Somewhere in the Land of Water.
…
The sound of rain pelting the street filled Naruto's ears as he followed Obito. They trudged down the muddy street and stopped in front of a noisy tavern.
Naruto faced the warm inviting entrance. The Land of Water, true to its name, might as well be literally water. It was always wet outside, even when it wasn't raining. The weather somehow felt wet- and that feeling slowly seeped into every fiber of your body the longer you stayed around. It wasn't bad, just uncomfortable.
"Naruto, we're staying here tonight." Obito's voice reached him.
That was the cue for them to use their cover. A pair of siblings traveling through Kiri. They half looked the part. Tobi's joke on how Naruto and Obito's spiky hair looked alike made for an unlikely characteristic to use, but was somewhat effective in practice. If anything, what truly pulled off the dynamic was how many years the two knew each other.
Obito practically knew Naruto from birth. Meanwhile Naruto's whole life was dictated, if not spent around him and the rest.
When your parental figures scaled from downright humor like Tobi- to straight up murder like Obito and Black Zetsu- then you tended to pick up on characteristics from both sides. It's quite insane that White Zetsu was the most normal of the group- if you discounted Karin.
Naruto could pull off quite the Obito impersonation.
The doors creaked slightly when Obito pushed them open, herding Naruto inside as he played the part of a blind brother. Obito's eye be damned, Naruto still trained himself without it half the time. If there was one thing Kurama taught him- it was that they could take away his eyes again. So not relying on Obito's eye was one of Naruto's priorities.
Still, all the techniques he was picking up using the man's Sharingan was insane. Naruto's jutsu repertoire practically doubled outside of Wind and Water techniques. Not only that, but the Sharingan's ability to see chakra helped Naruto improve on his horrible chakra control.
"Two of your dinner special and a room for the night please." Obito asked the woman at the bar counter. She replied with the cost which Obito paid.
"Sit here while I check out the room." He whispered.
They could never be too cautious.
Obito went ahead and followed the tavern owner to the second floor. Naruto was left alone to wait on the barstool for the food. During that time, he decided to play around with the Sharingan a bit. He activated the doujutsu underneath his eyelids and glanced around, acting as if he was listening to the noise around him. The tavern was nearly a third filled with a few customers drinking, so his actions weren't suspicious.
Now if only the group of chakra signatures outside the tavern didn't exist.
Naruto instantly turned around when the group of what was obviously shinobi entered the tavern.
"Home sweet home!"
"You call any bar your fucking home."
"I can't help it. Beer is love, beer is life!"
Naruto shifted his angle a little bit, putting the team at the edge of his peripherals to allow Obito's Sharingan to keep sight of their signatures under his closed eyelids.
His attention was drawn to one in particular. Under the Sharingan, people with Kekkei Genkai had a more distinct color because of their elemental affinity attuned to their bloodlines.
The person's chakra had a pronounced fire element, followed by two secondary elements in earth and water. They were an outlier compared to the norm, with their elements being vivid in comparison to their teammates.
Then, she came over.
Crud.
Naruto's stomach dropped.
"What's a little kid like you doing all alone here?" The soft voice of a woman came from behind him.
"I'm traveling with my brother." Naruto turned her way slightly to show that he heard the question. He turned off the Sharingan just for good measure- plunging his world back into the darkness he was accustomed to. Best to play it safe.
"You're sure you're not alone?"
"Mei-chan, you can't always approach every orphan you meet in a mission you know! You'd be giving every single father out there fantasies!" One of her teammates joked.
"Oh shut up. That's why every girl shuts you down." She fired back.
"Ooh, she burned you there." The other two laughed.
"Umm…my brother's just checking our rooms. He'll be back." Naruto answered.
Damn it Obito, where are you?
The sound of two sets of feet walking down the stairs saved Naruto.
"Ruto, who is that? What did I say about talking to strangers?"
Here we go. Time to use their unusual brotherly bond to its maximum effectiveness.
"Not to talk to them, Ito-nii."
Obito stopped beside Naruto and looked at the female shinobi near him.
