Chapter III: Infitration
Rook was deep in thought as he headed to the training grounds for his teams next mission, he had met with the man Shiro yesterday and was curious as to when and how he would be able to harness this strange sage chakra. Shiro had explained to him the process and had walked rook through how to feel it and, even now if he concentrated he could feel it all around him. The problem was he couldn't touch it with a hundred foot pole if his life depended on it.
Suddenly he felt a presence behind him and to the west. He slowed down by a step and focused on his surroundings but his change must have been noticed because as soon as he stared to focus it disappeared. He wandered if he should try and track whoever it was down but decided against it. Whoever it was they were either of no consequence or they would find him again later and he would deal with that when it happened.
In the meantime he had a mission he was late for and that took precedence. He arrived at the field late and as usual to the disapproving glares of Tobirama sensei and Kenta while Sanntaru just stared at him with some expression on her face that he couldn't begin to fathom, but those eyes of hers really did get to him. They were hypnotic and dangerous at the same time, She was also the only one in the group who kept her ocular jutsu up whenever she could for as long as she could, under the pretense of increasing her stamina with it, and yet he never seemed to get used to it. Tobirama coughed to get everyone's attention, "ok team today we've been issued an A rank mission.
It will be your first but the hokage has shown faith that he thinks you are ready. We will be infiltrating the land of lightning, our mission is to assassinate the head of the villages hidden in the clouds weapons department and master weapon smith kogayama jatyoi who is a Tokubetsu (meaning specialized training such as Ebisu sensei) Jonin himself in the art of weapon's combat. This is going to be an extremely difficult mission and in all honesty I am not sure if all of us will make it back but if we stick to teamwork we have a much better chance of success, that means you Rook. I admire how you train every chance you get but you're a lone gun if I could trust you to follow orders I would assign you to ANBU but as it stand you would be better off in a team where if you do get in over your head, and you will, someone will be there to watch your back, now I am assigning you to pare up with Sanntaru for this mission, Do Not leave her side got it.
I will pare with Kenta and we will infiltrate the village hidden in the clouds separately. Kenta and I will circle around and come from the west while you and Sanntaru will come from the south. We will split up here in the village, when you enter the village and you should get there one to two days before us check out a room at the rockslide hotel in the east market district and wait for us we will find you. Now if everything is understood Kenta and I will leave in one hour you two wait for an hour after that and leave as well, Any questions?
After a short silence Tobirama finished with, "then your dismissed" and with that he motioned to Kenta and the pair walked away. "so what do we do now" Rook asked as he leaned back on the training stump in the middle of the field "why are you asking me" Sanntaru said sarcastically as she glanced down at the ground "I'm not in charge". "well Tobirama didn't put either of us in charge and your more brains while I'm more brawn so that makes you in charge does it not"? "trying to win this argument through your fancy logic is not going to work on me" she said as she gave her famous impish smile, combined with her sharingan gave her a devilish appearance that made Rook's stomach do a little summersault.
Damn it did she know she had that kind of effect on him he thought, then noticed that this was the first time he had felt like this. When did this start happening he wondered to himself. Five years on the same team and he had never given her a second thought even through their chunnin exams and that time they got trapped in the gorge during their first B rank mission he should have noticed this by now. Then again the logical part of his brain kicked in and told him, they were both sixteen things like this happened your mind stops focusing on one thing and starts including other factors and your hormones just happen to point out one of these factors being girls.
It was at that point that he noticed she was still standing there staring at him expectantly. "Fine, ok lets go grab our gear, but only take our basic tool bag we will probably be inspected upon entering the village so the less tools we have the more likely we will be able to slip past unnoticed". "sounds good, lead the way oh fearless leader" she said with as much sarcasm and a hint of malice as was possible to fit in a sentence. But Rook also detected something else, a challenge? No an aggressiveness that wasn't there before. He would have to think it through later but for now, as much as he hated it, he had been manipulated into leading this duo so he had more important things to ponder such as how he would slip them into the village hidden in the clouds without detection.
Rook shifted uncomfortably as the group moved through the village gate toward the inspection team just inside the village perimeter. They had spent the last three days with a group of refugee's heading for the hidden cloud village. Sanntaru and himself had worn old and scruffy clothing and torn there cloaks while pretending to be a brother and sister who had been orphaned in a raid on one of the outlying border towns. This story being supported by the fact they both were around the same height as well as having jet black hair.
The line moved slowly and they heard the guards questioning those ahead of them. "I'm sorry but unless you have some form of proof that you're from the land of lightning I cant allow you in the city", said the guard as he blocked the path. Sanntaru glanced at rook from under her hood and whispered "what are we supposed to do now dumbass, they're not going to let us in." "just shut up and play it smooth, we can't just back out now or they'll be suspicious we have to at least get turned away while trying to get in".
They stepped forward when it was their turn. The guard looked at them and asked for proof of citizenship to land of lightning. "I'm sorry but our town was attacked by raiders on the southern border sir. I know it's a long shot but is there any way you can let myself and my sister through or even just her as she has been sick with fever for a week now", Rook put as much sincerity as he could into his statement but he could tell by the straight face of the guard that it wasn't going to work.
