The road stretched long and quiet ahead of them, and it didn't take more than an hour of walking before Naruto's patience for silence ran out entirely.
"Okay, so what's actually the plan here?" he asked, jogging a couple of steps to catch up with Izumi at the head of the group. "Are we just gonna show up and start fighting Kumo, or—"
"No," Izumi said, not slowing her pace. "Right now, both sides are still testing each other. Small skirmishes, probing attacks, and intelligence gathering. Full-scale engagement hasn't started yet, and honestly, the longer it takes to start, the better for us. Konoha, unlike Kumo, wasn't in the most ideal condition for a war. The more time we have before the real front assault at the border breaks out, the better."
Naruto nodded, as if he understood everything... very studious, though how much he really got inside that Ramen-filled head of his, only people who knew him for a long time could tell. By the looks of the head shakes both Sakura and Karin were giving him, it was highly unlikely that they accepted anything from him.
"So what are we doing, then?" Sasuke asked.
"Scouting, mostly. Border patrols. Identifying troop movements before they turn into actual battles." Izumi glanced back at the group. "It's not glamorous. It's also exactly the kind of work genin — even capable ones — should actually be doing at this stage. Or at least that's what happened in the Third Shinobi War.
To fill the numbers, genin and even recent Academy graduates were thrown into battle or these kinds of sideline missions with someone more experienced.
If they're lucky, they get to experience war and find out that nothing like life expectancy exists in a war.
And if they're unlucky, well, in that case they most likely become bodies to hold back the forces so the more experienced shinobi could deliver the intel to the main camp."
Everyone fell silent at that. That was horrible, but that was war in a nutshell. Sacrificing pieces so a final victory could be achieved.
"Don't worry, there is a reason the Hokage didn't send genin and academy students to the front lines. Nobody's throwing you into open combat against Kumo's front line on day one," Izumi said upon seeing their grim faces.
"Define open combat," Kiyomi said, her tone entirely too casual for the question.
"Combat done in the open..." Sukuna muttered casually, as if it was a stupid question to begin with, which it was, for most people. For Kiyomi, she was merely setting what she was and wasn't allowed to do during fights.
Izumi ignored both of them, continuing on. "Command's set up a forward camp near the border. We report there first. From that point, assignments depend entirely on what the commanding officer needs covered."
"Who's in charge out there?" Karin asked.
"Tsume Inuzuka," Sukuna answered before Izumi could. "Clan head. I've worked a mission with her once, briefly. She's blunt, doesn't tolerate wasted time, and she's not going to be thrilled that half her reinforcements showed up without at least a Chūnin Vest."
"If it's just the vest, I can arrange that..." Kiyomi said dryly.
"You better not if you don't intend to be called back to the village and assigned a full-time war logistics creation job," Sukuna said. "Believe me, it's bad ROI."
Others didn't even understand what they were talking about, besides Izumi and Neji, of course.
The conversation trailed off after that, replaced by the steady rhythm of travel, and by the time the sun had shifted well into the afternoon, the forward camp came into view — tents arranged in efficient rows, patrols moving along the perimeter, the low hum of a war effort already well underway.
Tsume Inuzuka met them near the command tent, arms crossed, an enormous dog at her side eyeing the group with open suspicion.
"Genin," she said flatly, taking in the group with a single unimpressed sweep. "The Hokage sent me genin."
"Capable genin," Izumi said evenly.
"They're always capable, right up until they die..." Tsume's eyes lingered a moment longer on Sukuna and Neji, both of whom she clearly recognized by reputation if nothing else. The Chūnin vest and Jōnin vest relatively gave her some of her hope back for the team, but then her eyes fell on the others.
Naruto, Sasuke, Kiyomi, Karin, and Sakura. They weren't that promising; if anything, it was trouble having them here over being helpful, especially the Nine-Tails' brat.
"Fine. I don't have the luxury of turning away bodies right now, capable or otherwise. But they follow orders exactly, no exceptions, or they're on the first transport back to Konoha. Understood?"
"Understood," Izumi said, and the rest of the group nodded, some more enthusiastically than others.
There wasn't much time to settle in before assignments started coming down. The front lacked medical personnel badly enough that Sakura and Karin were pulled aside almost immediately.
"You two," Tsume said, looking them over. "Medical experience?"
"Yes," Sakura said.
"Good. You're with the field hospital. We're short-staffed and the damn things haven't even started yet." Tsume didn't wait for objections before moving on to the next assignment.
Sakura's face fell slightly, some of her earlier determination deflating at the idea of being pulled away from the group so quickly. Karin looked similarly disappointed, though neither argued. It was still their job, whatever shape it took, and both of them understood that well enough not to complain about it out loud.
What actually hurt was the later wink a certain Uchiha girl sent their way as she stood a small step closer to Sukuna.
Both girls' hands clenched tight, suddenly the thought of disobeying orders was already clouding their minds.
Sukuna, for his part, felt something in his chest ease slightly at the assignment. Whatever else happened out here, the two people he worried about most were about to be somewhere considerably safer than the front line proper.
"Good," he said quietly, mostly to himself.
"You could try sounding less relieved about it," Sakura muttered, elbowing him on her way past.
"I can try, but no promises."
"Rest of you are on scouting duty. Uchiha... you decide how you're going to cover the ground assigned to you..." Tsume said and then turned away, going back to her work after her job there was done.
