Konoha: Preparing to Defect, the System Arrives

It was a bright and sunny day. Even though it was February, the sun felt warm enough to make people want to take off a few layers—like that guy running past in green.

"Sigh."

Uzuki Yugao wiped the sweat from her forehead as she looked at the green-clad man jogging by, muttering to herself, "When will I have the energy to be as active as Might Guy?"

"Morning~."

A weak voice suddenly came from nearby. Turning her head, Yugao saw Hyuuga Hanabi walking toward her, looking pale.

Her white eyes and pale face made her look like a ghost.

Seeing her teammate in such bad shape, Yugao shivered a little before raising her hand to greet her.

"Morning, Hanabi!"

"You don't look so great either."

Noticing Yugao's equally pale face, Hanabi forced a bitter smile and said, "I just hope nothing strange happens again today."

"Yeah. I've already been stuck in bed for two days. The other teams that graduated early have already finished two missions. Some even completed three D-rank missions."

"Three missions in two days?!"

A familiar male voice interrupted their chat. Both girls turned around to see their teacher, Asuka, walking toward them. Inside, they both started praying.

Please don't let anything weird happen today. We don't even care about learning anything—just don't make us stay home sick again!

Asuka couldn't tell what they were thinking, but when he noticed the gloomy look still lingering on their faces, he put his hands on their shoulders with a proud smile.

"Yugao, Hanabi, have you ever heard of the 'Legend of Konoha'? The one about completing ten missions in a single day?"

Their eyes widened in shock. Both girls exchanged glances, instantly recalling the rumors going around the village recently.

Apparently, because of two big events that could affect the entire ninja world, a lot of villagers who had been working outside returned to Konoha to witness the Fourth Hokage's wedding.

And then, there was that married couple—after not seeing each other for a long time—they supposedly "carried out missions" ten times in one night.

The gossiping ladies in the village said it was... ten times.

???

Noticing how both girls' pale faces instantly turned red as they stared at the ground like it held some kind of treasure, Asuka lowered his head to look too.

Nothing there.

Pulling his hands out of his pockets, he reached out and placed them on their foreheads to check if they were sick again.

"Ah!"

"Ah!"

Their sudden high-pitched screams broke the morning calm. Both girls jumped back two steps, covering their chests like they were ready to run away.

Asuka froze with his hands still in the air, forcing an awkward smile as he pulled them back. Looking up at the sparrows flying in the sky, he sighed inwardly.

These students are too hard to handle. What did I even do? Why are you acting like this?

"I'm sorry, sensei! I'm late!"

At that moment, Iruka came running, panting heavily and breaking the awkward atmosphere.

Leaning forward with his hands on his knees, he kept apologizing between gasps.

After a while, when Asuka still didn't say anything about his tardiness, Iruka's heart skipped a beat.

Was sensei planning to punish him?

Thinking that, Iruka quickly raised his head to explain himself, but what he saw made him freeze.

"Se... sensei?"

Asuka was crouching, drawing circles in the dirt with a stick. His expression looked like he was badly constipated.

"Hmmph!"

Hanabi huffed and pulled Iruka aside, pointing at Asuka with a disgusted look.

"Iruka, you just got here, so you don't know what's going on.

Just now, he proudly said he wanted to tell me and Yugao about that gossip.

Is this something a teacher should talk about?"

???

Iruka stared blankly at Asuka before turning back to his teammates in confusion.

"What gossip?"

Hanabi's face puffed up like a steamed bun as she glared at Asuka and explained through gritted teeth.

"You know! That stupid rumor about the 'Legend of Konoha'—doing it ten times in one night. How is that something to brag about?

Even if it was worth bragging about, it's not something you talk about in front of two girls!"

She kicked a rock in frustration.

Wasn't the Uchiha clan supposed to be cool and serious? Where did this perverted Uchiha come from?

Ten times...?

Iruka rubbed his chin thoughtfully before slowly speaking.

"Isn't completing ten missions in one day something to be proud of?

While I was resting at home, I looked into sensei's records.

Apparently, he's done 17 S-rank missions, 169 A-rank missions, 287 B-rank missions, 334 C-rank missions, and a terrifying 3,078 D-rank missions."

The record for completing 10 D-rank missions in a single day? That was set by our teacher when he was only seven years old."

"W-What?"

Hearing the number 3078, Hyūga Hanabi's voice instantly went up a pitch. She stared at Iruka in disbelief, her voice sharp.

"Iruka, did you just say 3078?"

Iruka sniffled and turned toward Asuka with admiration in his voice.

"3078. They called him the D-rank Mission Maniac of Konoha. After that, the village even added a ridiculous rule—any jōnin, except for team leaders, is forbidden from accepting D-rank missions. If they do, they get fined.

