(Thanks for coming back to read the next chapter of the series. The joint mission with the Mist Village is underway, but will there be any results? I love feedback and constructive criticism, so please leave a review so I can improve my writing and storytelling skills. Enjoy!)
The joint squad of the Leaf's Team 3 and the Hidden Mist's Desh Momochi head out the door of the backwater bar to go and chase down the lead they just obtained. Yet a certain dark-haired ninja is actually a clone and once the squad is outside the real Kuroda emerges from the bathroom and takes a seat in an empty corner of the restaurant.
He waits a few minutes until he spots the enemy ninja squad that has been following his team since they entered the city entering the restaurant. They are a young Genin team consisting of two boys and a girl. When they stop and talk to each other about the next course of action, Kuroda overhears them call the girl Midori, and tell her to head back to the village to inform the leader about the enemy ninja's actions. They take off in separate directions, and Kuroda follows Midori. She is easy to tail since she wears her short, black hair in a ponytail with a green ribbon intertwined in her hair beside her left cheek. The hairstyle stands out among general population of females who just wear their hair down.
She heads towards the edge of the city and then stops and goes inside an old abandoned house with broken doors and shattered windows. Kuroda carefully follows her inside, but is attacked by a flurry of shuriken when he reaches the main room. The Leaf Genin is able to perform a Replacement Jutsu in time and escape to another side of the room by switching places with an old wooden chair.
Midori takes out a kunai from the black holster on her hip and says, "I noticed you following me after I left the others. I probably should have tried to get some help, but you didn't look that strong so I decided to take you on all by myself."
Kuroda comments, "Confidence is a good thing to have, but looks can be deceiving and you should never underestimate a fellow ninja."
"And what does that say about you?" she counters, brushing her bangs away from her eyes, "Seeing as you came after me on your own."
"Well said," compliments Kuroda, standing up straighter, "However, I know something that you do not."
"And what is that?" she taunts.
"You will just have to find that out on your own," he replies with a wink.
"Fine then, here I come!" she shouts as she charges toward him, her fingerless dark green gloves curled into fists.
Midori starts out using basic Taijutsu to attack, sending powerful kicks and strong punches towards her enemy. She wears a light green skirt with slits on all sides which allows her legs free range of movement. Yet Kuroda easily counters all of her attacks, sidestepping them or slapping them out of the way with his hand. Finally he takes charge and lands a hard kick to her gut sending her flying into a wall. Her back crashes into the moldy wood and she slumps to the ground panting, trying to regain her breath.
He starts to say, "Well, this is disappointing. You're not even worth my time, and I should probably kill you quickly before…"
"Not so fast," she shouts, "Grass Style: Vine Spear Jutsu!" A long vine that she wore curled up on her belt unrolls itself and turns into a long sharp spear.
"Very intriguing," Kuroda thinks, shifting into a new stance that is better for defending against a lengthy weapon, "I wasn't expecting anything from her. She may be useful after all."
She jabs the spear at him from across the room quickly closing the distance between them. He neatly slips to the side to avoid it thinking, "That is strange, I thought she was exhausted." She twists the spear to the side and tries to slash his mid-section. Kuroda nimbly jumps over the spear and it cuts a nearby rotting table in two.
"You have been holding back," comments Kuroda, drawing a kunai.
"You should never attack an unknown enemy at full strength right off the bat," replies Midori. She twirls the spear behind her back and raises it above her head, then brings it down for a powerful blow. Again Kuroda sidesteps, and then jumps over the vine spear when she does a follow up horizontal attack.
The same attack and dodge game continues on for a while. Midori's attacks are more disciplined, but Kuroda is still able to avoid and deflect them all with ease.
"I think I have seen enough," announces Kuroda after a few minutes, lowering his weapon.
"What do you mean?" she asks panting, taking advantage of the break in action to recover.
"Haven't you noticed?" says Kuroda smirking, "I've just been testing out your abilities the whole time." Suddenly he lunges forward, straight past her defenses and slashes her across the chest with his kunai. Before she can even react he uses his speed and technique to land a series of painful blows with the kunai. She falls to the ground, her green t-shirt covered in slashes, and drops her vine spear. It loses its shape and returns to a normal vine as soon as it falls from her grasp.
Then he quickly weaves hand signs and uses his Demonic Illusion Hell Viewing Technique on Midori. A giant white tiger appears on top of her catching her head in between its jaws, threatening to bite her head off. She is too frightened to recognize that it is only a Genjutsu and goes into a panic. Because of the insane fear and terror caused by the Jutsu she is in no condition to make a rational decision. So Kuroda is easily able to convince her to sign one of his blood contracts. Then he does his special sealing ritual, transferring a minute portion of his chakra into the carving he makes on her upper thigh.
