Chapter 31
Sometimes, Sute wondered about Kiri's intelligence division. She didn't work with it directly, her interactions with it limited to the occasional request to aid in torturing and interrogating prisoners. Other than that, she had no idea how it managed to get most of its foreign intelligence. Spies were the obvious explanation of course, but she didn't know the specifics of how spies integrated themselves to gain critical information.
Given the depth of details on the trade route, she wondered just what that spy in Kumo did.
"So they're estimated to pass through this area in two days, right?" she asked curiously as they walked along a mountain ledge. The scroll had included a map with a sketch of the trade route itself, and while they didn't follow it exactly they kept close to the marked paths to look for good places to prepare ambushes.
"That's what our operative predicted," Mei confirmed lightly. "If the Mizukage saw fit to include it in the mission file, he must be confident in its accuracy." Sute hummed absently, idly wondering if the Mizukage did actually see this information before his untimely demise. His death had been sudden after all, and the assignment was largely meant as a distraction tactic. There was no point in dwelling on it though.
She brushed her hand against a tree in passing, doing a quick sensory check. The trees were much sparser on this mountainside, making her mental map much vaguer than she'd like, but she could sense enough to pick up a widely spaced cluster of weak chakra signatures about a kilometer to the north. "Hey Uta, are there any towns nearby?" she asked, and her friend grunted as he unfolded a map they'd gotten from a merchant.
"Yeah, there's one marked about a kilometer north from here," he confirmed after a few seconds. "No name listed, but it has the symbol for an inn."
"And the last place we passed with an inn was three hours ago," Sute mused. "A merchant caravan would move slower than us, so they might spend the night at that one."
"Probably," Utakata agreed easily as he looked over the map. "There's another inn marked two kilos southwest of here, but the path leading there is a lot more twisted so it would probably take closer to..." He trailed off, frowning as he tried to do the math.
"Three hours for a merchant caravan," Mei supplied smoothly. "They usually have pretty large loads and at least one wagon to carry their goods, which significantly slows them down. Especially in terrain like this." Even as she spoke she formed hand seals to form a water clone, which peered over Utakata's map before disappearing.
"Checking out the route?" Sute guessed, and Mei nodded.
"The trading route has pretty wide roads from what we've seen so far, but in this kind of terrain paths connecting to smaller villages are usually more narrow, even if they have inns for travelers. If it's too narrow they won't be able to fit the wagons there. I think it would be hard to maneuver one even on this road," she mused, eying the twisting pathway on the ledge below them. "It's wide, but the turns are still pretty sharp in some places so they'll have to be extra careful."
"So we can probably assume they'll stay at the inn to the north," Utakata summarized, folding the map and slipping it back in his pouch. "I heard escort missions could be bad, but I didn't realize they could be that slow."
"Civilians generally don't have very good stamina or speed compared to shinobi," Mei pointed out tactfully. "They're not trained to travel long distances in short amounts of time like we are."
"She's right," Sute interjected. "Even if we focused only on taijutsu, our chakra systems give us a serious boost on a physical level compared to civilians. Shinobi are another class entirely." Even in her old life, where Sute would consider herself far above average in terms of physical fitness, she hadn't been able to do half as much as she could in this life at age ten. She doubted even Olympic athletes could compare to a genin here.
Seriously, they could jump five feet into the air without breaking a sweat. Or any bones, either. Having studied medicine in both worlds, Sute could safely say shinobi had ridiculously durable bodies compared to her original world.
At this point Mei's clone reappeared, shaking its head before dispersing into a puddle. "The path is too narrow for the wagon," she declared. "Given the distance between the northern inn and the next one, they'll almost certainly time their schedule to spend the night there unless they decide to set up camp."
"Camping?" Utakata repeated flatly, glancing at the cloudy gray sky as the first snowflakes started to flutter their way. "Civilians. In a snowstorm. At night. When it's below freezing. And probably snowing."
"Which definitely means they'll stay at the inn," Sute said with a smirk, highly amused.
"I would too," Utakata sighed, tearing his gaze away from the sky and hiking his scarf higher over his nose. "It's barely even noon, and it's still ridiculously cold." Mei just hummed, buttoning her coat a little higher while Sute tucked her hands in her pockets. Winter in Kiri had nothing on the chilly weather here, the Land of Frost had earned its name.
