By the end of the day's weeding mission, everyone was covered in sweat and dirt.
Sakura wiped away sweat while complaining about the blisters on her hands. Sasuke turned and left without a word. Naruto simply bid the two of them a brief farewell before heading back to his apartment.
The next day.
Kakashi was over an hour late again. After the usual excuse about getting lost, he assigned the three of them a mission to clean up trash in a river channel.
The mission site was a river on the edge of Konoha. The river wasn't very wide, but the current was quite swift. The channel was filled with a pile of random trash thrown by who knows who, ranging from plastic bags to beverage bottles.
Kakashi sat on a large rock by the riverbank, continuing to read his Icha Icha Paradise, occasionally looking up to shout, "Over there! You missed one!"
Naruto rolled up his pants and stepped into the river. While fishing out trash, he began to observe the terrain of the area.
The river wound its way through the interior of Konoha, and by this point, it was nearing the edge of the village. At the end of the river channel was a cliff drop, where the river water poured down to form a waterfall.
The pool beneath the waterfall was surrounded by a dense forest. Looking down from the top of the waterfall, one could only see a canopy of green shrouded in water vapor.
Naruto's eyes brightened slightly. He cleaned trash along the river downstream, observing the environment around the waterfall more carefully as he picked things up.
This area was quite far from the center of Konoha. There were no houses or fields nearby, and the closest structure was an abandoned watermill cabin that looked like it hadn't been used for many years.
The sound of the waterfall was incredibly loud, one had to raise their voice to be heard while standing by the pool. This noise could perfectly mask sounds made during training.
Furthermore, because the area was shrouded in mist year-round, the forest here was very damp with soft soil, making it an environment unsuitable for human gathering or activity.
Naruto silently added this waterfall pool to the top of his shortlist, planning to find a time another day to scout the location properly without being monitored, so he could thoroughly map out the surrounding environment.
The third day's mission left Naruto completely speechless.
Kakashi led the three of them to a wealthy residential area in Konoha, stopping in front of a mansion with a large, private garden.
The person who opened the door was a middle-aged woman wearing a gorgeous kimono, holding a poodle dressed in a little vest.
She looked at the four ninjas, then explained the content of her request in a condescending tone, "My little princess needs to go for a walk today, but I am feeling unwell. You all will take her to Konoha Park for a stroll. Remember to wipe her paws with wet wipes. Also, she doesn't like walking on gravel paths, and if you encounter other dogs, you must pick her up. And..."
Before she could finish, Sakura's face had already darkened, Sasuke's face was even darker, and the corners of Naruto's lips were twitching.
Kakashi, without changing his expression, took the leash and said with his most standard smile, "Please, leave it to us."
And so, the four of them began what could be called the most humiliating mission of their ninja careers: walking a poodle that had its own dedicated wardrobe.
Naruto walked in the middle of the group holding the leash, thinking to himself just how rich one had to be to pay ninjas to walk their dog.
Konoha's Genin mission system had always been famous in the Ninja World for weeding, finding cats, and picking up trash, but this was his first time encountering dog walking.
However, dog walking had one benefit: he could stroll around various areas of Konoha openly and legitimately without raising anyone's suspicion.
When passersby saw a few Genin walking a poodle down the street, they only felt amusement and sympathy. No one would suspect they were scouting locations.
Taking advantage of the dog-walking opportunity, Naruto walked through several areas on the outskirts of Konoha, silently drawing a map in his mind.
When the walking route passed by a patch of wasteland in the northwest corner of Konoha, Naruto's footsteps paused slightly.
At the entrance to the wasteland stood a conspicuous wooden warning sign, with "Trap Area, Do Not Enter" written in red paint, and a rough wooden fence surrounded it.
Looking inside through the gaps in the fence, one could see dense layers of barbed wire, bear traps, and pitfall traps on the ground, some already rusted and looking quite aged.
"Kakashi-sensei, what is this place?" Naruto turned and asked Kakashi.
"It's an early trap training ground for Konoha."
Kakashi put his book away, glancing at the wasteland behind the fence. "It was used during wartime to train Genin in setting and disarming traps. It was abandoned later on. The traps inside were never cleared and fell into disrepair. There was an accident a few years ago, and it's been sealed off since."
"Why, Naruto? Are you interested?"
"No, I was just asking." Naruto shook his head and continued walking the dog.
But in his mind, he had already marked this trap area as a priority.
Abandoned training ground, warning signs, fenced off—normal people wouldn't come in here at all.
Compared to the waterfall, this place was closer to the center of the village, but the risk was actually lower because everyone assumed no one would enter.
As for those traps, they weren't a big problem for him. He could just spend some time clearing them out slowly.
Naruto compared the waterfall area and the trap area in his mind, deciding to choose one once the time was right.