The trio ran a few errands and had lunch before returning in the afternoon to smoothly submit their mission.
Since all the mission givers were just decoys set up by Satori Hyūga, there was naturally no hassle—so they immediately handed over the remaining rewards.
"You guys finished a mission already?"
When Jiraiya remembered he was supposed to be mentoring his three students, he found them sitting off to the side, lazily catching a breeze and enjoying the view.
"Professor Jiraiya, we've actually completed ten missions," Minato Namikaze politely replied with a smile.
Jiraiya: ????
He stared in disbelief at the mission completion scroll Minato held out, his eyes widening as he scanned it from top to bottom.
"Ten missions? Did completing missions really become this easy nowadays?"
It wasn't that he didn't believe—he simply understood how difficult it should be.
Even if they were just the lowest-tier D-ranked missions, even using Shadow Clones, he himself could barely complete six or seven in a single day.
"Hey, why do these missions seem so strange?"
Looking at the writing on the mission scrolls, he rubbed his eyes and looked again.
Each character was familiar, but together they made absolutely no sense.
These missions appeared extremely odd—each had various odd restrictions, but somehow perfectly matched these three younglings' exact abilities.
With a suspicious expression, he lifted his gaze and studied Minato first.
Minato clearly seemed like an honest kid; he wouldn't pull something like this.
Then he looked at Kushina and shook his head again.
Kushina was too straightforward to be sneaky.
When his eyes landed on Satori Hyūga, however, realization hit him—he must have been the one behind it.
"Satori Hyūga! These missions—you're behind this, aren't you?" Jiraiya approached the table, placing both hands on it and leaning down, glaring menacingly at Satori.
Except the effect wasn't particularly threatening—in fact, it was almost comical.
Unfazed, Satori met his gaze evenly. "What do you mean I'm behind this? Someone posted missions that happened to suit our squad perfectly."
"Not to mention, those missions don't violate any of the official mission assignment rules either."
"We simply followed standard procedures to accept them. You can even check the rules posted in the Mission Hall if you're unsure."
On one side wall of the Mission Hall displayed twelve clearly written regulations regarding mission commissions and acceptance.
Jiraiya stiffened, frustrated, he scratched his head, wanting to argue further.
Of course, he'd read the mission rules before—he knew this annoying brat hadn't technically broken any rules.
But still, wasn't this exactly what people meant by exploiting loopholes in the system?
"Kid, doing things this way won't help you grow stronger."
"We all started from D-ranked missions and worked our way up—you shouldn't cheat like this."
Satori glanced to the side, speaking slowly, "Professor Jiraiya, I just saw an S-ranked mission—a wealthy noblewoman looking for a strong, handsome ninja to protect her."
"I think this mission suits you quite well. Why don't you try taking it?"
At hearing that, Jiraiya's eyes lit up right away.
He suddenly shot up, one hand on his hip, the other flipping his hair back, and rushed toward the mission location.
Could there really be such an amazing chance? Isn't this exactly why *Lord Jiraiya* lives the way he does?
But not long after, he stormed back in anger, glaring at Satori Hyūga.
"Curse you, Hyūga brat! You outsmarted me!"
Satori laughed heartily. "Just look at you! Even you couldn't resist the lure of rewards—how do you expect us to hold back then?"
"We're just fresh out of the Ninja Academy."
Jiraiya's face reddened as he sputtered out a defense. "You don't understand. I just wanted to show that rich lady what a real ninja is like."
"Whatever, whatever. I won't bring up your past missions anymore, but if you take more missions later, don't try sneaking around loopholes again."
Waving his hand dismissively, Jiraiya dropped the matter.
After Jiraiya had gone, Kushina frustratingly scratched her head. "Looks like our plan to farm missions won't work anymore. We'll have to settle for those boring, low-level tasks."
Minato consoled her gently. "That's alright. We've already finished ten D-ranked missions. Before long, we'll gather enough experience points to take on a C-ranked mission."
The ninja world's mission system bore some resemblance to the games from his past life.
As long as you completed enough missions and your evaluation level was high enough, you could qualify for higher-tier assignments.
Genin were generally allowed to take both D-ranked and C-ranked missions. Therefore, with some hard work, the trio could soon give C-ranked missions a shot.
C-ranked missions weren't perfect, but at least they didn't include grunt work like farming or unclogging toilets.
Standing up, Satori looked at Kushina and Minato, his eyes twinkling mischievously. "Don't worry, all it takes is a bit of thinking outside the box. There are always more loopholes to exploit."
"I've already figured out another way to complete missions. Let's give it a try."
With that, he took the lead and strode over to the mission board, picking out several pet-finding missions involving cats and dogs.
Kushina and Minato exchanged glances before hurrying after him, curious about Satori's new idea.
"Satori, tracking down these missing pets will take a lot of time, and there's no guarantee we'll even find them—let alone find the correct ones," Minato voiced his concerns.
"These missions are all tough and barely worth the effort. Are we really going to attempt these?"
A sly smile spread across Satori's face. "Leave it to me—just follow my lead."
Under his guidance, they arrived together at Konoha's garbage dump.
This place was overflowing with garbage, making it a natural hangout for strays.
Turning to Minato and Kushina, Satori said, "Go catch all the strays here and bring them to me."
Though confused about his intentions, Minato and Kushina obeyed anyway.
Before long, large numbers of stray cats and dogs had been caught and locked inside makeshift cages.
Holding a mission scroll in one hand, Satori peered through the bars, scrutinizing each animal's appearance and size.
"Satori… you're actually going to try identifying the runaway pets like this?" Minato asked, uncertain.
He thought this method actually sounded pretty good — maybe flooding the field with options could work, like a blind cat stumbling upon a dead mouse.
Satori Hyūga replied firmly while shaking his head, "How could that be? I'm just picking out animals that look somewhat similar."
After comparing several animals, he found one that closely resembled the creature described in the mission scroll and pulled it out of its cage.
Then, he took out one bottle after another of dye, placing them in front of stray cats and dogs.
"This cat matches perfectly except for the white spot on its head," Satori said. "But no worries, I can fix that by coloring it myself." As he spoke, he mixed the paint and applied it onto the stray cat's forehead.
Before long, the perfect match to the mission scroll's description stood right there.
This scene blew Kushina's and Minato Namikaze's minds completely.
"Wait, is this even allowed?" Minato Namikaze hesitated.
"What's there to worry about?" Satori replied. "We've got the exact cat described in the mission scroll. Whether it's real or fake — that's the owner's problem to sort out."
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