Disclaimer: No, I don't own Naruto. If I did the plot would be quite different and I wouldn't be writing this for free.
Chapter 16: Learning the ropes
Naruto looked at the forest behind the fence. It looked deceptively peaceful, but the multitude of animal sounds told a very different tale to someone with his experience. He had never personally entered this specific forest, but of course he knew of its reputation. The Forest of Death was famous, or rather infamous, for its dangerous flora and fauna. The specific creatures could be found in other places as well, but only here were all of them gathered together in one place.
After giving her genin some time to examine the Forest of Death Anko continued speaking. "This forest has a diameter of twenty kilometers and is filled with plants and animals that are a mix of gigantic and poisonous, with both traits existing in the same creature more often than not. In the center of the forest stands a tower that is currently empty, but is frequently used for the chunin exams in one way or another. The reason why we're here is that this forest will be the place for my special survival test."
"S-Suvival test?" Hinata asked.
The jonin nodded. "Yes, survival. If you decide to take the test you will have to venture around one kilometer into the forest and then circle around either clockwise or counterclockwise until you are back at the starting point. Then you may leave the forest. I will be watching you the entire time but don't provide help until asked or you are in mortal danger. Of course, there are a few conditions." Anko ticked off her fingers. "One, if you come closer than two hundred meters to the edge of the forest you fail the test. Two, if you venture further than two kilometers into the forest you will fail the test. Three, if any of you are incapacitated you fail the test. Four, if you ask for my help you fail the test. Five, if I'm forced to help you fail the test. The objective is for me to see that you can survive on your own in unfamiliar territory and remain in fighting condition."
"I guess we aren't allowed to return to the village to retrieve more gear?" Naruto asked.
Anko shook her head. "Nope. I want to see how you deal with a hostile environment when you weren't able to specifically prepare for it. If you pass this test I will allow you to take C-rank missions. Should you fail or refuse to take the test today we will continue training for another week. Of course, I will make your tasks more difficult each time."
Naruto shared a look with Choji and Hinata. Both nodded, and he turned back to facing their teacher. "We want to take the test today."
"Good. I have a few recommendations for you. You don't have to heed my advice; that's your own decision. While it makes the way you have to go significantly shorter the deeper you go into the forest it makes an encounter with the more dangerous inhabitants that prefer to keep to the deep forest more likely. There is no time limit, and some dangers can pop up unexpectedly. It might not be the best solution to use the usual shinobi travel lane. The path starting at this entrance leads to an optimal starting point." Anko waved her hand. "Now go."
She didn't need to say it twice; Naruto and his teammates immediately started into the forest. When he looked back for a moment their sensei was gone. Immediately behind the gate a winding path began, leading deeper into the forest. It was surprisingly free of vegetation, but that didn't say much about its security.
"I'll take the lead for this. We go in slow and careful. Hinata, do a sweep of our vicinity in regular intervals. Choji, be prepared for engaging threats at every time." Naruto commanded. Despite her byakugan it wouldn't be easy for Hinata to keep up a sufficiently tight surveillance zone. At least, not without revealing her improved byakugan, and they weren't ready for that. Due to the dense vegetation she would have to steadily shift her viewpoint, making it difficult to cover every possible avenue of attack. Her 360 degree view simply didn't have the range and detail resolution necessary for this. If she would only have been looking for humans it would have been easy, but there were too many possible shapes to consider.
They advanced at a brisk walking pace until a scent brought by a shift of the wind caught Naruto's attention. "Careful now, something has been killed recently in front of us."
A few steps later the source of the now pungent stench came into view. In life it had been a giant bear with a shoulder height of approximately four meters, but now it was only an empty, fur-covered carcass acting as a large roadblock. Most of its flesh had been eaten from the inside out; starting from what Naruto surmised was a wound from a predator attack. It must have disemboweled the bear judging from the trail of blood and intestine pieces leading into the woods to the right side of the road. His hearing picked up some faint noises.
"Keep your distance. Something is still in there." he informed his friends.
Carefully stepping around, the group caught a glimpse of something like a leech the size of their forearms feasting on the remaining scraps of flesh. Nothing else happened until the path ended abruptly in a small clearing.
Naruto held up his hand. "Okay, we stop here for a moment to plan things out, but stay vigilant."
The three huddled together, but each of them carefully watched a section of the surrounding woods for threats.
"Okay, first priority are supplies. We don't know which of the plants here are poisonous, making it unwise to simply forage. Whose emergency supplies are the oldest? I just recently replaced mine." Naruto asked.
"Mine are a-about three months old; I planned on replacing them soon." Hinata answered.
"I have created my scroll and sealed the supplies about one month ago." Choji said.
It was an unfortunate fact that the storage seals created by them broke down after a few months, and the times you could use them to seal and unseal something was strictly limited, which each use shortening the remaining time span considerably. Not that most purchasable storage scrolls were better, in fact many were worse. The few scrolls of higher quality created by more advanced seal specialists were so expensive it simply wasn't justifiable for them to use their limited budget to buy them. All of them could make storage seals of their own, and while the special supplies for creating seals weren't cheap it was vastly cheaper than purchasing finished scrolls of lower quality than they made themselves every few months. All members of the circle carried a small scroll in a watertight container with some emergency supplies on their persons at all times.
"Which way do we go?"
Naruto shrugged. "It doesn't matter. One way is as good as the other. I think it best we keep our current distance to the center of the forest. If we go in deeper it shortens the distance we have to cover by a few kilometers, but if what Anko-sensei said is correct the increased danger would slow us down and make the journey more strenuous overall."
Choji nodded. "You're right. I don't want for us to accidentally get to close to the center of the forest and fail the test."
"I v-vote for keeping to the middle distance; it is a c-compromise between distance and danger." Hinata voiced her opinion.
Choji looked thoughtful for a moment. "The usual travel mode for shinobi in woods is tree hopping, but Anko-sensei specifically warned us against that. What do you think, Naruto?"
"We should keep to the ground in my opinion. The trees look like habitats of their own, and we might not notice a danger early enough to be able to stop in time if we simply jump from tree to tree. I say we walk on the ground."
"Standard procedures for m-moving in hostile territory?" Hinata asked.
Naruto nodded. "Yeah, we're doing this slow and careful. Any other questions?" Nobody spoke up. "Then off we go."
It was quite an interesting experience for Naruto. In the world of his parents he had explored very different environments, but it was a whole new experience to venture into new territory in the real world. While his parents had created a whole slew of different terrains they didn't know much about the actual flora and fauna of the Elemental Nations outside of Konoha's vicinity. That was understandable for his father; after all he was a stranger to this world. He had wondered about his mother's lack of knowledge until she told him the answer directly. It had been obvious in hindsight. Youko had been the Kyuubi, and for a mountain sized demon fox most plants and animals were only 'crunchy or squishy things under my paws'. Oh, it had gathered bits and pieces of observations and knowledge, but they weren't especially helpful if one wanted to know if this plant or that animal was poisonous, harmless, useful or otherwise dangerous to humans. This journey was an interesting challenge for Naruto's adaptability and skills as a ranger.
An hour and a few kilometers later Hinata suddenly spoke up. "We have a t-tiger quickly approaching from behind. It has our scent."
Naruto had only a moment to make a decision. 'If we run there is no telling into what other dangers we will run into. Better to face the threat we know.'
"Battle positions, we fight it here!" he yelled while drawing one of his throwing knives.
A few seconds later the largest tiger any of them had ever seen broke through the foliage. It stopped a moment to get its bearings, but that moment was enough for Naruto to plant his knife directly into the tigers left eye. Roaring in pain, the beast decided on Naruto as his first victim and bounded towards him. A second knife was launched, but an unexpected movement caused it to only scrape the tiger's skull without doing much damage.
