Capítulo 15: Chapter Fifteen
Pre-Chapter AN: Hey, thanks for reading this. It's literally my favourite thing to write these days. Enjoy the chapter, and let me know how it sticks if you enjoy it.
After reading this, you can either wait until next week for the next chapter or read the next two on Pa Treon right now and keep reading as I write. For Pa Treon, you can remove the hyphen between Pa and Treon and Google it, then search for my username—Oghenevwogaga. Or you could copy the link in my bio and remove the spaces before pasting it in your address bar.
Have fun with this. Also, if you haven't checked out my other story (Gamer of the Desert) yet, please do so. It's also set in the Naruto universe. It's an SI into Gaara with some gamer elements. I can guarantee you'll love it. It's also much farther along than this one, so gives you something to really sink your teeth into.
I shrugged my shoulders around my brand new chunin vest, trying to get used to the weight. I hadn't expected to receive the promotion after what I'd done at the Chunin exams. It was something I tried to remove my mind from as much as possible. Except it turned out that my Granduncle did not seem to care much. He tossed me the vest as I left his office and left it at that. Toshiro had received his a few days later. It would have been something to be proud of had I been anyone else. But I was cursed with good eyes and the power of observation.
Every single member of my graduating class had received one. Our Jounin-sensei had been reassigned to other parts of the village's military as they were needed. I didn't need to ask Granduncle to confirm it for me. We were moving into wartime footing, and step one of that was promoting anyone with even the vaguest expression of chunin-level skill to the rank. It was a simple and effective strategy. It saved the village resources that were usually spent on training Genin, the Jounin got to be reassigned to more useful endeavours, the former genin got to become part of Konoha's wartime force. It was a strategy with little in the way of downsides. Well, unless you considered dead children a downside.
Still, that was not the matter at hand now. I stood at the gates waiting for my new team to assemble. Chunin worked in groups of four, so it was rare that genin would continue on to the same team. For most of the other teams, they'd had a member or two reassigned somewhere else to create new combinations, but my team remained broadly the same. Except for the fact that we had one new addition. Uzume landed in front of the gate with a huff. I felt my gaze soften against my will as I looked at her. Against all odds, we'd become something that could be mistaken for friends. Toshiro was the next to appear, emerging from the shadows as he deactivated his meisaigakure no jutsu to the surprise of absolutely no one.
Uzume just smiled and tapped her eyes when he sullenly inquired into our lack of shock. Our third was about to be running late. I stared at the pocket watch in my grip as I counted down the seconds until I could officially declare her as late and move on with the mission with only the three of us. Of course, it was not to be. As the seconds counted down to the last one, she rounded the corner and came right out of the gate.
"Shikahime" I said in greeting.
"Hey, Cousin" She replied with a nonchalant wave. I stepped aside to allow her take point as the leader of the team. Granduncle sure loved his punishments.
XXXXX
I leaned out of the way of a sword that threatened to cleave my head from my neck and failed to dodge out of the way of the kick that followed, tossing me backwards, and making me slam into the ground with a huff. I snarled as I got to my feet again and body flickered at my opponent. Her eyes did not move to even show that she acknowledged my approach, but just as always, that damn sword was there, threatening to cleave my fingers in two. She leveraged her position to swing the sword properly, and I had to backpedal to avoid feeling the deadly bite of the cleaver-like weapon.
The blade of legendary renown moved around before it returned again to attempt to cut me in twain. I cast my vision around, shifting focus with ease. I could see that Shikahime and Uzume were having a similarly difficult time with this one's partner, the wielder of the thunderswords of all things. Toshiro was down. I could see that the pool of blood around his grounded form was slowly building. Could not be good. His chakra signature was also getting noticeably weaker over time. The girls had to finish with their guy, and quickly, but there was almost no chance of that happening in time to prevent Toshiro from getting much worse.
I was forced to realise that much of this was my fault. I just had to go ahead and channel my inner Ninja Jesus at the worst possible time. Another slash from the Kubikiribōchō and I was forced even further backwards. I formed a single seal and covered the distance between my opponent and me in. Fire, but she just stabbed her blade into the ground and formed a seal of her own. The Suijinheki jutsu took on all the fire I'd called forth with my great fireball with ease before dissolving into steam that began to spread.
I did not risk her enhancing the steam with her hidden mist technique and blew it all away with a great breakthrough. Placing a hand around her blade's hilt, she took the force of the winds head on without budging. Her long black hair was scattered in the wind, but it still did a good enough job of framing her face. Almond-shaped sea green coloured eyes narrowed at me. I buried the smile that tickled at the back of my mind. Toshiro was dying and it was my fault.
I slammed my palms on the ground, activating the swamp of the underworld jutsu while she was so planted to the ground. Suddenly submerged up to her shoulders, she tried to struggle her way out of the sludge. I spat out a contemptuous air bullet that drilled through the obvious clone before leaning out of the way of her attempt to catch a byakugan user by surprise. I'd seen the substitution the moment she made it, and I made sure to angle my turn perfectly so I could twirl around and execute my next jutsu immediately, "Gentle Fist: Air Palm". Kubikiribōchō saved her again as she raised it to take the brunt of the attack and only went sliding backwards a few feet.
