Hidden Leaf Village, Training Ground 2.
The morning after returning to the village.
"Rasengan!"
Boom!
Menma had come here to continue his ninjutsu training.
Looking at the not-too-exaggerated crater blasted into the ground...
Menma frowned slightly, showing a hint of dissatisfaction.
"The chakra compression is still not enough. I need a larger volume and more stable control. The rotation isn't an issue; the key is further enhancement. Should I try using a shadow clone? No, that's too time-consuming."
Menma rubbed his chin, muttering softly.
As an A-rank ninjutsu, the difficulty of training the Rasengan was unquestionable. It was only because Menma genuinely had a talent for ninjutsu that he could grasp the basics of the Rasengan in such a short time. In the original story, Naruto initially had trouble controlling his chakra due to the interference of the Nine-Tails' chakra, necessitating a shadow clone to help with containment. That was a last resort.
Otherwise, forget one week—even given another month, Naruto might not have mastered the Rasengan.
Creating a shadow clone provided an extra pair of hands, which indeed allowed for more precise control of chakra compression.
But this created an obvious problem.
As an A-rank ninjutsu, the Rasengan's biggest advantage over other A-rank techniques was that it required no hand seals. Adding the step of creating a shadow clone would greatly diminish this advantage.
The whole point was speed and surprise!
Although the later Naruto didn't have the Nine-Tails' chakra interference, he had become accustomed to using the Rasengan that way, so he continued using shadow clones. Menma didn't want to do that. Condensing chakra with one hand and releasing the Rasengan was the standard method!
It was the only way to make the Rasengan one of his strongest attack methods!
After all, in terms of sheer power, the Rasengan could already threaten or even kill 95% of the ninja in the world.
Therefore, even if it took a bit more time and effort now, Menma was determined to become completely accustomed to using the Rasengan one-handed. The same applied to the Rasengan's future upgrades.
"Well then, time to speed up the progress!"
Menma took a deep breath.
"Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
Forming seals immediately and controlling his chakra slightly... hundreds of shadow clones appeared instantly, all throwing themselves into training.
He believed that with such a cheating accelerator...
He could conquer the difficulty of any jutsu one by one.
Three or four days passed quickly under Menma's rhythmic training schedule.
Kakashi sent out a summons again.
At the designated meeting spot...
The members of Team 7 gathered on time. Naturally, Kakashi was predictably late for a while, something the four members of Team 7 had long grown accustomed to.
"Yo, everyone. It looks like you've all rested well these past few days. You should be back in top form, right?"
Seeing Kakashi appear with that familiar smiling face after being late for over an hour...
Even though he had told himself several times not to mind...
Naruto couldn't help but complain: "I say, Big Brother Kakashi, can't you be a little punctual? You're late nine out of ten times, and every time it's by an hour or two! That's too much!"
"Haha, sorry, sorry. I got lost on the road of life just now. I'll definitely pay attention next time. Definitely."
Kakashi used the most nonsensical excuse with a straight face thick enough to rival a city wall.
Naruto was instantly rendered speechless.
"Ahem. Alright, back to business. After resting for a few days, Team 7 needs to start executing missions again. By the way, starting today, Team 7 will only take on missions of C-rank and above. I assume none of you have any problems with that?"
Not giving Naruto a chance to speak again...
Kakashi cut straight to the chase.
"Eh? All missions C-rank and above from now on? That's awesome!"
Sure enough, Naruto was immediately distracted by Kakashi's words. Hearing that their squad would only take missions C-rank and above, Naruto's eyes sparkled.
"Hn, no problem."
Menma raised an eyebrow and nodded calmly.
"Hmph. Whatever."
Sasuke also displayed an indifferent attitude.
Only Sakura felt somewhat uneasy. After all, the impact of her first C-rank mission had been a bit too intense. Even though Sakura knew clearly that the Land of Waves mission was an accident—Jōnin weren't cabbages found everywhere, and C-rank missions theoretically shouldn't involve enemy ninja—
As the saying goes, once bitten by a snake, twice shy for ten years.
Sakura Haruno currently fell into that category.
Kakashi clearly saw through Sakura's state of mind, but he didn't point it out. Young ninja always needed to overcome certain psychological hurdles on their own.
"Since there are no problems, let's head out."
"Oh!"
"Yes."
Completing one C-rank mission—especially a special one with A-rank difficulty—could bring a different impact to a squad.
Moreover, with Team 7's current strength, excluding Kakashi, they should be able to handle not just C-rank missions but even B-rank missions without much difficulty.
The Mission Center wouldn't deliberately withhold missions either. Unlike some villages where there were too many ninja and too few missions, the Hidden Leaf Village, as the leader of the Five Great Ninja Villages, received a massive influx of missions every year, every month, every day. While Leaf ninja couldn't pick missions entirely as they pleased, they certainly didn't need to worry about having no missions to execute.
Leaving aside the identities of Team 7's members, just having Kakashi as their leader gave them sufficient qualification to be selective.
The officer in charge here clearly had instructions from Hiruzen Sarutobi.
Team 7 could choose whatever missions they wanted.
And for this second C-rank mission...
Kakashi, as the captain, picked an escort mission: protecting a merchant caravan from the Hidden Leaf Village to the capital of the Land of Fire—Kyoto.
This was one of the most common types of C-rank missions, and also one of the best-paying.
The caravan owner beamed with joy upon seeing that he had hired a Jōnin for a C-rank mission.
He even proactively increased the reward slightly.
However, this bit of extra reward wasn't very attractive to Team 7 anymore. Leaving Kakashi aside, Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura had all received a huge sum from Menma. Initially, Sasuke refused, but Menma simply gave too much—so much that Sasuke found it hard to say "I don't want it."
In the end, he could only accept it gratefully.
After all, ninja needed money.
The consumption of various ninja tools required financial support.
Why was Konan's technique in the original story called the "Paper Person of God Technique" (or jokingly, the "Rich Style")?
It was because of those six hundred billion explosive tags! Even if the number was exaggerated, halved, or had a zero knocked off the end, it was still an astronomical figure!!
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