When my team was approached well past nightfall by an unidentified ninja, the last thing I was expecting to hear was a sales pitch. I thought we were going to be attacked for Kami's sake!
Hell, I wasn't yet convinced that we wouldn't be. Neither were the rest of my team. No one broke formation, and Biwa-sensei sternly ordered the curious Jashinists to keep their heads down.
"You can't be serious," Iwao said, and though he didn't let it show, I could tell he was just as caught off guard as I was. "What kind of ninja would we be if we let an unknown quantity join us with no means to verify their intentions?"
"A smart one," Haruto shot back with a smile. "See, this land is virtually unknown to outsiders—you think of it as anarchy, with blood-thirsty missing-nin ravaging the countryside, doing as they please. Am I wrong?"
He wasn't. From what we were told, bands of missing-nin wandered the countryside, acting with impunity and taking what they wanted.
It was a rhetorical question, so he continued.
"In actuality, that's far from the truth. Yes, due to external factors missing-nin are often the top dogs, as they say, but they have their own rules that they are obligated to follow. If anyone deviates from these rules, the other missing-nin join forces to take them out. The most basic rule is to respect territories. Stronger missing-nin take these territories from one another, while the weaker ones float between them. Groups that travel through said territories are required to pay respect, usually in the form of bribes in order to guarantee safe passage. If you don't know how to do that, you could find your mission…unfortunately cut short."
"We're not worried about any enemies we may encounter," Iwao said, dismissively. "In fact, we're interested in bounty hunting as we complete our mission, so avoiding these groups would be counterproductive for us."
Haruto pursed his lips, not expecting such a reply from a group that looked so young and inexperienced. Then, his gaze, seemingly for the first time, landed on sensei in the back of formation, and he physically recoiled.
"Kami, is that Tsuchibokori no Biwa?" he exclaimed.
If this were really an anime, I would have sweat-dropped.
"You just noticed?" Iwao asked, bemused. "You're not doing a great job at selling your skills."
"Well, clearly you don't need my skills," Haruto admitted. "What you do need is my information. My clan has lived in these parts long before missing-nin began to show up. We aren't as powerful as many of the ancient clans you'd find in Hidden Villages, but we've survived in such formidable conditions this long for a reason."
He held up one finger. "And that's because we cannot be taken by surprise. We have built connections with all the key players in the nation, and we have cultivated personal summons capable of slipping beneath everyone's notice. We keep tabs on all missing-nin that form territories, and even those that don't. If you're hunting bounties, wouldn't you like to have that information so you can go in prepared?"
That was a pretty big claim. Knowing who we'd be put up against ahead of time would be a huge advantage. But I'd also learned something else important in that little speech. I leaned towards Iwao, angling my head away from Haruto in case he could read lips.
"The Yatsureta clan is known for their lizard summons," I whispered. "They aren't useful in a fight, but once they reach a certain maturity, some gain the ability to speak."
Of course, the fact that Haruto knew that didn't count for much. I wasn't even from here and I had access to that information. However, if we observed him summoning one, we could be reasonably sure that he was who he said.
"Let us see one of those summons," Iwao demanded. "And I might be inclined to believe your information source."
Haruto shrugged obligingly. "So long as you don't blow me up for using chakra."
He ran through the seals for the summoning technique, but I couldn't get too excited. I'd been wondering why, during our stint outfitting bases along the Land of Earth's border, Biwa-sensei didn't try to hide his hand seals in front of me whenever he summoned the Kamizuru wasps, so I did some research. Apparently, the hand seals for the personal summoning technique were different from the hand seals of a noble summoning technique, which was what I'd need to poof on over to the Bestial Realm. I wasn't learning anything useful from this.
There was a puff of smoke when Haruto slapped his hands against the ground, and a small, innocent looking lizard appeared, its tongue flitting out in the air. It was kinda cute.
"This is Saburō," he introduced. "My valued partner. I'm hoping he'll start speaking any day now."
Iwao nodded, slowly. In terms of proof that he actually belonged to the Yatsureta clan, this was likely as good as we could get.
"Additionally, there is one point I'd like to make," he said, growing serious. "I believe you may be underestimating the dangers you might face here in Sōgen no Kuni. Having a ninja as powerful as Tsuchibokori no Biwa isn't enough to completely guarantee your safety. And, in fact, it comes with its own risks. There are missing-nin in this land that won't be cowed when such a high bounty is on the line, and some of them actually are powerful enough to pose a threat. Sure, you would likely win against many—if not all—of them, Tsuchibokori-san. But in the midst of an escort mission? Could you risk the collateral damage?"
