Kakashi's POV

I was busy lounging on my couch while reading Jiraiya-sama's book this afternoon. It was a lazy day so I just decided to pass my free time like this since I have nothing to do at the moment.

Lately, the hokage had been assigning more missions to my team.

Today was supposedly my day-off, but I didn't really plan on doing anything since I know I could probably be called in at the sandame's office any time to take up a new mission. I didn't mind it though, since it made me busy and kept me away from being too consumed with thoughts of Sumire again.

I miss her too much these days.

Remembering her makes me more depressed than how I usually did previously. Images of her kept flooding my mind, her face haunts my dreams every night and there's nothing I could think of during the day but her- the way her voice sounds, the warmth of her hugs, the comforting feeling she gave me when she held my hand, her captivating amethyst eyes and her long silver-blonde locks.

Everything about her drives me crazy and I am certain I'm currently being a lovesick fool lately.

I was so close to finally being with her almost a year ago, but I let her slip away from my grasp during our short encounter. The more I think about what happened, the more upset and aggravated I feel about it.

My mind would be filled about the things I should've done so I didn't need to let her go that time, and I would feel regret and disappointment afterwards because if I had played my cards better that night, she would be with me right now and I wouldn't have to suffer like this at the moment.

There are days when I would just scream in frustration while I train myself to exhaustion. The sandaime reprimanded me about it since I destroyed a couple of training grounds already, but I had to do it because I needed to let out my negative emotions instead of keeping them all inside.

An ANBU operative suddenly flickered outside my apartment's window. He did a couple of hand signs that the black ops used to communicate silently, informing me that the hokage required my presence at the tower.

I quickly shut the book I have at hand and dressed up appropriately before heading out to report at the sandaime's office.

The secretary by the hokage's door told me to proceed inside since I had been expected by the old man.

"Hokage-sama, you called for me?" I asked as I closed the door behind me.

The old man was standing by the window, observing the village quietly from his office, but turned towards me as soon as he heard my voice. "Yes, sorry to bother you again during your rest day."

I replied, "It's alright. I'd probably be training myself to death or overthinking alone in my apartment again if you hadn't called for me."

The hokage returned to his desk and sat down as he replied, "Then I'll make use of your excellent skills as a shinobi and let you handle this urgent matter."

I nodded in silence and waited for the sandaime to continue talking about it, "A mission request from the daimyo was sent today. It's about gathering evidence against a group that had been targeting businessmen across the Land of Fire. They would pretend to be interested in a partnership and set up a meeting with their innocent victims, but then they'd start exploiting people by forcing them to sign business agreements and contracts to be able to steal large amounts of money. They use various dubious methods to intimidate their victims into complying with their demands."

"This case seems like something that should be handled by the civilian police at the capital, but I guess there's more to it if the daimyo wanted us to get involved," I voiced out my opinion regarding the matter.

The hokage nodded at my words, "Their chosen victims aren't the usual civilians though, they go for well established business owners who come from prominent families across Hi no Kuni. Their actions are significantly impacting the nation's economic stability because they're specifically targeting major and vital businesses that contribute significantly to the country's income. As a result, some of these enterprises have been forced to close due to financial losses, leading to widespread unemployment among the civilian population. This not only poses a threat to the country's overall prosperity but also affects us here at Konoha, as these businesses play a crucial role in funding the nation through their tax contributions, and we receive financial support from the daimyo using that money."

"How come those people have the means to do that?" I asked in bewilderment.

"These criminals aren't scared about the repercussions of their actions because their leader and a few of the members come from influential families in the capital with ties to the daimyo's court, that's also the reason why avoiding casualties in this mission is crucial to prevent internal conflict from arising within Hi no Kuni's upper echelons. The daimyo only requires us to give him solid evidence to ensure nobody could worm their way out of this once he takes action against these individuals." Then the old man handed me a file containing all the profiles of our targets.

"Understood, hokage-sama," I briefly replied.

