S-Rank Mission!!

Mirai draws a job clearing out a bandit den and takes down every one of them, though her shaky control still hampers her handling of the chakra blades. When Leaf shinobi arrive to haul the captives away, they praise how capable she is, likening her to both her father and her grandfather. The compliment pleases her, yet on the walk home it leaves her uneasy, wondering whether being measured against her father is the only reason she ever became a ninja at all.

On the morning a Five Kage Summit convenes in Konoha, Mirai prepares to head out, first offering a prayer before a photograph of her father. Her mother Kurenai assumes she will be guarding the Seventh Hokage during the gathering as she has before, but Mirai explains she is instead escorting Might Guy and Kakashi Hatake. A startled Kurenai tells her to be careful, and Mirai promises she will, adding that the trip should keep her away for a couple of days. On her way to the two men, she thinks back to Shikamaru handing her the task: to accompany Kakashi and Guy while they survey the frontier between the Land of Fire and the Land of Hot Water. The assignment caught her off guard, but she agreed once Shikamaru mentioned the Seventh had personally requested her.

Reading between the lines, Mirai figures the Hokage had a hidden motive, guessing that the former Hokage Kakashi must live under constant threat of assassination and therefore needs a bodyguard of her skill. She swears to keep him safe. Her resolve goes untested, however, as no one makes any move against Kakashi once they depart, not even an old couple she eyes as possible disguised terrorists. Instead, Kakashi and Guy amble along chatting about birds and old memories toward their first stop, a little town inside the Land of Fire where they will stay the night. Mirai chafes at their slow pace on day one, until Kakashi quiets her by gesturing at the Land of Hot Water on the horizon, the birthplace of the man who killed her father.

Mirai clears a bandit hideout but doubts whether she stands apart from her father's legacy. On the day of a Five Kage Summit, she learns her mission is to escort Kakashi and Guy as they inspect the Land of Fire's border with the Land of Hot Water. She assumes the Seventh chose her to guard Kakashi from assassins. The journey proves peaceful, and Kakashi points out that their destination sits near the homeland of her father's killer.

This is the second chapter of the Konoha Shinden: Steam Ninja Scrolls manga, collected in volume 1. It centers on Mirai Sarutobi and quietly reintroduces the grief tied to Hidan, her father Asuma's killer. An anime version carries a closely related title.