Hey everyone, I'm finally excited to announce that I've finished my university semester! That means I'll have all the time in the world to write fanfiction like before, so I can go back to writing chapters every other day, just like I used to.
Without further ado, let's get started.
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As I gathered the essential items for the mission, I gave a steady glance to the man who would be replacing me for a few days.
The look was meant to show him what I was doing, analyzing and verifying whether he was trustworthy.
The old monkey with his pipe could only exhale a puff of smoke and shake his head.
"If you distrust me so much, then why did you let me replace you?" he finally spoke.
"There's no one who can do my job without messing it up besides you, not to mention Shikaku isn't in the village," I replied honestly.
"Heh," Hiruzen just smiled as he leaned back in his seat and pulled out his pervert's ball—I mean, his crystal ball. "Relax, I don't plan on doing much here. I'm already retired, and I don't want any more gray hairs; I have to stay young, since now that I have some free time, I'm thinking of venturing into the world of dating."
I just stared at him, listlessly, unsure if what he was saying was true or false.
"Just don't set the place on fire," I told him, grabbing the scrolls and leaving the room as the old monkey waved goodbye.
...
Sitting in a carriage, I could hear people talking; nothing out of the ordinary was happening, especially where I was.
I saw Raido with an unmasked Root ninja driving the vehicle out of the village.
It wasn't a good idea for people to know their Hokage wasn't in the village, so I decided to leave discreetly in a caravan, making it look like a normal B-rank mission.
"I see you've arrived," came Shusui's voice. He was at the entrance with Kakashi, who had threatened him to make sure he was on time.
The rest of the ninja were already outside the village: Root and Tool 1, who, being a tracker and assassin, was very useful, and Tool 2, who, being a genjutsu user, would be helpful for hiding in illusions if necessary.
I could use the ninjas' predetermined routes, but the less they see me leaving the village, the better. Not to mention, this is top secret—I repeat, top, ultra, hyper, mega secret. The less they know we're doing this, the better. And these are the routes shinobi use to leave and enter the village unsupervised, and there's a lot of traffic going back and forth sometimes.
"We're all set," Raido said, stepping out of the carriage to look at the guards of Konoha's great gate. Sadly, Izumo and Kotetsu don't have these posts yet, since they're still genin; it'll be a while before they become the eternal chunin who oversee this great gate.
A super-kage-level threat, so much so that Pain didn't want to confront it during his invasion of the village.
"The weather's nice," I said, looking at Danzo, who's standing in front of me, grumpy, not speaking to me but staring intently.
With everything I'd done, and without knowing what he'd do with his men, he practically demanded and begged me to come too.
I agreed, since his pragmatism and his way of doing things could be beneficial to the mission, and now that he has the seal on his tongue, I don't have to fear that he'll reveal anything against me or the village, like he might to Orochimaru or the village we're going to infiltrate.
That said, just to annoy him, I made him leave with me.
The old mummy just stared at me without saying a word, as if he had no tongue, but I could feel his hatred for me very clearly. This was clearly enough to punish him, but if I did, how could I continue to be blamed for my mistakes and failures? I needed a scapegoat, and Danzo was the perfect person for the job, which is why I didn't get rid of him.
"All set," Raido announced, finishing his conversation with the chunin stationed at the village entrance.
With that, I felt the carriage begin to move out of the village.
At that moment, Shisui got into the vehicle; it's worth mentioning that none of the three of them were wearing masks.
"Everything alright?" he asked.
I just gestured to indicate that it was, and that we would travel the 3 kilometers from the village on foot without the carriage.
"Understood," he said, leaving the area.
...
"So, do you have any way of getting to the Land of Water without using a boat?" I asked Danzo, who just looked at me.
"No," was his polite reply.
"Useless," I said, approaching Number One, ignoring his expression, as always.
A day had passed since we left Konoha, and we were in the Land of Waves; it looked pretty decent, unlike what it would become in a few years.
Honestly, I was both hoping and not hoping Gato was already here. If she were, I could steal from her directly and get more money, since I love money, but since I wasn't alone, if I did, I'd have to leave most of the money for the village and not for myself, and trying to gradually siphon money from the village supplies wouldn't work.
To prevent those two worms from stealing money from the village, I installed a system for managing the village treasury, where everything is recorded and monitored.
Basically, I would have shot myself in the foot. With my authority, you can still get money without them noticing, but the consequences of it getting out aren't good.
"My innovation isn't exactly great for use in the sea, Madam Hokage," Number One explained, making a hand gesture. When he struck the ground, a large puff of smoke billowed out, revealing a crocodile.
"Seriously, no one else has a summoning that can be used in water besides him? " I asked everyone present.
"I have dogs," Kakashi said.
"I have bears," Shisui explained.
"And I have the boar contract," he said wearily.
I looked at Number Two, who shook his head.
"I have the jellyfish contract, but they're even slower than crocodiles," argument number two.
"Do any of your NE ninjas have any summons that are good for swimming or not?" I asked Danzo. Silence; after a few seconds without a response, I asked again. "Your NE ninjas use summons, right?"
Danzo was thoughtful for a few moments.
"Some," he replied.
"Some?" I questioned.
At that moment, he looked at some of the Root ninjas; out of the 20, only three made hand seals.