After the ritual is completed Kuroda interrogates her for information. "So why was your team following us?" he questions as he begins to heal her wounds with his medical Jutsu.
"My squad was sent to investigate why the Leaf Village and the Mist Village were working together on a mission in the Land of Grass," explains Midori.
"I see, and why did your friends send you off on your own?" he asks.
"We followed you around all day and all you were doing was searching for information. They sent me back to ask the village if we should continue the mission," she replies.
"And they will continue tracking my team while you are gone?" he asks as he finishes up the final cut on her left breast.
"Yes," she confirms.
"You should be fine now," he says as he stands up, "You can put your shirt back on."
She quickly covers herself, already embarrassed and confused about what happened. "So what now?" she asks.
Kuroda commands, "You will return to your village like you originally planned, and tell your superiors that the enemy ninja were searching for a mysterious and powerful ninja that was rumored to be attacking people and stealing valuable information from their villages. The Leaf and Mist village have uncovered evidence that the ninja uses techniques from the Hidden Grass Village and they sent a scouting team to investigate."
"Why do you want me to tell them that?" she inquires.
"Because it is the truth," he replies.
She looks at him skeptically, "But why would you want me to tell them what you are really doing here?"
"That, you don't need to know," he replies.
"Fine, is that all then? Can I go?" she huffs.
"Hold on a minute," he replies. Kuroda makes a few simple hand signs and then transforms into a perfect replica of Midori.
"Why are you…?" she asks.
"Because I need to look friendly when I catch up with your team," explains Kuroda, "Now you can go." She hesitates for a second and then takes off; he leaves to catch up with her team.
Kuroda uses his Flying Thunder God Technique to catch up in a fraction of the time it would normally take. He throws his specially marked kunai out in front of him and then transports to them an instant later. He quickly reaches the other two Grass Village Genin and runs up behind them.
"Midori, what are you doing?" one asks when he spots his comrade, "We told you to go back to the village."
He explains, "One of the enemy ninja tried to follow me, but I defeated him and learned that they are looking for a powerful ninja from the Grass Village and were sent to kill him."
"What! Are you serious?" the other team member exclaims.
The first one comments, "The only ninja in the area is Mazuma Shiranui because he is on vacation."
"I know," says the disguised Kuroda, "He must be their target. We need to warn him quickly!"
The taller one comments, "If we take the shortcut we should be able to beat the enemy by a few minutes and warn Mazuma."
After a speedy race across the village they reach Mazuma right before he enters his hotel and pull him off to the side to talk. "Mazuma-sensei, there is a group of enemy ninja in this village. We have solid information that they have been sent here to assassinate you," explains one of the boys.
"Where are they now?" asks Mazuma scanning around the area.
"They are headed this way," replies a disguised Kuroda.
"All right, Midori, you are the fastest so you head back to the Village and tell the elders about this. We will stay here and see what they truly intend to do," says Mazuma.
"Yes, I will go now," says Kuroda. He heads off just when he sees his team approaching from afar.
As Team 3 approaches the hotel Desh notices that Kuroda is falling back in the formation. "What is that guy playing at?" he wonders. However, he quickly forgets when he sees three Grass Ninja in front of the hotel. While no one is looking the real Kuroda switches with the clone and rejoins the group. Desh darts ahead of the group and heads towards the Grass Ninja while pulling out a kunai.
"Wait, what are you doing?" exclaims Sakura as he runs past her.
"Damn, I told him not to separate from the group!" shouts Kayo as she and the others sprint after him.
Mazuma sees a group sprinting towards him and takes it as a threat. He quickly takes the vine off his belt and hardens it into a spear. Desh doesn't stop even when he sees this, just merely raises up his kunai a bit in case he needs to deflect something. Mazuma thrusts Vine Spear forward with blinding speed and supreme accuracy. The attack hits Desh right in the chest, but it turns out to be a Water Clone and falls apart into a puddle. The real Desh appears back where the rest of the group is and they come to a stop.
Desh yells, "You just made a big mistake, Grass Ninja! Attacking another person like that without any warning."
Mazuma replies, "Foreign ninja are not supposed to be in the Grass Country without the permission of the Hidden Grass Village. I had every right to attack."
Desh corrects him, "That rule only applies to the Hidden Village. The entire country is fair game to any ninja from any other village unless you set up strict border entrances like in the Rain Country. By attacking so recklessly you might have just declared war on the Mist Village. I should kill you for attacking someone who so obviously was not attacking you."
"I just received information that a group was sent to assassinate me," Mazuma responds, "How am I supposed to react when someone rushes at me with a knife?"
