As I got out of the office room, I found my whole team looking at me intensely. Daigo was the first one to speak.
"What did the Lord Third want from you?"
"He wanted me to learn from the Kiri-nins about water release. Water is my main affinity element."
"Nothing else? Why would he talk to you specifically?"
"Well...he is my master after all."
"What?" Sayuri exploded, "You are Lord Third's student? And you didn't tell us!"
"Really? I thought I told you guys before." I said as I pretended to be ignorant.
"You're definitely lying right now. I can see it clearly in your face! I thought we were friends."
"We are. It's just that I knew you guys would make a big deal out of it."
Daigo interrupted, "Let's celebrate! We should go for a BBQ!"
I pointed towards Daigo and said, "See. Daigo is already thinking about munching down my monthly allowance."
"Usually, I would fight with Daigo about this. But this time, I'm on his side." Sayuri said with a smug grin. "Let's go, Daigo! Today we are going to empty Rei's pocket."
"Nobody is going to have any party." Reiga declared strictly.
"You guys have got your first B-rank mission, and your first response is to have a party. God, I hate this babysitting gig."
"Sensi, can you please act like a teacher for once in your life?" Sayuri said in a serious tone. "Rei is loaded for sure. Have you seen his sword? It's made of a special kind of metal that can be easily infused with chakra. Only rich people have that stuff. And this is the first chance we've had to milk him dry. I'm not missing this chance."
Before Reiga could say anything, we heard someone lightly speak, "Hey, guys."
We turned around to see one of Itachi's teammates speaking to us. He looked younger than the other one—maybe a talented kid who graduated a year early. But from the way he carried himself, it was obvious he lacked confidence.
His timid personality was reflected in his speech as he spoke.
"Guys, we have been...have been called to meet with the Kiri-nins at the village entrance. Yoru sensei...sent me to call you guys."
His interruption seemed to change the mood of the group. Reiga sensei called us to follow him.
"Let's go. We can't leave our guests waiting."
Sayuri clicked her tongue hearing that, "We are not done with this, Rei. We are getting a treat from you after we come back from the mission."
"Okay, okay. Fine. I promise I'll treat you guys after the mission ends."
"Yeeee. BBQ! BBQ!" Daigo started chanting as we started towards the village entrance.
As we reached the entrance, we found the rest of the members of Itachi's team already present there. Their team leader took the job of introducing their team.
"Hello, team 3. I am Yoru, and these are my precious students, Itachi, Mao, and Renji."
"Thanks, Yoru," Reiga sensei spoke. "I'm Reiga. And these three vermin are Sayuri, Daigo, and Rei."
"Seriously, sensei? Vermin? That's a bit rude." Sayuri voiced her concern.
Sayui has been keeping the team together and managing Reiga's 'uniqueness' for some time. Her common sense might be abysmal, but she had the capabilities to become a good manager.
She is sort of the normal person of our team. Well, other than her 'little brother' obsession. That is creepy as fuck.
Yoru just laughed seeing our interaction. Mao, the slightly older girl, and Itachi were talking about something while Renji just looked at everyone in a fearful gaze. All in all, this was a normal team composition for a Konoha squad.
Good, I don't want to get stuck with a weird team in a high B-rank mission. We got out of the village to meet our partners for this mission. Just as soon as I looked at the team, I recognised one of them.
Even if she was younger than I remembered, she was just as beautiful. She did not wear her usual blue dress but wore a different formal dress that was more of a combat dress than her usual one. Her long hair was the same as I remembered.
Her beauty itself wasn't the extent of her capabilities, as she was a person who had two different elemental Kekkei Genkai abilities. The future fifth Mizukage, Mei Terumi.
She noticed me staring at her and tilting her head slightly; she looked right towards my eyes. Not to be labelled as the creepy guy who stares at others, I quickly stopped staring and started petting Umbra like a normal boy my age.
The leader of the party was a slender man in his late thirties to early forties. His face seemed to scream at us to 'fuck off,' as did the huge frown on her face. He grunted at us after seeing us.
"Why do we even need to take two genin squads from Konoha? We would've done fine if we went there by ourselves."
"We have to do this because Konoha was the one who gave us information." Said the man beside the leader. He was much younger than their leader, and yet from his tone it was clear that he had considerable impact in this group. He continued in his annoyingly soothing voice, which complimented his handsome face.
"Nao, you should not be rude to them. We are at peacetimeafter all. Our Mizukage would be angry if the status between the leaf and mist deteriorated because you hate working with others."
"Shut up, brat." Nao, the leader, barked, "I am still your superior. Don't act so cocky."
"You are right. I'm sorry. You are my superior...for now." A dangerous gleam appeared in his eyes as he spoke.
But that gleam went away just as fast as his attention went towards us.
"Sorry for my friend here. I am Masaki, a chunin from the hidden mist, and this beautiful lady here is Mei, also a chunin."
Reiga went straight to the point and cut through all the bullshit.
"Where's your other teammate?"
Nao was the one to answer, "We'll meet him along with the rest of the cypher division after we reach the border of the Land of Fire. Your Hokage didn't want entry from the Cypher Division inside his territory."
"Okay, understood. Shall we start towards our destination?"
"No. We are going to start our journey from tomorrow morning." Nao declared.
"But that was not the arrangement we had made," Yoru said.
In reply, Nao looked directly towards me and started making his way. He didn't stop until his body was towering over me in a threatening manner.
What the hell is the problem with this guy? Is he actively trying to create conflict? Or was he just an asshole? Either way, I didn't like him.
I thought Reiga was going to stop him, but he conveniently was busy ogling at Mei at this moment. Useless sensei.
I really did not like creating conflict with others. That is why I always keep a smile on my face and strive to be in the background. But Nao was targeting me specifically because of that. A small naive kid who can be scared easily. I questioned why he didn't target Itachi, considering we were both the youngest of the teams. But then I realised that he must've seen the Uchiha family symbol on his clothes.
Everyone worth a damn knew about the Uchiha clan, and they also knew that messing with them was not a good idea. On the other hand, I was just a young boy with a wolf.
Pretty unremarkable.
I sighed inside my mind as I heard Nao insulting me and Konoha at the same time.
"You've let small insects like this in a B-rank mission. Has Konoha fallen to such a low status now that you need to recruit kids like these? How the mighty have fallen!"
From the corner of my eyes I saw that Masaki was going to stop his teammate before it got out of control. But it was too late.
It might be petty of me, but I just straight up hated this guy. He is a bully and an asshole. Two types of people that enjoy harassing the weak. Unfortunately for him, I am not weak. And my companion really hated if someone insulted me,
"You are a really annoying person. You know that, Nao?" I spoke, cutting through his rant.
Nao's veins popped up hearing me address him directly by his name. He leaned towards me to properly catch a look at me with his bloodshot eyes.
"What did you say just now, brat!"
"I said you are annoying." My eyes met his as I made my killing intent known. "Also, you should really watch your neck. You never know when it might get bitten off."
"What are you going on about..." Before Nao could finish his sentence, he felt the jagged edges of sharp teeth on his neck.
His eyes went wide open as he realised that a wolf was right behind him with his maw open, with his neck inches away from being skewered.
Nao looked beside me towards the illusion of Umbra and saw it go away. This time, his life literally was at stake.
It wasn't even me who instructed Umbra to attack. Rather, it was by his own volition that he created the illusion of his body and performed the sneak attack on Nao. Even if I may be lenient to insults about me, Umbra wasn't so forgiving. I just went along with it to get the most out of it.
All of us stood still for a second, and then all hell broke loose.