Let's start this from the beginning

Kabasawa Mines

V

Who would have thought they would unleash the boars on the town? This is much more daring of them than I anticipated.

Itachi had known that something would happen, but for them to go this far was truly a surprise. It wasn't as if he didn't expect that the boars would make an appearance. If the culprits behind this conspiracy wanted them gone, arranging for them to kill the boars – the reason his team was here in the first place – wasn't a stupid plan. In theory, it would resolve the situation quite nicely.

However, doing so in such a way seemed not only entirely unnecessary but outright counterproductive as well. The culprits surely wouldn't want to attract additional attention to the area while they were pulling off some kind of scheme, right? Something big like giant boars destroying parts of the town could easily convince the Hokage to station a number of shinobi here in order to avoid such incidents in the future, defying the entire point about getting Itachi's team to leave.

Unless they have a way to influence who will be sent and thus can bring in possible allies, that is, he mused. Or, more likely, there are other factors at play that I don't know about.

"Ehm, Sensei?" someone spoke up from his right. "What exactly are you looking for?"

Turning around, he came face to face with Hinata and Shino.

When the boars attacked the town, Itachi, Kiba, and Shino had still been at the manor, and while Itachi by himself would have been able to cross the distance and come to the town's aid relatively quickly, his two students most definitively would not. Especially considering they were supposed to be resting. That being said, Itachi too had only been able to set off after the attack had already started, meaning there would have been victims even in the short time it took him to arrive.

Fortunately, however, Itachi had a clone follow Hinata in secret from the moment she left the mansion, allowing him to intervene almost immediately anyway. Thanks to both his and Hinata's efforts, the number of casualties kept below a dozen.

By the time he and his other two students arrived, all the boars had already been taken care of.

"I was merely thinking," he answered Hinata's question. "Don't you think it strange that these boars attacked the town like this even though Kiba had been sure that they actually moved away from the area after the attack on the caravan?"

Both frowned at that. "Right," Hinata said, "that's weird. Also, isn't it really unusual for them to attack towns in general?"

"It is," Shino agreed. "Why? The loud noises of such a big settlement scare them off. It rarely happens that giant boars attack smaller villages, but never large towns like this one. This behaviour is most unusual."

"They did seem unnaturally enraged as well…"

It would have been all but impossible to notice for someone who wasn't already familiar with him, but after hearing Hinata's murmured comment, Shino straightened, clearly coming to some kind of realization. "Would it be possible that someone intentionally directed the animals to the town? In that case, especially if they were under attack, they would possibly not hesitate to enter even such a populated area."

"But why-" Hinata stopped herself before she could finish that sentence, her eyes shining as she too realized what this would mean. "They want us gone, don't they? If the boars attack the town, we would be bound to kill them, consequently finishing our mission and then taking our leave!"

"And thus giving the culprits behind this conspiracy free reign to do as they please," Shino finished. "How clever."

"Quite so," Itachi agreed, "but while this certainly sounds very convincing, we have yet to prove it."

"Is that why you took Kiba with you to check where the boars came from, Sensei?"

He nodded at the question. He who was with them here right now was, in fact, just a clone. Just as Shino had said, the original Itachi had taken Kiba with him to see where the boars had come from. It was technically unnecessary, of course. Their mission was to eliminate the boars, and with that done, there was no reason for them to do any further investigation. They were free to leave at any time now. However, with all the other things they had found out so far, it was only natural that accepting something far-stretched like the boars randomly attacking the town wasn't really an option.

So, while it was unlikely that he would find anything, Itachi took Kiba to see if he could find traces of a scent of any of the people operating in the shadows. And even if that didn't happen, he was sure the Inuzuka would at the very least find something else to prove another of Itachi's suspicions.

"Exactly. We won't leave all the research to him alone, though. There's something I would like to test out for which your help is indispensable." He turned towards Shino while pointing at the nearby corpse of one of the boars Hinata had killed. "Would you please direct your Kikaichū to suck all the remaining charka from its body?"