Hinata used the now blinded side of the tiger to quickly dart in and disable a hind leg with a few Juuken strikes before darting away again. When the tiger was about to make the next bound towards Naruto its leg gave way and it crashed to the ground. Before it could regain its bearings Naruto threw his third knife at the now largely immobile target. This time his aim was spot on, and the now completely blinded tiger trashed wildly.
Choji came from behind and threw a kunai with an exploding tag at the animal. It impacted close to the spine directly behind the tiger's skull. A small boom later the beast was dead with its head almost completely severed.
"The pelt isn't worth much, and I don't know if the flesh is poisonous. Considering that most of the things here are and that the tiger has to eat something I would guess yes." Naruto announced the results of his examination. "These are nasty buggers. With their thick hide and large body mass almost all our weapons are useless, and I don't want to get close to these things' claws or teeth. I don't want to risk injury to any of us. If we encounter another one exploding tags are our best bet."
Choji looked mournfully at the dented remains of the kunai he had used to deliver the tag to the target. "That will be hard on our kunai and tag reserves."
Naruto shrugged. "It can't be helped. I can take out the eyes, but they make a damned small target and it doesn't kill them. Now, let's go before the smell of blood attracts more predators."
The next few kilometers of their journey were largely uneventful. Occasionally they climbed a tree via tree walking to make sure they were on the right path, but Naruto's sense of direction proved sufficient. Several times they had to take detours to avoid animals or plants that Naruto considered suspicious, but all in all it was a walk in the park. The afternoon turned into evening, and they began to look for a place to spend the night. Something was bothering Naruto when they entered a more heavily vegetated stretch of the forest, but he wasn't able to tell what. Suddenly his eyes widened in realization. 'The time of the year, color and size are wrong but these plants look just like…'
"STOP!" Naruto yelled. He and Hinata managed to stop immediately, but Choji was already committed to another step. It was one too many. With a dull thud several of the plants that had belatedly roused Naruto's suspicion burst, sending thorns everywhere. He and Choji took some hits, but both of them managed to protect their faces. Hinata was standing on the opposite side and was covered by their bodies. Immediately a burning sensation started where the thorns had managed to penetrate his clothing.
'That's it. Enough with fitting in. I'll never again go on a mission without my leather clothing; the thorns would never have managed to penetrate that.'
Backtracking carefully they managed to clear the field without triggering any further bursts. They stopped at a small rivulet they had crossed just moments before.
"What was that?" Choji asked while plucking thorns out of his arms and legs. He wore several normally not visible additional layers of clothing acting as a form of armor, and it had protected his torso. Naruto wasn't so lucky.
"Exploding mushrooms. The normal variant is much smaller and only spreads clouds of spores when they become ripe. Sorry about not warning you earlier. Not only is the color and size different, but they normally don't become dangerous for another two months." Naruto explained, frowning as he examined one of the small wounds. The burning sensation had faded and was being replaced by a numb feeling. It had stopped spreading, but he wasn't exactly a typical boy. "Hinata, better examine Choji's wounds. I think the thorns are poisonous. I'm fine for now and will keep watch."
Hinata nodded and approached Choji. Naruto sent them occasional glances while watching for threats. All members of their circle could use a basic healing technique and apply first aid, but Hinata was much better. First she ran a diagnostic jutsu before she switched to a poison extraction technique. It was one of the most advanced she had managed to learn and was normally considered a mid-level technique for chunin medics. After she had removed the poison she closed the small wounds with a more basic healing technique.
Five minutes later she was finished with patching Choji up and used the diagnostic jutsu on Naruto. "The p-poison is already fading; I don't need to do anything further than heal the f-flesh wounds."
A few minutes later they were on their way again. It was already growing dark when they found a place acceptable as a camping site. The ground was rocky and dry, but a small stream was only two dozen meters away. Overhanging rocks created a sheltered place. Sleeping on the hard ground would be uncomfortable, but it was better than the alternatives. They didn't have camping gear with them, after all. After gathering some firewood Hinata unsealed her supplies. They consisted of a large canteen filled with water, enough provisions to last them three days and some medical supplies. It wasn't much, but even so it was at the limit of the storage seal used.
Naruto examined his teammates. Hinata was relatively fresh, but Choji had obviously trouble staying awake. 'That isn't surprising. The poison weakened him, and the technique Hinata used is quick but taxing on the patient's body. Additionally, Hinata got to train with mom and dad in wilderness survival. Choji knows the essentials from the academy and our studies, but he doesn't have the practical experience.'
"Okay, Choji, you will get to sleep the entire night." Naruto raised a hand to forestall the boy's protest. "No, don't argue. I can see the day was taxing on you, and you need to be fresh tomorrow. Hinata, you can have either first or third watch. I don't need much sleep and will cover the other two."
Hinata nodded. "I take the third. How far have w-we come today?"
"A little more than a third of the way by my estimate. Tomorrow it will become easier because we have become familiar with the environment and can move more quickly. I think we will be finished by tomorrow afternoon."
Sometime later Naruto was sitting with his back to the fire and watching their surroundings. Hinata and Choji were fast asleep, and he hoped the night would be peaceful. He wondered what their sensei was doing. One thing was certain, she was somewhere nearby. During the entire day and even now he would occasionally detect faint traces of her scent. It wasn't enough for him to determine her position, but it was certainly enough to assure him that they were watched.
'We've certainly shown her enough skills to become curious. I see a discussion about our skills approaching.'
Mizuki had reported their conversation, after which it had only been a matter of time. This survival exercise would show her quite a lot, meaning the time for secrecy was coming to an end, at least in regards to their sensei.
Anko watched her pupils attentively while hidden under an advanced concealment jutsu. It had cost her a pretty penny and several large favors to obtain, but it was definitely worth the cost. Before today she hadn't been sure, but apparently it was even able to deceive Hinata's byakugan to a degree, especially with all the additional cover available. Interestingly, Naruto seemed to be able to detect her presence somehow from time to time, even if he obviously wasn't sure of her hiding spot. She had learned a great deal about her pupils in the past day and the last few hours, even if she had to refrain from sleeping to keep her watch over her genin. Two or three days without sleep were manageable.
They all had carried emergency packages in hidden sealing scrolls, which hadn't really surprised Anko. Preparation was emphasized at the academy, even if most young genin had to learn it the hard way. What had surprised her despite Mizuki's information was how proficient Naruto was as a ranger. It was clear to her that the boy wasn't familiar with this specific environment, but he took to it like a natural. Hinata and Choji were clearly following his lead. Hinata seemed to have some experience of her own, but Choji was another matter. It seemed as if he knew the theory, but lacked some practical experience.
'Hinata did say she liked wandering in the woods. That would explain her greater proficiency, and if I were in her shoes I would try to get away from the Hyuuga compound as often as I could, too. With two competent teammates Choji will learn quickly.'
The tiger yesterday had been a surprise, normally they didn't stray that far out of the deep woods, but the kids handled him masterfully. At first Anko had thought she would have to intervene with the paralyzing exploding mushrooms; after all the boys had been hit by enough thorns to be paralyzed for a day or two, thereby failing the test. Hinata's knowledge of medical jutsu proved to be sufficient for the task, though. If she wasn't mistaken that had been a chunin-level technique. Anko wasn't a medic-nin herself, but she had learned quite a lot of medical knowledge to help with her work in the Torture & Interrogation department. It made torturing people much easier and safer, after all. The information that Naruto was naturally resistant against poisons had been carefully filed away, too.
