As they stepped out of the tent, Minato beamed with pride. "From today forward, Takeshi, you're a Special Jonin! We'll mark this occasion with a grand feast upon our return to the village."
The first non-human Special Jonin in the entire ninja world was within in his team, marking an special event, albeit a strange one.
Takeshi, with his paw raised, as he asked "Two times, meow~?" Minato's smile faltered, his eyes widening in realization. He had forgotten the prior promise of a treat...
"No, just us, I'm afraid," Minato said, gently ruffling the cat's head before turning to head towards the adjacent tent where Kakashi and the others waited, as Takeshi quietly trailed behind.
As he walked, Minato thought to himself, 'Kakashi's stability is a concern. Despite past friction, I've grown to appreciate his talent and work ethic – a reliable second-in-command. Obito and Rin usually follow his lead when I'm away..'.However, with Takeshi's promotion, Kakashi now ranked third, a change Minato hadn't endorsed.
While Takeshi's talent is indeed unique among ninja beasts. And he has acquired many abilities making him completely different from other ninja beasts. In addition, his high IQ allowed him to be permitted by the village to fight independently.
But Takeshi is only one year old, barely even at that. Even if comparing cat's age by humans, while Takeshi does have quite astonishing talent.
Minato is worried about the dangers this would bring to Takeshi and Rin. In the ninja world, being too visible can be a weakness.
Unfortunately, due to Orochimaru's and Hyuga Hizashi's strong recommendation, and some internal pressure from likely from village elders adding fuel to the fire, Takeshi was forcibly promoted to the special Jonin position quickly.
Takeshi was also initially worried, but when he came out of the tent and saw the extra one thousand points, his worries vanished, replaced with smirk.
'How could they be so petty to be jealous of a cat ? If they were so capable then they would've been promoted. Since they are so small minded they deserve this!'
As for Orochimaru and Danzo, that danger does exist. Thankfully they are often competing with eachother for resources and talents, trying to acquire them for different purpose each, but with Flying Thunder God and being marked by Minato as well, the danger is greatly reduced.
Takeshi, still basking in the glory of his new title, sauntered forward with a smug smile. "Meow~, let's rejoin Kakashi and finalize our mission preparations."
Seeing his expression... Obito made a slight complaint in his mind, but with the same smile on his face as well, he was obviously very happy about misery Kakashi would experience soon, however, his attention quickly shifted to a more pressing matter. "Ah, Sensei, where's Rin? Has she been briefed on the mission?"
"Rin will take abit more time to be available. So she will be little bit late. We should start packing on our things. Then let's go to the medical corp to find her." Minato answered. It's that medical ninjas have privileges. All medical ninjas in Konoha who are good at dealing with poisons are here.
The access to teachings Rin has here, wont be easily available in Konoha, as here the tasks for them are limited and they have more time to teach junior medical ninjas.
When they returned to the tent, Kakashi was cleaning the tent. New batch of ninjas would move in as soon as they left. Cleaning up after living here is a hallmark of a disciplined ninja.
Hearing the footsteps, he turned back to his dull expression, then continued cleaning up.
Obito's eyes sparkled with mischief as he bounded in front of Kakashi, puffing out his chest to accentuate his newly acquired Chunin vest.
Kakashi's gaze was unimpressed and coldly stated. "Many have received the vest, Obito. What's the point?"
"While that is true, allow me to introduce our team's new Special Jonin. He is a true genius, unlike 'someone'." Obito smiled, then stretched out his hand. Takeshi immediately jumped onto Obito's shoulders.
Obito's giddiness couldn't be suppressed as he continued "Takeshi is a Special Jonin who is just promoted is now second only to the Sensei in terms of rank in our team. The one-year-old Special Jonin. Hehehe..." Obito laughed in sinister manner as he finished.
While Kakashi acted confused, he is quite good at controlling his expressions. So after hearing this, he was just slightly startled, and then nodded without any changes in expression.
No emotions could be seen in his face. That's the benefit of covering most of his face. No matter what his expression is, as long as his eyebrows don't betray him, the others won't be able to read his inner thoughts.
