Part 1
Two mules attached to a massive wagon stand near the front gates inside of the industrious Hidden Rain Village. A small crowd of people are forming around it.
The third seat jonin, Junichi, is holding a clipboard and taking inventory of the merchant's goods that are being loaded onto the wagon. Two older men stand together just off to the side of him, waiting for their turn.
One of them has blacksmith tongs hanging from one side of his pack, and a hammer on the other side. He looks up and says, "Hardly any rain today."
The other man has a small umbrella open above his head, the long handle of which is strapped to the side of the massive pack on his back. There are assorted mechanical bits and bobs hanging from his pack and the front of his apron. "That's a good omen." He replies. His eyes stay down as he tinkers with a small gadget.
"Yuuta?!" Makoto's voice yells as he approaches the two men.
The tinkerer looks up, "Makoto!" The two shake hands. "What are you doing here?"
Junichi overhears and looks over to see Makoto. He listens in while continuing with inventory.
"I'm on a shinobi mission! I'm part of security. I will be helping with ninjutsu scrolls and whatnot when we get there too." Makoto tells his friend.
Yuuta seems delighted. "Good for you! Wow, a mission of this importance? You must be doing so well." Yuuta turns his head towards the blacksmith and excitedly introduces him, "This is Makoto, the orphan kid I was telling you about!"
"Nice to meet you." Makoto shakes the blacksmith's hand. "I'm surprised they're gonna let someone as sketchy as Yuuta come represent us in the Hidden Mist." Makoto jokes.
The blacksmith bursts out laughing. He elbows Yuuta, "I like this kid."
"Who are you calling sketchy?" Yuuta fires back, "Don't think I forgot how we met in the first place, you little thief!" He says with a big smirk.
Makoto responds, "I was like six years old! Are you really going to hold that over my head more than a decade later?"
"Yes." He states matter-of-factually.
After a pause, all three burst into laughter.
"Ah," Yuuta sighs as he catches his breath. "So, how's the barbed-chain holding up? Have you gotten a chance to use it since the last adjustments?" He grabs at Makoto's arm, lifting the sleeve and inspecting the device on his forearm.
Makoto excitedly tells him, "I grappled up a tower the other night! One of the highest in Amegakure."
"No way! And it held up?" Yuuta matches his excitement, continuing to mess with the device.
"Yup." Makoto states proudly.
Junichi finishes up with the last merchant loading their goods. He leans over and says hello to Makoto.
"Good to see you again Junichi." Makoto says. He realizes that he hadn't taken much note of his appearance the first time they met because of all of the chaos in the Jonin Council Chambers. Junichi is a middle-aged, slender, tall man. His white hair is slicked back, and when the light hits it just right, a glimmer of light blue shines through. He wears a blue haori jacket with subtle detailing of waves crashing along the bottom. He wears his Hidden Rain headband around his neck.
Makoto helps the last two men load their packs onto the wagon while Junichi takes inventory.
The fifth seat, Ryuu, finally shows up. He starts loudly coaxing all of the merchants and craftsmen to start boarding a second open-top cart with benches lined on the left and right side.
Makoto is again taking more detailed note of the jonin this time around. Ryuu looks to be in his early twenties. He is of normal height, or maybe slightly shorter, with a wide and muscular frame. His long black hair is pulled tightly into a top knot. Below the Rain headband across his forehead sits a pair of big expressive eyebrows. There is what Makoto assumes is his clan symbol boldly painted in red onto his chest plate. Lastly, there is a large, butcher's knife-esque sword strapped to his back with the short, curved handle off to the right of his head.
A trio of young shinobi run up yelling, "Junichi-sensei! Junichi-sensei!"
Junichi turns towards them. "Shouldn't you three be prepping for your own mission?" He scolds.
"We know. We just wanted to see you off, sensei. Good luck in the Hidden Mist." The three shinobi give him a group hug.
"Alright, good luck to you too. Now get back to your own prep!" Junichi tells them.
"Yes sir!" The trio responds and then runs off.
Makoto asks, "Is that your genin team?"
Junichi, smiling like a proud dad, replies, "Well, Botan has passed the Chunin exams recently. She is very excited to get her first action as a team leader while I'm gone."
"Oh, congratulations." Makoto says. He points over to Ryuu and asks, "Does he have a squad of students too?"
"Oh yeah. But he is far too 'tough and manly' for them to come see him off." He pokes fun at his fellow jonin. "Although he is a real softy underneath that facade. I'm sure his team will be watching and cheering from a tower as we leave." He points up to all of the buildings in town.
