Bab 23: Chapter - 23 Tracking and Encounter
After flipping through pages in the mission file of A-level tasks, one particular mission caught Kuroto's eyes.
The objective of the task is: "Suppress the wandering ninjas in the Land of Fire…"
Fighting between ninjas is a very common situation in A-level missions, as such Kuroto has to keep 3 points in mind before finalizing which mission to choose:
1. The distance to the location of the mission shouldn't be too far, because if the location is too far away then accidents are likely to occur on the way since the third shinobi war has ended not long so it wouldn't be strange if Kuroto encountered another missing like Sasori of the Red Sand or some other S-class ninja of other shinobi villages that might lead to confrontation, Kuroto doesn't want to take the risk.
2. The goal of the mission, i.e., the enemy he would be fighting/suppressing/killing shouldn't be too strong.
3. And lastly, the background of the enemy shouldn't be too complicated for Kuroto's own good, at this stage he isn't very interested in making someone enemy that might eventually bite him in the back at some point, so he absolutely doesn't want to attract the hatred of someone, when he already has a Sasori looking for him.
Since the mission of 'Suppressing the wandering Shinobi in the Land of Fire' perfectly meets all the three conditions as per Kuroto's requirements therefore it is the mission that Kuroto finds to be most suitable to take on.
After deciding, Kuroto passed the file to Guy who was eagerly looking in Kuroto's direction to see what is the objective of the mission, Kuroto asked Guy: "How about this task?"
As he received the task file Guy quickly went through the mission objective and various other task details and then finally replied, "I have no objection!"
"Since that's the case, let's take this task." Kuroto finalized.
"Hmm…" And Guy agreed.
After finalizing, Kuroto got the task to register with the staff, and finally, the two chunin set off immediately towards the location specified.
On the way, Kuroto analyzed the detailed information about the task provided by the task center when they registered with the staff.
The entrusting party of the task is the Daimyo of Fire Nation.
Recently, a group of wandering ninjas successively attacked several villages around the border of Fire Nation, causing a lot of loss of life and heavy damages to the property. According to the intelligence reports, there are about 5 to 7 wandering ninjas, who are suspected of being missing-nin of the Mist Village, their strength is of Chunin level and their methods are really cruel.
Because of the third shinobi war, the number of missing-nin increased quite a lot. This is the case for all the villages and Konoha is no exception to this fact, but generally, most of these rebel ninjas who flee from war make their base of operation in and around small countries without any ninja villages to avoid attracting attention from any major ninja village, but that doesn't seem to be the case here. These wandering ninjas have been attacking villages of Fire Nation so blatantly, this fact alone shows that something is definitely off here.
"The enemy dares to attack and plunder from the villages of Fire Nation so openly, this means the strength of the enemy is definitely not weak, make sure to not take them lightly and do not make any careless mistake!" Kuroto made sure to warn Guy about the seriousness of the matter.
Guy also nodded seriously to Kuroto's words.
From Guy's reaction, Kuroto noticed that he is a little nervous so Kuroto decided to ease his thoughts a little, "Don't get too nervous, although I am saying that this matter isn't as simple as it appears to be, but that's not necessarily that big of a deal after all the enemy is only attacking the civilian party's, so as long as we don't make any stupid mistake, there shouldn't be any problem completing the task."
Listening to Kuroto's words Guy clenched his fists and spoke with vigor, "I'm not afraid of them!"
Kuroto just smiled at Guy''s action and the two then continued their journey.
.........…..
A few days later,
Kuroto and Guy traveled all the way to a village that had been attacked not long ago.
From the state of the village, it is not difficult to guess that it has been attacked not long ago.
The whole village appears to be in a mess with corpses all over the place, the air-filled strong stench of blood, and the sound of crying and wailing of the few survivors all around.
As soon as Kuroto and Guy reached the village they both were shocked by witnessing the horrendous state this village was in. It wasn't their first visit to a place with such a bad situation, after all both of them have experienced a war not long ago but the scene here is equally troubling even when the war has ended. This just shows the suffering of the common folks at the hands of shinobi.
After arriving at the village, Kuroto came to a survivor and asked, "We are Shinobi from Konoha Village, can you describe to us who attacked this village?"
The survivor's expression was quite dull, for a while he seems to stare at Kuroto in a dazed state, and finally replied: "I don't know who are they! They kept killing, and killing and killing and then… then… they… left… they just left after killing them all." Midway through the speech he started crying and couldn't even express his words properly.
Kuroto, although a little shocked but wasn't much affected by witnessing the tragedy this village faced and continued asking calmly: How many people were there in total? How long ago they left? And, did see the direction they left in?"
Upon Kuroto's further questioning, the survivor pointed in a direction, "They left in that direction! I… I don't know how many they are, and it's been a few hours since they left.
