Chapter 12: Chapter 12 - First Mission
The next day, September, 25AV
Northern Gate, Konohagakure
The members of the newly formed forward assualt jonin squad, were standing at the northern gate of konoha early morning, waiting for their jonin sensei. As soon as Kagami arrived, they set out of the village in a few shunshins.
After they travelled about half way across the land of fire, they stopped near a river and crouched under a tree for a meeting.
"Alright, guys. This will be your first mission. Hokage-sama has already assigned our tasks. We are to head to the shared borders of Land of fire and Land of hotspring. There has been frequenct skirmishes with vagabonds or alleged missing nins. Few konoha sentries were kidnapped and killed and the border towns has been raided a few times. This is a B level mission, we need to investigate what's happening there." Kagami bagan by outlining their mission objectives. And ordered with a serious expression,
"I know it will be your first mission and this one can be normal or delicate. Depending on the circumstances, it can escalate to an A class mission. It will be your responsibility to do the initial investigations. If it is confirmed that there is nothing amiss and I will be the judge of that, you will eliminate the threat and the mission can be marked completed." Everyone nodded to show they understood.
"However" He paused and looked at them to convey the gravity of the matter, "should you find Anything that could or would threaten the national security, I will take command and we will collect as much information as possible, possibly capture a shinobi or two for interrogation back home. Under no circumstances, are you to engage the enemy without my direct say so. Is that clear?"
"Hai, sensei." Everyone nodded and claimed lightly.
Since this was their first outing outside their village, they were very curious and looked anywhere and everywhere with gliterring eyes from the start of their journey. Shinjo was no exception. However, once they understood the mission objective and the gravity of their situation, they shed their non-chalance and became professional, as they were taught to.
Kagami, satisfied with their attitude, softened his tone and continued, "Alright, we have been rushing the entire morning and a good part of the afternoon. Take half an hour rest and eat some pills to replenish your energies. We will rush all the way to our outposts at the border, get a debrief and start our mission."
After a while, they all left for the border in the north-east.
.....
It was a moonless night. Everywhere, all quiet. The night had draped the landscape with a quilt of darkness, with occasioal hootings of owls and the startled sounds of wings flapping in the distance. A boy of 7 with shoulder length straight hair, tied down by a low pony tail could be seen lurking 20 ft above the ground, on a sturdy branch. He was looking intently at two bandits, dressed in raggard clothes and a few makeshift leather armours, conversing in subdued voices. They had a lazy drawl to their voice, with a drawn out accent. Probably from the land of hotsprings.
"The leader has been on edge lately. There have been a lot raids in the last few days."
"Right? Since when did we dare to raid the border towns of land of fire?"
"Did you see the hooded individuals surrounding the leader yesterday? They give me the creeps. I was looking at them and one of them turned back at me. I didn't see his face and it's still giving me chills."
"Do you think they are ninjas?" The second bandit whispered, afraid of the wind catching his voice.
The first bandit gasped, "what are they trying to do? We will die at this rate once Konoha sends its forces."
The second bandit cautioned, "shh.. we will just follow the leader. If things goes awry with konoha, you and me can quit and head to the land of hot springs to find honest jobs. This job is getting too dangerous for us anyway." With that, they fell silent and continued their patrol amidst the tension.
Looking up, the dark haired boy had vanished, who knows when.
.....
After eavesdropping on the bandits, Shinjo left with a shunshin, his steps not disturbing the surrounding at all. As if he was phasing through the shadows. Without a single sound.
Soon he came upon what he assumed the lair of the bandits, a few kilometres ahead. A few fire lamps could be seen hung at the entrance. It was basically a small village.
Two guards were stationed at the entrance. Looking inside, there was not much activity, save for the low murmurs, that drifted with the night breeze and occasional coughs in the darkness. There was not many sources of lights. Most congregating in the center of the village.
Without alerting the guards, Shinjo bypassed them and moved into the village. He couldn't hear any sounds in the peripheral houses. So he ignored them and creeped slowly towards the only two storied stone house at the village center.
Two guards were standing on the roof, periodically walking with swords sheathed at their waist, looking out for any disturbances. Shinjo made use of the gaps in their line of sights, leaping from shadow to shadow and entered the house through the first floor porch.
The layout of the house was simple, with a couple of room and a closet. A few bloodstains could be seen on the walls and the floor leading to it that were not cleaned properly. The hall was lit with a dim fire light, flickering in the dark. A low murmur of discussions could be heard, akin to whispers of ghosts from one of the rooms.
Shinjo, at this point had suppressed his chakra activity completely. If looked inside his body, the chakra flow had nearly stopped, only moving with a snail's pace. His heart was beating 10 times per minute. Breathing was deep and silent. If someone scanned with his chakra, if not looking intently, they would almost always miss his presence. With his skills, he had completedly blended into his surroundings, nobody would take a second look.
