The next two months had been good training and D-rank missions which had not been a problem as they basically acted as our breaks from training and Kurenai-sensei had us do the tasks with a strategy before we started, we would try to make it as efficent and quick as possible and we had until we got to the mission to create the plan. Obviously they weren't too hard or elaborate but it helped us think of the factors avaliable and think quickly. I had rapidly grown towards my squad and spent most of my time with them which is expected between gennin teams and that the three of us had opened up to eachother more and more, our team work and co-ordination had imporoved significantly which had made our sensei happy as well, we even had a photo taken of the four of us and each member had a copy. It felt like a family of sorts and it was the most I had ever had in terms of that, it made me want to protect the village even more; I didn't want to lose this.
Naruto and I hadn't seen much of eachother since graduation and had been busy with his team, even more so that he was currently on a C-rank mission. Team 7 was the only one that had gone on a C-rank out of the graduating squads this year, It didn't bother me however, I would rather focus on training and wait until my team as a whole wanted to go on one. Kurenai-sensei had us doing a D-rank mission and brought up higher ranked missions: "What do you three think about taking on C-rank missions?" We were all doing some weed pulling and close enough to have normal conversations.
I looked up at my teacher to see her expresion and it was one of interigue and evaluation, she did this when poking for information and from what I gathered this question was a front and she had an ulterior motive in asking it, but as always I'll bite. "I think they shouldn't be taken lightly; I don't think I am at a suitable place to take on a C-rank mission..." I look over to Shino and Hinata who seemed to be thinking what to say themselves. I could only guess with my limited time with them both but Hinata would most likely feel the same as me in terms of not having enough strength to do a C-ranking mission but probably wouldn't directly voice that if both Shino and myself wanted to do one. Despite the bonding our team had gone through Hinata still kept more to herself with her opinions and had to be asked more directly if you wanted her to actually say what she actually wanted to say. Meanwhile Shino probably would prefer training more to missions, at least for now. Especially if both Hinata and myself said no to missions, as calm and collected as Shino is he doesn't brag and wouldn't try to make himself seem higher than his peers.
This was fairly accurate as when they both answered in a simillar fashion, Hinata had stated that she didn't want to do a C-rank yet and Shino wanted more practice in his own abilities beforehand. After they gave their answers I smiled, being with these people for such a sort time and I could accurately guess how they would respond to something; it made me feel good about myself, why? I am not sure, but it did.
The D-ranks continued but between the missions I had started thinking about what I would be good at as a ninja, I had picked up slightly on my sensory abilities and I found out that I could send out small pulses by using the help of hand seals rather than just trying to push out chakra like before. The clusters of chakra I still had no idea about but that could wait, I could sense chakra only a small distance, roughly twenty-five meters at the maximum. I figured that I would need more than just sensory techniques and since they aren't that common I would have probably wasted my time presuing it. I had thought about it for some time before coming to Kurenai-sensei with a suggestion. It was not long after one of our D-rank missions and everyone was heading home and I suppose it was obvious that I wanted to ask something since my teacher had looked at me before she would usually leave and asked if anything was wrong.
I looked over to the jonin instructor before speaking up "Yea, I have been thinking about my skills as a shinobi and I wanted to know if you'd help me learn genjutsu." The look that split her face was shock and happiness, eyes lighting up slightly probably wanting to make genjutsu more known.
"Of course I can help you with that Zuko-kun, but you should know that I want you to be fully commited to learning the art; I won't be teaching it to someone who takes it lightly." Despite the scalding nature of her words there was a smile plastered across her face while she talked. I nodded in response, I wouldn't have asked if I didn't want to learn... "We'll start tommorow then okay? After our missions and this is the point of no return."
The genjutsu training had taken place almost every day with only theory and talking about it, Kurenai had encouraged me to ask all the questions I could think of no matter how little they were or how unrelated they may seem. This was because genjutsu used chakra to affect people, and any questions about people, or chakra or the things that could connect them. The first time she had tought me a genjutsu was one that affected smell, it had very little application but it was to demonstrate how genjutsu worked practically, what the jutsu did was make the affected smell not change, or conversely make there be one smell overpowering. She first used it on me so I could detect the difference and how it works, and then to use it on her.
Once I had used the jutsu on Kurenai-sensei I made the smell of her flowers that was nearby the most prominant smell, and I found one of it's uses then; she had instructed me to make the smell of the tea she had the strongest smell but that would defeat the point of genjutsu and the reaction of the new smell had been such a shock to her that it took her about ten seconds just sitting there thinking about the flowers before she realised what had happened. "Why did you do that?" I wasn't sure if she was proud or dissapointed but I told her regardless.