"Eeeeee!" Just then, a high-pitched voice squeals near the cart. "A rat!" Ryuu is yelling and jumping up and down between his left and right feet.
Everyone burst into laughter at the sight of this bulky man getting scared of a little rodent running circles underneath him.
"It's not funny, that thing bit my ankle!" He yells, continuing to hop about.
Junichi finally throws a kunai, perfectly severing the rat's spine and sticking into the ground.
Part 2
Tall, metal buildings tower over the top of the barrier wall surrounding Amegakure. The gates open up. Four mules pull the two vehicles. Junichi sits atop the wagon with reins in hand. Ryuu wraps bandages around his ankle on the back of the cart. There is a path that bridges over a makeshift moat of various rain-filled craters around the outside of the walls.
The caravan rides through the country. There are craters, boulders, and scorched plains not far from the path in any and every direction. Constant war has ravaged the land, leaving it barren.
They follow along the path which leads them weaving between two small mountains. Junichi hops off of the wagon to walk in front of the mules, guiding them more carefully. Makoto jumps out of the cart to do the same with the other pair of mules. Parts of the path are surrounded by steep cliffs and ledges, and other parts are sloped more tamely. They slowly make their way through the valley, one behind the other.
Makoto notices that Ryuu is starting to act weird. His eyes are getting red and he starts mumbling to himself. The civilians in the cart are starting to worry.
The wagon in the front comes to a stop. Junichi walks around the side to come talk to everyone. "A boulder rolled onto the center of the path."
"I'll smash it!" Ryuu yells.
"Uh, that might fuck up your blade, man. I think It'd be better if we just pushed it off the path." Junichi explains.
"Smash him... Yeah, yeah. Smash him good..." Ryuu is muttering. The veins around his eyes and all over his arms are visibly swelling up.
"He's not been acting right, Junichi!" Makoto expresses his concerns.
Junichi's pupils enlarge as he realizes they are in danger. He starts looking around up the mountain. He spots a girl looking down from a steep slope performing hand signs. The girl ducks down when she realizes she has been spotted. "It's an ambush! Ryuu is being targeted by genjutsu!"
Ryuu's hand grabs the handle of his sword. "Smash him, yeah?" Drool runs out of the corners of his mouth. He draws his sword and swings it at Junichi.
Junichi dodges back and immediately throws up a hand sign. "Release!"
Ryuu, completely unfazed, carries the momentum from the whiffed swing towards Makoto, who stands in front of the civilians. Ryuu swings his sword again.
Makoto can't dodge for fear of the swing carrying into the crowd. He pulls up his left sleeve and holds out his forearm to block the sword swing with the armor plating over his device.
Junichi sprints towards them, weaving hand signs. "Water Prison Jutsu!"
The civilians gasp and scream in fear.
A bubble of water rushes to surround Ryuu, stopping him in his tracks. The blade looks to have stopped just an inch from Makoto's arm. Makoto looks into Ryuu's rage-filled eyes. He looks down to see a shallow cut into the metal of his arm guard.
"No offense, but I don't trust that thin plate... Ryuu has the power to slice straight through you." Junichi stands with his hand into the water sphere.
One of the younger merchants goes to make a run for it out of fear. Yuuta grabs him. "Remember what the jonin told us! Split up and we die! Stay together so they can protect us."
The sound of dirt sliding down the mountains is heard from both sides of the caravan. Two shinobi are approaching downhill fast. One is wearing a bandanna covering his head and is wielding a bo staff. The other has blond hair, a prominent claw mark under his right eye, and is wielding a pair of tonfa.
Makoto pulls out senbon needles and runs forward to get some space. He unloads a volley at the one on the right as his slide reaches the valley a short distance behind the cart.
The blond flicks his wrist and his tonfa flings around, knocking all of the senbon away. Makoto's barbed-chain whip launches at him right after the senbon throw. The blond dodges that and continues pressing forward directly at them.
Makoto shifts his left arm and the chain serpentines toward the bandanna shinobi behind the blond instead. The bo staff is held out in front, the chain wrapping around it. The sound of gears clanking comes out of Makoto's wrist. The chain tightens and the two engage in a tug of war trying to pull one another.
Two shuriken curve around from behind the left of Makoto. Both hit the bandanna man, one right between his eyes and one in the chest. The man burst into water, dropping to form a puddle on the ground. Makoto's chain also drops to the ground.
Junichi, with one arm still extended from the shuriken throw, says, "It's a Water Clone!" His other hand remains in the Water Prison holding Ryuu.
