A polished English localization
Unlike his other two teammates—one backed by the Hokage himself, the other by the strongest clan in the ninja world—Ruri Uzuki came from a small clan that had never produced a true top-tier powerhouse. At most, the Uzuki line had managed one or two jonin in its history. Now that fate had finally placed an opportunity like this in front of her, how could she possibly let it slip away?
"That's right, Orochimaru-senpai. Don't think that just because I'm the Hokage's son, I'm some spoiled brat who only knows how to lean on his father!"
Sarutobi Enjun stepped forward right after her, his voice full of youthful heat. His face was red with agitation, and his fists were clenched so tightly his knuckles had gone pale.
Orochimaru looked at the two of them without changing expression. Still, when his gaze fell on Enjun, there was the faintest trace of contempt in those cold golden eyes. Once, he had had a disciple just as passionate, just as eager, just as fearless. That disciple had charged straight into an enemy trap and died a horrible death.
"I think Orochimaru-senpai hasn't truly rejected us yet. He's just giving us a chance in his own way, isn't he? Otherwise, there would have been no need for you to bring us outside the village at all."
Uchiha Gen spoke calmly, his tone measured. Compared to Enjun and Ruri, he looked far more composed, but his mind was moving rapidly behind that steady expression.
Orochimaru's gaze shifted to him. In truth, he had never wanted to take this team in the first place. Sarutobi Enjun's identity alone was troublesome enough—if something happened to the Hokage's son under his watch, the consequences would be ugly. But Uchiha Gen was even more troublesome in a different way.
Train another Uchiha like Kagami Uchiha? That was what Sarutobi-sensei wanted. Not just to sharpen Gen's strength, but to guide his thoughts, draw him close, and turn him into one of their own—a bridge, not a threat. For Orochimaru, that kind of task was far more irritating than simply teaching battle techniques.
"You're not stupid," Orochimaru said at last. "You're right. And I hope that when real danger comes, your reactions will be just as quick as they are now."
As he spoke, he flicked a mission scroll through the air. The roll spun once before landing neatly in Gen's hands.
"I have no interest in wasting time on the sort of childish survival exercise other jonin like to use for newly graduated genin. We'll skip straight to the point. I selected this mission yesterday. Complete it, and prove to me that you deserve my acknowledgment. Fail, and I'll ask Sarutobi-sensei to assign you to another jonin. I have no desire to babysit cannon fodder destined to die on the battlefield."
His voice stayed level from beginning to end, but that only made the meaning behind the words heavier. Enjun and Ruri both froze for a second, stunned by the sudden turn. Leaving the village for a real mission the moment they had graduated was something neither of them had expected.
Gen had already opened the scroll. He barely reacted outwardly, yet inwardly he wasn't surprised at all. Orochimaru had always been the sort who did whatever he pleased. A man like that would never follow the ordinary rhythm of teaching just because that was how other jonin did things.
By the time Enjun and Ruri leaned in beside him, he had already read the first few lines.
[C-Rank Mission: Locate and eliminate bandits, and recover the stolen taxes.]
[Mission Client: Orochimaru's Team.]
[Employer: The lord of River Valley Town, Land of Fire.]
[Mission Reward: 60,000 ryo.]
A C-rank mission. As the very first mission for a team of fresh genin, that was outrageous. It might even have been unprecedented in all of Konoha—maybe in all of the Five Great Nations.
Gen lowered the scroll slightly and glanced at Orochimaru from the corner of his eye. Then again, with Orochimaru personally leading the team, maybe it wasn't so outrageous after all. Even if he wasn't yet the monster he would become in later years, his strength had already far surpassed that of an ordinary jonin.
For Hiruzen Sarutobi and Orochimaru, it was probably better for accidents to happen on a mission like this than on a battlefield later. Better to find out now whether these three had the qualifications to survive than to let them die uselessly in war. At least on a mission of this level, Orochimaru still had the power to suppress most unforeseen developments.
As for Gen himself, this was hardly bad news. The experience from a C-rank mission would be worth far more than the scraps ordinary genin earned from endless D-rank chores. The only real question was what kind of trap might be hidden inside such a seemingly simple assignment.
Because Orochimaru had said it clearly. This was a mission he had carefully chosen.
Soon after, the four of them registered their ninja numbers and mission information with the chunin guarding Konoha's gate. Once the records were entered, they left the village together and headed toward the Land of Fire's interior.
Their destination was a remote settlement known as River Valley Town. It wasn't especially far from Konoha in absolute distance, but the roads leading there were rough and inconvenient. For ordinary civilians, the trip was exhausting. For ninja, it was merely a matter of time.
The town itself had developed under unusual conditions. The roads were poor, but the surrounding land was fertile, and the nearby mountains held rich veins of ore and dense forest resources. The place could support itself, and more than that, it could produce enough goods to sell to the outside world and pay taxes to the daimyo year after year.
Those taxes amounted to millions of ryo annually. That was no small number, especially in wartime.
Then, not long after the outbreak of the current Shinobi World War, a bandit group sprang up in the area. At first they targeted caravans. Later, their ambition grew. They began raiding shipments intended for the daimyo, and most recently, they stole the taxes and supplies River Valley Town had prepared to hand over.
If they had merely robbed merchants, Konoha might not have been in such a hurry to destroy them. Dangerous roads created demand, and dangerous roads meant more escort missions. But stealing tax payments was an entirely different matter.
