章 15: C-Rank Mission II

We've been traveling the whole day, there is a new moon in the sky, the visibility is poor, but we managed to find a couple of scouts just before the sunset, we've been following them for ten minutes, hoping they will lead us to their camp, and our bet paid its fruits.

Their camp was located in a small clearing, there is a small pound in the north side, the camp consisted of a big tent, surrounded by ten smaller ones, they were big enough to accommodate two or three persons each, some of them had campfires in front of them, there were a couple of carts, five wooden crates with food and ten barrels that could be used to storage water or alcohol, some trees were cut down, but no wooden houses or walls, meaning they haven't been here for long, two or three weeks at most.

"Neji can you see how many of them are?" I asked our sensor.

"They are too far away to count all of them, including the scouts, I count fifteen" He replied, Neji had an excellent sight, one of the perks of the Byakugan, but his Byakugan wasn't mature yet, his sight while it was enhanced, it wasn't on the level of Shippuden Neji who could see things several kilometers away.

"There should be at least five more, if we go by the size of the tents" Rock Lee added.

"We need someone to sneak into their camp, to see if there are more inside the tents, if possible I would like to know what kind of weapons they have as well, but before we do that we need to know their patterns, I can see four men from here, one at the south, southeast and east and northeast" Guy-Sensei pointed for us to see.

"We can assume there are at least other four mirroring their formation, they don't seem to move from their position, but we just arrived, they also seem fresh so their shifts just begun" I replied analyzing all the information we gathered in the few seconds we spent here "We could spend all night here and risk being caught by the morning, or I could try stealth later, gather as much information and return, the campfires are lit right now, but they will either be too drunk to notice me or they'll put them out before sleeping, as for the guards, if they notice me I can put them in a Genjutsu" added.

"I like your plan, Lee you'll have the first watch, Neji the second, learn their patterns and gather as much information as you can from here, Kenji and Neji you two go to rest, I need both fresh for the stealth operation, I will go to the other side to see how are the defenses, turn on your communication gear and put it on channel three" Guy-Sensei gave the orders without hesitation, I guess that while he is a bit weird, he is also a ninja with plenty of experience.

I slept six hours, Neji woke us, saying we were ready for the operation, the sky grew darker, only the stars were visible, the campfires were out, and the guards only had small torches that made things easier for me, cause it allowed me to know their position, but their sight was limited to the light produced by the torches, I turned my comms on, Lee stayed on the three as a lookout.

"The one on the south side seems to be the most tired, he is our best chance to go unnoticed, they don't have a pattern, they just stay there sit on improvised chairs looking around, oh! And your assumption was right, there are four persons mirroring the formation we saw on this side" Neji said when he landed behind me, we made our way to the edge of the woods.

"Owl here, we are under the cover of the trees approaching from the south, awaiting orders, over" I said through the comms.

"Tiger here, everything clear on the west side, wait confirmation from Lion before proceeding, over" Guy-Sensei replied.

"Lion here, you are free to begin operation at your discretion, over" Lee said.

"Hawk here, we'll begin operation now, Owl and I will cease communication to lower the chance of detection, the channel will remain open in case we require assistance or something changes in your respective position, over and out" Neji said, following close behind me.

The guard in the south side was sleeping, he was unable to keep himself awake any longer, who was the idiot that organized this watch without changing shifts? I don't care, it works better for me, still we avoided the area illuminated by the torch just in case someone was turning to this side, Neji turned left, and I went right, we would meet at the north side, and once again here, that way we'll double-check our count.

Four tents only had one man, and the last one had two, there didn't seem to be hostages or women in the camp, it was a good sign, they weren't brave enough yet to do the inhumane things most bandits do when they get enough numbers, I met Neji at the north side, we peeked inside the big tent, three beds were fitted inside this place, just like the other this reeked like alcohol.

"Triplets" Neji whispered, guess there isn't one but three leaders on this group, that explains why they sleep together... and in separate beds, the only beds in all the camp, I nodded and kept going, repeating the process, finding the same thing I did on the other side.

We left the camp, staying in the edge of the wood, we proceeded to inform our findings, to the Team.

"Owl here, we investigated the camp, there are twenty-three hostiles, their weapons are mostly swords in bad shape, they still have edge but some show signs of oxidation, either bad quality or old swords, they are currently drunk and sleeping, should we engage or are we retreating? Over" I said waiting for Guy-Sensei decision.