"Obito, you're late again." Kakashi said disapprovingly to Obito, who came running.
"You should get up earlier instead of making everyone wait for you alone."
"I did get up early, but I was late because I was helping an elderly lady who asked for directions." Obito defended himself.
"You never change your excuse." Kakashi said, speechless. Even back in school, Obito always used this excuse.
"Because it's the truth." Obito said defiantly.
"Kakashi, sometimes you need to trust your teammates. I believe Obito was genuinely helping the elderly lady and not just making excuses for being late." Mokgetsu said with a smile.
"Are there really so many elderly who need help?" Kakashi remained skeptical.
"Could it be that Obito's youthful ambition is to help the elderly?" Might Guy put on a serious, contemplative expression.
"Why does it sound so weird when you say it like that?" Obito couldn't help but retort, he was simply helping someone in need.
"Alright then, since everyone's here, let's head to the Hokage Building to get a mission." Mokgetsu suggested.
Matters related to Konoha and ninjas usually require a trip to the Hokage Building.
"I wonder what kind of mission it will be, protecting a princess of our country? Or taking down the leader of an enemy nation?" Obito looked at the tall Hokage Building with an eager expression.
"What are you thinking? As an intern ninja who isn't even a full-fledged ninja, how could you possibly take on such high-level missions?" Kakashi ruthlessly shattered Obito's fantasy.
"Genin can only take on D-Class to C-Class missions. As intern ninjas, you're comparable to Genin at best, and the missions you're talking about are S-level, only Jonin are allowed to take on such highly challenging missions."
Kakashi had been a ninja for several years, well-versed in Konoha's mission protocols. From his perspective, Obito and the others likely couldn't even handle C-Class missions; they'd be limited to D-Class tasks.
"So, what does a D-Class mission involve?" Obito inquired.
"Catching cats and dogs, cleaning up trash, and babysitting children." Kakashi replied.
"That's just grunt work!" Obito was shocked; it was nothing like he imagined a ninja's life would be.
Smack!
"Even in completing tasks, you have to start step by step." Mokgetsu said, giving Obito a light tap on the forehead.
In his mind, Mokgetsu was also a bit excited, but he wasn't looking forward to doing missions; he had no curiosity about the ninja lifestyle. He was simply wondering if there would be rewards when his students completed their tasks.
"Why aren't those two wearing their headbands?" the mission registration ninja asked, noticing Obito and Might Guy without headbands.
"Show the intern certificate." Mokgetsu instructed.
Intern ninjas weren't given headbands but were instead issued with an intern ninja certificate, which served as a temporary headband.
"Ah, I see, they're intern ninjas, so they can only take on D-Class missions. Choose from these." The registration ninja pulled out a scroll and spread it out for Mokgetsu to select.
Sarutobi Hiruzen had already issued prior notification that a batch of intern ninjas would be taking missions soon, to be treated similarly to newly graduated Genin.
Obito and Might Guy both leaned in to look.
"Finding a lost pet cat, helping to take care of a three-year-old child, cleaning up trash at the training ground..." Obito found that indeed, all these tasks were odd jobs; Kakashi hadn't lied to him.
"Let's take this one to find the lost pet cat." Mokgetsu said after giving it a glance.
Taking care of a child was a time-fixed task that would take a day, so that was definitely out; the rest weren't much different from each other.
"You can get five thousand ryo just for finding a cat!" Might Guy was shocked by the reward for finding the cat.
He remembered when his father didn't haggle, that meat was only a hundred ryo per pound; five thousand ryo could buy fifty pounds of meat.
"It's not five thousand ryo per person; it's a total of five thousand ryo." Mokgetsu clarified to prevent any misunderstandings by Might Guy.
"Even split among four people, five thousand ryo is still quite a bit." Might Guy said, full of enthusiasm.
"Indeed, a bowl of ramen only costs sixty ryo, you could eat more than twenty bowls with one cat hunt." Obito agreed.
Even though doing grunt work felt demeaning, the mission reward seemed decent to him.
Seeing Might Guy and Obito so excited, Mokgetsu didn't break their pleasant delusion. An even split wasn't possible, typically the team leader got more, and Konoha would take a cut as well.
However, Mokgetsu didn't care about money; he was willing to split evenly.
"Hey Guy, Kakashi, how about a little competition to see who finishes the mission first?" Obito suggested.
"Right on, a fervent youth should be full of competition!" Might Guy excitedly agreed.
"A pointless contest." Kakashi was indifferent to the idea.
"Kakashi, you're not scared of losing to us, are you? After all, a Chunin losing to intern ninjas would look pretty bad." Obito egged him on.
Even though he knew it was a provocation tactic, hearing it from Obito still annoyed Kakashi, prompting him to answer coldly:
"I'm just worried about discouraging a rookie like you."
"We'll see who discourages whom." Obito declared, ready for the challenge.
