Chapter 162: Entrusted Mission

"Obito, you're late again." Kakashi said, dissatisfied, looking at Obito who came running in a hurry.

"You should get up earlier instead of making everyone wait for you alone."

"I got up really early, but I was late because an old lady asked me for directions on the way." Obito explained.

"You never change your excuse." Kakashi said speechlessly; ever since they were in school, Obito had been using this same reason.

"But that's the truth." Obito retorted unconvinced.

"Kakashi, sometimes you have to trust your comrades. I think Obito probably really did help an old lady instead of making up an excuse for being late." Muyue said with a smile.

"Are there really that many old people needing help?" Kakashi remained skeptical.

"Could it be that Obito's youth is about helping the elderly?" Might Guy showed a thoughtful expression.

"Why do you make doing good deeds sound so weird?" Obito couldn't help complaining; he simply helped when he saw someone in need.

"Alright, since we've all gathered, let's go to the Hokage Building to pick up a mission." Muyue said.

Most ninja-related matters in Konoha were handled at the Hokage Building.

"What kind of mission will it be? Protecting our country's princess? Or defeating the enemy country's leader?" Obito looked at the tall Hokage Building with a longing expression.

"What are you thinking? A trainee ninja like you, who isn't even a real ninja, how could you possibly get a mission of that level?" Kakashi mercilessly shattered Obito's illusion.

"Genin can only take D-rank to C-rank missions. You trainee ninjas are at most equivalent to genin, and what you mentioned are only S-rank missions. Only jonin are allowed to take on such high-difficulty missions."

Kakashi had been a ninja for several years and was already familiar with Konoha's mission rules. Based on his estimation, Obito and the others probably couldn't even take C-rank missions—they could only do D-rank ones.

"Then what are D-rank missions like?" Obito asked.

"Catching cats and dogs, cleaning up trash, and babysitting." Kakashi answered.

"Isn't that just odd jobs?" Obito was shocked; it was completely different from the ninja life he had imagined.

*Slap! *

"When doing missions, you have to take it step by step." Muyue said, flicking Obito's forehead.

Muyue also felt a little anticipation, but he wasn't looking forward to doing missions. He didn't yearn for a ninja's life at all—he was just hoping that completing missions with his disciples might bring some rewards.

"Why aren't they wearing headbands?" The mission registration ninja asked, noticing that neither Obito nor Might Guy had headbands.

"Show your trainee certificates." Muyue said.

Trainee ninjas aren't issued headbands, but they are given a trainee ninja certificate, equivalent to a temporary headband.

"So they're trainee ninjas. Then they can only take D-rank missions. Pick from these." The registration ninja took out a scroll and unrolled it for Muyue to choose.

Hiruzen Sarutobi had already issued a notice in advance that a batch of trainee ninjas would be taking missions recently, and they should be treated as newly graduated genin.

Obito and Might Guy both leaned in to look.

"Find lost pet cat, help take care of a three-year-old child, clean up training ground trash…" Obito found that they were indeed all odd jobs; Kakashi hadn't lied to him.

"Then let's take this one—find the lost pet cat." Muyue said after glancing at the list.

Among them, taking care of a child required a fixed amount of time and would take a whole day, so that was definitely excluded first. The others were mostly similar.

"You can get five thousand ryo just for finding a cat!" Might Guy was shocked when he saw the reward for cat-finding.

He remembered that before his father bargained, that meat was only one hundred ryo per jin; five thousand ryo could buy fifty jin of meat.

"It's not five thousand ryo per person—it's five thousand ryo total." To prevent Might Guy from misunderstanding, Muyue explained.

"If we split it four ways, that's still quite a bit." Might Guy said enthusiastically.

"Yeah, a bowl of ramen only costs sixty ryo. Finding one cat can get you more than twenty bowls of ramen." Obito agreed.

Even though doing odd jobs made him feel underestimated, he thought the mission reward was still decent.

Seeing Might Guy and Obito so excited, Muyue temporarily didn't burst their beautiful fantasy. Of course it wouldn't be split equally—usually the team leader gets a larger share, and Konoha also takes a tax cut.

But Muyue didn't care about money, so he was willing to split it equally.

"Guy, Kakashi, want to have a competition to see who finishes the mission first?" Obito proposed.

"Yosh! A passionate youth should be full of rivalries!" Might Guy gave a thumbs up in agreement.

"A boring competition." Kakashi was indifferent to it.

"Kakashi, you're not afraid of losing to us, are you? After all, it would be quite embarrassing for a chunin to lose to intern ninjas." Obito provoked.

Although he knew it was a provocation, hearing it from Obito's mouth made Kakashi feel uncomfortable, so he replied with a cold expression:

"I'm just worried about crushing you, the newbie."

"It's not certain who will crush whom." Obito said, "We'll see."

"Alright then, the first Cat-Finding Contest of Team Moonlight begins now." Moonlight announced cheerfully.