"You're better than I thought" She said.
"Yeah, I could say the same about you, but I'd be lying. You're quite a bit worse, in fact."
"Still sore about the whole double cross thing?"
"Still? It literally just happened."
"Well, you'll get over it eventually. We're shinobi. It was your fault for trusting us in the first place".
Her next words were swallowed by the sound of rushing water as I slammed my foot into the ground with earth-shattering force as I activated my trap. As the water rushed upwards, my mind went back to the actions that had led us here in the first place.
XXXX
"Welcome to the Land of Waves, Everyone" I said as we finally got off the boat that separated the Land of Fire from the Island Nation.
"Oh shut up" Uzume grouched, managing to keep her feet, but looking ridiculously queasy for a shinobi.
"Can't believe that you of all people would get seasick" Toshiro commented, only to have to lean out of the way of a kunai that was aimed at his head.
Shikahime was already sitting in the sand, staring above her with a vacant expression on her face that told me that she also hadn't enjoyed the trip much.
"Seasickness is a perfectly normal reaction for a person who has never been on a boat before" I said, tagging into their conversation but making my tone teasing on purpose.
"Of course, the two of us have never been on a boat before either, but not everyone can be so adaptable." The kunai she tossed now had much better aim, but it was still lacking in power. I snatched it by the hilt with ease and enjoyed the glare she tossed my away.
"Look alive people. Let's get done with this so we can get home. The air here is sickening" Shika said as she pushed herself off her arse and on to her feet.
"Sickening? I haven't felt a breeze this strong in forever" Toshiro countered.
"Yes, well, it's ruining the clouds. Making them move about too quickly. What's the point in cloud watching if everything moves before you can decide what you're seeing?" She replied with a tone that sounded as vexed as her bearings-not at all. Even when expressing irritation, Shika could be remarkably non-expressive. Her black eyes gave nothing away, and the only sign that she was any way out of sorts was the fact that her hair tie's knot was an inch too far to the left as she fiddled with it consistently. Before today, I'd only ever seen it in the perfect middle.
"Remind me of the mission, again?" I asked, trying to get her into the flow of things and away from her nerves.
"Some idiot has been abducting kids in this town for months. Last week, the Mayor's son was taken, and then they finally saw fit to come to us with the mission" Uzume said as she got to her feet, making it clear what she thought about the fact that the town had taken so long to come to us with the mission. I could not say I disagreed with the sentiment. After all, it was highly possible that the Mayor would have been content to allow the kidnappings to continue if his own son had not been added to the list.
"Well, let's try not to express that sentiment to the Mayor, shall we? The Land of Waves gives Konoha a lot of business when it comes to protecting their merchants on land, but they use Kiri for their ships. We need to be at our best if we want to maintain that present state of affairs and not let Kiri muscle in on our business" Shika said.
"I never took you for a Ryo counter" Uzume shot back.
"I'm not. But we are shinobi, and I would rather not be the one to explain to the Hokage why we lost Konoha a consistent client."
"Yeah, that's why we have Shorirama here" Toshiro cut in.
"Granduncle Tobirama might be family, but he'd skin even me if I lost us business. We're the richest village, but not so rich that we can just afford to go around pissing off our clients" I said to avert any dangerous thinking. Thinking that could lead to disastrous outcomes, not just for the village's purse, but my own health. We'd lost a lot of business from the other nations after that whole mess in the Genin Exhibitions and that was my fault, so I could not be responsible for losing even more.
"Fine fine. I'll keep my tongue when we get there. But don't expect me to play nice with the bastard" Uzume relented.
We approached the village at a sedate pace, choosing not to travel as shinobi to avoid tipping off the person carrying out the abduction. It was also why Uzume was pulling against her shirt with an irritated look on her face.
"Can you stop that?"
"It's itchy."
"What do you mean it's itchy, that's made of the finest cotton in Konoha"
"Yeah, the finest itchy cotton maybe"
"You should have brought your own change of clothes if you'd known you'd be so prissy about mine."
"If I'd known that we'd need to put on civilian clothes then I'd have brought some in the first place"
"Did you read the mission brief?" Shika cut into our conversation, making me smile as I knew what was coming.
"Of course I did. There was nothing there about this".
"Yes there was. On the second page".
"What second page?"
"The second page of the-Oh Shori, you didn't"
"Didn't what?" I asked, pasting an innocent smile on my face.
"Tell me you didn't remove the second page of Uzume's brief on purpose"
"No" I said, smiling widely.
"Did you remove it accidentally, then?" Toshiro got in on the 'let's question Shori to oblivion game'.
"I meant 'no', as in I wouldn't be telling her that. I don't lie, remember?"
"Ahhhhh" I barely dodged over the flying missile that was a very pissed off Uchiha.
