Chapter 3 – A day comes

"I told you to torch it!"

"Wow, you sure know me. I can use Ice, how am I going to torch a place without fuel?"

"Well, you should have burned the town to the ground. Now they have evidence"

"Umm. Excuse me, but I went on the mission to kill not destroy."

"Well then maybe I should have sent Nateo. He loves fire."

"He loves destruction. I love art."

"Well your 'Art' almost cost the operation and has revealed us to the public"

"We would have been anyway"

"That's not the point!"

"Well that's my point. We would be revealed anyway so why not now! If you would have sent Nateo, he would have just torched the place and there would be a giant band of Ninja sitting on our doorstep. They would be suspicious. At least this way, they will only send a few patrols looking for one single ninja, not a whole hoard of hooligans."

"And if you're wrong in your 'predictions'?"

"…"

"Well, I am curious."

"…"

"If you don't answer, you may as well turn in your membership."

"The more people, the more targets."

"Well, at least we are thinking of ourselves rather than nothing at all."

"I would do it for the kill count, not your glory and honor based on nothing and a system that is widespread insufficiently against their home protection. If they sent out their entire band of ninja, they would find us, most likely, they still won't. Only thing is, if they do, we would be able to silence them much faster."

"Hmm… that's a good point. Hopefully one day, you may become better than all of your predecessors."

"I already am."

"How do you suppose that?"

"I'm better than you."

Back at headquarters, teams gathered, all Jonin except for one single team. The team with all the Intel. The team was the talk of the village gennin as the "Dream Team". A team of the three best in their class that get to go onto an A rank before they had even successfully completed a B. Kengura, Kerone, and Tidashi were standing alone in front of the Hokage. Other teams of Jonin surrounded his desk, all looking at giant picture board maps with search patterns and towns laid out. Kengura looked around the room, slowly from the left to the right, mapping out each possible item of interest. Flowerpots, keys, rods, chairs, pencils, all the way down to stacks of papers and even the small pockets of dust on the floor. He concentrated on the dust, watching it as it seemed to, ebb. Slowly, it seemed to ebb as he watched it, then he thought about it making a small pile and it started to move upward, climbing into a small little pile of dirt.

"Kengura! Are you paying attention?" Hokage asked. Visibly irritated, it appeared that he had asked more than once or that they had started earlier. He looked back at the dirt and it was just a pile. He had just let his daydreaming get the best of him.

"Now, you three tell me if you saw him?" He asked again, to get the point across to Kengura.

"Honestly, we only saw ice Senbon being thrown from the building. Some came close to getting us before we got to the roof beam." Tidashi explained. Kerone nodded in agreement as the three companions stood there. Staring down the sea of Jonin at their immediate front, they appeared as the only source of knowledge other that Gyo's dialogue of the fight. Other than that, they had no one to even begin questioning about the location of this new foe. All they knew was that he wore a facemask with paint on it.

"Sir!" an assistant called for the Hokage running into the room. "There was a report a few months ago, when a supply convoy was attacked by a strange man wearing a lot of war paint or a mask. They were on their way into the Rice country as well. I remembered the mission because a friend of mine died on that convoy." He explained, waiting for anything satisfactory from the Hokage. None, it just confirmed fears that this person has been around long enough to gain specific Intel, enough to take on ninja convoy and win.

Dismissing his assistant, he motioned for all of the Jonin around to gather in front of him. "Alright, now, I want all of the Jonin in pairs with 3 Chunin accompanying them. The three Genin here, are to run with 3 Jonin and 4 Chunin. So, 7 teams of 5, and one team of 10. Teams 1-3, you search through the country. Teams 4 and 5, you set up camp at the designated spot. Team 6, run recon through the forest between teams. Team 8, run recon to base. Teams 9 and 10, set up the triage area and assist in looking for any survivors.

"Hokage!" the assistant yelled, running back to the room. "We just got a message, another town was hit, this time, burned to the ground."

"Where!" He quickly asked.

"30 miles south of the border, close to the other border." The assistant replied, catching his breath.

"Scratch all of that. Everyone, come with me, we will set up camp later, lets try and get whoever is this. Jonin, you have a list of the Chunin to collect. 20 min, front gate, MOVE!" Everyone in the room went straight for the windows. A cloud of ninja quickly formed, flowing out of the tower toward their destinations. Kengura and Tidashi went to recover a few supplies and some rations to take. Kerone, was asked to help recover one of the Chunin that was not alerted with the rest of them.

"I thought I told you not to go through with the mission!!!"

"No, you said to do the mission."

" Don't try that reverse psychology on ME! I told you to wait for instructions after the other incident Nateo."

"I only followed the instructions I was given. And those were to burn the town."

"Well you were late, and I told you NOT to burn the town."

"…"

"You are to remove yourself from active, and to reevaluate how you will portray yourself while you spend time underground in the mine."

