Chapter 20: Bottleneck
Konoha Village, Mission Hall.
Ryuya was flipping through a C-rank mission list in the hall, which detailed all the currently available C-rank missions in the village.
After this period of cheat-like cultivation, Ryuya's savings had been almost completely exhausted.
If he wanted to continue spending money on cultivation, he first had to take on missions to earn more.
It wasn't that Ryuya didn't want to accept higher-level commissions—it was simply that his strength and ninja rank didn't allow it.
In Konoha, the classification of commissioned missions was extremely strict. Ninjas of each rank could only accept missions corresponding to their level. Jōnin could accept all missions up to S-rank; chūnin could accept B-rank to D-rank missions; and genin could only accept C-rank and D-rank missions.
Among them, S-rank missions were generally commissions from major forces, mainly involving assassinations of key figures, theft of confidential intelligence, and similar tasks.
A-rank missions were also mostly commissions from organizations, focusing on protecting important individuals, hunting rogue ninjas, and the like.
B-rank to D-rank missions were usually issued by individuals. B-rank and C-rank missions had a possibility of combat, while D-rank missions generally involved no fighting at all.
At present, Ryuya was only a genin, so the commissions he could accept were limited to C-rank and D-rank.
From the perspective of pay, Ryuya naturally prioritized C-rank missions.
He had also considered asking their squad leader, Ichikawa Shin, to lead Team Thirty-One on missions, but Sagawa and Yūhi Teru were currently immersed in intense training.
Two days earlier, after his strength had increased dramatically, Ryuya had called the two of them to the training ground for a friendly spar. On the spot, he easily defeated Sagawa and Yūhi Teru even when they teamed up.
Stimulated by this defeat, both of them swore to quickly master the C-rank ninjutsu they had obtained and wash away the humiliation.
Left with no other choice, Ryuya had to come alone.
However, after browsing through the mission list, Ryuya's brows furrowed involuntarily.
Judging from the content of the list, Ryuya was confident he could handle most of the C-rank missions in terms of difficulty and strength.
But almost all of these C-rank missions had minimum personnel requirements. There was simply no way for Ryuya to accept them alone.
No wonder, when watching Naruto in the past, Konoha ninjas always went on missions in teams—there were personnel requirements.
This gave Ryuya quite a headache. In the few months since arriving in the ninja world, the number of ninjas he had come into contact with was limited. There were very few people he could reliably form a team with. Aside from Kyōko and the three members of Team Thirty-One, Ryuya really couldn't find any suitable candidates.
Missions weren't child's play—there was always a risk of losing one's life. Most ninjas were unwilling to team up with unfamiliar strangers.
After some thought, with no other option, Ryuya could only choose from the D-rank missions.
Mission: Find the White-Spotted Cat
Mission Description: Granny Matsui lives in Unit 2, Building 10, West Street, Konoha Village. The white-spotted cat is a pet she has raised for five years. The cat disappeared from her home seven days ago, and Granny Matsui is very anxious. She entrusts kind-hearted people to help her find the white-spotted cat.
Mission Rank: D
Mission Reward: 10,000
Contribution Points: 5
Time Limit: Within one month
Mission Status: Unaccepted
Looking at the reward column, Ryuya felt a trace of melancholy, but he still accepted it.
No matter how small a mosquito is, it's still meat.
On March 1st of Konoha Year 51, from the moment Ryuya alone accepted the mission to find the white-spotted cat in the mission hall, his solo-grinding mode officially began.
Ryuya completed the mission of finding the white-spotted cat in less than half a day.
Finding a lost cat might be difficult for other ninjas, but for Ryuya, who possessed a biological chip, it was simple.
After arriving at Granny Matsui's home and using the biological chip to collect enough clues, he quickly analyzed and deduced the cat's whereabouts.
Following the trail, Ryuya completed the mission smoothly.
When Ryuya returned to the mission hall to submit the mission and successfully received the 10,000 reward and 5 contribution points, he suddenly had an epiphany.
Rather than spending more time and energy on risky higher-level missions, he might as well use that time to complete more D-rank missions.
