Scarlet Justice - ep. 129
"Posit"
[Golden Rust: Prologue]

Another day leads to another mission. This time, however, the three junior members of Team Eight will be taking off on their own. I make breakfast for Fio, don my favourite black sweater, and then leave for the meeting point at the village's entrance.

A trip to the Iron Country, for the purpose of material and document exchanges. Political turmoil has increased as of late, and so the old man wants to send proper assurances to the samurai leadership. As of today, they are led by the legendary samurai Mifune, who wields the blade called Kurosawa. Senpai has mentioned him more than once, and was an admirer of him, along with another...

"Everyone's ready? Equipment checked?" Kurenai asks.

"Equipment checked and ready, sensei," I reply. "All clear."

She nods and looks over to Shino and Hina as they get their backpacks on. The Iron will be slightly colder than we're used to, and well out of the way compared to the other shinobi villages. It will certainly be an interesting trip for that alone. Hina wears her usual outfit, with her extra hair put up into a ponytail again. Shino looks much the same, save for one significant difference. He has a new pair of glasses on today.

"A present from your parents?" I ask him.

"Mother said it was a late gift for my promotion."

"Ah, I see. Hm...the material for the frame is lighter than before, yes?"

"It is."

"The lenses also look much sturdier," Hina says. "It must have cost quite a bit for them."

"Yes. Though Mother would not disclose the details."

"Well, Miss Kiko wouldn't want you to worry," she says with a smile. "It is a gift for her son, after all."

"It might sound bad from here, but...I really can't tell the difference between this and the last pair," Kurenai says with a frown.

"It's alright, sensei. Unlike your taste in food, you can change your perception on eye wear given some time."

She rolls her eyes at him. "You never miss your opportunities to needle me, do you..."

He pushes his glasses up with one finger. "I have been taught by the best."

"Hah. Well, every sign of progress is good. I know you've been on missions before, solo and otherwise...but I want you three to be careful out there."

"We will be," Hina says confidently. "In the meantime, petition heaven for our safe return, and be sure to take your rest, sensei."

"Hinata..."

"Remember that we love you dearly, and that we're also here for you," she says with a bright smile. "You're not just our sensei, you're our cool big sister."

Kurenai blushes and clears her throat. "Yes. Of course. I know that you'll do well, so...I was just giving you a bit of extra advice. With all that said, I'll be waiting for you to make it back."

"Then if it's okay...we're taking off now," I say. "We'll be thinking of you, Kurenai. Please take care."

"Until next time, sensei," Shino says.

"Take care, Kurenai-sensei," Hina says with a bow.

"Right. Good luck, Team Eight."

We nod to each other and start off at last, through the forest and into the summer morning.

"Come back safe, you three...I love you."

I hear Kurenai's whisper in the wind, and take it into me. We rise together from the first tree branch, and so our journey begins in earnest.

It has been nearly two days since the start of our mission, and we've decided to set up camp in the twilight hours to rest. With no estimated arrival time, we should be able to take as long as we need to reach our destination. But it would be prudent to get there and back in a responsible amount of time.

Our current position is on the eastern edge of Grass Country. Shino spreads his insects out to help with surveillance, and volunteers to take an extended first watch for us. He must have his reasons, so Hina and I accept his offer without a tussle. This is neutral territory and we have a good enough vantage point, so we use the tent that I prepared for cold weather camping.

I don't feel very tired, so I read one of the novels that I've packed while I rest with Hina inside. We're both halfway inside of our sleeping bags.

"..."

The quiet isn't unsettling, but...it's a bit unnatural right now. Hina gets the same idea and turns over to face me. I catch her movement in my peripheral and place a marker inside of my book before closing it, giving her my full attention.

It has been about three weeks since my fight with Naruto.

"Do you want to talk about it?" I ask.

"If it's okay."

"It is. I have things that perhaps I should say, but they can always wait."

"Can they?"

"They can, especially for you. A lot has happened, Hina. More than most can reliably take in."

"That much is true..." She sighs. "After going to see him recently, at home...things are set to change again. We've been talking a while, and I've learned to take note of things left unsaid...the small gaps in communication that come from a person's character. You and I can read each other so well for reasons like that. That incident hasn't rattled him too much, but he's more aware of that strength inside of him, and how it can be perceived. He's been trying to take a different approach to his interactions with Sasuke. So they're on much better terms now."

