Mission
"Well, now then..." Konohamaru approached his kunai from Goro's neck.
After having hidden the body, Konohamaru considered his options for a few seconds, then came to a conclusion. He bit his thumb, making it bleed, made some hand seals and approached his hand from the floor. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" A small white furred monkey, with black skin, came out from the poof of smoke and saluted the jounin.
"Oh, Kono-chi! Long time no see!" He smiled gleefully, but you could sense a hint of mocking in his tone of voice.
Konohamaru decided to ignore it. "Yeah, yeah. It's also a pleasure. Listen, Asu, I need you to deliver a message to Konoha. Tell the Hokage that I found a man on the road who was coming from the Rain Country to meet him. He also said that there's another one like him. He'll understand." said Konohamaru, seeing the little monkey's confused expression.
Konohamaru handed the monkey his identification mark, so that the officers from Konoha could identify it and let it report the message to the Hokage.
"Sure thing, Kono-chi. You can count on me!" The monkey saluted the jounin, climbed the tree and dashed off, jumping from branch to branch, tree to tree.
After making sure the monkey was far enough, Konohamaru returned to meet his pupils again.
Asu was already a few miles away from its summoning place when, unavoidedly, was struck by a big raven. The bird flew over him and struck him at lightning speed, killing the monkey instantly.
It was the end of the afternoon. The sun was setting and the orange sky was upon Team #6 as they went up yet another hill. They had travelled during the whole day. Naru, Sakuya and Yuusou were tired and still not very satisfied with their instructor not telling them a word since they found Goro on the road that morning.
When they reached the top of the small hill and took in the sight, they finally let go a sigh of relief.
Down in a valley right after that hill stood a small amount of houses, many of them with gardens, and a few farms. There was a large river flowing about a mile from the village.
They had arrived Koyama.
Naru and Yuusou released a big smile, while Sakuya slightly smirked. Konohamaru kept his close expression, but his eyes loosened up a bit. Naru started running in the village's direction.
"How can she still have this much energy? Geez..." sighed Sakuya, motioning to follow her team-mate. Yuusou followed suit, followed by his sensei. "At last, we got here."
The village was clearly poor. The houses were rustic and old fashioned, but the air was comforting and brought peace to the heart.
Once Team #6 entered the village, since it was already late in the afternoon, almost dinner time, people estranged their presence. They kept staring at the ninjas, not sure if they were at peace or ill willed. When Team #6 had taken about fifty steps into the village, a tall tan-skined man, with ragged clothes but strongly built, stopped in front of them, blocking the way. He stuck a big old spear on the ground, supporting his arm on the stick. The ninjas stared curiously at the man.
"May I ask who you are? Customers or visitors coming this late in the afternoon is not something we're used to. What are you here for?" The man asked with no further contemplation.
The rest of the villagers remained still, staring at and encircling Team #6. The stares brought distrust and a small hint of fear to the eyes of the villagers. One could see that what the man had said was true, and that although the village was pacific, hard times were striking it nowadays.
Team #6 remained still, looking carefully at the villagers. Naru che'd and assumed a battle position. Almost immediately Konohamaru stepped forth. One of the villagers flinched.
"We're neither visitors nor customers." Spoke Konohamaru. He opened a pocket from his vest and took out a document which he showed to the man that had spoken. "We're ninjas from Konoha and we came here on a mission assigned to us by the Hokage in accordance to what the leader from this village asked."
His reaction seemed to take a bit of time, but the man responded to Konohamaru, advancing further and taking the letter from the jounin's hand. The villagers didn't seem to change their apparatus and encircled yet even more the ninja team.
The man took his time looking at the letter. Naru and Sakuya remained in their positions, surrounding Yuusou, who looked a bit frightened with the situation. The girls had a sweat drip running down their cheeks. Konohamaru stayed calm and collected, awaiting for the man's approval of the document.
The man finally looked up and returned the letter to Konohamaru.
"I can't really read." Said the man, now with a relieved smile "But that is without a doubt the leader's signature, this village's and Konoha's seals. That much I can understand."
The ambient around the villager's changed drastically. Sighs of relief and smirks could be seen gathering through the population. They started disbanding to their own previous chores, lifting the mood considerably.
"I'm sorry if we scared you." Said the man, turning especially to the three pre-teens "It's just that lately our village has been under constant vigilance and care by its inhabitants. There have been a series of robberies, especially cattle, and damage to the stables."
The man asked them to accompany him to the leader's house. Konohamaru took the chance to ask a few more questions, but the man didn't know much. He was a hunter, so was often out of the village for days in a row with his companions and didn't have much to do with cattle of animal creation.
"Are there three part of the team too? They're children."
Naru bursted out immediately "Hey!" but was cut by Konohamaru and Sakuya closed her mouth with her hands, while che'ing.
"They're actual ninjas who fit perfectly for this kind of mission, don't worry."
They finally arrived at the village leader's house. It was a small two story woodhouse, but would easily beat the other houses in the village in size. The man knocked at the door twice and announced the ninja's arrival. The door creaked open and a young face stared through the opening.
"Oh, it's you." Said the man behind the door "Are they there with you?"
The hunter replied affirmatively with a small grunt.
"Well, let them come in then."
The door opened completely revealing a young man with long light-grey hair, serene face and clever eyes.
The hunter took the chance to step aside. "I'll be here when you're finished. If you'd like, me and my wife could give you a place to stay tonight and warm meal."
For the first time since they arrived at Koyama, the three kid's faces lightened up. "We're very much obliged to you, Hunter-san. I think the kids would enjoy that quite a bit." Said Konohamaru with a smirk.
