As for now, Shiki could only watch helplessly while tied up above Hayate Gekko.
"Teacher, can't you let me down already?"
"No way. At the very least, I believe you still need to hang there a bit longer, so you can truly reflect on your mistake!"
Hayate Gekko's pale face curled into a trace of sinister amusement.
"Don't worry, Shiki-nii," Yuuma Akimoto said, picking up Shiki's backpack to search for his lunchbox. "I'll feed you."
Her hand met a long string of bells sealed with paper. Slightly surprised, she casually threw them onto the nearby grass before continuing her search for the lunchbox.
"Shiki, looks like you're really well-prepared? Did Guy happen to tell you about the exam content beforehand?" Hayate asked with visible frustration and dark lines across his forehead.
"No! Definitely not!" Shiki naturally denied everything.
"I found it!" Yuuma Akimoto shouted joyfully as she pulled four lunchboxes out from the bag.
"You prepared four portions?" Hayate was somewhat surprised—apparently this kid already considered them teammates at this point.
"Aren't you touched by my thoughtfulness? If you're moved, just let me down too—this rope is genuinely uncomfortable!"
"I'm not moved at all. We'll start eating first, and you can hang there a bit longer."
Then Hayate took the lunchbox from Yuuma's hands, sat directly on the grass, and started munching lazily, totally ignoring Shiki.
Once Team 9 had come together, taking on missions became inevitable.
A C-rank mission right from the start also seemed just as inevitable.
Just like how the horse ended up on Shiki's back, this too felt like an unavoidable fate.
Before Konoha's main gate, the Chunin guards were staring in shock at Team 9 returning from their mission, especially that red-haired child and the pure white stallion tightly fastened behind him.
His fingers were sunk deep into the horse's fur, making it cry out in pain.
Shiki couldn't help but frown slightly.
"Who told you to be so disobedient? Now you dare to cry out again?"
The C-rank mission: assist Daimyo Yamaguchi in finding his lost white horse.
While hunting outside the Land of Fire, Daimyo Yamaguchi had accidentally lost his beloved horse, so he entrusted ninjas to retrieve it. And because this horse was extremely valuable, holding great significance for Daimyo Yamaguchi, absolutely no harm or injury could come to it.
The reward was generous—five thousand taels of silver.
For ninja, finding such a horse wouldn't usually be particularly difficult.
But maybe due to how spoiled this white horse had become under Yamaguchi's care, without applying any force, the stubborn animal simply refused to move forward from the grass.
In fact, riding horses generally wasn't part of regular ninja training, since most ninjas were faster than horses anyway.
No one from Team 9, including Hayate, actually knew how to ride. Truthfully speaking, even if Shiki did know how to handle horses, he had already predicted that none of those skills would work on this arrogant stallion.
That horse had been utterly pampered by Yamaguchi!
If it weren't for the exceptionally generous reward from this mission and Yuuma needing money for rent after moving out of the orphanage, Shiki would have truly considered giving up on this task.
Of course, in Konoha, missions couldn't generally be abandoned once accepted without a valid reason—Shiki only briefly considered it.
After trying his best, he realized he didn't actually possess any legendary kingly aura—this horse simply refused to acknowledge him!
Finally, following Hayate's suggestion, Shiki tied the horse's legs together, hoisted it onto his back, and trudged forward.
"That kid… is he doing some sort of special training?" A Chunin standing at the door asked in surprise.
"Honestly, why does he look so funny? I can't help but want to laugh—ha ha!"
Shiki could only pretend not to hear and walked past them.
"Big brother Shiki is amazing! He even managed to carry such a heavy horse!" Yuuma never hesitated to praise Shiki.
"Teacher, next time, absolutely no more accepting such bizarre C-rank missions ever again!"
Chapter 88: An Even More Challenging Mission
"You're still just Genin—how could you possibly handle such a difficult mission? Besides, isn't this also good training?" Gekko Hayate said.
Actually, what he said made sense. Newly appointed Genin usually shouldn't take C-rank missions.
And having Shiki carry an entire white horse indeed seemed like decent physical training.
"I'm not saying we shouldn't take C-rank missions—I'm just saying we shouldn't take such weirdly specific ones!"
With one powerful motion, Shiki adjusted the sinking weight of the white horse higher up on his back.
"But when you accepted this mission earlier, you didn't say anything against taking it either."
"How could I know that a seemingly normal mission would end up like this?"
Shiki wore an expression filled with frustration. Truthfully speaking, carrying a horse wasn't particularly difficult for him in terms of physical strength right now. The problem was that he'd basically lost all face.
Horses are supposed to carry people, not be carried around like this!
He could almost feel the quiet ridicule coming from the white horse on his back.
Everyone who saw him carrying the horse had a hard time holding back their laughter.
That was seriously annoying.
Gekko tried to comfort him, "Well then, how about I give you two thousand ryō from the payment for this mission?"
"As if throwing me an extra thousand ryō could actually buy my compliance."
Shiki continued grumbling.
"Then we'll split it the original way." Gekko coughed twice, effortlessly reclaiming that extra one thousand ryō as though nothing had happened.
"Indeed, the most underhanded one is still Sensei Hayate." Shiki sighed helplessly. Maybe because they got along so well, Hayate showed them sides of himself he probably never showed anyone else.
Just like close friends naturally joked around with each other, or how nearly every assigned Jonin held deep feelings for their students.
But perhaps it was better this way. At least Shiki really enjoyed living like this. Sometimes, such brightness could make him forget all darkness.
A few people entered and stopped in a room designated as the exchange point for this horse transaction. The host inside was a well-known horse tamer who had trained horses for lords time and again.
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