Sasuke had never been on a mission with such a silent and serious group.
For hours, no one said a word. Not a single word. They just silently followed Enma, Izumi, and Tokuma, who were leading them to the east.
The three of them were in the front, and he was in the middle line with the boy named Shin, who was a couple of years older than him, and the boy named Torune, who was the same age as Shin and from the Aburame Clan.
He had never seen these two boys before in the Village, and he did not even remember seeing them at the Academy during his time there.
And there was something eerie about them, especially the Aburame.
Kakashi was a little away from them, on the right flank, and Yamato was the same distance away from them on the left flank.
The last two who were covering their rear were Inuzuka Hana, whom he was familiar with, and Uzuki Yugao, whom he had met before when she had come with Team 5 to their rescue during the Battle on the Bridge.
Even Hana was very silent, and it did not take him long to realise that they were on a very serious Mission.
"Left. Two o'clock. Thirteen kilometres away."
They suddenly heard Enma's call, and as instructed earlier, they all spread out in groups of two.
Izumi fell back and joined him, and they maintained their direction whilst the others got ready to surround their targets.
"It's not a fight. Hopefully."
At her words, he nodded his head but kept his guard up.
A few minutes later, they reached the location, and the group quickly surrounded the three Sand Shinobi he was very familiar with.
Gaara, Kankuro, and Temari were on guard, covering each other's backs, clearly unsettled by the way they had been surrounded.
Enma and Tokuma finally landed in the middle of the circle, close to the Sand Siblings.
"It's been a while." The Uzumaki smiled, and instantly, everyone relaxed. "Scrolls?" He asked, and Kankuro took out the two scrolls from his large hidden pockets and showed them.
Yugao and Yamato then stepped forward with their scrolls, and soon, all four scrolls were spread on the ground.
Everyone closed in as the information on the scrolls was being scrutinised in detail by Yugao.
"They are real." She declared.
Enma then sat down and unlocked the seal using the four keys in each scroll, and with a puff of smoke, a map appeared.
Sasuke immediately recognised the Nation the map belonged to.
"Kiri?" He lightly asked, and his best friend nodded to him.
"Are we going to meet Terumi Mei at the location she has marked?" Kakashi asked and smiled when he saw the Uzumaki shake his head.
"We are not meeting with anyone until we have fulfilled our objectives. We are going to infiltrate Hidden Mist and take out the Mizukage first. Once we have Sanbi, and he's dead, we will meet with the Rebel Forces and hand his body to them along with those two swords."
Sasuke was stunned when he heard that their target was the Mizukage of Kiri.
Even Hana was shocked as she seemed unaware of their objective, but no one else showed surprise.
Izumi too did not know what their mission was, but she was brilliant at masking her emotions. And it was extremely difficult to read her thoughts and intentions just by observing her reactions.
"You don't trust Kiri?" Temari frowned.
Enma glanced her way and then stood up.
"You are forgetting something very important, Princess."
She blushed when he called her Princess and furrowed her brows in confusion.
"What?"
"Kiri is not our ally yet." He smiled, and his reminder made her freeze. "Memorise the map as best as you can." He ordered, and one by one, everyone took a good look at the map.
It was easy for Izumi, Sasuke, and Kakashi as they only needed to look at it once with their Sharingan, but the rest took more time.
"Now, suggest a route." He said and the Team looked at each other.
"We can take a ship from the Land of Waves, bound to the Water Capital," Hana suggested.
"We can also Water Walk all the way there." Kakashi playfully said, and Yamato grinned. "Sure, if your wish is to drown to your death, we can run on the water all the way to Kiri."
"Torune?" Enma asked the Aburame, who glanced his way. "What do you think we should do?"
"I think Water Walk is not a bad idea." He said, much to the surprise of everyone. "If we head to the eastern shore of the Land of Forests, we can rush from island to island, and wait for a day in between to get enough rest. The distance from one island to another is not much. The sea is treacherous, especially at this time of the year, so the journey will be taxing, but it's not something we can not handle. The enemy won't be expecting us to come to their land in this fashion."
He sat down and pointed at the islands on the map.
"We have good Sensory Shinobi on our Team. I doubt anyone can spot us before they are spotted by us, Captain. So, let's take advantage of it."
Enma waited for a minute to hear anyone else's suggestion, but they all remained silent. So, he nodded his head and made the decision.
"Let's do it."
Once the Team received the order, they set off towards the Land of Forests in the same formation, except that it was the Sand Siblings who were covering the rear now.
Sasuke was dismayed when the group did not stop even past sunset or midnight. They just continued moving, and it was in the afternoon the next day that they stopped after crossing the border of the Land of Forests.