If he wanted to spy on the activity inside the mainroom, he had to make sure there is noone paying attention. So he methodically cleared the other rooms. The bandit leader and his proxy were sleeping soundly, he confirmed. With that, he stucks to the walls and moved step by step, with little to no sound and pressed his ear to the wall. He had become sensitive to vibration in rocks, the earth element in general after his months of practice sessions. So he could barely makeout the low voices inside.
A gruff muffled voice sounded in his ears next second,
"Motoi, did you find anything from the interrogations? All I could hear were the screams, you sadistic bastard."
"Captain, you are one to talk. But I didn't find anything at all. The one we kidnapped was a canon fodder at best. He wasn't informed of anything." A shrewd voice replied, he had a higher timbre to his tone.
"There has been gradual strengthing of forces at the border, since the last few years. With no news about the first hokage, we can't move in lightly." A much calmer feminine voice analyzed.
"Yeah, we need to make judgements based on the movement and the distribution of konoha forces. Tobirama is cunning and deceptive. He must have plans hidden in layers among many other fakes." This time, a much more mature voice replied, his words spaced measuredly, his tone emotionless. Shinjo judged he must be the eldest and the strategist among the group.
The first voice grumbled with irritation and gnashing his teeth, "Cowards, why do they need to use their brains? Aren't they nominally the strongest? They should just slug it out with whoever dares to cross their path. Fucking cowards. I will crush them."
"Oh shut it, you muscle brain. All you think about is fight. If you used the little brain you were blessed with, your hagoromo clan wouldn't have gone almost extinct in the warring states period and you had alliance with the uchiha clan to boot." The third feminine voice admonished.
"What did you say, you witch?" The gruff voice, now identified as a shinobi from Hagoromo clan shouted. But suddenly he stopped mid-rant and looked towards the wall to his right. With him, everyone else turned their head at the same time.
Listening to the voices, that suddenly stopped, Shinjo jaws clenched, he had made a mistake. The second he heard of the hagoromo clan, his breath had hitched, dampening his forced chakra stasis, resulting in a chakra activity spike. Now with skipped breathes, his mind was churning, figuring out how to escape alive, without giving away his presence of ever being there and his affliation to Konoha. That would alert the now identified cloud shinobis and they would leave after killing him and erasing their traces.
He noticed a presence moving to the door silently and cautiously. It was clear that they still hadn't confirmed his presence, otherwise they would have blasted through the wall. Without a moment to waste, before they exited the room, he pasted a stack of detonating charms, with a delayed trigger to the groove right next to the door.
Then he waited in the darkness where the dim firelight didn't reach, with subdued breath and strong heartbeat, eyes wide focused and chin tucked, adranaline rushing through his blood, going towards his brain and limbs, his body primed to the extreme, accumulating potential energy for the coming assasination. If he wanted to escape, he had to kill one of them, probably whoever comes out first, taking the rest by surprise and exploiting any opportunity arising from the situation and make a break for it. His squad was waiting for him, 5 kilometres out in a secluded cave, waiting for his signal. So he had to fend them off for atleast a minute and a half for his teammates to come to his rescue.
.....
A shinobi with tanned skin and average height took a step out the room. He first looked towards the light, as was every living being's instinctive reaction, to scan whatever was in sight first. The next moment he turned his head to the darkness behind him and in the process of turning, he blinked.
*Swoosh*
A soft breeze flowed, eliciting goosebumps on the man. Fearing what was to come, he immediately tensed his muscles and jumped back. Or at least he tried to. The moment his muscle tensed, his jugular felt a violent tearing sensation.
*Sssssshhhickk* flesh teared, followed by the neck bones disconnected.
A thought hadn't formed and his head was already detached, his body jumped as per the prepared motion, but his head remained in place, sliding off of his shoulder with a *thud*. Till the moment he died, he didn't see his assailant or know how he died.
*Ssssrrrrrr..*
After his kunai passed through the neck, Shinjo violently charged his chakra, zero to maximum in less than a second and shunshinned out and triggering the detonation charms on the way.
The rest of the cloud ninjas hadn't had time to register what had happened, when a violent explosion rocked the house and threw them back out. Being experienced ninjas as they were, making a split second judgement, they each primed their chakra, covering their body with various degrees of lightning cloak, they landed a few meter in the opposite direction.
*Zzzzzzzz!*
The captian, the hagoromo clan shinobi, now seen sporting 2 slender horns on his forehead, made a handsign after which they all shunshined after the distant vague shadow that had almost made out of the village entrance.
.....
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
rorschach
rorschach Average speed of ninja = 60km/hr
Average speed of Shunshin = 200km/hr
The highest level is known to have a supersonic speed. at least that's what the ffs tell me. lol
Like it? Then add this to your library and hit me with them powerstones. Ciao.
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