"Excuse me, are you Mr. Tojiro? We are the ninjas that took on the mission," Mutsuki asked the three individuals before him, feeling a bit puzzled.
Why did Mutsuki find them strange? It was because there were two burly men flanking a timid, skinny man in the middle. They didn't look like bodyguards; they seemed more like they were holding a hostage.
However, Mutsuki felt it couldn't be a hostage situation. If someone dared to hold a client hostage in Konoha, Mutsuki would call them a fool. It wasn't the way to go about things.
"I... I am Tojiro," the thin, weak man in the middle spoke up quietly.
"I have a question. Has the black giant eagle mentioned in the mission description exhibited any special abilities, such as breathing fire or spitting lightning?" Mutsuki asked.
If it has special abilities, it's basically confirmed to be a ninja beast, and one with combat capabilities at that.
"Ah, Daikuro, he's just strong, doesn't breathe fire or spit lightning," Tojiro shook his head.
'Daikuro?' Mutsuki thought residents would have given it a nickname like the bringer of death or something, but he didn't expect it to be an innocent name.
"I have no problem here, we can depart anytime," Mutsuki said.
"Then let's go now, we can't let this monster continue to cause trouble," said a large guy next to Tojiro.
Mutsuki looked at Tojiro, and the sturdy guy also looked at Tojiro. Eventually, Tojiro nodded.
Since the client had spoken, Mutsuki and the others swiftly headed towards the town of Kawakita in the Land of Rivers.
A town in the north of the Land of Rivers, Mutsuki felt the name "Kawakita" might have come from there, as Kawakita is indeed located in the north of the Land of Rivers. (Kawakita means North River)
To the west of the Land of Rivers is the Land of Wind, mainly desert and desert grasslands, while to the east is the Land of Fire, mainly forests and grasslands. In the north, it borders the Land of Rain, and in the south, it is the sea.
So the Land of Rivers is relatively developed in the southeast region, while other areas are relatively backward. The town of Kawakita that Mutsuki is going to is also one of the more backward areas in the Land of Rivers.
Although the environment in the north is better than the west, the northern part is close to the Land of Rain, a chaotic area. Additionally, there are no ninja villages domestically, so the environment in the north is relatively chaotic and difficult to develop.
"Tojiro, hurry up. If we're late, it's everyone's loss," the sturdy guy urged Tojiro along the way.
Tojiro could only silently speed up his pace.
When they reached an uninhabited dense forest, Mutsuki led Obito to scout ahead while Guy and Kakashi guarded from behind to prevent any surprise attacks.
"Yumi-sensei, why do I feel like something's off about this mission? Why is the client acting so timid?" Obito asked while cutting through thorns on the road with a kunai.
"There must be something wrong. We'll communicate with the client tonight," Mutsuki nodded.
The fact that Obito noticed the issue shows how obvious it is.
On the first day of their journey, Mutsuki and the others encountered no obstacles. Mutsuki had learned from the previous mission that the public security in the Land of Fire was still relatively good.
When it was close to bedtime, Mutsuki used Genjutsu to knock out the two sturdy guys.
"You?" Tojiro looked panicked as he saw the two sturdy guys suddenly collapse, staring at Mutsuki and the others in confusion.
"Tojiro-san, you don't need to worry. We from Konoha will never let our clients come to harm," Mutsuki said with a smile.
"After observing them, it seems that these two are not your bodyguards. What is your relationship with them?"
"They were sent by the mayor to protect me when I came to Konoha to issue tasks," Tojiro admitted honestly.
He had never seen ninja fight before, so the sudden collapse of the two sturdy guys scared him.
"If they were here to protect you, why were they treating you so poorly?" Mutsuki asked, puzzled.
Tojiro glanced at the unconscious guys on the ground and only spoke after confirming that both had lost consciousness.
"In fact, Daikuro never harassed the residents of the town, he only caught the poultry from the mayor's house," Tojiro continued speaking after Mutsuki gave him a sign to proceed.