The blond has now run up on Makoto. Makoto blocks one tonfa swing with his wrist armor and then begins weaving hand signs as he steps back. The second tonfa thrusts at his face. He ducks under it and puts his hand on the ground, "Water Style: Forceful Wave!"
Water begins to well up from the ground and then bursts forward. It is a relatively small wave, only about knee-high. But it has enough force to push the blond backwards and knock him off-balance.
Makoto twists his body and flings his left arm inward. The barbed-chain that lay outstretched to the left of the blond now launches up and over. It wraps around the blond, slicing him in half at the waste. The two halves of his body hit the ground and splash into puddles.
Makoto turns around looking back at the caravan and his allies. "Rats!" He sees a swarm of rats getting into the wagon and running off with goods and supplies.
The bo staff and tonfa wielding duo come sliding down the mountain once more.
Junichi yells to Makoto, "You have to go after the girl controlling Ryuu! Or they'll keep sending Water Clones down at us until we break." Junichi points up at the cliff ledge where he spotted the girl weaving hand signs just before Ryuu attacked.
"Right!" Makoto yells. He runs that way. The tonfa shinobi tries to cut off his angle.
Click, click, click, woosh! Makoto swipes his arm and sends his chain out at a wide diagonal angle.
The blond leaps up high into the air to jump over top of it. Makoto throws a handful of senbon. One tonfa is cranked into a circular motion, spinning around like a fan blade. He swipes and blocks the senbon, and carries that momentum into a downward strike as he looks to drop directly onto Makoto.
Makoto finishes weaving hand signs and ducks down, "Water Style: Water Geyser Jutsu!" His hand hits the ground and water forms directly underneath himself. A thin pillar of high pressure water bursts upwards, lifting Makoto into the air. He flings up and over the blond's falling attack angle.
The blond falls directly into the high pressure pillar now underneath Makoto. Splash! The Water Clone is destroyed.
Click, click, click! Makoto's chain reels in as his momentum continues up from the geyser. He flies up high enough to spot the girl. She is holding her hands together in a sign and concentrating.
Surprise falls over her face when she sees Makoto. The chain launches in and wraps around her before she can react. Makoto is pulled by gravity back to earth, his feet landing on the steep slope and sliding back down the mountainside. The girl is dragged down after him.
Back on the other side of the battlefield, Junichi underhand tosses a kunai high into the air. He then draws and throws a trio of shuriken straight at the bo staff wielder.
The bo man's eyes get big as he realizes he probably can't block and dodge all of these. He swings his bo staff at an angle to block two of the shuriken and dodge the third... Only for the kunai that was first lobbed up to fall straight down through the top of his head. Splash!
After dispatching the bandanna shinobi's clone, he looks over to see Makoto with the girl in tow as they come to a stop at the bottom of the valley. He finally pulls his one hand out of the Water Prison, releasing Ryuu.
Ryuu shakes his head and gathers himself.
"You good?" Junichi asks.
Ryuu just gives him a look and nods. Then both jonin seemingly teleport away, moving at high speeds running up each side of the cliffs, going after the sources of the Water Clones. They disappear from Makoto's view.
The rats are still scurrying around the wagon, stealing everything they can carry. With the imminent danger now fading, the civilians now run over to try to grab their stuff back, "Hey that's mine!"
Makoto stares at the female shinobi he has in custody.
"My adrenaline was starting to come down. My hands were shaking. I tried to take a deep breath, but it didn't help. And then I saw it. My eyes locked onto the Hidden Rain forehead protector on the girl. It just then hit me that the other two attackers had them on as well. These were our own allies trying to rob us."
Part 3
Makoto, now with a morsel of empathy for the young girl, sees his barbed-chain piercing her arms and drawing blood. He pulls out a rope and ties her hands so that he can retrieve his weapon.
"What's your name?" He asks as he cleans her flesh wounds.
She still has fear in her eyes. "Benten."
Ryuu and Junichi now slide down each side of the mountains. They both have one of the robbers tied up and over their shoulder. They toss the boys next to her.
"These punks are Kenta's new squad!" Ryuu yells.
Junichi raises an eyebrow, "The sixth seat jonin? You don't think he's in on this, do you?"
"No!" Benten yells out. "He has no involvement in this. This was all my plan. Don't punish Kenta-sensei, please."
"How'd you do it?" Junichi asks. "How'd you control someone as strong as Ryuu?"
