Ohaio! We have had a timeskip! Woo!
Lemons will be coming. The poll has spoken.

Chapter Nine-Special Operative

* * *
12 AK
* * *

"Good morning, Nass."

The voice came from behind him. He sighed, and turned.
The speaker was a female Kunoichi wearing a wolf mask. Anbu, clearly. She was tall, brown hair in a ponytail. She wore a black flak jacket, and a black t-shirt under that. She looked about fifteen, but it was hard to tell.

Nasshi knew exactly who it was.
"Morning, Ikumi." he replied.

"Um... hello Nass-kun, Ikumi-san." said Kana.
Nasshi turned and grinned.
"Hi Kana!" he said.
"Morning, Kana-chan." said Ikumi.

"What about (Cough) me?"
That was Gekko Hayate, the team's jonin instructor from when they were genin.

The four years since the chunin exams had been good to their team.
Nass was now a jonin, specialising in a certain type of mission normally reserved for Kunoichi. He wore his flak jacket with pride.
Ikumi, of course, was an Anbu, and had already succeeded in entering the bingo book of every one of the shinobi nations.
Kana on the other hand, now had a genin team of her own. She had probably changed most. Actually going out with Nasshimaru had worked wonders for her self esteem, though she still tended to stutter when she was nervous.

Hayate was the same as always, still coughing a little from his injury on their first mission, though the medical ninja had said it could have been far worse if he hadn't been treated quickly.

"Nasshi, don't you think it's odd that you have performed more special missions that Ikumi and Kana put together?" asked Hayate.
"Well, Kana's too busy looking after her genin and Ikumi's too busy kicking ass, so I'm not surprised. Anyway, I guess I'm just talented." said Nasshi.

"Right." said Ikumi sarcastically.
"Nasshi, the Hokage wants you, by the way." said Hayate nonchalantly.

Nass groaned.
"I've only been back a day…"

* * *

The Hokage gave him a sheaf of papers. It was details on a group of ninja, various missing nin from all across the shinobi nations.
"Three times." muttered Nass. "Three times, they've ransomed ninja back to their villages for exorbitant sums?"

"Three times we know of." said Sarutobi. "Once to us, once to Kusa, and once to Iwa. Of course, there could be more. Kusa is small, but Iwa isn't exactly our greatest ally. Especially after your friend Ikumi embarrassed them four years ago."
Nasshimaru nodded.

"What am I going to do?" asked Nass.
"We need you to infiltrate the group." said Sarutobi.
"What, as a missing nin?"
"No, as a lost ninja."

Nass nodded.
"Who?"

Sarutobi handed him another pile of papers. It was a complicated bio, detailing the life, history, personality, fighting style, and everything everyone could ever know about a ninja known as Ikoyou Kotone.

"Excellent, I've always wanted to learn that fighting style." he murmured.
"We'll give you a tracking seal so we can find you before you use the technique." said Sarutobi.

One of the advantages of Shinsei Henge was that it could be used to create an entirely false identity and personality that even the user would believe was real, only being released by a combination of seals and code words unique to each user.

"Would you like to choose your retrieval team?" asked Sarutobi.

"Kana, Ikumi-chan, Hayate-sensei, and… Hayate-sensei's teammate, Kyori Kaito." said Nass quickly.

Sarutobi looked thoughtful.
"Nara Ikumi, fine. Ikoyou Kana. It makes sense, I'll see if I can have her genin looked after. Gekko Hayate, that should be fine. Kaito. I think I can get him. How do you know him?"
"He tried to teach our team ninjutsu once." said Nass. "I was terrible. So was Kana. Ikumi was just passable, I think she has one offensive ranged technique."

The Sandaime smiled.
"Yes, I think that can be done. I would like you to study this girl very closely, and meet your team tomorrow at 8AM." said Sarutobi. "This is an A rank Information gathering mission. Good luck. Oh, and don't worry, we have her permission to use her personality. She was quite flattered."

* * *

"Are you ready?" asked Nasshi.
"Of course." said Ikumi, no longer wearing her mask. Without it, you could see that she was averagely pretty, better than the promises of her childhood, but still only good. The arrogance probably didn't help, well founded as it was.

"Yes." said Kana.
"Of course." said the relative newcomer, Kyori Kaito.

"Are you?" asked Hayate. "Remember, we'll get you out when you're found by the group, and we'll cancel the mission if it takes longer than three weeks, because of the dangers of Shinsei Henge."
Nass nodded.

"I'm ready."
"Then go into the forest, and then transform." said Hayate, and Nasshimaru nodded again, and left.

* * *

Ikoyou Kotone was lost in the forests, and she was injured into the deal. A skirmish with enemy ninja had left the young chunin with a head wound.

She was silver haired, like most of her family, with brown eyes. She was beautiful, once again a common family feature. As was their tradition, she wore a white dress, split at the sides, and a grey coat. She wore a pair of katana on her back, a legacy of her time studying with her teacher's - and cousin, for that matter – teammate Nasshimaru. This also gave her a repertoire of Genjutsu. But her main advantage was in her family's Taijutsu.

But none of that really helped, considering her injury. She was barely conscious, and being able to fight well was a long way off. She needed to find her way back to Konoha, soon.

Problem was, she was terrible at navigating in trees. They all looked the same to her.
There was no way she was getting back alone.

But there was no one looking for her. She had to try.

She stood up, wincing at the pain in her head, and started to walk through the shadowy woods.

* * *

"That's a powerful technique." muttered Kaito from the treetops. "You've got some good students there, Hayate!"
"They're all great." said Hayate quietly, coughing a little.

He was proud. One of his students was a sensei by fifteen. Another was an elite Anbu by the same age. Another was an expert assassin and spy, specialising in a particularly unpleasant type of mission.

Yes, he was proud.

* * *

Three days.

Three days 'Kotone' had been wandering aimlessly in the forest, and three days her teammates had been hoping she would unwittingly lead them to the ninja gang.

Three days of no progress, and each day got them closer to the deadline. After all, they only had a few weeks before Shinsei Henge would become near permanent.

It was also on this third day that something happened.

Ikumi was watching when it happened.
Well, not watching.
She was monitoring the chakra levels in the area, using highly trained senses.

Kotone's signature began to fluctuate, and then fell to a low level, unconsciousness.

Ikumi sat bolt upright, and ran to the scene.
Too late.

* * *

Kotone was still wandering, starting to get hungry, tired, still unwell from her head wound.
She didn't sense the chakra signatures of the attackers, not that she could have done, masked as they were.

And consumed in her woe, she didn't see them, or hear them.

The first clue she had was a shuriken embedded deep in her right arm.

She cried out, barely able to move it.

"And there go handsigns." said one of the attackers.
"No Genjutsu for you, no taijutsu either." sad another.

Those two looked the same, both tall, black haired and green eyed, with crossed out Kiri headbands.

They were the Legendary Genjutsu brothers.

With some difficulty, Kotone drew a katana with her other hand.
"Well, we heard you were around." said one of the brothers. "So we thought we'd find ourselves some Kenjutsu."

Another figure appeared. A figure Kotone thought she should know, and had no idea why.
She also had a scratched Kiri headband and two katana on her back.
Her name was Emiri.

Her Kenjutsu ability far outstripped Kotone's, and in Kotone's weakened state she didn't stand a chance.
She was knocked unconscious, and carried away.

* * *

And not a single one of the team realised until she was already unconscious.

* * *

Shinsei Henge-True Transformation

* * *

Uh-oh…