Currently the kids were fighting a group of giant ants that they hadn't been able to evade without either stirring up a large colony of giant tree leeches or walking into a den of several giant bears. The ants reached waist-high and were relatively nasty to fight because of their immunity against sharp weapons, but Choji was just the right genin to deal with that problem. After using one of his family's jutsu to enlarge his feet and legs he was simply stomping the insects into the ground while Naruto and Hinata followed him closely and guarded against attacks from behind and the sides.
It would likely be the last fight; her genin had almost completed their journey and were angling towards the path out of the forest. Anko cocked her head thoughtfully when she saw Naruto and Hinata making hand seals after launching several exploding tags. The ants had mustered one last massive assault from all directions, and obviously the genin thought that simple taijutsu and the tags wouldn't be enough.
"Earth Release: Sticky Mud Trap"
That was Naruto using a D-rank earth technique to turn a semicircle of the ground behind them into extraordinarily sticky mud. It was devastatingly effective against their insect opponents. The affected area wasn't especially large or the mud especially deep or sticky. That would have required one of the higher-ranked, more powerful versions of the technique, but for their current situation it was perfectly sufficient.
"Fire Release: Small Fire Stream"
Anko eyes widened when she saw Hinata using a D-rank fire technique to torch the trapped enemies. Hyuuga never used elemental techniques to her knowledge because 'it was against the tradition of the clan'. Come to think of it, neither did they use medical techniques.
'It seems little Hinata-chan is even more un-Hyuuga-like than anyone in her clan suspects. It's such a pity she has to keep her talents secret; all her father can think of is Juuken, Juuken, Juuken.'
With a resounding boom the exploding tags ignited, taking neatly care of most of the creatures not trapped in the burning mud. When the smoke cleared Anko could see that Choji had squashed all enemies in front of the group. There were a few survivors behind and to the sides, but they scurried away as quickly as they could.
A few minutes later her genin reached the forest path, but they kept their guard up the entire time. It was a very good behavior to learn; there had been more than one group of shinobi which had been taken down shortly before they reached safety because they thought nothing could happen to them now.
Anko dropped her concealment technique and used a shunshin to clear the rest of the forest and await her genin outside the gate. While astoundingly low-cost in upkeep for what it did, raising her concealment technique in the first place was very expensive, and the costs added up over time. She was on the high end for jonin if one considered chakra reserves, but after more than twenty-four hours she was running low. If it had become necessary she could have taken a soldier pill, but she rather tried to avoid that. If you became too dependent on them it could easily lead to overestimating one's available chakra, and that would be quite bad if no pills were left.
A few minutes later her three genin left the forest and she waved them towards her. "Welcome back, my students. You have passed my test, and have a right to be proud of your performance. Normally genin are only allowed in there without oversight when they try to become chunin."
After cheering for a moment Naruto spoke up. "I thought I caught your scent several times in the forest, sensei. Did you observe us continuously?"
"We will speak about that later, among other things. You have the rest of today and tomorrow morning free. Meet me for lunch at our usual restaurant; we will handle the mission report and my critique of your performance then. The day after tomorrow we will begin your first C-rank mission. For now you can relax."
Team 11 stayed together until they entered Konoha. After she saw her genin off Anko returned to her home. Twenty minutes later she had showered and was holding a cup of hot tea in her hands. There were still a few things to do before she could turn in to catch some well deserved rest. Namely working on her team's profile so she could choose appropriate C-rank missions.
'They are just as good as Mizuki told me; all they lack is some practical experience until they can be considered fully competent genin. Originally I expected to need two or three months to get them ready for C-ranks, but they are already much further along. Their performance in the woods was better than most of the chunin wannabes in the exams two years ago. That means I can add traversing difficult terrain and tracking to the team's skills. Funny, I expected them to be primarily a balanced combat squad.'
The children could probably take most challenges she could throw at them, but their first C-rank should be something easy. It was better to err on the side of caution, after all.
'I have to check what is available, but I can think of several possibilities. Not an escort mission though, I always hated these. Perhaps a delivery mission.'
Anko nodded to herself. Yes, a low-end delivery mission through difficult, uninhabited terrain sounded good. Perhaps she could get one of the major problems of their professional development out of the way at the same time.
"Well, how was it? I've always wondered if the name Forest of Death was really justified." Yakumo asked the blond boy whose head currently rested in her lap.
"Surprisingly difficult. I doubt anyone else from our class could have made it so soon after graduation. I'm really good at wilderness survival, and even I had some nasty surprises. You, Ino or Shino would have succeeded, but with more difficulty. It's no wonder that normally only chunin and above are allowed in there. We really need more real-life practice of our skills; our knowledge of the principals and theory is far in advance of that." Naruto answered without opening his eyes. He continued with giving her the high points of their journey into the forest before falling into silence.
Yakumo had to agree with her boyfriend. Now that she was on a team with Shinji she could really see how far they had advanced. On the other hand, the comparison with Kurenai showed how far they still had to go. Their distribution of skills was really abnormal for fresh genin, with some of their abilities already on the level of chunin while they weren't much better than other graduates in other fields. There had simply been no way for them to gain the necessary practical experience before their graduation.
She let out a small sigh. It had been far easier to coordinate their schedules when they were still academy students. Now they never really knew what their senseis planned for the day. Team 11's little sojourn in the Forest of Death was a prime example. Normally Naruto visited her house each evening, but yesterday he hadn't turned up because of their sensei's little surprise exercise. The coordinated work of the circle rested for the moment until they became more used to things, but she still didn't appreciate that her quality time with Naruto was cut short. It would probably become worse before it got better, though.
Naruto broke the comfortable silence that had enveloped them. "We will in all likelihood leave the village for our first C-rank the day after tomorrow. I don't know how long we will be gone."
Yakumo sighed again. "I wish it would be the same for us, but it will probably still be weeks until we are ready for that. Shinji really is a typical product of the academy, in other words completely unprepared."
"How does he hold up anyway? You hadn't much good to say about him."
A third sigh emerged from her lips. "It isn't like he isn't a relatively nice guy, but I have to wonder sometimes if he is short a spine. Still, he has improved a great deal already with Kurenai-sensei's and our help. Although I worry if he has what it takes to be a successful shinobi. When we were allowed to use jutsu in a recent spar he simply curled up for almost half an hour after I used one of my genjutsu on him. Kurenai-sensei was not amused."
Naruto's eyes snapped open. "How bad was it? Nothing permanent, I hope."
Yakumo rolled her eyes. "What do you take me for? It was a simple String Bean Binding technique. All of you could take that without batting an eye. Even Kurenai-sensei had to concede that it was well within the scope of the rules and Shinji's reaction was simply extreme. I don't want to know what would have happened if I had used something truly disturbing. Today he tried to keep Ino between us the entire time even after I apologized. The funny thing is she could probably do worse things to him than I could."
Hinata had once joked that with her combat-applied medical skills she would rape their enemies' bodies while Ino raped their minds and Yakumo raped their senses. It was true in most ways. Her genjutsu mostly affected the victim's senses and only indirectly the mind while Ino could have direct access if she wanted. Yakumo was reasonably sure that all three of them could break most people's sanity in their own personal ways if they really tried. Yakumo knew the others of their circle thought she had a scary mind, but she herself sometimes thought that Hinata could be worse. Ino had been relatively harmless at first, but ever after she had met some old Yamanaka willing to teach her she had steadily caught up. The blond girl was tight-lipped about it, but recently she had confided Yakumo and Hinata in. To think that she now had the complete memories of one of the most famous Yamanaka kunoichi of the last two hundred years in her head…
A yawn from her boyfriend interrupted her thoughts. "Sorry, Yakumo-chan. The day was more stressful than I thought. It's very different to be responsible for two other people's safety instead of simply my own. I don't think I will be good company until I get to sleep in my own bed."