To his credit, Shino didn't hesitate at all to follow his instructions even though he was clearly confused about his intentions.

While the boy was busy, he turned toward his other student. "Hinata, can you tell me what you know about the summoning technique?"

Similarly to Shino, she seemed confused about that questions as well but answered nonetheless. "We learned a bit about it at the Academy. People can sign contracts with certain groups of animals to summon them in battle, although they're not actually required to fight for you. It's voluntary." She hesitated for a moment before continuing. "I know that the Sannin all have different summons – snakes, toads, and slugs respectively – and that you, of course, have a contract with crows, Sensei."

That were the basics, yes, but it didn't cover the part he wanted to get at.

"That's correct. A summoning contract allows you to summon whatever animal you have made a contract with, and the amount of chakra used determines the size, strength, and number of animals that are summoned. If too little chakra is offered, only a small, young animal will be summoned. By offering large amounts of chakra, multiple adult animals can be summoned simultaneously.

"Animals aren't summoned indefinitely, however, and they will return to wherever they were summoned from when they tire out or enough time has passed. That being said, they usually don't immediately return when they're killed. That only happens if the time of their death coincidentally happens to overlap with the time their charka runs out. As a rule, the summoning can theoretically last as long as the animal still possesses enough chakra.

"Just as in humans, certain bodily functions continue for a little while longer even after a person's clinical death. The same is true for chakra. As long as their reserves weren't empty at the time of their death, a person will still have some remaining chakra in their bodies for some time."

"My father once told me the same thing," Shino said. "That's how secret techniques are stolen. Enemy shinobi take the corpse, preserve its chakra, and then research their bodies to find out how their techniques work."

Hinata's face briefly distorted in a grimace before she caught herself. "My clan's Caged Bird Seal activates upon the death of its carrier to permanently destroy their Byakugan and stop it from falling into enemy hands to avoid just that."

"Our Kikaichū are instructed to destroy our internal pathways and suck us dry of chakra if we die for the same reason."

Shino said that without so much as a frown and his voice was steady and calm, but Itachi could see beneath that. He was clearly just as uncomfortable with that topic as Hinata even if he was better at hiding it. Not that Itachi could blame either of them, of course. As much as death was a constant companion for shinobi, it wasn't exactly an easy topic for young and inexperienced ones to talk or even think about. Talking about what happened to their bodies after their death was bound to be uncomfortable.

"And with this information, why do you think I instructed you to extract the boar's chakra?" Itachi asked, bringing the conversation back on topic and effectively distracting them from their dark thoughts.

Both seemed to come to a conclusion at the same time, but Hinata was quicker to speak up. "You think the boars were summons?"

That was the most obvious conclusion given their prior conversation, and she certainly wasn't wrong about Itachi having at least considered that possibility, but it wasn't like he really believed in it. His own suspicions weren't too different, however, and actually related to the topic of summons, so this had been as good an opportunity as any to give them a brief excursus on the subject.

"There's no chakra left," Shino then announced while the insects he had used to drain the corpse of its chakra flew back towards him in swarms. The boar's body remained in their wake, its chakra completely depleted and yet not vanishing in a puff of smoke. "Hence, this theory is proven false."

"Hinata," Itachi said before either of them could be too disappointed about this supposedly false lead, "please check if you can see some kind of seal inside its body."

Again, regardless of whatever confusion she might feel, she didn't hesitate in doing as he asked.

It took only a little more than ten seconds for her to find what she was looking for.

"There is!" she uncharacteristically exclaimed. "It's right on its heart! I don't know what it means, but it's definitively there!" Then, a bit softer, "I have never seen anything like that…"

Shino, on the other hand, threw him a suspicious look. "You knew about this, didn't you, Sensei?"

