After the Rain

Chapter 9: Missions

Chapter 9: Missions
Chapter nine – Missions

"Rejection is a part of any man's life. If you can't accept and move past rejection, or at least use it as writing material - you're not a real man." -Jiraya

The only good thing about being Genin during wartime was that none of the fresh graduates was being forced to do D-ranks. Instead Naruto and her classmates had gone through a fair load of them during their last year at the academy.

It had become part of the graduation demands that everyone had to at least fulfill ten D-ranks before being allowed to take the genin exam. It was up to themselves when they wanted to do them, since the missions were done after academy hours.

Naruto, true to her old unstructured habits, had completed them at the very last minute, and it had been a very close call.

One day in class Naruto overheard Mizuki talking about how he had already finished all his D-ranks. The boy had been rather smug about the whole ordeal, and that usually didn't bode well for anyone else. Her suspicion had been confirmed correct.

Because as every slacker in her year was demanding a D-rank at the same time, it had become difficult for the mission desk to find enough work for students before the graduation exam.

It was an ironic truth, seeing as early in the semester they had needed more people then they got, and now it was the opposite. The high demands of panicking graduates were taking every possible slot before the exam and it was hard for them to find enough work for the students to do.

The economy was worsening for every passing month, and by then most people didn't waste money on hiring a ninja to paint their walls or babysit their kid. Everyone was saving money, so the commissioned D-ranks that came in were far less than it had been a year ago.

So when Naruto, Ensui and Iruka met up to stand in line at the mission desk that same afternoon she overheard a couple of students in front of her panic about being given a D-rank that was after graduation. Meaning they only finished nine out of ten, and would therefore be denied doing their exam.

Iruka had looked horrified, Naruto had frozen and Ensui had sighed and looked up at the ceiling with the air of someone who just wanted to get the bad news over with.

Naruto had no plans of being held back half a year though, and as the line moved forward she told the two boys to play along with her. Iruka had started asking what she meant, but Ensui had stepped on his foot to stop him from asking more questions as the two chūnin behind the mission desk came into hearing range.

Naruto started talking in a normal voice, just loud enough for the two men she was targeting to hear, that how if she didn't graduate she might get so bored she started doing pranks to pass the time until she could graduate.

This didn't have the desired effect, and with an unpleasant realization she remembered that no one knew what a prankster she could be. Maybe they envisioned she would drop a spider underneath her sensei desk or equally harmless.

So she changed her tactic slightly instead.

She asked Ensui if he'd heard about the new paint down at the equipment shop. It was a paint that could color stone, and it stuck so well that you would have to scrub for days on end if you wanted to get it off.

Without missing a beat Ensui had answered that no, he hadn't heard of it, but he would check it out with her after they got their missions. And Maybe Iruka wanted to come along too?

Iruka had started answering, the confusion on his face so obvious Ensui had been forced to step on his foot for a second time. Naruto had said that yeah, that would be really good of him. It was just a shame she wasn't sure what to paint yet.