"Sorry. My name's Ito, and you are?"
It was decided early on that their cover names would be the second half of their real names to keep everything simple. Ruto and Ito it was.
"Mei."
"Oh shit- it's happening!"
"Someone's about to get their heart broken again."
"Shut up, you two." The last teammate sighed.
Mei shot her team a glare.
"Sorry about that. I was just worried about the kid being alone."
Naruto looked the part of a 7-year-old while Obito looked like a man in his early twenties.
"It's no problem. We're just cautious."
Mei could see why. Not once had she seen Naruto open his eyes, while Obito's face was half disfigured with scars.
"I'm so sorry."
"No, no, it's fine. Have a good evening, ma'am." Obito waved as the girl backed off.
Not much conversation happened after as Naruto and Obito waited for their food. They scarfed down the warm dinner- something a little special compared to ordinary- and retired to their room for the night.
Once the door closed behind him, Obito started whispering.
"Naruto, what did you see?"
"The three are normal, the girl has Kekkei Genkai."
"One of the rarer kind among Kiri's forces. Anything else?"
Naruto shook his head.
"Go ahead and sleep. I'll take first watch."
The established procedure when things weren't safe. Obito and Naruto knew that they couldn't rest being so close in proximity to a team of Kirigakure ninja.
…
They departed before dawn the following morning.
Obito and Naruto silently walked through the tavern's empty ground floor on their way out. The sky was still dark out, dawn an hour away before the horizon would begin to light up. Obito would've preferred not to leave this early. Tavern owners were usually some of the earliest awake, and would see each guest off after they vacated their rooms.
Not them.
It was too dangerous for Obito and Naruto to stay. Not with a team of Kirigakure shinobi bunking in the very same building. The decision was made and now the two of them were making an early exit. The tavern owner would notice them gone later, but by then it would be too late. They would assume the two of them would wake up late, or would check up on them long after breakfast hours. If the Kirigakure team were suspicious, they'd wait a fraction of that time after asking the owner if they were still around. No competent shinobi would leave their room unchecked if he and Obito ticked their sixth senses off.
"Let's check on the target one last time before we head out." Obito turned right, heading in the direction deeper into the village. Naruto hurried behind him, keeping pace with the taller man's walking gait. They didn't dare speed up beyond civilian speeds, wary if any civilians were up just as early as them, of which a few would definitely notice them sprinting at speeds only shinobi should have.
At that point, it would tick another warning sign for the Kirigakure team nearby that something was afoot, and Obito definitely didn't want any of that.
They walked until they reached the village market where local vendors were beginning to set up shops. It was an extra layer to divert the attention of the Kirigakure team if they were after them. If Obito and Naruto were spotted at the market this early, the locals would assume that they were trying to purchase goods early before the locals fished up all the nice stock. The team would then investigate and spend more time hunting information which would delay them further more.
They circled around a few times before disappearing to the side heading for their real destination- a private stable for travelling merchants on the outskirts of the village. Obito and Naruto snuck around to spy on one specific cart before they left.
Everything looked good. Their objective was still aboard.
Everything was going well.
Mei walked in front, watching the road ahead for any ambushes. In their team, she was the best. Mei would be able to see threats long before it reached them. Two of her teammates each took up a flank on the sides of the cart they were escorting, with the last taking up the rear.
Normally, such missions like this carried high chances of risk. They were far from Kirigakure. Outside of the archipelago, Kiri was seen as a naval powerhouse- one of the big 5 when it came to military power amongst all shinobi villages. But the situation was the opposite once you pierced through the veil. Kirigakure may be powerful, they may have the strongest navy amongst the Elemental Nations- only challenged by Kumogakure's fleet, but their control over the Land of Water was shaky.
There were thousands of islands. Kiri couldn't keep their eyes on all of them. They could control the waters between them, but even then the constantly changing conditions of the seas made their fleets dock in port less than they want them to. Many islands had their own groups, own politics, own threats, not all of which Kiri could handle by spreading their forces too thin. Fortunately, most of them were bandits or weaker. Seldom would Kiri's teams face shinobi-level threats like rogue Kekkei Genkai clans and the like.