"I still got the job done, unlike Tenedeto, he didn't even do what was expected"

"But at the same time, Tenedeto did his done on time AND he didn't draw attention from the ENTIRE NATION OF KONOHA!!! Hopefully, the town you torched was so far from the border, they wont come to investigate the burning and just leave it to the Sand."

"Well if you find my methods immoral…"

"Immoral! I would consider them insane you backstabbing moron! Now I am going to kill you personally if you do not go now!"

"Alright, how many do we still have missing? None, good, lets get out of here. We should at full speed, reach the village in the Rice Country in several hours." All of the highly trained Jonin surrounded the Gennin in the group, everyone looking sharp. One of the main reasons that they were being allowed to come is because they had been the ones to discover the foe, and all of their sharingans may come in handy. All in all, 45 Ninja + the Medical Nin, and also the Hokage himself, over 60 ninja were going on this mission. Included within them are 15 medics, 4 Sharingan users, 13 Weapons Specialists, 4 Byakugan Users, 5 fire wielders, 3 Trap masters, 3 Beast tamers, and some random assistants. All readying to leave, people came from the village, bringing small pieces of offerings and gifts, others bringing provisions for the journey and some had brought extra weapons and an elder came.

"I will go with you. I have business with you anyway Hokage." She said, slowly moving toward them.

"Why should I let you put yourself in peril? What skills have you to benefit our mission?" He responded, sidestepping across toward the old woman. She looked at him and before he could take another step he was suspended in air by strings he did not even see.

"I am an enhancer, I have many abilities that lie in chakra weaving with weapons and other items. Also, I was tempted with the art of puppetry for a while. It helps." She slowly loosened the grip she had with the chakra enhanced wires, setting him down on the ground. The chakra infused strings slowly coiling in her hands, spooling into a neat little ball until it was tight. Putting it back into her sleeve, the old woman slowly sidestepped the Hokage and went into the array of people.

"Enhasa?" The Hokage said, staring at the woman wondering.

"Yes… I am her. Not the one you remember though. She died years ago…" Bowing her head in reverence to something that she knew personally, the Hokage also mimicked this. Somehow, he either knew of or had something to do with it. At the present moment though, there was no hesitation in his breath after collecting himself when he ordered them to move out, he told them to stop and rest almost there at Kiresato, the cloth village. They would stop there, sending out a Sharingan and two Byakugan to scope out the area to approach the village that had been burned to the ground. No telling how the sand would take it, looking at the situation, it may look to the sand like an approaching attack and they may send over ninja to the border to intercept ninja, it may be a good idea to send a message over explaining the situation once they arrive at Kiresato. Bringing up the rear and getting a few of the straggling ninja with the heavier equipment, he slowly edged over to Enhasa.

"I see that you are still willing to try and kill me as always." He quipped, slowly jabbing her in the side.

"Yes… well I was always trying to get you. Never could but at the same time, you had never presented much of a threat to anyone. Always using your powers to make up the country and even brokering for the finally release of tensions from the Sand. That took skills… skills I did not have when you were chosen as Hokage… skills that you already possessed." She entailed, slowly advancing past his strides, naturally competing with him. He matched her small adjustment and did the same. Amused, they did this for a time, trying to overtake each other as he made sure that all of the equipment was transported properly over to the new site. They would probably make the base/triage center about 10 miles south of Kiresato, just close enough to get help if needed but also not far from the site of the fire. This fire, it couldn't have been related to the other attack. The other attack was precise, no wasted shots, no destruction, just death. This one was more destructive, more powerful, just a giant assault, no real skill involved.

"Nateo is out of the program…"

"I would have assumed so, I just heard about his… escapades…"

"This complicates thing beyond belief now, you at least did not attract attention as you have mentioned. I have recently gained intelligence that an entire force of Konoha ninja are moving into the Rice country. Their numbers top 25 Jonin, most are Elites. Also, the Sand believes that the assault of the village was Konoha trying to divert attention as they use forces to take the country and stage an assault on the Sand Nation."

"So, we could use this to our advantage…"

"Possibly."

"I could eliminate someone in sand territory next. It would look like Konoha had assaulted a village in the Sand Nation territory."

"That may work. Konoha is coming here to investigate the fire so if they also suspect that there is another attack, we may be able to drive their force apart and split them up. So maybe, if they think that there is another attack they will investigate, and so will the sand, and then they will meet on the battlefield and fight each other as we can wait for them to kill themselves."

"That's a decent plan… but one flaw."

"What would that be Tenedeto?"

"They still have not assembled a full force, if we do that, then they will… and they will search the entire rice country because of one thing."

"That would be…"

"There is no one in the Sand that can use water Chakra like I do. That skill comes from training in the Mist. They will see that the sand is not involved unless someone who could impersonate Sand ninja did the job."

"What about a sand ninja himself?"

