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The mission was to escort a trade diplomat to Hidden Mist to deal with a trade dispute. He, three genin teams and their instructors were to escort Hino Jiro to and from the council chambers in Hidden Mist. The mission lasted three weeks.
On top of the escort mission, Hideaki was given a mission separate from his companions. He was to hunt down and kill the Leaf turned Rock-nin in the area who had stolen Raijin, the Nidaime's lightning sword, and return with both head and sword.
It had taken him an hour to sneak out of Hidden Mist on the fifth night and another four to locate the abandoned mansion where the missing-nin and his seven jounin companions were hiding out while they awaited orders from their Iwakage.
To make matters worse…it snowed all night.
The Hunter-nin, codenamed Aki, adjusted his Hunter Mask and activated his five-tiered Sharingan. There were two jounin hidden in the overgrown courtyard and they were taken care of quickly and efficiently with senbon thrown precisely into the neck's kill-points. Since they were sitting, they thankfully didn't make any noise when they slumped.
Moving quickly, Aki disarmed and moved the Rock-nin's traps, setting them up in different locations and adding his own little cantrips just in case.
He circled the old mansion and decided to wait for the change of shift.
One hour and forty-two minutes later, the next shift dropped and he dragged them into some brambles, retrieving his senbon in the process.
Several minutes later, another jounin came to investigate where the first shift was.
He moved into the garden to find his team mates, but Aki didn't go after him immediately. He wanted the jounin to get the missing-nin active.
If they found that someone knew where they were, they would either move out or try to kill who ever it was. Either way, he would still be able to snipe them off without much trouble.
Half an hour later, only the target and one jounin were still alive. One more jounin had been sniped but the other had tripped one of his chain-reaction traps and wounded the target in the process. The remaining two were on edge and Aki was feeling coolly satisfied about how things were progressing, though not enough to get cocky.
He'd gotten two new earth jutsus as a bonus, though.
He watched the two from the crook of a stout tree and decided enough was enough. He had to be back by dawn in an hour and a half's time.
Aki formed a few quick hand seals and murmured, "Kirigakure no jutsu."
Almost instantly mist began to rise, giving the old mansion an even creepier air. Using his enhanced senses of smell and sound, the Hunter-nin from the Black Ops Inferno Squad slunk with the sinuous grace of a river spirit up the path towards the two nin standing back to back so he could catch them from the side.
He slid the two long slender katana, his weapons of choice, out of their sheaths. With a burst of his unnatural speed he came in low and took both men down from below with simultaneous backhand slashes from groin to neck. Both fell to the ground in a spray of blood.
Aki straightened and looked around. He shrugged and spent fifteen minutes putting the eight corpses, sword and assorted weaponry and trap materials into storage scrolls to be looked over later. All that was left as a testament to the massacre were the bloodstained snow and trap damage.
It was nearly seven in the morning and long after daybreak before Hideaki reached the village. Having changed out of his Hunter-nin robes into civilian wear and mimicking the posture and gait of a commoner, he didn't really stick out.
He was wandering over a snow-capped bridge, lost in thought, when the demon's icy cold chakra in the Seal did the equivalent of shifting in interest. He looked up and noticed a ragged child with shaggy dark hair shivering against the rail of the bridge.
He tilted his head as he regarded the boy.
The kid wore only a pair of cotton three-quarter pants and a thin tunic. He was barefoot in the snow, but showed no sign of frostbite. While shivering, thoroughly depressed and looking defeated, he appeared mostly untouched by the cold.
As though sensing Hideaki's gaze, the boy lifted his shaggy head to reveal a surprisingly feminine face and large dark brown eyes that stared back unwaveringly with only apathetic neutrality. He couldn't have been more than eight or nine.
The two stared at one another for several minutes before interest finally entered the eyes only a few shades lighter than the black ones looking back.
Hideaki held out a hand.
The boy stood and came to him.
Hideaki took him back to the inn with him.
Momochi Zabuza passed the bridge not two minutes later.
(space)
There were five rooms allotted to the Konoha party. The three female genin and a female jounin instructor shared one room, the six male genin were split into groups of three with a jounin instructor bunking in each room. The jounin took turns guarding the diplomat in the forth room every night. Hideaki was given the smaller fifth, two-person room.
The boy, whose name he still did not know, was clean, fed and sleeping on the extra bed, his dark, silky head cushioned on Hideaki's lap and being idly petted while the older boy read through a bingo book, seeing if he could recognise any of the now dead Rock-nin.
He had already found four of them. Since he had killed them, he could collect the bounty money.
There was a soft nock on the door, which was opened a moment later without waiting for a reply. "Where were you all night? And who's the kid?"
Hideaki rolled his eyes up to look at the jounin instructor standing in the doorway.
"I had a separate mission to take care of. And I picked up the kid from the street. I'm taking him back to Konoha with me. Was there anything else, Hyuuga-san?"
Hyuuga Hiro of the Hyuuga Branch House narrowed his eyes. Hideaki thought better of him after he asked why Hideaki, someone none of them were familiar with, was suddenly being added to the mission the day before they left.
"Who are you, really? Why are you here?"
The Hunter-nin figured the Hyuuga would get off his back if he gave him some information. "I am a member of the Black Ops Inferno Squad." The Hyuuga's eyes widened. "I had to take care of something. It's done now, so I won't have to go out anymore. As for the kid," Hideaki petted the dark head now pressed into his hip. "The Hokage will be interested in him, but I mostly brought him back because I'm a bleeding heart when it comes to children. I've already adopted a child orphaned during the Kyuubi's attack. I think he needs an older brother." He noted the hand tightening on his pants.
The Hyuuga pondered for a moment before nodding and leaving.
He turned back to his bingo book.
The little boy closed his eyes and went back to sleep, still smiling.
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