Yuhi Kurenai whispered a few words to Asuma, her voice so low that the six youngsters felt it was inappropriate to eavesdrop, so they all kept their heads down and focused on eating.
Asuma initially shook his head, but under Kurenai's insistence, he reluctantly nodded, looking somewhat awkward.
He cleared his throat to draw everyone's attention. "Hahaha, it seems I forgot to ask something earlier. Well, you all know me now. I'm Sarutobi Asuma. My dream is... to understand the true meaning of 'jade.' Now it's your turn. Let's go around and introduce ourselves."
He had originally intended to say, "Just say whatever comes to mind," but under Kurenai's gaze, he had to change it to a more serious "self-introduction."
Ino had been waiting for this question. She quickly raised her right hand and said cheerfully, "I'm Yamanaka Ino. My dream is to become an outstanding kunoichi like Lady Tsunade!"
Shikamaru looked a little embarrassed. Seeing everyone staring at him, he casually replied, "I'm Shikamaru Nara. I don't really have any dreams. I just want to marry an ordinary-looking woman and live a peaceful life."
Asuma's smile stiffened a bit, and he finally turned to Choji.
Choji scratched his face. Did he have a dream? Did he? Probably not! "I'm Choji Akimichi. I want... I want to eat all the delicious food in the world? Does that count?" Seeing Asuma's half-smile, he quickly changed to a more ninja-appropriate answer: "I want to train hard and become an excellent ninja, one who won't let anyone insult my comrades. And during breaks, I'll enjoy some good food?"
With Team 10 finished, it was now Team 8's turn.
Kiba was the most eager. "I want to become the Hokage!"
Ino nodded with a smile. Kid, you won't become the Hokage in this lifetime, the next, or the one after that!
Shino thought for a moment and said, "I hope to become a ninja who stands out and is noticed by others."
Finally, it was Hinata's turn. The young girl hesitated for a long time before stammering, "I hope... I hope to become braver, like Ino. I hope to gain my father's approval, and I hope..." Not knowing what else to say, she summarized, "I hope to become an outstanding kunoichi."
Asuma and Kurenai exchanged a glance. They both felt that the girl had a clear understanding of herself. She indeed lacked courage and confidence, and compared to the self-assured Ino, her shortcomings were quite evident.
After the cheerful gathering, Team 10 was officially formed.
Since they had become ninjas of Konoha, they needed to work. Whether they came from ninja clans or were civilians, a ninja's job was to carry out various missions.
Jiraiya's bankbook had been picked up by Naruto, and the string of zeros on it dazzled his eyes. Did he really earn all that money from writing novels? With so many malnourished farmers around and such a low literacy rate, how many people actually read books? Most of his money had been saved up from completing missions.
The ninja world had a clear classification for missions.
First were the S-rank missions, which involved national secrets.
Next were the A-rank missions, which concerned the movements of ninja villages and nations.
Then came the B-rank missions, which required ninja combat and had a high chance of injury or even death.
C-rank missions were those where there was a possibility of injury during execution.
And finally, the D-rank missions, which didn't involve combat and posed no threat to life.
The incident involving Mizuki could technically be classified as a B-rank mission, but since it couldn't be made public, and considering that Inoichi and Shikaku were on-site for protection, the village recorded it as a C-rank mission for each of them, with a reward of 50,000 ryo per person.
Genin missions are mostly D-rank, occasionally involving C-rank missions.
Chunin handle most C-rank missions and all B-rank missions.
Jonin, being highly skilled, are only responsible for A-rank and S-rank missions. As for new ninja like Ino, they could only take on those extremely trivial D-rank missions at first.
She had no complaints about this. After all, even someone as formidable as Orochimaru had completed 16 D-rank missions. What did she have to complain about?
Just imagine Orochimaru rolling up his sleeves, squatting in the fields, weeding, feeding pigs, and picking up trash. Ino felt she had no right to be picky! She should just focus on doing her missions diligently!
However, the first mission stumped her.
Weeding the village's farmland! It sounded easy, and it looked easy too, but seeing the worried Uncle Farmer sighing nearby, Ino felt that things weren't as simple as they seemed. She didn't think that a farmer who had worked the land his entire life couldn't handle weeding. His expression suggested that there was more to this weeding task than met the eye.
Shikamaru, being someone who thinks three steps ahead, stood by the farmland, observing carefully.
Choji, on the other hand, wasn't as scheming. In the eyes of the chubby boy, it made perfect sense for him to contribute his strength while the other two in the team did the thinking. He even quite liked this mode of cooperation.
He rolled up his pants and started weeding in the field with a huff.
Two minutes later, "Ouch..."
"Help, Shikamaru, save me... Am I going to die?"
Choji lay weakly in the mud, his back and thighs covered in fist-sized leeches.
The water in the farmland was about 20 to 30 centimeters deep, and it was filled with leeches.
This was the main reason Uncle Farmer had issued a D-rank mission.
Choji, with his strong defense, could withstand a few kunai stabs or kicks without a scratch, but leeches were different. They sucked blood, leaving the chubby boy pale, weak, and looking like he was on the verge of death.
Shikamaru, who valued his close friend greatly, said to Ino, "You handle the water issue, and I'll take care of Choji?"
The leeches on Choji's body weren't hard to deal with—salt and fire would do the trick—but seeing the dense mass of them, Ino still felt a bit squeamish.
She thought for a moment, "Alright."
Shikamaru went to get salt, while Ino stood by the farmland, carefully examining the water in the field.
Using Water Dragon Bullet was out of the question here. The mission was clearly about weeding, not destroying the farmland! A Water Dragon Bullet would wash everything away.
Standing by the field and sending a Shadow Clone to weed? That wouldn't work either. With so many leeches around, the Shadow Clone would disappear after being sucked a few times.
Asuma watched from afar, clearly not intending to help. This mission had to be solved by them alone.
Ino walked around the farmland and soon found a low-lying area. After some calculations, she used Earth Release to dig a reservoir and a water channel, then used Water Release to divert the water from the farmland, along with all the various bugs, into the reservoir.
By the time Shikamaru had removed all the leeches from Choji's body, Ino had also nearly completed the initial cleanup of the farmland.
With the biggest obstacle of the mission cleared, the remaining physical labor was left to Shikamaru and Choji. As the sun was about to set and the two strong young men still hadn't finished, Ino had no choice but to step in and help.