Shinobi!
No matter the era, the word carried an edge of killing intent. In traditional culture, it was synonymous with "assassin," "thief," and "spy"—a title borne by those who dwelled in shadow. To carry that name was to forfeit any claim to ordinary personhood. You were a tool. A tool that would stop at nothing—including sacrificing itself—to achieve its objective.
Which meant that Team Seven's current genin squad was roughly the equivalent of... a glorified plunger.
"Why is today's mission picking up garbage AGAIN?!"
Naruto hurled a fistful of empty cans from the river onto the bank and finally snapped, his face a mask of barely contained madness. On the riverbank, Kakashi pressed his fingers against his forehead with an expression of long-suffering resignation. He'd predicted this outburst, but the blond hadn't lasted nearly as long as expected.
"Shut up, dead-last. This is the mission."
Sasuke stood in the same river fishing out the same garbage. His expression was as cold as ever, but the boredom and impatience leaking through his eyes told their own story. Reality had dealt him an equally brutal blow—nobody had imagined that life as a shinobi would involve chores this menial.
"Now, now. This is what D-rank missions are. You just graduated—naturally you start with basic assignments. It's not just about building experience as shinobi; it's about learning how society works."
Seeing his students' discontent, Kakashi shrugged and launched into a teacherly explanation: "Even your sensei had to do plenty of garbage duty under his own teacher back in the day. So—"
CRUNCH.
Before Kakashi could finish, a hideous screech of crumpling metal rang out from behind them. Hinata's back was turned to the group, but the can in her right hand had been crushed into something resembling a twisted pretzel. The flimsy aluminum was already glowing red, melting, and dripping into the water.
"Eek!"
Naruto flinched so hard he nearly fell over. Say what you would about the dead-last's intelligence—his survival instincts were razor-sharp, and right now they were screaming.
"Uh... so, look, if you're really sick of D-ranks, maybe try asking Lord Hokage? He might have something different."
Kakashi broke into a cold sweat of his own and hastily changed tack. Only then did the pale-eyed girl release the molten remains. The terrifying killing intent radiating off her vanished as suddenly as it had appeared.
"Naruto, don't complain. You're a shinobi of the Hidden Leaf, so carrying out missions for the village is exactly what you should be doing. Think of it as reinforcing your standing as a Konoha shinobi."
Turning around, Hinata's expression and tone had already reset to their usual picture of warmth. Naruto and Kakashi both exhaled in visible relief, recognizing that the boss's berserker phase had passed—for now.
Not that anyone could blame her.
Hinata understood perfectly well that building credibility in Konoha meant diligently completing every assigned task to accumulate standing. But this past week's D-rank workload was genuinely insulting. Cleaning rivers, picking up trash, babysitting, walking dogs, running errands to neighboring towns—each mission was a fresh affront to dignity.
A full week had gone by. Seven or eight D-ranks completed. And honestly, the most volatile member of the squad right now wasn't Naruto—it was Hinata.
She recognized the game. Tedious busywork to grind down a new recruit's ego, the classic hazing ritual for any hotshot new hire. But suffering through it personally was another matter entirely.
More importantly, if her memory was correct, Team Seven was supposed to trigger its first major story arc not long after becoming genin—the Land of Waves mission. The original story never specified the exact timing, only that the prerequisite seemed to involve catching a fat cat named Tora belonging to the Fire Daimyō's wife. But after a week of patient waiting, that mission still hadn't come. The delay was grating at her nerves.
Hinata was a thoroughgoing pragmatist who didn't need to follow the canon plot beat for beat. But it was like playing a story-driven game—skipping the main quest just felt wrong. And besides...
If she remembered correctly, the two primary antagonists in the Land of Waves arc possessed a certain special "value."
Well, if the canon plot wouldn't come to her, she'd go to it another way.
Walking at the rear of the squad, Hinata's gaze swept across Naruto's back, and a satisfied smirk curled at her lips. With this bleeding-heart, justice-obsessed, hot-blooded idiot protagonist on the team, all she had to do was get them to the right location. He'd pick a fight with the villains on his own. The real problem was simply getting to the Land of Waves in the first place.
