Chapter 10: Let's Get On with the Mission Already!
All three genins arrived at the appointed location in front of the path that will lead these young ninjas toward their first real mission, which happened to be at the border between Konoha and the Lightning Country. Shikamaru waited for them there with a still very nervous mother of the kidnapped victim. He was wearing a black bodysuit with no Konoha headband in sight. Mrs. Fuugen sat on a horse carriage, while the lazy jounin stood beside her.
"Okay!" shouted Tsuzuku, "Let's go kick some…"
She was interrupted by Shikamaru passing black goggles to her and the other two guys. They wore their dark eye gear as they looked on to their sensei to see what he was going to say.
"As I said before, these goggles will allow you to see invisible markings made with this marker." Next, he pulled out a black marker and drew a line on the tree.
Tsuzuku kept on putting on and taking out her goggle to see the "greatness" of that writing utensil. "Oh man, this is awesome! I'm so getting one for my birthday!"
"Now pay close attention, kids. The red marker means that there may be a trap around that area. You are to avoid it at all costs, even if that means taking the long way around it. Understand?"
All three nodded simultaneously, as Shikamaru continued one with his instructions. "And this black marker means you will stay at where you are until signaled otherwise…"
"What will the signal be, Shikamaru-sensei?" Xin asked. He was shaky since he heard that they had to undertake such a mission, and now is no different than before, if not worse.
"I was about to get to that," he replied with an annoyed expression. "I will flash a thin layer of light onto the tree I marked with the black marker. It will glow brightly, so it won't be hard to notice. In the best case scenario, the only time I will use this color will be when me and Mrs. Fuugen have reached our destination point. Of course, there may be other cases, so be on the lookout with this color also. Anyways, I will flash it once so you guys will be aware of my status of being fine. Twice, if I need back-up. If I flash it three times in a row, that would mean the mission is over, and we will meet up back here for safety precautions. If you don't see me or my signal any time over five minutes, you have my permission to move in. I expect the leader to use his best judgment on how to go on about that concerning the situation."
"Aww, you'll probably never call for back-up and hog up all the action. My dad did the same thing, but with MY money that I won from a raffle. He said he'll give me some share out of the total, although I should have all of it, and never even gave me that small portion either! Ugh, I'm still mad at him for that till this day! Well, not that mad. I'm not like one of those petty rich folks who gets irritated by the littlest things, no offense Mrs. Fuugen. I'm more like…," she started before Yin stopped her.
"As team captain, I order you to be quiet for the rest of the mission to the best of your ability."
Tsuzuku fumed at him, but did miraculously remain quiet…, for the time being anyways.
"Anyways, are we clear, Team 14?" he asked in a loud, authorative manner.
"Hai!" all three replied.
"Good, and remember, don't go within 5 kilometers of us. Any of you have binoculars on you?"
Xin and Tsuzuku checked their pockets, but to no avail. "Sorry, we don't…," they both replied in a sad tone.
"How pathetic…," Yin commented in an arrogant manner.
"Hmph, do you have one then, Mr I'm-better-than-everyone-else?" she asked rudely.
"No…, but at least I'm fully aware of not having one equipped on me," he replied, facing away from his team.
Shikamaru sighed and took out a pair of binoculars and tossed it to Yin. "You guys are really a troublesome bunch… Anyways, we're off!"
He got on the horse carriage with Mrs. Fuugen, who was happening to carry a bag tightly against her chest. The bag was most likely full of money. Shikamaru used a whip to get the horse going, and soon they were out of sight. The rest of team 14 stood there waiting until the perfect distance laid between them.
The moment of silence between seemed to be very tough on Yin. The longer the wait was, the more the fear and anxiety consumed him. "A-are we ready to go yet?" asked Yin nervously. He was staring at the ground and was shaking. It wasn't that much, but still noticable to the eyes of his comrades.
"Don't worry, Xin-kun! We got this thing in the bag with Shikamaru-sensei and me on the scene. Don't you fret over it!" Tsuzuku spoke confidently.
"It is safe to say that they are 5 km away by now. Let's move out, Team 14!" Yin instructed as he jumped onto a tree branch.
Finally, let's get on with the mission already!" She hopped onto a low branch on the other side of the path Yin was on, and hopped up branch to branch till she reached the appropiate height to advance the quickest. Xin jumped up also on the same side, but was a tree behind her.
They all started jumping branch to branch in a casual manner, trying to adjust their speed to the same velocity of the carriage to maintain the 5 kilometers between them.
Time went on, and the concerned mother needed some comfort. However, she also needed a taste of reality.
"Will Sagel really be alright? Don't try to protect my feelings. I want the hard truth!" demanded the mother. She wanted to the real situation at hand, regardless how hard it would be for her when she hears it.
"To be honest, lot of things can go wrong. The enemy can already be onto us, and now we are merely just their pawns until they receive the money. That could also mean that they already killed your son…"
She let out a sound of depression and shock as a response. It was awkwardly silent for quite a while, before anybody said another word.
"Don't worry, whatever happens, we'll take the necessary steps to handle the situation. Also…, as long as you believe in him, he'll keep on fighting until the moment you can save him."
His short combination of words boosted her faith and confidence immensely. "You're right! I can't doubt his survival and you abilities. We're going to get through this!"