They walked at a more sedate pace now, mindful of the freshly falling snow. It accumulated quickly, making the uneven mountainside more slippery than before. "Any thoughts on strategies so far?" Mei asked as they moved.
"If we know they'll be at the inn, that might be a good place to start," Utakata mused. "Maybe set the inn on fire?"
"And leave a family homeless without their source of income?" Sute deadpanned, shooting him an unimpressed look. "Pass."
"You never struck me as the humanitarian type," Mei commented, eying her speculatively, and Sute snorted.
"That's because I'm not," she said. "Believe me, I'm far from humane. But I need to follow some sort of moral standards. Civilians uninvolved in missions seem like a good enough place to draw the line."
"It is so weird to hear a ninja talk about moral standards, but you definitely need them," Utakata interjected dryly. "Otherwise I feel like you'd use everyone as test subjects."
"I would be offended, but I remember asking Ameyuri if she had any enemies to test poisons on. And I only asked because I wanted to make sure she'd protect me if they got mad about it." She decided not to mention how the kunoichi had actually paused to consider if she did before deciding to petition the Mizukage for war prisoners to use as guinea pigs instead. The few morals Sute possessed did not come from her adopted mother figure in this life.
"I do agree it would be better to avoid dragging in civilians if possible," Mei remarked. "If only to lower the chances of witnesses. We want to make sure this can't be tied back to us. Wiping out an entire village would draw too much attention."
"Then sabotaging the route itself is probably the best option," Utakata murmured thoughtfully, eying the road below them. "Maybe some kind of natural disaster." He glanced at Sute. "Think you could make a landslide or something?"
Sute perked up at that, a wide grin forming. "Hell yes. I can blow up this whole mountain if I wanted to." Explosive seals were a very powerful thing in the hands of a master, and Sute had definitely spent far too much time experimenting with fuinjutsu to not know how to overpower them. Destroying a mountain sounded fun.
"Destroying the entire mountain is unnecessary," Mei said, cutting into Sute's thoughts and unknowingly dashing her fantasies. Or perhaps she did know, judging by the sharp glint in her eye as she side-eyed Sute and added, "We want to make it look natural. The main issue is that landslides aren't as common in winter."
"Then an avalanche?" Sute suggested. "I'm not an expert on weather and natural disasters, but with this sort of snowfall I'd say one would be pretty likely. Wouldn't be hard to trigger one."
"That should work. We should stop by one of the nearby towns to check on if there's a history of avalanches, just to be safe. We can grab lunch while we're at it." The others hummed and nodded in agreement as the group changed course, eager for the opportunity to get out of the snow.
Half an hour later found them inside a small café, seated around a table in the back corner with transformations in full effect. The place was empty save for the employees, a teenage girl a bit older than Sute and a man in the back who seemed to be her father. They'd been more than happy to accommodate the trio of travelers, the girl showing them to the table near a sunken fireplace to keep them warm.
"Surprised you three bothered traveling," the girl commented when she delivered them three bowls of stew. "Not many folks like traveling around the mountains this time of year, what with the avalanches."
Sute almost snorted at how easily that came up. Didn't even have to ask. "Are they really that common?" Mei asked curiously, and the woman snorted.
"With a storm like this? Definitely. Old man Suda says this year'll be especially bad, and he's always right. You folks should be extra careful." The waitress bustled off to the kitchen as the trio exchanged pointed looks.
"Think this old man's reliable?" Utakata asked lowly, sarcasm dripping from his tone.
"Works to our advantage at least," Sute said with a grin. "I love superstitious old crones. Makes our job so much easier."
"What job?" Mei asked, the picture of faux innocence, but her wicked smirk held nothing but mischief. Sute and Utakata hummed as they began eating, the trio now a little more confident about their plan. The mission looked like it would be pretty smooth.
That night proved it might not be a perfectly smooth ride.
"How the hell was the inn completely booked?" Utakata grumbled under his breath. "There was no one at either of them!" After lunch they'd scouted the route a bit more before trying to find lodging for the night, only for both of the nearest towns to claim having no empty rooms. Sute almost wondered if maybe they'd given themselves away somehow, but given the innkeepers hadn't been petrified or exhibited any of the other typical reactions civilians had to shinobi she doubted it.
"The traders must have sent an advance unit to reserve rooms and guarantee they'd have lodging if they followed the schedule," Mei murmured. "Some wealthier merchants do that, especially if it's part of something so formal as this, but it's rare." She leaned back and sighed wistfully as she added, "And here I was looking forward to sleeping in a bed for once."
