Inside the meeting room, the atmosphere was somewhat delicate. The leader of Yugakure clasped his hands together, lowering his posture as much as possible. His words were filled with sincerity.
"Please, Minato-sama, we really have no other choice."
"Ah, you are being too polite," Minato replied, clearly not used to being addressed with such honorifics by an elder nearly the same age as the Third Hokage.
In truth, the Yugakure leader had his own bitter difficulties. Because a large number of Yugakure ninja had been brainwashed by the Jashin Cult, their village's combat power had sharply declined. After realizing something was wrong the previous night, he had dispatched his remaining combat ninja to clash with the cult. Naturally, they lost. The Jashin Cult had come prepared, taking advantage of the fact that an old leader of a small hidden village simply did not have any top-tier experts.
On the enemy side was a man dressed entirely in black leather, described as extremely powerful. The cult members called him a Bishop, and he was most likely their leader. These brainwashed Yugakure ninja had used every possible method to forcibly suppress the parents of the missing children, causing the civilians to lose all trust in the village's leadership.
The most fatal problem was that many children of noble officials from across the ninja world, who had come to Yugakure for vacation, had also vanished. This impacted Yugakure's income and threatened to drag the entire Land of Hot Water into international disgrace. The leader estimated that it would not be long before demands for accountability came down from the Daimyo. After all, significant funds were spent maintaining Yugakure, yet it had failed to provide security and had even inadvertently aided the cult.
The Yugakure leader was determined to obtain Konoha's help to eliminate the Jashin Cult. As for the children, considering the insane behavior of the cult members captured the night before, he feared their chances of survival were slim.
"Minato-sama, please, for the sake of Yugakure being an allied village since its founding, help us!"
Minato felt conflicted. According to the original plan, the Konoha forces were supposed to depart that day. Furthermore, the war with Iwagakure was still ahead of them. He could not justify slowing their pace for a small organization. In the eyes of the Great Villages, the Jashin Cult was merely a rural threat. A small village like Yugakure had only about a thousand ninja, while the Five Great Villages commanded tens of thousands.
"I understand how you feel. After I return to the village, I will certainly report Yugakure's situation to the Hokage-sama," Minato said. To him, nothing was more important than his own village's affairs, especially since his sensei, Jiraiya, was currently the one holding the line on the Iwagakure front.
Seeing that Minato seemed ready to end the meeting, the Yugakure leader steeled his heart. "If Konoha is willing to help us overcome this crisis, we are willing to offer Konoha five percent of all Yugakure tourism income for the next five years."
Feeling that this might still be insufficient, he raised the price. "In addition, we will prepare 150,000,000 Ryo as the commission fee for this mission. As long as Minato-sama can send powerful ninja to defeat the Bishop, that will be enough."
"Agreed," Minato replied immediately.
"If that's not enough, then… ah? You agreed?" the Yugakure leader said in surprise. "That Bishop is very strong. Minato-sama, you…"
He worried that Minato was simply brushing him off by sending a few average ninja. Minato saw through his thoughts and smiled confidently. "Don't worry. If even he cannot deal with that Bishop, then there is probably no one in the entire ninja world who could help you."
...
Hearing this, the Yugakure leader's pupils shrank slightly. If someone within the Land of Hot Water could earn such praise from the Yellow Flash, there was only one person it could be.
Minato clapped his hands and called toward the door. "Come in."
The door was pushed open, and a black-haired boy wearing goggles stepped inside, loudly announcing, "Who is the leader of Yugakure? I will save your village's children!"
Several large question marks popped up over the Yugakure leader's head. If he remembered correctly, the legendary Konoha's Gale was supposed to be a white-haired boy with a fat tanuki on his shoulder. This boy looked… different.
"All right, Obito, this mission is mine no matter what. You should go back to the village with Captain Minato. I alone am enough," Mitsuki said. He was only worried that Obito's presence would be dangerous; it certainly had nothing to do with the 150,000,000 Ryo commission. Probably.
The Yugakure leader's eyes swept over the two white-haired boys who entered afterward. When his gaze landed on the fat tanuki, he confirmed his guess. He rushed to Mitsuki, grabbing his hand with both of his own. "Please, you must join our team to subjugate the Evil God Cult."
Mitsuki calmly withdrew his hand and patted the leader on the shoulder. "You seem to have heard my story?"
"Well, that is…" the leader hesitated. He recalled the rumors: the greatest explosion man in history, the man who destroyed Kirigakure, the tyrant of the battlefield, and the one who could not sleep unless he killed a hundred Kirigakure ninja a day. None of these sounded like a "gentle" reputation.
Mitsuki was aware of his fearsome standing and did not pursue the topic, though he would have loudly denied the rumor about killing a hundred ninja daily. That was pure slander.
...
In the end, due to Obito's persistent pestering, Mitsuki brought both Obito and Kakashi along. He justified it as letting them pad their records, as this mission would likely be classified as an S-rank task. He had already arranged it with Minato; after dealing with the cult, he would use the Flying Thunder God Technique to return them to the village. Given the travel speed of the main group, Mitsuki's team would likely beat them back to Konoha.