The next day.
Swish!
During mid-day, an Anbu came to convey the message that Naruto was summoned to the Hokage's office by Hiruzen.
"Maybe it's about D-rank missions or a team assignment!" Naruto wondered.
Naruto went to the Hokage building. Upon arriving, he slightly opened the door to the office and asked with a forced smile.
"Grandpa Hokage! Did you want to see me?"
Hiruzen, the ever-present smoke accompanying him, observed Naruto's arrival, his expression changing into a smile.
"Come in, Naruto. I need to tell you about your new team."
"Did you already arrange a team for me?!" Naruto asked, surprised.
"Actually, no. You became a Genin just yesterday." Hiruzen shook his head. "Finding a team for you is not an easy task, since all existing squads are currently full."
"Meh, why even call me then?" Naruto was no longer interested.
"Don't be like that! It might take some time, but in the meantime, you can do a few D-rank missions," Hiruzen suggested.
He added, "Genin can do D-rank missions alone, and once you do a certain number of missions, you will be eligible to do C-rank missions."
"And during that time, you'll be able to find me a team with whom I can do C-rank missions, right?" Naruto asked.
"Precisely," Hiruzen answered with a soft tone, "and for D-rank missions, I usually assign them to Genin and their teams."
"You can also choose to assign yourself a mission from the mission counter as well."
——
Later, Naruto went to the mission counter to find out what kinds of missions he could do until Hiruzen found him a team.
"All these D-rank missions are nothing more than manual labour within the village," Naruto sneered.
D-rank missions are the lowest and easiest level of missions assigned to ninja, primarily Genin. These missions only serve to build the Genin's reputation and earn a small income.
It's not that Chunin or higher can't do them, but who would waste their time on this manual labour with such measly pay?
He asked for the task list for D-rank missions and flipped over the list. These missions included: Delivering Packages or Messages, Weeding Gardens or Farms, Assisting with Shop Tasks, and Finding Lost items or pets.
While going through the list, Naruto suddenly remembered something and skimmed slowly over the tasks.
"There it is!" he exclaimed.
* The Cat Lost Mission *
Client: The client is 'Madam Shijimi', the esteemed wife of the Daimyo of the Land of Fire.
Target: The target is her pet cat, Tora. It is a mischievous, fast, and surprisingly elusive cat that has escaped its owner's residence. It often displays aggressive tendencies when cornered, scratching and biting anyone who tries to catch it.
"Haha, what would D-rank missions be without this one!" Naruto chuckled. "Shall I take this mission? Its pay is also the maximum limit for D-rank missions."
D-rank missions usually pay from 5,000 ryo to 20,000 ryo, and this mission also pays the full 20,000 ryo.
That's great. I don't have a team, so no distribution of money. Hell yeah.
"Why am I even getting so excited? My monthly allowance is 10,000 ryo, which is hardly enough, so even if I add it up, it won't actually make me rich," Naruto complained.
The shinobi world is way more expensive than his previous world. Even a few pairs of Shuriken and Kunai cost up to 30,000 ryo. A single Katana or sword starts from 50,000 ryo.
And as the quality increases, the price also increases, like they say: 'With high quality comes high cost.'
"Well, at least it's not bad to take this mission," he pondered.
At least that had a certain chaotic energy to it, a ludicrous struggle against a creature that seemed to possess the cunning and agility of a seasoned Chunin.
But daily training? The endless, monotonous repetition of a skill that, while undoubtedly useful, felt utterly devoid of any excitement.
Without the frantic chase through Konoha's rooftops, the near misses, the panicked flailing of limbs as Tora darted under market stalls, there no feel in being a Ninja.
He remembered snippets from his other life, the early episodes of Naruto filled with the team's collective groan whenever the Hokage announced another Tora retrieval. It was a shared misery, a bonding experience in its own bizarre way.
"I will think about it later; it's not like this mission is going anywhere," Naruto said to himself and walked out of the mission counter.
Even if someone were to complete this mission, that miscellaneous cat would run away again. So, there was no point in worrying about this highest-paid D-rank mission.
——
Naruto made his way back through the village; his next destination wasn't his compact apartment but the Ninja Library Archive.
