Gai gave a hard look to the genins under his command. The green-clad jounin had lost his easy-going manners and Naruto could see, beyond the ridiculous onesie, the hardened shinobi.
"Genins, something came up that requires my immediate attention. It is, however, too risky for you to accompany me." With a shushing motion, the jounin prevented the protest of Rock Lee. "You have another mission, genins: deliver the scroll to the two fortresses along the border of Hot Water Country. You'll be under Neji's command and accomplish your task without fail. Do you understand me?" Gai asked in a tone that brokered no argument.
Naruto wanted nothing more than to protest. Kakashi had not taught him much - in fact, the white-haired jounin who had been his first team-leader had not taught him anything at all. Save his motto.
Those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash.
The blond knew Gai was a jounin, he knew he was a formidable warrior, entirely capable of taking care of himself yet still, it felt wrong. However, the hard visage of his momentary captain killed anything he wanted to say.
"It is not up for debate. You'll leave as soon as the supply office gives you the scroll back. Make haste and meet me again in Konoha." The jounin said before he turned back to one of the fortress' officer.
"I don't like it," muttered Lee, uncharacteristically quiet.
Naruto nodded. If the physical likeness between master and student wasn't already an absolute giveaway of the admiration Rock Lee had for his jounin sensei, the mannerism and the speech pattern left no doubt about it. The Uzumaki patted the older genin on the shoulder.
"He's a jounin. He'll be fine."
"Sensei gave a mission and we will not fail it," interrupted Neji, his white eyes, characteristic of his clan, glaring at all three other genins. "That'd be even more shameful than worrying needlessly about his safety." The Hyuuga boy admonished sternly.
Lee gave his teammate a smile. "Yosh, Neji, you're completely right! We'll accomplish our mission fast and be back in Konoha even faster than sensei! And if I can't do it, I'll climb the Hokage Mountain with one arm only! And if I can't do it then-"
Tenten slapped a hand over the boy's mouth, muffling his bout of self-challenge. "It's okay, Lee. Now, let's go."
Lee nodded, the girl's hand still stuck over his mouth, Naruto noted with interest. Was Tenten applying chakra to her hand to stick to Lee's face? Interesting, he had to think about how to implement that into his fighting style maybe.
It took another hour for the people of the supply office to sort what through what was addressed to people in their fortress. Apparently, the letters inside the scroll had been badly sorted by whoever had sealed them. It was almost noon when the four genins were given the large container scroll back.
"Thank you for the delivery," said one man with a small bow. "We'll pray for your sensei."
Lee and Tenten took the scroll and all four ninjas bowed.
"We thank you for your kind words," answered Neji. "Now we must be off."
Travelling fast, the four ninjas made way to the east along the border trail. Neji imposed a harsh rhythm, pushing all of them to run as best as they could. Naruto felt the Hyuuga eye him several times during the afternoon and even though he could feel his body getting tired, the blond refused to show the older boy any sign of weakness.
Shinobi are those who conceal, after all.
Maito Gai was, in all modesty, the most powerful hitter of Konoha. He knew that were he to go absolutely all out, he could just pulverize any opposition in a fistfight, even a Kage. He was honestly thankful he never had had to resort to such an extremity as it was dangerous for his health.
His status as the foremost taijutsu user in Konoha since Tsunade Senju didn't mean, however, that his other skills as a shinobi were lacking. Contrary to appearance, Gai could very well track, hide and confuse his opponents like any of his peers. Confusing was a forte of his actually.
The man eyed the map he was given by the commander. The location of all nine checkpoints was noted on it, obviously approximately so as to avoid any loss of crucial intelligence to an enemy. Each checkpoint was associated with a small enigma, known only to a few, that had to be solved to deduce the exact location of the flare and the various triggers.
Gai scratched his head as he flew from trees to trees, absentmindedly avoiding branches and trunks from instinct alone. Suddenly, a light went up in his head as he solved the first code and the jounin swerved right to reach the first flare.