"I thought it would be more apt to do something you weren't expecting."
She sighed, "Yes you're right. I should have expected that..." Then she looked at the flowers "How would you like to up the training Zuko-kun?"
"If you're willing to teach me Kurenai-sensei then I'm ready to learn." With that we continued to go through our regular routine of theory and small practical genjutsu dispelling. The weekend was when she increased the training. We had started with more jutsu learning, starting with one for each of the base senses and repeating those jutsu, though it had elevated to trying to use these during light spars with my teacher. This was to make it so I could try and catch her of guard like previous; this stacked with the training from our D-ranked had made this task somewhat easier.
It was actually around the time that Naruto had returned from his C-rank that Team 8 decided collectively to go on one, we hadn't even had enough time to catch up on what it was like, the information would have been somewhat helpful, but it would be fine regardless. During each of our spare time we had built up our skills to a point of satisfaction, or at least where the experience of a C-rank would be more appealing than individual progress. We had just entered the mission room where the assignments were given out to the ninja of the village, the person giving out the missions was waiting for Kurenai to request a mission in such a bored manner it made me wonder how he even ended up there.
The mission given to us was to find some bandits and their camp as they had been recently raiding a local village and the village's guards couldn't find them or keep them away. We were to be back within a week as the village was about half a day away (in terms of normal ninja travel). Within the hour we were all ready and mobilising towards our destination. Kurenai gave us some words of advice during our travel "I want you three to know that even if it isn't a requirement of the mission you may have to fight regardless, If it did come to that then you may have to choose who'll survive the fight..." I looked to my side where our instructor was, I know what she was getting at but why beat around the bush? I didn't bring it up as she must have had a reason for doing it. "Also it's getting close to sundown so we'll have to rest slightly outside the village tonight, we can try and spot them moving in or out the village, but if not then we will investigate properly tomorrow."
The setting up of the camp didn't take long and since it was slightly unexpected Kurenai had stayed awake to lookout. The night must have been still as I awoke peacefully and the sun was just rising when I noticed Kurenai in the tree and my team in the same place from when I fell into slumber. I got up and started to stretch and heard the only other person speak "Goodmorning Zuko-kun, you're up early." I continued to wake up while I carried on the conversation.
"Morning to you too sensei. I made it a habbit to wake up early, it would do more good than bad." I had started to read waiting for my fellow genin to wake up too. While reading the conversation progressed.
"That could be true but if your body isn't prepared then it can be very bad, don't push your body if you're tired."
"Sensei, you are aware that you haven't slept yet? I am not going to take a mission lightly, I wouldn't be awake if I couldn't handle it." I heard a laugh after I finished speaking.
"Well I am glad you aren't taking it lightly, but I have completed many C-rank missions before, I am very much used to this. What book are you reading?"
I glanced over towards the tree. "It's about chakra control, and I've been thinking about it could you use chakra to both enhance your physical capibilities?" Asking questions out of the blue had become more common place since starting my genjutsu training but she always answered.
"Yes it is what most people do, it is used in the body flicker technique or in surface walking..." I could see her look at me after replying, she made this habbit of trying to get me to react to things she would do or say, It made no sense to me but I guess it is some training.
"That is probably useful to know, if I could learn that I would..."
"Potentially." That was the only reply before it became a wait for everyone to wake and head into the village.
The wait was short and the walk was quiet, we reached the village within ten minuets after packing all our camping equipment. It was a plain and small locale, with a main street that housed all the venues and inns with the residencies a shortwhile away leading into the small farmlands that grew typical crops found in the land of fire. Kurenai-sensei took us to what looked to be the village's main house, as we approached a young man that looked almost in his twenties came up to us from the house looking not at us but our headbands then once he was directly infront of Kurenai, looking slightly up at her, then met her eyes. "Shinobi-san! You're here to help us?" His eye's had widened slightly when he realised what he said, seeing the answer to his problems. When the lead of our team just nodded her head he grinned "That's great, I am Haruto Sasuke, I am the heir to the village head and I can show you around the place if you need."
The only response he got was "We'll be fine Haruto-san. Thank you but we just need to talk to the head." He nodded and showed us to the man we came to see. As we crowded inside the wooden abode the first thing we saw was an old man behind a podium talking to a small semi-circle of people, they all seemed to be having a meeting when we silently interupted them. Sasuke had started to speak up until the elder at the podium looked over and glared at the disruption.