Under normal circumstances, a genin squad couldn't freely leave the village. For security purposes, shinobi weren't permitted to come and go except on missions. But rules were only constraints for those who lacked the means to break them.
"Come to think of it, at the end of the last episode of Fox Tales, we did mention a two-week hiatus, right?"
Hinata spoke up, and Kakashi turned with a curious look. "That's right. You said you wanted to spend two weeks experiencing life as a real shinobi. Looks like you cracked first."
"Can't help it—patience has never been my strong suit. In that case, let's go on a trip."
She nodded, her tone brimming with confidence. As the boss of the Fox Tales production crew, she'd already filed a mission request with the village back when she was still an Academy student.
In theory, a Hidden Village was obligated to accept any mission that didn't threaten the village itself. What determined a mission's rank and the village's level of commitment wasn't the nature of the request—it was the size of the paycheck.
"Huh? We're leaving the village? I've never been outside before! Can we really do that?"
Naruto's eyes lit up immediately, and he pressed in close to Hinata. "Hey, hey—where are we going? Somewhere we can train awesome jutsu?"
"Hmph. A dead-last like you wouldn't accomplish anything no matter where you went."
Sasuke took the opportunity to fire off a taunt, and as the first of the three to successfully execute an ultimate technique, he had every right.
"Damn you! You just got a little lucky this time! I'll definitely master Divine Sandstorm soon!"
"Sure. From where I'm standing, you're the same as always—all talk."
Without warning, the bickering between Sasuke and Naruto made Hinata's fingers clench tight.
Yes... and then there was this—the most important issue of all.
She had fallen behind. Again.
She was the one who had proposed the ultimate technique training. Yet the first of the three to learn an ultimate technique was Sasuke. His mastery was shaky at best, but facts were facts.
Would this gap only widen from here? If the original story's power scaling held, it was practically inevitable. No amount of Gentle Fist or Byakugan mastery could stand against the sheer force of a Susanoo cleaving mountains in two. With that devoted older brother willing to sacrifice everything to help him, Sasuke would eventually unlock the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan—and from there, it was unstoppable one-man-army territory.
And Naruto was an even more extreme case. With a father who was the Fourth Hokage and a mother who was the previous Nine-Tails jinchūriki backing him up, the moment he gained access to the Nine-Tails' chakra, the dead-last would transform overnight from a nobody into the savior of the entire world.
How was she supposed to keep pace with two people running cheat codes? How could she avoid being reduced to a pitiful extra—a stepping stone?
Even pulling them into her own specialty, the South Dipper Sacred Fists, hadn't stopped them from slowly catching up and overtaking her.
The feeling was profoundly unpleasant. But... it was fine. She had the entire Scroll of Seals at her disposal. She could approach Danzō at any time for the First Hokage's sage cells. With Akatsuki's military resources backing her, acquiring rare materials would never be a serious problem. There were still ways to strengthen herself.
Heh. If the universe wouldn't hand her an official cheat code, she'd develop her own. That might even be something more reliable—and more worth taking pride in.
The pale-eyed girl's gaze relaxed. A thin, dangerous smile curved at her lips. For her, the path was secondary—as long as the destination was reached, any method would do.
Nearby, Kakashi watched Hinata and frowned slightly. As a veteran Jōnin, he could identify that look in her eyes. It belonged to a true schemer—an ambition so naked it was almost physical. In all his years in the Hidden Leaf, he'd only ever seen that particular gleam in two other people's eyes. He hadn't expected to encounter a third.
"All right, Naruto, Sasuke—enough arguing. I've been thinking, and perhaps it's time we filmed some coastal scenery. The ocean is, after all, a symbol of vastness and boundless possibility."
Hinata stopped walking and spoke with a smile.
"So—after we finish today's mission, head home and rest. Then we'll look into which destinations are best for a trip. Tomorrow, the company's manager will file a designated mission request, and we'll head out to broaden our horizons."
"After all, when fate is dragging its feet, taking the initiative is always an option."