We reached the gates of Kusagakure a few days after we set off.

"Ah we're here! Thank you all for escorting me here so far. This will only take a few days hopefully" Our client said gratefully. He didn't talk much during our trip to kusa and we didn't talk much either I just admired the sights and the world in general

"It is no problem. We are just doing our jobs as shinobi" Hayate said neutrally

Our client nodded. "I understand but still you have all done such good jobs so far... Your genin really are efficient" the man said happily.

Hayate nodded. "They are supposed to be. Anyways let's get into the village. Your first meeting should be soon, '' Hayate said.

Our client had a moment of realization. "Oh goodness yes! The first meeting is soon. We need to get checked into the village soon!" The man exclaimed in distress.

After that we began to get checked into the village. Kusa wasn't what I expected it to be really... I expected a lot more grass. It was pretty much like a small city. It was nice looking and nobody looked particularly shady. The shinobi looked weird. People were looking at us but not many. We were being left alone too which was also great

Soon we reached a large building which we entered.

As soon as we entered we were greeted by two men. One was a fair skinned man who looked like he had been running a mile a day. He looked like an average civilian. The other man was a bit more plump in size and he wore clothes fit for an upperclassman. The skinnier man was guarded by shinobi too; it looked like they were Iwagakure shinobi. The jonin looked to be a calm yet serious man. But the genin were openly glaring at us and I could tell one of them was looking at me funnily. Great. I could already tell we were in for one hell of a mission

The other men looked happy to see our client. "Rīfī You're here!" They exclaimed happily at the same time. They knew each other. Okay this would hopefully make things a lot more bearable

The now named Rifi looked happy to see the other two. "Kesseki! Hābu! I'm here! Sorry I took so long. The amount of bandits on the way here made things difficult" Rifi said excitedly. Either they were all friends or secret gay lovers. I bet on the ladder.

The first one mentioned, Kesseki spoke up first. "That's fine! What matters most is that your here! We can begin soon but first I think we all should have a bit of fun!" Kesseki said happily. Yep they were all secret gay lovers.

The second one. Habu. Spoke up next. "Yeah, I agree! We should all spend a bit of time with each other first before talking about boring ol' business. Let's go get something to eat!" Habu said, agreeing with Kesseki and suggesting an idea. I wondered if this meant we had to go guard them whilst they were just having fun or If we could go look around. I wanted to go look for Karin. Also I wanted to get away from the glares of the iwa shinobi. I could activate bloodlust and scare them but I doubt it'd work and now was the worst time to do it

Rifi nodded. "That sounds like a good idea! Plus we can give our shinobi guards a break and we can reminisce upon our childhoods!" Rifi said happily. Again secret gay lovers. Anyways if what he said meant what I thought it did then that means I could look for Karin. It'd be easy with sensing. Uzumaki were supposed to have dense and powerful chakra. Naruto did so I'd assume Karin would too.

Kesseki nodded. "Well that sounds like a plan! Let's get settled in first and then we can all go. We need to make sure we all have everything we need and will be checked in" Kesseki said sternly.

Rifi slumped a bit. "Always the responsible one huh?" He whined.

Kesseki grinned. "Someone needs to be and If it weren't for me we'd probably be drunk right now, no idea where to go for the night" Kesseki said. It made sense. Someone needed to have the brain cell.

Habu nodded. "Makes sense. Well let's go do the boring stuff now. That way we can do the fun stuff then business" Habu said, smiling at the end.

Soon everyone was checked into their hotel rooms for the week at minimum

"He hired those fucking tree huggers. Thats fucking bullshit"

"No need to get so worked up. We can think about this, I am pissed that the tree huggers are here but they are on a mission too"

"Yeah. As much as I hate the leaf we can't fault them for being on a mission. That's just dumb. But we need to find a way to get rid of them."

"I guess you guys are right. Perhaps we lead them to a cave and then collapse it into itself with them in it."

"Sounds like a good idea. Nothing can be traced back to us and we can kill the tree huggers. Maybe I can fill the place with lava just to be sure"

"That would be best. Absolutely nothing would be traced to us and we can avoid punishment. If their bodies are completely destroyed then nothing will even be able to be traced to us. Konoha can just determine them Missing nin and we can go home happy"

"Sounds like a plan"

"Indeed"

"So how will we lure them?"

"Hm... We could henge as one and ask them to follow us."

"No, that wouldn't work. They don't look stupid."

