Hello! Thank goodness for leap day. It is still February, so this counts as keeping to my once a month update schedule! To make up for the lateness, this is a little bit of a longer chapter than the past few. I feel like there is so much talking, but things are getting to more interesting topic, namely, a C-rank mission. I am so excited for that part.
Four o'clock in the morning found the three boys sitting in their base, at the small around table Naruto had found who knows where. Each boy had a cup of hot herbal tea, again Naruto's contribution.
"So, we need to debrief, and come up with new ideas for training." The blond boy announced.
"Indeed. I would like to know what happened on your side yesterday before we meet with Ibiki-sensei again." Shino pinned him with a look.
"Yeah, that might be good. I went on our planned route, and I could sense them before I encountered them. We met just before the halfway point. I used the clone jutsu, the normal shadow one, and sent the clones at them. I started off with just taijutsu, and that quickly failed, so I moved to taijutsu and ninjutsu combined. I used low level earth jutsu and water jutsu mostly, those won't raise too many eyebrows. Lots of genin learn those jutsu, just not usually so early." He rubbed at his left shoulder. "One of the ANBU got too close and started a take down. I popped my shoulder out of joint getting out of it. I decided I needed to move to more serious stuff to get away from it all. I wasn't going to pull out all my cards, so I did some knife kenjutsu, which I think took them off guard. I had to use more jutsu, some chunin level ones as well. I got enough space and time to slip a sturdy clone in my place and get out to the drop. I kept up as much stealth as I could with injuries and trapped the drop. Afterwards, I started a loose circle of the area. I sensed you two coming, and started back toward you. I took my time to make sure there was no one else around, and then you know the rest." Shikamaru hummed.
"We might have to mitigate the jutsu you used, but it shouldn't been an issue. Ibiki knows that we train independently of him. We can cover like you started, with pranking and experimenting. As long as we don't over-do it, he shouldn't push back too much."
"I do think it might be a good idea to lay low on the new stuff for a while now." Naruto sipped at his tea, thinking hard. "I don't know what to expect from a C-rank mission. What do you two know about them?"
"Generally," Shikamaru started. "They are simple things like escort mission, info drops, or courier runs. The most conflict that is expected from them is bandits or thugs. Ninja encounters are supposed to be quite rare. However, there is a reputation of C-ranks suddenly escalating. It doesn't happen often, but every once in a while, genin or new chunin cells will encounter B or A rank enemy ninja, or a team of samurai or something of the like. Dad talks about it sometimes with my mom. There aren't any patterns, or common factors to link the incidents. They happened completely at random. Occasionally, there is a situation that the Hokage is aware of the intersects with the C-ranks, but those are rare." Shino took up the explanation next.
"From what I have learned from cousins, there are usually enemy nin who are encountered by the genin team. Kesuke and his team encountered four chunin or jonin from Iwa on their first mission outside of the village, and one of his teammates was critically injured. They encountered them on the return trip, and barely made it back in time to save the one injured genin." Naruto tapped at the side of his tea cup, deep in thought.
"We can't really be prepared then, can we? I mean, we are aware of the possibility of something going very wrong, but that is about the most we can do. Without real experience, or knowledge of outside missions like this, we can't make a full plan with contingencies."
"True, the best we can do is look at what records we have access to and base some ideal and partials on those. Ibiki-sensei might have something to add later today, but I don't know what that might entail." Shikamaru commented. He was honestly a mix of worry and anticipation. Despite, or perhaps because of his formerly lazy attitude, the brunette was looking forward to testing his and his teammates' progress. Their attempts to do so within the village had been mixed, with one clear failure full of flaws, but the last attempt had gone over well. They had maintained partial secrecy from their teacher, an intelligence specialist no less. They were all learning and progressing at a rapid rate.
This C-rank would be a real test of their skill. If it ended badly, though, Shikamaru had the feeling that it would be very bad. With the way their team seemed to do things, nothing was ever a small matter. Look into your strange teammate's past- only to find an unknown connection to two of the most renowned shinobi of their time, one of which was the legendary Fourth Hokage. Then, as they were looking in to this, they were informed that said teammate is also a chakra-beast-containing miracle of sealing genes. 'Extra training' had quickly spiraled into the three of them delving into experimental jutsu, and more and more advanced techniques. Shino was growing his colony at a fast rate, developing skills that hadn't been seen in an Aburame for several decades. Shikamaru had worked up his own variations on shadow jutsu, including one that allowed him to pass through some walls. They had passed through the genin level jutsu and taijutsu kata within a month of training rather than the expected five to seven months. No, if something happened, it would be spectacularly bad.