"I don't appreciate your attempts at fear mongering," Iwao stated, briefly looking over his shoulder at the assembled Jashinists. He knew, as Haruto likely knew, that the final say in this matter lay with them. Especially since his wage would come out of their pockets.
"That implies that I'm attempting to mislead you. I'm not," Haruto said, earnestly. "Many missing-nin here are not in their right minds. They are so desperate that they might engage in fights they know deep down that they'd lose. Currently, I know of five jonin missing-nin in this nation—Irabu Hideki, Murakami Masanori, Yoshida Masataka, Nomo Hideo and Yamasaki Toyokazu."
All of us were careful not to react to the last name. If Haruto knew that Yamasaki was in the nation, that only made it seem less like he was full of shit. Maybe his extraordinary claims weren't baseless after all.
"You know where all those jonin are?" Biwa-sensei spoke up for the first time, and Haruto's eyes flicked to his warily.
"Yes," he stated boldly. "Every single one of them. But truthfully, at this very moment, they are the least of your concerns."
Iwao's frown deepened, trying to decide if that was a threat.
"How so?" he asked.
"There's someone far stronger than all of them," Haruto claimed. "And you're heading straight for his territory."
I straightened my posture. I had recognized every name he had rattled off—all of them were listed in the Bingo Book as A-rank threats. Murakami Masanori, from Konoha and Yoshida Masataka, from Suna pushed the upper bounds of that designation. To be considered far stronger than all of them…that person would have to be S-rank. Easily.
Which meant he was almost definitely exaggerating.
"Who is it?" Iwao asked.
"I don't know his name," Haruto claimed. "I don't think anyone does, and he always wears a mask. But we've seen what he can do. The aftermath, at least. He's a walking natural disaster. And yes, he does target high bounties. If he knew you were here, Tsuchibokori-san, he would hunt you, make no mistake. Last year, he got Mori Shinji, and from what I heard it was a one-sided slaughter."
Also a big name. It had made international news when someone brought in his head and he was taken out of the bingo book.
"People here call him the Demon of the Blood Gulch, which is the name of the territory he's claimed. Even though it's by far the most desirable place for a missing nin to live, being close enough to the main road to prey on foreign travelers like yourselves and new missing nin immigrating to Sōgen no Kuni, it's entirely uncontested. Everyone is far too scared of him."
If Haruto was telling the truth, we didn't want this demon getting wind of our arrival. I was sure Biwa-sensei could take him down, but the rest of us—the Jashinists especially—would be collateral damage.
Speaking of, Makishi was whispering up to Biwa-sensei, who was looking annoyed. With a huff, he jumped down to escort the Jashinist's leader to Iwao's side.
"I mean no disrespect to you, our valued protectors, but it may be in our best interests to take up Yatsureta-san on his offer," he said, and I could have clucked my teeth in annoyance.
"Nakagawa-san, please do not allow this man to intimidate you into making poor choices," Iwao told him. "There is no proof that his claims are true—you have been granted a team far superior than what you requested for this mission. You paid for a genin team, yet you received one of Iwagakure's strongest ninja."
"It's not just—or even primarily—about the threats he's mentioned," Makishi said. "My people and I had discussed seeking out a guide to educate us, and to act as a…cultural translator, if you will. We are foreigners in this land, and wish to make the best first impression on the locals we can. Now, one has landed in our laps, and I can't help but wonder if this is Jashin's providence."
Goodness. This was agitating. I didn't necessarily disagree with the choice, especially with the reasoning the priest gave. They needed a local guide if they wanted to make any positive impact in Sōgen. But for Kami's sake, this was a stranger! Even if he wasn't a missing-nin, who knows what ulterior motives he had?
At the end of the day, however, it was the client's choice to make. We'd said our piece, and that was all we could do.
"Really, it boils down to whether or not we can afford to pay you, Yatsureta-san," Makishi said. "What are you asking for?"
"Fifteen thousand ryo," he said quickly, and all of us were taken aback. Fifteen thousand ryo? That was nothing! Considerably less than the base cost of a C-rank mission (in Iwa, at least). I'd probably burn through that amount just resupplying after I got back from this mission!