"It was only a hunch, although I have to admit I was indeed confident it would turn out like this, yes." Then, seeing the unspoken questions in both his students' eyes, he continued, "While a summoning technique using a contract summons an animal that has voluntarily allied itself with you, it is possible to forcefully summon one by placing a seal on it. That's obviously not very effective when one wants to cooperate with the summoned animal, but when it comes to wild animals like these boars whose only suppose is to rage and cause chaos, it does its job just fine." Itachi didn't think it essential to mention that in theory, one could also summon intelligent animals and even Bijū and then simply control them with a suitably powerful Genjutsu to make use of them that way. "In this case, Kiba's statements that there are no traces of the boars in the area and that they seem to have moved away from here after attacking the caravan, combined with the fact that giant boars are not normally found in this part of the country, led me to suspect that a summoning might be the cause. It's only now that I have proof, though."

There were a few seconds of silence. Then, "So there are definitively shinobi involved, huh…"

Shino nodded at Hinata's words, his face grave. "So it seems."

This, too, wasn't much of a surprise. Some of the things Itachi had found in his investigation had, while not outright proven their existence, clearly pointed towards it being the case. Now the only questions remaining were who and how capable they are. Itachi would decide on the details of his next steps depending on the answers to that.

At least finding the answers shouldn't be too hard. While he hadn't known for sure, he did consider the possibility of shinobi being involved and had taken steps to prepare for it just in case. While he might not have found them yet, he had scouted the area and looked for possible hideouts, and the fact that he hadn't stumbled over them yet meant he could narrow their location down by excluding the places he had already checked.

Yes, finding them shouldn't be too much of a task if he actually searched for them instead of merely keeping an eye out while focusing primarily on other things.

"So what are we going to do now?"

Itachi pulled himself out of his thoughts before giving first Hinata and then Shino a reassuring smile. "Now, we prepare to depart. Our mission is finished, after all."

Their flabbergasted looks made it absolutely worth it to have phrased that so misleadingly.

"Can we go, please? I want to see the flowers!"

Hinata gave the younger girl a gentle smile that hid the unease she actually felt before giving her consent, resulting in a gleeful squeal from the girl.

Nezu, just like her father, Hirate Akihito, was not what one would typically expect from a noble. Especially not from a noble whose family controlled the region with the most important mines in the country and accordingly much influence.

On the other hand, she thought with a hum, maybe it's the fact that they have so much power that allows them to step out of line and act as they do.

When Hinata had been nine years old, her days had been spent training both her fighting abilities and social skills that were expected of the Hyūga heiress. While it wasn't as if she had no free time at all, she had been very busy, devoting many hours every week to her duties. From what she had heard from her teammates and the general gossip back at the Academy, the other children that belonged to clans and the heirs in particular didn't have it much different.

Nezu, on the other hand, spent most of her time playing, fooling around, and generally making the lives of her caretakers much more complicated than they had any right to be. The nine-year-old simply loved dashing through flowerbeds, completely uncaring of the mud that covered her expensive robes or the way her shoulder-length hair stood up in all directions afterwards, and even tried to hide from her caretakers just to see how long they would need to find her on more than one occasion.

Even worse, her father never reprimanded her. Now, Hinata was the last person to complain about a father doting on their daughter, but in her opinion, there was a difference between encouraging one's child on one hand and letting them do as they pleased on the other.

This was clearly the latter.

Still, Hinata could help but like the girl. In a way, she reminded her of Hanabi. Although her sister was much better behaved and could act like a proper Hyūga if the situation demanded it, she had a mischief strike a mile long and loved nothing more than causing Hinata trouble in the same way Nezu caused trouble for her caretakers.

One of which was currently Hinata.

One week had passed since the boars attacked the town, and six days since she and her team had officially departed to head home. Unofficially, however, they had only travelled for about an hour before turning around to go back.

In accordance with whatever Itachi-sensei had agreed upon with their client, Hinata had then been welcome back into the mansion as a freshly employed maid and caretaker for Nezu. Obviously not as herself, though. No, before she set foot through the gates again, she underwent a transformation in the truest sense of the word; from new clothes fitting for her current occupation, a new hairstyle, a generous amount of make-up, and even contacts lenses to hide her pupilless eyes, every possible step had been taken to make her unrecognizable to anyone who might have seen her before.