"That's good to hear."

"It is. Still...Jiraiya's hand is becoming heavier by the day."

"What has he done now?" I ask.

"They're still restricted on Lady Tsunade's orders, meaning that there's no heavy training or use of the Nine Tails' chakra. You might recall that she scolded them both thoroughly for their recklessness."

"Indeed I do."

"The two of them are planning to do extensive training as soon as Naruto is cleared for a return to service. That is to say, they will be doing so in isolation, away from the village."

"Something like that...why leave? Aren't there enough facilities here?" I ask. A moment passes and I come to a realization. "That's right, I forgot. Jiraiya has his work to do with regards to Akatsuki, among other things. He can take care of Naruto for a while and keep his finger on the pulse of the world. It's not a terrible plan, but I tire of him and his antics."

"It might be a few years before they come back, if what I picked up was correct. Very likely they'll be leaving before the end of summer."

"What do you plan to do?"

"Nothing out of the ordinary. I think that I should just spend as much time with him as I can, and try to keep him grounded. You know...I find myself falling in love with him more and more each day. He's still the pure-hearted person I remembered. Always fighting forward, and tries to be mindful of his loved ones."

"I'm happy that he recovered well enough from our little scuffle," I say. "The outcome was never in doubt, but those moments where I thought he was lost...those were unsettling, more than the feeling of that malicious chakra. I wish I could figure out what that man was thinking when he placed the Nine Tails inside of that boy..."

"Yes..."

"What about you? Are you doing alright, Hina?"

"Better than I thought I would," she says with a small smile. "There was a bit of anxiety after seeing Naruto in that state, but after watching him recover, I felt a lot better. There's an optimism inside of me that wasn't there a long time ago. It means that I can bounce back from distressing things like this. The old me...she would have crumbled to pieces already."

"That's true. You certainly have grown since we first met."

"And it's all your doing."

"Some of it, at least. After all, if you didn't choose to take the first step forward, it would have been for nothing."

"I still owe you my life, Lili."

"I suppose you can have the last word on that, then."

"Thank you kindly."

I laugh softly at that.

"Do you have your own plans?" Hina asks.

"Plans? What do you mean?"

"Since Naruto is going to be off in the countryside training...I wondered if you might be doing something similar for your own growth. In the space of time I have, I will more than likely be making use of the facilities at the Hyuuga Estate. It only makes sense, and I'll have Hanabi and Neji around to guide me."

"Ah, I see what you mean. My thoughts have always been that I would continue my training with Ane-ue and Luna. So I would be away from the village for a while in that case. I have to go through a few more checks before making that decision though, like figuring out the movements of Akatsuki, what's going to be happening with Sasuke, things of that nature. It wouldn't do to leave the village and then come back to see all of my hard work fall apart. Not that I think you and the other girls would let it happen if you could help it, but..."

"No, I understand. There are many things that I'm not privy to, and probably shouldn't be at this point in time. Not to mention that everything to do with Sasuke is...difficult."

"Without a doubt, it's a significant headache." I sigh. "We'll have to see what can be done about his condition and status within the village. Danzo has started to shuffle his pieces around. However, it's nothing we should worry about too much at this moment."

"I agree. I don't have anything else I need to talk about. Do you, Lili?"

"Nothing, no. Let's try and get some sleep, then. Shino wanted to take a long watch, but we also don't want him stretching himself too thin."

"Yes. I'll see you in a few hours, then."

I blow her a kiss, and she smiles before closing her eyes. I shut off my reading light and settle into my sleeping bag before closing my own eyes, drifting into sleep.

We continue on our way, moving across the far north of the country where the Hidden Rain Village is located. There hasn't been much talk of it recently...Naruto said that he encountered shinobi from that place during the Chuunin Exams, and that they were ones to favour assassination techniques and various types of illusions. It matches up with the reports that I've read, as the Hidden Rain is a favourite of clients who want to erase their problems without drawing too much attention. Rumblings of civil unrest, though few and far in between, give me pause. The leader of the village is a man known as Hanzo of the Salamander, notoriously powerful with a flee on sight order, the same as the Fourth Hokage. He was also the one who wrote the names of Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Orochimaru into the pages of history, naming them the Legendary Three Shinobi for their feat of surviving against him in the Second Shinobi World War.