Mashiki blinked owlishly at the ninja.
"That's all?" he asked, and it took all of my mental restraint not to slap myself on the forehead. How did this man survive as a part of society?
"Well, I'll take more if you're offering," Haruto mused, as if he thought that his price was fair. The ryo probably had a lot more purchasing power in these parts.
Makishi was too polite to just give him the fifteen thousand after that, so he agreed to twenty thousand, to our disbelief. It was clear that the priest still felt slightly guilty for offering that little, but Haruto was happy as a clam.
"If we're going to continue with this arrangement, you are going to remain under my direct watch," Biwa told him.
"Ah, of course," Haruto said, a touch skittish at the prospect. "Whatever stipulations you have, I will be sure to follow."
"And since you're on our clients payroll," he continued as if Haruto hadn't spoken. "For their safety, I want you to tell me exactly where those missing-nin you mentioned earlier reside."
- - - { ワナビー } - - -
It turned out that Biwa-sensei and Ayumu-sensei were already heading in the right direction, as, according to Haruto, Yamasaki's claimed territory was in northwest Sōgen. I didn't see him do it, but I was sure Biwa-sensei sent a wasp bearing that message to his other body.
We left the campsite the following morning earlier than we ever had since this mission began. Biwa-sensei had been able to convince our clients to get a move on by reminding our clients that our contract had a deadline, and that we were already behind schedule even before taking our detour. We'd be cutting into the amount of time it would take for us to make our destination, once we actually arrived, habitable for more than a brief week at a time. I wasn't sure of what that entailed, exactly—probably constructing buildings, digging more wells, adding infrastructure or whatever. Stuff that the natives would consider wasteful and superfluous, I'm sure.
"Do you really think there's such a powerful missing-nin hiding out in that gulch?" Daigo asked me quietly, his thoughts on the matter shining clear through his tone of voice. I just shrugged, and he raised an eyebrow.
"Come on," he muttered. "Surely, if a missing-nin of sensei's caliber or beyond was at large, we'd know about it. Especially if they made themselves a permanent residence. Besides, if someone like that existed, they wouldn't hole themselves up in this shithole. It's not like anyone could stop them—they could go wherever they want."
"
"You're probably right," I admitted. If I was that strong, I sure as shit wouldn't choose to live here. Not unless I had a damn good reason. "But that begs the question. If there isn't a dangerous missing-nin there, why is Haruto-san trying so hard to steer us away from it?"
The foreign ninja was chatting with Makishi, though I could tell he had one nervous eye on Biwa-sensei all the while. Our teacher had taken a vaguely threatening stance, lurking only a few paces behind him.
"Maybe his clan's home is there, and he wants to keep its location a secret," I hypothesized. "It could explain how he happened upon us so soon after we entered the country. Perhaps their summons keep watch over the region, and he was sent to intercept us, and maybe earn some coin in the process."
Daigo nodded. "That's not a bad theory. Another is that there isn't anything there at all, and that he simply wanted to elevate his value in our eyes. Now that we've purchased his services, he can't exactly admit he was lying about that."
"Could be," I agreed. "Of course, it's possible that the place we're being led away from isn't the issue. It's the place we're being diverted to."
Daigo let out a snort at that. If Haruto was leading us into an ambush, then he was a pretty shit ninja. We were beyond on edge; no surprise would catch us off guard as long as he was with us.
As it turns out, we were a little right. Haruto did have a selfish, ulterior motive for diverting our course, and though he didn't tell us what it was outright, he didn't try to hide it either. Plus, though Biwa-sensei didn't exactly feel the same, my teammates and I couldn't even be particularly mad about it, since it was to our benefit as well.
"Saburō just let me know that there are two missing-nin up ahead," the Yatsureta clan member revealed sometime in the afternoon. "Tazawa Junichi and Okojima Yoshinobu. They're both chunin on my watch list. We could go further out of our way to avoid them, but…well, you did say you were looking to collect bounties, weren't you?"
None of us were stupid. We all read between the lines at once.
"On your watch list, huh?" Iwao repeated sardonically. "And we just happened to run across them. How…unfortunate."
Haruto's answering grin was sheepish. "Fortune is relative, isn't it?"
He barely held back a flinch when Biwa-sensei clapped him on the shoulder none too gently.
