Shitsuya's performance greatly surprised and impressed Shikane.
Truth be told considering his clever thinking, his powerful Genjutsu and his adept usage of both fire and earth release, he could already be qualified to be a chunin.
Of course, promotion to chunin in war time was significantly different to peace time.
Promotion to Chunin in war time demanded building a solid record of achievements through repeated engagement with enemy ninja.
Shikane however, had no interest in getting involved in the war so he planned on just doing odd jobs in the village with the excuse of training his new team member.
*****
A month passed since Shitsuya became a Ninja.
Even after an entire month he had only gone on 4 missions with his team.
Most were just odd jobs like finding lost pets or putting up posters.
Both his teammates complained about the missions and the meagre pay they provided but Shitsuya didn't care.
Shitsuya spent most of his time training under Mitsuki who finally started sparring against him.
Shitsuya was severely beaten by Mitsuki every day.
His grandfather was infinitely superior to him in every aspect.
He caught every one of his slip ups and punished them severely.
Shitsuya had to be treated by a healer on a daily basis, his mother tried to intervene and stop Mitsuki from training him in his barbaric way but Shitsuya was the one who wanted to continue training under Mitsuki so his mother could only bite her lip and leave.
In other news Shitsuya's chakra control training progressed as he could finally make butterflies from water, he could on make one however.
Making the water butterfly flap its wings gently Shitsuya felt pride well up inside him.
"The Uchiha Kunoichi chakra control technique? That brings me back." Mitsuki's voice suddenly appeared next to him.
Startled, Shitsuya lost control and the butterfly collapsed.
Turning to look at Mitsuki and said, "I heard about it from mother. It took me more than a year to make just one butterfly I don't see how someone could make a thousand."
Raising a brow, Mitsuki smirked, "Really? I knew a woman who could make more than two thousand."
Shitsuya looked at him with a eyes like a dead fish clearly not believing any of it.
"You doubt my words? I am speaking the truth though. After the previous patriarch, Uchiha Madara and the first Hokage Hashirama Senju joined hands to create Konoha the Uchiha Kunoichi infiltration and information unit was disbanded."
"Many of it's former members retired and got married, living out the rest of their lives as civilians, some commited suicide, quite a few joined Anbu as their first members while a special Kunoichi left the village and the Uchiha clan never to return."
"Nobody knows her true name, it's doubtful if she ever had one and her face is unknown as she always wore a featureless white mask. She was the leader of the Kunoichi. Her strength is unknown but it is confirmed that she clashed with Madara after he left the village in a that destroyed a small mountain."
"Whether she survived or fell is unconfirmed but after a clash with Madara I doubt that she survived."
"Back in the day, when the conflict between the Uchiha and the Senju reached it's peak and the numbers of Uchiha and Senju Shinobi dwindled. She along with many other powerful members of the clan took part in training the leftover Shinobi."
"I was lucky enough to watch her demonstrate the chakra control technique and she made over two thousand butterflies." Mitsuki said before plunging his hands into the cool water of the pond.
Shitsuya watched as the water surface changed and a swarm of more than 300 butterflies appeared as they gently flapped their wings.
A moment later they all collapsed causing a few small waves to appear.
"351, after training my entire life, 351 is my absolute limit." Mitsuki said, turned around and left.
The pride Shitsuya felt after creating a single butterfly shattered.
*****
The next day, after almost two weeks of begging from Hana Shikane finally relented and they took a rank C mission.
Shitsuya and Naga were both part of two of the largest clans in the village, so even if their earnings from missions were meager they wouldn't have any financial troubles.
Hana on the other hand was an orphan with no family behind her, she had to pay for rent bills and food.
After their previous missions throughout the month they had only gotten around 5,000 Ryo each.
To put it into perspective Hana's rent on her tiny one room apartment cost more than 15,000 Ryo.
If they continued like this she would probably become homeless.
Shikane not wanting to suffer Hana's complaints anymore finally took a C grade mission for them.
Their mission this time was simple, they had to exterminate a bandit group that formed recently near a village in the land of fire.
After being raided by the bandits, the villagers issued a mission to the Konoha.
After a day of travel, Shitsuya and his team finally arrived at the village.
Arriving at the village, they were received warmly by the village who held a banquet for them.
Shikane took the opportunity to get drunk while Naga flirted with the village girls who were all over him.
Shitsuya on the other hand went to practice his chakra control at a nearby pond.
There was a well and a fountain in the village but not wanting to interact with the villagers he went outside the village where he would be left alone.
A few minutes passed as Shitsuya squatted next to the pond and practiced before Hana showed up.
Shitsuya had already noticed her so he wasn't surprised by her arrival.
"That's cool, can you make other stuff?" Hana said as she looked at the butterfly.
"Sure." Shitsuya said and the butterfly morphed into a cat with a large head and ears.
"Is that how you got so good at chakra control?" Hana asked
"Uhuh."
Hana found it tricky to start a conversation as she scratched her head.
Not bothering with small talk first she decided to just go straight to the main topic.
"We'll be going to take care of the bandits tomorrow." Hana said.
"I want you to sit this one out." Hana made her request.
"Why should I?" Shitsuya said while still manipulating the butterfly.
"You're still a kid, you shouldn't be killing, it'll really mess up your head, Sensei and Naga won't say anything, I promise." Hana pleaded with Shitsuya trying to convince him not to partake in the mission.
"Is that all?" Shitsuya asked.
"I'm serious about this, please think about it." Hana said.
"Ok, I promise I'll think about it." Shitsuya said.
"Okay." Hana sighed in relief and nodded.
"Don't stay up too late." She said before leaving.
Shitsuya did not infect think about it.
What was there to even think about?
In his past life Shitsuya wouldn't feel comfortable with killing anyone unless he had to do it.
In this life however, Shitsuya saw no inherent value in the lives of anyone around.
The only value people of this world had was measured by what Shitsuya could get out of them.
The bandits value was was dying to further his ninja career so he would kill them.