"Let's start, let's start! Whoever finds the cat first wins!" Might Guy shouted excitedly.

Kakashi glanced at Moonlight, feeling a bit mixed. He felt that this ninja academy teacher's style was quite different from every previous supervising teacher he had experienced.

Because of Obito's provocation, Kakashi became especially serious, splitting into several Shadow Clones to search together for the cat described in the mission.

Might Guy, on the other hand, treated this mission as training, dashing rapidly into every corner to find traces of the cat.

Seeing Kakashi use Shadow Clones, Obito also split into two Shadow Clones to look for the cat.

All three seemed highly motivated.

However, to Kakashi's surprise, within less than an hour, Obito found the cat described in the mission.

"Hehe, looks like I win!" Obito declared proudly, holding up a slightly chubby orange cat with both hands.

"Meow!" The sudden lifting startled the orange cat, which immediately used a frenzy of scratches on Obito, making him let go instinctively.

But before the orange cat could hit the ground, a hand quickly grabbed it by the scruff of its neck, making the cat dare not move rashly.

"What an amateur." Kakashi said, shaking his head at Obito while holding the orange cat.

"No matter how amateur I am, I still found it first." Obito said defiantly.

"Just a stroke of luck." Kakashi thought Obito had just been lucky to encounter it first, which didn't prove anything.

"Very good, the mission was completed quickly. Let's go take another mission." Moonlight spoke up upon seeing this.

Then Moonlight led his disciples to the Hokage Building to report the mission.

"Finished so quickly?" The registration ninja was also a bit surprised. Catching cats was no easy task. For one, Konoha was large and hard to search, and the cats that often ran away were very clever—fast and agile, truly hard to catch.

【Disciple Might Guy worked hard to complete the entrustment mission, gaining Chakra +10. Led by the teacher in person, additional reward: Chakra +5.】

【Disciple Uchiha Obito worked hard to complete the entrustment mission, gaining Chakra +10. Led by the teacher in person, additional reward: Chakra +5.】

"Over fifty minutes got thirty Chakra? That's much faster than class." Moonlight thought to himself as he looked at the rewards.

In one morning of classes, a small class only gave twenty Chakra points, while a large class gave a bit more, forty points.

He didn't need to compress every mission within one hour; as long as he did two D-rank missions in one morning, the morning's Chakra gain would equal three small classes.

And that was without Shisui participating. If Shisui also joined, it would be forty-five Chakra per mission, further increasing the yield.

"Still, it can't completely replace class. Even if all three disciples get bonuses, it's only fifteen points total. Moreover, if I keep making students do missions without training, it will affect a series of rewards like the Disciple Training Return Teacher Training missions and so on."

Moonlight thought about it carefully and felt that mission rewards were just a bonus, at least given the current reward scale.

"Let's take another mission: find a lost item." Moonlight said, glancing at the mission scroll.

"Kakashi, aren't you unconvinced? Let's compete again, see who finds the lost item first, how about it?" Obito issued another challenge.

"This time you may not be so lucky." Kakashi agreed directly. He didn't believe that with his experience, he would keep losing to Obito.

"Everyone is so high-spirited!" Might Guy was also fired up, ready to go all out to find the lost item.

"Team Moonlight's Lost Item Search Contest begins now." Moonlight announced with a smile.

Obito, wanting to keep winning against Kakashi; Kakashi, wanting to turn the tables; and Might Guy, who for some reason was just very hardworking—all three moved quickly, aiming to complete the mission first.

Kakashi still used the Shadow Clone tactic. This time he created even more clones, each with not much Chakra reserved and no combat ability, but more than enough for searching.

Kakashi refused to believe that he and his eleven Shadow Clones, acting separately, could lose to Obito and his two clones. Even luck had its limits.

About an hour later, something Kakashi hadn't expected happened.

"Done. Sorry, Kakashi, I win again this time." Obito said, holding a box and a bag.

Kakashi after dispelling the Shadow Clone:...

"What's in that bag? Isn't the lost item just a box?" Might Guy asked curiously.

"It's handmade pastries. When I was looking for the item, I ran into the old lady who asked for directions this morning. She insisted on giving them to me, saying it was a reward." Obito scratched his head and smiled.

"They look like they'd be delicious. Teacher Muyue, please help me distribute them."

After everyone finished eating the pastries, they went to the Hokage Building again to turn in the mission.

【Disciple Might Guy worked hard to complete the commission mission, gained Chakra +8. Led personally by the teacher, bonus Chakra +4.】

【Disciple Uchiha Obito worked hard to complete the commission mission, gained Chakra +8. Led personally by the teacher, bonus Chakra +4.】

"It's even less? Is it because finding lost items is easier than catching cats?" Muyue speculated.

So Muyue accepted another mission to catch a dog.

After Obito and Might Guy left, Muyue stopped Kakashi and said:

"Kakashi, do you still think Obito's quick completion was luck? Come with me."