Now that he was a Genin, a regular ninja and an active shinobi of the Leaf Village, he was allowed to access Konoha's Ninja Library Archive.
The moment he drew near the archive's outer limits, several green-vested ninja appeared around, watching over the entire area.
Suddenly, Naruto's senses screamed that there were far more, invisible Anbu, in the shadows. 'They don't seem like usual Anbu. Are they from Root?!' Naruto wondered.
Though he was not a sensor-type ninja, his senses were increasing naturally day by day. Just the other day, he had been thinking of learning how to use the Mind's Eye of Kagura in future.
He ignored them and walked and just pointed at his headband when some eyes drifted to him as he approached the building built into the side of the Hokage Monument.
He entered the archive, and the door closed behind him. The inside of the building was surprisingly not very huge. It was divided into a few sections.
Unlike the Scroll of Seals, a highly restricted scroll containing forbidden jutsu of the Hidden Leaf Village, the archive had different contents. Those were jutsu deemed too dangerous or powerful for regular shinobi.
However, Ninja Library Archive was located within Hokage Mountain, a different location than the secure room in the Hokage Mansion where the Scroll of Seals was kept.
Specific books or scrolls dedicated solely to teaching advanced techniques like elemental manipulation were highly restricted and not found here.
Here, there were only basic technique and Jutsu scrolls, but they covered a wide range. Not only Ninjutsu scrolls, but also others like Genjutsu, Taijutsu, and Fuinjutsu, among others. But only at basic levels.
'First things first,' he thought.
As he didn't know where anything was in here, he made his way to the front desk where a slim-built Chunin sat. Naruto observed him a little, then shook his head. 'I don't remember him from the anime, so he's obviously canon fodder.'
He noticed Naruto and politely asked, "Hello, can I help you?"
Unlike what Naruto had thought, there was no cold stare or icy tone that this Chunin carried while addressing Naruto.
"Hi," Naruto smiled happily as he greeted him. Just how many people were there in Konoha who genuinely treated him like that?
"I'm looking for some books or scrolls to help me with Fuinjutsu. Preferably something with the very basic jutsu instructions in it."
He stared at him for a moment and nodded. "Come this way." He led him through the stacks. He stopped in front of a truly massive scroll case filled with scrolls. "Here we are." He pointed at one scroll and replied, "This is the scroll you asked for."
"Just to tell you, there aren't many scrolls about elemental nature training, but there are a few useful Jutsu scrolls. It only includes mostly basics, up to few C-rank, you could say."
Naruto nodded, thanked him, and picked out the scroll labelled 'Fuinjutsu Sealing Techniques'. While he was looking at other scrolls in the section, he also found a few others. There was the 'Body Flicker Technique' and some labelled with elemental nature jutsus.
"There's really quite a variety here!" he checked. "With Fuinjutsu, I should pick some of them as well."
With that, he carried the scrolls of Fuinjutsu, Wind Release, and Body Flicker Jutsu and moved towards a large table that could probably seat as many as 70 people, he just take a seat.
He first focused on the Fuinjutsu scroll and read its contents, which, for the most part, involved the memorization of basic fuinjutsu symbols and seals, single-layered and multiple-layered.
It detailed the importance of focus and precision when making seals, how they reacted to chakra, and how they overlapped with one another to create seals.
Training methods included Seal Replication, Chakra Infusion Practice, Surface Application Drills, and Basic Seal Activation and Deactivation.
"Man, why does this feel more like coding? It looks so complicated," Naruto complained but continued to read the instructions.
After that, he focused on the scroll of Body Flicker Jutsu. The scroll used diagrams, illustrations of body posture and chakra flow, and detailed written instructions.
This technique required one to focus their chakra using the tiger hand seal and then expel their chakra from specific chakra points located at the back of the body to accelerate.
It even had instructions about its variations, like Standard Body Flicker, Silent Body Flicker, and even Elemental Body Flicker. And its advanced applications used in fighting, like creating afterimages and sensory disruption.
"Wow! This sounds more like a high-level jutsu, not D-rank level," Naruto thought, surprised upon reading these instructions. "It reminds me of the Shunpō technique from Bleach."
He decided to use them in a practical manner later after practice them afterwards. Last, he focused on the scroll of Wind Release Jutsus.
"Now, let's find out what this one holds!"