"Sasuke! I told you that you weren't needed here, and who are these people?" The man all but shouted with the sound resonating off the supports of the building, when the younger of the two tried to retort he was cut off once more. "I don't want to hear your excuses, I'll talk to the strangers. Now off you go!" I looked over to the victim from the corner of my eye and then back to the loudmouth at the opposite side of the room, this guy doesn't seem too happy, said man then looked at our group before using the same tone of voice that he used for Sasuke. "Who are you four and why are you here!" it wasn't a question but a demand, albeit not a threatening one but there was no need to anger this person and Kurenai seemed to feel the same way as she tried to pacify the enraged man.
"Hello there, I am Kurenai Yuhi from Konoha and this is my genin team. We are here because of a mission to locate the bandits that have been terroising the village." There was a short silence that followed as the man digested the information and the other people in the room were thinking of the new arrivals as well. After a few more seconds the aged man beckoned Team 8 over to him.
"I have been waiting for you ninja, I am Haruto Reo and this is my village. I hope you shinobi deal with this quickly! This here is Doku, he saw one of the bandits leaving the village after an attack and can answer questions you have for him." He paused for a few seconds. "Now begone I want this to be delt with." With that a large man within his fourties creak towards us while the others resumed their meeting without the middle-aged male, we all had grouped just outside the house and began our conversation with mainly Kurenai-sensei and Doku-san.
It turns out that the bandits had fled to the west of the town, and once we got to the last sighting according to Doku, it lead into a dense forest that had fairly clear tracks that were poorly covered. Utilising Hinata's byakugan to keep out for any traps that used the obvious tracks as a decoy we followed them from the trees above, the tracks seemed to go on for what seemed like hours which made little sense to me so with that in mind I turned to my sensei and questioned it. "Ne, Sensei I think these tracks are false."
She looked over and called a stop, "Zuko-kun, we have already said they might be to hide traps. So what do you mean?" the confusion was clear in her voice.
"I don't think they are hiding traps sensei, these tracks have been going on too long; we have been told that they raid each night more or less, so how can they be so far out? Especially as their tracks have stopped being as well covered as they were when we started which is normal but the way they were bad at the start and eventually stopped but the tracks kept going. Either the raiders got complacent but then why cover it at all, they could be lazy but they're going and attacking a town that if we believe these tracks is over an hour away by walking so I doubt it is that. The fact is they're probably the opposite of lazy, they set extra tracks each day because these are still fresh... Unless there is a shinobi that uses a genjutsu to make the tracks go on longer than they are? I would think that their camp is either underground slightly or we've just walked past it." After finishing my rambling I found my team looking dumbfounded: Hinata went wide eyed and did a quick hand seal to test my musings, Shino looked around with a slightly more downcast demenor, and Kurenai had shock before doing the same as Hinata - dispelling the jutsu.
"Well done Zuko-kun, I can't belive I didn't notice sooner. Let's quickly backtrack and look for their base so we can report it's location." We all nodded and started moving out. On the way Hinata focused quite intently on the ground moreso than before and Shino was as he was before, except he glanced at me every few minuets. It didn't take long for us to reach an area where the poor track covering had a little anomaly, there were leaves that stacked up slightly more than anywhere else on the trail, Kurenai noticed this first and formost and moved the foliage out of the way on instinct. This revealed a hatch that was concealed by a natural tree which was destroyed and hollowed leaving just the shell of a trunk that had the front non-existant. Looking over at the Jounin for answers on this odd occurence when she caught my gaze she checked Shino and Hinata before speaking out loud for all of us. "These are old shelters used in the second shinobi war, and if they survived then the third too. These originally had been to house inhabitants of villages during a blitz attack or something like that, however overtime they became less used and an ample place for nukenin or bandits to use. Though they are so old and we don't know, usually, what ones have been attacked or not. The ones that have been attacked are more likely to crumble and cave in, and it seems like this is one of them." She then turned to us after opening the hatch. "We first need to check what's down there, Hinata-chan does your Byakugan have enough range to see anyone down there?" The shy girl in question looked directly into the trapdoor the pupiless eyes buldging in concentration it only lasted a short time then the focus came back to her deflated she shook her head at the one that asked her to do this task. "That's fine Hinata-chan, don't worry. We'll have to go down and check it out then but not all of us Hinata-chan, Shino-kun you two stay here and keep an eye out for anything that could come just incase. Zuko-kun you'll be coming down with me, we just need to do the mission objective so just confirm if they're down here and if not then we leave as quick as we can and investigate more. Got it?" With a chourse of 'Hai' Kurenai and myself had hoisted ourselves down and before we ventured into the dark Kurenai passed me a kunai and a thread of chakra "Burry the kunai and thread this through it, this will stop us from getting lost at any point."