With no other options they'd found a small cave and quickly holed up inside, taking little time to build a decent fire. The relatively small size of the cavern trapped the heat well, keeping it comfortable enough to unzip their coats and remove their scarves and gloves. Combined with some blankets spread over the floor and some heat-emitting seals Sute drew up on the spot, it almost felt warm.
"You know, this is actually kind of cozy and nice," Sute mused as she stirred the pot of chowder, watching snow blow past the cave's entrance. "Preparing chowder in a snow storm, warmed up by the fire. Kinda makes me feel like I'm in an igloo instead of a cave."
"Ih-goo-roo...?" Mei repeated softly, one eyebrow arching curiously at the unfamiliar English word.
"I still can't believe you prepared and packed an entire pot of chowder," Utakata said wryly as he eyed the pot. "It's standard to pack rations on missions."
"Eh, not like it really cut into my packing time," Sute dismissed easily. While she obviously didn't know the details she'd still known the mission would be a long one, which meant plenty of downtime compared to her usual missions. No point in eating only rations when she could throw together all the ingredients in a pot back in Kiri and seal them for later. Especially since she had an extra night's notice. "Shouldn't take much longer."
"Can you even cook?" Utakata asked after a few seconds, and Sute paused before turning to him with an unimpressed look.
"Really?" she asked, and he held up his hands.
"Just saying, I've never seen you actually cook except roasting animals during training."
"I've made you onigiri."
"Yes, plain onigiri with some fish in it. That's different from homemade chowder and you know it."
"Just because I don't bother cooking much doesn't mean I'm bad at it. Uta, I'm one of Kiri's top poisons mistresses. I know how to measure ingredients perfectly fine, and how to mix stuff together."
"You do realize how it sounds when you compare cooking to making poison, right?" Utakata quipped dryly, and Sute paused to consider it before sighing.
"Okay, yeah, that sounds bad," she agreed. "But on that note, I also know what's not safe for human consumption. So I'm not one of those anime girls whose cooking is so bad it's poisonous."
"'It won't kill you' is a very low bar, Sute."
"I know, but I definitely pass it."
"But does that mean it actually tastes good?" Utakata countered, and this time she smirked, pouring the chowder into a bowl.
"You tell me," she said, sliding it towards him with a spoon. Utakata leered at it warily before picking up the spoon and taking a bite. He gave a throaty hum as he swished it around his mouth for a moment before swallowing.
"Alright, it's not bad, but it's not amazing either," he finally declared. "It's just average."
"I am also not one of those anime girls who's secretly a master chef," Sute deadpanned, rolling her eyes as she poured the chowder into another bowl she handed to Mei. "As long as it's not horrible and tastes decent, it's fine in my book. Don't get me wrong, I like good food as much as the next person, but never cared for making it myself. Always feels like I could spend that time doing something better."
"Is that why hospital food sucks?" Utakata mused, and she snorted, flashing a sharp grin.
"No, that's because the human body likes to reject anything remotely tasty when it's sick so we have to go with the blandest stuff possible. And also budget stuff. Keeping people alive is expensive, so food's kinda a low priority. And you don't even eat hospital food," she added with a pointed look. "You've never been admitted long enough to need it."
"I've eaten the cafeteria food there," he countered. "That's supposed to be for visitors and workers, and it still sucks." Sute paused, and then nodded.
"Indeed it does. Which is why we never bother eating at work."
A soft giggle from Mei broke the two from their banter, glancing over to find the older woman watching them with a coy smile curling on her lips. "I've heard you two are close, but seeing you banter like this really makes it obvious," she commented, an almost mischievous glint in her eyes. "You have better chemistry than most married couples."
Cue horrified sputtering from Utakata and an actual wince from Sute as she choked on air. "Are you kidding, she's crazy!" Utakata blurted at the same time Sute shook her head and spluttered, "Nope, nope, romance is gross!"
Mei just laughed at their reactions, lifting her bowl with an amused glint in her eye. "Relax, I'm just kidding. I know you're not actually interested in each other that way. Yet," she added teasingly, making them both scowl at her. She ignored them as she blew on the chowder and continued, "I'm just curious how you two even became so close. You're so different, and it's hard to figure out how you would even meet. Your specialties have no overlap."