An ostrich, a small hummingbird, and a raccoon appeared from the ground.
I could only shake my head.
"Your summon can't swim?" I finally asked the old mummy.
"Baku can barely move," he finished, replying listlessly.
"So out of 27 ninjas, nobody has a decent summon that can get us from here to an unsupervised place in the Land of Water?" I questioned, wondering what the odds of such bad luck were.
Faced with that situation, I could only sigh and run my hands over my face in despair.
"Apparently, I don't think so, heh heh heh," Kakashi commented.
"Well, there's no other way," I said, making a hand seal so that a wooden table appeared. "A map," I demanded, and Number One appeared beside me, handing me a map of the Land of Water.
"So, what's your plan for us all to infiltrate the Land of Water?" Danzo asked, appearing next to me.
"We have no other option but to enter the country by mundane means, but if we go in en masse, we might be discovered, so we'll split into teams," I explained, taking a pencil from my tool bag and marking a specific location in the country. "We'll divide into teams of three, and everyone will meet at this spot; once we're all here, we'll move on to the next phase of the mission. Is that clear?"
"Yes," everyone said except for the Root ninjas and Danzo.
"Danzo, Shisui, and I will form a team; the rest of you can form your teams however you like, no objections, right?" I asked Danzo specifically, who just gave me a narrowed look.
"There isn't one," he declared.
"Good," I agreed.
I wouldn't let Danzo do anything to Shisui because of his prejudice against the Uchiha, so it's best to keep them both in plain sight; besides, there's a chance he's ordered his agents to attack him when they're alone together.
There's a possibility that could happen, so I prefer to avoid any trouble. There's also the possibility that he might attack Kakashi, but Kakashi isn't so naive as to think his fellow ninja from the village won't do anything to him.
"Let's begin the infiltration immediately, you two," I said, pointing to Danzo and Shisui, "follow me."
With that said, I performed the Transformation Jutsu and headed to the coastal base to prepare for our departure.
...
After five days of waiting, everyone finally arrived at the base I had indicated.
The last to arrive, ironically, were Kakashi and two Root ninjas. For a moment, I wanted to ask what had happened, since all three of them were injured, but I decided to ask later, as I didn't want to create any conflict between the two factions in the middle of a mission. If it were something important, the Copy Ninja himself would tell me in person.
In the end, Team Dynamite—that is, Danzo, Shisui, and I—boarded a merchant ship. To avoid being noticed by the Kiri ninja, I had to put on makeup, use the Yin Seal in reverse to reduce my chakra reserves, and wrap my body in bandages to avoid looking too curvy and attracting unwanted attention.
(Note: Writing this reminded me of that cosplay anime character whose name I can't remember, the woman who used something to cover her chest to make it look flat, even though she had larger breasts. I know that's not realistic at all, but honestly, how realistic can that be?)
"Alright, we're all here, what now?" Danzo asked. I just looked at him since I was honestly talking to a couple of people, not like I was the leader of a village, so I ignored him.
I got up from my icy seat, which I'd made to look around.
Now there's a problem: in the world of Naruto, not only are the exact dates of some events unclear, but if you do some calculations, some characters should be older than they should be.
This is a problem with the author of this work, for not paying close attention when writing about certain events and giving them dates or explaining what happened between them.
From what I recall, if my memory serves me right, Obito should already be controlling Yagura, but it's still a while before Itachi and the former wielder of the Kubikiribocho fight Yagura, and I don't see him being very controlled in that fight.
It's either that, or Obito wants to get rid of Itachi's partner to replace him with Kisame; honestly, a teenager's thinking doesn't make sense.
According to the timeline, the Third Tail should have already appeared, but I have no idea if Yagura is already the jinchuriki. If he is, things get a bit complicated, since I was planning to steal that bujii, but a change of plans wouldn't fix that.
"First, before we do anything, we need to know the situation in the Bloody Village. So, I need some of you to infiltrate the country to see what's happening with the high command, especially the current Mizukage. And I want another team to investigate the jinchuriki and see if they pose a threat," I announced, looking at everyone except Danzo.
"How did the teams get assigned?" he asked, looking worn out.
"Danzo will lead the infiltration team with 12 Root ninjas, while the rest of you, except for you, will search for any trace of the jinchuriki or, if necessary, the bijuu if they're still at large. Once you know what's going on, we'll do the final part of the mission. Is that clear?"
"Yes, Hokage-sama," everyone said except the Root ninja and Danzo, so I looked at him intently.
"Is that clear?" I asked again, staring at him.
"Yes," he finally said.
"Yes, what?" he questioned.
"Yes, Hokage," he said as if he were forcing him to swallow thousands of needles.
"Good, you have a maximum of five days," he declared, and everyone left except Raido.
He stayed, watching, waiting for instructions.
"Follow me," I said simply, heading in a specific direction.
"Can I ask where we're going?" Raido asked, out of sheer curiosity and the familiarity of student and teacher.
"A long time ago, on a mission, I infiltrated this country, and in the middle of it, I discovered where the kiri black market is; that's where we're going. I brought you with me so there would be someone to protect my swords," I explained, leaping into a tree, followed by Raido.
While I wait for both groups to be ready, I can see if I can find out where some of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist are and see if I can steal a sword or two.