Chapter 26: Mission Report
Hokage's Office (Minato's Point of View)
Sitting in his office, Minato stared at the purple-haired jonin and her silvery-white-haired apprentice. He couldn't put his finger on it, but something's changed about his daughter. It didn't seem like the normal change people would go through during this type of mission. Her expression wasn't showing faint signs of distress or PTSD. At first glance, he couldn't identify any of signs she normally displays when she's down. If he were to try to sum up what he was observing, it was almost like she was…. more resolved.
'What could have happened on that mission for her demeanor to change like this?' he wondered.
Deciding to start the conversation, he spoke, "It's good to see you two back so early. How did the mission go?"
Yugao decided to speak first. "The mission was accomplished, but the nature of the problem we dealt with was different than what was listed in the mission orders." She paused, but continued once he gave her a motion to do so; this was the important part.
She continued, "There were no bandits. Instead, it was a collection of four defected jonin-level Iwa shinobi playing the part and setting up false evidence. The goal was to weaken your credibility by persistently cutting off that trade route between the land of fire and the other nations in a similar manner to what we expected. Their motive was revenge against you by slowly weathering away your prestige. They were actually the ones who wanted Konoha to send shinobi, especially since the current generation taking C-Rank missions included almost all the important clan heirs. Their leader was hoping to assassinate a team of them when they arrived on mistaken intelligence."
Hearing that, Minato's eyed widened in a panic.
'How did a bandit extermination turn into a confrontation with four jonin? That's absurd. I would have had an easier time understanding it if they were a part of team seven; any team serving under that number is bound for a cocktail of success and trouble. Man, Mikoto and Kushina are going to kill me.' He internally panicked, his face remaining stern aside from the occasional twitch.
"The four Shinobi were former members of the explosion corps. They were Suzune of the Seismic Cannon, Kagari the steel giant, Tonoe of the illusion dust, and Sima, the second coming of the explosion fist." She said, causing what looked like a small spasm from Minato.
He helplessly asked, "I take it that you either drove them off or killed them?"
'Really? Four A-Rank Shinobi in one mission? I'm tempted to label this as an S-Rank mission.' Truthfully, with what they've told him so far, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to do so. He probably wouldn't due to it being seen as favoritism with his daughter, but that's assuming they conclude the meeting here. From Yugao's earlier signal, there's more.
"Due to them being separated into groups of two, we were able to get the drop on them. Kamui launched a sneak attack on Suzune, which Kagari defended her from; that cost him most of his fighting capability allowing me to swiftly take his life. Suzune was similarly wounded, but was taken down by Kamui.
"During her fight with Suzune, she teleported Suzune's strongest attack to the other two's locations, killing them. Luckily, Sima lived long enough to allow Kamui to rip quite a large amount of intel from his mind. She also peered into Suzune's mind, though the contents were of a different nature.
"What she perceived from Suzune's mind is something I believe you two should talk about in private; it has less intelligence value, as it was a more personal account of Suzune's life along with the accompanying emotions." Minato raised an eyebrow at that.
'Pulling prominent memories with the sharingan wasn't anything new, but experiencing emotions as well? Yes, they would need to discuss this. He would need Mikoto and Kushina as well. Talks like that are best had in a family setting. Her siblings don't need to be there though. This conversation will need some discretion.' He quickly thought and nodded to Yugao.
She continued, "What she pulled from Kagari was the S-Rank intelligence. In his dying moments when he was on his last breath from the sneak attack, Kamui ripped critical intelligence from his mind regarding intelligence about Iwa, Orochimaru, other defected Iwa shinobi cells and more. Oh, that's another thing; Orochimaru is taking in defected Iwa shinobi into his newly-minted shinobi village, the hidden sound. The village's purpose is to destroy the hidden leaf." With that said, she paused. It would be wise to wait for the fourth to digest this new information.
Minato's stern expression faltered into shock. If she only retrieved one of those pieces of information, it would have been big.
While Sima may have been defected for a few years at this point, that didn't mean his intelligence wasn't valuable. Hidden villages don't change that often. Just look at Konoha, every little change can take years to get through due to the inherently slow changing nature of things; it only changed recently due to his daughter. Iwa was even worse. They were known to be firm in their ways, which worked to Konoha's distinct advantage in this case.
In the case of the rogue Iwa shinobi, that would be helpful, especially if Kamui had locations of their safe houses, outposts, and operations. He could initiate a quick operation to wipe them all out at once or at least the ones Sima was aware of; it's not like all Iwa defectors know or even trust each other.
