Ringo glared at the approaching forms of her sensei and his teammate.

They still looked like white and black smudge in the distance to her but she recognized they were happily holding hands as they leisurely walked towards the gate. She wanted to strangle them! ​​

Six hours. That’s how long it took them to finally decide to show up!

By the end, she was sure she knew every location of every hidden ANBU as she heard them laughing at her! She could only bitterly grimace. Rei was her superior first and sensei second. It was time to stand up and greet him while holding back her bitter tears! Sniff.

Rei held Konan’s hand and could feel the soothing sensation of her gentle water chakra coursing through his entire body through his hand, making him feel as if it was devotedly massaged. He returned the favor by sending his water chakra into her body, making her pleasantly shiver and chew on her lower lip. As if she could win in a fight of suiton chakra with him, he snorted. It was so tempting to just spin her and kiss those seductive quivering crimson lips as her amber orbs were narrowed in delight, showing her light-purple eyeshadow. Unfortunately, Ringo was already served double Kakashi for today. It was time to get going.

“Hello, baka-deshi Ringo.” Rei joked. At first, he did it to satisfy his pettiness. Wanted to feel like those whimsical wuxia masters who were sending their disciples on brainless adventures to satisfy their pride. But after a while, he stopped, and now it was just a recurring joke.

“Master!” Ringo bowed mockingly, making Rei chuckle and Konan roll her eyes at the girl.

“Well, the mission is simple enough. We are to assassinate a noble in the Land of Marsh.”

Ringo looked bewildered at her first mission being something only a jonin would do.

“Don’t worry. The mission is more for us than you.” Konan joined. “You are here to observe and learn and…” She stopped.

“And to kill my first human in the field.” Ringo nodded.

“Geez, they really teach them well in the academy, don’t they?” Rei muttered.

Both Konan and him knew the academy curriculum and this was a tradition of sorts. They kill each other during the genin exam… reducing the class to half. But that’s only for civilian-born. The clans would never stand it. The clan children usually only show that they are ready to be shinobi and be forced to kill a bound prisoner to blood themselves.

Hence, the first mission served to ‘properly’ have a first-kill in the field. Against someone who fights back. It was Rei’s responsibility to provide such a person. Either on the way to, during, or the way from the mission. Ringo WILL kill someone and they won’t return until she does. If she won’t be able to kill a man in a month, she will be deemed useless and… Hence, the high mortality rate of the Kiri genin. But then again, Kiri has the best assassins and in a war, they clearly keep up even with their lesser, more trigger happy, military force and stay deeply rooted in the big five.

It is said the losses were almost the same on both Kumo and Kiri during the second war. But that is only statistically. Both lost around fifteen percent of their force while another twenty were out of commission due to injuries. But Kiri had a lot less shinobi than Kumo therefore Kumo lost more. Pre-canon Kiri was strong power, indeed.

Nevertheless, Rei still didn’t see a reason to cull Kiri’s young genin due to a weak stomach. They were barely ten… Ah, blast it.

“Sigh. Idiotic traditions.” Rei shook his head. He could always just report she indeed did kill someone and be done with it. He really didn’t understand the hype.

“Let’s go.”

They left the village. It took them a few hours but when they were sufficiently distanced and checked that nobody followed them, Konan made her paper platform.

“Come on, Ringo.” Rei gestured to her to get on it.

Ringo was staring in confusion at it. What could it do? She indeed stepped on it and… she shrieked and shrieked some more when she was yanked at high speed towards their destination.

Twenty minutes passed and Ringo was finally calm, observing the landscape from above as they flew around the clouds. She suddenly saw a glimmering blue mass of water and sandy beaches. They reached the sea. It was mesmerizing for her to watch as the waves crashed into other waves. This tranquil sight… she will never forget.

…

Ringo, Rei, and Konan stood on a paper platform, marshes all around them. Before them, a majestic Japanese castle stood proudly on the only hill, a solid mass of earth, around. It was the depiction of the unconquerable. The marshes would stop any sizable army and the castle was positioned well. It would take a lot of effort for an army to breach it. But…

“Ringo, I want you to tell me, what would you do first in this kind of situation.” Rei squatted near the girl, quizzing her.

“Uh… I… infiltrate?” Ringo tilted her head. She knew she was not the smartest tool in the shed but… wasn’t that obvious?

“How?” Rei smiled while Konan giggled and Ringo felt her answer was not what he wanted to hear.