"We have intel that most of the members were based at Tanzaku Gai and have been planning on meeting with another victim tomorrow, but their leader was spotted in a town called Mizumori, so divide your team accordingly." I'm aware that Tanzaku Gai is southwest of Konoha and a good distance from the village- it's roughly ten hours of travel on foot for an experienced shinobi like myself. On the other hand, Mizumori is located farther and is the closest town in our country that borders the Land of Rivers, it's about four hours from Tanzaku Gai.

The hokage further explained, " Asuma will meet you at Tanzaku Gai in three days so hand over the evidence to him by then. He's already in the loop about the mission and he will handle delivering the evidence back to the capital."

"Hai hokage-sama. I'll personally go to Mizumori since I'm the fastest traveling by foot among my team. This way, we can make sure to get the evidence to Asuma in Tanzaku Gai on time.

The hokage's son, Asuma Sarutobi, had departed the village a few years ago to be a part of the Twelve Guardian Shinobi of Fire. He left after the sandaime got reinstated as hokage again after the nine-tails attack, so it's been a long time since anybody from Konoha had heard from him. We aren't exactly close friends but I'm acquainted with him back when we were younger, so it'd be nice to see him again after so long.

"Your team excels in missions and is capable of delivering fast results, it would be useful in this situation since our targets have the means to quickly cover their movements since they have enough resources to do so. Their money and family's influence enables them to continue with their criminal activities." The hokage reminded me again, "Remember that you're only there for the evidence, the daimyo's men would handle this themselves once you bring the proof they need."

I replied, "Hai, hokage-sama."

"Do you remember Kinoe?"Asked the hokage while glancing my way.

I gave a resolute nod in response to his question.

I've encountered that ANBU operative numerous times on my black ops missions, and it's not all on good terms because he was under Danzo Shimura's Root Division so his mission objectives sometimes clashed with mine. Nonetheless, I've been acquainted with him and even resorted to calling him Tenzo, the name got stuck in my head when a child from one of the missions we were entangled in started calling him that.

"He will be a part of Team Ro starting from today," said the hokage.

Now that is surprising.

Not everyone is able to free themselves from Danzo's grasp, but I'm glad he's out of Root since that division is rotten to the core. They got talented shinobi among their roster, but it's a well-known fact among high-ranking ninja in Konoha that Root is like a personal assembly of soldiers that was controlled solely by Danzo for his own interests.

Good for Kinoe. It would be better this way since his skills and abilities would be dedicated to the village rather than the personal agendas of one man.

"I'll meet him today at the ANBU headquarters along with the rest of my squad to discuss this mission." I answered and then patiently waited for the hokage's next order.

The sandaime nodded then spoke with a commanding tone, "That's all for now, you're dismissed."

I bowed my head in response before heading out to the ANBU headquarters , and waited for my team to arrive for our meeting.

They arrived a couple of minutes after I asked my canine summons to fetch them for me, "Thank you for coming here on such short notice and I apologize if your rest day has been bothered again, but we have no choice but to answer once our duties call upon us."

"Hai, captain," my squad replied collectively.

"As you can see, we have a new member in our team. This is Kinoe but you can call him Tenzo outside missions," I pointed at the younger guy as I introduced him. "Why don't we all remove our masks for a while so you all can properly acquaint yourselves to Tenzo and vice versa." I removed my porcelain hound mask and everyone followed instantly, then pleasantries and introductions were exchanged among my team.

Afterwards, I proceeded to tell them the mission objective, our targets, and the locations.

I concluded the explanation about this mission with a few instructions, "Find out who their next victim would be and document everything that would happen, we need all the evidence we could get our hands on, but remember not to get involved and avoid any form of contact even if a fight escalated between any of the parties involved as we were only there to gather evidence on behalf of the daimyo. This is an urgent matter so we must finish this assignment as quickly as we can. "

The team responded in unison, "Hai, captain."

"I need to be at Mizumori since the group's leader would be there. Its location is farther and we had a three-day deadline before we needed to submit the evidence, so I need one person who can keep up with my pace to accompany me while the rest of you would go to Tanzaku Gai ." I declared while glancing at everybody.