Which made Mei all the more alert, considering she hadn't even seen any signs of local bandit activity. Normally there would be traces here and there that would signal activity at least a day old. This route they were assigned to was a hotspot for bandits after all. There was always at least one active bandit group on the side roads on this island.
.
.
.
Obito warned him that there would lots of bandits on this job.
Naruto must've underestimated what he meant by a lot.
He flicked the kunai to clean the blade of his latest kill, the third group of bandits they've ran into over the past two days. The two of them were several hours ahead of their objective, busy looking for a spot to spring their ambush. Only problem was, every spot they found had been taken by local bandits. They were clearly experienced and knew where to lay traps for incoming traffic. Obito had yet to find a decent one, and Naruto was trailing behind him. On the plus side, Obito was getting lots of practical samples to show Naruto how to find good positions and how to setup for them.
How? Well…
They were the ones triggering each trap by travelling down the route in civilian clothing. The bandits would ambush them and the two would allow themselves to be carried off to a certain distance far enough from the road for them to spring their trap and eliminate the troublesome bandits themselves.
Naruto was beginning to get annoyed. They couldn't attack the objective once they found out that the exact same Kiri team they avoided were the ones guarding the cart. All that effort to buy time distracting them in the village was wasted since it was clear they hadn't even after their trail, because the merchant and his cart immediately departed the village less than an hour after they had. At least it looked like the shinobi hadn't picked up on them yet. They were staying near the merchandise and didn't send out a pair to scout around.
"They've stopped. Two of them are leaving, the other two have stayed behind." Obito looked through the binoculars he brought. It allowed them to stay a good half kilometer away from the objective and the Kiri team guarding it. This way, they wouldn't be within range of the enemy's sight. If they tried to sneak around the Kiri team like shinobi, their sixth sense would've been long triggered. Obito was good at infiltration, but that was with his Sharingan. The eye was currently with Naruto and he could only develop his skills up to a certain level until he found a breakthrough- or when his Sharingan was returned to him. Naruto was another problem. The 7-year-old was a barely above D-rank aside from his ninjutsu repertoire. His skills would be enough against civilians and bandits, but would be completely outmatched against a team of Kiri shinobi.
Obito had to approach this mission with care. He couldn't risk Naruto dying.
"Let's leave the next ambush for them to fight." Obito sat off to the side and thought about their next move. The Kiri shinobi were clearly suspicious enough to send out half of them to scout. Naruto and Obito must've cleared out too many bandits on their own- which was an obvious thing now that he noticed.
The 4th bandit group was close enough that it only took them 10 minutes to stumble across the bandits and their traps, before the Kiri shinobi ruthlessly eliminated them faster than even Obito and Naruto did together.
"As expected of the Bloody Mist. They were even more thorough than we were." Obito praised the Kiri team as they returned to the road. Kirigakure was famous for its absolutely brutal academic system where students killed each other off before being promoted to genin, which contributed to the village's low shinobi count, traded for quality. Obito had yet to run into any genins, but the few Kiri shinobi he couldn't avoid were at least of decent quality. They were about on par with those he'd seen from Konoha during the Third Shinobi World War. Obito doubted he would be running into any genins this far away from Kirigakure.
Naruto had his own binoculars out, watching the Kiri team and their client continue moving now that their suspicions were sated. The bandit group's elimination must've calmed down their nerves now that they've ran into what was perceived as a normal threat by their standards.
.
.
.
Mei wasn't convinced.
"Make sure to keep your eyes out." She warned them one more time while they continued travelling. Just because they were not on one of the main roads didn't mean that there were less bandits around. The main road had more, but the constant presence of mercenaries and traffic made bandits less likely to spring their trap. They were just more likely to attack during the night when the caravan was asleep and the mercenaries at their weakest. Mei expected the bandits on the side roads to be more active, and so far they had only run into one group. Sure, the others might've been scared off once they spotted the Kiri shinobi from afar, but she was still suspicious.