"It's okay; I'm sure it will be the same for me at some point in the future."
When Naruto left her house she gave him a kiss on the cheek as a goodbye. Recently she had begun considering taking things a bit farther. Naruto had made it clear that it was solely she who would set the pace of their relationship. Her face colored slightly when she imaged kissing him on the lips. Perhaps she would do it when he returned from his C-rank mission.
The meal had been pleasant, Anko decided. She really liked that restaurant run by some non-shinobi members of the Akimichi clan, not the least because two of her three genin could out-eat her by a large margin. Thanks to Choji they got a not inconsiderable discount, and the variety and quality of the dishes was very good. The Akimichi simply loved their food.
They had just returned to training ground number thirty-six after their meal. Anko had now booked the training ground permanently for her team. While the Forest of Death was ideal for training in a hostile environment, it didn't lend itself well to other types of training. As soon as they had made themselves comfortable, Anko began speaking.
"It is time for us to talk seriously about our little survival exercise and some other things. Specifically, I…"
Naruto held up his hand and interrupted her. "Sorry Anko-sensei, could we go about how to set up a camp in swampy terrain again? I think I've forgotten what you told us yesterday."
Anko was taken aback for a second. None of her genin normally interrupted her, and especially not with such an inane request. Naruto knew how to properly set a camp, and she most certainly had not spoken to him about that topic yesterday. A suspicion bloomed inside of her, and she noticed how his facial expression had shifted into a happy smile with some dumb and confused undertones. That meant something was afoot.
'Okay, I can play along for a while. He has earned that much trust.'
She began explaining the topic on a level of detail she felt appropriate for a reminder, with her genin faking attention. After about five minutes the blond boy interrupted her a second time. "Sorry about that, sensei, but the Hokage was spying on us. I would prefer to keep him in the dark about some things."
"The Hokage spied on us? How do you know that?" Anko asked incredulously.
Before he answered he sent a glance to Hinata who nodded and activated her byakugan for a moment and seemed to scan the surrounding area. Only after she gave the all-clear Naruto continued speaking.
"I've kept it secret, but I can feel my own chakra very precisely. In the same vein, if foreign chakra interacts with mine I notice it immediately. The crystal orb the Hokage uses for his spying technique establishes a chakra connection to its target. There is no sound, but I know the old man can read lips. Oh, I'm not a sensor. If it is not interacting with me I have serious problems with detecting even powerful techniques at any sort of distance."
It took Anko a moment to parse everything, but she had experienced stranger stuff. That was quite an interesting ability Naruto had there, she had to admit. She really didn't like the Hokage spying on her, though. On the positive side the time for secrets was apparently over.
Anko took a deep breath. "Okay, I accept that for now. I can guess that you are now ready to let me in on your secrets. From talking with your teacher Mizuki I know some things, but I would appreciate hearing it from you. I don't give you any promises if I can keep things secrets, especially if it veers into illegal territory. What I can promise you that I will try to act in your best interest."
Naruto nodded. "Fair enough. It's best if I start at the beginning. You already know I know about my tenant. It led to a whole lot of discrimination earlier in my life, but I managed to cope. My first year at the academy was especially bad; no one wanted to talk to me, my education was outright sabotaged and I had to learn most things in self-study." He gestured to the Akimichi boy. "One day I met Choji in the park and befriended him. I deliberately failed the advancement tests to change class. There I met Yakumo-chan, and together we began training in earnest. Her uncle wanted her to give her best, and other than me nobody took their training really seriously. After Choji joined the academy half a year later we included him as good as we could. When Yakumo's uncle fell ill she stopped attending the academy, and I didn't want to be alone in the class so I failed the tests a second time, landing me in Choji's class at the beginning of second year. Shino and later Hinata joined the ranks of my friends during that time, and we continued following my own demanding training schedule and studied ahead. Well, I just found the entire academy education lacking. Someday in third year I overheard Mizuki-sensei talking to himself and approached him, and from there things took on a life of their own. Ino joined us somewhere along the way. Before I explain anything further I have a question for you. Please answer it truthfully. What do you think of Konoha's status, and what of the Hokage?"
That was a difficult question. Anko was tempted at first to answer with the usual drivel, but thought better of it. Homura and she had the long-term goal of making her team into the nucleus of Konoha's renaissance. If she answered honestly this might be the first step in that direction. Or it could bring everything crashing down. She decided to take the risk.
"Konoha is in decline. My mentor Homura Mitokado is well aware of that, but it seems as if no one else is. During the last years I have seen ample evidence of it, but it's almost impossible to convince people of that. The idea that Konoha is the strongest village and that it will remain so is firmly rooted in everybody's mind. I have been working on my friend Kurenai for more than a year and only now is she slowly coming around. I suspect the skill difference between your two friends and Shinji plays no small part in it." She sighed before continuing. "As for the Hokage, he is directly or indirectly responsible for a lot of the problems and doesn't do anything to correct them. I don't think that he truly recognizes the situation for what it is, and he closes his eyes to anything that indicates otherwise. He has lost my respect and trust."
Her pupils didn't seem surprised. Choji was the one to break the silence. "That is close to our view as well. Before our fourth year we collected all the information about Konoha we could. We were appalled with what we found out."
He continued with giving her an overview about their findings and their decision to do something about it. Sometimes Naruto or Hinata took over parts of the explanation, but most things Anko already knew. She hadn't known the details about Konoha's erstwhile external defenses, but it fit into the overall picture. The one truly shocking thing was the Hyuuga situation. They had always believed that the Hyuuga clan would be a main factor in any possible recovery.
"How certain are you about that?" she asked.
Hinata answered that question. "Completely. My m-medical skills are good enough to recognize the symptoms. I've studied h-historical medical t-texts, and once a clan reaches the Hyuuga's current state there are p-perhaps two to four generations left. They only close their eyes to it and w-will continue to do so no matter what."
After a few seconds of silence Naruto brought up the next point. "Then there is the behavior of the Hokage regarding me and my tenant. I have no proof, but my entire upbringing reeks of manipulation with the goal of me developing an emotional dependency towards the Old Man. When we talked last after the graduation he played the friendly grandfather type as always, but he didn't do anything to truly help me earlier. How much trouble would it have been to ask someone to tutor me? Keeping me ignorant about the Kyuubi is simply criminally negligent, if I hadn't found out on my own I would still wonder why so many people don't like me. Not to mention what could have happened had I unconsciously tapped into its chakra. I think I could control it to a degree, but I haven't been able to experiment and don't really want to outside of an emergency. Lastly, there is the matter of my parents."
"Your parents?"
"Kushina Uzumaki, the previous jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Yoko and Minato Namikaze, the Yondaime Hokage."
Anko sent a glance towards the distant mountain with the stone faces before looking back at Naruto. At first the claim seemed ridiculous, but now that she knew what to look for she saw the resemblance. She remembered the Yondaime, her teacher Orochimaru had often ranted about him, but Kushina was more of an unknown. Anko had some vague memories of a pretty red-headed kunoichi of some repute who was often seen with the Yondaime, but nothing more. Her other two genin hadn't reacted in any way, meaning they already knew and accepted that as the truth.
"Naturally, I'm not especially happy with dear old daddy for what he did to me, but he is beyond my reach. If the village knew it might have defused some of the hate, but the Sandaime decided to keep my heritage secret. There is more, but I'm not quite ready to share it with you." Naruto said before lapsing into silence.
