Bonsoir!
How're you all doing? Good?
HUMONGOUS SHOUT OUT TO Antex-The Legendary Zoroark, Golden Wind God, BakonoftheUnknown, Imheretolive08, LeviDragon, Bmehok03, and TheBrokenTool. You're all wonderful :)
I also want to give an extra special shout out to my new beta reader, DoctorNiklaus. Dude's amazing. He brushed up the story and gave me some really helpful writing tips/critiques. I appreciate you very, very much.
Something to note is that Naruto is A rank, Rin is also A rank. As a team, they're S rank. As I was rereading and editing chapters one to three, I might have gone back and forth over that little detail.
That said, enjoy…
CHAPTER 5
05:45 am
Naruto and Rin's apartment
Uchiha clan
"Kami, big bro, you look terrible."
Naruto grumbled, slumping into his seat at the dining table, narrowing a weak side-eye to his half-smirking, half-concerned sister. "Good morning to you too, Mikoto."
The girl shrugged, not knowing Rin was approaching her from behind. "I'm just saying, you look worse than normal–ow!"
"Cut it out. Naruto had a long night." The older twin dropped her hand, finished slapping Mikoto upside the head, feeling like the girl had gotten the message. She served her sister a plate of scrambled eggs and toast. Since butter and strawberry jam were more or less permanent fixtures of their dining table, all Mikoto had to do was reach to the center of the table and grab the medium sized jar of jam, grateful, yet pouting as she spread a layer on her toast with a knife with one hand. "We both did." Rin continued.
Biting down on jam on toast, Mikoto turned to her sister and observed as she placed Naruto's breakfast before him, giving her brother's shoulder a comforting squeeze as he tiredly smiled up at her; her long, curly sun-colored hair was pulled back and tied in a loose ponytail, falling to reach her upper back. The usual glow of her skin was somewhat dimmed, not so much as to resemble the paling grey of her brother's but considerable enough for Mikoto to pause. The girl also noticed the grim circles around her normally jovial sister's eyes, less pronounced than the dark bags underneath Naruto's, but, again, it was significantly pronounced for Mikoto to be concerned.
The three siblings were ninjas, so waking up bright eyed and bushy tailed at the crack of dawn was the norm.
Mikoto had moved out from the Hokage's residence and had been living with her older siblings in the Uchiha compound since she started going to Academy at the age of eight, having been introduced to the benefits of waking up and starting the day productively. By thirty minutes after six, they were normally all awake, had breakfast and left the house to commence their day. Daily schedules differed, but the common thing was that the twins would take some missions, either solo or as a team, and Mikoto would join her teammates on training ground 11 for their morning routine.
Now, Naruto and Rin looked abnormally exhausted.
Their three-bedroom apartment seemed too stuffy all of a sudden.
The square dining table suddenly seemed too large.
Rin took off her apron and sat down across from her brother, sighing into her toast.
Mikoto looked between her brother's apologetic look and Rin's returned shrug of nonchalance. It was jarring how awkward it was amongst the twins.
"Couldn't sleep?" Mikoto questioned whoever was willing to answer, speaking with her mouth full and breaking the brittle tension in the air.
"Yeah." It was Naruto's turn to sigh, exhaling as he sat back on his chair. He pointed to the right side of his stomach. "The poison. I need to be awake to keep it out of my vital organs." He gestured to Rin. "She helped when I got tired, some time before sunrise."
That still didn't mean he could sleep.
Getting targeted vibrations into his stomach region wasn't a sensation someone could sleep through.
Naruto didn't miss the irony of his situation, since one month ago he had warned Sasuke about the dangers of sleep deprivation to a shinobi.
"Did you know that sleep deprivation is the number one cause of death in a shinobi?"
He rubbed his face and groaned, making Rin stop eating and look at him with growing worry.
Her twin gave her a look, and several messages were passed at once; they didn't think the Hokage would clear Naruto to receive missions if they saw how tired he was from just one sleepless night.
