章 40: Kakashi's hesitation

The man dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes, and while the sight of a grown man rolling around on the ground was amusing, Haruko soon felt a little sick from the smell of burning flesh. Despite the enemy being more than 60 feet away from them the smell of broiling skin reached them easily.

"So that's the fire?" Kakashi asked, "Yeah, I didn't expect the smell to be so awful." Haruko answered before charging headlong into the battle.

Haruko activated his armor suit in agile mode while teleporting from tree to tree, and crashed into one of the surprised figures. Haruko instantly noticed that for once it wasn't leaf anbu trying to murder them. The headband clearly marked them as Iwa ninja, probably just out on patrol.

The fire raged upon their downed member, and the remaining two standing began to panic.

"This isnt what we were told!"

"We don't have time to argue! We're going to die if we don't defend ourselves!"

"They said it was a simple assassination, one child, one adult!"

"I know! We don't have time for this though!"

As the man shouted to his fellow ninja, Kakashi descended upon the man engaging in a taijutsu battle. The man was shocked to find himself gaining an edge against his foe. Kakashi was being pushed back rather quickly, and the situation was only looking worse for him as the Iwa ninja landed heavy punch after heavy punch.

Confidence was rapidly building inside the man, becoming sloppier, and sloppier. Meanwhile the man lit on fire had long since passed away leaving not but ashes upon the ground. The man Haruko crashed into landed in a heap by a tree. Haruko stalked up to the man, and met his eyes with his own. Having scanned the whole history of this man's life, Haruko was disappointed.

'Why is there so much trash in this world? I don't like killing, but if i'm going to can't they at least be useful, or interesting? This man was clearly sent here to die by his superiors. I assume Danzo tracked our movements, and arranged this mission for them somehow.'

The poor Iwa ninja laid against a tree with a vacant look in his brown eyes. His body had gone slack, and he began foaming at the mouth before Haruko put the disheveled man out of his misery. A tinge of disgust ran through him as he absorbed the pitiful man.

Haruko glanced over on the other side, and couldn't help but laugh at the sight of Kakashi reading his book peacefully while the two remaining Iwa ninja beat the living shit out of each other.

"Genjutsu?" Haruko asked.

"Of course. They both believe they are fighting me. These are only genin level troops from Iwa. Why on earth were they here, and why were they waiting for us?" Kakashi asked.

"From the memories of the other guy they received an assassination contract on a child, and an old man who would be crossing through this location." Haruko answered.

"We left the village eight hours ago. How in the world could our location have been leaked?"

"I'm not sure sensei, but however it happened, why would they think these chumps would be able to kill us? Let alone hurt us."

"If I had to guess it's a setup. Iwa will "find" evidence of the hidden leaf committing some kind of breach in the treaty, and use that as an excuse to either start a war, or more likely demand resources."

"Hm, if we were going to be accused of doing war crimes, shouldn't we actually commit some?"

"Haruko."

"Kidding, I'm kidding." Haruko then rubbed his hands together. "Or am I?" Haruko snickered, and moved towards the two clowns. Each arm morphed into large blades, which then pierced the two, and absorbed them.

"No useful information. Boring lives. Their parents were also underachievers. They were just a squadron from their equivalent to the genin corp. No notable bloodline, no notable jutsu mostly a generic combination of earth style, and fire style. Minimal amounts of chakra."

"How mechanical of you Haruko."

"What? I figured I should share all I learned." Haruko shrugged, and motioned for the two of them to move on. "Where are we heading anyway?"

"We were on our way towards a hot spring which is a few days from here, but Iwa ninja's being this close to the village makes me nervous. We're weeks away from Iwa territory which means they have a larger force somewhere around here. The Hokage needs to know about this."

"Or we could just deal with it?" Haruko suggested.

"I like your line of thinking, but we don't know their numbers, or their level of power. We should play it safe, and return."

"Or, and hear me out here. We could send Pakkun back to the village, and we could scout. If they're weak we wipe them out for trespassing, and if they're strong we retreat."

"Haruko I know you're eager to stretch out your legs, and test yourself, but you could die acting like this." Kakashi scolded Haruko "I know you said you wanted to get stronger, and have more freedom to seek happiness, but I don't think throwing yourself into harms way is going to accomplish that"

"Listen Kakashi, there shouldn't be any real danger. We can both see for miles, and it would be more useful to the village if we had an accurate report of their movements, and if we can eliminate them before they can accomplish whatever plan they have."

"I don't think it's a good idea, Haruko."

"It'll be perfectly fine. Worse comes to worse we can always shunshin away like we were neve there."

"Alright, fine. But you follow my orders to the letter. You're not going to act out, and do something stupid due to your impatience. Do you understand?"

"Of course, now let's head back to their camp."

"Wait a second Haruko. You gained all their memories right? So you know exactly how strong they are, how many there are, and where they are."

"Of course. Why do you think I was pushing so hard to go?"

"Why didn't you just tell me that?"

"Because uh… lets see…. I wanted to get lost on the road of life?"

"That's not how you're meant to use those excuses kid. Spill it."

"Fine! Four jonin level, 12 Chunin level, and now 44 genin level. About a day to the west, and not all that strong. One of the jonin may be tricky because he has a kekki genkai."

"What is it?" Kakashi asked.

"Don't know. From the memories all I know is he's respected for his assassination ability, and how he's never been caught, or spotted.