"Are you finished?" Kaguya gently patted the head of the little girl Black Zetsu and took out a white handkerchief from her pocket to wipe her red lips.
"Yes, I'm done," the little girl smiled, squinting her eyes and nodding, looking very happy.
"Then let's go." Kaguya took the little girl's hand and started heading outside. She had already paid earlier with money she borrowed from Minato, as she was currently broke.
"Hey, hey," Jiraiya called out from behind, quickly asking, "Aren't you going to reconsider? Once you're featured in the publication, you'll become famous, a big star, and countless people will come to see you."
"No need, thank you. Please, just go back." Kaguya said nonchalantly.
Famous?
Kaguya had been famous a long time ago, when her name spread across the entire continent, and not only that, she even had a bounty of a hundred million ryo placed on her, earning her the nickname "Billion Ryo Girl."
Kaguya found it all rather bothersome. Because of her fame, she had been the target of numerous plots, and if it weren't for her formidable strength, she might have been captured long ago, possibly ending up as someone's concubine.
Watching Kaguya's figure fade into the distance, Jiraiya's face shed its frivolous expression and he fell into deep thought.
As the saying goes, "A hero can't do without money," which was exactly Kaguya's predicament. Though powerful, she wasn't about to stoop to robbery or petty theft, as that would be beneath her. Not wanting to resort to such actions meant she had to earn money herself, but the problem was she wasn't officially registered as a ninja of Konoha, so she couldn't take on missions, leaving her in a rather awkward situation.
After some thought, Kaguya decided to ask Minato for help, hoping to at least get registered as a genin to avoid being undocumented. If she couldn't even take on missions, how would she avoid starvation?
However, it seemed Minato had already thought of a solution for Kaguya. Before she could seek him out, someone came by and handed over two headbands and two genin certifications, which made Kaguya develop a bit of goodwill towards the approachable future Fourth Hokage.
Being granted the lowest rank of genin in Konoha might sound a bit lowly, but it was better than nothing. With the genin status, she could now undertake missions.
But these missions...
"Helping Lord Ryoji take care of children, going to the neighboring village to shop, helping in the fields to harvest sweet potatoes..."
Kaguya threw the mission list on the ground and stomped on it angrily, exclaiming, "What on earth are these tasks? I'm not looking for menial jobs like these!"
"Mother," Black Zetsu tugged gently at Kaguya's sleeve, asking, "Then what should we do?"
Kaguya sighed. It was truly a matter of necessity; after all, she didn't have any money, and the only money she had was borrowed from Minato. She couldn't keep borrowing from him indefinitely.
Picking up the mission list from the ground, Kaguya dusted it off and began to look through the numerous missions for something that was at least somewhat worthwhile.
"Got it," Kaguya's eyes sparkled with excitement, "A mission to catch a big cat with a reward of fifty thousand ryo. That's not bad."
The little blonde twin-tailed girl looked up at Kaguya, not understanding why her mother was so pleased about a fifty-thousand-ryo reward.
Ordinarily, missions required a jonin to lead the team, but Minato knew the capabilities of Kaguya and Black Zetsu, and ordinary missions were nothing to them. Therefore, he did not impose additional requirements, instead giving them the mission list to choose from.
The mission client lived in a remote area filled with tall buildings. It seemed like it was an unfinished construction site, more abandoned than incomplete, and appeared very old, likely built many years ago. The place was desolate, bearing the marks of battles fought there, evident in the frequent traces of conflict.
Kaguya walked into a building filled with mottled marks and littered with pieces of paper. She followed a winding path inside until she reached an old iron door, where she lightly knocked with her finger.
"Knock, knock, knock."
"Who is it?" came an elderly voice from inside.
"We are ninjas from Konoha, here for a mission."
"Come in, then."
Kaguya pushed the door gently, and it opened easily—it wasn't locked. Inside, she found an ordinary room, almost to the point of being simple, with just two large sofas and a curtain hanging in the middle of the room.
There were many cats lounging on the red sofa in the middle of the room, and sitting among them was an elderly lady with graying hair. Her hairstyle was quite peculiar, brushed back, with a headband on her head. She was reclining on the sofa, smoking a pipe, and gently exhaled a puff of smoke that curled upwards.
"You are the ninjas from Konoha?"
The elderly lady looked up and down at the two young girls in front of her, surprised, and asked, "Just you two?"
"Yes, just the two of us," Kaguya replied with a smile.
"Don't joke around," the elderly lady said, her eyes widening as she waved her pipe, "How can you two little girls take on such a mission? This is nonsense."
"Don't worry," Kaguya replied with a soft smile, "We are capable of completing the mission."
"Do you even know what mission you took on?" the elderly lady asked sternly.
"Isn't it just a cat-catching mission?" Kaguya shrugged.
"You don't know the heights of the sky," the elderly lady said gravely, "This is not an ordinary cat. You are no match for it. I advise you to leave and not waste your time here. This is not a place for children's games."
As soon as the elderly lady finished speaking, she felt a chill run up her spine and down to her feet. She turned her head and saw the beautiful little girl with pigtails glaring at her with watery eyes.
For some reason, being glared at by this little girl was like being stared down by a fierce beast, making every hair on her body stand up. Even the cats on the sofa fell off and huddled on the ground, shivering.
"Don't cause trouble," Kaguya said, patting the little blonde girl with pigtails, "We need to be polite in someone else's place."
"But her tone is annoying," the little blonde girl with pigtails furrowed her delicate eyebrows, a cold gleam flashing in her eyes, "Should I kill her?"