Benten explains, "I modified a disease in one of the rats. The disease attacks your nervous system, making you extremely aggravated and angry... Once it's in full swing, it only takes a little nudge in the right direction. A subtle genjutsu that would be impossible to maintain on him before... I can then suddenly control a much more powerful shinobi."
"The bite at the gates! You little bitch, I'll kill you!" Ryuu's veins are throbbing and drool runs out of his mouth again.
Junichi restrains him. He snaps out of it after a moment, wiping the drool and grabbing at his head. "Ahhh!"
"Please, let me give him the anti-virus!" Benten begs.
Makoto grabs her bag and dumps it on the ground in front of her.
"The blue vile." She says, trying to point with her restrained hands.
"I don't trust her!" Ryuu yells. He scratches at his own eyes in discomfort. He is sweating heavily.
Junichi tries to hold Ryuu still, "Yeah, well, we don't have many options right now, do we?"
Makoto comes over and they force the liquid down his throat.
"Walk it off, buddy." Junichi pats Ryuu on the back. Ryuu starts pacing around, his veins start to recede and he begins breathing much more calmly.
Makoto kneels back down to put all the stuff back in her bag. "I don't get it. You are Rain shinobi. Why are you trying to rob your own allies?"
"Money, duh." The blond says.
Benten further explains, "Come on, Amegakure is crumbling... This payout could have gotten us to another village. It could have given us a fresh start, somewhere better."
Those last two words visibly crush Makoto's spirit.
Ryuu walks back over, "I'm starting to feel like myself again, so this isn't just the virus talking; I still say we kill them. Traitor scum." He looks down on them with such disgust.
The bandanna kid interjects, "Whoa, hey now! We can have the rats bring it all back like nothing even happened. No harm, no fowl!" He whistles loudly.
The rats were still scrambling to take things from the wagon with the merchants trying to stop them. The sound of the whistle makes the rats freeze in place. A second whistle is heard. The rats suddenly reverse, coming back down the mountain and out of the crevices in the cliffs, placing all of the stolen goods back into the wagon.
Ryuu is unimpressed. He crosses his arms and continues staring them down.
"I tried my best to put my emotions aside and bring logic to the situation."
Makoto takes a deep breath before speaking up, "We can't turn on each other when times are tough! That's how we stay down. When we tear each other apart, we all lose."
Junichi thinks, "Hmm."
Makoto continues, "I know it is not my decision to make, but I implore you to believe in rehabilitation. I believe these kids can be reformed and strengthen the Hidden Rain yet."
"I have to admit, the strategy was impressive." Junichi thinks out loud, "They were able to briefly pit two jonin against one another, keep pressure on, and snatch valuables right under our noses... As a trio of teenage genin. That virus shit is pretty genius. We could certainly use minds like that in our rebuild."
Ryuu ponders as well, "Hmm."
The caravan rides through a grassy plain, approaching a coastal town. The sea breeze pushes through the tall grass as the sun sets.
"We ended up delaying the trip for part of the day to have our captive defectors returned home to Amegakure. Being a day behind schedule isn't too bad though. I hope that Benten and her friends have a change of heart. I hope they come to love their homeland like I do."
At the docks, Makoto sits on a bench writing in a little book. Busy dock workers moving things on and off various boats. A large crane lifts up their fully packed wagon and maneuvers it onto a ship.
"Junichi left a while ago to sell the mules and the cart. Then he's heading to the hawk messenger services in this town to send word ahead of our arrival. I wonder how the Mizukage's office will greet us. I think-"
"Hey!" Junichi interrupts Makoto's writing. "What are you doing?"
"Huh? Oh, I just like to write my thoughts down. It helps me keep my head clear." Makoto casually answers.
Junichi looks pissed. "No. That is a breach of regulations. You cannot keep a journal of any shinobi affairs! That is a massive security risk." Junichi scolds him.
Makoto tossed him the book. "Go ahead, steal my secrets."
Junichi looks confused. He opens the book and starts reading, "Beetle tooth spray seven round barking..." He looks up. "What the hell is this gibberish?"
"I write in a completely coded language that I made up. There is no cipher, I'm the only one who can read or understand it." Makoto says proudly.
Junichi is still skeptical, trying to think if that is still a violation. "If an enemy captures you... Well no, I guess if they can steal the cipher they could have stolen any of the memories inside anyway... hmm." He tosses the book back to him. "I guess it's fine. Just don't ever write down or explain the cipher."
"Of course." Makoto says.
"Alright, let's board this ship. To the Land of Water!" Junichi walks down the dock.
Makoto gets up and puts his journal in his pocket before following after him.