Seeing Kakashi's dull response reduced Obito's giddiness, but Takeshi could tell from the gains in system's panel that Kakashi was not as calm as he acted.
Expressions can deceive, but points don't. In that moment, Kakashi contributed more than 400 points. This was enough to show that Kakashi cared quite abit about this matter.
After seeing no response from Kakashi, Obito continued carefully packing all the medicinal plants that Rin had picked from surrounding woods and equipment along bottles and jars, as they need to be handled quite delicately.
"Need to handle these with care," he muttered, "some of these plants are poisonous... wouldn't want any accidents during travel or battle."
As Obito's theoretical knowledge was not good, and he didn't even recognize most of the medicinal materials.
Some of the instruments were so heavy that he felt like he was carrying a boulder, making him feel tired.
Takeshi didn't help him because, firstly, he is just a "kitten" and secondly, he is a Special Jonin now. Special Jonin always gets preferential treatment. Now he gets to experience luxury of being higher ranked.
Travel to Jiraiya's location wasn't far from their current location so Obito wouldn't need to carry for too long.
After they met up with Rin, Rin wanted to carry the medical equipment's rather than having Obito carry them, but Kakashi persuaded her.
Kakashi's reason being that this will make Obito more hard working and dedicated, which will be good for him in the future.
Rin knew that Kakashi was talking nonsense, but Obito didn't seem to have any objections, So she decided to go along with it.
Takeshi sighed secretly on the side. Guy was deceived many times by Kakashi, and it seems Obito will also be joining list of Kakashi's victims.
After Rin returned to the team, she learned about Takeshi's promotion. She picked him up and hugged him while congratulating him.
War is the fastest way to promotions. Normally for Obito and Rin to be promoted they would need to wait far longer maybe a year or so, then spend time and effort going through chunin exams just to be judged that if they are ready to be promoted or not.
Doing well in those exams only gets them a chance to be judged and evaluated by higher ups, but now as long as they have enough ability and merits, they can be promoted right away.
Unless they performed quite well on regular missions for sometime to get promotion on merits.
However, while Takeshi cannot get treat from Rin, maybe he can get that from Jiraiya. He is the Commander-In-Chief of the Land of Grass Border Defense, and he has the authority to let the chef cook something good.
It wouldn't be difficult to find a ninja with good cooking skills to cook a meal for Jiraiya.
While, Takeshi would prefer to eat some pizza. He hasn't eaten any since this new life began. Although he doesn't know if cats can eat pizza, whether his biology would be able to handle it.
Though it's not completely hopeless... Well, he can think over it later and have Kabuto develop a pizza recipe that can also be eaten by cats.
Since Kabuto has learned medical ninjutsu's and has good amount of medical knowledge now, along with being talented. It shouldn't be a big problem for him to figure it out.
'Not a bad plan, for someone as smart as me.' Takeshi gave himself a pat on the back or atleast tried to as much as his physiology could allow.
He cannot wait to return to Konoha and started hating the Iwagakure and Sunagakure that wanted to start the war. 'These bastards can't let me live in peace, they deserve every suffering I bestow upon them!'
It was already afternoon when they arrived at Jiraiya's camp. Obito was sweating profusely and his legs and feet were shaking when he arrived at the camp, but the luggage in his care were brought safely.
As soon as they reached, they needed to report to Jiraiya, Takeshi was looking forward to it. Jiraiya is rarely surprised.
So, he hoped that this time Jiraiya would live up to expectations and contribute some points. Otherwise, he would only have barely more than a thousand points left, which would not be enough.
While they would be good enough for himself alone, but since Nekomata done so much for Rin since signing the contract, so he had to send something to express appreciation from time to time.
'Besides... Huh? Anyway, it is a gift right?, so why not try gacha, and give him the dried fish, dried meat, and maybe other food goodies that I get from Gacha draws?'
'If I draw weapons, objects, Luxury Cat Food, etc... I am magnanimous enough to also give him 'some', with strong emphasis on some. I am a genius at making pure profits without losing points! Haha!'
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