Desh laughs, "I don't even know who you are. You are a nobody! If I had really wanted to kill you I wouldn't have come straight towards you like a complete idiot."
Kayo steps in and whispers to Desh, "That is enough, our cover is blown and the mission goals are no longer obtainable. We need to retreat."
Desh regretfully agrees, "Fine, let's get out of here then."
"I apologize for the intrusion, we will be leaving now," Kayo says bowing to the Grass Ninja.
As they turn to go Desh warns Mazuma, "Hey, you! The next time we meet I won't hesitate to kill you even if it is against my orders." They leave and head straight out of town back towards the border.
After passing back through the border town they rest at a Leaf Village outpost. Kuroda watches as Sakura practices her Summoning Jutsu and is now able to summon two Butterflies about the size of dogs. Kayo yells at Desh, "What were you thinking? You just made all the work we did useless! Now we can't even go investigate any of the other cities in the Grass village."
Desh does not really pay attention and says, "I told you I would have done a lot better on my own."
Jando comments, "Yeah, that was stupid; just charging towards an enemy group all by yourself."
Sakura whispers to Kuroda, "Reminds you of someone else we know?" Kuroda snickers and she giggles.
"Please, I don't need any judging from some useless Genin," Desh scoffs.
"I'm not the one who screwed up the whole mission," Jando counters, the tension building between the two.
"It really doesn't matter in the end," Kuroda comments, "It isn't like this mission had any chance of being successful anyways."
"What do you mean?" Sakura inquires.
"This mission wasn't about finding the mysterious ninja at all," he replies.
"What are you saying?" Kayo asks.
"Just think about it. If they really intended for us to find this attacker do you really think they would send a Genin Squad along with a ninja from another village that they have never even met before?" Kuroda points out, "Both the Mist and Leaf Village probably already sent out a squad of ANBU and thoroughly checked out the place before even considering sending us in. The only reason we are here is because this is probably the last place the mysterious ninja would attack me, so it is probably the safest place for me to be."
"So you're saying this was just a big waste of time?" Jando sums up, "And we came all the way out here for nothing."
"There is another reason," Kuroda alleges, "Both of our villages are probably using it as a way to boost relations and solidify a better alliance with each other."
"So what do you think about this, Desh?" Kayo inquires.
"Seems pretty reasonable to me," the Mist Ninja admits, "I figured there was some hidden motive to send me on a mission like this with a Genin team. You never know what the higher ups are thinking."
They arrive back in the Hidden Leaf Village a few days later and immediately report to the Hokage. It mostly consists of Kayo and Jando complaining about Desh. The Hokage admits, "I knew the mission did not have a high success probability in the first place. I only agreed to it to improve relations with the Hidden Mist."
"So Kuroda was right after all," Sakura thinks as she listens to the Hokage's explanation.
"Unless there is anything else, I think we are done here," the Hokage says, "Desh you should probably head straight home, I'm sure the Mizukage will be eager to speak with you."
Desh gives a polite bow and then poofs into smoke with the Body Flicker Technique, presumably heading back to his own village. Everyone else leaves the office after some more grumbles and complaints. But Kuroda stays behind after the door closes and asks the Hokage, "Was it really a good idea to expose a possible alliance to other ninja villages?"
A look of disbelief at his audacity jumps to her face. She spins her chair around to look out at the village, expecting him to get the message. After a few moments of waiting for him to leave the Hokage finally replies, "You wouldn't understand the complexities of the situation or my true intentions. I am not going to bother explaining them to you."
"I have done a lot of reading about politics," he quips.
"Books can only tell you so much," she replies, "Practical application is an entirely different thing."
Sensing she won't say anymore he changes the subject, "So am I going to be put back on suspension now?"
"Actually," she confesses, turning back around to face him, "I have decided to return you to active duty."
Kuroda seems genuinely surprised and asks, "Why the sudden change?"
"The Chunin exams are coming up soon. It will be the first time in over a century that the Leaf Village will be participating alongside the Rock Village. I want the best Genin in the village to be participating in it," she explains with a sigh, "Which includes you."
Kuroda tries to read her facial expressions and decides that her answer is satisfying. He exits her office, already starting to formulate his plans for the upcoming exams.
(That is the end of the chapter, what did you think? Team 3 will be participating in the next Chunin exams! How will it go? As usual, if you want more information on my characters you can see their bios on my profile page. Be warned, there may be some spoilers. Also I'm in the process of getting pictures drawn for the characters, but I have no idea how long that will take. If you're interested in drawing and have a DA account then send me a Message. Enjoy the next chapter, and please review.)