It took the shinobi ten minutes to finally find the trap. A cold shiver went down his spine as he saw that the entire mechanism had been uprooted and was entirely gone. He had been right: someone was trying to disarm Konoha's alert system and it could only mean they had bad intentions. If the mysterious forehead protector, engraved with a musical note, was any indication, then the hostiles were ninjas.
It could mean a Fourth Ninja War, given Lightning Country was looming not far behind the Land of Rice. Rice was considered traditionally as a satellite of Iron Country but it's not like the lords of Lightning would care. The militaristic nation had lost the last conflict that opposed them to Fire Country and their ninja village, Kumogakure, had been humiliated by Konoha and the Yondaime. Everyone knew they would jump on the first occasion to spark a war.
Konoha operating in the Land of Rice in retaliation of the acts of a new village would be seen as an aggressive expansion and Lightning Country, needled by the Raikage Ay, would declare war, in the name of independence or whatever nice words they could find to dress the situation prettily and to their advantage. A war between two of the five powers was sure to embroil the rest in a generalized conflict and propaganda was important to gain allies and keep the populations docile.
"Fucking bloodthirsty Ay," thought Gai, for once uncharitable. The jounin had done his fair share of deeds he wasn't especially proud of, in the name of Konoha and the Fire nation but the Raikage was renowned to be a warmongering individual. Someone who thought Lightning Country ought to dominate the Elemental Nations, someone Gai had no doubt saw himself as the rightful leader of this part of the world.
The jounin darted off to the next location, solving the various codes as he went. Sticking to shadows and the cover of patches of forest, Gai sped along the border of Rice and Fire, invisible to the peasants who were busying themselves in the paddies.
For the entire day, one after the others, Gai discovered all traps disarmed and destroyed. In spite of his best efforts, the jounin couldn't spot any hint as to the identity of the people who had done it. The mark of professionals doing a professional's job. If his friend Kakashi had been here, his keen nose could have maybe picked up something but as it was, Gai wasn't gifted like the Hatake or the members of the Inuzuka clan. The jounin could only curse his luck to be the one to have to bring such grave news to the Hokage when he had so little information.
The old man didn't deserve to lead his village in yet another war.
No, Gai decided, he couldn't go back without anything more than the fact their positions at the border of Fire and Rice were compromised. He had to investigate more. A spike of worry speared through his heart at the thought of his genins but the jounin shook his head and steeled his soul. They were genins, they were soldiers of the village, they would do fine and be fine.
The jounin sped up towards the sixth flare, hoping he would find something - anything - that would give him some clue.
NIght fell on Fire Country and finally, Neji ordered the group to stop. Naruto nearly fell over but stopped himself, fighting against the urge to flop down and lie still. Observing Neji carefully, the blond saw after a second that the Hyuuga boy was putting up a front, which made Naruto smirk. The petty boy had tried to make him show weakness, no doubt to get back at him for the fuinjutsu humiliation and had only succeeded to tire himself. Tenten had no such reservation and leaned against a tree trunk, gasping for air. Only Lee seemed to still be good to go.
"Dammit, Neji what, urgh, what took you to, uff, to make us go that fast?" The girl protested, breathing hard and glaring at the Hyuuga boy.
Neji swallowed thickly and waited for a few seconds to answer. "I want to go back to Konoha as quick as possible," explained the boy in one breath before inhaling greedily. "We need to complete the mission and then make sure Konoha knows whatever is going on."
"Very youthfully said, Neji!" Lee exclaimed with a fist pump. "I've no doubt our friends of Koutetsusei have efficient messengers but better be safe than sorry. Gai-sensei was worried about something and he might need back-up."
"Yes, yes," cut Tenten, "but if we tire ourselves like that we won't ever reach Konoha anytime soon, we need to pace- Dammit Lee are you even listening?!"