"Iwa doesn't do jobs for free," he rumbled, anger barely restrained. "I have half a mind to take the detour on principle."
"What's going on here?" Makishi asked, lost as he looked between sensei and Haruto. "I don't understand."
"Your friend is using your lives as bartering chips," Biwa-sensei sneered. "He's intentionally put you in the way of these missing-nin so we'd be forced to kill them for him."
"What?" Haruto balked, turning his pleading eyes to the Jashinist leader. "No! Absolutely not. It's just a coincidence. And yes, one that does benefit us all. These ninja are unnecessarily brutal with our nomad clans. And they're powerful enough that their protectors can't do much. If we don't take them out now, they might very well come after you in the future. After you are much less defended, even."
"In the ninja world, there is no such thing as coincidence," sensei stated, but it was clear that Makishi fell for the sob story hook, line and sinker.
"No, not coincidence," he decided. "Providence. Jashin has put them in our path so that our guards can confer his judgment."
Biwa-sensei stared gobsmacked at our client, before turning to us with a scowl.
"Just…take care of them," he said to us, exhaustedly, and I barely bit back a snicker. I wasn't nearly as annoyed as my teammates; I thought it would be hypocritical. We were ninja, and this kind of thing was our bread and butter. I couldn't be pissy now that the shoe was on the other foot. Game recognizes game—if anything, I respect the hustle.
"Hai, sensei," Iwao said dutifully.
"Whoah, hold on," Haruto protested. "I said they were chunin. No offense to your genin, but shouldn't you fight them yourself?"
"Oh, you'd like that, wouldn't you?" Biwa-sensei spat. "No, I'm staying right here to keep an eye on you. My brats will be fine."
Haruto clearly wanted to argue, but he bit his tongue and watched us limber up with a concerned look in his eye. Maybe he was a better actor than I gave him credit for, because it looked genuine.
He clearly realized that there really wasn't anything he could say to make this situation any better. If he offered to join us to take them out, it could be construed that he was trying to separate us from Biwa-sensei to be killed or more likely taken as hostage. Biwa-sensei wouldn't let him leave his side, because with him as collateral, he could ensure that Haruto couldn't personally act against us.
Of course, the safest option was for Biwa-sensei to make a clone to take the chunin out, but he did say he was going to test us. Two chunin should be manageable.
There was no sense in engaging the enemy with our clients in sight and potentially in harm's way, so we went on ahead, using chakra enhancement to boost our speed. Since it was active chakra use, any chunin should be able to sense it from a distance, which was also intended. We wanted to lure them towards us.
However, that active chakra sense worked both ways. It didn't take long for us to feel traces of another presence, though they flickered out almost the moment they brushed our senses. If we weren't looking for them, we probably wouldn't have even noticed. They were stalking us. Good.
We stopped our enhancement soon after that to maintain our reserves. Not mine or Iwao's, really—Daigo still didn't have perfect enhancement, and what he did have couldn't be used for long. But that was fine.
"Want to do this like last time?" I asked quietly. Iwao shook his head.
"We've been walking at kami-damned civilian pace for four days," he said. "I want to stretch my legs. And I think I speak for Daigo when I say I want to earn my keep instead of taking any more of your handouts."
Our other teammates nodded in agreement.
"Besides, we're being watched," Daigo muttered, lips barely moving. "It might be a good idea to hide what you can do from Guide-san."
Oh, great. That lizard must be fast as fuck to follow us like that; I'm kinda impressed.
"I agree," Iwao declared. "Let's go with Formation Q. Imai, stay back and support. We'll keep your abilities hidden for now."
Though I was a little annoyed, I nodded without complaint, slowing down slightly and allowing them to take the lead. All the while, keeping my attention firmly on the lizard Daigo had discretely pointed out.
Ninja animals were called summons as a colloquialism, since they could often be transported using a variation of the summoning technique. However, they weren't true summons. They didn't come from the Bestial Realm; they were just selectively-bred animals that could use chakra similarly to a human. Just in more niche ways. I'd researched the topic briefly, and happened upon some research on both the Kamizuru wasps and the Inuzuka hounds. One thing I'd learned was that the bond between a ninja and their "summons" was strong. There was an intense, mental connection between the two, which was why the abrupt death of a partner could cause intense psychological and even physiological injuries.
