Chapter Six: Mission Start
The four days waiting for the mission seemed like an eternity, especially the conversation in which Neji told Hiromi and I about the meaning of the Seal the Hyuuga main house wanted to put on us. I came out of the conversation with the resolve that, short of my father directly ordering me to let them, at least three would die to get the seal onto me. Hiromi felt much the same way, although the number was five, in her case. He also informed us of the stance that Hiromi had so closely imitated, one that was the entry point to a fairly significant Taijutsu technique of the clan.
Thankfully, the wait ended at the gates of Konoha, and we set out on our new mission free from the cursed sign. The trip to the first target village would take two days, so our conversations started early to pass the time, and to confirm our objectives.
"Shien, I think I might have missed something in our report. Our only given task is to gather information, right? No need for secrecy or anything?"
"That's right, Kentaro. Why do you ask?"
"It's just that the scroll ranked the mission at A-Rank. That doesn't make any sense, given the simplicity of the objective."
"Simple enough, really. Remember where we're supposed to go and gather the info?"
"Yeah, in the Rain, Grass, Waterfall, and Sound villages. Why?"
Hiromi was the one that answered. "Two of those four villages, the Rain and the Sound, still harbor some rather unpleasant feelings toward Konoha, due to the recent War and the actions of Orochimaru."
"That's right. Add to the fact that two of the three of us have unconcealed Bloodline abilities unique to the Leaf, and this team instantly becomes walking targets for every rebel, insurgent, and idiot in any of the villages we go through."
"But then, why did the Council send this team, in particular? There are many who wouldn't be such targets. Many of THOSE have more espionage experience than we'll ever get."
We were silent for the next few minutes, each trying to reason why the Council had made such a glaring blunder. There HAS to be more to it. Missions always have every aspect thought through fully and deliberately, and the absolute best team available is always sent for it. What makes US such a good option?
It was Hiromi who offered the first answer. "There's only one reason I can see, and it makes the mission very dangerous, indeed. The reason is specifically BECAUSE we are so openly from Konoha. We're something along the lines of a gesture of power. I think they actually expect us to be attacked, perhaps more than once, and that we should severely chastise the ones conducting the attack."
That makes sense… too much sense. She probably has it right, but I can only hope that human stupidity decides to hold off this one time. No good can come an Uchiha, a Hyuuga, and an Uzumaki taking down an assailant in the assailant's hometown. "Along those lines, I think we need to consider just who we are."
"What do you mean, Shien?"
"Our parents stand among the most prominent Jounin in our village, and my Dad is the Hokage. That very status will greatly amplify the threat to us, should someone figure it out. Incidentally, it also greatly amplifies any message we happen to send, good or bad. Much as I hate to say it, we're going to have to rather severely restrain ourselves should we be harassed. Stoically ignore verbal abuse, use barely enough force to escape a physical confrontation. Even if someone should threaten our lives, unconsciousness is the goal, not death. Unless the target is registered "kill-on-sight" in our Books, we dump a living body at the nearest place of authority."
"Gonna make things awkward, though. I'm not exactly one to take verbal slings and arrows."
"And neither is Hiromi-chan. We don't have any choice in the matter. It's either take it, or admit defeat right now and save ourselves a month of work. I don't know about you, but I know that my parents would make me wish that I'd just eaten five of your dad's 72-hour Mangekyou Sharingan torture sessions if I came home and told them I'd done that. Now, eyes open. We're approaching territory where we might meet something hostile, and I, for one, do not want to be caught off guard. Byakugan!"
Now, I'll just say one thing about this team. While alert, there is no such thing as a Genjutsu that can beat us. Could be something to do with our bloodlines, but not even Kurenai-sensei at the academy could hold one over all three of us. Imagine my surprise, then, when my Byakugan showed us to be in the middle of a fairly severe one.
"Battle formation, NOW!" This said as I pulled out a trio of Shuriken.
They instantly complied. Both activated their own eyes, Kentaro drew his katana, and Hiromi fully charged her palms. "I see where the source of this is, Shien," Kentaro reported. "I don't like this at all. There are no fewer than five shinobi, but I can't tell from where. Four of them seem to be cooperating on holding this illusion up, and they're doing a very, very good job of it."