Lee got up from his push-up position and saluted the girl. "Sorry Tenten but this run got my blood pumping and I need to express my youthfulness!"
The girl groaned in exasperation, Naruto laughed and Neji chose to sigh.
The night went by without incident and Tenten even successfully convinced Lee he needed to sleep to continue. Naruto discovered that, while his stamina wasn't an endless well, he recuperated very quickly and woke up refreshed in spite of Neji continuing to be an ass and giving the one guard quarter that fucked up one's sleep cycle.
The Uzumaki wasn't going to apologize for making a fool out of the Hyuuga. Neji had been the one to be all condescending first and Naruto had souped of enough condescending asshole for a lifetime after Sasuke. He wasn't going to back down.
The new sun was barely up when Neji ordered them to start running again. During the day, they had to slowly orient themselves slightly to the south, as the border curved and Rice was replaced by Hotsprings County. They made a break at noon to eat some of their rations - honestly, Naruto couldn't understand why everyone said they were dreadful, he had eaten worse food than that in his youth - before they booked it, still pushing themselves to reach their next stop as fast as possible.
It was the end of the afternoon when the citadel of Akamure came into view and evening was fully there when the genins reached the doors. They were promptly halted by a trio of guards and allowed passage when Neji showed their mission order. The hostile face of the bushi morphed to a more welcoming one when they understood the four ninjas were delivering mail.
The former hidden village of the Land of Onsen had been razed to the ground during the Third War by the Raikage with the help of Kumo's jinchuuriki and the entire Kinkaku Corps. From the ashes, a trading city was birthed, one that held a world-renowned fair all year long. The village, however, was even more famous for its countless hot springs and the many inns that took advantage of the natural resource.
Hence, Akamure wasn't a fortress in the traditional sense of the word. As much as it was a choke-point against the armies of Lightning, it was also a custom meant to collect the tax on all imports coming from Hotsprings. Proof of that was the countless people of all profession showing their ware to the soldiers while the tax collectors did their calculation at incredible speed. Naruto even noticed a few ninjas from Konoha surveying the ambient chaos. The blond knew those in plain view were meant to be a distraction while others, hidden, were doing the real job of spotting possible uninvited shinobi who would try to blend in with the crowd.
The fact was, it was entirely too easy for a spy to go in by the countryside; the patrols could obviously not cover every inch of terrain. However, a number of things in Fire Country required people to have their paper in order and patrols were allowed to randomly control anyone they had doubts about. Plus, important locations like the capital or Konoha itself were much more secure and much more difficult to infiltrate and anyone caught without the necessary papers was sure to end up dead.
Only after a long sojourn in Torture and Interrogation, of course.
Hence why spies did try to appear to be honest merchants or whatever other covers they could think of.
The four genins were led to the administration building and once again they were told to wait until everything had been sorted out of the scroll. Going back in the large, busy courtyard, the young ninjas, in lack of better things to do, decided in silent agreement to lounge around. Lee immediately started to do push-ups, Neji looked up at the sky, his white eyes searching the clouds and the flights of birds for some truth and Tenten took to sharpen her impressive collection of tools. Naruto stood momentarily stunned at the weapons the mistress had sealed on her before he shrugged it off as her way to cope with her over-the-top sensei and teammate. The blond eventually took a seat and a leaf and focused on his chakra.
Asuma gave him an interesting exercise called nature transformation and Naruto was determined to succeed.
Gai was nearing the seventh flare when all his danger senses started tingling. Finely honed instincts roared at him to dodge and the jounin did just that, throwing himself to the ground and out of the way of a rain of pink coloured senbons.
"An ambush. How youthful," muttered the green-clad jounin as he ran through hand signs. "Show yourself," he called to the trees around him, "don't make me go and look for you," he continued in a jovial tone.
