Not long after, the water fetching was completed.

"Let’s have another task!"

"Ah?"

Bin Ye stood there dumbfounded, but upon meeting Jiraiya's gaze, he quickly assigned another D-level task.

This time it was chopping wood.

However, it didn’t take long again.

"Another one."

...

Half a month later.

"Lord Third, this can’t go on! Why don’t you tell him to stop? At this rate, we won’t have enough D-level tasks left!"

Bin Ye couldn't help but go upstairs to complain to the Third Hokage.

There was no way around it.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to issue tasks, but Jiraiya's team had completed more than half of the village’s D-level tasks in the past half month.

At this speed, in a few days, the village's D-level tasks would probably be cleared out.

What would happen to the other teams and ordinary Genin then?

Would they run out of income?

This was indeed a significant problem.

Sarutobi Hiruzen was getting a headache, pondering for a moment.

Jiraiya's team's strength was indeed top-notch.

The captain goes without saying.

Among the team members, there was Kakashi, who had already become a Chunin, the genjutsu expert Yuhi Kurena, and the young Ryōhō Kyōhiko...

C-level tasks wouldn’t be a challenge for them.

"Next time, let him take a C-level task."

"Yes."

Bin Ye breathed a sigh of relief.

C-level tasks...

It wasn’t that he was unwilling to issue them, but the situation was still unclear.

Although the various nations had ceased hostilities, peace had not been fully restored, and there were still some minor frictions between them.

Moreover, there were also many wandering samurai and bandits roaming after the war.

Executing C-level tasks now was much more dangerous than in peacetime.

Bin Ye was only acting as a task issuer and had no authority to decide the task acceptance rules for the new team.

The Third Hokage nodded, and he naturally didn’t have to press the issue further.

...

[As Hokage, you actively contribute to the village, and your contributions are widely recognized by everyone.]

[Reward: Water Release: Water Chaos Wave upgraded by 1 level.]

Ah?

In the morning, Kyōhiko, waiting at the Hokage building for the gathering, was a bit confused.

What was going on?

Where did this reward come from?

Recently, they had been rapidly completing D-level tasks, and he unexpectedly gained a reward from who knows where.

He glanced at the panel.

[Name: Ryōhō Kyōhiko]

[Age: 7 years]

[Bloodline Limit: None]

[Skills]:

Transformation Technique (Expert), Shadow Clone Technique (Expert), Replacement Technique (Expert), Body Flicker Technique (Master), Water Release: Water Chaos Wave (Expert), Water Release: Water Barrier (Proficient)

In the past half month, Kyōhiko mainly trained in taijutsu and two types of Water Release ninjutsu, but all had only been improved to a proficient level.

Now, Water Chaos Wave had directly reached the expert level.

A lot of knowledge about Water Chaos Wave surfaced in his mind, some of which was about how to control Water Release ninjutsu and better utilize Water Release chakra.

Water Chaos Wave was quite basic and didn't involve enhanced nature transformation.

However, techniques at the "expert" level could greatly reduce the chakra required for casting.

Theoretically, with the same amount of chakra, he could expel 30% more water than before.

Not only that, many techniques in Water Release ninjutsu were interconnected.

Especially Water Chaos Wave and Water Barrier.

The ordinary versions didn’t involve complex nature transformations; as long as one grasped the basics of nature transformation and could extract Water Release chakra, they could easily release them.

Both of these techniques were like that.

Among the knowledge that came with the "expert" level of Water Chaos Wave, some could be directly applied to Water Barrier.

Kyōhiko was secretly delighted.

This improvement was significant!

Although high-level ninjutsu wouldn’t be very useful in the later stages of large-scale battles, right now, he still needed to consider the Third Great Ninja War.

At the level of ordinary ninjas, Water Release ninjutsu was quite useful.

"Kyōhiko-kun."

A soft female voice approached from behind.

Kyōhiko turned around—

Kakashi and Yuhi Kurena were quickly running towards him one after the other.

The three gathered.

"Did you arrive so early?"

Yuhi Kurena panted.

"Not long, I ran by and waited here."

Kyōhiko replied.

Kakashi showed hesitation, about to speak when he caught something out of the corner of his eye, swallowing the words back down.

"Hahaha, you all got here early!"

Jiraiya arrived.

He was holding two sets of popsicles, breaking them apart one by one, and handing each of them one.

"Let’s go, start today’s tasks, finish enough quickly so we can take on higher-difficulty C-level tasks earlier."

Jiraiya had had enough of D-level tasks.

For ordinary ninja teams, D-level tasks might assist in team cooperation and skill development, but for their team...

Forget it.

As a Chunin, Kakashi understood the reasoning but had unresolved issues, and Jiraiya currently had no good way to help.

Kyōhiko—

This kid was the one he didn’t need to worry about at all.

Yuhi Kurena only lacked the ability; however, if she were to be the team leader, she still had a long way to go.

For them, above C-level tasks, truly engaging with wandering samurai, bandits, and even ninjas would be where they could learn enough to improve.

Since they couldn't take on C-level tasks, they might as well clear out the D-level ones.

Jiraiya felt determined in his heart.

Entering the hall, he headed straight for Bin Ye.

“Give me...”

“Lord Jiraiya, the Hokage said you can take on C-level tasks now.”

Bin Ye immediately reported.

Jiraiya smiled, "Great, we don’t need to do D-level tasks anymore?"

“No, you have enough D-level tasks; you should take a look at the C-level tasks.”

Bin Ye smiled wryly, taking up the new task board.

Kyōhiko glanced at it.

It seemed the previous reward was likely from them.

Then, he looked at the task board.

Most of the tasks were escort missions for merchant caravans.

The escort destinations...

Generally, they would be towards the Land of Rivers, the Land of Waves, and other chaotic areas, heading to the Land of Earth and other ninja countries, which probably couldn’t be counted as C-level tasks.

“This one will do.”

Jiraiya pointed to a line—

“Head to Short Book Street and protect a debtor collecting debts.”

A smile crept onto his lips.

“What about the client for this task?”

“This task was just posted yesterday; you only need to go to the Blue Flower Pavilion on Short Book Street and find someone named Matsuyama Kōji.”

Bin Ye answered.

He hesitated for a moment and said, “However, the payment offered is almost at the level of a B-level task; I suspect collecting debts might not be simple.”

“No problem, as long as the money is in place, I also know how to get to Short Book Street.”

Jiraiya waved his hand, smiling broadly.

Kyōhiko's expression was strange.

Short Book Street was not a good place.

If ninjas went to such places, they could very likely break the three ninja prohibitions.

It was hard not to doubt—

His own teacher was pretending to take on a task but really wanted to have some fun.

He couldn’t help but grumble.

Kakashi and Yuhi Kurena remained unfazed, not knowing whether they were unaware of Short Book Street or simply indifferent.

In any case, Jiraiya happily accepted the task.

However,

As he walked out of the task hall, a figure blocked his path.

“Lord Jiraiya, the Hokage requests your presence upstairs.”

An Anbu ninja.

Jiraiya sighed, nodded, greeted Kyōhiko and the others, and headed upstairs.

“Kyōhiko, Kakashi!”

Just waiting, a voice called from inside.

Yuhi Kurena had a slightly complex expression—

Here comes this peculiar character!

Might Guy.