I wonder what type of person Hanzo is. Perhaps one day soon I will find out.

He also had a connection to the samurai, whose nation we are heading towards at the moment. Things have changed substantially for them as well, ever since the formation of the shinobi villages. Our ideologies differ: samurai tend to hold to their strong ideals and convictions, honing themselves constantly in the same way they do their weapons. Shinobi, unfortunately, have wildly diverging loyalties depending on the situation, and can easily become corrupted by the prospects of money, fame, and power. Samurai are by no means immune, but the transient nature of strong and unified pursuits of harmony within the shinobi world makes any drive towards peace difficult. It is said that for this reason, the shinobi world will be endlessly wrapped in darkness and conflict. I want to change that some day, but I know that it will be difficult. I must grow in wisdom as well as strength if I am to keep that promise to myself. It's also possible that the shinobi world won't survive the transition I have planned for it...that much can be mourned for a short moment if we get there. This isn't exactly a world we can't live without...

"I hear the samurai are quite formidable," Shino says to me. At this point, we don't have to worry about dodging storms. This country is just a bit miserable compared to Fire.

"You heard correctly. They're all skilled weapon users, from the youth to the elderly," I reply. "It is said that every family with at least one samurai knows how to wield a blade by default, because the one person makes sure to spread their teachings to their loved ones in case of emergency. Naturally, this means that there are those in the next generation who are already skilled weapon users the moment they come of age."

"An efficient system."

"Quite. But of course, their swords are not just tools. They are extensions of themselves, and are treated as such. Some shinobi have a great love for their weapons and focus on maintaining them for that reason. The samurai have a much deeper philosophy than that."

"I would think that there would be a lot more of them," Hina says.

"Yes. The truth is that many samurai bands saw the changes in the world early on, and decided to switch over to becoming shinobi. It was an easy enough transition, seeing as they already knew how to use chakra for combat purposes. Shinobi were also seen as both cheaper for clients, and much more willing to take on unsavoury and dangerous missions. Samurai on the other hand, wanted fair compensation and refused work that clashed with their consciences. This led to them being relied on less and less within the growing shinobi world, and thus they are now found mainly within their own country, living and working freely as members of the military."

"Do...you think we can learn something from them? Perhaps an observation or two?"

"Certainly. I suspect that as long as we remain respectful, they will show us proper hospitality. Lessons can be gleaned from such interactions."

"I see. Then I'll do my best."

"That was never in doubt," I say with a smile.

We move forward as the days continue, further west through barren and uninhabited lands. Unsuitable for living, or much else. The climate is a unique mix of dry air, harsh wind, and temperatures that alternate between extreme heat and vicious, biting cold. From what I can recall of the school books in my previous, normal life, these conditions are supposed to be similar to that of the surfaces of heavenly bodies. Of course, since we have breathable air and a complex atmosphere, it means our travel through these places on Earth are merely inconvenient as opposed to immediately fatal. I do wonder what travel beyond the bounds of this world would be like. And the moon itself, there are interesting legends about how it was created. More things to research later. I can't wait.

"This should be the place, Boss."

Finally. It's been about five days since we left the village, which is a good pace with everything considered. Though it's summer everywhere else, the Iron Country is quite cool at this time of year, with light layers of snow covering everything around us. I imagine that it's even colder away from the eastern border, where we currently sit. Shino makes a large enough fire pit and we stock it with plenty of wood and other flammable materials. The fire is lit, and a large, brilliant flame emerges out of it. More than visible to anyone watching.

"Hina, one last check of the code before we start," I say to her. She nods and takes out a scroll, scanning it quickly before nodding to me in confirmation.

"Yes. It's as listed...the material we brought was the correct one for the signal."

"Thank you. Let's step back a bit and wait for the response to come in. Completing the signal now." I pull a small bag out from my pocket, filled with salt. Hina and Shino retreat to the shadow of a different tree each, and I toss the bag into the flames before jumping back myself. The roaring fire flares up slightly as it changes colour to a brilliant yellow, burning like that for a minute or two before slowly returning to normal as the material is consumed. The one hundred fifty second timer starts now, and so we wait.