Another rain of senbon pierced him and Gai started to turn to earth. The real jounin bulldozered like a missile through the tree right where the senbons had been launched from. "Dynamic surprise!" The jounin bellowed just as his foot made contact with the face of a woman, catapulting her out of her branch and against a tree trunk. Where she shattered in a shower of pink crystal-like substance. Gai immediately somersaulted back to the ground and ran through more hand signs before slamming both palms to the earth.
The ground rumbled for a second before a massive shockwave upturned it, uprooting trees and creating a clearing bordered by earthen walls, a crater surrounded by jagged teeth. The jounin looked up to see the woman landing back down from a high jump. She was already running through hand signs herself.
Three spikes of crystal condensed in front of her, the woman's chakra coalescing into deadly weapons. With another flex of the vital energy, the lances flew at great speed towards Gai. The taijutsu specialist weaved low, easily escaping the large projectiles only to be met with another rain of senbon. The man abruptly stopped his run and clapped his hands together forcefully.
The thunderous shock that spread from his palms colliding together scattered the senbons coming towards him. With a shake of each leg and a light application of chakra, the orange warmers around his shin came off and suddenly, Gai blurred.
The woman had no time to react and the Konoha jounin buried his right fist in her stomach, lifting his enemy off her feet. Before he could connect a left hook, the woman substituted herself with a piece of wood. Snapping his right leg backwards in a kick, Gai impacted the woman's chin just as she pierced his left calf with a dagger made of her strange crystal.
The woman's head snapped back and she crumpled in a heap of disordered limbs, unconscious. Gai looked at his stabbed calf and frowned. Such a wound would slow him more than he could afford. On the good side of things, he had a prisoner, one who bore the mysterious headband with the musical note.
Biting his thumb before running through another set of hand signs, he slammed his hands to the ground and in a large cloud of smoke, a tortoise appeared. A monstrous tortoise, with a shell as big as Gai was tall, and strangely, all red. The animal snapped its maw and looked at the jounin with beady eyes that nonetheless shone with alien intelligence.
"Ah… Hello… Gai." The animal whizzed slowly.
The jounin bowed. "Hello, master Kamemaru. I'm in need of a speedy mean of transportation for a prisoner of mine. Would you transport this woman to Konoha as fast as you can?"
"Of… Course… Gai.. You know… We'll… Gladly… Help… You." The red tortoise answered, still sounding asthmatic and breathless.
"Thank you Kamemaru. Let me tie her up and she'll be in your care." The jounin bowed and proceeded to take a pool of ninja wire to secure his prisoner before he hoisted her on the tortoise's back. Gai fastened the woman to the animal's shell with what was left of his ninja wire. "Now go, Kamemaru."
The turtle nodded once, slowly and whoosh! Before Gai blinked, the animal was gone in an incredible rush of wind. The jounin chuckled and fished in one of his pouch for some bandages. He had enough to go back to Konoha, at least in theory. A prisoner would give T&I all the info the village would need to organize its defence against a potential enemy.
No shinobi could resist Ibiki Morino and Inoichi Yamanaka for long after all.
Gai scratched his chin after he finished patching his leg. He wondered if could not unearth more about those musical ninjas. The jounin shook his head: that was a mouthful. Music ninjas sounded stupid. Sound ninjas maybe? Yes, Oto-nins.
Gai nodded, happy with the name.
Sound ninjas it would be.
The jounin looked around. He would keep investigating these Oto-nins and see if he could find what they were up to.
AN: Sorry, we changed time and it fucked me and my schedule up.
Now, I know what you're going to say but all C-rank missions cannot turn into a shitstorm. Or can they? And yeah, Gai is a jounin and he means business.
Okay, nothing to do with the chapter but I've got a real question here: do we all agree that the Sharingan cannot see through objects? As for the Byakugan, do you think it can? I'm not clear of the limitations on the field of vision. When Neji is fighting Kidomaru in the forest, does he see through the trees or around them?
Anyway, hope you enjoyed and if you did, leave a review. If only to share what you think about all those "Whatevergans".