The silence stretched for minutes while Anko contemplated her further course of action. It all seemed logical so far, and she was inclined to believe Naruto about his parentage. She wondered how he found out about that and that his mother had been a demon container as well, but it certainly explained how the Kyuubi had been able to appear so abruptly inside of Konoha's walls. It was pretty much what she expected to happen if a demon containment seal ever failed completely. There had been a similar incident in Suna a few years ago when the Ichibi took over its host, but somehow the Kazekage had managed to subdue the rampaging bijuu while keeping the container intact. All that certainly explained his desire to keep things secret and his dislike of the Sandaime. That the children were aware of many of Konoha's problems was an unexpected boon, but it would factor wonderfully into her plans. She really wished she could talk with Homura about it, but the old man was currently in the capital to negotiate the mission quota for next year.
'We're really lucky Naruto didn't decide to hate Konoha, with his skills that could have led to a catastrophe.'
"For now I will accept that and keep everything you told me secret. Where exactly does that leave us?" Anko finally asked.
"We would appreciate you kept our exact skill level under wraps and stretch our progress over time in your reports. That way you can take the full credit for training us to such heights. We still have much to learn that you can teach us." Naruto shrugged. "Honestly, we can't do anything besides train, become stronger and perhaps make some connections in the next few years. We are at the top end of what genin probably should be after graduation. Well, with the exception of our chakra reserves; I developed some training techniques with Hinata-chan's help that give us an extreme advantage."
"Just continue what you have been doing, sensei. As far as we can tell you are doing an excellent job teaching us." Choji assured her. "We need practical experience; there is only so much we could do while at the academy even with Mizuki-sensei's help."
Anko laughed. "Thanks for the compliment. Now, are you ready to tell me what your true skills are?"
"Well, you see…"
Hinata allowed herself to slowly relax. Anko seemed to reacting well to their revelations. Hinata had been prepared to call forth the power of Naruto's father if she had reacted poorly despite the danger such a venture posed. It had been a gamble on their part, but it was simply impossible to keep things secret with an attentive and inquisitive sensei like Anko. Better to bring things into the open under circumstances they could control.
It had been a surprise to her that one of the village leaders actually recognized the existence of the problems, but it promised to be very helpful in the long run. On her last visit Youko had deemed her finally ready and showed her their reconstructed vision of the other timelines, and she couldn't help but dread the day that Akatsuki would appear. Not that there wouldn't be any other dangers, after all even a stone thrown by some hapless child could end a human life if it hit in the right spot.
The thing that had truly appalled her was what Naruto and she would have become without Daiki's intervention. That orange, childish and dumb idiot bore hardly any resemblance to the man she loved with all her heart. Should she ever get her hands on the souls of Naruto's biological parents she would make them suffer for a long, long time in retribution for that abominable mind-altering seal. Not that her own life would have turned out much better. The other Hinata had been a pathetic little girl whose only redeeming quality had been her willingness to die for her Naruto. In most timelines there wasn't much additional information, but in truth she was happier with not knowing to which lows she could sink. The truly frightening thing was how close she had been to becoming that travesty. If either Youko, Daiki or Naruto had decided to simply not bother with helping her… it didn't even bore thinking about.
Their teacher's voice interrupted her thought. "Okay, I think I have a good overview over your skills. What jutsu do you know? Mizuki didn't go into details."
"Every member of our group has learned five D-rank ninjutsu: the Sticky Mud Trap, Slippery Mud Field, Stone Shuriken, Small Fire Stream and Blazing Embers. We've been only able to learn three C-ranks, namely the Small Fireball, Underground Move and the basic Healing Palm technique." Choji explained. "Mizuki-sensei didn't know that many techniques, and those were the best for our situation. I'm working on mastering my clan's techniques."
"Yakumo-chan taught us a few unnamed genjutsu that serve mainly as distractions." Naruto took over. "I created personally a technique to overhear distant conversations and some other supplementary techniques concerning the senses of smell and hearing, but no one I tried to teach was able to learn them. My own senses are much better than normal, which might be a factor. I haven't tried my hand at combat techniques; it would have required a suitable testing ground and I wouldn't have been able to hide the property damage."
Now it was her turn. "B-Besides basic Juuken I'm proficient in several healing t-techniques. The one you saw me use in the forest w-was the most advanced one, but I also can treat most other kinds of w-wounds. I'm almost c-completely self-taught, and my c-clan must never l-learn I use anything other than the G-Gentle Fist."
Their sensei let out a low whistle. "That is certainly impressive. I would have expected you to become this good only a few months down the line, or even only after more than a year in other fields." Suddenly Anko began to smile maliciously. "That means I can update my teaching schedule. I have just the right thing for you if you want real-life experience." She reached into the bag she had carried with her to extract a stack of papers. "Today I will introduce you to the joys of paperwork and after-action reports. We'll start with verbal reports; then I will show you how to properly write it down. There are some points you have to pay attention to if you leave out some facts you don't want your superiors to know about and don't want to make it obvious. Now get to work."
"… and then he dared them to become better than him if they wanted the position of genin team leader. You should have seen their faces, even Kiba's dog couldn't decide between frustration and awe. Since then the two have taken to training much better than before." Asuma concluded his tale.
Kurenai chuckled at this. Shino Aburame had become the genin leader of Team 10, a fact which irked the other two genin Asuka Soryu and Kiba Inuzaka to no end. Apparently both had expected to take over leadership of whichever team they were assigned to, but Shino had thwarted all their attempts by being much more skilled and mature. According to Asuma he even showed genuine leadership qualities by using their ambition to get the other two to train more.
On her own team Yakumo had taken over the leadership position. It had been no question in her mind that either of the girls could fill the spot, but they were evenly matched in most fields. Apparently the girls knew it too because they had asked her to decide the matter with a coin toss after they brought it to her attention. Ino had made no fuss about it, and Yakumo had suggested to rotate them every month or so. It had made Kurenai proud of her two girls; they really were what aspiring kunoichi should be.
Anko's voice interrupted her thoughts. "Okay, that's enough. I have better things to do than wait on that lazy ass. I vote we begin our meeting now and don't wait in the future."
Kurena sighed. "I agree." The jonin-senseis were supposed to meet every week in the first month in case insoluble problems with their genin popped up. Kakashi had been more than forty minutes late to the first meeting and almost an hour to the second. This was the third meeting, and they were already about twenty minutes over their agreed upon starting time. Such behavior served only to further fan the mutual dislike between Kakashi and Anko.
She herself hadn't much contact with Kakashi before she took over a genin team, but she was rapidly growing to dislike the man. His habit of constantly reading porn in public she was able to overlook, but his constant unpunctuality and ridiculous excuses grated on her nerves. Sometimes it was hard to believe that the man was one of the most well-liked and respected jonin in Konoha.
"If you two ladies are of the same mind I have to accept that." Asuma had tried to play peacemaker in the past, but apparently even his patience had limits. "The meeting is now opened. There's nothing especially noteworthy going on with my team that I didn't already tell you. Shino is simply the best academy graduate I've ever seen, and he is doing the best he can to bring the other two to his level. There is some friction between them, but it is developing more in the direction of a friendly competition."
"My two girls are thick as thieves, but I have some problems with Shinji. Apparently he feels somewhat inadequate because the girls are so much better than him, and there was a nasty incident with Yakumo using a genjutsu on him during a spar." Kurenai raised her hands in defense. "I can't really blame her; I had specifically allowed the use of jutsu and it was rather harmless, but Shinji reacted poorly to it. She apologized, but some problems still persist. I hope to be able to work them out in time."
"I've nothing much to report other than that my teams progresses at an astounding rate. They have chosen Naruto as a leader, and he does a good job. I plan to take them out of the village on a C-rank mission tomorrow."
Kurenai stared at her friend. "You already want to take them on a C-rank? They have been in our care only a little more than two weeks."