Something reared its head at the back of her mind, warning her that something was wrong. It was all too perfect. Their mission had been peaceful so far, aside from the one time they stopped on her orders and scouted around- running into one bandit group just as she expected.
That was the problem.
The moment she noticed that they hadn't spotted any bandit activity, they immediately ran into one.
It was all too coincidental.
Her team was complacent. They thought that their shinobi attire was enough to scare the bandits away- which was exactly what shinobi attires were supposed to do when you were working out in the open.
Was she just overthinking things?
Mei really hoped she was. That everything was just normal, and that her senses were just a little off.
.
.
.
"The girl in front…she's been looking around more." Naruto furrowed his eyebrows while observing the team. The rest of them continued on as normal, except for the one in front.
Mei. The girl with Kekkai Genkai they met earlier during the week.
Obito called her a rare case amongst Kiri's forces and Naruto would agree. The general sentiment they overheard during the past month in Kiri was that Kekkai Genkai clans weren't taken fondly by the populace. In fact, it was Kiri who were the most lenient, allowing powerful clans to join them on the basis that those clans served under the Mizukage. The latter portion wasn't actually known by the civilians. It was black market info Obito bought while they were busy exploring the eastern side of Mizu no Kuni. Kirigakure didn't want that info spreading among the civilians, so they made sure to keep the Kekkai Genkai shinobi use their bloodline ninjutsu to a minimum- and only in situations where its use wouldn't spread- primarily against enemies that they were going to kill anyway.
Why hold back against an enemy that didn't expect your Kekkai Genkai? And much less one that wouldn't be alive for long?
"She's still suspicious." Obito answered. "Stop hunting the bandit groups. Let them handle it on their own." It was a mistake they couldn't fix now. Their best chance would be to let the bandits cover their tracks now.
Let the bandits…
"Naruto, follow me."
Obito had an idea.
.
.
.
Mei disposed of the body by tossing it into the nearby river. Their cart was passing by over a bridge when the bandits appeared. They closed the distance and surrounded them from the trees. Mei sent half of the team to clear the rear flank while she and the remaining teammate held the bridge from the attacking bandits once they figured out that their comrades were under attack.
The attack didn't last long when Mei used the river to her advantage. She was extremely attuned to the water element and the bandits did not stand a chance when she swept the first wave off the bridge. She didn't waste time and engaged the remaining bandits, who began to retreat when they saw the situation turn against them.
Luckily for them, Mei was more concerned about guarding their client rather than chasing after the bandits. Under normal circumstances, Kiri shinobi were under instructions to eliminate as many bandits as possible. This was to help the locals and keep the bandit population capped. Kirigakure couldn't just let them increase wildly after all. If bandits in an island got uppity and started causing a lot of trouble, Kirigakure would be called on and they would "deal" with the problem. They used to do it for a premium, but that didn't end well because the villages couldn't afford it and the problem would spill over to other islands when they caught on that Kiri wasn't sending in teams to deal with them.
It got messy and Kirigakure learned a bloody message when a few bandit islands grouped together and ruined the trade routes on the northeast edge of Mizu no Kuni. From that point on, they made sure to keep track of bandit activity before an island decided they could just go rogue and threaten routes beyond their turf.
"Are you boys, done?" Mei turned to the rest of her team. The three of them were tasked with guarding the perimeter as the bandits attacked, but their formation quickly broke down when it became clear that the bandits were no challenge. The trio split up and competed on who could kill the most.
"I win!" One raised his fist in the air. "7 kills!" The other two grumbled while reaching into their pockets and pulling out some cash.
"Just make sure to dispose of the bodies." Mei rolled her eyes. Leaving the bodies around wouldn't be good for business. Not that it stopped people from traveling, but their corpses after a few days would begin to smell. It smelled horrible. Just because she was a ninja doesn't mean that Mei was comfortable with smelling rotting bodies.
The remaining bodies were tossed into the river. It would flow downstream until they would reach some banks, free for the wildlife to feast on. It wasn't much better than leaving the bodies alongside the road, but at least this way they can deal with the problem quickly without having to dig a mass grave for the bodies. That option would take too long.
