Chapter 174: Mission Grades

"Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique!"

Mu Yue quickly formed hand seals and used the Fire Release ninjutsu on Troy's corpse.

Boom!!

A large number of small fireballs all struck Troy's corpse, which was instantly blasted into tatters and charred black.

It wasn't that Mu Yue was so cautious that he had to blow the person up to feel at ease, but rather that he didn't want anyone to recognize who the corpse belonged to.

Mu Yue didn't believe that Troy, a ninja of this level from Kumogakure, would be an unknown. Defeating that Okami would let Sarutobi Hiruzen know and demonstrate his own practical combat level.

But if he defeated a ninja of Troy's level, that would be another story — the strength he had currently shown in Konoha was not enough to accomplish that.

After the sea of fire dissipated, Kakashi and Obito rushed to Mu Yue's side to check the situation.

After discovering that Mu Yue could fully handle two jōnin, Kakashi and Might Gai double-teamed the Kumogakure ninja who was fighting Obito, and with the three working together, they quickly took him down.

Worried that something might happen to Mu Yue, one of them stayed to protect the client while the other two chased after the direction Mu Yue had gone.

"Mu Yue-sensei, are you okay?" Obito asked hurriedly upon seeing Mu Yue.

Kakashi noticed the charred corpse beside Mu Yue and realized that Mu Yue had taken out both jōnin, so he reported:

"Mu Yue-sensei, we've already taken out the Iwa shinobi over there, but I feel they don't really seem like Iwa ninja."

Even though the enemies wore Iwa uniforms and headbands, Kakashi noticed that those Iwa ninja were actually all using Lightning Release and no one used Earth Release, which made Kakashi sense something was off.

The two jōnin used Lightning Release, and the chūnin also used Lightning Release — compared to Iwa, he felt they were more like Kumogakure ninja.

"These ninja are not only skilled in Lightning Release, their skin also turned darker after death. I think they are Kumogakure ninja disguised as Iwa using the Transformation Technique." Kakashi stated his conclusion.

Mu Yue smiled and answered Obito:

"The enemies have all been dealt with by me, so of course I'm fine."

Then Mu Yue nodded to Kakashi and said:

"These Iwa ninja are indeed very suspicious. Considering that both Iwa and Kumo are at war with us, it's possible that Kumogakure ninja wanted to escalate the war between us and Iwa."

"Ah, so these guys aren't Iwa ninja after all? That's too despicable of Kumo." Obito said, dumbfounded.

He had been thinking that if he ever got the chance, he would teach those Iwa ninja a lesson, but never expected the enemies to actually be ninja from Kumogakure.

"Each ninja village has different ninjutsu traditions. Iwagakure ninja mainly use Earth Release, while Kumogakure ninja are skilled in Lightning Release." Mu Yue explained, then gave Obito a lesson on common knowledge of the ninja world.

"Sunagakure mainly passes down Wind Release and puppetry, while Kirigakure passes down Water Release and assassination techniques."

"What about our Konoha?" Obito noticed Mu Yue had missed one.

Slap!

Mu Yue gave Obito's little head a smack with his left hand and said:

"Aren't you a Konoha ninja? Don't you even know your own village?"

"Hehe, I'm really not a ninja, I'm still an intern." Obito scratched his head and chuckled. "After all, I haven't met many ninja, and everyone seems pretty different."

"As for Konoha, it's quite mixed — we have ninja using all kinds of releases. But you can tell by the clan; for example, you Uchiha typically use Fire Release." Mu Yue explained. The situation in Konoha is different from other ninja villages.

Then Mu Yue sealed the Kumogakure ninja into scrolls, preparing to take them back and hand them over to Konoha.

Konoha has relevant policies for unexpected situations during missions. If the client concealed information and claimed there were no enemy ninja when there were, the ninja can terminate the mission on the spot and leave directly.

If it's not the client concealing information but an accidental encounter with enemy ninja during wartime, the mission rank and reward can be increased to a certain extent based on the number and strength of the enemies, and this money is paid by the village.

Mu Yue estimated that it would be somewhat difficult to identify the two jōnin corpses as jōnin.

Because the two jōnin had died too horribly — one was burned beyond recognition, and the other was directly finished off by Mu Yue's Phoenix Sage Fire and blown apart.

