"Don't be scared. It's me."
Hearing that, Uchiha Mikoto and Yakushi Nono both turned their heads, finally seeing clearly that it was their own good-for-nothing teacher.
"Alright, alright. You almost made me drop the fruit cake I just bought. How are you planning to compensate me?"
"Yeah, exactly."
"There's a mission. C-rank. Is that good enough?" Baixing said in a voice only the two girls could hear.
"Seriously?!" x2
The hallway wasn't a place for chatting, so Baixing gestured with his eyes for them to go to Nono's house to discuss things. Neither of them objected. When they reached the door, Uchiha Mikoto—who already treated Nono's place as her second home—acted like the lady of the house, pulling out a pair of clean slippers for Baixing to change into.
"Sensei, what kind of mission is it? Why are you being so mysterious?"
Thunk!
"Ow!"
While changing his shoes, Baixing casually flicked Mikoto on the forehead. She clutched her head and let out a muffled groan.
"One of the rules of being a ninja: mission confidentiality. Don't tell me you've never learned that."
"Isn't it called keeping your mouth shut?" Mikoto shot back irritably.
"Same idea," Baixing said, brushing it off.
He walked past Mikoto and sat down on the sofa, eyeing the small cakes Mikoto and Nono had bought.
"May the teacher have some?" he asked politely.
"No!" Mikoto immediately planted herself in front of her strawberry cake. "Don't even look at it, you cheapskate!"
"Heh." Baixing actually felt that Mikoto was livelier and cuter like this. In the original story, she was gentle and considerate—but after experiencing so many missions, what ninja could truly remain gentle? Only someone whose heart had already died.
"It's a C-rank mission. I've already notified Dai. We depart tomorrow at noon. Remember to eat your fill before heading out—if you're going to die, at least die as a well-fed ghost."
"Peh peh peh—!" Yakushi Nono poured a glass of milk and placed it on the table in front of Baixing. "Sensei, can you not say such unlucky things when it's our first C-rank mission?!"
"Sorry." Baixing lowered his head, looking dejected. "Sensei is someone who gives up easily. Maybe that's why I can't become a chūnin or learn higher-level ninjutsu…"
Uchiha Mikoto: "..."
She always felt that Baixing was acting, but no matter how she looked at it, it didn't seem fake. That hopeless look in his eyes when facing the future—it didn't look like something you could just pretend.
—In fact, if you stepped outside and saw zombies everywhere, and your body regressed from strong to weak, back to an ordinary person, you'd understand that kind of despair unique to such an environment.
"Forget it. You can eat the cake." Mikoto pushed the strawberry cake she'd bought for three thousand ryō in front of Baixing, even thoughtfully placing the spoon on top.
"Then Sensei won't hold back. I'll dig in."
As soon as he said that, Baixing's expression changed instantly—from gloomy to calm in the blink of an eye. Mikoto didn't even have time to react. When she finally realized what had happened, she understood completely:
She'd been tricked by this bastard.
But the cake had already been bitten into by that scoundrel, so there was no taking it back.
In just a few seconds, the palm-sized strawberry cake was completely gone. This kind of delicacy—rare in the ninja world and absurdly expensive—was something Baixing normally couldn't bear to eat.
But freeloading was a different story.
"Alright, alright. Mikoto, I'll give you half of my cake," Nono said.
"You're the best, Nono."
The two girls hugged together, and Baixing subconsciously imagined some not-so-child-friendly scenes: a black-haired tsundere young lady and a gentle blonde maid, a story that had to be told.
He quickly shook his head, then began explaining the things to watch out for during the mission, going through the contents of the mission scroll with them.
Normally, only a jōnin needed to know all this. But he wasn't a jōnin, and this was his first time leading a team on a C-rank mission. To say he felt no pressure would be a lie.
After ten minutes, everything had been explained.
"That's about it. Before tomorrow's assembly, don't forget to buy the supplies you'll need for the mission tonight or early tomorrow morning. This mission won't just take a few hours or a single day—round trip, it'll be at least ten days."