Anko shrugged. "Sure. I had them perform a two-day journey into the Forest of Death without my help or prior warning. They should have no problems with C-ranks if they can do that."
The red-eyed jonin stared openmouthed at her friend. It was the same for Asuma, but in his case even his unlit cigarette fell out of his mouth. The bearded man was the first to recover his voice. "You… you sent them into the Forest of Death? Are you out of your mind? Even some chunin don't go there unless ordered."
"Hey, I gave them a choice, and I watched over them closely the entire time. They were better than most of the idiots I watched taking the chunin exam two years ago." Anko defended herself. "If anything the mission should be easier. Apparently Hinata likes to get away from her clan and wanders the forests and Naruto is an avid hunter."
Asuma shook his head. "I can't believe it, fresh genin surviving in the Forest of Death. This year is full of prodigies. And here I hoped for some relaxing duty, but with how Shino is pushing me I foresee hardly any quiet days."
"I rather like the challenge myself." a smirking Anko responded.
"You do know that this will set a new record?" a recovered Kurenai asked.
At this Anko grew serious. "Yes, I know. I'm not especially happy about that; it will probably cause some amount of envy. If I could ask for a favor, I would like you two to keep it secret for now. When Kakashi gets wind of it he will take his team on a C-rank simply to one-up me even if his team isn't ready."
Asuma put a new cigarette into his mouth. "I don't believe he would be that irresponsible, but I will honor your request. Each of us is responsible for his or her team, not for the others, and that includes information about their prowess or missions. Remember, you may not like what the others are doing, but it is not your responsibility. In fact, you aren't allowed to interfere in any way with another sensei's training."
Kurenai nodded. "I agree to not mentioning it anywhere, but my team will probably know anyway. Yakumo is Naruto's girlfriend, and they visit each other daily."
"Really? Dang, that boy moves fast. How far along are they?" Asuma asked.
"Holding hands, kissing on the cheeks and some cuddling." Anko answered. "I watched them several times, and they are awfully cute. They've known each other for over five years. I don't think we have to worry about them doing something irresponsible."
Kurenai laughed. "I wish there were still some cameras around."
"I think we're finished for today." Asuma stated. When no objections were raised, he stood up. "Good luck on your mission, Anko. See you in a week."
Choji checked out his backpack and assorted supplies one last time before he left his room. Today would mark his first C-rank mission, and he was excited. Their sensei hadn't given them the details yet, but she had commanded them to prepare for an absence of one and a half weeks. His mother engulfed him in a hug when he said goodbye to her.
"Oh my little Choji, all grown up now. I wish your father could be here to see it; he will be so proud. We will have to tell him afterward. Stay safe, listen to your sensei and don't get into any trouble you can't handle."
"Sure mom. Don't worry, we are as prepared as we can get."
His father had to leave on a mission four days ago and probably wouldn't be back until Choji returned from his own mission. After enduring a few more hugs and words of advice Choji finally managed to extricate himself and head to the gates of the village. Hinata and Naruto already awaited him there, even if their appearance was very different from their everyday clothing. Naruto wore a mix of leather and cloth in brown and green, which made him look like a professional woodsman. Only his hitai-ate marked him as a shinobi, all his weapon pouches and knives were either disguised or displayed in such a fashion to emphasize the image he tried to project.
Hinata didn't dress for a specific role and wore her usual shinobi trousers and a dark sleeveless leather vest over a long-sleeved mesh shirt. Choji himself had chosen various clothes in shades of green, but he had plates of armor at his front and back hidden between the layers. He was strong enough that their weight wouldn't slow him down noticeably.
None of them wore any clan symbols or anything that would make it obvious what their specialization was. They didn't expect to encounter enemies, but there was no reason to paint a target upon their backs by making it obvious that Hinata was a Hyuuga or warn anyone of Choji's clan jutsu beforehand. Hinata's eyes were a problem, but Choji knew that she was working on a disguise technique together with Yakumo and Naruto.
"Morning, guys. Are you ready?"
Naruto nodded. "As ready as I can be."
"It will be nice to be away from my clan for awhile." Hinata added with a smile.
Choji had to agree silently. He had visited the Hyuuga compound a few times and found the atmosphere exceedingly unpleasant. Setting his backpack besides his friends', they continued talking and enjoying the fresh air of the early morning. Shortly before the agreed upon time their sensei appeared by hopping down from a nearby roof with a backpack of her own. Anko stopped for a moment to take in their new appearances.
"Good morning, you three. I see you have prepared for the journey."
"Good morning, sensei. Well, this time we could prepare." Naruto answered.
Anko carefully inspected what each of them carried before announcing her approval. They had packed everything they needed for a journey of about two weeks, even if they expected to be back before that. Most of it was easily reachable, but they had additional supplies in some sealing scrolls.
"Very good. I didn't find anything amiss. Today you will begin your first C-rank mission. For this purpose I chose a regular delivery mission." Anko unfolded a map of the Land of Fire and pointed to a region to the southeast of Konoha. "You see this region? That's where we're headed. Three provinces border each other, with two of them having a sizable garrison of the imperial army in that area. The third has a small post in a village that has been deliberately established there. It isn't a large distance separating them, but the country is very rough and uninhabited. Normal people would need weeks to get through the woods, hills and swamps. The quickest way is around, but even that takes more than two weeks."
She paused for a moment to ascertain their reaction. Choji could already see where this was going. "Important messages are sent by messenger bird, but more detailed correspondence is too heavy and bulky for that. Instead of sending them the long way there is weekly mission for our village to collect the official correspondence for the other two provinces in the first town, stop at the second one to deliver part of it and pick up the local mail, continue to the outpost and finally return to the first city. Normally that is done by a single experienced genin, but I thought it a good start for our team. You'll get to see some cities other than Konoha, and the country is mostly nice with no opposition expected. Any questions?"
"How much time do you expect we will need for each leg of the journey?" Naruto asked.
"It depends a bit on the weather, but I estimate three days for us to reach our first goal, one and a half day for the first leg of the round tour, the same for the second one and a bit more than two for the last one, followed by three days for our return trip to Konoha. Eleven days all in all. Anything else? Good, let's get underway."
After checking out at the main gates they took to the trees. Hopping from tree to tree they made good speed and soon left the belt of training grounds surrounding Konoha behind. From this point on it was unfamiliar territory.
At first it wasn't really much different. The woods looked mostly the same and they didn't encounter any other humans. Shortly before noon Anko suddenly threw several senbon in mid-jump. When they stopped to investigate they found that their sensei had nailed three hares directly through their hearts.
"If it appears feasible you should always forage instead of using the long-lasting rations. You never know when a mission takes longer than expected, and if you run out of rations you have to spend time to forage even if you're in a hurry. We can run all day, but is easier on our bodies if we take a break around midday." Anko lectured.
He and Anko built a fire and Naruto took it upon himself to skin and prepare the animals while Hinata searched for some herbs. A tasty meal later they were underway again. Naruto frowned at the sky when they made camp for the night.
"I think it likely it will rain tomorrow." he announced. "Better keep your cloaks close at hand when we continue on the next day."
Naruto's prediction proved true, and a heavy rain came pouring down an hour after they set out. Despite their water-proof cloaks it made traveling rather uncomfortable, but luckily the rain ceased shortly after noon. It was late afternoon when the woods became lighter and fields and lumber camps began appearing with increasing frequency. That evening they found accommodation in the inn of a small village. The village youth eyed them curiously, but no one approached them.
Choji voiced his observations when they were in the privacy of the single room of the inn. There were no guests other than them. "They look poor."
