Chapter 45: Chapter 45 : Side Mission 3
[Shika's POV]
One could build up an instinct to predict when life has something in store for them. Life has screwed me enough times to know that this was one of those times.
When that merchant gave him money he could feel that something wasn't right. Say it is an instinct or just the way the entire thing was playing out.
First, he doesn't even notice that there is a girl travelling with them and then she runs away the first time she gets.
If that wasn't enough then it also turned out that the fat merchant gave him more money to bring her back.
So here I was, looking for the said girl but I couldn't find her anywhere. The thought that the merchant lied to me came into my mind but I could find no reason why would he do that.
To run away? Possibly but I still had my shadow clone keeping a watch on the caravan.
None of them were shinobi, so I doubt they could outrun a shinobi anyway so their running away sounds far-fetched.
So the real question is if the girl really do exist then where is she?
"Wuff..." And that was when I heard my dog started barking.
"You got her scent...?"
"Wuff..."
"Awesome, take me to her..." I smiled eager to find the girl and resume this mission.
Turns out that I was wrong. Even after going after her scent for another 10 minutes, I couldn't reach up to her. This was really strange.
"I'm I dealing with a Kunoichi here ?" I can't help but wonder.
Seeing that walking in a forest wasn't fast enough I decided to take the matters to the sky. Summoning Nue I directly went up to the sky and took the broader look around the area.
Took me some time but I finally found a figure running away.
"Okay, Kunoichi for sure..." I rolled my eyes, now this mission was getting borderline troublesome.
Part becuase this kunoiche wasn't from Konoha. I could say because no Konoha Shinobi will take the ground over jumping over the trees, our training does a way that we are inherently faster jumping on trees compared to on foot when in a forest.
A non-Konoha Kunoichi came out of a cavern which came from Konoha and was heading towards the capital.
It's pretty suspicious if I have to say anything.
I thought about it again and then finally decided.
---
"You brought her back." The fat Merchant called out as he ran towards me while I brought a girl who was bound by my ropes and her mouth sealed, trashing around, trying to escape.
"Yeah, good runner this one. Had to work extra hard to capture her. Keep sprouting something nonsense as you said." I said while looking at the girl who looked in her 16 or 17 glaring daggers at me.
"Good, here is your reward." The merchant smiled and tossed another 20,000 Ryo at me. With the earlier 20k Ryo, I now have almost double the price of this escort mission. Don't even have to pay tax on this money to the village since it's under a table deal.
However...
"I don't know, all that nonsense sounded legit. I might wanna take her back to the village for a little identification seeing what she was saying. Would you mind if I report her back to the village? Won't take much time..." I smiled while slowly tossing the money pouch in my hand like testing its weight.
The fat man at this glaring at me, looked like he was constipating.
"Here, keep your mouth shut about this." Ultimately the man took out another pouch from his ropes and tossed it at me. This time the weight felt almost twice as the last pouch. Around 30k Ryo If I make a generous estimate.
"About what ?" I asked and the man's glare intensified,
Just as he was about to say something most likely to reprimand me or argue about not spending more money. I said this cutting him off.
"There is nothing to talk about at all. Just help a helpless girl and bring her back." I shrugged and tossed the girl at the Merchant who too nodded. Understanding my underlying message that I had nothing to do with her.
And thus the journey continued.
---
Only after one more day that I realise that something was strange, though we were still moving towards the capital but we were taking the longer route. I kept my mouth shut making sure to be observant.
Soon the party stopped in a tavern near the capital of the land of Fire. There was no reason to stop when we were so close but they stopped nonetheless.
"We gonna stay here for some time." The fat merchant said, making everyone act swiftly while making me confused. Why stop outside the capital but not enter it?
"And you Shinobi, your work is done here. We can take it from here on." Said the man.
"Are you sure, though the capital is near but I was paid to escort you to the capital. You want me to stop here ?" I don't get why the man wanted to stay there but since he wanted to I didn't ask why.
"Yes. You have been a tremendous help, thank you." Said the man as he came closer and shook my hand before immediately letting it go and turning around like he no longer recognised my existence there.
This was sudden but since I was done here and the client no longer needed my service then it was my time to get going.
[POV END]
---
The merchant caravan stayed there without moving out for the entire day, nothing happened. Everything was uneventful.
Only the night that something happened.
"Boss there is no one there. We used the password but got no response ?" Said one of the men to the fat merchant.
" What's going on, are you sure you went to the right location ?" Asked the man as he grits his teeth together.
"Yes, there is no one there ?" Reponse the man with a helpless tone.
"Damn it..." The fat man roared out and snapped open the door. He went directly to the place where he kept the girl in bondage.
"Wake up you bitch, tell me who are you and what relationship you have with that man from the capital?" Shouted the merchant as he roughly grabbed onto the girl's neck.
The girl was jolted awake.
"What...? What are you talking about? I did nothing, ple...please let me go." The girl shuttered seeing the man holding her neck and tears started to appear in her eyes.
"Tsk, I'll sell you to the slave market if no one came to buy you after I went through all this trouble to get you from Konoha." Shouted the man with saliva flying out of his mouth.
The girl looked completely horrified. She wanted to break free but couldn't do anything.
Another day passed like this and the fat merchant now was getting anxious. He came back to the girl once again but this time it seemed that since he was getting this anxious and out of patience he had started to drink.