"When we get back, you'll only have a few days left to prepare for the chūnin exams. If you get injured along the way…"
"Then we'll take it next time," Baixing said. He really couldn't bear the thought of disciples and friends he'd spent so long with dying on the battlefield.
He didn't know whether his presence as this butterfly would cause the two girls—who should have lived until a few years before the start of the original story—or Dai, who survived through the Third Shinobi World War, to die earlier instead.
"How can that be acceptable? We'll definitely pass in one go!" Mikoto clenched her small fists, brimming with confidence. "A mere C-rank mission and the chūnin exams—just watch me handle them!"
"Mikoto can definitely do it," Nono encouraged her, while also encouraging herself to complete both the C-rank mission and the chūnin exams in one shot.
Seeing that both girls were in good spirits, Baixing nodded slightly. Before leaving, he asked casually, as if it didn't matter:
"By the way, Mikoto, can you use the Shadow Clone Technique?"
"Of course. Isn't that something anyone with hands can do?" Mikoto waved it off.
"Could you show Sensei? I'm thinking of developing a technique recently and want to see if I can take inspiration from it."
"Developing those D-rank ninjutsu with no real power again…" Mikoto complained, but she didn't let her guard down. Her hands immediately formed seals: Snake–Goat–Tiger.
"Shadow Clone Technique!"
Poof.
A figure identical to Mikoto appeared beside her. After observing her hand seals, Baixing committed them to memory and nodded.
"What's the maximum you can summon?"
"Two."
Baixing wasn't surprised by that answer. Shadow Clones consumed a huge amount of chakra. At this stage, being able to make two was already impressive—after all, not everyone was Uzumaki Naruto.
He then had Mikoto dispel the clone and told both of them to rest well tonight. If there was anything to explain, they should tell their families—hinting that Mikoto should also go home to see her grandfather, instead of letting that old man with one foot in the grave secretly follow her around on missions.
Snake–Goat–Tiger.
"Shadow Clone Technique."
Poof! Poof! Poof!
In the living room at home, Baixing carefully controlled his chakra. Using just one-fifth of it, he could summon three shadow clones. At full power, he should be able to make fifteen.
The living room environment was fairly simple: a modern TV, sofa, coffee table, two casual paintings he'd hung on the wall, and a single brown-furred tail hanging separately. The team members had once asked where the tail came from. Baixing told them he'd picked it up during a mission and kept it for sentimental reasons.
In truth, it was his own.
Baixing had no intention of turning into a giant ape during a full moon and smashing six years of hard work to pieces.
"Original body, this mission doesn't look easy. I've got a bad feeling we'll run into someone like Kakuzu."
"Take out the 'bad feeling.'"
"Exactly. This kind of crap mission should've been rejected."
"I didn't call you out just to hear you talk nonsense," Baixing said, looking helplessly at his three shadow clones, who were acting like this was their own home. "Come up with a persona. That way, if we need to do some shady things, it'll be more convenient."
"A disguise? Interesting."
"How about calling yourself A-Xing~?"
"Then we can pre-register the organization name as Akatsuki. When Yahiko and the others show up later, we can charge them royalties!"
"Great idea!"
Baixing: "..."
These three are definitely not my shadow clones.
After a long discussion, they finally settled on the name Surgeon.
He didn't actually know medical ninjutsu, but he'd studied a lot of human anatomy in the library. After a few real battles, performing surgery or treating patients should be easy enough, right?
Besides, through research into the Transformation Technique, he'd already figured out a mild variation of Life Return—allowing small changes in height, appearance, hair, and physique.
However, like Devil Fruit abilities, using it consumed stamina. With his previous stamina, without burning lifespan, he could instantly kill a single jōnin only because that jōnin's body was relatively fragile. Taking out a group of ninja in one go was absolutely impossible.
But now, it might be different.
"Alright, let's eat first." With his next plans decided, Baixing began cooking dinner. That tiny cake hadn't even come close to filling him up—and after eating, he still needed to train.
Being a teacher was troublesome too. During the day and afternoon, he had to keep an eye on the team during missions. His training time was basically limited to nights.