Especially close bonded pairs could even share senses, sometimes memories. So if Haruto wasn't actively watching us now, he would likely watch the DVR of this fight later. I had half a mind to catch it and put a bag over its head, but though that would keep some of our cards hidden, it would expose even more. The greatest of which was that we had a sensor on our squad.
We'd just have to hope Iwao and Daigo could take out these chunin with limited assistance from yours truly. It was a little bit of a gamble, but Iwao and Daigo weren't super far behind me. They were both geniuses at their specializations.
The minutes stretched in silence as we kept our pace. It seemed like this would be an actual ninja fight. No banter, no attempts at intimidation since there were no civilians around. They'd try and kill us quickly, and we'd reciprocate.
Unusually, it was Daigo who made the first move. He cast an area genjutsu around us, and I let it take hold long enough to see what exactly it did. I saw my own body speed up, several paces ahead of my position, and I looked down to find my real body missing. The same had happened to my teammates, making it look like we were ahead of our real bodies.
This was a feint—a convincing one, but a feint nonetheless. This was one way non-genjutsu users cast genjutsu; as a means to gain an advantage off the jump. Either that, or they saved it as a trick up their sleeve to end a fight quickly. The more experienced the opponent, the less likely it would be to work, and these were chunin we were fighting.
I wasted no time dipping underground with the Moguragakure, casting Doton: Shunkan Iaku no Jutsu (Earth Style: Instant Tent Technique) so I wouldn't get boom, headshot'ed the moment I surfaced.
By that time, my teammates were already fighting for their lives. Haruto wasn't lying about our opponents' identities, at least; I recognized both Tazawa Junichi and Okojima Yoshinobu from the bingo book, though their clothes were similar enough that at their top speeds I had a hard time telling them apart. A Henge wouldn't have held up under the hits Iwao and Daigo were landing.
I wasted no time sniping the one who went after Daigo with kunai, hurled at unnatural, chakra enhanced speeds. He still couldn't use enhancement reliably, and the two chunin were getting a little too close for comfort.
Nothing hit, but I had forced some distance. Enough for Iwao to run through some seals and slam his palms to the dirt.
Doton: Sakigake Hakkutsu no Jutsu (Earth Style: Trailblazing Drill).
The earth in front of Iwao cracked and trembled, ballooning slightly as the Doton chakra amalgamated, creating a bubble just under the surface. Quick as a flash, that bubble sped underground towards the chunin, who jumped apart to avoid it in opposite direction. For what little good that did them. Iwao's jutsu split just as they had, creating two projectiles that nipped at their heels.
Damn. Iwao's external chakra never failed to make me jealous. But Daigo wasn't idle either. Whirling through his own familiar seals, he cupped one hand to his mouth and spat out a jutsu I recognized well, even though I couldn't see it.
Futon: Haisha no Yari no Jutsu (Wind Style: Loser's Lance Technique).
I could sense the wind spear shoot towards Tazawa, but he aborted his original dodge to duck out of the way with impressive reflexes. Minato might have been able to micromanage the orientation of the lance so that its second stage connected as intended, but I had only started workshopping it with Daigo a couple weeks ago. I'd enlisted him because I'd had no hope of writing a jutsu scroll to submit to R&D without actually being able to use the second stage (I didn't know or care what Minato named it, so I came up with my own), even if I understood the theory. I'm glad he was having fun with it.
Meanwhile, my teammates had forced Tazawa to take a hit. By avoiding Daigo's much more lethal Futon jutsu, he'd given Iwao's Trailblazing Drill time to catch up. It erupted underneath the chunin, making him stumble. If it had been a fraction of a second earlier, it might have lifted a body part into Daigo's second stage, cleaving it off entirely. Instead, I threw more weapons, hoping to get him while he was distracted. He avoided them with impressive grace, grounding himself with one hand and flipping himself back to his feet.
Chunin were still chunin, I guess. And these ones weren't as stupid as the one in Swamps.
Okojima, identifying Daigo's affinity, blasted him with fire (from the angle I couldn't see the hand seals used), but Iwao stepped in front of him and cast Doton: Doryūheki no Jutsu (Earth Style: Mud Wall Technique), which he had picked up at some point from the archives. Unfortunate, because it cut off Iwao's line of sight. Rather than maintaining it—which was unnecessarily difficult while performing another ninjutsu—he detonated his other Trailblazing Drill ineffectually. Just like that, my teammates lost their momentum and were forced on the defensive.