Rin voiced her opposition, instead of wordlessly communicating it. "I'm not going on any missions unless I'm sure you won't collapse when I'm gone." Naruto's brow lowered and his stare hardened, speaking to her without saying anything. Her twin jabbed her pointer finger on the table. "Your problem is my problem, Naruto. That's how it's been. That's how it'll be."
Mikoto's eyes jumped to Naruto, who was sending another voiceless message to his twin, frowning and clenching his right fist on the table.
Rin didn't relent. "We're done having this conversation." Their brother flattened his hand on the table, her lips pressed tightly together and his teeth grinding. Rin slammed her apron on the dining table, standing up with a glare and leaving for the kitchen. "I said, we're done having this talk."
Talk?
Any other person would think the two were mad.
Being their youngest sibling and used to Naruto and Rin's twin-communication, Mikoto assumed that Rin's tiredness made her forget to keep her words from coming out of her mouth, instead of travelling in that odd wavelength her two older siblings shared.
Naruto crumpled, leaning on his elbows and covering his face with his hands.
Mikoto nervously chewed on her breakfast, doing her best not to audibly drink her glass of orange juice.
"I'm sorry you had to see that, sis." Naruto admitted, his muffled voice coming from behind his hands. He winced at the noise coming from the kitchen. "This…thing Orochimaru did to me is really wearing on our patience."
The girl bobbed her head. "It's fine. Dad wants me to find Granny Tsunade, right? It'll be over soon, even if I have to hogtie her and drag her home."
Naruto opened his hands, setting his cheeks on his palms and sending a faint smile to his quirky sister. "Thanks," he said softly.
Mikoto beamed, returning to her breakfast by swallowing two forkfuls of eggs. Naruto brought her attention back with a gentle tap of his foot against hers. "This doesn't mean you can't tell us what's going on with you." The girl slowed a little, her cheeks puffy with eggs and an eyebrow raised for her brother to elaborate. "Y'know…if there's something going on with you, you can always tell us. We won't make fun of you or anything like that."
Mikoto swallowed her food, brow knitted suspiciously. "Ok…?"
Her brother shrugged. "Just wanted you to know." He got up and walked around the dining table to the kitchen. "Don't forget that."
Mikoto hummed, her blue eyes following her brother to the kitchen. "Ok…"
The clattering of dishes and the rush of water from the sink's tap stopped, followed by low mumbling as her siblings held a private meeting.
Naruto might have inherited their mother's sensory abilities, and Rin might have inherited their father's clear sightedness, but Mikoto inherited both Kushina and Minato's sharp hearing.
"Rin, I'm sorry–"
"Look, I don't care if you don't appreciate what I'm doing. I really don't. Just…I'd like it if you acknowledged I'm at least trying." There was a protracted silence and a short shuffle of feet. "We had four close calls last night alone. Three of them were my fault."
Naruto interjected. "Those weren't your fault."
"They were." Mikoto inelegantly chewed on her toast, trying not to look like she was hearing them. Rin started crying. "Kami, what if you died?" Her tone was hushed. "What if you died and it's because I couldn't stay awake?" Naruto didn't answer. There was more shuffling. Rin's voice became muffled. "I just want this to end already. I want that poison out of you, so we can get back to normal."
Suspecting that they were hugging, and that her big sister was speaking into her brother's chest, Naruto whispered. "Me too."
Mikoto got up and called out. "Heading out now!"
Rin came from the kitchen and stood at the frame, sniffing and dabbing the bottom of her apron at the corners of her red-rimmed eyes. "Hold on, Mikoto, Naruto's packing your lunch."
The girl strode to the living room and sat down on the couch, picking up and fumbling with attaching her kunai and shuriken holster around her hip, clicking the ends together and shifting the pouch around to her lower back. "Thanks, but don't worry about that." She cringed a little at the quick pain she felt in her casted arm, pausing her movement to make sure not to aggravate the broken arm any more.
When she was sure the pain was gone, she continued with her one-armed preparations, sliding on her already packed survival backpack and got up. Her left hand reached for her claymore, sliding the sheathed weapon down between her shoulder blades, under the backpack till the end of the large and long sword reached past her behind; she used to have her weapons sheathed on her hip, but drawing them from her back felt more convenient at the moment.