It was a surreal experience, really. Even she couldn't recognize herself in the mirror anymore! Thanks to all the work that went into her appearance, she now looked a few years older than she was, passing as an older teen rather than a twelve-year-old even though her height still caused a few raised eyebrows.

She could have used a Henge, of course, but considering their tentative plans meant she might play this role for up to ten days before they reconsidered and thought about how to proceed in case nothing of note happened in that time, doing so was out of the question. Even ignoring the problem of the constant drain on her chakra, it was much too risky to use it considering the transformation was relatively easy to break.

Especially with an energetic child like Nezu around.

Thus, here she was, playing at being her maid. Hinata had been unsure about this at first. After all, wouldn't it be suspicious if a new maid appeared shortly after their team had left? However, it seemed that worry had been unnecessary as the girl's behaviour meant new caretakers came and went in almost a daily manner, meaning nobody looked at her twice when she arrived.

What caught people's attention, on the other hand, was that she could actually handle Nezu. Maybe it was her experience with Hanabi that allowed her to deal with her, maybe it was because she had met the girl before and consequently already knew what to expect rather than being caught flat-footed by her attitude, or maybe it was simply that she could afford to be just a little bit sterner with her than the normal caretakers, but for some reason, Nezu actually listened to her. Not always and not necessarily to the letter, but at the end of the day, even that was more than anyone else had managed so far.

Which was exactly why she had been 'promoted' to the girl's primary caretaker within two days of her stay.

Hinata was sure that this had nothing to do with Hirate Akihito knowing her true identity or the fact that he knew she was actually here to protect his daughter, nothing at all.

That was the crux of the entire situation; with all the suspicious activities they had uncovered during their stay, Itachi-sensei thought it likely that something was going to happen soon. Maybe even as soon as they had left and put enough distance between themselves and the mines to avoid them becoming aware of what was going on.

Obviously, if someone was trying to make some shady moves in the area, they needed to take care of the people in charge. Killing them would cause more problems than it would solve, though, so rather than disposing of Akihito, it made much more sense to manipulate and control him.

And what better way to do so than threatening the daughter he so obviously adored, right?

So, while the rest of her team was doing their own part to prepare for a potential confrontation with enemy shinobi, Hinata was playing caretaker aka bodyguard for Nezu.

She had been rather anxious at first, the idea of having to fight real enemies – possibly even missing-nins! – on her first mission outside the village which had been supposed to be an easy one honestly frightening her, but the constant frenzy of trying to keep up with her charge quickly distracted her of all that.

By now, even though she obviously still kept aware of her surroundings just like she had been taught, Hinata actually-

She wasn't even aware of what she was doing, but one moment she was following after Nezu towards the outskirts of the property close to the walls and the next moment she was jumping into action to push the two other maids and the one guard that were also part of their group to the ground to avoid them being hit by something.

Half a second later, some kind of yellow flash flew past them by a hair before vanishing in the distance.

"What was that?"

"Are we under attack?"

"What the-"

Hinata ignored the confused exclamations around her as she jumped back to her feet, instantly falling into her familiar fighting stance while desperately trying to ignore the panic that was building up in her chest. She didn't even think about taking out her contact lenses before she did it, but even the relief of finally being rid of them didn't help calm her down. Still, while they might not have prevented her from using her Byakugan, they would certainly have made it more uncomfortable, so at least that was one thing less she had to worry about.

"Oh my~, isn't that a nice surprise? I thought you Konoha-nins had left days ago? That's what I have been told, at least. Mind telling me why you're still here, sweetie? I doubt you had a change of heart and decided that the life of a maid would be preferable to that of a kunoichi, did ya?"

The person had spoken up at the exact same moment Hinata had noticed her. It was a beautiful woman with orange, shoulder-length hair that wore a red, sleeveless blouse and a pair of scandalous short shorts, sitting on the wall with her legs crossed and looking down at them.

What truly caught Hinata's attention, however, was the headband she wore around her waist like a belt. Or, more precisely, the scratch that went through the symbol of Sunagakure on it.

She's a missing-nin, Hinata realized, feeling her blood running cold.