"Daikuro is actually not aggressive at all. He was found by everyone in the woods and raised together. But that bastard mayor wanted to capture Daikuro and keep him as a pet, and ended up being retaliated against by Daikuro instead."
"How can there be such a scumbag? If I see him, I'll definitely give him a good beating," Obito said angrily upon hearing this.
"And why did you come to Konoha to issue a commission to drive away Daikuro?" Obito continued asking.
"We have no choice. We rent the fields from the mayor. He asked us to raise money to issue a commission to drive away Daikuro, otherwise he wouldn't rent us the fields," Tojiro replied helplessly.
"He even made you pay for it yourselves?" Kakashi was also surprised. He had just been wondering why the mayor would send Tojiro to issue the commission.
"Such people have lost their conscience and should be awakened with a heavy blow!" Guy exclaimed indignantly.
Mutsuki remained expressionless. He felt that the mayor was somewhat problematic—not cruel to the extreme. Given the situation, he still dared to ask villagers to issue commissions. Since the money the villagers paid didn't have their faces printed on it, why not just collect the money and send his own people to issue tasks?
"Could it be that he's afraid of ninjas?" Mutsuki speculated.
In remote areas where there were no regular ninja villages, they might indeed be more afraid. Sending two sturdy men to watch over Tojiro was probably to prevent him from running off with the money.
Of course, there was another possibility—that Tojiro was lying. However, based on his current behavior, this possibility seemed less likely.
But Mutsuki didn't care. He would gather information when they arrived.
If that mayor was really the kind of person who exploited villagers, Mutsuki didn't mind being a righteous avenger.
Mutsuki didn't dislike Hidden Rock or Hidden Cloud ninjas. The reason he killed them was that if he didn't, they would kill him. Unlike other Konoha ninjas, Mutsuki had only been a time traveler for less than a year. He didn't have any emotional attachment to the village of Konoha. He might develop some feelings for people due to various reasons, but so far, Mutsuki had no feelings for Konoha itself.
Mutsuki felt there was nothing to be sentimental about. A military base that could send children barely over ten years old, or even younger, to the battlefield—given Mutsuki's worldview from his previous world, he found it hard to have any emotions for such a place.
Compared to ninjas from other ninja villages, Mutsuki disliked child exploiters more.
"If they don't want to rent it out, then they don't have to. They should just farm their own land," Obito scratched his head and said.
He couldn't understand why they needed to rent land. The residents of Konoha couldn't even manage their own land properly and occasionally had to issue D-Rank Missions for ninjas to help.
Obito's words left Tojiro momentarily speechless.
"His own land" seemed like such a distant term, yet not so distant. It seemed that his family had some land over a decade ago, but because of increasing difficulties, they had to sell it to the mayor.
"Because we no longer have any land at home, and almost all the land in the village belongs to the mayor," Tojiro sighed finally.
He didn't understand why. Everyone was working hard to farm, yet the more they farmed, the poorer they became. Meanwhile, the mayor did nothing and kept getting richer, with more and more land.
Obito was about to say something when Mutsuki's fingers directly thumped his head, much harder than usual, causing Obito to gasp for air.
"It hurts!"
"Konoha is one of the most developed places in the Land of Fire. Don't compare Konoha's environment to other places," Mutsuki said.
If there were such a thing as per capita GDP for ninja villages, then Konoha's per capita GDP would definitely be very high because Konoha was truly vast and wealthy.
The radius of the training ground where the Chunin Exams were held was ten kilometers. What kind of concept was that? It could be imagined how rich Konoha's land resources were.
After saying that, Tojiro seemed much more relaxed and soon fell asleep.
"Yumi-sensei, what should we do?" Obito looked at Mutsuki and asked, not knowing what to do for a moment.
He was truly unhappy about chasing the giant eagle away and making that mayor happy.
"Let's go to Kawakita Town first and see the guy who's been harassing the residents," Mutsuki said calmly.
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