As for Orochimaru, they knew about him creating the Hidden Sound village; that's actually where his sensei was right now, investigating that village and its affiliates. He just didn't know about its connection with the Iwa defectors. If that was true, then Orochimaru was likely planning a large operation pretty soon. Based off his personality, there's no way he could house that many non-loyal shinobi without experimenting on them, especially when you consider there are quite a few bloodline limits among them. Their stay would be short, so an operation needed to happen fast.
After this meeting, he needed to send a toad to meet Jiraiya. They needed to quickly pool their intelligence and reassess their current efforts.
With those things considered, Minato spoke, "It sounds like you're going to be busy over the next couple of days Kamui. You're going to have to transcribe everything you've learned. I want written reports on everything. I need maps drawn as well; make sure you include coordinates for all key facilities with detailed descriptions. Yugao will review everything you write and make sure it's up to standard. I'm going to trust you to prioritize your findings and provide updated packages every two hours. We're all going to be busy with these findings and we need to be fast and comprehensive." Minato said seriously. Truthfully, most of what he said was unnecessary. However, this was Kamui's first mission report and this intelligence was too important to be mishandled. As Hokage, it was his duty to make sure that the procedures for this type of intelligence were clear. They didn't have time to do it over. Right now, every second counts.
"Right!" Kamui firmly stated.
Minato let out a proud smile, "Good job. I would like to congratulate you further, but we're short on time, so I'm assigning this to you as an S-Rank mission. The intelligence needs to be transcribed and delivered to me personally every two hours. I'll summon a toad to stay with you during the course of each day. He will bring all of your reports to me. This is to stay strictly confidential. Lastly on this, your previous mission will be upgraded to A-Rank. Since I'm classifying the intelligence you've gathered as a separate mission, this one is only being assigned a rating based on the danger."
Hearing this, the two nodded. They understood the position the fourth was in; it was the downside to being related to him.
Minato continued, "Alright, I'll get with Mikoto and Kushina and we'll set aside some time this evening to talk about what you've seen from Suzune's mind." Kamui nodded at this.
Internally, she was a little annoyed. This was supposed to be a moment where they would get a "good job" and get some rest. Instead, they were compelled by duty to convert years' worth of intelligence into written record. Tedious would be an understatement.
'Maybe I can come up with an alternative for future missions? In any case, the shadow clone jutsu will be a godsend for this. In fact, I may not need to be there personally at all once I have the routine going.'
Minato bit his finger, drawing a small amount of blood. Then, he went through a few hand signs and placed his right hand on the ground. A circular seal made of numerous kanji was produced and out of it appeared a black toad with yellow markings and eyes.
The toad silently looked at Minato; it was ready for orders.
Seeing this, Kamui asked, "Can you talk?"
The toad turned around and looked at her with a withering expression. "All summoning toads can talk dimwit. The question is if we're willing to." He said in a deep voice.
Kamui looked at the toad with confusion. "Why wouldn't you be willing to?"
Before the toad could respond, Minato did, "Kamui, let's have this conversation later. Gamatarou, I'd like to ask you to stay with Kamui here. She's going to be spending the next couple of days transcribing S-Rank intelligence. We need help ferrying it over."
Again, before the toad could talk, Yugao did, "I'm surprised Kamui hasn't signed a contract with them by now. Considering her prowess and the missions we'll be going on, wouldn't it make sense for her to have signed it?" Although it wasn't her business on who signs the contract, it was odd considering the close family relationship. Knowing Minato, she doubted he withheld it due to her not being blood related; he didn't think like that.
Minato smiled embarrassedly. "We thought about that, but according to the toad elders, the great toad sage made sure to clarify that she's not compatible with them. From what the two elders said, they interpreted his next words as a recommendation to use an empty summoning similar to what master Jiraiya did back in the day."
The toad was about to say something again, but Yugao spoke up before he could, "Isn't that dangerous though? I thought we specifically recommend against doing that."
Minato glanced at Kamui, then turned his eyes back toward Yugao and responded, "Normally it is. You don't really know where you're going to end up. In a situation where someone isn't attuned to a particular summoning realm, they could literally end up anywhere. I'll tell you what. Why don't we have that as an incentive for the transcription. Kamui is clearly ready for whatever trials she may face there, so I'll set it up as a personal non-ranked mission to get her summoning contract. Worst case scenario, she can always teleport back.
"That works for me. What about you Kamui." Yugao replied and looked toward her student.
"Works for me. I've been waiting for this for a while now." Kamui said. Then, she glanced at the toad who looked pretty annoyed at this point. "See, this is why you should've spoken earlier. Maybe, you could've been part of the conversation." She finished with mirth on her face.
"Shut up. Let's get to work, so I can go home." Gamatarou said as he hopped on Kamui's head.
Deciding they've stalled enough, Minato commanded, "Alright, you're dismissed. Yugao will show you where this needs to be transcribed. It's a different location due to the sensitive nature of the intelligence."
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