Chapter 175: C-Rank to A-Rank

The return trip was faster than the escort, since the carriage simply couldn't keep up with the ninja.

Muyue and the others arrived back in Konoha in the afternoon.

"Everyone, dismiss for now. No training or missions today, take half a day off. Meet at Training Ground 26 tomorrow morning," Muyue said.

To get back to Konoha early, Muyue had them march at top speed, only stopping to eat along the way.

The rush back to Konoha wasn't for anything else—it was to farm Might Guy's gold coins, oh wait, no—to celebrate Might Guy's birthday.

Might Guy's birthday is January 1st. If Muyue didn't speed up, they might only just arrive back in Konoha on January 1st, leaving things too tight for setting up.

"Phew, finally back. Non-stop travel is so boring," Obito stretched and complained.

For him, constant travel meant non-stop running drills.

"Kakashi, want to have a race running backwards?" Might Guy was still full of energy, grinning and giving Kakashi a thumbs-up invitation.

"No thanks. I'm a bit tired," Kakashi refused bluntly, a trace of weariness flashing in his eyes.

It wasn't the travel that tired him, but mental exhaustion. After that night's fierce battle, Kakashi had thought a lot.

Was Muyue an excellent ninja? Apparently yes. Setting aside his strength, the Third Hokage's attitude said it all—Muyue said he believed in his students' abilities, and the Third granted them permission for C-rank missions.

Muyue had once said his idol was White Fang, also known as his father, Sakumo Hatake.

From Muyue's actions, their beliefs were similar—they both thought comrades were important.

But if a comrade's life truly outweighs the mission, why did his father suffer so much criticism for saving a comrade, with even the rescued person speaking out against him?

For a moment, Kakashi truly didn't know who was wrong—his father, the village, or someone else...

If his father was wrong, why would an excellent ninja like Muyue admire him? If his father was right, why did he end up like that?

"Kakashi, you just don't measure up; you're already tired like that. I could still run a hundred laps around Konoha right now!" Obito said with bravado.

"No wonder back then you were..."

Hearing Obito bring up that night's fight again, Kakashi couldn't take it. He had only been held by Troy for about ten minutes that night, but he felt Obito could milk that point for ten weeks.

"A hundred laps, huh. Let's run then. The loser has to shut up for a whole day!" Kakashi said with a dark face.

Obito hadn't expected Kakashi to actually accept. He was just talking big when he saw Kakashi turn down Might Guy. After traveling that long, he was actually pretty tired, and Konoha wasn't small—just running a hundred laps along the edge of the main district was a long way.

"Bring it on, who's afraid of who?" Obito answered reluctantly, hiding his nervousness, but facing Kakashi his mouth had to stay tough.

"Running on your hands won't work?" Might Guy scratched his head, feeling a bit disappointed.

Muyue watched his disciples not resting but instead pushing each other, showing a pleased smile, then turned and walked toward the Hokage Building.

After arriving at the Hokage Building, Muyue didn't go to the mission hall but went straight to the Hokage's office.

"Enter." Hiruzen Sarutobi said after hearing the knock.

When the door opened, Hiruzen Sarutobi looked up, then asked with a smile:

"Ah, Muyue. What brings you?"

"Lord Third, our team took on a mission to escort a client to the Land of Fields a few days ago. After entering the Land of Fields, we encountered several ninja disguised as Iwa-nin..."

Muyue reported the unexpected events of the mission to the Third.

However, he omitted some combat details, such as the Magnet Release user and the jutsu he had used.

In Muyue's account, the enemy consisted of one jōnin and seven chūnin, while Muyue and his team barely managed to protect the client and win.

"Before I killed them, those ninja were still shouting that Iwa would take revenge. But a group of Iwa-nin, with most of them using Lightning Release—that's very suspicious," Muyue said.

"Iwa-nin using Lightning Release..." Hiruzen Sarutobi fell into thought.

It really looked like Kumo wanted to escalate the war between Iwa and Konoha. But Hiruzen Sarutobi thought one step further—could it be that Iwa was pretending to be Kumo-nin disguised as Iwa-nin, trying to provoke war between Konoha and Kumo?

That wasn't impossible. There were very few Iwa-nin who could use Lightning Release, but not zero.

However, Hiruzen Sarutobi quickly dismissed that idea. Even if the enemy wanted to mislead with such a tactic, they wouldn't send a team like that to fight Muyue's squad.

Because an ordinary four-man squad against a team of one jōnin and seven chūnin would have no chance.

"Inside here are the bodies of those ninja. However, due to the critical nature of the fight, two of the corpses were burned beyond recognition by my Fire Release," Muyue said.

For living people, Konoha can directly view memories through the Yamanaka clan's secret technique. Well-preserved dead bodies can also have information extracted by professional researchers, such as what kind of training they received and what they usually cultivated.

Knowing this, Muyue deliberately finished off Troy's corpse, so there was no way to obtain information from it.

"It's fine, as long as there are well-preserved bodies, we can determine which ninja village they're from." Sarutobi Hiruzen nodded and said. He could understand this; after all, it was a life-or-death battle, so it was impossible to expect to keep all the enemy bodies intact.

"If this matter is as you guessed, then Muyue, you have truly rendered a considerable service by uncovering Kumogakure's scheme." Sarutobi Hiruzen showed a satisfied smile.

His expectation was simply that Muyue could bring Kakashi back to being a bit more normal. He didn't expect Muyue to give him an unexpected surprise.

Although this matter couldn't make them cease hostilities with Iwagakure to jointly attack Kumogakure, at least it could prevent Iwa and Kumo from allying.

"Since you encountered so many ninja, a C-rank mission is inappropriate." The Third Hokage took out a form, quickly wrote some words, then stamped it.

"I have changed this commission to an A-rank mission. In addition to the original 70,000 ryo, the village will give another 730,000 ryo as the mission reward." Sarutobi Hiruzen handed the completed form to Muyue and said.

The reward for an A-rank mission ranges from 150,000 ryo to 1,000,000 ryo. An 800,000 ryo A-rank mission is already top-tier.

"Thank you very much, Lord Third Hokage." Muyue showed a smile and thanked him.

"The Sealing Technique we agreed upon earlier has been left with Minato. When it was sent over, you were on a mission, and Minato happened to see it, so he helped you put it away." Sarutobi Hiruzen reminded.

A grateful smile appeared on Muyue's face once again.

"Indeed, the harder the mission, the higher the reward." After leaving the Hokage building, Muyue thought as he looked at the reward information on the system.