The time for Team 6's first C rank mission had finally arrived.
"Congratulations to the two of you! We'll be shifting to C rank missions from now, with your first one starting tomorrow!" Inori exclaimed, sending a smile Shinka and Mei's way.
The latter was visibly happy and while the former was as hard to read as ever, after spending a whole month together with her every day, one could tell she was relieved to be free of the minor thankless tasks that D rank missions represented.
"As for the little anomaly . . . I would guess this news does not matter much to you. Or are you worried that you'll not be able to maintain a rhythm worthy of the title D rank Demon that you were graced with." The blonde jonin sarcastically spoke.
The white haired boy that was the target for the words though, simply let them enter one ear and exit out the other, making his sensei grit her teeth.
When Inori received the task of "guiding" the boy and making sure nobody dangerous influenced him from the Hokage and a month ago, the blonde was filled with ideas and tactics.
Using her beauty combined with a warm approachable aura to position herself as a dependable, kind and attractive big sister with a bit of a mischievous side but after a month of dealing with Shiki in the flesh, all those plans were firmly tossed in the trash.
'This annoying little goblin? Be influenced by someone? Would be manipulators would die of anger induced heart attacks.' Inori internally complained.
Using the copious amounts of time she spent with the boy during sensory training, the blonde jonin had asked subtle guiding questions multiple times, well spread out to not trigger any alarms and with no direct probing yet, subtle or otherwise.
The goal was to build up a profile but after a while of compiling answers, the results added up to what she read as "Nice try! Better luck next time though!".
Realizing stealth was useless and that Shiki was already on guard against her and would not be letting it down anytime soon, Inori quickly switched tactics.
This time, she intended to corner the boy and use her authority as his jonin sensei to get him to spill some of his less critical secrets, there were various things shinobi were not supposed to hide before their superiors after all.
A lot of cat and mouse shenanigans later, she had finally managed to latch on to a couple of inconsistencies in Shiki's D rank mission schedule.
Through said inconsistencies, Inori had discovered the boy in a meditative position multiple times and though she could not tell how, she knew the state was unordinary and likely connected to Shiki's strange habits and schedule.
But it was at the time she confronted him that she finally understood what kind of person Shiki was when it came to these games of influence and manipulation . . .
*
"So mind telling YOUR SENSEI what it is you were doing just now?" Inori questioned the boy with special emphasis on the status she was using to do so.
Having his meditative activities found out, Shiki was not worried in the slightest, it was only a matter of time before the observant blonde caught wind of them in his mind after all.
'But while Inori-sensei can tell something is strange, you can't see through what exactly I'm doing since Enlightened Mind's Eye draws from the higher power of my trait, you can't even tell I'm employing a sensory jutsu despite it being your specialty.' The boy thought to himself.
Inori couldn't be blamed though, that jutsu was as non-standard as it got and seemed to work completely separate from Shiki's own sensory prowess, only his spiritual power affected the range but spiritual power was too general a thing to be a clue.
While such thoughts were swimming around in his head, Shiki calmly replied in the most infuriatingly, childishly pure and innocent tone . . .
"Whatever do you mean sensei?"
The blonde jonin was an old hand at this game however, so her composure was not shaken in the slightest despite the fact that squeezing Shiki by the throat and shaking him around was feeling more and more tempting over the last few days.
'I've finally caught him out on something, I'm not gonna let go that easily.' Inori thought.
"You know what I mean now spill!" She declared.
"Explaining everything is not required but enough to dispel any concerns that might affect team missions is necessary as we'll be going on C rank missions that will no doubt involve combat."
The white haired boy knew that doing this type of meditation that he could not extricate himself of that quickly was a no go during missions and he also knew that Inori was posing a fair concern since she realized he could not easily enter and leave the state he had been in.
This was all despite having not a single clue about what exactly he was doing.
But so what?
'If I obstinately refuse to acknowledge anything, what can sensei even do?' Shiki thought.
And so, with this kind of attitude in mind, he just turned his head to the side in a clear show of zero acknowledgement towards his sensei's words.
Immediately realizing this, Inori was fuming.
'The little goblin went defiant!' She internally complained.
The worst part was that due to Shiki's age, this kind of attitude was an easy solution to get out of her questioning scott free.
If he was older, that kind of attitude would be a point of heavy criticism that would give her, his opposition in this matter, an advantage but since he was just a toddler, no matter how precocious he was, it was considered understandable behaviour.
In such a case, Inori could take this up with the boy's guardian herself or by using the Hokage as an intermediary but if she tried, not only would there would be no results since Mito would not force anything out of Shiki but they also risked offending the Uzumaki matriarch.
After all, their intentions of extracting the little boy's secrets would be glaringly obvious.
And so, checkmated by such a childish tactic, utterly shameless for someone as mentally mature as she knew Shiki to be, Inori could only resentfully let things go.
*
Back to the present however, all teasing aside, Inori honestly revealed the details of Team 6's first C rank mission.
"The job is exceedingly simple. There is a mountainous forest area in the Land of Fire that periodically becomes a hideout for bandit groups that have nowhere else to go." The blonde jonin started.
"Surrounding villages pool their money to make extermination requests to Konoha when that happens and our village uses these relatively weaker bandits that have been kicked out of more advantageous lands to train our rookie genin." She explained.
"Why are weaker bandits forced into that area? If they can pay for shinobi regularly, it should be a prime area for raiding even if it can only be used once or twice before they have to move on." Mei inquired.
Inori smiled at the pertinent question.
"Because it is common knowledge that bandits in that area are used by Konoha to blood new genin so no group would willingly gather there." The jonin replied.
"Are the villages okay with that?" Mei questioned with a frown.
'Do they have any other choice?' Shinka thought to herself but in line with her personality, did not interject.
Inori's thoughts were more analytical.
'How very Uchiha of her. They may be a proud clan to the point of arrogance but they are very dutiful and fair towards civilians in their charge which means the entire Land of Fire in current times.' She appreciatively evaluated.
Shiki on the other hand, straightforwardly interjected.
"They really have nothing to complain about."
+++++
Hey, Author here!
Just a reminder that you can read up to a FULL MONTH ahead of this site on pa-treon.
I'm trying to become a full time Author now and I'm not going to be starting any new novels just so I can make sure this one is properly completed.
Find those sweet advanced chapters on pa-treon.com/lusoba without the -