NOVEL NEXT Chapter 32 – The Scale of the Three-Tails!
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"A… thing?"
Zabuza showed a hint of curiosity.
But the moment he saw what Nagi pulled out, his eyes widened in shock.
"This is—?!"
Nagi could already tell from Zabuza's reaction that he probably recognized it.
"Nagi-sama, I've sensed this kind of chakra before—it was on the Fourth Mizukage!"
The armor-like object in front of him gave off the same sensation as when he'd faced Yagura.
"Yagura, huh…"
Nagi fell silent for a moment. If that was the case, he had a pretty good idea of what this object might be.
"Nagi-sama, where did you get this thing?"
Zabuza asked, puzzled.
Nagi casually explained that it had been a gift from the villagers here.
"Your luck is just absurd…"
Zabuza was honestly stunned. Nagi's outrageous good fortune left him speechless.
Once everything in the Land of Waves was handled, Nagi prepared to return to Konoha.
Coincidentally, Team 7—Kakashi and the others—were also heading back.
This time, Nagi didn't mind joining them.
"Nagi-kun!"
If anyone was especially thrilled about traveling with him, it was Sakura.
"Nagi, did you finish your mission already?"
She asked curiously.
Their own mission had been to escort Tazuna back to the Land of Waves.
And frankly, they'd treated it like a normal C-rank mission the whole time.
She had no idea what kind of mission Nagi had been on, though.
"Yes, it was just a C-rank mission after all"
Nagi replied casually.
"Ha! So it was just like ours!"
Naruto lit up instantly.
"Idiot."
Sasuke scowled. Naruto's naivety was unbearable.
Did he really think Nagi's mission was only C-rank?
The man they'd fought earlier—Zabuza—was no joke. Sasuke's expression turned serious.
"At the very least, Nagi's mission had to be A-rank…"
He didn't know how the mission ranking system worked exactly, but there was no way someone like Zabuza—a high-level jonin—would be involved in anything less than A-rank.
His gaze toward Nagi grew even more solemn.
Just how terrifying was his strength now?
On the journey back to Konoha, everything went eerily smoothly—probably thanks to Nagi's presence.
In less than a day, they returned to the village.
"Time to report in,"
Kakashi said as he led Team 7 and Nagi into the Mission Center.
The moment people inside saw Nagi, the place exploded.
"It's Nagi! He actually came back alive!"
"No way! He survived that mission?!"
Everyone stared in disbelief.
"What's going on?"
Naruto blinked. Why was everyone talking about Nagi?
"Oh my, Nagi-sama!"
The mission desk supervisor came running out.
The moment he saw Nagi safe and sound, his heart finally relaxed.
"I must apologize, Nagi-sama. There was a serious error during the client's mission classification review!"
"The mission you completed should have been ranked A-rank!"
After Nagi left last time, the supervisor had felt something was off and asked the reviewers to re-evaluate the mission.
What they found shocked them.
The mission had involved the underhanded dealings of Gato, the infamous shipping magnate of the Land of Waves.
And according to intel from the black market, Gato had possibly hired none other than Momochi Zabuza, a notorious rogue ninja from the Hidden Mist!
The moment the truth came out, the supervisor nearly cried.
He had mistakenly handed an A-rank mission to a fresh genin prodigy from their own village.
And worse—this prodigy had little real field experience.
If anything had gone wrong, the fallout would've been fatal… for the supervisor.
"Are you talking about Zabuza?"
Nagi raised an eyebrow. From the guy's expression, he'd already guessed.
"You… you actually encountered him?!"
The man was floored.
"Not only did he encounter Zabuza, he seriously wounded him,"
Kakashi cut in.
He didn't claim Zabuza was dead—he hadn't seen it himself—but Nagi had clearly left a mark.
"My god…"
That was all it took. The room of shinobi erupted.
A newly graduated genin… who was already a Special Jonin… had gone toe-to-toe with a veteran elite jonin… and won?!
"No wonder… he really is Konoha's number one prodigy!"
Only now did they truly understand what the Third Hokage meant when he said those words—"Konoha's number one prodigy" wasn't just hype.
"This is the corrected reward for your mission—one million ryō!"
The supervisor didn't hesitate and handed over a stack of cash.
Honestly, it was still a small price for defeating someone like Zabuza.
"What?! One million?!"
Naruto shouted.
Holy crap. He'd never even seen that much money in his life!
And Nagi had earned it in a single mission?!
"W-What about our mission?"
Naruto quickly shoved forward their own completion report.
The supervisor glanced at it.
"So you ran into Zabuza too?"
"Alright. Here's your bonus—150,000 ryō."
"WHAT?! Why is there such a huge difference?!"
"We met the same guy, didn't we?!"
"Idiot. Without Nagi, we'd all be dead,"
Sasuke muttered coldly.
They hadn't really contributed to the fight at all. Even getting 150,000 was far above what their C-rank escort job should've earned.
"Well… fine."
150,000 wasn't bad after all.
But just as Naruto started to feel a little better, Kakashi stepped in and pulled out about 100,000 from the envelope—for team expenses.
Naruto: "??????"
What?!
[End of Chapter]