Chapter 5:

Village Year 75, August 9th

I made it to the mission office early in the morning. Maybe a bit too early. The Chunin woman at the mission assignment desk looked exhausted, or maybe she was just a typical Nara.

She let out a tired yawn. “What do you want, kid?”

“I’m here for a mission,” I said, handing her my Konoha ID.

“Are you sure? You can only take a C-Rank mission,” she informed me.

“I’m aware of that.” D-Rank missions were only for full Genin squads with Jonin-senseis. They were basically practice missions that the village partially funded. Members of the Genin Corps were not allowed to take them. “What’s available?” I asked her.

She let out a sigh and flipped through a stack of papers in front of her. “Hm, a noble had their ornamental flute stolen from their vacation home. How good are your tracking skills?”

“My tracking skills are non-existent currently,” I admitted. “What else do you have?”

She clicked her tongue in annoyance and shuffled through a few more pages. “...A businessman thinks one of his employees is selling company secrets to his competitors. Do you have any skills in espionage?”

“No…” I admitted again.

I could feel her annoyance levels rising. “You’re not helping me here, kid. I’m trying to give you a mission that won’t get you killed. You have exactly one C-Rank mission on your record, and it’s marked as a failure...” she told me.

“Sorry...” Maybe I hadn’t quite thought this through. Was I rushing headfirst into things unnecessarily?

“Okay, I got a real easy one here.” She pulled out a single piece of paper from the stack and handed it to me. “A noble’s daughter in the next town over wants to ‘play ninja’ for the day. It says here that she’s six years old and a big fan of Kunoichis. It’s literally impossible to screw this mission up. It’s just glorified babysitting. It’ll be super boring, but at least the pay is decent since the family is rich.”

“…I’ll take it, I guess.” I had to admit I was expecting something more exciting for my first assignment, but this is probably for the best. I could work my way up to the more dangerous missions.

“You’re damn right you’ll take it. Complete this one and maybe you’ll get something better next time,” she said with another yawn and promptly dismissed me.

After receiving my assignment, I headed across the village to Muramasa’s shop. Suki had sworn to me that he was the best of the best, so I was eager to see what he had prepared. I entered the shop and found the old man sitting in the same spot as last time, a plate of mochi and a steaming cup of tea on a small table beside him.

“Ah, I’ve been expecting you, Kasumi Hayabusa,” he said without even opening his eyes.

How did he know it was me? “What do you have for me, old timer?” I asked.

He pointed to a small chest in front of him. “Your equipment is in there.”

I walked over and unlatched it. Inside was a fully folded Kunoichi outfit, and from a single glance, I could tell it was high quality. “Do you have anywhere I can try it on?” I asked.

“You can change back there,” he said, pointing behind him.

“Thanks.” I quickly scooped everything up and hurried into the back room. While his shop was a disorganized mess, the old man’s living quarters were surprisingly prim and tidy. A full-body mirror in the corner allowed me to inspect myself.

“…This is amazing. I look so badass!” I stared at my reflection in awe. The base of my new outfit was a skin-tight black bodysuit made from special chakra-woven threads, blade-resistant on their own. But that wasn’t all. Muramasa had added multiple thin layers of scaled armor covering most of my vital areas, along with my arms and legs. He even provided close-toed black ninja boots without me needing to ask.

The outfit also included a red scarf made from the same chakra threads, with folds that allowed it to hang down my back and securely hold my katana. Finally, there was a small black face mask to hide my lower facial features—perfect if I wanted to imitate my older brother, Ryu, or just conceal my identity during a mission.

As for my opinion on the outfit? I absolutely loved everything about it!

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Where other Kunoichi in the village wore outfits designed to look sexy, I looked deadly. I’d always thought showing so much skin was impractical, and Muramasa clearly shared that opinion. The armor wasn’t bulky by any means, and it was still obvious I was a Kunoichi.

“It’s perfect, Muramasa-san. How much do I owe you?” I asked as I left the fitting room. The only other ninja outfit I’d seen of this quality was Ryu’s.

Muramasa finally opened his eyes and gazed at me. Once again, I felt like he was looking through my very being. He closed his eyes again and nodded. “Hm, no charge for the equipment or any future repairs or modifications,” he said, and my eyes widened in surprise. He continued, “I have a certain offer for you. If you come across any valuable items you wish to sell in the future, I simply ask that you bring them to me first and foremost.”

I crossed my arms and lowered my head in contemplation. “So you basically want to be my fence?” I asked him.

The old man smirked at me. “That’s not entirely inaccurate, if you see it that way.”

“Ok…” I didn’t have a problem with his offer. In fact, it sounded like a way to make some extra money on my missions. “I don’t know if I’ll be finding anything you’re interested in anytime soon, though. My first mission is just babysitting a little girl...” I trailed off.

The old man chuckled. “...Who knows about that, you Hayabusa ninja have a knack for running headfirst into absurd situations. You should ask your older brother about some of his more unusual adventures,” he said.

Ask Ryu?

“You know my brother? Do you have the same deal with him?” I asked.

Muramasa nodded again. “Yes, he has brought me some very interesting finds over the years. I still have no idea where he managed to find an actual dragon tooth, especially considering no one has seen a living dragon in hundreds of years.”

“I accept your offer then.” If Ryu trusted this old man, then I could too. I bowed my head and thanked Muramasa for the new equipment before exiting his small shop.

A couple of civilians and even a few passing Shinobi and Kunoichi stopped to gawk at me when they saw my new outfit. I could see blatant envy in the ninja’s eyes. I smirked at them before circulating my chakra and hopping onto the nearest roof, heading toward the village’s main gate.