"Alright, the first Mokgetsu Squad Cat-search Competition starts now," Mokgetsu announced with a cheerful smile.
"Let's get started! Whoever finds the cat first wins!" Might Guy shouted excitedly.
Kakashi glanced at Mokgetsu, feeling somewhat conflicted. It seemed that this Ninja Academy teacher was different from any guide teacher he had encountered before.
Spurred by Obito's provocation, Kakashi became especially serious and conjured several Shadow Clones to search for the cat described in the mission.
Might Guy, on the other hand, saw this task as training and dashed off swiftly to every corner, looking for traces of the cat.
Seeing Kakashi use Shadow Clones, Obito also split off two Shadow Clones to search for the cat.
All three seemed highly motivated.
Surprisingly to Kakashi, within less than an hour, Obito had already found the cat described in the mission.
"Hehe, looks like I won!" Obito declared proudly, raising the slightly chubby orange cat with both hands.
"Meow!" Startled by the sudden lift, the orange cat furiously scratched Obito, making him instinctively let go.
But before the orange cat could hit the ground, a hand swiftly grabbed its neck, halting its movements.
"What a half-baked effort," Kakashi shook his head and said to Obito, holding the orange cat.
"Even so, I found it first," Obito responded defiantly.
"Just lucky this time," Kakashi thought Obito was just lucky to have bumped into the cat first, which wasn't conclusive.
"Great, the task was completed quickly. Let's take on another mission," Mokgetsu said, seeing the situation.
Mokgetsu then led his students to the Hokage Building to deliver the mission.
"Finished already?" The registering ninja was also somewhat surprised. Capturing a cat wasn't easy; Konoha is vast and not easy to search, plus the often runaway cats are quite cunning, not only fast but also agile, making them truly hard to catch.
[Disciple Might Guy, Uchiha Obito worked hard to complete the entrusted task, earning Chakra +20, with an additional reward of Chakra +10 led by the teacher himself.]
"Thirty Chakra in just over fifty minutes, much faster than attending classes," Mokgetsu thought as he looked at the reward.
His usual morning class would only yield twenty Chakra points, slightly more for a large class, which is forty points.
Not every task needs to be compressed within an hour. As long as two D-Class missions are completed in a morning, the Chakra earned would be equal to attending three small classes.
This is still without Shisui's involvement. If Shisui were included, it would be forty-five points of Chakra in one go, further increasing the yield.
"It still can't fully replace classes. Even with all three disciples combined, the bonus is only fifteen points. Constantly making students do missions without training would affect the apprentice and master training tasks and a series of other rewards."
Mokgetsu thought deeply and felt that the mission rewards were just an additional bonus, at least judging by the current reward margins.
"Let's take another mission to find a lost item," Mokgetsu said, glancing at the Mission Scroll.
"Kakashi, aren't you dissatisfied? Then let's compete once more and see who finds the lost item first?" Obito challenged again.
"You might not have such good luck this time," Kakashi agreed immediately. He didn't believe that with his experience, he would continuously lose to Obito.
"Everyone is highly motivated!" Might Guy was also fired up, prepared to go all out to find the lost item.
"The Mokgetsu Squad Lost Item Search Competition starts now," Mokgetsu announced with a smile.
Obito wanting to keep winning against Kakashi, Kakashi wanting to turn the tide, and Might Guy who, for some reason, was trying hard—all three swiftly took action, aiming to be the first to complete the task.
Kakashi continued to use his Shadow Clone strategy, this time creating even more clones. Each clone retained little Chakra, lacking combat ability, but were more than adequate for finding things.
Kakashi didn't believe that, with himself and eleven Shadow Clones working separately, he could still lose to Obito and his two clones. Even if there was good luck, it had limits.
About an hour later, to Kakashi's surprise, something unexpected occurred.
"Completed. Sorry, Kakashi, but I've won again this time," Obito said, holding a box and a bag.
Kakashi, after dispelling the Shadow Clones: ...
"What's in the bag? Wasn't the lost item just the box?" Might Guy asked curiously.
"It's handmade snacks. While I was looking for stuff, I ran into the old lady who asked for directions this morning. She insisted on giving it to me as a reward," Obito said, scratching his head with a laugh.
"Looks like they'll be delicious. Teacher Mokgetsu, please help me divide it."
After everyone had finished the snacks, they went to the Hokage Building again to submit the task.
[Disciple Might Guy worked hard to complete the entrusted mission, earning Chakra +8, with an additional reward of Chakra +4 led by the teacher himself.]
[Disciple Uchiha Obito worked hard to complete the entrusted mission, earning Chakra +8, with an additional reward of Chakra +4 led by the teacher himself.]
"It's actually less. Is it because finding lost items is easier than catching cats?" Mokgetsu speculated now.
So Mokgetsu took on a task to catch a dog.
After Obito and Might Guy set off, Mokgetsu called Kakashi and said:
"Kakashi, do you still think Obito's quick completions are just luck? Come with me."