"Hinata…?" Nezu spoke up from behind her, and thanks to her Byakugan, Hinata didn't even need to turn around to see her wide, fearful eyes. "Why are you-"

"You need to go," she interrupted her, trying to sound braver than she felt. "That's a criminal. It's dangerous here. I will take care of her, so please run back to the mansion and call for help." If Itachi-sensei wasn't close enough to notice what was going on, that should notify him.

"But-"

"Now, Nezu-chan."

While it was the girl she addressed, it was the lone guard that reacted first, grabbing the girl and lifting her onto his shoulders to her vocal protests before starting to run away, quickly followed by the two maids.

The enemy kunoichi wouldn't let them go just like this, though.

"Oh, you want to stop me? How cute! Let's see how you're going to do that, shall we?"

Hinata wasn't sure what it was that she was doing, but she did notice that the other woman began gathering chakra into her right hand and it was that what allowed her to act in a timely manner.

Pushing herself off the ground, she rushed to stand between the fleeing figures and the other kunoichi even as her body felt numb with fear, coming to a stop at the same time as her opponent lazily raised one of her hands to make a single hand seal.

A second later, three flashes that seemed to be made of dazzling bright chakra shot out of the open palm of her hand, heading straight towards Nezu and her entourage with only Hinata in-between to stop them.

In some strange way, this was reassuring. While it certainly did nothing to calm her down, this was familiar. This was something she knew to handle. Three projectiles were nothing. Compared to what she had dealt with during training, this could practically be considered child's play.

Gathering chakra into her hands, she aimed right at the attacks. With the Gentle Fist, it was laughable easy to cut through constructs made of chakra, so while Hinata didn't know what kind of technique the kunoichi was using exactly, the fact that the projectiles were definitively made of chakra was more than enough to assure her of the effectiveness of her approach.

Three quick palm strikes later, the attack had been stopped in its tracks, allowing the group behind her to escape unhindered.

Hinata's hands felt surprisingly warm, though. However, considering it wasn't even to the point where it was uncomfortable, she ignored that for the moment and instead focused on her opponent.

She had clearly succeeded in her objective, meaning she should feel some sense of accomplishment, but the smirk on the other woman's face gave her pause. Shouldn't she be bothered by her failure? Angry, even? Why did it look like she didn't care at all?

"You're really something, aren't you? Cutting through my attack like it's nothing even though I put a bit more chakra into it than usual. I have been warned about Hyūga being able to do that, y'know, but it's something else entirely to see it with my own eyes!"

"You have been warned about it?" Hinata jumped at the chance to occupy her mind with something else than her wildly beating heart. Is it because they knew we were here or…?

"Of course," the woman said with an amused giggle while rearranging her legs. "Everyone in my family is warned about yours, just as everyone is told how to exploit your weaknesses."

Hinata's eyes widened. What does she mean with-

"Well, I guess I really should go after that brat, shouldn't I? My boss will be pissed if I return without her." Then, her lips curled into a cruel smirk, twisting her beautiful face into something much more sinister. "On the other hand, I never had the opportunity to fight a Hyūga. Y'see, I wanted to fight someone from your clan for years but was never lucky enough to encounter one. Now, with you right in front of me, how could I possibly resist? You're really cute too, so there's no way I'm letting you go! I can find that girl after I have dealt with you anyway, so I should not even get into trouble for this."

A small part of her thought that this might be a good thing. If the woman was so fixated on her that she wouldn't even try to go after Nezu, doing her job would be much, much easier. On the other hand, Hinata really didn't like what she was saying. While she had no idea why that woman's family was so focused on her clan that they deliberately informed every one of their members about their abilities and weaknesses, it couldn't possibly mean anything good for her.

Quite the opposite, in fact.

I can't let this unsettle me, she told herself, thinking that just as much as a reminder of one of the basic rules they had been taught at the Academy as to encourage herself. I need to keep a clear head. If I panic, I lose. Remember what Sensei had told us right after we became his students: nobody is perfect. Nobody is unbeatable. Whoever saw through their opponent and found their flaws first would win. Even if she's stronger than I am, I can still win if I find even just one nick in her technique.