However, that was exactly the effect Mu Yue wanted. Two jōnin? It was clearly one jōnin and seven chūnin. Even though the jōnin's corpse could no longer be identified, with so many chūnin, it's perfectly reasonable that one jōnin was leading them.

"It's all right now. You can go back to sleep." Mu Yue said toward the tent where the client was.

"Thank you for your trouble." Upon hearing Mu Yue's words, Numata Yoshiharu's heart completely relaxed, but he didn't dare to sleep too deeply, worried that more trouble might arise — the commotion just now had been too loud and very close.

Then Mu Yue and his three students took turns keeping watch, getting through this somewhat unsettled night.

The next morning, Numata Yoshiharu woke up according to his biological clock. Possibly because he hadn't slept well the night before, he felt a bit dizzy and lightheaded.

He didn't disturb his wife and daughter who were still sleeping, and carefully walked out of the tent. But when he saw the world outside the tent, he was dumbfounded.

To the north of the tent was a lush, green forest full of life, while to the south was a scorched black world.

The flames had burned all the green leaves off the trees. As far as the eye could see, not a single tree had any leaves left; they were all pitch-black and bare. The ground was covered with black ash and charred remains of wood, a scene of apocalypse.

"Is this the power of a ninja?" Numata Yoshiyuki swallowed hard, his worldview deeply shaken.

He knew ninjas were very strong—otherwise he wouldn't have gone out of his way to post a commission at the ninja village to protect himself.

But the strength he had in mind was a ninja being able to punch through a tree with one blow or use ninjutsu to shatter solid rock—not that after just one night, he'd find the place he was in turned from a forest into an incineration plant.

Numata Yoshiyuki suddenly felt an inexplicable emotion—were ninjas with such destructive power even the same species as them?

"Good morning, old man," Obito greeted Numata Yoshiyuki with a smile.

"Mm, good morning." Numata Yoshiyuki responded with a smile.

Regardless, after all, they were the ninjas protecting him. He no longer had to worry about whether he'd make it home safely.

On the rest of the journey, the group encountered no more ninjas, at most some bandits with swords, and smoothly entered the capital of the Land of Rice.

"If I ever get the chance again, I'll definitely request you few. You were really reliable," Numata Yoshiyuki said with a smile after returning home.

Konoha allowed clients to request specific ninjas for missions, as long as those ninjas were available.

Muyue smiled and said a few modest words, then turned and left with his disciples.

"Goodbye, big brothers," the little girl waved goodbye to Muyue and the others.

"Goodbye," Obito waved with an excited look.

"This mission was so exciting. I wish every mission could be like this," Obito said on the way back, still stirred up recalling that night's fierce battle, especially Muyue's combination jutsu—just thinking about it made him extremely excited.

"What are you dreaming about? This was the accident of accidents. Under normal circumstances, a mission of this level would be rated at least A-rank," Kakashi shook his head and said.

Because he had never fought those two jonin and didn't know their exact strength, Kakashi was being conservative.

"So what if it was A-rank? We still won," Obito said smugly.

Kakashi sighed and facepalmed, saying, "The reason we beat the enemy is because Teacher Muyue's strength is extraordinary. What are you so proud of?"

In Kakashi's mind, this battle had actually been very dangerous. If their teacher hadn't been Muyue but an ordinary jonin, probably no one would have made it out alive.

"Why can't I be proud? Teacher Muyue is my teacher. Can't I be proud that my teacher is strong?" Obito rebutted, tilting his head up slightly.

"And as for contribution, I think I did more than you. At least I held off one enemy. If Teacher Muyue hadn't been protecting you the whole time, you'd have been killed by the enemy."

Kakashi's eyes flickered as the memories of that night surfaced again. Obito wasn't wrong—in that battle, he had been a burden to Muyue, who had taken many hits for him.

"If it were me, would I protect my teammates like that?" Kakashi thought to himself.

If, against an enemy of unknown strength, a teammate were caught by an unfamiliar jutsu, he would probably prioritize eliminating the enemy and completing the mission over protecting the teammate.

"Teacher Muyue, is the belief you want to uphold also protecting your comrades?" Kakashi remembered what Muyue had said to him on the first day they met: "True ninjas all uphold their own beliefs."

Wait, there's more.