They cleaned the area with a few water jutsus and returned to the road. At this point, Mei's suspicions were largely abated. It was the last day of their mission and they were relatively close to their destination, the largest town on the island. It was not the end of their mission that calmed Mei down. It was because the town had Kiri forces stationed to guard it. There were less samurai out in Mizu no Kuni as compared to the mainland of the elemental nations, and that made towns and cities rely on Kiri's shinobi alongside the local daimyo's soldiers.
Kirigakure couldn't enforce control over much land, but they could send out teams to safeguard important locations. A town would pay a percentage of their production output in money or resources to have premium security from Kirigakure, a win-win trade for both sides. Kiri would get the resources it needed, and towns didn't get raided. It spread their forces thinly, but that was less of a risk because there were no other nearby hidden villages to challenge Kiri's sovereignty.
"Mei-chan, what do you think about our overseer while we're staying in MIZU TOWN NAME?" The lead ninja asked her.
"What about him?" Mei lazily scanned the road ahead of them. The past hour had been spent in comfortable silence as the team recovered from the brief skirmish earlier.
"Seriously? You're not interested in Zabuza? You know- one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist? Wielder of Kubikirobocho? Demon of the Mist?"
Mei rolled her eyes. Sure, the man was famous. But was strength all they really cared about? Mei knew about Zabuza's reputation. The man was even more monstrous than the average Kiri nin. He massacred his entire class, which led to Kiri having one entire year without any new genin. Kiri had to abolish the death combat rule afterwards. It produced great potential, but the results were extremely uncontrollable ninja. It wasn't worth losing the numbers they could be producing if the academy graduates survived.
Thus, a new system was introduced. The death combat rule was replaced by a winner-loser system where the winner of the single combat duels at graduation were given tenured jounin as teachers while losers had to settle with less, sometimes even getting senior chuunin when there weren't enough jounin available in Kiri.
Their forces were just that spread out. Kiri couldn't afford withdrawing their jounin from important bases across Mizu no Kuni.
If only the new system was introduced before Mei's generation. She had to kill a classmate she grew up with. Mei could still remember the girl's cries as her lava burned her victim alive.
"It's because he bet on you asking Zabuza for a spar." Another chuckled. "Who wouldn't be interested? The two of you are some of the youngest jounin coming out of Kiri. That would be a spectacle." Mei was 17 years old, only 2 years older than Zabuza. It took her 3 years to be rooted to jounin, whereas Zabuza only took 2. The man was infamous for being ruthless and Kiri took a liking to him early on, the opposite of Mei's more generous approach.
Still, if Kiri ordered them to kill everyone, they would absolutely do so.
Mei looked up to the sky. It had been in her interests to face Zabuza when she found out Kiri was sending her on a mission out to one of their forward bases out west.
The western side of Mizu no Kuni was in a constant state of turmoil. It was the closest to the mainland, which brought many aspiring mercenaries and missing-nin alike. Mizu no Kuni was isolated from the mainland, yet Kiri and the Water Daimyo couldn't enforce the country's borders properly despite being the only nation out far east. Pirates factions were determined to cut out their own territories and constantly fought the Water Daimyo's fleets for control over routes. It was how they earned money, and how they grew to become significant threats to Mizu no Kuni. From there, they created their own smuggling routes into the country, bringing in outsiders and trouble.
For a short time, Mei and her temporary team was being sent here to replace an outgoing team who would return to Kiri. Forces were regularly rotated out on a bi-monthly basis and fresh shinobi brought in to keep their strength up in Mizu no Kuni's most unstable region.
-Mei's skin prickled.
Something was wrong-
Her kunai flashed out as it intercepted an arrow aimed at her face.
Impossible- we didn't notice anything!
The rest of her team kicked into high gear and drew out their own weapons as their client stopped the cart hurriedly. The foliage on both sides of the road rustled as ten- twenty- no, thirty…forty…fifty?! Mei's eyes widened as the bandit group spread out to surround them.
