Kaiji went to Hiroshi's room in the Genin Corps facility.
He found that Hiroshi wasn't there.
He then went to find Ryota to ask if Hiroshi's mission was complete yet.
"No," Ryota replied. "Their mission is quite far than the one you have done."
He added, "And not only his team, but two other teams from Genin Corps also go with them."
Ryota's response surprised Kaiji. In curiosity, he asked, "What kind of mission they have?!"
Ryota slightly glazed at him, a knowing look in his eyes and said while reminding him of protocol, "Kaiji, don't you know that asking details about other's mission is forbidden."
Kaiji slightly scratched his brown hair, chuckling embarrassedly, a soft scratch against his scalp.
Ryota then softened slightly.
"Well," he said, "I can't tell you full details mission, but since you asking it for your friend's well being, I can atleast tell you little much."
He tell Kaiji, "Their mission is towards north side of Land of Wind.
And if you have even a little knowledge of what going on around great villages, you would understand about Mission."
With that, Ryota turned and left Kaiji to his own thoughts.
Kaiji's face took on slightly furrowed expressions.
As just a new Genin with only one mission on his record, he didn't know much about what was going on around the great villages from current intelligence reports.
But from his anime knowledge... The connection clicked quickly.
Ryota said the mission was towards the north side.
The north bordered the Land of Earth, Iwagakure territory.
The Third Shinobi War would start in a few months.
It didn't take him long to understand the significance of the mission location and the involvement of three full Genin Corps teams.
"Even though War is not started," he murmured to himself, understanding the gravity
"but tension among border of each great nations is obviously only few steps away from bursting."
This was the very reason why Kaiji internally called the Genin Corps department a Cannon Fodder department.
In actuality, the Genin Corps was created to provide a place and purpose for those Genin who couldn't be assigned to a traditional three-man squad with a Jonin sensei during normal, peaceful times.
However, that was only the case during normal times, not during periods when war could start at any moment.
Whereas Genin with a Jonin sensei didn't need to take missions if their Jonin deemed them not ready for dangerous tasks during normal times.
But Genin from the Genin Corps did not have such a privilege.
Once the village assigned them a mission, they had to do it, regardless of their readiness or the danger involved.
There was also a chance that a Genin might sometimes not get a mission for a week or two, and then sometimes they would be given two or three simultaneously without rest.
As Ryota had indicated, all great nations had high tensions on their borders, and everyone was ready to strike.
Everyone was waiting for a trigger event to ignite the war.
Once Sasori killed Satei, his death would inevitably become that trigger.
Iwagakure would be the first to take significant action, and attacking Konoha, then Kumogakure also join.
At that time, Sunagakure, even without a leader, still needed to ensure that other villages didn't take advantage against them.
So, at that time, Genins from the Genin Corps would be sent to the border territories to serve as Cannon Fodders.
Aside from the other four hidden villages, Iwagakure to the North was geographically closest to Sunagakure.
The great fence-sitter, Onoki, while attacking Konoha from the direction of Kusagakure, would definitely try to take advantage of Sunagakure as well.
Village elders would send Kaiji, along with all other Genin Corps members, to protect against offensives from Iwa forces.
Kaiji, even if he didn't want to go, would have no choice; no one could refuse orders from the Village Elders, especially not during that times.
While Sunagakure wouldn't officially participate in the war until Rasa was selected as the Fourth Kazekage, many Genin who were part of teams would be lucky enough to receive more controlled assignments.
But Genin from the Genin Corps Department wouldn't be so lucky.
Many would likely die even before Sunagakure had officially partaken in the Third Shinobi War.
Kaiji sighed heavily, the weight of this reality pressing down on him.
He moved towards his room.
...
All Kaiji could do until then was to become as strong as he could, so he wouldn't get killed during the inevitable war.
"Time is money!"
He stated, reinforcing his determination.
Kaiji then took out the paper and ink he kept for planning.
He started to write down the training methods that he had finally thought of for learning the Seven Heavens Breathing Method Technique.
During the time of his mission, he obviously didn't get much time for his usual morning training with all that travel in the intense heat.
But he did make himself some time to practice Familiarization exercises with sensing Earth Nature during small rests.
He also used the long travel time to think about ways to create himself training methods for the Seven Heavens Breathing Method Technique.
However, throughout all this planning, he also made another crucial decision.
"I should pause Rasengan training for now." He concluded.
He was currently on step 2, the Rubber ball, but he had yet to gain any significant success in rupturing it.
So, he decided to take the time he invested in Rasengan training and give it to something else.
That something else could be the Familiarization exercises for Earth Nature, or starting training regimen for the Seven Heavens Breathing Method, or Medical Ninjutsu training, which he would very soon start learning.
He then meticulously scribed all the processes he had thought of for learning the Seven Heavens Breathing Method, making a soft scratch scratch as he wrote.
After writing everything he had thought of, he added one final note to himself. He mused.
"This all is going to totally experimentantle only!"
•••