Chapter 86: Black Market Starter!
Senshi's Wood Clone heard Naruto say he'd completed 14 D-rank missions in a single day and was a bit surprised.
After all, ordinarily when fresh graduates of the ninja academy form a three-man squad, they still can't complete 14 D-rank missions in one day.
Naruto and Sasuke, each one alone, are basically worth multiple three-man squads—truly great prospects for mission work!
Senshi gave a calm smile, patted Naruto's and Sasuke's heads, then asked, "How much did you earn today?"
Hearing that, Naruto immediately perked up!
He dumped a thick bundle of banknotes on the ground and said, "Teacher Senshi, just a sec—I haven't had time yet to count today's mission pay."
Sasuke likewise took out a thick wad of bills, tossed them on the ground, and started counting.
D-rank tasks generally pay somewhere between 5,000 ryō and 20,000 ryō. Higher-paying D-rank tasks do exist, but their number is very small.
After counting all his bills, Naruto said, "Teacher Senshi, after the village's 50% cut, I made 80,000 ryō in profit.
"That means altogether, in today's tasks, I earned 160,000 ryō!"
Then, looking very excited, he added,
"If I do this many missions every day, how long will it take to get that special reward from you, Teacher Senshi?"
Because Naruto had once turned in a blank paper during the Chūnin Exams, this kind of arithmetic wasn't his strong suit. After a while fiddling with his fingers, he couldn't figure it out and could only turn his eyes toward Sasuke.
"Sasuke, how much did you make today?"
Sasuke said blandly, "About the same as yours."
They had both done D-rank tasks, and their overall total didn't differ much. His own pay was a bit higher than Naruto's, around a bit over 160,000 ryō before the village took its cut.
Once Naruto heard Sasuke's figure, he lit up happily.
"Sasuke, if that's the case, how long till we reach Teacher Senshi's threshold for the special reward?"
Naruto figured Sasuke might need a moment to calculate, but Sasuke just blurted out:
"About 125 days."
"If our daily mission income is only about this much, we'll need roughly four months to earn one special reward from Teacher Senshi."
Naruto: (O_O)???
Hearing Sasuke's words, Naruto was floored.
Four whole months just for one special prize from Teacher Senshi?
Isn't that way too long?
Besides, the special reward Senshi promised isn't guaranteed to be something on the same level as Aura Sphere—there's an element of luck in drawing it. What if after slogging away for four months, he ends up drawing a free Ichiraku Ramen ticket? Sure, Ichiraku's tastes amazing, but he really wants a powerful jutsu!
Naruto pressed on, asking Sasuke, "So is there a way to make more mission money, Sasuke?"
Sasuke frowned. "Probably not. We're only Genin. We can only do D-rank and C-rank requests."
"And if we do a lot of missions, we inevitably wind up doing a ton of low-paying ones, since the majority of tasks don't pay much."
Hearing Sasuke's explanation, Naruto's face turned sour.
So they'd need to work for months just to get that single special prize from Senshi-sensei?
This was too painful. He wanted Senshi's special reward sooner!
Seeing Naruto and Sasuke stumped, Senshi spoke up encouragingly:
"It's true that as Genin, you can only accept D-rank and C-rank requests here in the village.
"But you two are strong enough now to handle higher-level missions.
"Besides taking on tasks within the village, you can also go to the black market for missions."
Both Naruto and Sasuke perked up in curiosity.
They knew nothing about the black market.
Observing their eager looks, Senshi gave a faint smile and calmly said:
"In the black market, your Genin rank won't hold you back at all.
"The black market has a great variety of missions with high pay—and high difficulty. You can hone yourselves far more in those tasks."
Once Senshi finished, Naruto got excited:
"Sasuke, let's head there right now and pick up bigger-paying jobs!"
But Sasuke felt a headache coming on. "Dobe, the black market is outside the village. It's nighttime now. We can't leave."
Naruto exclaimed, "The black market's outside the village? Then I can't pick up missions there at all!"
This news struck Naruto like a bolt from the blue.
For reasons unknown, he wasn't allowed to leave Konoha. Whenever he'd tried going out to see the world, the ninja guarding the village gates blocked him. Feeling helpless, Naruto muttered:
"What now? The gate guards never let me leave. Meanwhile Sasuke can go train outside as long as he doesn't stray too far. It's so unfair."
Sasuke had no answer either—he was puzzled why Naruto was the only kid in the village barred from leaving. Everyone else could go in and out just fine. All at once, Naruto lost hope:
"If I can't leave the village to accept those higher-paying black-market commissions, I guess I'm stuck doing these low-level ones."