Swiveling around to exit the house, she stopped when she bumped into Rin. Her big sister was blocking the entrance of the living room, holding Mikoto's forehead protector in one hand and a bento tin wrapped in a large handkerchief in her other.
Rin scoffed, looking at her one-armed sister with a slight smile. "Turn around, Miko-Miko."
Mikoto huffed at the pet name, and did as she was told.
The younger girl grunted as her sister unzipped her backpack, doing a quick scan of the contents to make sure everything was there, then she eased in the wrapped tin inside, zipping the bag when she was done. She gripped the handle of the claymore, giving it a quick shake to see that the sheath was secure and accessible.
Satisfied, Rin ran a soft hand through Mikoto's straight hair, smiling wistfully.
"Who'd have thought my Miko-Miko would be a ninja?"
Mikoto scoffed. "Better believe it, sis." Rin set the forehead protector above her sister's brow, tying the headband under Mikoto's hair.
She turned the girl around and got a good look at her; Mikoto didn't have bangs like hers or their mother. Her straight hair was all combed back and reaching her shoulders. Rin almost envied how smooth and untangled her baby sister's hair was, as her own curly hair was a nightmare and a half to manage on a good day.
It didn't make her happy that Mikoto was going on missions so soon after the Chunin exams–especially in her injured state–but their father had assured her that Mikoto wouldn't be going alone. The twins were mentally preparing to hold on for a month.
"Has Naruto told you anything about Granny Tee?" Rin asked.
Mikoto shook her head, and Rin gripped her shoulders, maintaining eye contact. "Ok. Don't take anything she says to heart. She's a bitter old lady–"
"Bitter, old, drunk hag!" Naruto pointedly shouted from the dining room. He began grumbling to himself.
Rin rolled her eyes. "Yeah. That." She became serious again, and the Genin nodded. "I know how hard it is for you not to take everything seriously." Mikoto pouted, Rin snorted a small laugh. "Try to stay calm. You have a way with words, Miko-Miko. Use that instead."
"Yeah! Don't stoop to her level!" Naruto supplied.
"Alright, cranky, that's enough." Rin chuckled, standing upright and removing her hands from her sister's shoulders. She stood out of the way. "Have a nice day."
"When you find that old drunkard, kick her in her fat ass," their brother called. "Tell her it's from me."
"Bye-bye!" Mikoto snickered as she jogged from the apartment.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
06:01am
Hokage's Tower
Mikoto blinked at her father.
The man raised an eyebrow, propping his elbows on his desk and leaning his head on his laced hands. "Will that be a problem?"
"I mean," bewildered, Mikoto scratched the top of her head, catching the musical twinkle in her father's eye at her clearly uncomfortable gesture. "I kinda assumed I'd be going with Kakashi-sensei and the others."
The Hokage scoffed. "And if that's the case, can you tell me with full certainty that you won't slow down the mission by fighting with Sasuke?" The girl frowned and threw her face away, denying nothing. Minato nodded. "I thought so. I made this decision because getting Tsunade back quickly is too important to gamble with childish arguments."
"He broke my arm!" Mikoto retorted, gesturing wildly to her right arm.
"You've broken his before." Minato stated, matter of fact. The girl's rapid temper fell flat into a deep wince. "He healed, and so will you. With time." He collected a scroll from his desk and held it to her, still sitting behind his desk. "Here."
Sulking, Mikoto dragged her feet to the Hokage's desk. Taking the scroll and letting gravity unfurl it as she held the top up with her left hand. She scanned the mission specs.
Mission Specifications
Identity of the Target: Tsunade Senju, henceforth on mission and until safe retrieval referred to as Target.
Purpose of the mission: Find and retrieval, henceforth filed under Retrieval.
Target's last known location: Zyouki, Hot Water country.
Current State of the Target: Unknown/Alive, henceforth considered Alive till proven otherwise.
Manner of approach: At your own discretion. Target is known to be brash and confrontational; Shinobi-on-duty is to take note. There is a likeliness for a violent confrontation in response to the retrieval mission. Shinobi-on-duty is to refrain as much as possible to not respond in kind. Target is known to travel with Shizune Kato, whose current state is Alive. Intention is for Target to return peacefully.