Technically, Hinata was already at a disadvantage because her opponent clearly knew about her abilities and weaknesses, but she could turn that into an advantage as well. After all, she knew her opponent knew the typical Hyūga fighting style, so she had really no reason whatsoever to rely solely on that. If she could take the other kunoichi by surprise with that approach, the fight could be over before she even knew it.

In theory, that sounded actually quite nice. It was unfortunate that it did little to reassure her, though.

She was scared. Hinata had no problem admitting that. She was sweating bullets, her heart was beating wildly in her chest, and it was only the self-control instilled in her since she was a little child that kept her from trembling or clenching her hands into fists.

However, she couldn't back down. She wouldn't!

After all, not only did she have a duty as kunoichi to see her mission to the end, but there was also someone she had to protect. Someone who relied on her.

For one moment, Nezu's face in her mind was replaced by Hanabi's before she shook that image off again.

I can't fail, Hinata thought while summoning every ounce of determination she could find within her. Sensei wouldn't have trusted me to do this if he didn't think I could do it. Even if I don't believe in myself, I need to at least trust that he wouldn't have put me into this position without reason.

She might be scared, terrified even, but she wouldn't back down. She would prove that she was worth being not only a kunoichi but also Itachi's student and her father's daughter.

She wouldn't let her team down.

The excitement of spying on Mikata, the captain of their client's guards, had worn off quickly, Shino thought. Finding the man had been relatively easy as all they needed to do was follow the tracks the man's group had left behind. Considering they had left the town with a large group of horses and carts that left deep imprints in the ground, they hadn't even needed Kiba's and Akamaru's noses to do so.

At first, both Shino and his teammate had been more than just a little motivated at the prospect of their task. After all, being trusted with this was, in a way, an indirect concession to their abilities in the wake of the successful job they had done during their sensei's previous task for them. Then, they had proven that they were both capable and trustworthy enough to act independently on their own without his supervision, convincing him to give them an even more important task as a result.

To Shino, it felt as if he was truly making a substantial step forward in his career.

He knew that he needed to keep a cool head, of course. He had always been proud of his self-control and didn't intend to give in to his emotions now of all times. That being said, he would lie if he claimed his heart hadn't been beating wildly in his chest ever since he and Kiba had once again separated from Hinata and Itachi-sensei.

It took a considerable effort to keep his face calm and relaxed, too.

This opportunity right now was the result of all the effort he – and his team as well, of course – had put into their training, and Shino had no intention of letting it go to waste.

Unfortunately, reality quickly caught up with him. Regardless of what he might have imagined would happen once they found Mikata and his group, all that awaited them from then on onwards was boredom.

Catching up with them took Kiba and him a little more than a day, finding them just as they were in the process of making camp not far from the scene of the boar attack. Judging from the chatter from the men they observed, they had apparently found the lack of corpses just as concerning as they had, and the reason they chose to camp here was that they wanted to remain close while they examined the site some more.

Making out their main target, Mikata, was easy enough. Although all the men wore armour, he was the only one whose armour was dark red and not blue like the others', letting him stand out a lot and consequently making their job a lot easier. Furthermore, he didn't seem to do much whatsoever, choosing to remain in the camp for most of the time they observed him while delegating pretty much any responsibility and authority to those around him. In fact, most days, he only left his tent to get some food or to follow the call of nature.

Shino probably didn't need to explain why that was far from exciting. There wasn't even much else going on in the camp around their target that could somehow distract them from the whole lot of nothing they had to do - there were actually much fewer people here than he expected considering Itachi-sensei had told them that Mikata left with a large group of people. It was to the point where a small part of Shino wondered how they had managed to get all these carts that now served as little more than a glorified barrier around the camp all this way here in such a short amount of time with how few men with horses were present.

If Shino was bored, however, Kiba was desperate. Where he had done a pretty good job of keeping a grip on himself, Kiba, who just like him had expected something more interesting than this waiting game, had grown impatient within the first twenty-four hours.