Why were there so many together?!
Fifty.
Fifty bandits.
Bandits were extremely selfish. Most groups were smaller. Too many in a group would grow too hard to control, not unless someone stronger was around to put them in their place. Mei scanned the bandits to look for their leader. None of them stood out. The leader must be hiding.
"Don't hold back." Mei ordered while flashing through hand seals. "Sir, don't panic. This is for your own safety."
"Doton: Dosei Domu! [Earth Release: Earthen Dome]!" Earth slowly grew around the client and his cart until it encased them within it.
Both sides edged around one another, waiting for one side to initiate the battle. It was four ninja against fifty bandits. No matter how much you looked at it, the battle would become incredibly one-sided. Once Mei had secured their client and his cargo, the battle was theirs.
Her mind raced while the enemy inched closer. How did they miss such a large group of bandits ahead of them? Maybe a handful was possible if they hid themselves really well, but to miss fifty of them right until they were up close? It wasn't likely.
Something was at play here.
"Be careful when you engage them." Mei could tell them of her suspicions, but that would mean alerting the enemy that they knew something was up. It was better to play it safe and see what happens next.
"Suiton: Suidan no Jutsu! [Water Release: Water Bullet Technique]!" Two of them stepped forwards and hosed down the left and right flanks with a torrent of water. The technique in itself was not lethal. It was more of a warding maneuver to push back the bandits circling around them. The idea worked and a dozen or so were doused while being propelled away by the water torrent.
Then, it came.
A number of shuriken cut through the air aimed at the two members behind the two casters. The spinning blades were met by their own barrage and the clashing forces scattered the blades around. A couple of bandits cried when deflected shuriken flew their way. Some dodged, but a few were hit, unable to avoid the shuriken's Kiri nin didn't care about that though, they were already reacting to the second attack.
"Suiton: Teppodama! [Water Release: Gunshot]!"
A series of water bullets scattered the four ninja, scattering them momentarily. Their formation was temporarily dismantled and the bandits surged in once they backed off.
.
.
.
Naruto popped his head out of the ground. Doton: Moguragakure no Jutsu [Earth Release: Hiding like a Mole Technique] was one of the more useful jutsus he's copied in the past year. The sheer flexibility of the technique opened up options for him when he was on jobs.
The inside of the dome was not completely dark as Naruto expected. The merchant inside was holding up a candle so that he could see in the darkness. From the shadows he could see, the man was sitting at the front of his cart. It seemed that he wasn't going to be moving any time soon, especially when the sounds of combat outside still pierced through the earthen barrier.
Time to get to work.
Naruto brought out his own pouch. He carried it with him as he traveled underground to avoid summoning it out during the fight. The plan had gone better than expected. Obito and the bandits he fooled would distract the enemy and give Naruto an opportunity to sneak in and steal the objective.
Naruto silently opened the courier bag the merchant had and rifled through its contents. Inside were numerous orders and messages being mailed between towns and cities. Naruto sifted through the pile and grabbed numerous letters while replacing the contents with forged ones from his own pouch. If the merchant checked his mail, they would pass a brief inspection until he properly looked at the postmarks, recipients, addresses, and other important details later on. By then, it would be too late for him to figure out what happened.
Naruto carefully closed the courier bag and crouched down on the ground.
'Doton: Moguragakure no Jutsu! [Earth Release: Hiding like a Mole Technique]!'
He mouthed the incantation silently. Jutsu names were only used to help shinobi visualize the result they wanted. Obito picked up on that little tidbit and started to mouth all his techniques silently to avoid announcing it to the enemy. It was one of the skills he started training on after losing his Mangekyou. They could read his lips, but if the enemy didn't recognize the signs, then they wouldn't know the jutsu coming.
Thankfully for Naruto, he could use the hiding mole technique after training his chakra control to that of a regular genin. He was now able to use medium-scale jutsu of C-rank caliber if he tried his best.
Just as Naruto was slipping into the ground, the light source shifted.
"Wha-" The man gasped as he saw Naruto before he could fully disappear into the ground.
