…
"…Why the rats first?!"
"Because your mission location is closest," Murakami answered calmly without even looking back.
Hideki opened his mouth, then closed it again.
Annoyingly enough… that made sense.
Sora adjusted his glasses as the three moved through the morning streets of Konoha. "Besides, if we finish the unpleasant tasks first, the rest of the day becomes easier mentally."
Hideki looked betrayed. "Whose side are you on?"
"My own."
"…You're both terrible people."
Murakami ignored the exchange entirely as they eventually arrived at the drainage district at the East side of the village.
The moment the canal came into view, Hideki's expression darkened immediately.
"…Oh."
The canal stretched through the side of the district like a narrow artificial river built between stone pathways.
Or at least, that was what it should have looked like.
Instead, stagnant water clogged large portions of the canal while leaves, mud, discarded trash and algae gathered heavily against rusted grates and corners.
The smell wasn't unbearable.
But it definitely wasn't pleasant.
Hideki looked genuinely horrified. "…We have to go in there?"
Sora stared down into the murky water. "…Unfortunately, yes."
Near the canal entrance stood a tired looking civilian supervisor holding a clipboard.
"You're the Genin assigned to the cleanup?" the man asked hopefully.
Kaito's authorization slip was shown briefly before the man sighed in visible relief.
"Thank goodness. The blockage has been getting worse for weeks now."
Murakami's gaze swept across the canal calmly, analyzing the canal.
The issue wasn't complicated.
Debris buildup, poor water flow and signs of rodent infestation near the lower tunnels.
"Couldn't we just blast everything away with ninjutsu?" Hideki asked hopefully.
Sora immediately shook his head. "That could damage the canal structure."
"And flood the nearby district," Murakami added.
Hideki groaned loudly. "…So we really have to clean this manually?"
"Yes."
"This…This is abuse."
In the end, after several minutes of discussion, the trio reached the same conclusion.
Manual labor was the safest solution.
And so…The work began.
Sora handled sorting and clearing lighter debris along the upper edges of the canal while Murakami used controlled earth manipulation to loosen compacted sludge and reinforce unstable sections.
Hideki, possessing the greatest raw strength among them, ended up doing most of the heavy lifting.
Which also meant he complained the most.
"This is disgusting!"
SPLASH.
"WHY IS IT MOVING?!"
SPLASH.
"I think something touched my leg!"
Sora sighed tiredly from above. "Those are called fish."
"I DON'T TRUST THEM!"
Murakami silently continued working.
Though inwardly, even he had to admit this was far more exhausting mentally than fighting bandits.
At least bandits tried to kill you quickly.
The canal, however, attacked morale directly.
Hours passed slowly.
Sweat mixed with dirty water while the morning sun gradually climbed overhead.
Eventually, the water flow began stabilizing properly again.
The final issue remained the oversized rat nests hidden within several lower tunnel sections.
And unfortunately…
That led directly into Murakami's assigned mission.
The moment the first abnormally large rodent burst from the darkness with red eyes and exposed fangs, Hideki nearly punted it on reflex.
"WHY ARE THEY SO BIG?!"
The rat screeched violently before Murakami pinned it to the ground instantly using a small earth release technique.
Sora frowned. "These things are feeding off the waste buildup."
Several more appeared afterward.
Unlike normal rats, these were strangely aggressive and territorial.
Still, against trained shinobi—even Genin—they weren't particularly dangerous.
Just unpleasant.
The trio spent nearly an hour hunting through the lower tunnels, driving out nests and eliminating the infestation one section at a time.
Hideki looked spiritually exhausted by the end of it.
"I fought bandits a day ago," he muttered hollowly. "How did my life end up here…"
Sora adjusted his glasses tiredly. "Because this is what Genin actually do most of the time."
Murakami washed his hands quietly beneath flowing canal water afterward while observing the now cleared pathways.
The canal was cleaner which meant that the warehouse district would also temporarily improve.
The rodents were gone.
But…
His gaze shifted briefly toward the distant alleyways and sewer outlets further within the district.
Whether it was the canal or the warehouse infestation, everything they had done today was merely a temporary solution to a permanent problem.
Waste would accumulate again.
Rats would return again.
Another cleanup mission would eventually appear.
A cycle.
Murakami understood this almost immediately.
Still, that responsibility belonged to the village infrastructure system.
Not him.
So he stopped thinking about it.
Once the canal supervisor confirmed completion of the mission with excessive gratitude, the trio departed toward the storage district for Murakami's assignment.
Compared to the canal, the warehouse infestation proved easier.
The storage buildings themselves were massive wooden structures used to hold dry food supplies, grain and trade goods.
Several merchants immediately began complaining the moment Team Kaito arrived.
"They chew through everything!"
"One even attacked my worker yesterday!"
"We've lost thousands of ryo worth of supplies already!"
Murakami listened quietly before stepping into the warehouse itself.
The smell hit immediately.