He was completely drunk.
"Bitch, where is the man who wanted you kidnapped? Tell me why he went so far as to offer so much money to kidnap you ?" He slurred as he entered the room where the girl was kept.
Quivering the girl stayed where she was, not moving from her place.
The man kept on cursing until he suddenly stopped, he looked at the girl with a side glance and kept his eyes on her.
His eyes roamed all over her body until he finally stood up and went up to her.
"Seems like I have no other option but to sell you to the slave market..." Same the man as he grabs onto the girl's face with a gleam in his eyes.
His thump sensually rubbed the girl's lips as the girl saw the man's pants start to bulge.
She had an idea what was coming.
"How about I take a look at the goods before that..." The man had a sinister grin on his face as he roughly grabbed the girl, by his movement it looked like he was about to tear open the clothes which she was wearing only for her hand to be stopped a few inches away.
"Alright, that's all I'm ready to take..."
Chapter 46: Chapter 46 : Side Mission 4
*Swoop...
The door opened and from it came out a girl with blood all over her body. Behind her was a body which was lying in a pool of blood. This was the fat merchant who was killed by her.
Her eyes were completely devoid of any emotions currently, only a cold and calculating gaze was lingering on her face.
"Troublesome..." She let out a sigh and then with a puff of smoke she disappeared.
---
[Shika POV]
I almost jolted from my place as memories of torture and blood came to me.
"Huff huff..." It wasn't just torture and blood but also confinement and boredom which assaulted me.
"Knew it, something is fishy..." I can't help but let out a sigh, finding the situation troublesome.
After knowing that the girl was a Kunoichi and was earlier in Konoha, I just couldn't let it go unnoticed. So I created a Shadow Clone and made it turn into the girl and let my other shadow clone take her pretending in from of the fat merchant that I got her the girl he wanted.
In reality, I never came in contact with the girl period.
And it's a good thing that my Nara instincts kicked in right time and did so becuase it turned out that this girl was actually inside Konoha and the Merchant was tasked to kidnap her out of the village.
My clone resorted to torturing the fat guy when he showed his real colours. Trying to assault her, sigh...
If it wasn't a clone or a kunoiche then I could only think what might have happened to that poor girl.
The Merchant got what he deserved, I tortured him until I extracted all the information I needed before killing him. And of course, I looted all his money, I mean why not.
Anyways, back to the real me. Now knowing that this girl is SUS AF... my decision to follow her was right.
The merchant was given money to kidnap her out of Konoha. To my best guess, I believe that it was someone working with the girl to take her outside of the village.
This way they could draw the minimum amount of attention towards her.
I don't even know how a Kunoiche was able to get inside the village without others knowing.
There are spies for sure, but Konoha has an advantage in this regard, the sensory barrier of the village, the curtsy of Uzumaki clan Fuinjutsu, can distinguish new chakra really well. So even if they can't find out whether someone is a spy or not but the village sensory team can easily find any new chakra entering the village.
The only exceptions to this are civilians.
In this world, everyone has chakra but only trained shinobi can use it and have noticeably higher levels of chakra spikes than a civilian because of their training.
Anything close to a normal civilian level of chakra and the sensory barrier is useless. This information is mostly a secret but being a member of the Nara clan has some perks.
She is not a Civillain, that's for sure, however, I don't see much chakra in her either. Maybe she fell into the grey area in the sensory range or she might have come to Konoha when her chakra coils were not developed?
Honestly, I have no idea. However, how she pulled it off wasn't important right now. What was important was her intentions.
Why she is leaving the village now? If she is leaving means that she has gotten what she was looking for. Did she steal some village's secrets?
Another thing which didn't make sense to me was If she was pretending to be a civillain then can't she just walk out of the main gate like any other normal person?
Why make this extravagant plan in the first place?
Honestly, there were too many questions right now in my mind but zero answers. I had two thoughts about intersecting her in and getting her intention out of her but that won't do either.
That's way I most likely won't get to the person who is helping her from outside. Seeing that she was still going towards the capital, it became even more important that I find out who was responsible for putting a spy in Konoha.
And thus I didn't disturb her and just followed her till we reached the place.
Turn out that she was moving towards the capital but her destination wasn't exactly the captain of the Land Of Fire.
She was actually going beyond that. With her speed, it took two days and that was the exact time I got the memories of my clone.
And it turned out that my idea was right, trailing her was the right decision.
The timing was right since she seemed to come to her destination.
Soon I saw her slowing down and waiting near an outpost near the border of the land of fire.
It was a completely open area but thanks to it being night, I was able to hide inside shadows.
Waiting for all this time surely rewarded me, soon I saw someone coming to this almost isolated place.
Now it was only her and that person there.
"Hmm, I need to get closer if I want to learn what they are talking about…" I muttered seeing how much distance was between us. So with that said I entered into the shadow and got closer.
If only there was a Shikigami who could transmit voice to me. Maybe I could use a transmitter in one of my Shikigami for this purpose next time. I mused and got closer.
Thanks to Hinata, I have learned that even someone with Bayakugan has a hard time finding me when I'm inside shadows if they don't specifically have their eyes active.
However, I Immediately regretted going closer.
"Ah, not so fast, Ahmmm… "
"Inside, I want it inside…"
Weekly Power Status
200+ Power
Ranking 
65 Power
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