All ninja heading out of the village on official missions had to check in at the small booth next to the gates. It wasn’t a big deal. The woman working there only glanced at my paper for a second before stamping it and telling me I was good to go.

“Holy crap! Kasumi? Is that you!?” Before I left the gates, I heard a familiar voice call out behind me.

“Hey there, Suki!” I waved at my Yamanaka ‘best friend.’ She was standing with her entire team: Might Guy, Rock Lee, and Neji Hyuga. “Like my new outfit?” I asked her with a smug grin.

“Do I like it? I absolutely love it! You look like you’re ready to kick some serious ass! How the hell did you get Old Man Muramasa to make you an entire outfit!? He only gave me some arm guards.” Suki held up both of her arms, showing off a pair of sleek purple arm guards. They matched pretty well with the rest of her outfit…which was also mostly purple. The Yamanaka clan women really liked that color.

“He only gave me a pair of gloves…” I heard Neji mutter in irritation.

Might Guy patted him on the shoulder. “Don’t be jealous, Neji. Muramasa is the best blacksmith in Konoha. He knows what he’s doing. He gave you those gloves because that’s all you need. If he gave this youthful Kunoichi an entire set of armor, then that’s what she’s going to need.”

Considering I was probably the weakest ninja in the entire village at the moment, I wasn’t about to argue with that. The armor definitely made me feel a lot safer.

"I'm not upset about my leg weights at all, Guy Sensei! They're fantastic, and I already feel much faster than I was two weeks ago!" Rock Lee exclaimed cheerfully.

"That's the spirit, Lee!" Guy yelled, even louder than his student. “We should never be jealous of our fellow Konoha Nin! Jealousy isn’t youthful at all!”

“You’re so wise, Guy-sensei!”

The two of them then started shouting about “youth” at the top of their lungs before suddenly dropping to the ground and doing push-ups for some reason…

Suki giggled at their display, while Neji scoffed.

“Are you guys going on a mission too?” I asked Suki.

“Yep!” she said enthusiastically. “We’re going to hunt down and slay some evil bandits!” She spoke with such excitement, as if she wasn’t openly talking about killing people. The morality in this world sure was weird...

"It’s obvious you’re heading out on a mission as well. What assignment could possibly require you to look like you're gearing up for the next war?” Neji asked in obvious derision. Yep, he was not following Guy’s words at all! I could tell he was very jealous of me. I wisely chose not to rub it in. It’s not like I'd done anything yet to actually deserve my new equipment.

“I’m going to be babysitting the daughter of a noble. She’s apparently a big fan of Kunoichis and wants to “play ninja” for a day. Of course, I have to dress the part.” I gestured to my outfit. That was the excuse I was going with, at least. Was all this equipment necessary for such a simple mission? Absolutely not. The truth was, this world was scary, and I didn’t want to leave the village without my armor…

Neji scoffed again after I mentioned my assignment. “What a pathetic mission… Babysitting should be a D-Rank, even if it’s a noble child.”

Suki’s reaction was the complete opposite. She smiled brightly. “Aww, you’re so lucky! The girl sounds adorable. I hope you have fun on your mission, Kasumi. We’ll be heading out now.” She said as Lee and Guy stood back up, both with a healthy sweat on their brows after doing what must have been a few hundred push-ups.

“Good luck, guys. We should hang out again when you get back, Suki!” I called out to her.

“You bet!” Suki waved back to me as her team left the village at a steady jog—a jog so fast it kicked up dust behind them. I immediately knew I wouldn’t be able to match that speed, no matter how hard I pushed myself, even at a full sprint.

“They’re all that fast after only training with Might Guy for two weeks…?” I muttered in disbelief. The crazy thing was, I remembered Rock Lee was also wearing leg weights! How crazy fast was he going to be by the time the Chunin exams rolled around in a year!?

One of the gate guards—either Kotetsu or Izumo, I never bothered learning which was which—overheard me talking to myself and simply shrugged. “Might Guy is a beast, it’s no surprise his team is full of little monsters as well.”

I didn’t bother to respond. Instead, I took off down the main road. My destination was Chubi Village, which roughly translated to "Middle Fire." The village got its name because it was perfectly situated halfway between Konoha and the Capital of the Land of Fire. Luckily for me, it was nearly impossible to get lost since it was located right on the main road—or as I called it, the dirt highway. The lady at the mission assignment desk had literally given me the safest C-Rank mission possible. The Dirt Highway was the lifeblood of trade in the Land of Fire, regularly patrolled by Chunin, Jonin, and even Samurai. Bandits weren’t dumb or suicidal enough to stalk this road—at least, the smart ones weren’t.

I had been jogging at a steady pace for about an hour, occasionally using chakra to boost my speed but conserving most of it in case anything crazy happened.

And it seemed my paranoia was justified.

I suddenly heard loud screams and the sounds of fighting up ahead. Immediately, I picked up my pace to investigate. What I found was an ornate carriage under attack by the rattiest group of men I had ever seen. As someone from a modern society, it was surreal to see actual bandits. They were clashing with a small group of samurai in red armor. The samurai were cutting the dirty men down by the dozens, but they were heavily outnumbered—five armored men against at least a hundred attackers.

My breathing quickened as I nervously reached for the katana on my back. I hadn’t expected to get into a fight so soon after leaving the village. But I could hear women screaming from inside the carriage, and there was no way I was going to just stand by and do nothing. I drew my blade and sprinted forward to join the fight.