I OWN NOTHING EXCEPT MY OC
Chapter 4
Raido Namiashi looked down at the three brats he was assigned. Considering he specialized in assassination with his expertise in kenjutsu and genjutsu, he didn't like that he received a genin team. Most of the time, assassination training and missions began for those who were chunin. Apparently, he is supposed to train them in stealth, infiltration and as a front-line scouting team. A front-line scouting team was one of the most dangerous positions to be in, which made him hate the fact that he was assigned this team even more. The team has to go deep into enemy territory, without much prior information and if discovered, they have little choices. Reinforcements would never reach them in time so either they manage to fight off their enemies, hide and wait it out or run from them at the same time leading them away from Konoha so Konoha would not be blamed. This meant they needed to have extreme speed, stealth, sensing ability and fighting capability. Training a bunch of brats to meet that criteria would be ridiculously difficult. Sometimes, he really wished he had listened to Aoba and Genma and stayed a tokubetsu jounin rather than take the test to become jounin. As a tokubetsu jounin, he wouldn't have to deal with this crap.
He had spent the last two weeks following the three around – with the help of some shadow clones of course – and gathering information about them. Muta Aburame, as all Aburame were trained to be, was a very logical thinker and highly adept at making well thought out plans. He used a variation of the Academy style taijutsu, though he added in much more evasive maneuvers in. It seems like he recognized his fighting style as a mid to long range combatant, with more potential as a support unit and took steps to improve his chances of survival out in the field. Raido approved of this. However, as all Aburame were, he seemed too inflexible in his thought process. If anything happened that surprised him greatly, he cannot change his plans fast enough, resulting in him hesitating, which an enemy can take advantage of. He also knew a few insect based ninjutsu on top of his repertoire of skills.
Tokuma Hyuuga, on the other hand, has one of the best byakugan of his generation. He could see a greater distance than normal for his age, about 500m. He had even cut down the number of handseals required to activate it from 12 seals to 8. With greater practice and chakra control, he would probably be able to activate it without using handseals by the time he is twenty. His taijutsu style was that of the normal gentle fist used by the Hyuuga. Considering he is a branch house member, regardless of his talent, he will not be able to learn the Hyuuga's secret arts like the Heavenly Rotation unless he figured it out himself. Character wise, he seemed calm and was kind and gracious, which is pretty weird for a Hyuuga, but he wasn't arguing. After all, it is much better than having a usual Hyuuga with a stick up his rectum.
Now, Midori Nara was the one he couldn't figure out. She graduated at 9, 3 years younger than the other two on the team and was in the academy for only a year. Her academy teachers were surprised she had passed considering she mostly slept in class and they believed it was a fluke. Even her graded assessments were usually in the middle of the class. She didn't even really talk to anyone in her class except for Izumo Kamizuki and Kotetsu Hagane. The academy teachers had already planned to put the three of them together since they seemed like they would work well together when they graduate. Unfortunately, Midori just had to mess up their plans by graduating early.
Yet despite the fact that she is supposedly an average academy student who passed based on luck, she had spotted him immediately when he began following her. This was surprising since she had no chakra sensing ability that he knew of and he had been using all his stealth to stalk her. Considering he was an assassin and made his living by killing people before they knew he was there, her ability to spot him was astounding, especially since her two teammates who came from tracking clans couldn't spot him until he deliberately lowered his level of stealth gradually in the second week of surveillance. He had wanted to follow her when she went to train to see where her abilities lay but she had confronted him. When he showed the official documentation by the Hokage that was prove he was going to be their jounin teacher, she made the argument that he wasn't considered their sensei yet so she was not obliged to let him follow her to the training grounds. Considering he didn't want to make a scene when he would know her abilities soon enough, he allowed her to leave. That however, proved to him that she was stronger and more knowledgeable than what the academy teachers thought. How much better though is the question.
"Congrats kids, you have passed the Academy exam, unfortunately, now its time for your genin test!"
***BREAK***
I stared at my two supposed teammates. The jounin had already left after passing to us a scroll and instructing us to open it. After using his byakugan and deeming it save, Tokuma opened the scroll and passed it to me since I was the shortest and all of us could read it at the same time if I was the one holding it and they huddled around me.
Mission Type: Assassination
Objective: Suna Merchant Fuka Daishi
Time Limit: 1 week
Characteristics: Light brown hair, black eyes, tan skin, face type 3a, 5 feet 7 inches, spokes a pipe
Others: Known to have 2 bodyguards. Unknown if shinobi-trained. Have arrived in Konoha last week for purchase of wood.
After reading and memorizing it, I incinerated the scroll with a small fire jutsu usually used for lighting a fire during camping. Doing so is merely protocol to ensure that no information about the mission falls into enemy hands should we fail so neither Tokuma or Muta protested.
"He wants us to assassinate someone for a test? This is crazy." Tokuma remarked.
Muta just stared at him, using a finger to adjust his goggles. "Hyuuga-san, it is likely this is a simulation mission to test how well we do. It is likely the merchants and bodyguards are just clones."
I agreed, "This seems to test how well we manage to spy and obtain information. Considering that our sensei has been following us for the past two weeks to test our observation and sensory abilities, it is likely we are intended to be an infiltration and scouting team."
"Agreed, Nara-san."
"Mah mah, just call me Midori. If we are going to be teammates, you don't need to be so formal."
"Agreed. Then you may call me Muta as well, Midori-san." The stoic face shook up and down as he nodded.
Tokuma stared at us as we conversed. It seemed like he wanted to say something but he just sighed. "Well, you two should call me Tokuma as well. Let's just get on with this. How do we go about killing this guy?"
