here."
Takumi dropped down from the tree at that exact moment.
"I told you to be early," Hayate said, forcing his cough back down.
"Ah, I was buying cough drops for you, sensei," Takumi replied smoothly, already holding out a small ginger drop.
It was just a normal cough drop from his pocket. He'd upgraded it a few times out of habit, so it was probably a little more effective than usual, but nothing special. He had yet to find a food that could be upgraded to gain stats.
"Alright, let's not dawdle. The client is waiting on us," Takumi said before Hayate could press the issue any further and slipped past him.
Going to the front of the carriage, he gave the horse's flank a firm slap to get things moving. The carriage driver shot him a dirty look, but Takumi didn't care.
He was in a great mood today, and he wasn't going to let anyone ruin it.
'Wait, why do I feel like someone just summoned Murphy, the Sage of Six Calamities?' Takumi suddenly had a weird thought, but I'm not sure what he was talking about.
Anyways, before long, they were beyond the village walls. The tall gates disappeared behind them, swallowed by trees, and the road stretched wide and open ahead.
For the first time in a while, Takumi felt something loosen in his chest, and he felt free. He hadn't realised how boxed in he'd started to feel until he stepped outside those tall walls. There was a reason most shinobi preferred being out on missions.
Talking about missions, this one was supposed to be an easy C-Rank. Escort the fat merchant from point A to point B.
Since the man wasn't transporting any goods, Takumi guessed the merchant had already sold his wares in Konoha and made a comfortable profit. And judging by their destination, he didn't plan on saving it.
Tanzaku Town—the nearest gambling and leisure hub in the Land of Fire. If you had fresh coin and questionable self-control, that was where you'd end up.
It was a fitting first C-rank for a genin team. Not harmless, but not reckless either. Tanzaku was still well within Fire Country, so the chances of running into enemy shinobi were low, but the roads between towns were long and quiet. Hence, an ideal hunting ground for bandits, thieves, or the occasional hungry predator to try their luck.
Unfortunately for the three genin, they didn't face anything quite that exciting...
"But why can't we sit up there, sensei? There's plenty of space," Kuro complained, panting as he ran alongside the carriage.
"It's because the poor horses can't carry more than this," Hayate replied lazily. "Our client is already quite… substantial."
The fat bastard grumbled from inside, but Hayate didn't seem to hear anything.
"What about the buffalo? It's dragging an empty cart," Kuro pressed.
"He's resting up for the next trip," Hayate said. "Now keep up, if you don't want to miss dinner tonight."
It quickly became clear that this was one of those lessons you endured after irritating your jōnin sensei.
They ran for hours, stopping only long enough to catch their breath and drink some water before being waved forward again.
"Sensei, how much farther is it? We've been running forever," Kuro complained for the tenth time.
He was sweating bullets with a face as red as a tomato, and Misaki looked even worse, not even in a state to complain.
But the biggest culprit behind this punishment, Takumi, looked quite relaxed. After all, he had finally removed his training weights after a whole month. While they were unlikely to face any major threats so close to the village, he wasn't taking any chances.
"We're halfway there," Hayate said, chewing on a piece of grass, sitting comfortably next to the carriage driver.
"Halfway? But it's about to get dark already, and I'm starving." Kuro exclaimed.
"All right, we'll camp out for the night and continue tomorrow. You guys go look for a suitable place and start a fire." Hataye said, stretching out his back.
He was definitely bored out of his mind as well. C-rank missions for a jōnin were either a relaxing vacation or an exercise of patience.
"Huh! We have to do that as well? What about you, sensei?"
"What about me?" Hayate raised an eyebrow.
"You've been sitting comfortably on the carriage the whole time." Kuro wasn't afraid of no eyebrows.
"I've been doing the most important work here, protecting our client. " Hayate said, waving him off.
"Huh? Takumi, say something. Sensei's clearly taking advantage of us"
"I'll go look for a campsite, you and Misaki catch us some dinner," Takumi said, and with that, he disappeared off to climb up a tree and get a better vantage point. After all, he was actively trying not to piss off Hayate more than he already had.
Because of his cheat, Takumi was able to train his spirit and ultimately improve his chakra control. He'd already mastered the tree climbing and water walking even before he graduated.
In no time, he was standing at the top of the tallest tree around, surveying his surroundings, but even after a few minutes, he didn't gain much except for the realisation that they'd come quite far from the Village.
The dense foliage surrounded them, making it difficult to tell where they came from and where they were going. I guess that's why they call it the Village Hidden in the Leaves.
Luckily, Ninja school taught them various navigation techniques. He looked at the setting sun and figured out the approximate cardinal directions. Then he updated his rough location on a mental map of the land of fire. It was better to be prepared in case something went south.
'That seems like a nice spot,' he thought, noticing a small clearing near flowing water.
"I'd better check it out first," Takumi muttered as he leaned towards the next tree and jumped across like a monkey.
Swish Swish Swish
He nimbly jumped from one tree to another, quickly making his way towards the clearing. Ever since he'd mastered tree climbing and chakra-enhanced jumps, this had become Takumi's preferred mode of traversal, along with jumping over rooftops.
He'd lived his whole life in a concrete jungle the last time, but even then, he'd foolishly scream "Parkour Parkour Parkouuur" as he jumped over the park bench every day on his way to work.
It helped him forget how much he hated his job.
-To be Continued...
Nooo I ran our of this peak fan-fic! Post more author, please!!
:-; *crying*
Working on it. I'll do my best to update today.