Hinata and I are drinking tea, Sakura is off preparing for her upcoming experiments, she honestly does not seem to actually care about either the fact that I'm some dude who possessed Sasuke or that this world is supposedly fictional. Hinata does have some questions regarding that subject however.
Hinata sips her tea "So, did you actually come save me on purpose that time before the war? Or did you just happen to come by?"
I dump some more sugar in my tea "I didn't even know it was you honestly. I saw those bullies kicking a girl and just got really angry."
Her shoulders sag in relief "I see, thank you for answering honestly."
I take a sip of the tea, it could use some more sugar. "No problem."
We spend some time in silence. Her sipping tea and me alternating between taking sips and dumping sugar. It's when I add in yet another tablespoon that I realize this probably isn't actually sugar.
I look at Hinata "This isn't actually sugar is it?".
She nods "I don't know what it is. Sakura replaced the sugar with something and told me to keep it a secret. It was supposed to be a prank."
She forgot, didn't she? "She forgot she replaced it didn't she?"
Hinata's nod confirms my suspicion.
—
Sakura spends the following two days frantically preparing. By the end of it she has a thick stack of storage seals filled to the brim with medical equipment and whatever unholy concoctions she plans to try out.
I tried asking her to tattoo a storage seal under my tongue, like the sisters have, but apparently we should be keeping ourselves clean of anything of the sort until she figures out a healing seal that doesn't break after use.
While Sakura is preparing Hinata and I are resting. Don't wanna get a training injury before you get on a mission.
Once the time comes we all go to the Hokage tower. A quick look through the available missions reveals there are two opportunities of interest. Border patrol near The Land of Lightning and the other is rooting out some missing nin in The Land of Wind. The border patrol mission involves guarding a section of the border for around a month. The missing nin mission is essentially a bounty hunt, with us staying there for around two months to prevent others from taking advantage of the power vacuum. The border patrol is a B-rank mission while the missing nin mission is A-rank.
I look at Sakura while pointing at the missing nin mission "You alright with this?".
She gives it a thought "Yeah, things are a little hot with kumo right now, probably best we get that one"
Hinata shrugs "I am indifferent to either option"
And with that our mission is chosen. I take it from the A-rank mission board, proceeding to go to the Hokage's office. Upon our arrival we find the Hokage perched yet again at his office. I wordlessly hand over the mission poster to Hiruzen.
He puts it down when he is finished reading "Before you take this mission I wish for you to know, we have resources if you are feeling unwell. Do not be afraid to rely on others."
I just nod "Thank you lord Hokage. If we find ourselves overwhelmed we will not hesitate to do so."
Hiruzen spends some time examining each of us. "Very well then. Make Konoha proud and come back safe. You may leave."
With that we leave his office and walk towards the gates. We are off to The Land of Wind.
-3 days later
We've arrived at Tawagata, a somewhat prosperous town inside of The Land of Wind. Unlike the ninja villages we'd raided up until now this is an actual town, not fifty houses and an office. Our client is the town's merchant guild, asking some guy on the streets where it is quickly leads us to a well decorated five story building. Entering it the clerk quickly ushers us to the elevator and leads us towards his boss's office. After entering it I examine both our client and his office.
The room is rectangular.The floor is carpet, the really good kind. The walls are painted white, with the windows towards the sunset. The wall on our side of the room has some chairs that we've already sat on. The wall on the other side of the room is covered in office drawers. In front of the office drawers lies the office desk. Large, wooden and practical. Near it lies a simple quality leather office chair. Overall somewhat spartan for a supposedly rich merchant's guild.
Our client isn't the stereotypical merchant either. He clearly works out and takes care of himself. He is in his mid thirties, has black cropped hair and blue eyes. He is wearing a simple shirt and pants. When we entered he was pacing inside of his office.
When he sees us he narrows his eyes at first, probably surprised he got sent a bunch of kids, before recognition flashes inside of his eyes. We wait for him to begin talking first.
He offers us a plate of biscuits "I have heard of you. You are the ones who have terrorized Kumogakure in the month leading to the end of the war aren't you? I am pleased that Konohagakure sent you. My name is Tadasuke"
I take the plate "So what is the mission about? What we mostly know is that we're supposed to hunt missing nin and stay here for some time"
He sits in his office chair "I need you to take care of a gang of missing nin. They keep ambushing our caravans! We have been unable to trade for the past two months. At first we forwarded the mission to Sunagakure, but the team they sent here went silent a month ago. Two weeks ago their heads were found inside of my office."
Hinata takes a biscuit "Do you know anything regarding the missing nin? Any information you hold can be relevant"
Tadasuke sighs "We know nothing. We send our caravans to trade and they never come back. The previous team attempted to find the ambush sites but failed. It's almost as if they disappear into thin air"
Sakura gives him a deadpan stare "Then how do you know they're missing nin? They could be village ninja, in which case we can't really do much as foreign shinobi"
Tadasuke sighs "We do not know for sure they are missing nin. We petitioned our daimyo and they confirmed for us no village has shinobi deployed in this area. They are either missing nin or some of those secret forces you all supposedly have"
Hinata eats another biscuit, "Then we must catch them in the act. You will send a caravan and we will disguise ourselves as merchants. Once the enemy attack we will have the information we require"
Sakura, Hinata and I stare at Tadasuke. He sighs "Very well. I will order for a caravan to be sent towards the closest town. Please try to save my men, I do not enjoy sending them to their death."
I eat the last biscuit, "Let's not waste any time. Arrange for the caravan to leave as soon as possible."
Apparently as soon as possible is right now.
—
The caravan is comprised of six wagons in total. We are all in the fourth wagon. Hinata is sitting cross-legged with her byakugan activated, to catch any prospective ambushers. Sakura and I are sitting in the front of the wagon, Henge'd as merchants. The journey itself is three days long by cart, so we aren't guaranteed to get attacked on the first day.
It happens on the third and last day of the journey. Hinata calmly continues eating her apple "There are eight shinobi slowly moving towards us. They are all wearing yellow cloaks. Some of them are wearing slashed Sunagakure headbands. Four of them are approaching from the east and the other four from the west."
I finish my pepper "Let's just let them get closer. When they're like three hundred meters away tell us and we'll just capture them all."
Hinata nods. Eight minutes later she says "They are three hundred meters away."
I put my water bottle on the floor of the wagon. "Let's go then, Sakura and I are gonna take the four on the east, you take the four that are west."
Sakura and Hinata both nod and we're off. Hinata heads west while Sakura and I head east. I only manage to catch them in my sight thanks to the sharingan. The fuckers are actually pretty well camouflaged against the sand with those cloaks. Sending two shadow clones to deal with each of them proves to be overkill, as they all are knocked out in the first exchange. They're just genin, not worth the A-rank mission. When we meet with Hinata she also confirms the same.
We stay with the caravan until it reaches the destination town safely, afterwards we leave and run off to set up an outpost and interrogate the captives. Before leaving I send a shadow clone to meetup with Tadasuke and guard him, something that I should've probably done before, don't want the client to just die. That would be pretty embarrassing.
—
We make our outpost in the midway point between the two towns. Once we've settled in I examine our prisoners. They are all young, the youngest looks about eleven and the oldest appears sixteen. It doesn't take them long to crack and tell us their life story. They are all orphans and became shinobi for the money. When they became genin and started making less money than civilians they all bailed and joined their gang, The Ariha. They all got recruited into it by one of their teammates. Their leader is some jonin named Ruya. They are supposed to meet her in four days to give Ruya her twenty percent cut for telling them about the caravan.
Until then Sakura has some experiments to run, so we're just gonna stay at the outpost.