"How would we turn one?"

"Why does he have to turn, why can't he just be controlled?"

"You perfected the technique? That Jutsu is supposed to be one of the most complicated that a non bloodline person could attempt. As opposed to it, it is the only one that you can learn outside of the bloodline but it is the hardest of them. How, may I ask?"

"I had to find a bloodline and then I simply, took his blood…"

"So a transfusion does carry the techniques abilities…"

"Some. HE, theorized that the mental abilities of clans and bloodlines could be obtained from moving blood from one person to another, as can you do for the Sharingan and Byakugan. Some other bloodlines that are carried in the bones or the capabilities of the body are impossible, like the clan that can morph their bones?"

"Yes I have heard of them. Strong clan, there were many of them, but few understand the full power of their bloodlines."

"Well, I can use this one to a limited extend."

"Then its game on for the Konoha ninja then, such a wakeup call when the sand come to attack."

"Yes, a good one too."

"So you will go alone?"

"No, my dear friend, I still need someone to help, 'Catch' the ninja we intend to use…"

Kengura woke up in a cold sweat. They had been at the town for a while now, planning the next move. The Hokage had gotten the Elite and set up a tent to find the proper strategy to get the job done. He had had the dream again, but this time, the battle turned in his favor and he was able to take the opponent down by forcing a kunai into his leg. Before he could reply his name, another weapon, possibly a Senbon, struck him. A shadowy figure had disappeared behind a puff of smoke on the hillside away. Stretching, he tried to remember some of the recent dreams. He had lost count of what had happened in each one but every time, there were almost always 3 figures, himself, his opponent, and a skilled ninja that never came close that used Senbon.

Brushing it off as pure coincidence, he stood. As soon as he did, a shuriken grazed his hair. Ducking down to miss the second one, he turned around. The tree above him was being used as a target by Tidashi. Taking another look, there were Kunai and Shuriken marks all over the tree around him, most were fresh, others starting to sap over.

"How long have you been missing me!?" He asked, turning around realizing how much danger he had been in as he slept.

"Not long, enough for me to get off about a few dozen waves around you. Don't worry though; the closest I came was 4 cm from you." Tidashi said, brushing off the anger. Kengura showed a mixed expression of anger and admiration. He had always been good with weapons. It made up for his weakness in performing jutsu. Tidashi preferred the feel of steel in his hand anyway, and always practiced with weapons if he had a choice. Kerone and Kengura were both extremely proficient with both, but were still below Tidashi in level with weapons training. They both had extremely proficient skills in Jutsu, and with the help of the Sharingan, were able to already master a handful of advanced jutsu not available normally to Genin. One of these is the speed technique that Gyo knew.

Kengura walked over to a small bench that had enough holes in it to look like a drilling post. Sitting on it was out of the question; even his small amount of weight would snap it in half. Staring out over the encampment, they were still waiting for any word regarding the destruction of the village. Completely burned to the ground, it was a sight to see. He sat on the ground and thought for a time as a few stragglers finally worked their way to the camp with the heavier equipment. He thought about what he had seen, the sharingan tracked the motions of the ice user. He was graceful, extremely personified and used his motions to enhance his abilities. This, torching, seemed uncoordinated and randomized, but not as random as they would need to believe.

"Kengura!" Kerone yelled as he jumped and ran to a tent. Dashing off after him, Kerone knew he was on to something. "Kengura what did you find?" He said, watching him sift through a crate in the tent.

"Maps, maps of the area." This was all he said for a few moments as he dug, winding around 2 maps he had of the area. Laying them out he threw them out over the table and using kunai he marked the maps areas where the damages were. They were intersecting in distance at 2 points, with a third attack possibly imminent it might be possible to orient themselves with if they were dealing with personified attacks.

"Kengura… I can't say much if you don't speak up! All you did was mark the attack sites..." Kerone paused, looking at the map and then throwing two more kunai down on the map.

"What is that for?" Kengura said, looking up at him.

"The first," Holding his hand on the kunai closest to him, "is the location of the attack on the convoy by a man with no weapons, who left marks on ninja, and was covered in face paint.

"And the second?" Kengura continued at his comments, motioning to a kunai that was in the center of all three.

"That… is the location of a village that was destroyed by completely burning the town and no survivors." Kerone paused and looked down at the map.

"There wasn't a fourth attack though." Kengura said. "Yes there was…" Tidashi said as he walked in the tent.

"Ahh, so at least you know what I'm talking about?" Kerone said, turning to him. "All I know is what happened, I heard about it about 6 years ago."

Tidashi paused at the end of the table looking over the maps and up at Kerone. "I'm surprised you heard even that…" he said pausing. "I never told you about it so who told you?" he asked, eying Kerone carefully.

"Told him what?" Kengura exclaimed emphatically, very annoyed that they were holding this from him.

"The fire of Okisan." Tidashi said.