Mission Priority: A
Mission Class: A
Shinobi-on-duty: Sai Shimura (Genin), Mikoto Namikaze (Genin), Yugao Uzuki (Jounin)
Mikoto lowered the scroll, rolling it up with one hand. "Sai Shimura…. Did he graduate from my year?"
"Councilman Danzo's relative; he wanted assurance that the mission would go smoothly, and Sai is that assurance, apparently," the Hokage explained with an encouraging nod. "He's been a Genin a year longer than you. From what I've seen, he's quite skilled."
"If he's so skilled, where is he now?"
Minato smirked, getting back to his work. "You're the last one to get here." Mikoto balked, startled by the revelation. "They've already been briefed and are waiting for you at the Northern Gate. Goodluck, Mikoto."
There was a good twenty minutes of quiet in the Hokage's office after she left to join her fellow Shinobi-on-duty, where the man read through previous mission reports left on his desk from the night before. Only missions higher than a B class were personally read by him, as anything lower could be safely handled by his Assistants, the two of whom were seated outside of his office. Any decisions that needed to be implemented due to the conclusion of C class mission or lower, were briefed to the Hokage and formally submitted for the Hokage's Stamp.
This wasn't necessarily a decentralization or deconcentration of power, as the Hokage was still widely seen as both the unquestioned Head of State and Head of Government; a military dictator in every sense.
Minato just designated some responsibilities to reduce his workload.
And this initiative drastically reduced the weight of paperwork piled on his desk, though only slightly; Konoha was still a massive Hidden Village, in geographical size, population, and sphere of influence.
Either there was some sort of international issue a Shinobi-on-duty would purposely or accidentally commit on foreign soil–needing help to be bailed out–or the Trade Department of the village would say that the Food and Agriculture Department were overstepping by providing fish farmers too much independence to sell their good, without the consent of the Trade Department. Or maybe, there was a short drought, an occasion that happened every six months in Konoha, and farmers–as usual–were panicking, inflating food prices and scrambling for water, when there was in fact more than enough for everyone.
Or the cluster fuck of a situation where one of his own ninjas temporarily incapacitated the entire single/unfaithful kunoichi population of Suna, an event so notorious, the perpetrator had a cult following, and the week still lived on in infamy.
Or when an Iron country samurai supposedly committed ritualistic suicide and was hung by his balls.
Now those situations had been hell to resolve.
There were allied and neutral villages that requested loans from Konoha, either to pay their underpaid civilian population or to spend it on their militaries. Here Minato pinched his nose with a weary exhale; he, and the diplomats sent to those villages, would always do a moral service by advising the loan takers to put the money into something more sustainable, like agriculture or trade. The borrowers would just nod their heads eagerly and hold out their hands for the money.
At least those loan takers owed them, and Konoha always collected its debts.
Then there were Iwa scouts pushing and prodding at Konoha's border, doing their utmost to try his patience, and needing to be deterred every so often.
Then there were the missing-ninjas, Konoha's or otherwise.
Although not many emergencies were overt enough to cause mass panic in the Hidden Leaf Village, there was always something going on that concerned Konoha, and he was constantly kept busy.
Minato was interrupted by a knock.
"Yes?" he called.
A Chunin assistant opened the door. They entered and stood at attention. "Lord Hokage, sir."
"Yes, Daisuke. What is it?" he mumbled, signing an official order for his ANBU and non-ANBU elite Jounin to collaborate on dissolving Orochimaru's Hidden Sound network. Without looking, he held two scrolls over his shoulder, to his back, and ANBU Operative Tiger leaped down from somewhere, collected the scroll, and rushed to deliver it to Konoha's Black Operative Commander and Minato's Head of Shinobi Affairs.
The aforenamed Daisuke bowed. "Mister Naruto and Miss Rin are here for the meeting."
The Hokage grunted. "Yes, bring them in."
The Chunin opened the door wider and stood aside for his children to enter.