When the light could not reach us as we pressed farther into the system sensei utilised a jutsu that illuminated our path, finding an open area we took the liberty to assess our surroundings. The structure was burrowed down and then expanded outwards into a full room that started elevated and lowered into a main facility where we heard robust chatter and laughter. Both Kurenai and I slid over silently peering over the edge of the ledge to see a rather ample group of men most with swords attached to them in some capacity and the smell of alcohol streched thick in the dusty air, this was certainly them, close enough to keep constant on the village and discrete enough to be reckless and loud. Kurenai patted my shoulder and we started to move away and retreat to the enterance following the chakra string made beforehand.
Once reaching the surface we saw Hinata on the floor and Shino trying to protect himself from an unkown person about to kick through Shino's guard. Kurenai was gone in an instant and the enemy had suddenly stopped for a second before jumping away before a familiar black and white slashed down on that exact position. I went up to both Shino and Kurenai who was now looking at the newcomer that had attacked "Konoha shinobi... You don't seem tough at all, it'd be nice to have some trophies. Hey listen up you weaklings! I'm gonna kill you all now, don't make this too boring at the least." This man who had a plain and arrogant voice had vanished from my sight and suddenly a series of clashes were resonating around as Kurenai engaged this rougish shinobi, their level of skill was far higher than mine to get involved in this fight would be more of a hinderance to our guardian than a help. Shino had a small stream of insects flowing out of his sleeve while looking onwards clearly looking to take advantage of this situation if possible. I glance over to Hinata who seems to be knocked out and most likely safe for now. I pull out a kunai for what it's worth, rather having some steel in hand than nothing.
The flurry of unfollowable attacks continue for a short time until they stop locked into place with their weapons interlocked fighting to overpower. They seem on even footing in this regard and it comes as a shock to the enemy when some bugs start to drain his chakra and in his brief moment of disorrientation Kurenai strikes and kicks him far into a tree next to me. He is stunned for this second, and I react on instinct, the threat is this close to me and he can battle on par with Kurenai in speed and strength. I waste little time on preying on this vunrebility as I lunge with my brandished blade aiming for his throat. His eyes shift to me as he regains awareness of his surroundings but by that time it is too late to recover and escape, for the skin is already tearing around my kunai; short gurgles escape after a pained grunt while this man looks at me but his eyes gloss over and become hazy it seems like he is looking through me more than at me. But it does not change anything. This person was an enemy and tried to kill my team, now we can complete the mission. I trudge the weapon from the chilling corpse then turn to see Kurenai-sensei analyse me as Shino is picking up Hinata so we can carry her away.
I keep an impassive face as I close in on the other members of my team, sensei speaking up before we depart. "Zuko, are you alright? You did a good job. You too Shino, that was a good plan to distract him." We both nod in response before Kurenai gave out the order to leave quickly. "We'll head back and report to the villiage before departing to Konoha, this mission is practically done."
The ninja we had encountered was not mentioned anymore while we talked to Haruto, although he had demand that we go and kill the bandits after finding them he was informed by Kurenai that it was not in the mission to go and kill them all but to report where they were and nothing more. This didn't seem to discourage Haruto from shouting at us to kill them as ninja kill people, he would just have to send out another mission to Konoha if they wanted ninja to kill the bandits. This was the way the world worked, if you wanted something done pay money; if you wanted extra you pay more money. Despite all the begrudging done by the small village we had left on our way without a problem. Taking half of the remaining day to get a decent location for a overnight camp. Setting it up didn't take long after we were tasked by our jounin sensei to contribute to the camp, Kurenai had obviously took this time to distract us as she had us using the jutsu for igniting a campfire, it was simple and acted as a catalyst for any fuel and igniter you had on the campfire. Once some quick hunting supplied us with food for the evening, not taking long for everyone to be settled and with little conversation about the events of the day which followed into Kurenai-sensei asking to talk to me while the other two went to sleep.
The embers of the campfire dying down when Kurenai decided to start the conversation. "I want to make sure you're alright after having your first kill, It's something everyone has, me included." I look into her eyes and see the light gleeming off them.
"Thank you sensei, I am fine. I was fully aware of what this life entailed. If I hadn't of killed him when I had the chance then he could have killed us, with no remorse. If he had gained the upper hand in the fight with you and won: me and Shino would not have stood much chance. Kurenai-sensei, I wouldn't hesitiate to save team 8."
She nodded in contemplation "You did well, I see great potential in that attitude, just make sure you are really okay. Now get some sleep, I'll keep watch for now." With a quick confirmation I was off to sleep.