Anko sighed. "Almost everyone will look poor to you, Choji. Konoha is an exceptionally rich city because the shinobi business is very lucrative despite the dangers. Some other towns are in a similar position for a variety of reasons, but the same isn't true for the vast majority of villages and cities. Look around. This village has only farming and some limited hunting and woodworking industry as sources of income. The few travelers only suffice to support this tiny inn. Even so, this village is in a good shape. There aren't any beggars, the children don't run around in rags and everyone seems relatively well-fed. You will see much worse in the future."
"What about their c-clothing, sensei?" Hinata asked.
"Ah, you noticed that. In the past almost everyone had access to cheap clothing, but it has been close to ten years now since no new supplies have appeared. The remaining stored amount was large but is slowly running out. Because of the higher quality such things have become unaffordable to the majority of the population, meaning the people have to make their own clothes. Once again it is a sign of Konoha's wealth that they are still freely available there." Anko explained. "As shinobi we are a bit outside of the established social order, but generally we are considered to fit in somewhere between very minor nobles, well-off merchants, high-quality soldiers and master craftsmen. In general you can expect reactions ranging from awe to respect to fear from most people."
"Why don't become more people shinobi if it is such a profitable job?" Naruto wondered.
"Several reasons, actually. Most importantly, only very few people are able to utilize chakra to any meaningful degree. Fewer than one in hundred, and not all of those have the necessary physical resilience. Then you need a qualified teacher. There are still a few independents, but the Hidden Villages have done their utmost to either include them or stamp them out. Even if you find a teacher he or she doesn't have the support structure a village provides, meaning that the training will be much likely much less effective. There are still a few independent shinobi clans, but they generally don't train outsiders. Many families would do nearly everything to have one of their children accepted at a shinobi academy, but the places are limited and the bribes are high." Anko sighed again. "Never forget that the world is unfair, but it isn't our place to change that. We would have to rule the land to do that, and if you consider Konoha's state that might not be the best idea."
The next day they left the small village early in the morning. After about two hours traveling through the woods they reached a large and well-traveled road, but they kept to the trees instead of intermingling with the much slower traffic. During the afternoon they spotted a large unit of soldiers marching in the opposite direction they were going, but otherwise it was mostly an assortment of merchants and peasants with some wandering craftsmen thrown in. They passed several towns without entering until they finally arrived at their destination just before it grew dark.
The town was relatively large but still much smaller than Konoha, with a fortified army camp the most unusual sight. When they made their way through the alleyways Choji noted the differences to the small village. Many people were apparently better off, but some seemed even poorer. It was an interesting dichotomy. When people caught sight of their headbands they generally made way for them. Apparently nobody wanted to trifle with them and somehow earn their wrath. The inn they spend the night in was much nicer than the one before; it had even water pipes in the washrooms. Never before had he recognized the value of Konoha's seal-based water infrastructure so much.
On the next morning they made their way to the garrison.
"The shops here are much different from home; I don't think I've seen a single weapons store since we arrived here." Naruto remarked.
"There are some, but not many. You have to remember that shops need a customer base. The army buys the weapons from some other place, ships them in and provides maintenance for them, meaning that only a few private guards and mercenaries buy weapons here, and it is just equally likely that they commission them directly from a weapon smith. Most normal people only carry a small knife or something like that." Anko explained.
When they approached the army garrison they could see that it was mostly a cluster of wooden buildings surrounded by a wooden palisade, but the wall and some barracks were in the process of being rebuilt with bricks. The guards at the gate simply waved them through when they saw their headbands. Choji looked around curiously; he had never seen any professional soldiers up close. The garrison wasn't that large, the buildings sufficed for between two and three hundred people. Some soldiers were doing drills, but even more seemed to simply laze around. Some civilian craftsmen and other people were likewise milling around or doing various tasks. Apparently Anko knew where she was going because they soon arrived at some tables stacked with documents under a canopy. The building behind them were they most likely normally resided was currently getting a new roof. Some people Choji recognized as officers were having some sort of argument, and their sensei decided to wait a short distance away and study a wall plastered with wanted posters until they were finished. Choji couldn't help but overhear a conversation some nearby soldiers were having, especially because it involved them.
"What are children doing here?"
"Sh! They can hear you. See the headbands? That means they are shinobi."
"Never antagonize them, no matter how harmless they look. They start their training before they can walk, and some of them can kill you simply by looking at you in the right way."
"Really? That's impossible."
"Better believe us. On my last deployment near the border to River Country a year ago we worked with a pair of them to track down some really nasty bandits. Both were woman, one had some red tattoos on her cheeks and three dogs with her. Apparently she could understand them, and they led us directly to the hideout we had been searching for months. When some of the bandits tried to attack us from the side she tore them to pieces with her bare hands. The other one was even scarier; she was a real raven-haired beauty that one. When we faced off against the main bandit force she simply looked at them and made some strange movements with her hands. One moment twenty bandits are about to attack us, the next moment they are waving their weapons around randomly. The poor sods couldn't even see us anymore and attacked each other. We had only to mop up the rest; easiest bandit hunt of my life."
Choji's attention was diverted when Anko approached the now cleared desk.
"Morning, sergeant. We are here to collect your mail."
The man behind the desk gave them a short look before retrieving two large, sealed pouches.
"Here you go; it's a pretty standard load this week." He sent them another glance. "Breaking in the next generation, are you? Normally there's only a single one of you."
Anko laughed. "You can say that. They're my pupils, and delivering mail is a nice break from what I usually do."
"I think it is better I don't know what you do normally if you think of wandering through pathless wilderness as relaxation. Have a nice day."
A few minutes later they had securely stored the pouches, left the garrison and shortly thereafter the town and headed towards the hills to the east. At first there were still farms and obvious signs of woodcutters, but soon they were traveling through untouched forests. The ground rose steadily and it became obvious why nobody wanted to travel this route other than shinobi. Deep chasms and sheer rock walls were simply everywhere and it made covering any sort of distance very cumbersome despite them being able to jump over most chasms and simply walk straight up the walls. It was difficult to be exactly sure with all the climbing and descending, but Choji thought they crossed the largest hills during the late afternoon. The weather was cloudy, but thankfully it didn't rain.
Naruto and Hinata to a lesser degree obviously were in their element and found the journey very interesting. Choji could have done without it, but he had to admit it did a lot of good for his wilderness survival skills. After they spent the night in a natural rock shelter they continued the journey on the next day in a more southeastern direction.
"There are a lot of b-brooks here." Hinata remarked.
"There are, and they all are feeding the big river that runs all the way to the southern ocean. Our next stop is on the east bank of the river where it becomes navigable." Anko explained.
They arrived shortly before noon, and the city almost rivaled Konoha in size. There was a lot of traffic going in and out of the city, and it was clearly wealthier than the town on the other side of the hills. Carts heavily loaded with different trade goods were coming from and going to the north and east. The reason became obvious when they entered the city. It had a large harbor were boats from the south were unloaded only to be reloaded with the freight the carts brought. After eating in one of the restaurants that served fish dishes the group sought out the garrison. The soldiers were stationed in a stone fortress overlooking the harbor, with the fortress being a part of the stone walls surrounding the city.
Exchanging one of the mail pouches for another was even quicker than in the first town, and five minutes later they were already headed out of the city. They crossed the river one kilometer downstream from the city via water walking. It was quite funny to see the crews of various ships goggling at them when they passed nearby. Apparently they seldom saw shinobi so blatantly displaying their powers.