"Good morning, Lord Hokage, sir." The two greeted in unison, parting ways as Naruto sat on the chair before the Hokage's desk and Rin went to the window, plopping down and leaning back to catch more sunlight. Within the confines of the Namikaze clan before they mostly died out, they joked that Flash Step Release holders were human solar panels, soaking in the rays of the sun and super-changing it to chakra when needed. They were also compared to cats, lounging on the porch and basking in the sun. Minato saw the tiredness of Rin's sagged shoulders, and decided that she wasn't in the mood to be joked with this morning.
Naruto on the other hand…
"Kami, Naruto, you look terrible." The graying Namikaze beamed and his teenage son glared murderous ire through simmering purple eyes. "Like, worse than normal."
"You and Mikoto both are just one person." The boy scolded, crossing his right ankle over his left knee. "She already said that this morning."
Pleased with himself, the man reclined and smirked, lacing his fingers over his stomach. "She does take after me, doesn't she?" he posed with his chin between his thumb and middle fingers, smoldering. "She's got my roguish good looks, and my way with the ladies."
The man made sure to roll that last word on his tongue, and Rin shrieked, covering her ears and closing her eyes. "Dad, stop!"
The man howled in laughter.
Naruto scoffed, joking right back. "She's also got your bald spot and your bad smelling farts."
Minato's laugh increased, tumbling back and holding his stomach.
The Chunin assistant didn't know how to remind the father-children trio of his presence, so he just spoke up. "Uhm…Lord Hokage, sir."
Trying to breathe, Minato asked. "Huh, Daisuke?" He wiped the tears streaming from his eyes with a handkerchief, humming. "Remind me again if I have any other meeting."
"By ten, you have a meeting with Lord Kazekage to talk about maintaining the Konoha-Suna Highway and on training exercises for Konoha and Suna ninjas. By noon, you have tea with the Elders. By one-thirty, Lady Mebuki Haruno wishes to speak to you concerning the recent surge in violence against Konoha's travelling merchants. And lastly, you wanted me to remind you to contact Lord Jiraiya. No specified time."
"Remind me to do that when I'm finished with Naruto and Rin."
"Yes, sir." The Hokage waved him off, and the Chunin left with a bow.
"Long day ahead." Rin remarked. "I feel sorry you have to have tea with those Elders."
"You get used to how predictable it is. Some days. And besides, the Elders aren't so bad if you get to understand where they're coming from. They're just…" Minato shrugged, looking for the right word. "Old fashioned. Their time was harsh. Survive or die. Peacetime, and Konoha not having major fights with our neighbours, is something they're still not used to. There's some wisdom in them, though, if you look past the…y'know." The twins winced at that last part; the elders could be a bit biased in their opinions, especially when it came to allies. Searching his desk for something, he glanced at his son. "Long night?"
"Yeah." Naruto slouched further into his chair. "Isolating the poison from my organs while I sleep is difficult." While he was awake, on the other hand, it wasn't a big issue, if not bothersome. "Don't worry about me. You wanted to give us a mission?"
"Hm." The man finally found what he was looking for; it was a featureless brown binder, two inches thick with black-and-white pictures poking out from the corners. The binder was stuffed full with sheets of paper and those pictures. He passed the book to his son, looking to his daughter as she turned her gaze to them. "Take a look at this and tell me what you think."
The girl hopped off the window and walked to her brother, leaning down with her right arm over Naruto's right shoulder and her head peering over her brother's left.
A quarter of the way into the book, Rin wondered. "Kiri's civil war is over?"
Naruto mumbled. "Supposedly." He looked at a clean, grayscale picture of the Mizukage and the rebel leader, Mei Terume, shaking hands in front of the village gates. "The Mizukage and the rebels reached an agreement, and called for an end to the war."
"Mei Terume's now the Head of Bloodline Matters." Rin read the caption underneath another picture, one where the former rebel leader was shown at the back of a desk, busily ordering an eyepatch wearing ninja, while at the same time answering a landline call. "She called for rebels in all parts of Kiri to stop fighting, and for Kiri refugees to come back home."