Right on schedule, a figure cuts into the area and wipes out the flames completely with the samurai's famous technique, iaido. Another follows and stands next to them. Though it is interesting...they're not wearing the traditional samurai armour that I've seen in books. They did do everything correctly, so it doesn't matter as far as the mission goes. But it still is curious. I make a bit of noise from behind my tree trunk before emerging, then quickly whistling twice to call out my comrades. We walk together towards the two samurai and stop a fair distance for both parties.

The first, the one who performed their iai to put out the flames, is a woman. Quite a lovely sight, at that. She has long black hair, with a stray bang crossing over her right eye, hazel eyes, and fair skin. A maroon sweater covers her upper half, with the lower half consisting of faulds and tassets layered over black pants and boots. The second is a gentleman with the same chocolate brown skin as Erika and short black hair; handsome looking with brown eyes, and quite fit from what I can tell. He wears a hand knit black sweater, with a blue vest over top of it and dark pants. His footwear is interesting, as they are those athletic shoes I've seen once upon a time. Unlike his partner, he carries little trace of the standard samurai trappings – just the sword on his side.

"You guys made it over okay, I hope."

"We did. The signal wasn't too much trouble?" I ask him.

"Not at all, easily dealt with. General Mifune said we were getting some solid characters, and he wasn't wrong," my host replies with a bright smile. Handsome and friendly...lovely to see, in any case.

"We don't wanna stand around too long chatting, yeah," the woman says. "Let's get everyone over and out of the cold some."

"Yeah, got it. Introductions first, though?"

"Ah, yeah. Sorry about that."

"Heh, no worries. Well, good morning to everyone. I know it's been a long trip from the Leaf, and we're happy to have you over. My name's Joshua, but you can call me Josh if you feel comfortable with that. As you might have guessed, I'm a samurai and part of the armed forces for the Iron Country. My job's mainly to escort you around while you get that important diplomatic work done, but if you have any questions or places you want to check out, just ask."

"Yuna," the woman says next. "I'm a samurai of the Iron too, and this guy's partner. If I seem like a hard-ass, don't worry too much about it. Just trying to do my job and not have the old man yell at me too much. Any worries about anything, you let me know. Josh is the one who knows about all the food spots, though."

"Heh."

"Word of advice, try not to do shinobi things while you're in the area. We're neutral and all, but people have their preconceptions of how you guys act. Since we can't do shit about that, you should keep your heads down for the most part and stick behind us. Our job is to deal with bullshit so that you don't have to."

"And so that you can give the Hokage a glowing report," Joshua says.

Yuna nods. "Yeah. The most important part of all. I'd like that fat bonus at the end of all this. Wanna get my hands on that new hair iron...anyways. Let's haul butt to our ride. Comes around every fifteen minutes from the station. Ah, shit." She shakes her head. "Sorry. I was...under the impression that you shinobi would be a pain in the ass, so I've been hurrying it along on reflex..."

"Bad first experience?" I ask.

"And tenth. And twentieth."

"It's...been interesting meeting up with shinobi from different lands. You guys are the coolest so far, though. So props for that," Joshua says with another smile.

"Well, let us properly finish introductions. My name is Lilith Kobayashi, jounin of the Hidden Leaf, and mission leader. It has been lovely meeting you both. My associates will introduce themselves. Ah, and Lili is perfectly fine if you are comfortable with that."

"My name is Hinata Hyuuga, chuunin of the Hidden Leaf and member of the Hyuuga Clan. Very nice to meet you."

"My name is Shino Aburame, chuunin of the Hidden Leaf and member of the Aburame Clan. Thank you for having us."

"Intros are done with. Quite a star studded cast we've got here...the Scarlet Viper herself, eh..."

"Indeed, one of my many titles," I say to Joshua.

"Hm. Well, we can chat about that a little later. Yuna had the right idea earlier, let's get into town proper. Then we can have a nice warm bite to eat."

"Barbecue sounds good," Yuna says.

"Yeah, been itching for some ribs myself. What do our guests think?"

I get affirming nods from Hina and Shino. "We are all on board," I say.

"Great. Let's go."

The five of us start at a light jog, exiting the snow covered forest and down the first visible path.