After a one-hour lunch break, we are standing in front of Hokage tower to meet our teachers. Even before we came, the Uchiha boy is already standing here, presumably waiting for us.
I extended my hand, "hi I am Hirata Senju. Nice meeting you"
The Uchiha's face didn't show any expression, a poker face. He extended his hand and gave me a handshake.
"I am Daiki Uchiha", and he retracted his hand.
I followed others towards reception. Surprisingly today's receptionist is my mother, Aika Senju.
She smiled at me, 'it seems she knows about my graduation and my visit here to meet my teacher. Looking at her happy face, anyone can tell she is in heaven.'
She first greets Tsunade, "hi princess Tsunade. I hope you are doing well."
Tsunade laughed, "yes, aunty. It seems you are in a happy mood."
My mother laughed, "Yes, princess today my lovely son become a true ninja and he is one step closer to his goal."
Everyone including Tsunade looked at me curiously, "please mom, and don't say anything. We have to meet our teacher so please send us, and thank you."
She covered her smile with her fingers, but her eyes are laughing at me playfully.
"Ok, then please follow me", she started to walk in front and we followed her.
Tsunade walked next to my mother and asked, "Aunty, what is Hirata's goal?"
"Princess Tsunade, when he is around three years I told him about lord Hashirama's story about his great achievements. Then he told me his goal is to become a great person like me and asked me how to become a great ninja like lord Hashirama. So, I told him to become Hokage."
This is embarrassing, 'becoming Hokage is original Hirata's goal.' But my goal is to become mangaka in Naruto world.'
Soon we reached the Hokage office; mother stopped us and left after winking at me.
In Hokage's office; team 6, Tsunade, Orochimaru, and Jiraya, and team 7, Daiki, Inabi, and I were standing in a row in front of Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen and Shimura Danzo is sitting on a sofa.
Hokage looked at us, "normally we would have been able to assist you in your training. But due to current circumstances directly assisting you is not possible in missions. So, we opted to assemble strong genin teams that will be fewer burdens, and that is you. Your two teams work most of the time without us during the early days and get the necessary assistance in larger missions from other teams. We will train you whenever we had free time."
Hokage looked at Danzo and later nod. Then he looked at us, "now as per procedure we will start with simple introductions and after that, you are allowed to select any D rank missions"
-------------------- AFTER THREE MONTHS ----------------
It has been three months since I become genin. Every day my team goes to Hokage tower and selects a D rank mission and takeoffs to complete the mission. Most of the missions were completed in a day and some missions take more than a day and up to three days. The reward for the D rank missions is pretty good and each mission has a 20% cut that goes to the mission center and the remaining is divided between team members.
Every morning I go to Hokage tower with my mother and Tsunade. These are happy moments for me since I can spend more time with my mother and my mother is much happier than me.
During these three months, my team completed 53 D-rank missions. This is the fastest record so far. Due to post-war effects, more missions were requested. Especially C rank and B rank missions due to goods supply and bandit attacks and small disputes across villages etc.
Today team 6 is assembled in the training ground by teacher Danzo for personal training.
Danzo, "Daiki Uchiha and Inabi Hyuga, you were exempted from a personal training session and you can train in your clan. But every week you were tested and your performance will be evaluated. You can leave now."
Daiki left directly while Inabi waved her hand before leaving. Now only Danzo and I were present on the training ground. He took a paper of size adult palm,
"Most people have a chakra that has an affinity to one of the Five Elements Nature Transformations. To find out what affinity someone has, this is a special paper known as "Chakra Receptive Paper" normally used for making inscriptions. As for the exact applications, you can study them by yourself. This piece of paper reacts to the slightest hint of chakra in any number of ways, depending on the nature latent in the chakra.
Fire: The paper will catch on fire and turn into ash.
Wind: The paper will split in half.
Lightning: The paper will wrinkle.
Earth: The paper will turn to dirt and crumble away.
Water: The paper will become damp.
But you must remember this was to only find the chakra nature to which you have high affinity. But most of the jonin have more than two chakra nature transformations."
He handed me the paper, "now inject chakra"
I took the paper and hold it in between my two fingers and injected chakra. Then the next second, one half of the paper crumbled and turned to dust, and another half becomes wet.
'This is surprising, this means I have water and earth affinities equally which is rare.'
I looked at teacher Danzo. His face is like, a child's face that has seen his favorite candy. This is scary.
'As expected of him, he has already foreseen this and had high expectations.'
He took three scrolls, "there are several jutsu present in them. For the next two months, you will be training in this jutsu. Just like them, I will test your progress every week. So, practice them well."
He left after leaving these words. I browsed through three scrolls, each scroll containing various jutsus of D, C, and B rank.
After two hours of browsing, I decided to learn B rank jutsu, "Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu" which is iconic to Naruto and has many applications. I am eagerly waiting for this technique to land in my hand and help me in getting stronger faster than anyone. Let's learn first and see how much it can aid me in my growth.
After one hour of practicing, I am still not able to perfect this jutsu. This is so hard to maintain multiple clones when your chakra is depleting at a faster rate. So, I decided to set a limit to the number of clones as 10 and keep on practicing until I master this jutsu and its effects. Since this jutsu is key to my future.
