It took roughly only three hours. Before noon arrived, the mission was already completed—though not perfectly.
Inside an extra-large metal cage, nineteen adult cats of various colors had been crammed in. The numbers of males and females were about even. It seemed these intelligent cats were much like humans after all—sure enough, liking to wander around outside was not something limited by gender.
Higashino Makoto and Gekkō Hayate were completely unharmed. Only Uzuki Yūgao had quite a few claw marks scratched across her hands and face. Fortunately, ninja cats were not feral cats—they knew their limits.
Although her strength was inferior to that of her two teammates, it was by no means weak. It could only be said that those little creatures with chakra were truly exhausting to deal with.
Green chakra shimmered across Higashino Makoto's hands. As Uzuki Yūgao was experiencing firsthand the benefits of having a medical ninja on the team, she asked curiously, "Sensei, is catching just nineteen enough? The village won't judge our mission as a failure, will it? I really don't want my very first mission as a ninja to end in failure."
Gekkō Kumomi did not answer her. Instead, he looked at Higashino Makoto. "Makoto, are you sure you searched every place in Konohagakure that has cats?"
"Yes, Sensei, I'm sure. In fact, we finished within two hours. The remaining time was entirely spent confirming whether any pets kept by the residents had been missed."
Gekkō Kumomi nodded. "Then there's no problem. The mission requirement was to capture all members of the ninja cat clan within Konohagakure that are not under contract with ninja. No one can guarantee that all of them would be in Konoha."
"You have to understand—they are ninja cats. They're very fast, and there are other towns and villages around Konoha. The remaining few little ones might have wandered off to other places."
Since the jōnin leading the team had said so, what more could the three of them say? You're the boss—whatever you say goes.
In fact, it was easy enough to understand. The real world isn't a game. Mission targets won't just stay in one place waiting for you to catch them. Ordinary cats are already famously notorious roamers on the streets—let alone this troublesome bunch of ninja cats whose intelligence is no different from that of humans.
...
When Higashino Makoto and Gekkō Hayate each carried one side of the cage to the Mission Office to turn the mission in, the little guys inside all stared hard at the four of them with resentful, annoyed looks.
As if to say this isn't over—when I get out, I'm definitely going to scratch your faces to ribbons.
What a miraculous ninja world.
When a group of intelligent cats looks at you with humanlike eyes, what does it feel like?
Higashino Makoto's take was: it feels so weird—are these guys really not yōkai?
Most importantly, a few of them could even speak human language.
A black cat close to Higashino Makoto kept chattering nonstop: "Damn you humans, meow—unforgivable! You ruined my date, you bastard! I was this close to getting on top of that pretty little cutie—this close! It's all you, all you! I'm so pissed! My love—before it even began, it ended!"
After saying that, it even stuck out its claws, trying to leave a few bloody gashes on the back of Higashino Makoto's hand.
"Shut up, would you. That's love, is it? You're just lusting after her body, you sleazy bastard!"
"I am lusting after her body—what's the problem with that?"
It was the first time Higashino Makoto had seen a cat be this shameless. "I'm saying, you're ninja cats, aren't you? Look at those ordinary cats—aren't they basically like monkeys to us humans? You can still bring yourself to do it?"
"That's not the same. We look no different, our aesthetics are the same, and there's no reproductive isolation. But can you have a baby monkey with a female monkey?"
"Huh? Huh-huh? That makes sense! You motherfucker really are educated."
"Right, right—see? It makes sense, right? Then hurry up and let me out."
"You're overthinking it."
"Bastard!"
"Keep yapping and I'll neuter you. And all of you too. Anyone who doesn't accept it, I'll send you straight to the hospital—surgery fees on me!"
Those words were like a Tailed Beast Ball detonating inside their hearts—instantly scaring every single ninja cat into not making a sound.
Gekkō Hayate, Uzuki Yūgao: Learned it, learned it. From now on, when dealing with ninja cats, use this move—it works like magic.
…
A miraculous world.
Not only are there ninja cats that think like humans, there are also smart dogs, and talking toads, snakes, slugs, lizards, and so on.