If he was honest with himself, Shino was surprised he had even kept it together that long. No matter how much Kiba had improved over the last two months, he was still a rather impatient person, after all.

"This is ridiculous," his teammate said from where he was sitting on a branch a little bit below him. "They came to retrieve the bodies of the dead, right? They have been half-heartedly poking at the remnants of the caravan for days now! Why are they still here? Shouldn't they have realized that there is nothing to retrieve and gone home already?"

Shino barely stopped himself from shooting Kiba a withering look when he replied, forcefully keeping his voice calm as he did so. "And how am I supposed to know the answer to that?"

"You aren't," Kiba replied without a second's hesitation, much less caring about sounding polite than Shino had been. "They're being stupid, that's all. There's nothing to answer, that's why it's called a rhetorical question."

He was tempted to say something along the lines of "I'm surprised you know such big words" but managed to keep these thoughts to himself. The two of them got better along now than they did during their Academy days even though they had actually been part of the same group of friends during that time for years, and after the fiasco with Team Guy a bit over a month ago, they even managed to build a rapport where they could quarrel with each other without hard feelings being involved, but right now, Shino had no doubt that such a comment would result in a 'real' fight and didn't think it wise to endanger their mission like that. "It's not as simple as them being stupid," he said instead, inwardly chiding himself when his voice came out a tad colder than intended. "Why? The situation is too suspicious to be left alone just like that, but as there is no trail for them to follow either, so they found themselves at a dead end."

Kiba scoffed. "Then the smart thing would be to retreat and report back to their lord so that he can decide what to do next."

"Nobody likes to be the bearer of bad news, and I'm sure our target doesn't want to return empty-handed either."

"So what? Whether they like it or not, they failed, so they should at least have the guts to admit it."

"Would you immediately return to Sensei and admit you failed your mission if a problem were to emerge right now, then?" Because Shino probably would not. He knew it wasn't right, but he was self-aware enough to at least admit to himself that he would likely first try to solve the problem himself before he admitted defeat – unless it was something truly insurmountable, that it.

Judging from Kiba's silence, he seemed to think along the same lines.

Fortunately for both of them, before their discussion could escalate, the conversation from a returning scouting party caught both their attention.

"… but why would there be such a large camp out here? There must have been at least a few dozen people!"

"It's not like we're the only ones to use this route. It's a pretty busy street, actually. It's not much of a stretch that a passing group made a stop there to rest for the night."

"No way! It was much too far off the route for that. I still think we should send a rider with a message to-"

"You know that the captain had said. Unless it's an emergency, we are not to send any rider back, and this hardly qualifies for that."

"If an abandoned camp of unknown nature doesn't qualify as an emergency, what does?"

"You think too much into this. If you just search for long enough, you will find…"

The words became quieter as the two men walked on until they finally fell silent altogether when the distance became too great, but that didn't matter. They had heard the important bits.

Shino and Kiba looked at each other for a moment, thinking the exact same thing while their earlier conversation was already forgotten.

There was obviously no hundred precent guarantee, but in all likelihood, the camp the scouts had been talking about was the one the two of them had found before. The one with the members of the caravan that Mikata and his men were looking for right now.

It was not necessarily a surprise that they were gone now. They had no reason to stay there infinitely, after all. If anything, it was actually a surprise that they had stayed there as long as they did. In all likelihood, they had left the area days ago and were long since gone by now, scattered in the wind and never to be seen again.

We should have kept an eye on them as well, Shino thought, annoyed with himself for not thinking about that earlier. I understand that we're only four people and thus can do only so much at the same time, but they were important witnesses. Leaving them unmonitored and allowing them to flee was a stupid mistake.

He was so annoyed, in fact, that it didn't even occur to him what other implications the merchants' absence might have, and because of what happened next, he didn't have the time to think about it some more and notice it either.

Akamaru, who until now had been napping on Kiba's lap, jumped to his feet and spun around, his nose high in the air.