All day long, he'd done tasks like chasing lost cats and dogs and finding miscellaneous items. Not only were they trivial and boring, the pay was tiny, and they ate up a lot of time. The experience boost was minimal. And if he'd have to do these for the next two-hundred-odd days, it would be torture. He yearned for more challenging missions that would really temper him!
Sasuke pondered for a long time, but couldn't figure out how to let both of them work freely outside. After all, black-market tasks with higher pay might not be in Konoha's vicinity. Even if they had the strength, lacking free movement outside the village meant they couldn't do them. Plus, at present, there was no solution: to roam freely, ninja generally must pass the Chūnin Exams. And who knew when that'd happen?
Noticing them stuck again, Senshi grinned. "Don't worry. Teacher has a plan!"
Hearing that, Naruto and Sasuke both brightened. They were just kids, after all, with heavy travel restrictions—Naruto, especially, couldn't leave at all. Naruto's face glowed with excitement:
"Right! Senshi-sensei is so strong—he can take us outside to do missions, right?
"I'm really itching to hit the black market for intense training!"
He looked hopefully at Senshi, while Sasuke's eyes also glimmered. If Senshi-sensei was willing, it should be doable.
But although Senshi could whisk them away by force, he would not. Naruto was the Nine-Tails Jinchūriki, Sasuke was the last living Uchiha—both highly important to Konoha. Spiriting them away would mean burning bridges with Konoha. Senshi might not fear them, but nor did he need such trouble. After all, Konoha was arguably the strongest Hidden Village among the Five Great Nations, and the Land of Fire the wealthiest. Provoking them would cut off a lucrative stream of potential tasks.
Hence, Senshi would need some other trick to let the two kids leave.
…
Late evening.
A caravan traveled through the Land of Lightning on the way to Kumogakure. In the last carriage, Senshi, Hidan, and Karin sat together. During the trip, Senshi performed repeated "shock-therapy recharging" on Hidan to restore him to a functional state. Electric therapy worked well—Hidan had finally stopped groaning and muttering. Meanwhile, Karin had spent all day playing with her pink cat-like Killer Queen Stand and had fallen asleep on Senshi's arm.
Kumogakure had two Tailed Beasts, both with perfect jinchūriki. If Orochimaru and Sasori had kept going, they might target the Two-Tails, Nii Yugito, for a marginally simpler catch. For Senshi, it made no difference whether it was the Two-Tails or the Eight-Tails—neither was difficult. On the ride, Senshi pondered the relevant intel:
The Two-Tails' host, Yugito, was rumored to be a proud, striking, but also gentle big-sister type—wavy blonde hair, healthy wheat-colored skin rather than typical "Raikage's complexion."
The Eight-Tails' host was Killer Bee of the A-B duo. Although Bee might be stronger than Yugito, it hardly mattered to Senshi.
Moreover, he might showcase to the A-B brothers what real Lightning Release looked like. Not only could he beat Bee in raw power, but in rap as well. He kept two rap lines in reserve. Maybe once he met Bee, he'd open with, "Killer Bee, Killer Bee, I want Disney!" and then follow up with "Giant Bowl of Wide Noodles!" He'd truly kill Bee's pride if he trumped him in both flow and skill.
(What kind of flow is that? Haha)
At present, Senshi hadn't made up his mind: "lay a hand on the flower" (i.e. catch Yugito) or "kill hearts with rap" (target Bee)? He wasn't some evil maniac out to do both unless Nagato posted two separate "requests."
Meanwhile, Kumogakure itself had no idea what was coming. Yugito and Bee were clueless as Senshi approached. Sasori, waiting so long there, was near madness, hating to wait. Orochimaru's line—once that man accepted a mission, it's basically done—had proven untrue so far. So many days had passed with zero action, Sasori couldn't even find Senshi's whereabouts.
As the carriage rumbled onward, Karin woke up yawning, still groggy but curious about the Land of Lightning and Kumogakure. Last time she came, it was all too quick to explore. Being nighttime now, there wasn't much to see. She rubbed her eyes:
"Senshi, are we almost there?"
He nodded slightly. "We're close."
Then he added, "Karin, if you have any new recipes, get Hidan to taste them first. But honestly, I suggest you not invest too much time in cooking research—focus on your medical ninjutsu."
