March 20, Konoha Year 60.
In the early morning, the sun slowly rose, and the sunlight spilled over the earth, cloaking the world in a golden coat.
Jokichi changed into simple and dirt-resistant clothes and went out early.
Today, he would welcome his first mission in life as a ninja.
However, Genin could only perform D-rank missions at most, which meant doing odd jobs like helping with farm work, finding lost pets, or running errands.
Therefore, Jokichi did not hold any expectations for this first time in his life.
But Naruto was obviously different.
When he hurried to the gathering spot, Naruto and Sakura had already arrived.
Naruto's expression was very excited, his eyes squinted, humming a tune from somewhere unknown, and even his walk had a bit of a crab-like swagger.
And Sakura was equally full of anticipation for today's mission, though she didn't show it as obviously as Naruto, just wearing a subtle smile on her face.
The three greeted each other, and Yamato-sensei arrived shortly after.
After everyone finished greeting, Yamato's face turned serious, and he said, "Since everyone is here, let's start executing the mission!"
"Aren't we supposed to go to the Hokage building to receive the mission first?" Sakura raised a question.
Yamato smiled, "I have already received the mission in advance."
"That's great! Hey, Yamato-sensei, what's the mission? I can't wait to complete it." Naruto jogged in place, looking excited.
"Help Grandma Yoshimura weed her herb garden."
"Huh!?"
Naruto opened his mouth wide, petrified.
It took him a good while to recover.
"Isn't this just farm work?" Naruto protested loudly, "Yamato-sensei, is this a mistake? We are ninjas! Shouldn't the missions we execute be, be, whatchamacallit?"
Reaching the exciting part, Naruto forgot the words and couldn't help but look to Jokichi for help.
Jokichi couldn't help but smile and helped him complete it, "Thrilling and exciting."
"Right, right, right, thrilling and exciting." Naruto suddenly realized, "We should do more challenging missions."
Sakura showed a speechless expression on the side.
And Yamato tilted his head back and covered his face.
At first, he worried that the grade's number one, Jokichi, would be a troublemaker.
It turned out Jokichi was very well-behaved and obedient, and the dead-last was the troublemaker.
Hard to manage!
Yamato let out a deep breath, showed a composed smile, and said, "Well, I don't misunderstand how you feel, but ninja missions need to be taken step by step. If you can't even do odd-job missions well, what client would feel at ease handing a mission to you?"
"That seems to be true!" Naruto nodded, "In that case, let's hurry up and pull the weeds. The sooner we finish the weeding mission and prove my ability to everyone, the sooner we can execute higher-level missions."
"Mhm! Let's go!"
Just like that, Yamato successfully fooled Naruto.
Sakura and Jokichi were speechless watching this.
However, while being speechless, Jokichi thought of a question.
Will the Wave Country mission still fall to Team 7 like in the anime?
The current Naruto is not a very patient person. Yamato could fool him for a while, but not for a lifetime.
But his personality is more cautious and prudent than Kakashi's. Even if Naruto is noisy, he won't easily agree to taking a mission above their level.
He just didn't know if they would miss the Wave Country mission.
If they missed it, Tazuna and the squad that took the mission would probably be doomed.
After all, it was only a C-rank mission, taken by a Chunin team at most, and they would be absolutely no match for the Demon of the Hidden Mist and Haku of the Yuki clan.
When the time comes, an innocent Chunin squad would lose their lives, and the Wave Country, which originally could have changed its fate, would remain impoverished forever, with everything in the entire country controlled by Gato.
Jokichi thought for a moment.
If they really missed the Wave Country mission, he would find a chance to go and kill Gato.
If he was afraid of the trouble, he could directly contact Itachi and ask him to do it.
Jokichi was not a pushover do-gooder and would not harm his own interests for others.
But he considered himself to still have some conscience. If he could conveniently help others without harming his own interests, he didn't mind extending a helping hand.
Just like with Itachi back then.
At the time, although it was to exchange for things he needed, it also included an element of making up for the regrets left behind when watching the anime in his past life.
If the Wave Country truly declined because of the butterfly effect he caused, Jokichi's conscience would feel guilty.
...
When executing the mission, Naruto's enthusiasm was very high.
However, this guy truly hadn't learned a single bit of theoretical knowledge in the Ninja Academy and uprooted all the herbs along with the weeds.
Not only did they not get paid for this mission, but they also had to pay compensation.
Fortunately, it was only early spring, the herbs hadn't been planted long, and the compensation wasn't much.
If it had been the season when the herbs were mature, Naruto probably would have had to pawn his underwear to pay for it.
Yamato took the opportunity to use reverse psychology so Naruto would no longer look down on low-level missions or clamor all day to do high-level missions.
However, this peace was broken after smoothly completing missions for the next few days.
Naruto started clamoring again that low-level missions had no challenge and he wanted to do higher-level missions.
And Yamato, exactly as anticipated, rejected Naruto's request.
Naruto wanted to drag Jokichi and Sakura to request high-level missions together, but Sakura refused, and Jokichi just chuckled without expressing any opinion.
After doing low-level missions for a few days, Jokichi also saw through it.
These missions were deliberately set up to allow rookie Genin to turn the academy's basic theoretical knowledge into experience, and they were very helpful to rookie Genin, especially someone like Naruto who barely learned any theoretical knowledge during school.
Although Jokichi didn't need it, the one executing the missions was just a shadow clone anyway.
His real body had long since run to the training ground to practice Wood Release.
Although he didn't hold any special expectations for the power of Wood Release, it was still better than wasting time doing chores!
On the second day of executing missions, Jokichi showed the newly awakened Wood Release to Yamato and asked him for guidance.
Yamato, after being surprised and shocked for a while, told him to wait a moment and disappeared using the Body Flicker Jutsu.
Less than an hour later, Yamato returned with the First Hokage's handwritten Wood Release ninjutsu notes.
Danzo had once given him a copy of the First's handwritten Wood Release notes, but this copy was given to him by the Third Hokage to pass on to Jokichi.
Actually, the training methods for Wood Release were also recorded in the Mobile Library.
Jokichi did this simply to obtain a legitimate way to practice or use Wood Release openly.
Because he didn't want to invite unnecessary trouble.
...
After his request to make a fuss and do high-level missions together was rejected by Sakura and Jokichi, Naruto quieted down a lot and patiently started doing low-level missions.
Just when Jokichi thought this time of peacefully doing low-level missions would last until Naruto's patience was worn out, an accident occurred.
April 20.
On this day, Team 7 took a mission to clean up trash in the river.
Jokichi, Naruto, and Sakura, carrying baskets on their backs, rolled up their pant legs and entered the river, cleaning all the way from the downtown area to the edge of the suburbs.
At this time, the sun was setting in the west.
Sasuke, wearing Anbu clothing, was returning from a mission and walking home along the path by the river.