The guard opened his mouth to turn them away, when Sanntaru smiled and managed a blush while batting her eye's at him and said in as sensual a voice as a sixteen year old could "please sir, It would mean the world to my brother and I". the guards eye's immediately narrowed and his gaze darkened as he swept the surrounding area his hand shooting towered his kunai. Rook immediately started pulling Sanntaru back and quickly said "please forgive my sister her fever must be affecting her mind, I apologize for her rudeness, we will be leaving immediately. Sorry for wasting your time". And with that Rook dragged Sanntaru back towered the boulders lining the pathway to the gate.
"just what the hell was that"? Rook said as soon as they were out of hearing range. "that was me thinking I could flirt my way through while you didn't even try to get in". "No that was you making a fool of yourself by hitting on a married man twice your age", Sanntaru gave him a condescending look "how could you possibly know that he was married smart guy". Rook slammed his palm into his face full force "because he had a wedding band on" he sighed as he slid his hand down past his eyes so he could give her a withering look.
"you're supposed to be the one with the sharingan, that's supposed to mean you can pay attention to details" he whispered dejectedly. "and here I thought I was supposed to be the lazy, inattentive one of the group". "I'm sorry" Sanntaru said as she shuffled her feet and stared at the ground. Rook was shocked at her apology, never once in his time knowing her had she ever been this unsure or apologetic, as these thoughts were crossing his mind he suddenly noticed they were being surrounded.
He quickly assessed the situation as he slightly nudged Sanntaru in the side. "I know" she whispered as she folded her arms under her cloak. "This is bad" rook whispered back "if we use jutsu this close to their sensory field we'll be captured by the cloud village for certain". "Then we keep this to a simple ass kicking I assume?" Sanntaru said as she unhooked her whip from her side. "not that simple, if there ninja themselves we won't be able to beat them without jutsu if they are any sort of competent, let's wait till they approach us first see what they want, we may be able to talk or bluff our way out."
Sanntaru let out an unladylike snort as she said "since when did you ever back down from a fight Rook, I would have expected you to have already rushed in there clones and all swinging your kunai like a wild beast." "hah that was actually my first thought, but I realized you were here and that made me think of the consequences of pulling a stunt like that without Tobirama sensei here to pull our asses out of the fire. That bastard probably did this on purpose just to make me realize that."
"Aww and I always enjoy watching you jump around stealing all the fun." She said it sarcastically, but something about the way she said it made Rook suspicious, it sounded almost as if she meant it. By that time they had separated completely from all bystanders and the group that had them surrounded made themselves known. "well well well what do we have here boys, looks like a couple of kids who got turned away from the city and took a wrong turn, doesn't it?" the rest of the group broke into a sinister laugh.
This is good Rook thought, just average bandits we can probably beat them without using much if any chakra. He could tell by the distinctive 'click' of her whip unsnapping that Sanntaru had come to the same conclusion. " hey look at this girl boys, man what a babe, a little young but how's about you come with us for awhile and grow up a bit, sound good to you babe?" He leaned so close to her that his rank breath hit her like a stone wall. "cause that's sounding really good to me right now girl".
He snickered as the rest of the group chortled and laughed suggestively. In less than a second Rook was standing beside the man kunai at the base of his throat where the collar bone makes a v. "do you want to test how well I can do a tracheotomy standing up with an unsterilized kunai?" Rook whispered as he stood staring at Sanntaro with his back to the man and his arm stretched out and kunai held backwards into the man, so that his body was between the two of them. Sanntaru stood unafraid for herself, she had never been in any danger but was staring back at Rook with questioning eye's.
he couldn't blame her really, he had never felt this dark or protective in front of his team mates before he could only imagine how he looked. And from the frozen statues of bandits around him he could guess it could only be dangerous. A small part of him was reveling in it, I mean come on what sixteen year old wouldn't think it was awesome that he was standing in the middle of a crowd, looking cool and dangerous at the same time.
Sanntaru smiled after a second and said "what, you think your gonna take em all again, ha not a chance" and with that the fight began Sanntaru did a standing flip, landing on rooks shoulders. Using him as a spring board she propelled herself off him and up to a low outcropping of rocks that two bandits were on, and before they could pull their swords she caught the first one with a left uppercut that packed way more power than a sixteen year old girl should ever have.
Dazing him while she flexed her forearm and her whip snaked its way around the second mans neck she turned to the first and pulled the whip over her shoulder leaning into the first man as he charged her sending the second one flying straight into him. They collided into each other with a crack tumbling off the cliff either dazed or unconscious. She glanced down at rook who had taken his shot and cut the leaders throat. And was now fighting three of the bandits in a pool of blood over the dead body of their leader. As she watched her mouth dropped in shock.