He said this because in her sleep, Karin had muttered about wanting to try new dishes to impress Senshi's palate. Senshi was…not that optimistic about her cooking skills. And since Hidan literally couldn't die, who better to serve as taste-tester?
…
Back in Konoha, at Sasuke's house…
Naruto and Sasuke felt a bit deflated after the Wood Clone refused to bring them to the black market. Yet Senshi naturally had reasons. Among the Konoha higher-ups, someone had once coughed up one billion ryō for Orochimaru. If Senshi "created demand," he could potentially get a large chunk of that. The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, also had a big personal stash. Senshi wanted to preemptively buddy up as "Brother Hiruzen."
Obviously, Naruto and Sasuke knew nothing about all this. Seeing their frustration, he decided not to tease them further:
"Though I can't personally take you out for black-market missions, Kakashi can."
Naruto and Sasuke both frowned in confusion. Naruto asked:
"Could Kakashi-sensei really bring us out to the black market?"
Sasuke shared the question, giving Senshi a doubtful look. But Senshi wore a deep, knowing smile:
"He definitely won't refuse your request."
He had noticed how Kakashi had been put in charge of investigating them, yet he'd learned nothing so far. If they proposed going to the black market, Kakashi would probably agree—hoping to flush out whoever might be secretly guiding them.
…
The next day, before sunrise.
Kakashi's house. Kakashi had just returned from an urgent overnight mission, thoroughly exhausted, and lay down to sleep. Because the Third Hokage had limited manpower, they often turned to Kakashi. On top of that, the job of investigating Naruto and Sasuke was still ongoing. He planned to rest a bit, then resume observation, trying to figure out the cause of their near-fanatical obsession with missions.
In that dim pre-dawn hour—when the village was at its darkest—two eager figures slipped out from Sasuke's home. Glancing at the black sky, Sasuke muttered:
"Dobe, you're sure we have to bother Kakashi-sensei now? I bet he's still asleep."
Given what he knew, it made sense. Not even the breakfast stalls had opened yet. But Naruto waved him off:
"Sasuke! By the time we get there, maybe he'll be awake. Besides, don't underestimate Kakashi-sensei—he could've been up ages ago!"
In reality, they were wrong. Kakashi had just gone to bed after working all night. Naruto and Sasuke didn't know that. They soon arrived at the jōnin's door. Naruto cupped his hands to his mouth, shouting:
"Kakashi-sensei, you home? You up yet? We wanna start today's missions!"
Inside, Kakashi could only gape:
What in the world? The sun isn't even up, and they're calling for tasks?
After a moment, he decided to remain silent, feigning absence. Even if he needed to keep investigating them, he needed sleep. As expected, after more yelling and door-pounding, the noise stopped.
Naruto paused, turning to Sasuke:
"Sasuke, why won't he answer? Maybe he's not here after all."
Sasuke reasoned:
"Let's go. If he were home, he'd have popped out as soon as we stepped in the yard, with all that yelling."
Naruto looked gloomy. He really wanted to do tasks—he was all fired up, and now Kakashi was nowhere to be found. Inside, Kakashi smiled faintly:
"They're talented, but green. My plan worked."
He relished the peace and prepared to doze off—except Naruto was anything but predictable. The fox kid disliked giving up. Driven by desperation, Naruto used a "family-pass-down" stomp technique, forcibly kicking in Kakashi's door.
"Boom!"
A muffled crash. The door flew open!
Kakashi:
He never thought the kid would kick his door down at dawn. Sitting bolt upright on his bed, Kakashi looked at Naruto with an extremely complicated expression. Spotting Kakashi indeed present, Naruto beamed:
"Sasuke, come back! He's here!"
Sasuke had already started leaving the yard. Hearing Naruto's shout, he blinked in mild surprise. Glancing back, he saw the footprints on Kakashi's door, feeling speechless. Indeed, Naruto was far too reckless. But with that, they'd successfully awakened Kakashi. Naruto rushed over joyfully:
"Kakashi-sensei, Sasuke and I wanna do missions right now!"
Kakashi pressed a hand to his temple:
"Naruto…this early, the mission office hasn't opened. You can't pick up tasks."
Naruto waved that off:
"Not from the mission center. Sasuke and I wanna do black-market tasks!"
At that, Kakashi's caution soared. Children like them shouldn't even know about the black market, a shady, tangled domain.
He recalled the Third Hokage suspecting some outside party might be guiding them. With Konoha having tightened security, said party might be trying to lure them away into black-market territory. This all but confirmed the Hokage's guess…
~~~
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