At the unanimous request of Team Nine, Drake once again treated everyone.
This time, however, he chose a ramen shop.
"Hey, isn't this a bit too stingy?" Obito complained.
Out of the total 500,000 ryō, Drake had kept 350,000 for himself, and now he was only treating them to one bowl of ramen each?
"Stingy?"
Drake smiled. "Boss, three bowls of ramen."
"Huh?!"
Obito instantly blew up.
There were four of them — what did ordering three bowls mean?
Whoosh!
Suddenly, Minato appeared.
The moment Drake saw him, he knew it — their rest period was probably over again.
"Emergency mission. Report to the Hokage's office immediately."
After dropping that line, Minato vanished in a flash, leaving the entire team speechless.
This was way too sudden, wasn't it?
At least let them finish eating first!
"Your ramen is ready~~" Teuchi had just set the bowls down when he saw Team Nine sprinting out.
"Hey! Your ramen!" he shouted.
"Keep it for us, we'll eat it after the mission!" Drake called back from afar.
After the mission…?
Teuchi's face turned red with anger. By the time they came back, the noodles would have grown mold.
"Dad, they didn't pay either…"
A little girl poked her head out and reminded him.
"Eh?! You're right!"
Hokage's Office
The moment Drake entered, he noticed a ninja completely wrapped in bandages.
Only the eyes and nose were visible; even his face was fully covered.
"Who's that?" Obito muttered quietly.
"How would I know?" Drake shrugged.
"It's Morino Ibiki," Kakashi recognized him.
Good grief…
Just how badly injured did you have to be to end up wrapped like that?
Seeing Team Nine assembled, Hiruzen tapped the desk for silence.
"This mission will take you to Supply Station No. 3. The details will be explained by Morino Ibiki."
"Prepare yourselves. You depart in one hour."
With that, he lowered his head and returned to his paperwork.
An hour later, Team Nine set out, now accompanied by Morino Ibiki.
"Hey, is that you, Little Yibi?" Drake leaned over and nudged him.
"Drake, call me by my full name!" Ibiki turned, clearly annoyed.
"Why'd you turn your whole body? You could've just turned your head."
"Because my neck is injured."
Alright… the damage really was serious.
Ibiki and Drake were from the same year. The only difference was that Drake ended up in Team Nine, while Ibiki joined Team Three. The heavy bandages were the only reason Drake hadn't recognized him earlier.
"So, what's the mission?" Drake asked.
"It's complicated."
Ibiki began explaining the background and details.
After hearing it, Team Nine looked completely drained.
In short:
They were to rebuild Supply Station No. 3, which had already been destroyed twice.
Given the circumstances, the Third Hokage had decided to assign a ninja team to both reconstruct and defend it.
"So your injuries were caused by a Sand Village sabotage squad?" Drake asked.
"Yes. And my two teammates were killed."
Ibiki's tone darkened.
Both teammates dead. He alone had survived.
"I see…" Drake rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
Sabotage, infiltration, assassination — these were standard operations before full-scale war. The most critical targets were always supply stations. Once destroyed, frontline forces lost weapons, tools, and explosives, causing combat strength to plummet.
A simple example:
Side A has endless kunai and explosive tags.
Side B has limited supplies.
The outcome was obvious.
Refocusing, Drake asked:
"Rebuilding isn't hard. The real problem is — can we defend it?"
Team Nine plus a half-crippled Ibiki made, what, four and a half people?
How were they supposed to defend a supply station?
All the Sand ninja needed was to sneak in at night and toss a few explosive tags — and that was the end of it.
"This mission is seriously tough…" Kakashi sighed.
Defensive missions already favored numbers. With few people, and the enemy hiding in the dark while they stayed in the open, the disadvantage was massive.
The Next Afternoon
They arrived at the ruins of Supply Station No. 3.
Reconstruction immediately began.
Kakashi hammered away, fixing wooden planks to tree trunks with steady clang clang sounds.
Obito struggled under a pile of reclaimed boards, sweat pouring down his face.
Rin and Ibiki sorted usable materials together.
And Drake?
Left hand holding a plank.
Right hand holding a hammer.
Completely zoned out.
Ninjutsu: Gravity Rasengan (A+ Rank)
Evolution Path: Mass-Type
Staring at his doubled Rasengan, Drake fell into deep thought.
"What is this supposed to be? The Rasengan doubled… and even the name got replaced?"
According to his original expectations, only the rank should have changed — not the name itself.
Just from the naming alone, it was clear this technique had already strayed far from the original Rasengan.
"If it doubles again… will it turn into Chibaku Tensei or something?"
The thought alone was terrifying.
"Hey! Everyone look! Drake's slacking!" Obito suddenly shouted.
The others immediately turned toward him.
"Don't talk nonsense. I'm thinking," Drake retorted with dignity.
"Yeah, right." Obito looked suspicious.
"Drake must be thinking of a way to defend the supply station," Rin quickly defended him.
"Keep working," Kakashi said calmly.
Ibiki watched this scene in confusion.
That dead-last slacker was openly spacing out, yet nobody seemed angry?
Had they… just gotten used to it?
WHOOSH!!!
A bizarre gust of wind swept in from the distance.
Along with it drifted more than a dozen explosive tags.
Everyone instantly retreated over ten meters.
Before their eyes, the tags floated right into the half-built supply station.
BOOM!!!
It exploded.
◇ I'll be dropping one bonus chapters for every 10 reviews. comment
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 100 Power Stones.
◇ You can read 60 chapter ahead on P@treon if you're interested: patreon.com/SwipeSage