"What is it, boy?" Kiba immediately asked even as he began to sniff around as well, trying to find what it was his partner had noticed. "You smell something?"

Shino had no other choice but to wait and watch as his teammate and his ninken silently communicated with each other. He did send his Kikaichū out to scout the area, of course, but unless whatever he was looking for truly stood out somehow, it was unlikely that they would be of much use. Kiba and Akamaru were much better at finding people from afar, so by the time his insects had crossed the distance to whatever – or, more likely, whoever – their target was, his teammates would probably have already located them.

This assumption was proven right a moment later when Kiba spoke up.

"I don't recognize it, but Akamaru says he caught this scent when we were following the trails of the boars last week."

Shino remembered that. While he and Hinata had gotten a lesson about the summoning technique from their sensei's clone, the real one had taken Kiba and Akamaru with him to see if there was anything that could lead them to the culprits. And indeed, there had been one scent found by Akamaru in a clearing not too far from the town.

While the attempt to follow it back to its source had failed back then, it clearly benefitted them now.

Kiba was waiting for his response, but Shino couldn't bring himself to reply immediately.

There was an enemy shinobi – the one responsible for summoning the boars that had attacked both the caravan and the town – closing in on them right now, probably with no good intentions. Considering it was unlikely that they were coming for him and Kiba, and well-aware that the only other people in the area was the group they had been observing for the last few days, it also took no effort to conclude who the target was.

So Mikata isn't the culprit, then.

The captain of the guards had been one of the two main suspects, but if one of the enemy shinobi was now targeting him, his innocence was all but proven. They were still dealing with missing-nins, though, so it wasn't impossible that Mikata was the culprit after all and the shinobi he had hired simply wanted to get rid of him for one reason or another – which was rare but not exactly unheard of.

It was also not out of the question that this mercenary was merely on their way to report to their client.

Still, for now, the most likely conclusion was that Mikata was innocent, so that was the scenario Shino would base his thoughts on.

They couldn't allow the captain to be killed, so his protection had priority. Trying to escape wasn't an option, though. It was pretty much impossible that they would be able to flee with a civilian in tow when it was a shinobi that was after them. Things might have been different if the captain were a samurai who could use chakra, but while some of his men were, he unfortunately was not.

Thus, they had to take care of the enemy the old-fashioned way.

Maybe he was jumping to this approach a tad too quickly, but he couldn't help it. Besides, it wasn't as if he hadn't first considered another possibility, so Shino reasoned that this decision was more than justified.

Now only the questions of how and where remained…

They could confront the enemy here with the backing of the soldiers, about a third of which were samurai, but that was risky. Not only would the non-samurai be little more than cannon fodder, but none of the actual samurai looked like they were particularly strong either. And if Shino, who was only a relatively fresh Genin himself, thought so, there was no way they could be very capable. So, even if he and Kiba could reveal themselves, make them trust them, and explain the situation to them in time, they would probably not be of much help.

Another possibility was to confront the approaching enemy by themselves as far away from the camp as possible.

After several seconds that felt like an eternity, he made his decision.

"Let's go."

It was two simple words, but that's all it took for Kiba to break into a fierce grin. Clearly, he had been hoping Shino would say something like that.

So, without any further words, they jumped into action, Kiba and Akamaru leading the way while he followed after them.

This is it, he thought, squashing the hint of unease he felt in favour of focusing on his excitement. Our first real fight against another shinobi…

It wasn't as if Shino wasn't aware of the potential danger they were putting themselves in. He was. Even if it was justified in this particular situation, it didn't change the fact that they might very well die, and normally, he would have taken that much more seriously. Right now, however, he couldn't – no, he didn't want to do so.

While being aware of the danger was a good thing, he needed to keep a clear head. He would only panic if he thought too deeply about this.

We can do this, he told himself. We have trained for this and we have the element of surprise on our side. For all I know, the fight could be over in an instant.

They needed to look forward, not back. They made their choice, so it was important to prepare for what was to come instead of showing insecurity in their decision.

That was the only way they could win.

Shino had to believe that.