Meanwhile, Tazawa, who seemed shaken from his near death experience at the hands of a couple pre-teens, turned his attention to me. He sped in my direction, probably thinking I was an easy target, and I rolled my eyes.
Tying a mid-grade exploding tag to the ring of a kunai, I threw. He dodged easily. I did it again, and again, and I could tell he was getting annoyed. It took him way too long to get close, and as soon as he did, I flipped him off and dove underground, reappearing far away and eliminating all his progress. That pissed him off, and he threw his own weapons at me. I dodged easily, and he seemed to realize that actually getting to me was more trouble than it was worth under these conditions. He returned his attention to my teammates, thinking that he'd have a much easier time against me once his own partner was unencumbered.
Daigo had created another genjutsu zone, and this far away I couldn't tell what it did. I could tell it wasn't affecting his opponent, however, but that was fine. It didn't have to work; he was establishing a trend. Same with his ninjutsu usage, which was higher than one could usually expect to see from my teammate.
He launched a Fūton: Daitoppa no Jutsu (Wind Style: Great Breakthrough Technique), which picked up so much dust that it was clearly visible from a distance. His opponents rooted themselves to the ground with chakra and weathered the storm, but they should have just face-tanked it. Iwao took advantage of their immobility.
All his work in expanding his chakra reserves seemed to have paid off as he performed his Doton: Arijigoku no Jutsu (Earth Style: Antlion Trap), casting its center right in between their two opponents. Both were dragged towards each other, falling to the center despite their attempts to fight the shifting sands.
Only once they were in position did Daigo reveal his true genjutsu proficiency. He cast a double layer illusion, and only the one on top was the area effect that the chunin had seen from him thus far. That one they broke, easily. Only, they didn't realize they were successful.
I knew what they were seeing and feeling at that moment. Their vision was swimming, darkening at its edges. Their muscles felt weak. They swayed as if under the effects of some drug or poison, only they knew they hadn't been touched by any weapon and that they hadn't inhaled any gas. Genjutsu was the only possible source, and they were panicking as, despite all their release attempts, the symptoms were only getting worse.
Of course, they were under a genjutsu; the reason they couldn't break free of it was that they had completely misjudged its function. Genjutsu release, despite how it was shown in canon, was not a one size fits all; you had to alter your technique based on a variety of factors. It was especially important to be able to deduce what parts of the brain the genjutsu was affecting, in order to be able to dispel the illusion.
Tazawa and Okojima experienced their symptoms and deduced that they had been placed under an area genjutsu that targeted vision and balance. Therefore, their attempts at releasing this genjutsu were focussed in the Occipital Lobe and the Cerebellum. They were—entirely—wrong.
First, they were under personal genjutsu, which were trickier to dispel as they were tailored to each chunin. But more damning was that this particular illusion targeted their Parietal Lobe. Specifically, by removing the ninja's ability to feel heat.
And they sure were feeling a lot of heat. Because Iwao, recently, had been taking up Katon jutsu as a means of arena control. Ever since he had lost against Aki, he had been trying to diversify his elemental repertoire, and he had taken a shine to Fire Style for its widespread destructive capability.
This jutsu, however, was subtle. Katon: Chika-ro no Jutsu (Fire Style: Subterranean Furnace Technique) synergized well with Earth Style, as it traveled underground. It had niche uses, usually defensive as the rising Katon chakra weakened wide-area Futon jutsu. However, the sandy ground of Iwao's Antlion Trap conducted heat very well. With the sloped walls reflecting the energy of his jutsu inwards, he could manufacture heat stroke speedily and with ease. With Daigo to misdirect his targets, they wouldn't even know what hit them until it was too late.
These were chunin, however. I didn't expect that to be the end.
I was wrong. It was.
Both of them passed out, and we all waited expectantly for the trick. I even searched my own brain for a genjutsu as Iwao, frowning in confusion, threw two kunai that stabbed into their hearts. Their panting stopped quickly.
"I guess we're all chunin level," Daigo mused softly as Iwao straightened, molding more hand seals so that the pit unmade itself. Sand rose, reforming into rock that wasn't identical to its state before, but didn't look out of place among its surroundings. The two missing-nin corpses rose with it, now encased in stone up to their shoulders. Iwao heaved a weary sigh; that took even more chakra than the original jutsu had.