Unfortunately, cats and dogs—the animals best suited to be pets—are no longer very willing to be pets once they gain intelligence.
They believe themselves to be equal to humans. Want to fight together? Then sign a contract first.
Ninja dogs mostly come from Konohagakure's Inuzuka Clan. They regard ninja dogs as ninja combat partners. If you dare treat them as pets, those dogs will genuinely run back to their home clan to complain.
And then you can just wait for a group of people and dogs to come after you.
The ninja cat clan is even more outrageous. They are independent and extremely tsundere, all living carefree lives in the empty districts. They ignore everyone, and only the equally tsundere bunch from the Uchiha Clan can tolerate them.
What a pity.
Higashino Makoto shook his head inwardly.
These guys are intelligent, and after training they can even speak, but unfortunately they cannot transform.
Otherwise, one could see the legendary cat-ear girls and dog-ear girls.
A furry enthusiast's wild joy.
Of course, Higashino Makoto himself was a proper ninja. Naturally, he was not some so-called furry enthusiast—don't misunderstand. He was just curious, inexperienced, and wanted to broaden his horizons.
In fact, Higashino Makoto naturally knew where humanoid ninja beasts existed.
They were all in Ryūchi Cave—four of them. Aside from that old woman, the remaining three Snake Princesses were all striking beauties, with very pleasing appearances.
Unfortunately, Higashino Makoto had no interest. Just imagining that, in the middle of some deep interaction, the other party might suddenly reveal her true form made him fear he would never function again.
Walking at the very back, Uzuki Yūgao noticed Higashino Makoto glancing at the ninja cats in the cage from time to time. For some reason, her danger radar suddenly activated. "Makoto-nii, I feel like you're thinking about something bad."
"Huh?" Higashino Makoto froze for a moment, then immediately retorted, "How could that be? What bad thing could I be thinking about?"
"Really? I don't believe you!"
"Of course it's true. I was just thinking that the ninja cats are all quite cute. If they could transform into human form while keeping their ears and tails, wouldn't that be even cuter?"
The father and son of the Gekkō clan exchanged a look, and an image suddenly formed in their minds. It actually seemed rather worth watching. As expected of a genius like Makoto—were even his thoughts that avant-garde?
The male cats did not understand what was going on.
Uzuki Yūgao, and the female cats: Pervert!
...
In the end, the mission was still completed, and the Third Squad's first D-rank mission did not end in failure.
The staff at the mission assignment office said nothing. Perhaps they had already anticipated this situation, or perhaps the requirements from the Cat Fortress were never to capture every single cat in the first place.
After that, the three of them completed three more commissions, finishing their quota for the day.
What Gekkō Kumomi had said was right. All the missions had been deliberately selected by him. Today was meant to test their intelligence gathering and tracking abilities.
Of course, Higashino Makoto's sensory ability was also factored in.
On the second day, all four missions were the same: repairing several small- and medium-sized training grounds within the village, including leveling the ground, cutting and hauling away dead branches, replacing the thick tree stumps used for fist training, and tying on brand-new thick hemp ropes.
The most troublesome part was updating the wooden targets scattered throughout the forest, as well as clearing out some abandoned traps and retrieving steel wire and concealed weapons.
The requirement was that they were not allowed to jump and could only move by walking on the trees. Clearly, this was a test of the squad's chakra control. Fortunately, for the three of them, who had begun training long ago, it posed no real difficulty.
On the third day, once again there were four identical missions: cleaning garbage from four sections of rivers within Konohagakure's territory. Each section was of a fixed length and counted as one D-rank mission.
This was also training chakra control, requiring water walking.
Gekkō Kumomi's mission selection was highly targeted. Or rather, Konohagakure deliberately issued these tasks—capable of training a ninja's basic skills—as D-rank missions. The intent was for genin to complete simple work while also improving themselves, earning some money along the way, and improving the village environment.
Achieving multiple goals at once—simply perfect.
As for why, later on, when a certain someone led Team Seven, he did not guide the three of them in these basic skills, it could only be said that someone got lazy, spending all day buried in his little trashy novels instead of teaching the basics.
Who was slacking off? I'm not saying!
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