"I'll go with you, Captain. I'm fast on my feet, so I can keep up with you" said Tenzo while raising his hand.

"Alright," I replied to Tenzo then looked over at Genma, "Wolf, you'd be second in command. You'll be in charge until I rendezvous with you at Tanzaku Gai."

"Copy that," said Genma as he fidgeted with the senbon on his mouth.

"I'll summon Pakkun to accompany you. He can quickly reverse-summon himself to me if you need to send me any urgent message." I uttered those words while giving them the equipment we'll need to gather the evidence for this mission and the list of the individuals we need to keep an eye on.

Sumire's POV

Tanzaku Gai is a town where people indulge in their vices. There are gambling establishments, taverns, and pleasure houses that are found all throughout the place. The streets were crowded and filled with people coming from different walks of life and everyone in here came to have a good time, with the exception of myself and my green-eyed traveling companion, as we are here for business purposes only.

We've already checked in at a local inn as soon as we arrived yesterday evening and then dropped off the remaining deliveries to the Akinari's clients. All that's left to do was for Eiji to attend the business meetings he had lined up, with one of them scheduled for today, which is where we are headed to at the moment.

He insisted on taking me along, even though I would have preferred to explore the town on my own rather than attend a boring business meeting where I wasn't really needed.

"Stay close to me while we're here, I want to make sure you're safe. This might look like a normal tourist destination because of its lively vibe, but this is a dangerous place full of hoodlums, missing nins, and the likes." said Eiji with a very serious expression on his face.

Then he put an arm around my shoulder as we continued walking along the main street. His normal cheerful attitude was gone along with his playful remarks, which made him appear to be intimidating to those unfamiliar with him. He switches to this side of his personality whenever he becomes serious, mostly during business related situations or whenever he thinks trouble is around the corner.

Eiji exuded a daunting presence, it's probably because of his appearance and the confident manner in which he carries himself, most people become wary of approaching him whenever he's like this. He had his hair up in its usual messy bun, with his green eyes looking sharp and alert than it normally does, and his multiple ear piercings all on display. He forgoes the kimono attire he usually wore and currently had casual clothes similar to what I was wearing at the moment, a simple shirt with baggy cargo pants, which reveals the intricate symbols and characters inked on both of his arms.

I could feel that we're somewhat being watched as soon as we started walking on this busy street, and it made me really uncomfortable since I could sense their gazes despite them being intentionally hidden. Refining my sensing abilities turned out to be a great idea, as I've noticed its remarkable results at the moment.

I believe there are two distinct groups observing us from afar- one adept at concealing their presence, while the other just blends with the crowd in plain sight. I suspect the first group consisted of shinobi, as I sensed their chakra being deliberately suppressed. While the latter are probably civilians, identifiable by their notably smaller chakra presence that seemed almost non-existent.

If I wasn't a sensor, I wouldn't be able to notice them in the first place, since we're in the middle of a busy and crowded street.

I could sense that their scrutinizing gaze was directed more towards my companion rather than at me. I'm probably just caught up in this situation, but I feel fearful of Eiji's safety, maybe this has something to do with their family business.

I replied to my green-eyed friend's previous statement, "You don't need to look out for me, Eiji. I'm capable enough to protect myself so you should focus on your own safety more than mine."

I was about to take a step away from him to put a gap between us since we're standing too close next to each other, but he stopped me and pulled me closer, "Just let me do this while we're here, Sumi-chan." He looked really pissed as he directed his eyes towards a group of people standing nearby, "See those men from that pub looking at you like that? I could tell they're up to no good, and I'm restraining myself from delivering a punch to their smug faces."

My eyes scanned the area and I noticed the drinking establishment that Eiji was referring to, there were shady looking men standing by the door who were indeed shamelessly eyeing me up and down. However, it wasn't these men's attention that we should be worried about, but I think Eiji had no idea about the other people who were watching us like hawks at the moment.

I'm glad the shinobi group doesn't seem to have a negative aura coming off from them so I'm sure they aren't here to attack me or my green-eyed companion.