I smirked. Now it's time to get the show on the road.
***BREAK***
I hid in the shadows, pulling up my hood and crouched under the stairwell. I glanced out and spotted the target with two men looming behind him. They looked like civilians but they could easily be hired ninja disguised so they can enter Konoha. They did not move like ninja, but that meant nothing since a ninja trained in the art of disguises would also train his body to mimic a civilian. After all, disguising yourself as a civilian but moving around with great efficiency and killing potential still signals to everyone that you are a ninja.
We had been tailing them for 4 days. They mostly went to the marketplace before going to an inn. Sometimes they would go to the hotsprings or even to the red light district in the evening. Tokuma had used his byakugan and confirmed that they had the same chakra signature, meaning that they were all the same person. After discussing and weighing the pros and cons of each location as a kill site, we decided that tonight, I would be sneaking into the inn, with Muta and Tokuma outside as back up.
***BREAK***
Under the cover of night, with a mottled black cloak that covered me, I surveyed the inn with my two teammates. We had checked it out the days before and quickly realized our target's room was not a window room so entering from that avenue was impossible. At first we had decided to disguise ourselves and enter through the front door, but this is a 24-hour inn which meant the front door would be watched over even at night. Realising this, we decided to enter through the window of a different room and enter our target's room from the hallway.
"So have you found it yet?" I asked Tokuma as I adjusted the earpiece in my ear. All three of us had earpieces courtesy of the Aburame clan. This will allow us to communicate with each other during our mock missions. "And Muta-san, get some of your insects on me, if we can't successfully assassinate them, maybe we can tag them.
"It is done."
"Yes. Enter through the second floor, third window from the right, the room is empty. Leave the room and go to the adjacent room. That is our target's room. One bodyguard is awake in the room; the other is sleeping in the room to its left."
"OK, Deer going in." I used a makeshift grappling hook made out of a long rope and a kunai to let me climb to the second floor window. I did not want to use chakra since I didn't want to risk the guard being a sensor. I pulled myself up the rope and used a lock pick to pick open the window lock. I oiled the sides of the window before gently lifting it up to prevent any sounds. Creeping through the window, I surveyed the room to ensure that Tokuma was right. "All clear. Proceeding in."
I took out a kunai from my pouch and lightly stepped across the room on the balls of my feet. This was nothing compared to my past life where I had to creep across a nightingale's floor. Those were cruel. One step too heavy and the whole room would know you are there. I walked over to the sleeping guard's room first and opened the door. I had to eliminate the guard first so in case anything goes wrong, we will have one less pursuer on our metaphorical tails. I quickly covered his mouth while simultaneously slashing his throat in a V-pattern to ensure he died instantly rather than choking on his own blood to a slow agonizing death. The moment I did that, he turned into smoke. Since we already deduced they were clones, I wasn't surprised. I creeped out of his room and just as I was about to open the door to the target's room, Tokuma's voice came out.
"Shit, get out of there! You crossed a fuinjutsu boundary, the chakra in the symbols are increasing quickly. Even if I had enough time, I don't think I would be able to block the chakra in the symbols with juuken. Get out!"
"Damn it…I can't move, it must be some kind of paralyzing seal or something. Muta can your kikaichu suck out the chakra from the symbols?"
"Yes, but it will take too long. They would have included an alarm system there and I will need at least five minutes to drain the chakra." Muta sounded frustrated.
"I can see the guard coming, I am moving in. Muta, hurry in!"
As I saw the door knob turn, I quickly molded some suiton chakra in my mouth. Using that, I shaped and amplified the saliva in my mouth, increasing their quantity at the same time. As the door open, I spat out the hardened water bullet at the bodyguard stepping out. Considering he was at the doorway, he couldn't dodge to either side so he flipped backwards, letting the water bullet fly over his head. Luckily this meant that I had managed to buy enough time for Tokuma and Muta to reach me. Tokuma immediately rushed forward and sent a series of palm strikes at the bodyguard. Muta on the other hand stood in front of me in a defensive position while mentally directing his kikaichu swarm to drain the fuinjutsu words of their chakra. As I felt the hold the chakra had on me began to lessen, I felt Intent from above.
"Muta, there's another enemy, up top!"
Raising his kunai up, he just managed to deflect a strike from the bodyguard. They must have had an extra bodyguard trailing them to protect from the shadows so that they could surprise anybody looking to ambush them. What surprised me though was that Tokuma could not spot him with his byakugan. This meant that he must have suppressed his chakra extremely thoroughly. Muta began blocking sword strikes from the bodyguard while Tokuma was still inside the room trying to strike the other bodyguard with even one palm, but to no avail.
Meanwhile, I spotted the target creeping behind Tokuma with a knife ready to stab him. I knew Tokuma could see him but he could not do anything about it as the bodyguard suddenly unleashed a flurry of blows upon him. My lower body was still paralyzed but my upper body was mobile. I took out a poisoned kunai and aimed. I could not afford to make a non-lethal shot so I had decided to use a poisoned kunai. I threw the instrument of death forward but just as it was about to enter the head of the target, the bodyguard used his hand to block it and he dispelled instead. As smoke filled the room, I quickly helped Muta in combating the other bodyguard. As soon as we killed him, I turned and saw Tokuma with his hands stretched out and his palm on the heart of our target.
The target quickly turned into smoke and with a flurry of leaves, our sensei is there before us. He looked serious, with his arms crossed in front of him. He closed his eyes and sighed, "Well, considering the level of teamwork and your individual capabilities…I guess you guys are the new Team 3!"