"-maru? Are you listening? No! He's not. Shino- don't laugh." He became aware of chuckling and Naruto's irritated huff. "I was being serious. If anything happens, I'll make a butt tone of clones, and we can try to get out of it back to the village. I wasn't being that boring!" Shikamaru cracked a smile.
"Sorry. I was just thinking about something. We should start working on some team extractions just in case though. They might need to be more complex than just 'spam clones' though." Naruto grimaced playfully back at him, not truly bothered by his friends' lapse in attention.
"Yeah yeah, I just know how few people really expect pure brute force and a lack of tactics. It is part of why some of my pranks worked out. When you mix the two, people don't react to both. One or the other is what is noticed, and the other part ends up catching them." Shino leaned forward and steepled his fingers.
"Yes, we saw some of that with our first attempt with Ibiki-sensei. But, out in the field, we will need to have this more balanced and set up. We have to all be on the same page for something like that to function."
"I will see what I can find in the archives, and then we can go over the reports and run possible scenarios and maneuvers. But we need to head out, or Ibiki will come looking for us, it's almost 5." Naruto swore and gathered up the dishes.
"Ok, you two head out. I'll be a minute." The two clan heirs took off from the base carefully. Shikamaru used a subtle shadow jutsu to blend in with the shadows of the trees until he was well away from the base. He then took off at a fast walk towards the training fields. Shino turned to the left of Shikamaru and walked to a path that lead from the shopping district to the training grounds. His route was more direct that the Nara's, and they would intersect each other about halfway to the fields. This was their habit, as their respective houses lay roughly in the directions they would now be coming from. Naruto would probably use the treetops and his sneaking skills to get to their meeting place, and just drop out of the branches.
This was how Ibiki encountered them. It was their routine by now, and he knew to expect the two brunette boys to be walking together, talking quietly, and for Naruto to be announced by a slight rustle in the trees before dropping down beside the other two. The jonin waited until they were in their clearing to start in on the instructions.
"Today, we will be going over procedures for missions that take place outside of the village and preparing for our first C-rank." The three boys took seats around their teacher. "When we are out in the field, things are quite different than they are around here. On D-ranks, there is usually a single simple task that is set as the mission. There are simple instructions for each party, and a clear task to be completed. I assign sub-tasks, or allow you to divide them based on preference or skills. That is the bare bones simplified idea of all missions. C-ranks and higher priority missions are much more serious and complex. The most important action you can take is to follow orders. I am your direct commanding officer out in the field. If I say to guard the rear of a caravan, you guard the rear. If I say you need to keep up watch shifts, you take the ones you are given. I say do not engage, or run, you do it. No questions asked, no hesitation. There are situations that arise on outside missions that require you to follow through with orders even, or perhaps especially when you don't understand them." He leveled them all with a hard, flat stare that showed off his position as head of T&I. It was reminiscent of when they had their first team meeting.
"You all have more skills than many of the genin out in the field, but that in no way means that you can handle any of the situations that occur. There is no replacement for experience. Out on the field, there should be no argument, no goofing around- no experiments." He shot a look at Naruto here. He didn't expect much trouble from them, but there was no such thing as being too well prepared. "Procedures also include safely handling mission related information and documents. Depending on the nature of the mission, there is to be no open discussion of the mission or its parameters outside of the village. Treat this- and all other missions- with the same care you would a top secret SS assignment." All three boys looked slightly cowed as the jonin finished. Ibiki pulled out three packets from a pack that rested at his feet.
"Senseiā¦" Shikamaru started. Ibiki paused and looked over at the boy. "I was concerned about the time frame of C-ranks. When I was looking over some records, it listed long term stake out missions as C or B ranks. How are the missions graded and distributed?" Ibiki wasn't surprised that the boy had looked up information and data such as this. With all the extra studying the three of the apparently did, he half expected them to just randomly know details that were above their pay grade.
"That features in this." He tapped the brown docket cover he was holding. "This is the official protocol and regulations pertaining to C-rank missions. It goes through the chain of command, critical failure procedures, general guidelines, and the grading within the mission level. Read them, memorize the highlighted pages. We'll be running some tests and practices this morning, and then this afternoon we will be going through how to do mission prep. Tomorrow morning, we will go to the tower, and pull a C-rank mission." He stood, his long black coat rustling ominously in the stillness. He strode away without waiting for his students to respond.