We ended up entering into the town with no fanfare. Uzume was still fuming, Shika was still exasperated, and Toshiro was just as amused as I was. We did a good job of just pretending to be regular civilian kids, but I could still spot the suspicion on a few faces as we walked deeper into the town, towards the mayor's office. Of course, they were suspicious. Looking around the faces of the children in this town told me that we'd had no chance in hell of blending in with the truly perceptive. Not a single one of them looked even relatively well-fed. Sure, they weren't emaciated or anything, but there was a clear malnutrition in their bodies that was clear to my eyes. They were just too thin in certain places as they ran around the village, shirtless. One lesson was learned then. Gato might have caused a lot of suffering in the Land of Waves, but the poverty had existed long before he ever got in.
When we finally arrived at the place, Toshiro was the one to knock on the door before stepping in almost immediately to avoid drawing too much attention. The rest of us did the same, and the sight was…. The Mayor's office had a small secretary's office and waiting area which we found empty and bypassed immediately. If only we'd thought more about that. Because we entered the office proper to the sight of… Well, it was coitus. Two people mid-coitus. One was attractive, and the other, decidedly not-so.
"Who are you?" The Mayor screamed as he scrambled to cover himself.
"You asked for Konoha shinobi" I said, taking point when I noticed that the others seemed a bit too shocked to string sentences together.
"Shinobi, not kids" He replied instantly, even as the woman who had been pressed against the table scurried out of the room.
With a puff of smoke, I unsealed my headband and held it up before him.
"Shinobi" I confirmed.
"Oh okay then. Allow me a second to compose myself, please".
"Take as long as you need" I said, not taking a single step out of the room even as I felt the other's gazes burn holes into the back of my neck. What a piece of shit. His son was missing and this was what he spent his time doing. My hatred for him was amplified as I noted the folds of fat on his midsection that he struggled to cover up with his shirt. He was fat as all hell, while his people basically starved. This was the kind of leader I'd never like. Leadership should have been all about sacrifice. Granduncle wouldn't eat to grow fat while citizens of Konoha struggled to put enough on their plate. He wasn't a perfect leader, but he understood that much at the very least.
Even worse for this bastard, his son was missing, and here he stood sating his lusts with a woman who was so far out of his league that there had to be some coercion of some sort involved.
When he finally collected himself, doing it under my loathful gaze, he stood with a cough.
"Uhh welcome, Konoha Shinobi" He said, we were silent in reply.
"Well, yes. The children have been returned, so the mission is unnecessary." He said with another cough.
"The children have been returned?" Uzume asked, looking unconvinced.
"Yes they have. Turned out to be some sort of misunderstanding. Terrible business".
"So who was taking them?"
"Who?"
"Yes, Mayor. Who was kidnapping the children of your nation?" I cut in, irritated.
"Well, that. You see… Well, it was no one. They were just getting lost on their own. No need for your help. They've come back now".
"You said they were returned" Shikahime spoke for the first time.
"Ahh. I misspoke, you see. They found their way home. They went out to play around the caves and got lost" He said, sweat was beginning to build around his forehead now.
"Can we talk to them then?"
"Talk to whom?"
"The kidnapped children, man. Keep up" I said with an irritated noise.
"Look here, I said there was no kidnapping" He began raising his voice, but it was clear he'd chosen the wrong person to attempt to intimidate.
I allowed it slide off my back and simply said, "The lost and found children, then. We want to see them. Starting with your son".
"No. I said your mission is over. You should leave now".
I made to say something in reply, but Toshiro stepped over to place a hand on my shoulder while Shikahime spoke next.
"Thank you Mayor-san. We will be leaving now that it is clear we are not needed. I apologise for my teammate's manners, he does not deal with seasickness well." She said with a bow and began to turn around. I joined her, still unsatisfied, but not unsatisfied enough to disobey orders from my team leader in front of a client.
We walked out of the room as one and began to walk our way out of the village.
"What was that?" I asked, Shika, not able to hide the displeasure in my tone.
"Not now" She said in reply.
I kept my tongue as we walked out of the village and then into the countryside, walking further until we were completely shielded by whatever sparse vegetation was around us.
"Activate your byakugan, Shori. Make sure we're not being watched" She said, and I did so with a thought.
Scanning our surroundings, I couldn't make out a single other human within my range, so I nodded at her to say we were free to talk.
"Something stinks about this" Toshiro said first.
"Something? The whole fucking pot stinks to high heaven" I said in reply.
"Yes, you're right. The Mayor was lying".
"No shit, sherlock"
"Huh? Who's 'Sherlock'?"
"Just a word. Nevermind that" I said, turning away from Uzume who had just spoken to Shika.
"So what do we do?"
A/N; Slow down, man at work. As I said earlier, the next chapter comes up next week or skip the wait and read the next three along with daily uploads on pa-treon. For the pa-treon, you can remove the hyphen between pa and treon and google it then search for my username- Oghenevwogaga. Or you could copy the link in my bio and remove the spaces before pasting in your address bar.
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