Rook danced around the three men as he thought things out these guys were good and obviously the biggest but more importantly the most accomplished of their group, he wasn't so sure he could take them down on his own. Well damn, he thought, guess ill have to risk it so I can help Sanntaru. He jumped back as two more joined the group and started circling around him, his hands waved in a flash as he called out "Blood style Gen-jutsu: Crimson Mist.
everyone was shocked when the 'by that time' large pool of blood on the ground started evaporating into a mist around them, blinding and mildly paralyzing anyone caught inside. Rooks eyes spider webbed across as he accessed his hematagan and he jumped into the red mist completely unaffected by it. Sanntaru had seen his ocular jutsu countless times, such as when he used it to break that iron gate blocking the entrance to karatoga mansion where rouge ninja were holding the princess to the land of fire for ransom.
Or when he consistently breaks down full tree's for firewood with a single punch. Though it didn't have the utility that the sharingan or byakugan had, it did find the weak points in absolutely everything. And the most annoying part was she couldn't seem to break down how it was used with her sharingan or this jutsu for that matter, it had to be some form of kekkei genkai related to his ocular jutsu.
As Rook walked out of the mist she had just finished the other four bandits surrounding the area. "first off what happened to that 'no jutsu this close to the village Sanntaro' bullshit you said earlier". She glared at him while Rook looked away face red with embarrassment. "Sorry but I did take down five of them at once while you got to take them on two at a time". "Wait you only took down six, and I only took down six…but there were thirteen weren't there?" Sanntaro said as she searched around for the last bandit.
"Damn it your right" Rook said as he started searching as well they heard them coming a second to late, as the missing bandit and two cloud village guards rounded the corner. Immediately they were on alert as they called out for Rook and Sanntaru to surrender. "shit, nowhere to run we'll have to beat them fast and book it before reinforcements come. He glanced at Sanntaru and nodded his head, she understood immediately and stared walking away from him and he the other way.
when they got the guards standing back to back in between them, Sanntaru let loose with the Uchiha signature fireball jutsu, at the same time Rook sent his wind cannon jutsu. Their jutsu collided with the guards in the middle creating an inferno ball as white hot as a nova burning the three men down to the bone. "ok that was definitely noticed by the village" Rook said as they bolted from the scene. "well who's bright idea was it to use ninjutsu in the first place, God your such a asshole." Sanntaru said while they jumped from tree to tree as Rook chuckled ruefully.
"so what was the second part of your argument earlier" Rook called out as they ran. "Yeah I want to know what that blood jutsu was all about, I've never seen it before and I'm mad about being kept out of the loop on things" Sanntaru called out in an annoyed voice. "Well I'm sure you have jutsu I haven't seen before in reserve for a special occasion" Rook threw her a wicked grin. Sanntaru turned red as she looked away and bolted ahead of him. Rook laughed as his grin grew wider and he speed up as well. They both knew she didn't have anything new that he didn't know about. And the fact he did got to her, as complicated as their relationship had become just since the start of this mission he enjoyed the fact he still had the advantage in something.
They circled around to the west near the coastline of the stone village before they stopped for the night. They pitched their tents and caught some local wildlife to cook on their fire all in silence. Halfway through there meal Rook stopped mid bite and looked Sanntaru in the eye's. "I'm sorry about earlier today, I shouldn't have used jutsu so close to the village and I apologize for hiding the fact that I have techniques that not even Tobirama sensei know about."
"why are you apologizing for that now, its fine Rook I just over reacted. In all honesty it's my fault for trying to flirt with the guard." She stopped talking to stare as Rook was bent over laughing. "Find something funny Rook?" she said with enough venom to kill him if it hadn't made him laugh harder. "I'm sorry I'm sorry" Rook gasped as she went for her whip, I just can't help it when I remember the poor guard as you shamelessly went at him. What would you have done if he hadn't had strong self control?"
"the hell are you talking about, my acting was horrible" as she put her whip away, Rook laughed again "are you kidding, I pulled you away cause you were drawing the attention of every guy in line, damn I'm glad you weren't directing that at me, I'm not nearly that strong. Rook clamped his mouth shut as he realized he had said too much. She was staring extremely intently at him now with her sharingan, measuring every facial and physical reaction he made.
After a moment she grinned the same wicked grin he had given her earlier. Sanntaru leaned forward toward him slowly batting her eyelashes, turning her smile from a wicked one too a sultry coy smile that had Rooks heart running overtime to keep from bottoming out. Damn she had him right where she wanted and there was nothing he could do.
He finally managed to croak out "what are you doing Sanntaru, your freaking me out, it was just a figure of speech is all". Her features dropped slightly and she sat back returning to normal "sorry about that, just thought I would try practicing it a little. well I think I'm headed to bed" she said a little too quickly as she got up and went straight to her tent before Rook could say anything. Damn, was all Rook could think. He sure screwed that up, hell he didn't even know if she liked him. For all he knew she had been seriously practicing or just screwing with him. Either way he really needed some sleep, he waved the signs and created a shadow clone to keep watch and headed to his sleeping bag, his mind racing with thoughts of Sanntaru as he tossed and turned trying to fall asleep, until finally he drifted away for the night.