Later, our teacher took the risk of losing money—sending his clones in disguise to accept missions while his real body went to pay the fines.

But that didn't last long either. Apparently, someone with a so-called 'sense of justice' reported him for disrupting the mission market and taking tasks at a loss. Then the Third Hokage assigned several Hyūga clan members to monitor the mission desk and blacklist Sensei from taking any more D-rank missions. That finally put an end to it."

"So…"

Hanabi looked at Asuka, who seemed a little down, and mumbled,

"So that's what he meant by 10 times a day?"

"What else would it be?" Iruka shot her a puzzled look. Sometimes he really didn't understand what went through their heads. In school, the girls' gossip always involved the weirdest things.

"Sensei, we're sorry!"

Hanabi and Uzuki Yūgao hurried to stand behind Asuka, staring guiltily at the circles he had drawn all over the dirt ground.

"We misunderstood you earlier!"

Clap! Clap!

Asuka threw down the stick he had been using to draw, stood up, and clapped the dirt off his hands. Seeing the two girls staring apologetically at the ground, he spoke casually.

"I'm not someone who holds grudges. But if you two ever fail a mission because of cramps, I can do some quick surgery to fix your body structure.

And if you get married and don't want kids later, I can handle sterilization too.

Actually, I can even—"

Before he could finish, he noticed the two girls trembling. Asuka clicked his tongue and ruffled their hair roughly, laughing.

"You're too easy to mess with. I was joking."

"R-Really?"

"Of course! Come on, let's go!"

With that, Asuka grabbed the three students and headed to the mission desk.

The reason he initially trained as a medical ninja wasn't just to combine Yin and Yang Release. Another major reason was to target Uchiha Mikoto and Fugaku.

Those two were like breeding demons. If he hadn't found the right moment to act, Itachi wouldn't have been born at all.

What a shame... He wondered if Mikoto would ever ask him for sterilization surgery later. Or maybe Fugaku could just be... snipped.

When the group arrived at the mission desk, Asuka's relaxed smile immediately disappeared. He locked eyes with the Hyūga clan member sitting at the desk and raised an eyebrow.

"I'm back again."

"Huh?"

Hearing the familiar voice, the Hyūga at the desk looked up at Asuka, noticing his Uchiha crest. After blinking a few times, it suddenly hit him like lightning.

"Uchiha Asuka?"

"Yep!"

Seeing the Hyūga nod in recognition, Asuka grinned.

"Just so you know, we only have C and D-rank missions here. If you need S, A, or B-rank missions, you'll have to go to the Hokage's office."

"Relax."

Asuka pulled his three students closer, bent down, and rested his chin on Yūgao's head. He took a deep breath, enjoying the faint scent of flowers, before flashing a grin.

"I'm a teacher now. Get me the mission list."

"...Huh?"

The Hyūga ninja was only now noticing the three kids standing beside Asuka.

This is embarrassing.

Seeing the Hyūga's expression filled with doubt, Hanabi blushed and forced a stiff smile.

Our teacher… doesn't seem very reliable.

"Give it here!"

"Wait, what—"

Before the Hyūga could react, Asuka snatched the mission list out of his hands. He picked his nose casually while scanning the list.

Lost pets, background checks, trash collection, pet retrieval, digging sweet potatoes, babysitting...

Same old stuff.

After a quick scan, he pointed to a few tasks and said,

"Five lost cat missions, five lost pet missions—no dogs, I hate dogs lately. Three trash collection tasks. Forget babysitting—I don't like kids that run around and make a mess.

Oh, and give me the background check mission too."

"Sensei!"

Before Asuka could add more tasks, he felt someone tugging at his leg. Looking down, he saw Yūgao staring up at him anxiously.

"Just say what you want to say."

"Sensei, that's enough! Enough! Don't take any more missions.

We're not stocking up supplies here—we don't need to grab everything at once!"

Asuka blinked a few times before turning back to the Hyūga at the desk, clearly confused.

"Too many?"

Hmph!

The Hyūga scoffed and grabbed several scrolls from the desk. He slammed them down with a glare.

"Uchiha Asuka, every time you come here, I feel like I'm running a general store!"

"Thanks!"

Grinning, Asuka dumped the scrolls into his students' arms, waved to the surrounding ninjas, and left the mission desk.

Gulp.

A ninja standing nearby swallowed nervously as he watched the four of them leave, each carrying a pile of scrolls.

"How... How can they take 10 missions at once?"

"That's Uchiha Asuka."

"So what?"

"You don't know? Back then, the mission desk only had three rules.

But after that guy became a ninja, the rules grew to eleven.

And eight of those rules exist because of him."