"Scrolls for the heads?" he directed at me, expectantly, and I handed them over.
"One for each of you," I noted. "Good job. But I wonder how we stack up against chunin from a major village."
"Guess we'll see when the war starts," our team leader grunted as he sliced clean through their necks in a single stroke. Meanwhile, Daigo glanced over his shoulder at the beady little eyes watching us.
- - - { ワナビー } - - -
"That was incredible!" Haruto cheered as we returned, tired and bruised but victorious. "Those ninjutsu you were throwing around—wow!"
All three of us were flummoxed. Both at his exuberance and its context.
"You saw that?" Iwao clarified, a crease in his brow.
"Yeah! Well, I was worried, so I wanted to keep an eye on you with Saburō."
He knelt down and the creature in question scuttled up his arm, turning its baleful gaze upon us. It blinked, one scaly eyelid at a time.
"His senses aren't so great except for smell, and his perception of that is so alien to me that I can't interpret it. But we can share our vision, for whatever that's worth. I was a little worried about you, but I guess I didn't need to be."
It was…really strange that he was just volunteering that information. Did he put together that we'd realized he was watching, and wanted to get ahead of the suspicion?
"How much did you see?" I decided to ask.
"I was watching since you left," he said with a sheepish laugh. "Sorry if that's weird. I realize I should have asked, but…well, I'm not used to having to do that out here. If I'm interacting with anyone, either they're family or…I frankly don't care about their privacy. Your sensei didn't stop me, though. I think he's warming up to me!"
He definitely wasn't, and Haruto couldn't truly be deluded enough to actually think so. We ignored his awkward laughter and made eye-contact with Biwa-sensei, who inclined his head. So my one guess was debunked. He wasn't trying to hide from us.
"I'm not quite sure what happened at the end, but it was impressive. Especially you, Ishida-san. You must be the strongest genin I've ever seen!"
And he was trying to earn brownie points with Iwao.
"You'd think," was our leader's sardonic reply, taking the wind from Haruto's sails. Iwao turned his back on him and walked away without another word.
"A man of few words," Haruto mused to me. "As resilient and noble as the Saxaul tree."
I hummed. "We don't get those mid-continent. I'm not familiar enough to see the connection."
A mischievous smile stretched over his face. "There's one in the distance over there."
He pointed at possibly the ugliest, poorest excuse for a tree that I'd ever seen. It stood alone, approximately five leaves on all of its branches combined. It's main trunk was contorted unnaturally, bent an entire ninety degrees to the right. Honestly, I couldn't even tell if it was alive.
I couldn't help but let out an undignified snort.
"Yeah," I choked. "Noble. It fits him to a T."
He chortled at my amusement, lacing his hands behind his head as he pranced away. I really hoped Haruto wasn't trying anything shifty. Because, despite everything, I was kinda starting to like the dude.
- - - { ワナビー } - - -
AN: Hey guys! I'm back. Sorry for the extended delay. I've been busy.
I've been wanting to check in with the rest of the team for a while now, but there hasn't really been an opportunity to. I want to make it clear that Kasaiki isn't carrying the rest of Team Tsuchibokori; Iwao and Daigo are strong in their own right. I'd say Iwao is low chunin, while Daigo is high genin in most respects, with some tricks that make up the distance and then some.
The Jashinists stay being dumbasses. Biwa would not let Haruto tag along if they didn't make him. But maybe its for the best. You'll have to wait and see.
As is my general writing strategy, I included some important bits of exposition that seem like throw aways but not. You'll soon see how they tie together.
Haruto's got jokes. The Saxual tree exists IRL, you should look up a pic online. Goofy ah "leave her alone" looking ass tree.
You should totally check out my other fic on archive. Across the Totem-Verse, (username Poncho_o). It's a Spider-Man, Across the Spider-Verse fic, and it's really good.
I don't have a Ptrn. If you've gotten just five bucks of enjoyment out of this story, please consider buying my original work on amazon (information in my bio). Between the two sites this fic is posted on, I have over 3000 readers. If even half of you choose to support me in this fashion, I would have considerable bargaining power when it comes to getting future books published. More publishing deals means I can quit my day job, which translates into more time for fanfiction. It's a one time thing, and you even get more of my writing out of it.
See you next week!