But the civilian group was reeking with bad energy. They seemed uncertain about how to approach Eiji because they hadn't made a move yet despite us being on this street for quite a while now, perhaps they're only observing for now and might act later on.

My green-eyed friend spoke up again, "If their stares are bothering you, just tell me and I'll beat them up."

I linked my arms with his as we walked, pulling him closer so I could whisper in his ear and share what was truly bothering me, "Eiji, don't panic but I need to tell you something."

I felt the need to keep our voices down, as I worried that the people spying on us might hear us talking about them.

He gave me a nod and waited for me to continue, "We're being watched by two separate groups, one of them consists of shinobi while the other are just civilians."

He suddenly stopped walking and glanced my way, then leaned down to whisper in my ear, "I have a feeling something was bothering you and I noticed you were tense earlier, I thought it was the creepy stares that those men were giving you."

"No, I'm more concerned about the other people I told you about." My voice was very low as I responded and I'm sure there's no way that the people around us would be able to hear what we're talking about.

He replied in a similar way, "Let's just act normally as if we have no idea what's going on. We don't know for sure what they're up to and it's not good to make a fuss about it since we'll draw more attention to ourselves."

I agreed with a nod, "I could sense them even from a distance even though they're hiding." Then I gave him a reassuring smile and added, "Don't worry, I'll fight them off if they attack us."

He had a concerned expression on his face as he stood in front of me, "No, you won't. I'm the guy here so I should be the one protecting you."

I gave him a frown to show my disagreement over his statement. "Don't forget I was raised by a shinobi. I could fight well, you haven't seen me in action yet."

"I know you are amazing," he chuckled and gave me a small smile while delicately caressing my cheek with his fingers. "But I can't stop myself from caring about you."

"Don't be all mushy on me now," I removed his hand from my face and said, "It's so unlike you to act like this."

I'm a bit surprised by how he's been acting around me lately. There were times that he'd suddenly be like that, I'm not sure what caused this change and I don't have an idea how a guy's mind works.

"Don't mind me," he nervously chuckled and averted his eyes off mine.

There was an awkward silence that followed afterwards, we stood there for quite a while without uttering a single word. So I decided to start a different conversation with him, "So where would your meeting be held?"

In an instant, the comfortable atmosphere came back and we're able to interact again without the awkwardness from earlier.

"At the tea house on the next block," he responded while casually draping an arm over my shoulder as we started our paces again.

I could still feel some of the gazes fixated on us, but we continued our way and pretended not to notice anything.

I asked, "Why am I going with you anyway? It's not like my presence is required there, your business talks would probably bore me to death."

"I mentioned before that this is an unsafe place, so it's better that we stick together while we're here. How about I'll get you a new book to make up for boring you to death?" He looked at me while asking, "You like reading, right?"

I answered him, "Yes, but you don't have to do that. I don't want you to keep on spending for my sake."

"It's nothing compared to what you did for me when I was attacked and injured, so I'll keep on treating you out as much as I want to and buy you stuff that would make you happy," he said casually, maybe that's a normal thing that well-off people do.

"Why are you so nice to me?" I asked with a pout.

He leaned down out of sudden, and positioned his face very close to mine, with the tips of our noses almost touching. Then he said in a low voice, "Stop pouting, it's tempting me to kiss you."

His teasing remarks are back, but his eyes and facial expression looked very serious.

"Shut it, baka!" I answered with a flushed face, his comment and action made my cheeks redden from embarrassment, so I nudged at his side using my elbow with a bit of force.

He groaned in pain as he held the spot where I jabbed him a while ago, but the green-eyed guy gave me a genuine smile when he noticed my face being bright red at that moment.

"Let's hurry up, tomato-chan," Eiji suddenly intertwined his fingers with mine and quickened his pace as he led the way through the crowded street towards our destination.

This guy is driving me insane with his antics, but I'm not that bothered about his actions since I could easily deal with him like how I normally do.

What's currently troubling me are the people I sensed around us. I have a feeling that something unpleasant might happen, so it's crucial for us to stay alert while we're here, and then leave this place as soon as we can.