Rodents.
Dust.
Rotting grain.
Sora frowned while adjusting his glasses. "…That's a lot."
Hideki's face paled. "…No."
Murakami's sensory field spread outward calmly. Then- "There are thirty-seven."
Silence.
Sora blinked. "…You counted them already?"
Murakami nodded once.
Hideki looked genuinely devastated. "…Why are there thirty-seven anything…"
The extermination process afterward became systematic.
Murakami located nests using his sensory ability.
Sora coordinated containment routes using wire and tags.
Hideki smashed through escape points whenever the rodents attempted to flee.
It was messy and chaotic.
And far more demanding than any of them expected.
Physically and mentally.
By the end, Sora's glasses were crooked, Hideki smelled like dust and sewer water combined, and even Murakami's haori had traces of dirt across the sleeves.
"…I miss fighting bandits," Hideki said weakly while sitting atop a crate.
"That sentence is deeply concerning," Sora replied. "Though I can't say I disagree."
Murakami looked toward the mission confirmation slip they had just received before folding it away calmly.
"One left."
Sora immediately looked far more motivated hearing that.
"The library."
Hideki nearly looked emotional.
"Yes," Sora said firmly. "The clean place. With books. And no rats."
"…Lead the way," Murakami said. Then he suddenly paused mid-step. "…Wait."
Sora and Hideki stopped immediately.
"What now?" Hideki asked tiredly.
Murakami glanced toward them both calmly.
"We are unsightly."
A loud silence hung for a moment.
Sora blinked while Hideki frowned. "…What?"
Murakami gestured vaguely toward the two of them.
"We smell like sewer water, dead rodents and warehouse dust."
The two froze.
Murakami continued mercilessly.
"Our clothes are filthy, boots are covered in sludge." His gaze shifted slightly toward Hideki specifically. "And I'm fairly certain something is still stuck in your hair."
Hideki's eyes widened violently.
"WHAT?!"
His hands immediately flew upward in panic while Sora's own expression stiffened in realization.
"…The library," Sora muttered.
Murakami nodded once.
"We cannot walk through the village looking like this. Especially not into a public archive."
The two Genin immediately looked down at themselves.
Only now realizing just how terrible they looked… And smelled.
Hideki's face paled. "Oh no…"
Sora pushed his glasses upward slowly. "…We really have been walking around like this."
Before either of them could descend fully into despair, Murakami casually reached into his pouch.
Two seal tags appeared between his fingers.
Flick.
Flick.
The papers stuck directly onto their foreheads.
"Huh?"
A faint hum of chakra resonated softly.
Then, a pale blue glow spread briefly across their bodies.
The dirt and grime disappeared while the foul odor lingering around them faded almost instantly as though erased completely.
Even the wrinkles in their clothing straightened slightly.
The transformation was so sudden that both boys froze completely.
Hideki slowly touched his shirt.
"…Huh?"
Sora blinked repeatedly behind suddenly spotless glasses.
The smell was gone.
Completely.
Even the sticky discomfort lingering on their skin had disappeared.
The two stared at each other in disbelief.
Then their eyes shifted toward Murakami just in time to see him place another seal tag against his own shoulder.
A faint pulse of chakra flowed outward.
The traces of dust and dirt across his haori vanished instantly.
Murakami calmly stepped past the two stunned Genin as though nothing unusual had happened.
"…Let's go."
Neither of them moved immediately.
Their jaws practically dropped.
Metaphorically.
Hideki recovered first and hurried after him. "WAIT— WHAT WAS THAT?!"
Sora followed immediately behind, visibly stunned as well. "Was that fuinjutsu?"
Murakami nodded once while walking.
"A cleansing tag."
Hideki stared at him. "…You say that like it's normal."
"It isn't particularly sophisticated," Murakami replied calmly.
Sora looked deeply disturbed by that answer.
"You just erased an entire day's worth of dirt, smell and grime instantly."
"Hm."
"And you're calling it 'not sophisticated'?"
Murakami thought about it briefly before answering honestly.
"It only performs a basic purification function using stored chakra formulas."
Hideki looked at Sora helplessly. "…Did you understand any of that?"
"…No."
Murakami continued walking quietly through the village streets while the two hurried beside him.
Around them, Konoha carried on peacefully beneath the afternoon sunlight.
The villagers moved through the roads going about their business while children ran laughing through nearby alleyways with not one care in the world.
And amidst all of it, Team Kaito headed toward their final mission of the day.
Though now, Hideki and Sora couldn't stop occasionally glancing toward Murakami differently.
Because once again…
Their teammate had casually revealed something that reminded them he wasn't particularly normal at all.
-_-_-_-_-_-_
Like it? Add to library! Have some idea about my story? Comment it and let me know.
But y'all still don't🙂↔️... Anyways, I'ma be writing and posting on my patr@on page for a while. Interested individuals can check it out here. I've got 10 extra chapters there.
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