Obito's going to be pissed. Naruto sighed.
Luckily, he had a mask on.
.
.
.
Mei watched the bandits retreat. They ran away with their tails between their legs after a number of them had been killed despite their best efforts along with the hidden shinobi attacking from the shadows.
Genjutsu.
It became obvious once the entire team still couldn't pinpoint the man's location. The unknown enemy would move positions after every attack. It wasn't the only thing that moved. His attacks were equally dangerous. They were simple ranged techniques with a couple of shuriken here and there, but it became deadly when the first attack slipped past their guard. They were small illusions, shuriken appearing slower than others, shadow shuriken inflating the number of projectiles.
Except, their enemy used them with extreme mastery. Their senses were fooled time and again, which made them react to every attack, despite a good third of them being genjutsu. They would break some, but only found themselves under another.
Mei gritted her teeth. It was like they were being played with. Illusion after illusion, double-layered illusions, it was unsettling. There weren't many shinobi in Kiri who specialized in genjutsu, especially to this degree. They were up against someone of a different caliber. It nearly equalized the battlefield, but her team ultimately won out in the end after killing a number of the bandits.
"Is everyone okay?" She barked out while watching the bandits flee.
"Fucker got me in the side- gah!" One held a hand to his side where a shuriken lodged itself earlier. The projectile was quickly removed, but his mobility took a hit. One of his teammates had to help cover him instead of clearing the bandits with Mei. The earthen walls she raised weren't effective as the forest surrounded them, giving their assailant numerous directions to attack from.
"Stay on your guard. We can deal with it later once we know they're gone." Whoever they were, Mei would be reporting the threat to command. A few minutes passed by before they slightly lowered their guard. The wounded member made himself a tourniquet while Mei entered her dome.
Inside, she saw their client hastily checking his cart.
Mei frowned.
"What-"
"They stole something! There was a ninja in here while you were fighting!" The man cursed while scanning his cargo.
"What?"
.
.
.
Naruto resurfaced half a kilometer away from the road. Obito was already at the location, waiting for him.
"Did you get them?"
Naruto answered by waving the order missives. They weren't anything valuable, just orders for resources and materials. It was more of a scouting mission in a roundabout way. Black Zetsu suggested they start from grassroots sources before moving on to bigger objectives like Kiri bases. These order missives were between suppliers and blacksmiths. Blacksmiths were one of the pillars that supported Mizu no Kuni's economy.
…but more importantly, blacksmiths were directly connected to ninja. Where else would they receive their supply of tools?
By figuring out which locations produced the most ninja gear, Obito and Black Zetsu could put together a picture of Kiri's arms industry.
A big stepping stone in Obito's plan to plunge Kiri into war.
That would be the end objective years down the line. They were just beginning to raid information from a grassroots level, directly from the public market.
"The merchant saw me."
Obito froze.
"You didn't cast a genjutsu on him?" Obito had been training Naruto with the Sharingan for two months now. It was slow, but Naruto could at least throw a rudimentary cover up by making the target temporarily blind with darkness. Literally just throwing a genjutsu where all the merchant would see was black.
"I was too focused on keeping my mole technique stable. I couldn't activate Sharingan, much less use it."
"...we'll work on your genjutsu later."
It was a mistake, but Obito would let it slip for now. Naruto was new to genjutsu after all.
"What will you do with the bandits?" Naruto asked.
Obito approached the bandit leaders and used genjutsu to control them. It didn't go smoothly once he grouped up the four different groups he found, but using the leaders, he managed to convince them that the cargo on the merchant was valuable considering it was being escorted by a Kiri team. It took a little more effort but he delegated commands through the bandit leaders until the trap was set. He then hid the entire ambush under genjutsu until the Kiri team arrived. From there, he threw the bandits at the shinobi and supported them while Naruto snuck in using the distraction.
"I've already made them scatter. Kiri might go after them if they decide that a response was needed."
It would certainly buy them time should they catch the attention of the Kiri forces in town.
"Anyway, good job." Obito stood up. "Let's go."