They all pursed their lips and grunted.
It seemed the three of them were more alike than they thought.
Their thoughts on the Kiri matter, for instance, were mostly the same.
Kiri had been in a civil war since the very end of the Third Great Shinobi War, twenty or so years ago, when the Fourth Mizukage had taken the position of Kage of Kiri.
Before his rise and before the war, Yagura had been a strong driving force in favour of the destruction of Konoha due to several past experiences. The man was relatively unknown even by his Kiri peers until he spearheaded many political kidnappings, many of which were vastly successful in increasing the weight of his name; the first was the kidnap and ransoming of the Fire Lord's oldest son, then came the assassination of a dozen Waterfall dignitaries on Kiri soil, and then followed the kidnapping he was most known for in Konoha.
An event that was now known to be the flash that heralded the end of the Third War, a large squad of Kiri ninjas spirited Rin Noharu away from her teammates while they were on a mission, and then released her days later, close to Konoha's south eastern wall. She was guided by a number of following Kiri ninjas. The Three Tails had been sealed inside her and timed to release at a certain close proximity to Konota, until the now only other member of Team Minato came to her rescue, only for her to reveal her current state and impale herself on Kakashi's Chidori.
Till this day, the Leaf was still unable to recover Rin Noharu's body, stolen from where she was last seen alive by some unknown person.
Yet, rumors persisted that Yagura had sealed the Three Tails inside himself, and mastered its power.
That could be true, or it could easily be a lie.
Still, Yagura's ascension to Mizukage was strongly contested.
Till Yagura assassinated all eleven of his fellow Mizukage aspirants in a free-for-all battle for the position; the eleven being S rank ninjas in their own right, and being against the platform Yagura stood on, they collectively saw the small, childlike man as a threat to their village, and joined forces to eliminate him first and foremost.
They didn't succeed.
This was before rumors of Yagura having the Three Tails began spreading.
Konoha's hidden spectators that day reported the same thing:
He became a monster.
He showed no emotion. No hesitation and no regret thereafter, snapping bone and drowning his countrymen with clinical efficiency and quickness.
When he had eliminated his last opponent and covered head-to-toe in blood, he was no longer childlike in appearance.
Naruto and Rin looked at a recovered photograph of the Mizukage, with his foot stepped through the shattered skull of his former opponent, blood and brain matter caking his foot. The image was made worse by the condescending, almost lifeless, look at the broken corpse.
Immediately upon taking the position, Yagura purged his Council of bloodline holders and bloodline-sympathetic, executing them and their entire extended families publicly.
The next photo was of a long row of hooded men, women and children, strung up on gallows. Their hands were tied at their backs and their ankles were restrained by ropes.
Heads were driven into pikes.
Feet were sawed off and hands were broken.
Clan compounds were burned, corpses were desecrated
Children cried for their murdered parents, left with their mangled corpses.
The twins glowered at the reminder of the Mizukage's emotionless brutality.
They knew all too well of the Mizukage's hate.
For Konoha. For their clan. For them.
Yagura began nurturing generations of bloodline-haters and destroyers.
Bloodline holders and bloodline-sympathetics banded together and fought back, beginning with some isolated skirmishes where bloodline bearers brawled with traders for being spat on, or when a bomb was exploded on the floor level of the Mizukage's building, killing scores and injuring even more.
This all culminated in the start of Kiri's Bloody Civil War.
Minato quietly supported the rebel forces with food and medicine, helping Kiri refugees escape and housing them in the village.
There was a thriving district in the Hidden Leaf populated by former Kiri residents, who had adopted Konoha as their home. They were mainly fishers and rice farmers, though more than a few assimilated themselves into Konoha's ninja force. Although sectioned off somewhat into what was called the Kiri district, the refugees were provided as much support as any other person, as long as they showed honesty in their intentions. Some eight clans and hundreds of refugees lived and worked in Konoha, bettering their lives and Konoha's economy.
Kiri was the only village that had a named district in Konoha, something their ally, Suna, didn't yet have.
Konoha's support for the rebel forces was unstated in any public record.