In terms of individual rewards and contribution points, D-rank missions were naturally far inferior to C-rank missions and above.
But Ryuya's efficiency in completing D-rank missions was extremely high. Moreover, all the rewards and contribution points went entirely to him, and there was no risk to his life.
Where else could one find such a good deal?
As a result, over the next month, many Konoha ninjas who frequently hung around the mission hall witnessed a jaw-dropping scene.
Under the influence of the "law of truth," Ryuya began a sweep of the D-rank missions released by the Konoha mission hall.
On the notice board in the mission hall, within the D-rank mission section, Ryuya's name appeared with the highest frequency.
Morning of March 2nd: Konoha genin Akimichi Ryuya successfully completed a D-rank mission, helping villagers drive away wild boars that were destroying farmland.
Afternoon of March 2nd: Konoha genin Akimichi Ryuya successfully completed a D-rank mission, assisting villagers in clearing the irrigation channels of Baosheng Village.
March 3rd: Konoha genin Akimichi Ryuya successfully completed a D-rank mission, investigating the cause of spring wheat seedling deaths.
...
Each time Ryuya appeared, he was either taking a large batch of D-rank missions or submitting several completed D-rank missions at once.
In just one short month, Ryuya alone completed seventy-nine D-rank missions.
This number was already close to the total number of D-rank missions many fairly strong ninjas would complete in their entire lives.
The sight truly stunned many people. Since Konoha's founding, no one had ever seen someone complete D-rank missions at such an astonishing efficiency.
However, Ryuya's actions also aroused dissatisfaction among many low-level ninjas.
After all, even in Konoha, one of the Five Great Ninja Villages, the number of missions released in the mission hall at any given time was limited.
Ryuya single-handedly sweeping up so many D-rank missions naturally reduced the number available to other genin. Many civilian-background ninjas with limited strength relied on these missions to make a living.
Very quickly, Ryuya drew widespread resentment within this group.
Privately, some people had already branded him as deliberately causing trouble.
With this level of strength, why didn't he take higher-level missions? Why did he have to compete with them for D-rank ones?
With public anger running high, the issue was directly reported to the Fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato.
Upon receiving the report, the Fourth Hokage was both amused and exasperated. In the end, he could only send an ANBU operative to give Ryuya a warning and place a monthly limit on the number of D-rank missions he could accept.
This left Ryuya feeling rather depressed.
He had finally found such a fast way to make money, only for it to be cut off just like that.
Unwilling to suffer a loss, Ryuya spent quite a bit of effort arguing his case and ultimately managed to "extort" two C-rank ninjutsu from Namikaze Minato.
One was Earth Release: Earth Flow Wall, and the other was Wind Release: Great Breakthrough.
One offensive and one defensive—perfect for boosting Ryuya's combat power.
During this month, while Ryuya was crazily solo-grinding D-rank missions, his strength also increased steadily and rapidly.
The commission money from those seventy-nine D-rank missions was almost spent the moment it came in, all of it used to purchase food to support the cultivation of both Ryuya and the green snake.
Under the enhancement of the Gluttony Sealing Mark, one man and one snake had both become major consumers of food.
However, although the expenditure was enormous, the results were equally astonishing.
Ryuya had now firmly reached the level of an elite chūnin. Whether in terms of physical attributes or the amount of chakra in his body, he was already close to the upper limit of a chūnin.
The only thing Ryuya currently lacked was real combat experience.
Moreover, a few days earlier, Ryuya had clearly felt that the effects of the Body Activation technique and the Gluttony Sealing Mark during cultivation had weakened significantly, and his body had begun to feel faintly "full."
At first, Ryuya was somewhat puzzled, thinking there was a problem with his cultivation.
Only after a thorough examination using the biological chip did he find the reason.
A ninja's body has limits. Ryuya was still only a fourteen-year-old youth, his body not yet fully developed. Given his talent, the elite chūnin level was already his current ceiling.
If he wanted to break through, he could only slowly remodel his body through the Body Activation technique and wait for his natural physical development to mature.
In the short term, Ryuya was temporarily unable to break through to the level of a jōnin.