A large portion of Konoha's military funding came from the daimyo. And the daimyo's money came from taxes. In other words, part of what those bandits had stolen belonged, indirectly, to Konoha itself.
That was intolerable.
The group moved quickly. They left Konoha in the morning, traveled at a pace no normal person could maintain, and reached the outskirts of River Valley Town just before noon.
"From here on out, it's up to you," Orochimaru said. Standing on a thick tree branch with his arms folded, he looked down at the town in the distance and spoke without emotion. "I'll observe. I won't interfere. Go."
"Yes!" all three answered at once.
Three figures shot out together and rushed toward the town gate. Then, after only a few breaths, Gen suddenly called out.
"Wait."
Both of his teammates halted at once. Enjun turned around first, confusion on his face.
"What is it, Gen?"
"Do you really think we should just walk straight in like this?" Gen asked, looking from one teammate to the other.
Ruri tilted her head, her soft purple hair stirring in the wind. She was quick enough to catch his meaning almost immediately.
"You mean we should disguise ourselves before entering? If the bandits left lookouts or informants in town, seeing Konoha ninja arrive openly might warn them and give them time to run."
"Exactly," Gen said with a nod.
"That makes sense! Gen, you really are thoughtful," Enjun said, giving him an enthusiastic thumbs-up as if the matter had already been solved.
Gen ignored the praise and continued in the same calm tone. "More than that, this mission itself is a test from Orochimaru. Even if it's officially only C-rank, there's no reason to assume it's as simple as finding the bandits, killing them, and recovering the taxes. We've never handled a mission at this level before, and we're doing it without a team leader taking the lead. That means we have to be even more careful than usual."
He looked toward the town in the valley below, his dark eyes narrowing slightly. Smoke rose from chimneys. Carts creaked along the road. From the outside, it looked like any other quiet provincial settlement. But if Orochimaru had picked this mission personally, there was no chance the problem ended with ordinary highway thieves.
"So before we move officially," Gen said, "we gather intelligence first."
Ruri slowly nodded. Once she had calmed down from the initial shock of the mission, her thoughts were obviously beginning to settle into place. She wasn't someone who lacked ability. In the elite class, her scores had consistently ranked near the very top. She only looked less dazzling because the people around her were monsters in their own right.
"Then how do we divide it?" she asked.
Enjun immediately opened his mouth. "I can go ask around!"
Gen glanced at him once and almost laughed. With that face, that clothes, and that posture, he looked exactly like what he was—a freshly graduated noble-background genin from Konoha. Sending him into town to gather hidden intelligence would be as subtle as setting off fireworks in broad daylight.
Still, he did not say that out loud. There was no point bruising Enjun's pride over something so trivial, especially before the mission had truly begun.
"First, we change our appearance a little," Gen said. "Not a full transformation technique. That would consume chakra we might need later, and it's easy to notice if someone brushes into you. Simple disguises will do better."
He crouched and opened his pack while speaking. Inside were spare cloths, an extra outer shirt, and a travel hat—ordinary supplies he had prepared the day before. His habit of planning ahead, once shaped by school tests and later reinforced by the system, was showing its worth already.
Ruri understood at once. She loosened her hair, changed the way it framed her face, and wrapped herself in a plain traveler's shawl. With those few adjustments, the young kunoichi who had stood out so clearly at the academy suddenly looked much more like a merchant's daughter traveling with family.
Enjun, for his part, grumbled but obeyed. He exchanged his more obvious pieces of gear, concealed his headband, and tried to affect the swagger of some rich landlord's useless son. It would not fool a truly sharp eye, but it was better than nothing.
Gen himself made the smallest changes of all. A simpler outer layer, his hitai-ate tucked away, his posture relaxed just enough to conceal that ever-present ninja alertness. He also rubbed a bit of dust onto the cleaner parts of his clothes. A little imperfection went a long way in making someone look ordinary.
By the time they finished, the three of them no longer looked like a freshly assembled Konoha genin team. Not perfectly hidden, perhaps, but no longer obvious either.
High above them, Orochimaru remained where he was, expression unreadable. He said nothing. But the fact that he did not interrupt was, in itself, a kind of acknowledgment.
Gen noticed that and filed it away. Orochimaru really was testing more than strength. Reaction speed, judgment, adaptability, caution—he was measuring all of it from the moment they stepped beyond the village gate.
"We go in separately enough not to look like a unit," Gen said. "But not so far apart that we can't support each other if something happens. Once inside, we look for the same things first—who's nervous, who's watching the roads, who seems too interested in outsiders, and who suddenly disappears once we ask about the bandits. After that, we meet again and compare what we found."
This time, neither Enjun nor Ruri objected. Perhaps because Gen had just pointed out the flaw in their initial approach. Or perhaps because Orochimaru's indifference had made the danger of failure feel much more real.
Either way, the three of them were finally beginning to resemble a team.
They descended the slope toward River Valley Town once more, slower this time, more carefully. The road wound between low trees and stony earth before opening toward the gate. Farmers and merchants moved in and out as usual, but even from a distance Gen could already feel the town's unease.
People spoke, yet their voices stayed low. Guards stood at the entrance, but they did not have the confidence of men who believed they were safe. Somewhere inside this place, fear had settled in and taken root.
And fear, Gen knew, always left traces.
As the three of them approached the gate in their disguises, he steadied his breathing and let his eyes sweep over everything in sight. The real mission was only beginning now. Whether Orochimaru would accept them—or cast them aside—would likely be decided by what they found next.