Izumi, for her credit, already knew how it most likely would go. She had a plan in mind.
The rest of the group got split next by her to cover the ground and scout the entire area assigned to them, into three-man scouting teams, and that was where things immediately fell apart.
"Kiyomi and Sasuke," Izumi started, glancing at a roster, "you're with Hyūga—"
"Absolutely not," Kiyomi said, flat and immediate.
"Excuse me?"
"I said absolutely not," Kiyomi repeated. "I'm not spending a single hour in a three-man cell with him."
"Feeling's mutual," Neji said, arms crossed, entirely unbothered. "I'd rather not babysit an unstable woman who doesn't know her place."
"Oh, you haven't even seen what unstable is..." Kiyomi said that with a threatening smile on her face, her voice going dangerously sweet.
"I'm not opposed to Sasuke," Neji added, ignoring her entirely, "but I refuse to take orders from a woman... So I'm not going with you either." His eyes flicked toward Izumi.
Izumi's expression didn't change, though something in her posture went a degree colder. "Excuse me?"
"You heard me," Neji said, entirely unbothered by the shift in her demeanor. "I don't take commands from women."
Sasuke, meanwhile, looked entirely done with the entire conversation. "I don't want to be teamed with him either," he said. "For the record."
"Nobody asked you to volunteer an opinion," Neji said.
"Nobody asked for yours either," Sasuke shot back.
"If I'm taking orders from someone, then it would be Sukuna, or else you can forget it," Neji announced, making Izumi narrow her eyes at him.
"Be it then..." She relented. She, too, knew who Neji was really, and of all things, she didn't wish to deal with the Zenin clan and their clan's issues with women.
"Kiyomi and Sasuke, you both are with me, and Naruto and Hyūga, you... be happy that I'm not putting an insubordination charge on you. You're now under Sukuna." Izumi glared, Neji didn't even react, completely ignoring the threat.
"No way..." However, it wasn't over.
"I'm not separating from my darling. Not for this white-eyed chimpanzee." Kiyomi shouted, earning a glare from the said chimpanzee, something along the lines of, 'How dare a woman... blah blah blah.'
Honestly, no one was interested in it.
"Kiyomi..." Izumi felt like a headache building in. Of course, she too was aware of the changes in Kiyomi, seeing a girl who was almost like a younger sister to the original Izumi Uchiha being taken over by a Jujutsu sorcerer felt uncomfortable even when she wasn't the real Izumi Uchiha; she had her memories.
As for Sukuna stating both Mai Zenin and another sorcerer from the ancient era, Yorozu's spirits completely merging, Yuki herself had quite a knowledge of body and soul to know that it was impossible. Even the cursed spirit Mahito couldn't fuse two souls together; that was ridiculous. So, she mostly went with her own logic and long had decided the original Kiyomi Uchiha was gone.
"What she doesn't get is why the sudden obsession with Sukuna?" It was suspicious, to be honest.
Ultimately, Izumi pinched the bridge of her nose, clearly regretting every decision that had led her to this exact moment. "Fine. New arrangement. I take Naruto and Sasuke. Sukuna takes—" she glanced at the two remaining names on the list, already sensing exactly how badly this was about to go, "—Kiyomi and Hyūga."
The silence that followed was loud in its own way.
"You've got to be joking," Kiyomi said.
"Enough..." Sukuna finally said, getting annoyed at the bickering. "Just deal with it..."
Izumi agreed. "Sukuna outranks both of you, and neither of you have a problem taking orders from him specifically, so it solves the issue. Congratulations. Problem solved."
Kiyomi didn't look remotely satisfied by that solution, and neither did Neji, though for entirely different reasons.
Sukuna sighed, already anticipating exactly how exhausting the next several days were about to be. "Wonderful," he muttered.
Izumi, gathering Naruto and Sasuke toward her with a small, entirely too amused smile, glanced back at him on her way out. "Have fun," she said sweetly.
"I planned to," Sukuna smiled back, which sounded even more suspicious.
That left Sukuna standing with the two people least likely to cooperate with each other in the entire camp, both of them already glaring in opposite directions rather than at him directly, which he supposed counted as some small mercy.
"Alright," he said, once their assignment briefing was done and the three of them were finally moving out toward their designated scouting sector. "Ground rules. You two don't have to like each other. You don't even have to talk to each other if that's easier. But you follow my orders without hesitation, and if either of you starts something out here that gets someone killed, I promise you the consequences will be considerably worse than anything Kumo could do to you."
"Fine," Kiyomi said, arms crossed, eyes fixed pointedly away from Neji.
"Fine," Neji echoed, equally pointed.
They walked in silence for a while after that, the tension between them practically a physical presence trailing along behind the group.
Both walked while looking in the other direction from each other.
Sukuna exhaled... perhaps he was too quick to ask Tsunade to let them come.
xXx
A/N : Why this team, mainly to saw what they are capable of and since someone need there to look after both Naruto and Sasuke. Someone who is not Sukuna since they are too used to him to know while he's there mostly things are sorted. So they needed experience to work under or with other higher ranking shinobi or Kunoichi or that matter.
Of course the logic given in the chapter itself also applies one hundred per cent, Naoya won't take orders from Izumi. Kiyomi doesn't wish to be seperated from Sukuna, and both of them hate each other guts.
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