Commission

Chapter update is here.

Find a quiet spot, turn the page, and let’s see what this story has been hiding 🌙

✦

Kusagakure, mission center.

A middle-aged woman smiled warmly and asked, "What kind of commission can we help you with?"

Naoki answered politely, "I want to find someone, but I do not know where she is. I would like to commission your village's shinobi to help me locate her."

"A missing-person search? No problem. Please fill out the information here."

After taking the form, Naoki quickly glanced over it.

The form only required information about the person Naoki wanted to find, as well as the amount he was offering for the commission. It did not require Naoki to fill in any information about himself.

Seeing that, Naoki nodded inwardly.

Kusagakure was not large. If it wanted to compete with other shinobi villages for commissioned missions, it had to loosen its conditions. That was one of the important reasons Naoki had chosen Kusagakure.

After filling in everything he knew about the descendants of the Queen of Roran's bloodline, Naoki thought for a moment, then wrote one million ryo in the commission amount field.

The middle-aged woman at the mission center looked at the form Naoki handed back and was startled. "One million ryo? That is the payment for an A-rank mission. Will this commission involve encounters with other shinobi?"

Naoki smiled. "The person I am looking for is likely inside the Land of Wind. To be safe, I hope your village will assign skilled shinobi to accept my commission."

Seeing a large job, the woman's face brightened. "Do not worry. Kusagakure is the strongest village outside the Five Great Shinobi Villages. We have plenty of strong fighters here. We will assign skilled shinobi to the job."

Naoki smiled faintly.

Among the smaller shinobi villages, Kusagakure was not weak, but it was definitely not worthy of being called the strongest village outside the Five Great Shinobi Villages.

In Naoki's opinion, only Amegakure deserved that title. If Amegakure's geography had not been so poor, caught between Konoha, Sunagakure, and Iwagakure, it might have risen to become the sixth great shinobi village during Hanzo's era.

A few hours later, four Kusagakure shinobi appeared before Naoki.

One of them looked Naoki up and down, then said, "My name is Ryuran. I am a jonin of Kusagakure. My team and I will be responsible for your commission this time."

Naoki smiled. "You may call me Mr. Ki. I will be relying on you for this commission."

Naoki was fairly satisfied with the four Kusagakure shinobi in front of him.

The leader, a Kusagakure jonin named Ryuran, did not look very old, but the chakra reaction inside his body was very strong. Even among jonin, he would count as fairly impressive.

The other three Kusagakure shinobi were all at chunin level, and none looked mediocre.

After they left Kusagakure, one Kusagakure chunin said to Naoki, "Do not worry. Lord Ryuran is one of the top experts in our village. A simple missing-person search like this will be easy."

Naoki smiled. "Being able to hire all of you seems to be my good fortune."

Another Kusagakure chunin laughed. "I hope this does not frighten you, but Lord Ryuran has a bounty of ten million ryo on his head. Even if we really encounter Sunagakure shinobi on this mission, you will not be in any danger."

Hearing this, Naoki took another careful look at Ryuran at the front of the group. He had not expected this Kusagakure jonin to carry a bounty as well, and a fairly large one at that.

In truth, coming to Kusagakure to commission this mission was something Naoki had done because he had little choice.

After the ancient city of Roran was abandoned, the people of Roran had begun living as nomads who followed oases and pasture. They had no fixed home. With only Naoki acting alone, finding them within a mere month and a half would be far too difficult.

That was why Naoki had thought of commissioning a shinobi village.

Sunagakure and Konoha were out of the question. Naoki eliminated them first. The remaining Great Shinobi Villages - Iwagakure, Kumogakure, and Kirigakure - were also ruled out, either because they were hostile or because they were too far away.

Among the villages near the Land of Wind, only Amegakure and Kusagakure remained.

Amegakure was currently Akatsuki's base, an outright danger zone. Naoki had no desire to invite trouble. So after disguising himself and taking a slight detour, he arrived at Kusagakure in the Land of Grass.

By hiring Kusagakure, he could obtain support from Kusagakure's intelligence network. With the information-gathering power of a shinobi village, finding the descendants of the Queen of Roran's bloodline would be much easier.

The Land of Water.

Sasori sat on a rock, panting as he took out a water flask.

After drinking some water, he stood and looked over the battlefield before him. A faint smile crossed his face.

At that moment, countless pale bone spears had burst up from the ground in front of him. Like a bamboo forest, they filled the area. From a distance, they resembled a white forest of bone.

At the very center of the bone forest lay a corpse.

Sharp bone spikes had grown all over the corpse as well, making it look like a monster.

Sasori slowly walked to the corpse, unfurled a scroll, and carefully sealed the body inside.

At that moment, another figure appeared.

Sasori turned his head. "Orochimaru, you are late."

Orochimaru gave a sinister smile. "The head of the Kaguya Clan. It seems he was not much after all."

The state of the battlefield left Orochimaru mildly surprised. He had truly not expected Sasori to handle the fairly powerful head of the Kaguya Clan so easily on his own.

Sasori put the scroll away without looking at him. "Those Kaguya Clan fools are all madmen. If he had not been poisoned, taking him down would not have been so easy."

Orochimaru studied the bone spears protruding from the ground with interest and smiled. "You seem to have collected quite a few high-quality puppet materials from Kirigakure's unrest."

Sasori glanced at Orochimaru. "The same goes for you. You took the child from the dungeon, did you not?"

"I thought I had fooled you." Orochimaru smiled without the slightest concern, then said, "It is time to leave. Kirigakure's unrest seems to be settling down."

Sasori shook his head. "Let us stay a few more days. Opportunities to hunt kekkei genkai shinobi like this do not come often."

Orochimaru thought for a moment, then nodded. "Very well. We will stay here a few more days."

Having already found a surviving child of the Kaguya Clan, Orochimaru had little interest in remaining in the Land of Water. But he and Sasori were partners. Since Sasori insisted on staying, he could only remain in the Land of Water a while longer.

And the reason Sasori insisted on staying was to make up for the loss of his Third Kazekage Human Puppet. If he had not lost that puppet, he would not have been interested in lingering in the Land of Water either.

✦
✦
✦

Ready for more?

The next chapters are already waiting on my Patreon, along with early access, previews, and extra story updates 🗝️

https://www.patreon.com/cw/TheBacklotFanfiction