I selected a few jutsus as a two-month crash course from each scroll which I deemed as the first step to mastering higher rank jutsus.
For D rank, Body flicker jutsu, Demonic illusion: Hell viewing jutsu, Earth Release: Double suicide decapitation jutsu, Temporary paralysis jutsu, and Manipulated shuriken jutsu.
For C rank, Demonic illusion: False surrounding jutsu, Earth Release: hiding like a mole jutsu, Ink clone jutsu, and Ink mist jutsu.
From B rank, Barrier: canopy method Formation, Earth Release: Added-weight rock jutsu and Water release: Water bullet jutsu.
----------- AFTER TWO MONTHS ---------------
Team 6 and team 7 are standing in front of the Hokage table and teacher Danzo is sitting in coach. An assistant standing next to Hokage, "team 6 and team 7 will jointly execute a C rank escorting mission. Mission details were in this scroll."
The assistant passed the scroll to me. It did surprise me at first, but I took the scroll and opened it.
MISSION: ESCORTING MERCHANT AND HIS GOODS TO TANZAKU VILLAGE
MISSION RANK: C RANK
REWARD: 100,000 Ryo
DESCRIPTION: Escorting merchant Goro safely to Tanzaku village along with his goods. Eliminate any bandits along the way. As per information, the bandits were civilians. They attack any merchant with a group of 20 people.
Looking at the mission description, I can deduce a few points. First, the mission reward is high so the goods were much more valuable. The possibility of facing more bandits is high. Second, this mission is like a test for us. For this type of mission, a chunin will be included in the team for reducing mission failure. We six members were executing this mission, a jonin probably watching us from shadows. Third, mostly 20 members were attacking every time. So the bandit lair will mostly be near and they have more members probably. If so then this mission rank may increase probably.
'I hope I am wrong
I looked at teacher Danzo, he was looking at me with a poker face, but I can see he was evaluating me.
I turned to Hokage, "Hokage-sama, we will complete this mission successfully. But I have some doubts regarding this mission. If you allow me I would like to clarify them."
Hokage-sama nod and said ok.
"Is there any possibility that can increase this mission rank?"
Hokage-sama was surprised, "why do you think so?"
"From mission description, I can see the goods we were transporting are much valuable and the attacking bandit members counted around 20. But that may not be their full members. So, I thought under what conditions this mission rank may increase?"
Hokage-sama chuckled, "normally if any chunin level ninja or higher are in bandits, then this mission rank will be evaluated as B rank. So, in this mission, this may not be possible."
"Yes, Hokage-sama" everyone replied along with me.
Hokage-sama continued, "Hirata Senju will be the leader of this team. You may leave today and assemble at the main gate to meet the merchant."
"Yes, Hokage-sama" everyone replied along with me.
We left the Hokage room. At the reception, I met my mother, who is dull for some reason. But I can guess, she probably knows about my mission. So, she is worried about me.
'Tonight I should spend some family time and give her some assurance'
I didn't talk anything, simply weaved my hand and left with the others. At the entrance of Hokage tower, I assembled everyone.
"The Tanzaku village is probably 800 km away from Konoha. It will be a 6-day round trip. Everyone prepares food, clothes, and sleepwear for 4 days, and for the return trip, we can buy them from Tanzaku village. If possible prepare your ninja gear sufficient for more than two battles. Have nice rest and be ready by 9:30 am tomorrow at the main gate."
After my speech, everyone left except Tsunade.
"This is your first C-rank mission, right? As a senior ask me for some tips", she trying to show off her Haughtiness while we are going home. But I have to say she is cute.
At night during dinner, we both were facing each other and no one talks anything. Gloominess filled our surroundings. Since my mother is not speaking anything I decided to speak first.
"Mom, can we talk"
She lifted her head and looked at me but didn't say anything.
"Mom, I know you are worried about me going on a mission tomorrow. But you know right this is very important for me?"
Her eyes are filled with tears slowly, "I know… I know… but I don't want my only son to face dangers. If anything happens I don't dare to live."
I know she is traumatized since I last fell ill in my fifth year when I transmigrated. So I decided to cool her off and give her some assurance.
"Mom, compared to me in the past I am strong now. I know many jutsu and I can fight well now, if you don't believe me come and see me practicing after dinner. So, don't worry mom. Please"
Looking at my tears, mother calmed and wiped her tears, "don't worry Hirata, mom knows how strong you are. I believe you. Don't cry, wipe your face and come we will have dinner or the food will become cold"
She wiped my face and started eating. After dinner, we had a lot of family time.
---------------- NEXT DAY ------------------
At 9:30 am everyone was assembled at the main gate and soon found merchant Goro. He is a strict and nice guy. But he is treating us as his subordinates. Though he hired us as mercenaries, we didn't expect such an attitude towards us.
I looked at everyone, "everyone has their gear full right? Forget about his attitude and only focus on the mission. Our mission has two parts, first escorting the merchant and goods to Tanzaku village safely and second, eliminating bandits.
Give preference to the merchant and his goods first. There should be any negative remarks regarding the completion of the mission. Each and everyone should always look after others' safety during the entire journey.
As for the remaining details, we will discuss them based on the circumstances. I hope we will be victorious and earn some money and fame."
At sharp 10:00 am we departed from Konoha main gate and thus our first C rank mission started.