"It's settled then." Replied the hunter. "I'll be waiting here for you, if that's okay."
Team #6 stepped into the house while the young man closed the door behind them. The house was well decorated inside with a small hall leading to a kitchen upfront. The young man guided them through the house, into a set of stairs that would lead to the upper floor.
"My name's Kaji." The young man introduced himself. "I'm the leader's only son. He is currently at his office, waiting for you. Please, be of use." Kaji smiled when he showed them the door to the leader's office, in the middle of two rooms, one for each one of them.
Konohamaru and the pre-teens entered the room. Waiting there was an old man with near bald head except for the side of his head and a traditional pony-tail on its top. He had a small beard around his mouth and sported the same clever eyes that his son did, only his were already at the beginning of their end. Konohamaru slightly bowed to him, followed by his pupils. The man replied in the same way and directed them to have a seat.
"First of all let me thank all of you for having come here, to this isolated little village in order to help us." Started the old man "My name is Uendai, as you know I'm the leader of Koyama, unanimously elected by its population, and so it befalls upon me the responsibility to take care of any business or problem that affects my people."
The old man easily spoke with an expensive speech. That surprised Konohamaru.
"We heard that you were having some problems with cattle robbery and vandalism to your farms." Stated Konohamaru.
Uendai sighed. "Yes. You see, though this village is small, the farms have to be away from the center so that they can have as much field as the owners can have without the somewhat ruckus that obviously there is in a population. Taking advantage of that, the assailants strike at night, where there is neither time nor attention to stop their attempts."
"How long has this been happening? And why haven't the authorities done anything yet?"
"It has been happening for about two weeks, every night. The authorities didn't do anything because there is no such thing in Koyama. Its own people take care of its problems. The biggest crime that has ever been here before these robberies had been some stolen chicken by another farmer of this village. But these robberies have already brought death to our small population."
The man sighed with a hurt face. The three pre-teens stood quite, trading stares.
"How come?" asked Konohamaru.
"Well, the hunters have been out for almost two weeks in a big hunt. They are the only real strong men this village has, and they are not more than those you can count with the fingers in one hand. At the beginning we thought poor of these robberies and didn't take measures. But once the hunters were out, they continued. The fishermen, who work at dawn, one of those nights decided to wait for the robbers. A small group waited in each farm there was… When we took notice, the farm in which the robbers stroke had already been forced, and the fishermen over there killed."
"I see…Is there any attack pattern? Do you have any idea where the robbers will strike again and when?"
"We think, and that is based in my calculations and thoughts, that they will strike at the Donato's farm, in the far east of the village, tonight. I think you trust my judging." Said the man, although humbly.
"Very well." Said Konohamaru, getting up "We'll wait for them at Donato's farm, tonight. We'll go there at the end of the evening and try to stop any attack that may come." He was followed suit by his students.
"Thank you very much. I hope you ninjas can be successful where our brave men failed."
"Don't worry Ossan! We'll kick their asses for sure!" Naru finally broke the silence. The mood changed a bit, and the three-man team got out of the room with light smirks.
"My, my. You're quite lively…" said the old man, once they closed the door.
That evening, Naru, the rest of her team and sensei were cosily seating at the Hunter's table. The hunter's name was Shigeru, as he finally introduced himself. Since he had come back from hunting that morning, the table was full with the most delicious meat and vegetables. Shigeru's wife, Nao, was a great cook. While the kids were having a feast with all the food, Konohamaru was quietly talking to Shigeru, trying to know a bit more from the village's condition.
"It's as Undei-ji-sama said, me and my companions have been out for the past week and a half, so we only got to know the village's condition today, when we arrived. We was really surprised to know of all that. Even two of the fishermen died. What kind of people are we dealing with here?"
"Well, we were kind of expecting it, tough robbers. Looks like Naru here will be quite satisfied with this mission." Naru had been loud about the mission ever since they got out of the old leader's house. Finally she would kick some ass, she wouldn't stop saying. "Though there are two things bothering me. It's not much, but it's not just usual in small villages like these."
"What do you mean?" asked Shigeru, getting curious.
"Well, for starters, you didn't seem to like the oldman's son, Kaji. And I don't think he sees you as a great friend either. Also, the old man didn't estrange the fact that only an adult and three kids came to help you."
Shigeru looked thoughtful for a bit. "Well, it's nothing of a rivalry or recent. Actually the reason why he didn't say anything might be because his own son, Kaji, was taught the ninja arts for a few years in Amegakure village when he was a kid. Uendai-ji-sama lived there for a bit before coming over to the Fire Country and establishing Koyama as a village, with the help of a few fishermen that lived nearby. He then went back to the Rain Country for two decades or so, where and when he had his son." Shigeru continued. "And that is exactly why me and actually most of the population here is not happy with Kaji. He knows some ninjutsu, that's for sure, but he hasn't done anything to stop the robberies yet."
Konohamaru took in the information. There could be something more here than what beats the eye, but he would wait for tonight's outcome to take out his own conclusions of the situation. There was not more that he could do before actually meeting the gang of robbers. He wasn't worried though. Sooner or later they would catch them and bring them to justice. They weren't ninjas, since ninjas could hunt and wouldn't rely on such ways to obtain food and clothing. And they weren't nomads, because if they were they wouldn't maintain an attack pattern for two weeks.
All he could do was waiting for tonight.
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Hey, long time no see! Well, yeah. One of my biggest flaws is my ability to start things and not ending them. Anyway, here's the 10th chapter and some more will come, I guess. Actually I regained strenght to continue the fic thanks to a review which I particuarly liked. Thanks Erika. Looking forward to the next chapter!