Kuroto stared at the direction pointed by the survivor, and then stated coldly, "We'll chase!"
Guy, who was opposite to Kuroto already filled with righteous indignation, nodded fiercely: "Hmm!!!"
For the people of the Hyuga clan, tracking is a basic course, every member of the Hyuga clan who has been to the battlefield is a tracking master, and Kuroto is no exception to this fact, so he quickly found the traces of tracks left by the enemy.
After following the tracks for a while, the two chunin arrived in front of a quagmire.
There were signs of footprints still left, upon checking which Kuroto reached a conclusion, "The information in the task objective is accurate, there are most likely five shinobi on the enemy side, and since they didn't care of hiding their steps their strength also doesn't seem to be very high or most likely they were in a great hurry."
Listening to Kuroto's conclusion, Guy anxiously said, "Then what are we waiting for, let's catch up!"
However, Kuroto shook his head, and pointed towards a big tree not far away: "Don't panic, look at the moss on that tree!"
Guy looked in the direction pointed by Kuroto only to notice, the half footprint left on the moss collected on the bark of the big tree. He wondered, "Why are there footprints here? Does that mean someone else is following this group of shinobi's?"
These footprints in the quagmire obviously do not belong to the same group of shinobi. If the footprints in this quagmire belong to the group of wandering ninjas, then the footprints on that tree should have been left by another shinobi.
"Hmm, that's most likely the case. Since we took this task so Konoha should not have sent anyone else on this task, therefore the most likely suspect that the other group of shinobi who are following those wandering ninjas must be from the village hidden in the mist." Kuroto nodded to Guy's question as well as gave his thoughts on who might be the third party involved in this mission.
And Kuroto's explanation isn't without a reason, since they have received that these rebellious ninjas were most likely part of the village hidden in the mist so it isn't strange for mist village to send their tracking and hunting unit.
Since this mission now involves another one of the five great ninja villages therefore Guy seems to out of options on what to do: "Then what should we do?"
Kuroto pondered over the matter for a while, and then firmly replied, "Anything and everything that hinders us from completing the task should be treated as an enemy!"
"But…"
"No buts let's chase after them."
After following the tracks for a while, Kuroto and Guy finally caught up with the two other parties, however, they had to hide because two ninjas were confronting each other.
A total of four ninjas dressed in Anbu uniform were on one side, only the leader didn't wear an Anbu mask. Instead, he wrapped the lower part of his face with a bandage. Based on his figure and appearance, Kuroto recognized him as Momochi Zabuza.
On the other side, there are only two people, both being Konoha's Anbu, one of them was quite young, with silver-white hair. Although he was wearing a kitsune mask, Kuroto recognized that he is the genius ninja of the same generation named, Hatake Kakashi.
Both sides were full of war intentions and ready to confront each other at any moment.
Seeing that more Konoha ninja arrived, Zabuza lifted the long sword behind, as if he was about to initiate the attack.
While standing on the branch of a tree, Kuroto condescendingly glanced at the mist Anbu ninja with one hand on his waist said with an arrogant expression, showing his contempt for the other party: "Leave!"
Zabuza who heard the contempt Kuroto showed was now furious, "Do you want to die brat?"
Kuroto didn't bother to answer Zabuza and lightly ordered Guy, "Guy, go and teach him not to mess with Konoha Shinobi."
And Guy who has become accustomed to obeying Kuroto's instructions along the way didn't care whether the other party was a Mist Shinobi, so following the order, he shouted an acknowledgment and rushed to Zabuza.
Both the Mist Anbu and Konoha Anbu were taken aback by the arrogant behavior shown by Kuroto and Guy, but being a trained Shinobi still allowed both parties to take action immediately. Just gave way to some area for Zabuza and Guy to fight one-on-one.
As a ninja that specializes in taijutsu combat, Guy continued to dominate close quarter combat and didn't give the opponent any chance to use ninjutsu.
However, Zabuza isn't a simple enemy, he seems to have confidence in his sword skills, therefore he wasn't afraid of taijutsu and kenjutsu battle.
For some time, the exchange of punches and the blade arcs flew all around!
At this time Momochi Zabuza is already a famous ninja of the Mist Village. Although he is not yet promoted a Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist Village, he is still one of the best among the peers of the same generation in the Mist Village. All his moves are sharp and extremely dangerous for the enemy.
Might Guy is also in the phase of rapid growth in his strength, his speed, strength have all increased dramatically every day. He isn't the same Guy during the academy days where he was treated as the tail of the crane.
The battle between these two individuals soon heated up, and their range of moves spread wider and wider, causing the two Mist Anbu's who were watching to retreat to a further distance.
Not long after, Guy kicked launched a kicked towards Zabuza's face that the other party blocked with the blunt part of his broad sword, after exchanging this blow both of them leaped further away from each other, leaving the contact....and the scene fell into a strange silence...…
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