"Yeah. We could just kidnap one of them and then have the other two come to their rescue. The bun haired girl looks to be the weakest"

"True but what about the kid with an eyepatch? He seems like an easy target. He has to be after all. He's the only one missing something"

"No, not him. The way he carries himself shows that he's seen some shit and gone through some shit. The others have that look but not to the point of him. He's the strongest"

"If he's the strongest doesn't that mean we should all go after him?"

"No, not at all. If he's the strongest then that means he could put up a fight. It could alert people to what we're doing and we'd be screwed."

"Fair enough. So the bun haired girl will be our target then?"

"Yep"

"So it's settled. The tree huggers will die within the week!"

"That they will"

Kukui's pov

I looked around from my perch. I was using sensing all the time. It was exhilarating to just allow my chakra sensing to take over for a bit. But that wasn't why I was doing it. No, no, no. U was looking for a very specific person. Karin. Mika and Tenten were currently in their hotel room whilst Hayate was in ours. They were all sleeping. I was the only one awake and whilst scary for multiple reasons. I knew I needed to have a general idea of what was going on. Plus I was making sure our clients wouldn't get too shitfaced. I'd be stealing a bottle of booze for later though. I was going to celebrate two years in this world with a bang!.

So far I had learned Karaoke was a thing in this world as our clients whilst drunk went to go sing. I found this to be the best entertainment ever. It'd been so long since I had listened to any music so I was happy to listen to even their shitty singing. I wasn't even being mean. They were slurring every word. I was almost ready to have an earth clone take them home whilst I perused the village once more.

I was of course being watched but it was assumed I was just making sure our clients were doing fine. I just followed them wherever they went and all was good. I even had a few shinobi nod at me for doing a good job. I of course did care about the men's safety. It was my job to do so. I literally was being paid to do so. And I really didn't want to go to bed yet. I was going to have a bit of fun myself first.

Suddenly I felt a chakra signature come up behind me. "If you're trying to kill me, It won't work," I said Putting my hand on my chokuto's hilt.

"Relax, no need to be so apprehensive. I'm just here to check on our client. Can't see any more of you tree huggers anywhere so I figured I'd come investigate" I heard a feminine voice say. It was the girl from the Iwa group. I recognized her as the tsuchikage's granddaughter. Fuck my life.

I took my hand off the hilt of my blade. No need to be hostile. If she tried anything, the holy log will come to my call. "Currently your client is drunkenly singing with my client and the other guy. It's hilarious" I said grinning to myself at the end.

I saw the girl push back a laugh upon listening to the loud men's singing. "Great an immature treehugger" The girl complained

I shrugged. "It's the small things like this that make life worth living. It's funny to me and I saw you stifle a laugh. I know you find this as funny as me." I said pointing through the glass roof to the men who were now all singing what I could infer to be this world's version of a Justin Beiber song.

The girl began to look annoyed. I was trying to remember her name... Kurosomething... I'd check my journals later. "Fine, it's funny. But we're on a mission, we can't act immature like this. Our clients would think less of our villages that way" The girl explained, getting somewhat annoyed.

I shrugged. "Does it look like they care? They don't see us and they look like they're having fun. I'm just having my own fun whilst watching them." I said, unsealing a sandwich. I was hungry okay.

The girl just sat down and began watching the men sing. "Really dammit? They're just doing this... I thought they were supposed to be serious" The girl mumbled.

I shrugged again. "You saw them in the lobby. They were as happy as could be talking to each other. They probably are rather good natured with others and don't really care much for business. I'm just making sure they don't get mugged" I said taking a look at what sandwich I unsealed. Turkey oh thank god. I was craving turkey.

Kurosomething nodded. "Fair enough I guess... This is really boring. How can you do this?" The girl complained/asked.

I made a hmm sound. "Because I'm having fun I could care less. I just am happy to be out of the village and to explore. I'm just hoping nothing goes wrong" I said happily before taking a bite of my glorious sandwich. Fuck you I can eat while on the job. I remembered the girl's name. Kurotsuchi. My memory seemed to be deteriorating

Kurotsuchi sighed. "I guess I could do something whilst here... Got anything to do treehugger?" Kurotsuchi asked.

I nodded. " I have a shogi board. Wanna play?" I asked unsealing the shogi board.

"Sure"

Kusagakure: Next day

I groaned as I woke up. "Man I hate mornings" I whined as I got up.

"It's your own fault for staying up late. Although you were protecting the client you didn't need to at the moment. " Hayate said from beside me.