"No kidding. Where's it coming from?"
"Three trees on the left, close cluster. Between the second and third, and twenty meters past." Now, please note here that no, we're not dumb enough to discuss tactics openly in the presence of an enemy. He'd just told me to aim for a loose group of bushes to my right and slightly in front of me, about six and a half meters away from where we currently stood. How do you decipher it? What, you think I tell ANYONE that code?
"Ok. Ready?" A chorus of assent answered. "Go."
At that, I loosed my handful of shuriken at the enemy position, Hiromi and Kentaro not far behind them. Kentaro was already moving that katana of his in the oddly fluid gestures he calls "blade-weaving", and I made sure NOT to look directly at it. The technique is halfway between swordsmanship and Genjutsu, and works to disorient and confuse anyone looking straight at it. I hadn't know this on the first mission we'd actually had any fight in, and had succumbed to it just as quickly as our assailants.
As the shouts of surprise and pain started at the enemy site, I had to find a way to break the illusion we were stuck in. With nobody maintaining it, the only trick is to focus and release a pulse of chakra at just the right point. Not exactly a problem for a user of the Jyuuken. That taken care of, I approached the battle, ready to support either of my teammates in the face of any organized resistance.
I needn't have worried. Two of them were captivated by Kentaro's own Genjutsu, and the other three were suffering (and I mean suffering) from a wide variety of cuts, abrasions, and contusions. As I watched, one of them attempted to for seals. He got through Horse, Dragon, Dog… and ate a Jyuuken three-strike combo from Hiromi before he'd finished the sequence. None were conscious as we tied them up.
"Shien, what are Rain Gennin doing in our country? They're not supposed to be here, not this close to Konoha. We're only an hour away."
"Hiromi they're not what they seem. Kentaro, if you would do the honors?"
"What do you mean?"
"Strip them of the illusions they're wearing. They fought like a reinforced Leaf Gennin scout team."
The looks of numb shock on my friends' faces spoke volumes. I guess they didn't have time for comparisons, not while in the thick of things. I decided to save us some time and do it myself, and sure enough, it was as I'd predicted.
"Either there was some serious miscommunication, or we were being tested. Either way, why don't we send a message back, eh?"
"Shien, you scare me every time you get that look on your face. I always wonder if it's you under it, or if your dad is using the Henge no Jutsu."
By the time we set back off, the scout team was barely stirring. They would eventually awake… to find themselves tied up in a tree, their packs and gear on the ground. Along with most of their clothing. What can I say? My dad is the Hokage of pranksters, and I am his true heir.
Interlude Six: Concerning Mission Rank
Missions are the lifeblood of the shinobi, given to them by their superiors, to be carried out immediately. This is how they receive pay, how they test their skills, and one of the many ways those skills are trained.
Missions are divided by rank, given a letter grade to represent the difficulty and potential danger of the mission. These ranks are, from easiest to most difficult, D, C, B, A, and S. There are such things as S+ difficulty, but these are normally seen as suicide missions at best, and are only given out as a last resort, and never by the request of a customer. The ranks also represent which ninja are likely to be given the mission. Gennin take D and some C-ranked missions. Chuunin take the rest of the C-Ranked, and most B-ranks as well. Jounin take the rest of the missions, though particularly skilled Jounin are usually reserved for the more difficult A and S-class missions.
Shinobi teams are sent out on missions as seen appropriate to their average rank and specialties. Often, a particularly specialized Gennin or Chuunin team will easily complete missions that some Jounin would not wish to attempt. One such example is the team that Uzumaki Hinata used to be a part of, before her husband became the Hokage. This team, consisting of herself, Inuzuka Kiba, and Aburame Shino, was absolutely superior at detecting the enemy through many varied means, and were known in the War for an intelligence-gathering ability bordering on outright witchcraft. The team consisted entirely of Chuunin at the beginning of the war, though all were Jounin by the end, due in part to the many A and S-ranked missions which they were critical to accomplishing.
A/N: This is the end of what I'd already had written before I started posting it here. More will come, I promise, but the pace will be at about one chapter and interlude each week until I finish. Maybe a bit more, if I get bored. Reviews would be greatly appreciated, and are the main reason I decided to post this work online, since it was originally just a private idea about Konoha's future.