Once they arrived at the west bank of the river Choji found out another reason why shinobi were hired to act as mail carriers. There was only swampland as far as he could see in all directions . By the evening Choji had developed a hearty dislike for that particular type of terrain. Anko left it mostly to Naruto to lead them through and provided only general directions, but she observed them all closely. They kept to bodies of water as often as they could because they could use water walking there, but there were far too many occasions when they had to trek through the mud. Mud was nasty because water walking didn't really work on it, the high content of earth made it impossible. Choji now understood much better why Naruto preferred closed leather boots that were mostly watertight. Hinata too, come to think of it. Luckily Naruto was able to find a dry spot for them to spend the night.
When they huddled around the small fire they managed to get going Anko explained a bit more about the travel route. "The hills we crossed earlier are part of chain of hills that range quite a distance into the north, but they curve to the west here. The first town we visited was in the northwest of that arc; the second town was to the east and slightly to the south on the other side of the hills. We are now going into the southwest, and after our next stop we'll return to the north. The entire south side of the hills is covered by these swamps, and they reach far into the west and south along the river. Two days left in these miserable swamps before we return to the hills."
During the night a cold drizzle started, and it did nothing to improve Choji's mood. The entire next day was very uncomfortable, and they decided to forego their usual midday-stop. It was already growing dark when they reached a dingy little village sitting on a spot of dry land. The military outpost was a small wooden fort manned by perhaps twenty grumpy soldiers, and they spent the night in a corner of the general sleeping hall. It seemed that only the commanding officer had a room of his own.
The next morning dawned sunny and clear, and Choji was able to examine the village better. It was by far the poorest he had ever seen. A corduroy road to the southwest was the only street leading out of the village, which consisted mostly of ramshackle wooden huts. The villagers were a sullen lot, and they stared at them in a mix of fear, envy and dislike. After their mail exchange a rider left with their delivery, and Team 11 headed into the swamps again.
As soon as they had put some distance between themselves and the village their sensei offered an explanation. "Most of the villagers are either serfs or criminals who got a chance to work off their sentence, and it shows. It was originally established to reclaim additional farmable land, but as you can see it is almost impossible to grow any food here and the project failed. Now they support themselves by peat digging. The outpost came later to suppress bandits and act as a mail station. Two kilometers to the southwest the road forks to the west and south, and it is only a small detour to here, especially with the village already built."
This day was almost as uncomfortable as the last, but thankfully the rain had stopped. Once again they eschewed taking a break at noon, and when the sky began to darken they left the swamps for good. They even found a nice dry cave with a hot spring, but the last fact led to some embarrassment. Anko insisted on them getting used to the sight of naked bodies of the opposite gender, and they had to take a joint bath.
Choji's and Naruto's heads were beet red when they finally sat down in the hot water. Anko was very much a woman, and Hinata was developing quite nicely.
"You might think this needlessly embarrassing, but I can assure you it is necessary. I've seen it happen more than once that an enemy kunoichi deliberately used her body as a distraction, and when your clothing is accidentally or deliberately damaged you have to keep your concentration." Anko explained her reasoning. "For that matter, would you like to explain to me why you aren't perturbed in the slightest, Hinata?"
A completely unflappable Hinata pointed to her eyes. "Don't you know, sensei? These eyes see everything."
Anko looked at her dumbly for a moment before she began to laugh uproariously, which did something very interesting to certain parts of her anatomy. The next morning was clear once again and they made good time until Anko stopped them at midday.
"We're almost there, but before we return to town I want to introduce you to a side aspect of the shinobi business, namely bounty hunting. Despite the army there are a lot of bandits all over the place and law enforcement is spotty at best. That means if the opportunity presents itself we will pick off targets of opportunity. I suspect some of them are hiding in this area, so keep your eyes open." she commanded.
It was during the afternoon that Naruto found some indications of humans in the area and they began to carefully track them down. In comparison to their tracking exercises and the Forest of Death it was very easy. Finally they found them. Four brutal looking men were milling around in a camp going about their business.
Anko took them a short distance back into the woods. "Okay, I got a good look at all of their faces and they match with the description I got. This group of outlaws is wanted dead for robbery, murder and rape. They are only a local problem, so the bounties aren't that high, but I say we take them out. Do you think you can do that?"
Naruto nodded immediately, but Choji wasn't completely sure if he could kill a human. Sure, he had talked about it with his father, his friends and various shinobi relations and was relatively confident, but only the actual attempt would show if he could go through with it. Hesitantly he gave his consent.
Hinata had kept her byakugan active the entire time and now spoke up. "Sensei, there is a dead body lying behind one of the trees. I think it belonged to a woman, but it is rather heavily mutilated. I'm ready to take them out."
After explaining her plan Anko sent them to their spots. When the agreed upon signal came Choji left his hiding place and sprinted towards his assigned target. The man had apparently heard something and was in the process of turning around when Choji reached him. It was the easiest thing in the world to take a kunai and ram it into the man's back, piercing his heart from behind. For a moment the man went rigid before falling to the ground.
Breathing heavily Choji stood above the corpse and tried to get his racing heart under control. All the others had successfully eliminated their targets without problems and were now searching the campsite. Suddenly his stomach lurched, and he had to run to the edge of the woods to relieve himself of his lunch. Anko was immediately by his side, giving him support.
After a few minutes of heaving he regained his mental balance.
'That was not as bad as it could have been.' he thought. 'From what Uncle Hiroki told me he had more problems with his first kill.'
It didn't take long for them to examine the remains of the camp. They found a few trinkets but nothing really valuable. More disturbing was the corpse of the woman Hinata had spied at the edge of the camp. She had clearly been raped and her corpse was very torn up. Apparently at least one of the outlaws they had just killed had possessed very sick sexual preferences. It made Choji feel considerable better about killing them. Still, he had to occasionally avert his eyes when Anko cut off the heads of the corpses and showed them how to properly transport them when they had no sealing scrolls available. By the time they left the camp after burying the corpse of the woman he had completely regained his composure.
A few hours later they had delivered the mail and the heads. The bounty wasn't much, but Choji thought they had made the world a slightly better place by killing those bandits. They retired to the same inn they had visited before, but this time each of them got a single room instead of double rooms. Choji was lying on his bed when a knock on the door interrupted his musings.
"Enter, the door is open." he called.
It was Anko-sensei, and she sat down on a chair with her arms on the backrest, watching him.
"I'm here to talk to you about your first kill, Choji, if you want to that is."
Choji hesitated a moment. "I think I will be fine, but talking can't hurt. The thing that disturbed me most was how easy it was. It took hardly any effort to kill that man. I don't know why I threw up, but I think I could do it again."
Anko nodded. "You're right; it's incredibly easy to hurt or kill humans. These were unskilled bandits, but even the Hokage would die if you managed to get a kunai into his heart. Still, the realization that you killed deliberately for the first time is always a shock."
They continued talking for a while until Anko was convinced that he was indeed in good mental shape and not only putting on a brave façade. He didn't especially like killing, but he didn't think he would hesitate if it became necessary again.
"What about Naruto and Hinata?"
"I already talked with Naruto; Hinata is next. They are dealing with things in their own way. When we make camp tomorrow you can talk about it with them." She stood up and patted his head. "Don't worry, you all are doing fine. If you want to talk about it further I'm always there for you."
"Thanks, sensei."
Choji slept surprisingly well this night. The journey home was uneventful aside from some talks with Anko-sensei about his first kill and they arrived at Konoha's gate in the early evening. Their sensei sent them home, but not before ordering them to meet up with her early next morning at the mission office. Choji said goodbye to his friends before heading to the Akimichi clan compound. The guards at the entrance gave him a respectful nod, and not even five minutes later his mother had engulfed him in a hug and was fussing over his return and first successful C-rank mission.
It was good to be home again.
Author's notes: Thanks for all the reviews. This C-rank went completely as planned, but that won't last. Stay tuned.