In Konoha, This Naruto Has Decided To Take It Easy

Outside Amegakure…

Heavy rain poured down, accompanied by rolling thunder.

About a few dozen people wearing raincoats scattered in the shrubbery a few kilometers outside Amegakure. Their forehead protectors showed the symbols from various small, obscure Shinobi Villages.

"That's Amegakure ahead. Are we really going in?" A young, heavily armored man asked nervously, his face filled with fear.

"Even if the commission is high, isn't this a bit too risky?" Another young man with a clean, pale face hesitated as well, "This is just a reconnaissance mission."

"Does it matter? We're already here! How can we back out now?" A burly male Shinobi growled, reprimanding them sternly.

"We've accepted the mission. If we back out halfway, what will the client think of us?"

A loud rumble of thunder cracked overhead as the rain intensified, and a mist began to form in the surrounding area.

While burly Shinobi at the front continued his impassioned speech, someone raised his head below, revealing the face of a freckled girl under the raincoat.

She squinted at the rain curtain, then looked at the burly Shinobi who was still rallying the group, and a look of contempt appeared on her face.

"Boring."

After saying that, she lowered her head and looked around, then found a familiar figure beside her. She breathed a sigh of relief and reached out to tap that person on the shoulder.

Startled by the cold rainwater, she quickly withdrew her hand.

"Oto." She called out softly. (T/N: Oto means Sound, like Otogakure.)

The person under the raincoat beside her raised their head, revealing a beautiful young girl's face, but her eyes were a little indifferent. Looking back at the freckled girl, Oto asked, "What is it?"

Oto is Tayuya's codename, and within this mid-tier mercenary group, she was considered a promising newcomer. The freckled girl was one of the few people she was on friendly terms with.

But after only six months of interaction, Tayuya couldn't bring herself to trust the freckled girl any more than before. She hadn't even chosen to take on this mission willingly.

"I'll tell you a secret, Oto." Red Sparrow quietly pulled Tayuya over and said in a low voice in the rain, "In this mission… someone wants us dead."

"Where did you hear that?" Tayuya asked lightly, her face showing no sign of panic or even any emotional reaction. When performing a mission outside, one cannot just believe everything they hear.

"Don't worry about it. I have my own intelligence channels. It's a secret." Red Sparrow giggled, putting a finger to her lips playfully.

"Oh." Tayuya's response was cold and indifferent.

"Oto, aren't you going to ask more?" Red Sparrow complained, "You're making it impossible for me to continue talking. This is so embarrassing!"

"You seem to be talking just fine." Tayuya said with a nonchalant look on her face.

Originally, she had been nothing more than an orphan, wandering the battlefield until Orochimaru picked her up. Even though Orochimaru used them as experimental subjects, she never had a problem with it.

In her heart, Orochimaru has always been someone she owed a debt of gratitude. The lives of war orphans are worthless, and anyone can trample on them. And if these people were in a bad mood, they could crush the war orphans completely.

In the end, no one would care, and they'd die with no one to mourn them.

Orochimaru gave her the power to protect herself and a place to belong. Even until the moment Orochimaru abandoned her, she still leaned towards him. However, because of a certain someone, her one mistake led to a cascade of missteps.

She was never afraid of death, but she didn't know what happened at that time, she was obsessed with getting that money, craving it in a way she never had before.

Later, she realized money wasn't all that important, but by then, that certain someone had vanished without a trace. Out of boredom, she started working for bounty exchange.

Later, for some unknown reason, the bounty exchange was shut down.

It was during that time that Tayuya drifted between several grey-market organizations, most of whose members were Rogue Shinobi. They referred to each other by codenames.

For example, Tayuya's codename is Oto, and the freckled girl's codename was Red Sparrow.

This was already the third organization she had joined. The first two had scattered after mission failures, with the organizations dissolving like flocks of birds.

When failure rates get too high, these ragtag groups can no longer secure commissions. Without commissions, there is no income, and with no wages to pay, the leaders ran off with the money. Naturally, the organizations fell apart.

There was no labor arbitration for Rogue Shinobi groups, otherwise Tayuya would have to kill those two bastards who owed her wages! It is only natural that debts should be paid with blood.

For Tayuya now, freelancing in these Rogue Shinobi groups had become a routine. She wasn't short on money, but she still felt an instinctive urge to make more.

After three years of doing odd jobs, her heart had grown as cold as the blade in her hand.

"You sound so cold when you speak, Oto. Boo-hoo!!!" Red Sparrow covered her face and peeked at her through the wide gaps between her ten fingers to see Tayuya's reaction.

"If you have something to say, just say it quickly." Tayuya glanced at her and said in a cold tone.

"Oh, Amegakure is extremely dangerous. If we go in, we might not make it out alive." Red Sparrow stretched out a finger and whispered, "Let's slip away now."

"No." Tayuya responded logically, "I don't believe you."

"Uh…" Red Sparrow was genuinely embarrassed now, so she simply turned her head and stopped talking.

Tayuya didn't feel that was out of line. She just calmly looked at the heavy rain in front of her, silently thinking about what the purpose of this mission was.

Unlike previous times, this mission had been conscripted rather than volunteered for. Tayuya had been chosen because she was one of the more capable newcomers.

Even though she didn't use the power of the Cursed Seal in front of others, she was still much stronger than the average Chunin. In her Second-Stage Cursed Seal, she was roughly at the Jonin level.

'Heading to Amegakure is a death sentence.' She thought, casting a sidelong glance at Red Sparrow, and frowned slightly.

The rain continued to pour down, turning the world into a white blur.

Outside Amegakure, two tall figures in rain cloaks were silently lying in wait. With a swift motion, Jiraiya grabbed a hostage and pinned them face-first into a puddle.

"Are you a Shinobi from Amegakure?"

"Let go of me! Damn it!" The girl gritted her teeth, half of her face was pressed into the muddy water as her body struggled fiercely.

But no matter how much she struggled, she realized with despair that she couldn't escape this old man's grip. It felt like an iron vice was slowly squeezing her neck, suffocating her bit by bit.

"I! Ugh!" Just as she opened her mouth to shout, muddy water flooded in.

Soybean-sized raindrops continued to pound her head and face. The cold feeling and the pain from her body made her mental defenses crumble bit by bit.

'I haven't completed the S-Rank mission assigned by Tenshi-sama, and now I'm going to lose my life too. I really don't live up to Tenshi-sama's expectations.' (T/N: Tenshi means Angel.)

As Jiraiya held her by the tongue, Naruto squatted down to get a closer look at the girl. Suddenly, he chuckled and said, "Oh, it's an acquaintance."

"What do you mean acquaintance?" Jiraiya loosened his grip slightly, then looked up at Naruto in surprise, "You know her?"

"I know her, but she doesn't know me. If I remember right, her name should be Ajisai."