Except for a few, even the best of them seemed tired, and he just sprawled on the soft ground under the shade of a tree to give his body some rest.
"Captain, we will need to take a detour. The shortest route passes through the Forest of Bewilderment. The place is always covered in thick fog, sweeping winds, and extreme magnetic fields that can play with your mind. Once someone gets lost there, it's not easy to get out." Shin, who was Enma's second recruit from Root, approached him with a suggestion.
The grey-haired boy showed no expressions as his Captain stayed quiet for a few seconds.
"Come with me." Enma suddenly said and rushed away.
Since he did not stop anyone from coming along, one by one, all of them followed him, even though they wanted nothing more than to rest their bodies.
The group travelled through the woods for several kilometres before they closed in on a small village settlement, which was under attack.
Izumi's eyes turned cold when she saw a Shinobi hovering in the air with his umbrella and showering rain of Chakra-infused senbon on the helpless people, who were trying to shield and save their children.
There was another man with a drill-like attachment on his arm, and he was about to kill an old man who was running away with a little kid in his arms.
She rushed forward, and it was the same for the other members of the team.
Their sudden appearance panicked the Villagers even more, who believed that they were with the attackers.
However, it was soon made clear to them that they were not enemies but their hope.
Enma used his Shadow Clones to get the people away from the battles that had started, and then he and Hana quickly started treating the injured ones.
He did not care about the enemies as he was confident that his team would deal with them, and sure enough, the four leaders had been captured on the brink of death, and the rest of the fifteen attackers had been killed.
Kakashi and Yamato kept the angry villagers away from attacking the four, and the people only relaxed when Izumi told them that they needed to question them first before killing them.
When Enma rejoined the group, Izumi was making the four prisoners talk like obedient parrots, who were answering all her questions very honestly.
This was the power of Sharingan, where under its influence, people would spill out all the beans.
"Looks like we will be heading to the Forest of Bewilderment, after all." Tokuma smiled, and Enma nodded his head.
"Let's rescue those kids."
"About about these four, Captain?" Izumi asked, but her face remained expressionless.
"We will take one with us, and the rest of the three are dead men. The Leader dies first."
As soon as his words finished, Torune and Shin took out their Tatnos and instantly decapitated three of the four prisoners, right in front of the eyes of the villagers, who were more than happy to see their deaths.
Izumi kept the last one under hypnosis, and it was Enma's clone who carried the man named Gantetsu as they rushed towards the hideout of Shinobazu, the Missing-Nin Band they had just annihilated.
Even though they were very tired, they travelled as fast as they could for two hours before they entered the forest and soon found the hideout where the Missing-Nin had been keeping the orphans.
There were quite a few of them. Eleven to be exact, and the oldest was only seven years old.
Hana quickly checked up on their health and flinched when she saw how scared they were of her and her Team.
"What are we going to do with them?" Tokuma asked, and everyone frowned.
Enma thought for a while, and then created Eleven Clones, with each carrying one kid.
"Decide. Should we send them to Konoha, Wave Town, or some Village in the Land of Forests?" He left his Team to make the decision.
"They have no one left, and I think it's better to send them to Konoha. I will keep a check on them at the orphanage." Hana said, and since Tokuma, Yamato, and Yugao agreed with her, Enma decided to send them to their village, and instructed all four of them to write a quick report about these orphans to the Hokage.
Once they submitted their reports, his Clones set off for Konoha.
"Let's rest here for the night. We will set continue our journey in the morning."
"Yes!" And with that everyone decided to get some rest.
As for the last Missing-Nin, Izumi killed him, and Yamato buried him in the ground with his Earth Release.
Since all of them had brought their own food supplies, no one shared their meals and ate to their fill, and then they all caught some sleep.
Izumi could not really sleep with everyone else in the hideout, so she came out and set up a hammock under the tree Enma was sitting on.
She did not say a word to him and just silently climbed into her hammock and closed her eyes, soon drifting off to a peaceful sleep.
The Uzumaki kept eyes on everyone through his Mind's Eye of Kagura, stayed up all night, meditating, and then jumped off the tree at dawn.
He woke up Izumi, who cutely yawned and then followed him to a nearby stream, where they freshened up and also ate their breakfast.
The Team soon joined them by the stream and freshened up as well, and a couple of hours later, when they were all ready, they set off to the eastern end of the Land of Forests.
Shin, who had expressed his worries about the Forest of Bewilderment, felt a little silly when their Captain helped them pass right through it, and once they exited the fog, they picked up their pace.
Late in the afternoon, around 2 pm, they all stopped in the woods that were next to the beach, and Enma asked to rest and eat.
"We will travel on the sea at night," he informed them.