While back to the genins, the two guys were involuntarily pressured to listening the loud-mouthed kunoichi as they traveled along the path set by the trees.
"So I told myself that I will pass the damn test no matter what. I started to train and study a bit to prep myself up for the exam also. But I got bored with all that gibberish and decided to just go out and play. You know that saying about not overstudying or you'll fail. Well, that's very true. Although you can't consider 5 minutes of doing it really in the status of "over", but guess what? I still passed with a "D". Sure, a low "D", but I still passed. And…" Before she can tell the rest of her story, a hush started by Yin silenced her.
Their movements stopped as the group leader examined the trees in front of him. "That's a red marker. Take out the map, Xin," he commanded.
Xin hesitantly reached into his pouch and pulled out the map. His hands were shaky, due to them being so near to a possible deadly trap, causing him to drop it. Tsuzuku leaped over to Xin's side to catch the map. Then she flipped and clinged her legs to a nearby branch to prevent her from hitting the floor. She opened up the map and read it upside-down, while she was upside-down herself.
"Very interesting…, what am I looking at here?" she asked dumbfoundedly.
"Apparently, a map of "Ahonok"… Pass it over here." She tossed it over and he caught it swiftly with one hand.
"It seems we're really near to the enemy territory now, so it makes sense that there would be some traps for security reasons…"
"Finally, we're here! Let's go!" she said excitedly.
"Wait! Shikamaru-sensei said that we should avoid all possible traps at all cost. We should go around it," stated Xin in a worried tone.
"But Shikamaru-sensei got through here fine, right? We'll just waste time by going the long way. What if he needs us? What if he's suddenly ambushed and needs back-up? What if he's there waiting for the rest of Team 14 to save the day, and we're going all the way around to reach him? I'm going straight in!" she said as she stood straight back up on the branch again. She was about to leap forward, but Yin put his hand on her shoulder to momentarily stop her to discuss further.
"I'm the leader, and I say Yin's right. Shikamaru was able to get through, because he's capable of scanning the possible things to activate a trap and avoid it. On our side though, we're not even sure where the trap lies and that's coming from a person who's intends on becoming a specialist on this field. We can never be too sure going through a trap with our level of experience..."
"Leader, Leader… stop rubbing it in my face, will ya? Just because you were lucky in picking a random number doesn't mean anything! Stop being so full of yourself," she argued in an agitated tone.
"If you can't deal with the fact that I' am the one giving orders here, then leave! Wait, you know what? I'm ordering you to be dismissed!"
"You can't do that!"
"I'm afraid I can. Report to me when I get back from the mission," Yin responded in a cold-hearted manner.
Tsuzuku showed an expression of rage, and she was about to get really violent on him. Xin jumped inbetween to mediate the situation.
"Guys, we're on a mission here! We can't just side-track and start fighing among ourselves. It will reduce the success rate of our mission if we continue on like this. Plus, we're friends, right?"
There was an intense silence afterwards for a moment before anyone of them replied. "I'm sorry…," apologized Tsuzuku reluctantly.
"Yeah, whatever… Let's just move on. Shikamaru-sensei is one of the smartest shinobi I know. He can take care of himself. We can't help him at all if we're caught in a trap or get ourselves killed. Agree?"
Xin nodded cheerfully as Tsuzuku finally agreed with him, although not very willing.
It took a while to go around the trap without accidently activating it, but they eventually did it and got back on path.
"We should be getting closer to the shelter. Xin, watch the map and Tsuzuku look out for any other marks on the trees," he ordered as they advanced.
A couple of minutes later, Tsuzuku shouted, "Found the black marking on that tree over there." She pointed to the tree ahead of them, a little bit to the left of them.
All three stopped on the same branch of that tree as Yin pulled out the binoculars.
"You see them?" Tsuzuku asked impatiently.
"I see the horse carriage right in front of a cabin. That must be where the gang's located along with Shikamaru-sensei and Mrs. Fuugen," he informed them as he continued watching.
"Alright, let's go!" said Tsuzuku joyfully. She couldn't bear the non-action scenes any longer.
Did you forget, Tsuzuku? We're supposed to wait here until we get the signal," remined Xin, who was somewhat glad that that order was made clear. This meant that they wouldn't be exposed to danger unless the situation absolutely calls for it. "But how do we know if Shikamaru-sensei's not hurt?"
"All we can do is hope the best. When five minutes have passed without any type of signal, we will rush in."
"Come on, sensei. Please allow me to kick some ass!" Tsuzuku prayed. Her feet tapped impatiently as she was getting more and more excited every passing second.
"Even if the 5-minute mark reaches, we will still handle the situation with shinobi expertise. And that means stealth and observation before acting. Understand, you two?"
"Hai, hai, hai, hai, hai…," she replied in an exhausted manner.
"Okay, that sounds good," Xin replied as he took the binoculars from Yin and watched the cabin.
A very intense five minutes passed by slowly without any signs on the status of their sensei, and Yin finally issued the order for them to move in. "Let's go…"
"Shikamaru-sensei, are you alright?"
"Sensei, you better not die on us!"
"The mission will be completed no matter what. I hope we'll see you by the time it's done…"