“Ah… I need to kill the Lord, yeah?” Seeing Rei nod, Ringo continued sure of herself. “I would pretend to be a courtesan, then! A henge into a beauty, perhaps?”

Rei chuckled. A textbook answer, alright.

Ringo heard his soft amused chuckle and beamed, thinking she was right! Until… her face impacted the softened paper of the platform as Rei swatted the back of her head.

“Wrong baka-deshi! What if the guards won’t leave the room and you will have to have sex with him to keep your cover? Your henge would dissolve and the Lord would find himself sticking into a ten years old girl, or in the case of another kunoichi, a different person than he paid for. He will either be amused and continue… Then you just might survive it as he might not call his shinobi guards to deal with you as he will fuck you, humiliate you, and then when you are sufficiently broken, throw you to his guards.” Rei sighed in exasperation and continued.

“Leave honey trap missions to kunoichi who chose that kind of life and are trained for it. You wanna be a combatant, not honey trap, baka-deshi. Back to the situation, OR… he will NOT be amused since he is not a pedophile. Most nobles that we are tasked to assassinate are tyrants. Not all, but most. You do not want to be caught by these people. That’s why every honey trap kunoichi can request an implant of a cyanide capsule into her mouth. It is much better death than what she would have to go through otherwise. Anyway, these requests are ONLY made by the Daimyos themselves as if a civilian or other noble could request a Hidden Village to assassinate a noble, the entire system would eventually collapse by Daimyos being assassinated left and right. Any idiot who tries is promptly executed. Anyway, IF the target was not amused, you would be thrown to guards where you would be their toy for a day before your throat is slit. Game over. Try again.” He gestured with his hand in ‘come on’ motion.

Ringo heard the impassive voice of her sensei as he lectured her while pouting as she sat up.

“Then what!” She petulantly crossed her arms, looking to the side. “I dunno. Charge and kill?” She muttered, making Rei laugh.

“Pin-pon. Ringo-chan~. Correct.”

Ringo looked at him with wide eyes. Did her sensei just tell her they were going to massacre the entire castle!?

“Remember this Ringo. Every client is asked… specifications when he submits the mission. There is ALWAYS a clause about the preferred approach. Force? They send an assault team, depending on the location, enemy, and the type of the mission. Assassination? They send an assassin or someone from the Seduction Corps depending on time, the personality of the target, and so on. It is NOT an easy process to pick who to send. The mission passes various evaluations before it is delivered to the shinobi. That’s why the village takes twenty percent off your paycheck. They check if it is all legit. At least, for missions above B-rank such as this.” Rei explained.

Konan continued before Ringo could do more than a nod.

“And even with all the checking, the missions are dangerous. If you suspect that something will go wrong then it most likely WILL go wrong. That’s why you always ask about the desired approach by the client. When you can kill everything with a Jutsu, you DO NOT go dancing inside in a weak henge, possibly getting fucked. We are an assault team so assault is what we do.”

Rei took the reins and added his input.

“Some teams only take missions they can steamroll through, like us. If the approach is not to your tastes, you are free to refuse. Only S-rank missions are not rejectable.”

“But… nobody asked me if I accept this mission?” Ringo muttered in confusion.

“Ah, they only ask the leader of the team. Even jonin-only teams have one leader who speaks for the entire team in these matters. In this case, it is me, baka-deshi.” He cooly eye-smiled at Ringo.

Konan nodded and continued.

“And even then, refusing is not a hard matter. The village has at least five potential teams who could be sent prepared. If they ask you to go, that means somebody refused or you were first in the line. You are in no way special, you see. And if somebody requests specifically YOU for a mission, you are ALWAYS told beforehand. It prevents a lot of backstabbing since more often than not when somebody requests you and you do not know that person personally, it is a trap.”

Ringo nodded and silently waited for instructions. She understood Rei-sensei didn’t want a battle plan for her but only wanted to make her say something wrong so he could explain. He always did it. Ask questions. Swat her for the wrong answer. And then explain. The lesson stuck. That Ringo could not refute. Even if it hurt her pride!

“Well, Ringo. I choose this mission exactly because it is an entire castle. I wanted to show you what a proper ninjutsu technique could do.”

Ringo started to get excited when Rei-sensei said that! His raiton techniques were amazing! And he was going to show her a large-scale technique!? She bounced up and down with sparkling eyes!

“Let’s go.” Rei chuckled.