Minato recognized that allowing Yagura absolute power in such a vital hub as Kiri spelt disaster for Konoha and its allies. Kiri had a wealth of shinobi knowledge concerning Hunter Ninja training, weapons making, aquatic agriculture, and the oil reserves located in their territory.
And though disturbed by the reality of their intentions, the rebel leader didn't care why Konoha was sending them supplies.
No village or country had any selfless intention when they chose a side in the civil war.
Kumo sided with the Mizukage, stating that they wanted bloodline holders exported from Kiri to Kumo. Hidden Marshes supported the rebels because many of their citizens had their lives rooted in Kiri, and the bloodline genocide so close to their borders was a matter of national security. Suna, Iwa and Snow country were decidedly neutral, offering asylum to those that wandered over their borders, doing so to boost the numbers of prospective shinobi and improve their economies with the injection of willing manpower.
Selflessness in this world was always met with justified suspicion.
The ANBU stationed in the corners of the office observed the three Namikaze contemplate in silence, Rin taking the other seat before the Hokage's desk and gingerly accepting the plain brown binder when her brother offered it to her to read.
"Realistically," Naruto began with a murmur, "the Mizukage's views can be negotiated with."
"Clan genocide," Rin whispered, appalled and shaking her head. "Bloodline genocide."
"How can the Mizukage reach a truce with the rebels, right?" Minato hummed, looking at his children with doubtful blue eyes. "How can twenty years of war just end like that? All of a sudden. Without warning."
"Have there been any bloodline purges recently?" Naruto posed the question.
Minato shook his head. "Not since last month. Then, after that, the truce was called. Kiri's sealed its borders ever since. No one can get in, except refugees and authorized personnel." Pointing to the binder, Minato said. "This information was two decades in the making; the spy that compiled them submitted their last entry before the Chunin exam started, then they suddenly went dark."
A grim silence fell on them, and on the observing ANBU shinobi.
Minato nodded. "I can't confirm for sure…but I know my spy is damn well unkillable. They'll be in hiding, gathering intel and stockpiling data, 'til they hear from me to come back home."
Rin closed the book, and shared looks with her father and brother. "You're both thinking the same thing, right?"
They nodded.
"Although I can't, in good conscience, send you out on the field in your condition." Minato said to his son. "I also can't send Rin to Kiri alone, given the risks."
Alone, Naruto and Rin were A rank.
Together, the Red Demon and the Angel of Konoha were high S-rank.
No other team in Konoha could boast this feat.
Naruto smirked, realizing that his resolution to not being given a mission until Tsunade was returned was unfounded. "So, you're saying–"
"I want both of you to find out what's really going on in Kiri." He sat forward, setting his forearms on the table and narrowing a look at the twins, who were growing increasingly unable to contain their excitement. "Do not engage unless you absolutely cannot avoid it; this isn't a combat mission. It's purely reconnaissance. This mission would be off the books. S rank till I decide otherwise." An unspoken warning went to the spectating black operatives in the room, warning of pain and suffering if a word of this mission was breathed outside of the confines of the Hokage's office. "Find what you can and get back to me immediately. Am I understood?"
The two shot to their feet, stoic and determined. "Yes, Lord Hokage, sir."
"Gear up and get into Kiri undetected." He tossed Rin a scroll and she opened it; it was blank. "Look for Crow's Feet and give them that scroll to confirm it's you. Listen to what they have to say and work off what they've already done. Since you can't go to Kiri directly, you'll have to find other ways inside. Use your discretion."
The twins nodded. "Understood, Lord Hokage, sir."
Testament to their speed, the two were packed and south-eastbound on a ship to Hidden Marsh within five minutes.
Authors note
How do you like this short chapter? I'll be using this length from here on, so I can upload more often. Hopefully the quality would increase and I won't get burnt out too quickly. Don't ask how or why I didn't think to do this sooner; I have no idea. Thanks for the advice, DoctorNiklaus.
Any who…
What do you think of this chapter?
What do you think of the story so far?
Let me know what you think, would you so kindly. Please and please, stay safe, wherever you are in the world.
I'll see you when I see you.
Foy.