The pair relaxed at her remarks, their scowls fading as they all began eating. "We met when Uta had to go to the hospital after training," Sute offered between bites. "None of the other medics were willing to treat him, and after the second time I figured I'd make sure he at least knew the basics so future visits wouldn't be a waste of my time."
Utakata scoffed around a mouthful of chowder, rolling his eyes to convey his annoyance before swallowing so he could do so verbally. "I told you back then, the only reason I hurt my ankle that badly is because I was already mid-fall when shishou hit me with another jutsu. Knowing how to fall wouldn't have done anything."
"And yet the next day your form was still atrocious," Sute snorted, and he simply flashed her the finger as he ate. She rolled her eyes and turned to address Mei. "Not much more to the story than that. We trained together pretty regularly after that, and then started hanging out outside training too. Not like either of us had any other friends in our age bracket."
Mei hummed, savoring a bite of chowder as she contemplated the explanation. "Just because you train together doesn't make you compatible though. Plenty of people train and work together, but try to kill each other off the field. Look at the Seven Swordsmen." The last sentence earned a startled snort from Sute, almost inhaling some of her chowder in the process.
"They really did try to kill each other a lot, didn't they?" Utakata asked with a smirk as he watched her cough and struggle to not blow chowder out of her nose, and she flashed him a vicious grin.
"I have no idea how the hell they lasted as long as they did," she confided with far too much enthusiasm. "I think the only reason they didn't kill each other during the war was because they could get their fill killing other people." She had regaled Utakata with plenty of stories of their bloodthirsty escapades during the war, including before and outside her deployments to the front lines.
Her favorite had to be the time Kushimaru and Jinpachi had nearly killed each other after getting worked up during morning stretches of all things. While they were in Kiri. Two days after Sute first set foot inside her home village, in fact. They hadn't even set up a bedroom for her yet when the pair tore up the training grounds. Ameyuri had been laughing her butt off the whole time.
"And that's exactly what makes you two so special," Mei said, grabbing their attention again. "Kiri hardly places any emphasis on working together or fostering relationships. If anything, we encouraged the opposite with our old graduation policy. There's not much point building bonds if you might have to kill them someday—or if they might kill you. There's not much trust in Kiri."
"This is unexpectedly sentimental," Sute remarked flatly.
"It's also the reason we probably have so many people defect," Mei countered, and Sute just silently continued eating because she couldn't argue that. "As it stands, we lack a lot of the camaraderie you can find in other villages. That's why seeing you two gives me so much hope." That got their attention, Utakata frowning as he set down his bowl.
"We give you hope?" he repeated skeptically, and Mei smirked.
"You're the jinchuuriki of the Rokubi," she said, making him stiffen. Her gaze slid to Sute as she continued, "And you grew up with only the Seven Swordsmen for role models and a reputation for maiming for classmates. Neither of you had anything remotely close to a normal childhood, even by Kiri's standards. By all means you both shouldn't really have any friends outside your prospective teammates."
"Gee, thanks," Utakata said flatly, while Sute snorted under her breath.
"I'm just stating facts," Mei replied neutrally. "Out of everyone in Kiri, you two had the highest chances of being isolated, and yet you still managed to become such good friends. Being alone had little to do with it, misfits don't always band together like they do in so many stories. So if you two can manage to foster a bond this strong, that gives me hope that the rest of the new generation can build stronger bonds and learn to truly trust each other."
Her words left the pair sober, falling into a thoughtful silence as the group focused on eating. Sute stared down at her bowl without moving though, the chowder in her mouth bland and tasteless. Her appetite had effectively disappeared, her mood a bit too somber to care for food.
Three months at most remained until she would leave Kiri.
Three months remained until she would have to say goodbye to Utakata.
Sorry for the slight delay in posting! Some stuff happened last week so I didn't have time to edit it on my day off from work. Can't have an arc about Sute and Utakata's first mission without showing off their friendship. At this point in time their relationship is 100% platonic. They're old enough now to start thinking about that stuff, but I can't see Utakata being particularly attracted to Sute. He likes her and would absolutely kill for her, but she's a bit too wild for his tastes. Sute meanwhile just doesn't really care about romance, period.
I'm not sure if that will ever change, but honestly, it kind of annoys me when writers make have boy and girl characters develop feelings for each other just because they're best friends. Platonic relationships exist too!
Also we are now at 4,000+ follows, and 3,000+ favorites. I just... what. I am seriously amazed at how popular this is. Thank you everyone for your support and love!