I rubbed my eyes and unsealed my shinobi gear. "I know, I know. I just didn't want to sleep" I said before going into the bathroom. I needed some water to splash on my face today. I really shouldn't have played shogi for 4 hours straight... I may have a problem. I began running some hot water

I splashed some on my face, waking me up. "At least I got the pleasure of winning 90% of the time" I said to myself happily. When playing shogi with Kurotsuchi I won 90% of the time which was nice. My continued losses to Shikamaru and the Hokage made me desperate to win.

I quickly got my shinobi gear on and looked in the mirror. I didn't have my eyepatch on at the moment. I looked at the scar on my right t. It was weird to see that I had a scar. It was healed for the most part but it was there. I thought I looked good. I put on my eyepatch. It was time to work.

I left the bathroom and saw Hayate, Mika, and Tenten waiting for me.

"Geez Kukui, what took you so long?" Mika asked expectantly.

I shrugged. "I was reflecting on my scar. Now what do we have to do today?" I asked Hayate after answering Mika

Hayate stood up. "We'll be meeting up with our client while he is in a meeting with his business partners. It'd be best if we went now" Hayate said and Mika and Tenten stood up as well. It was time to go.

"Aight sensei!" I said happily. It was time to resume our mission.

Tenten nodded. " Okay sensei"

Mika just nodded

Mutual meeting area: An hour later

"Perhaps we can transport some of our materials here," Rifi suggested. Currently, they were talking about what resources they had and what they could trade. Not actually business yet. Habu was going through resources quickly it seemed.

Kesseki nodded. "Yeah, No need to ask, We can just send some resources to help," Kesseki said smiling.

Habu was crying in joy. "Thank you both! I promise I'll make it up to you later!" Habu said happily.

Rifi grinned. "No need my friend. This is what friends are for!" Rifi said.

I began to tune them out. Hayate would tell me if something was important. I began to realize how boring missions like this were. I was beginning to wish we were just making some poor bandits' lives cut short. We were here for three hours listening to them talk. Damnit there were more important things right now that I'd get to do if They just called it a day already. I really wanted to find Karin just so Naruto could know a bit of his family.

If Karin hadn't defected yet then I could hopefully find her. I had no luck last night and I didn't want to risk leaving a clone here or using a clone to go look for her. So I had to wait. I wish I had something to talk to internally. I couldn't talk with Mika, Tenten, or Hayate as we were supposed to be quiet whilst we watched our client fuck around. I could see why Hayate said this could take up to a month... I could always look for another karaoke bar and just use a henge to enter. But that wouldn't help my dilemma of today. I needed something to do

I looked over to my teammates who were just as bored as I was. Poor bastards.

I elected to think over jutsu.

I wanted to make a lightning jutsu similar to the Chidori but at the same time different. I still needed to master the second stage of lightning control before I could even attempt it but I wanted to create a lance. A lance made of lightning. It would have the piercing power of the chidori, the range of a weapon, and I'd be able to control it. I'd also be able to throw it so It had more range. I also wanted to create a fire jutsu. Like an armor. A chakra mode of sorts.

My goal was to use my elements to their fullest.

I wanted to use them how the fucking avatar did.

But for now, I needed settle on regular lightning jutsu and the stuff I can try to make before I could make my uber powerful jutsu... Hopefully, they'd be overpowered. I wanted to be that strong anyways. I also wanted to create a shield-like jutsu. Fire and lightning were shit for that so I'd need to learn a third element. Earth would be a good choice but that'd be later.

For now I needed to focus on my current specialties.

I tuned back into the conversation between the three business partners. "So I guess that's it for the day huh" Rifi said getting up from his seat

Kesseki nodded. "Yeah pretty much" Kesseki said getting up from his seat

Habu grinned. "I guess we can use this opportunity to have another night on the town." Habu said happily.

Kesseki and Rifi nodded.

Finally today was over.

chapter end

Dear god this chapter was a pain in my ass to write. I had no idea what to include and who to include. I wanted to try to focus more on the people of Kusa but Idk how. I'll do that next chapter with a segment of Kukui just fucking around or something. I originally planned this chapter to be 4k words long but I couldn't find anything else to include that wouldn't shorten the arc which I want to go up to chapter 38 at most.

Anyways what did you think of the chapter? I know its probably not my best but I wanted to just use this as an introductory chapter to the next bad guys. Kurotsuchi, Akatsuchi and a random oc. As for why Kurotsuchi didn't attack Kukui well it was broad daylight. Kusa shinobi would interfere and probably restrain her. Also Kukui could put up a fight. (I'm debating on whose stronger atm)

Anyways not much to report today. Thanks for reading this chapter! I might take a break soon tbh

Anyways Question of the chapter time!

Question: What do you think will happen this arc?

Anyways Tobi-kun out!

Ta ta!