At night,
a group of Kusagakure ninjas kept a close watch on a two-story building. Two genin stood at the entrance, a chunin was on watch on the second-floor balcony, and two guards patrolled the street every twenty minutes.
Mitsuru had heard that this was the main office of the Village of Kusagakure. The village's special scrolls were hidden in its basement. This was one of the few places still protected by a senior jonin. Over the years, Kusagakure had lost many jonin and chunin, and couldn't afford to use them as guards. However, the presence of that jonin, in addition to the village leader, meant there were two jonin in the building.
Thanks to the questions he'd asked in the hospital, Mitsuru knew the password to enter the building. He transformed into one of the ninjas who was feeling a bit better but was still hospitalized and walked toward the entrance.
"Hey, Ryota, how are you? What are you doing here?"
Unfortunately, the guard knew him. With all his skill, Mitsuru imitated the tone of the ninja he was disguised as. "Much better now…" He rubbed his left side and continued, "It still hurts, but I won't let it stop me. I want to improve my knowledge of ninjutsu... I don't want to embarrass myself again next time!"
The guard smiled. "You're always so diligent!"
Mitsuru smiled back and easily entered the building, heading toward the scroll section. Most of the A and C-level scrolls were kept there. He knew he could find B and maybe even more A-level scrolls on the floor below. But as he was about to go down the stairs, a ninja stopped him.
"Ryota, where are you going? That section is only for high-ranking ninjas. You can't enter without the village leader's permission!"
"Oh, my bad. Sorry."
Mitsuru simply turned around and went a different way, standing behind a shelf that only held A-rank scrolls. Relieved, the ninja went to his chair and sat down, unaware that at that very moment, a clone of Mitsuru was lurking deep underground, waiting.
The original Mitsuru calmly exited the scroll room. A few minutes later, his clone, wearing a strange mask, quietly appeared behind the ninja and, by pressing his chakra points, knocked him out. He then easily entered the forbidden room. As soon as he stepped inside the seal room, an alarm blared and the door began to slam shut!
From outside the building, Mitsuru heard the alarm. It seemed his clone had been found out. The Kusagakure ninjas quickly began to surround the building. Mitsuru retreated and changed his appearance, this time transforming into a normal passerby. He easily walked away down the main street.
"I hope I don't lose too much."
..
The clone calmly looked at the door that was now locked behind him.
"Oh! How clever!"
He didn't show the slightest bit of concern as he walked over to the scrolls and began to study them.
"Hmm, interesting. For such a small village, they have so much knowledge about Water and Earth Release… This is good."
He glanced at a corner of the room. There were two large boxes filled with explosive tags and a safe, probably full of the ninja world's currency.
"Looks like I can't take these with me... It's like having a ton of food to eat, but your stomach can't hold it all… How sad."
Then he looked up at the security camera. He smirked from under his mask.
"You know, I'm not a petty person! But as a hostile party, if I can't have something, I'd rather no one else has it either!"
He then began to form the hand seals. "Snake… Ram… Monkey… Boar… Katon… Great Fireball Jutsu!"
Suddenly, the entire room began to burn.
Mitsuru heard a massive explosion from a distance as a new memory entered his mind.
"The village is going to be a little restless!"
..
The woman had just fallen asleep when there was a knock on the door.
"Hurry! Something's happened! You need to get to the hospital, now!"
"But sir, I just got back from the hospital!"
"Don't waste time! This is an emergency! If you won't come, then…" He looked maliciously at the little girl sleeping in her arms. "...I'll have to take her instead?"
"No! I'm coming now!"
The woman had no choice but to comply.
"Then get up! Hurry up!"
An hour later, the woman returned to her hut, more exhausted and drained than ever. Her daughter was still asleep, unaware that her mother had left and returned. With trembling hands, she stroked the little girl's hair. It was so hard to survive as an outsider. She had to do whatever it took to keep her daughter safe.
At least they had promised her she could rest for two days.
The next day, around noon...
The door burst open, and a tall man with gray eyes and long black hair slicked back entered. He wore a Kusagakure forehead protector, a dark gray-brown kimono-like shirt with cream-colored trim, black pants, black socks, and black sandals.
He addressed the sick woman lying weakly on the bed. "Your rest is over! Come with me, the hospital needs you."
The little girl ran in front of her mother and, as if to protect her, spread her arms out. "No! You said she could rest for two days! It hasn't even been one day yet! Mommy is still not well."
The man paid no attention to the girl and said coolly, "Hurry up."
The woman weakly got up from the bed and draped a shawl over her shoulders.
Tears streaming down her face, the little girl cried, "No! You're not well! You shouldn't go!"
"Karin…" She stroked the girl's face and told her gently, "This is my duty… I have to do it, or the village will have problems… And then we won't be able to live in safety."
The woman followed the Kusagakure ninja and left the humble hut. Karin hugged her knees in grief and began to cry. They were tormenting her mother. She didn't want to let them take her mother, but there was nothing she could do. Although she was hungry, there wasn't much to eat at home. She sat in a corner of the hut, letting the hunger lull her to sleep.
It was just getting dark when there was a knock at the door. She jumped up happily, thinking her mother had returned, but it was the same ninja from the morning.
"Get up... we have to go somewhere."
He grabbed the girl's hand and pulled her out of the hut.
"Where are we going?"
"To see your mother! The village needs both of you…"
"Are we going to the hospital?"
The man didn't answer and just kept moving. Karin knew the direction of the hospital, so she quickly realized something wasn't right.
"Sir, aren't we going toward the hospital? The hospital is that way!"
"We're not going to the hospital… Now shut up!"
They reached a secluded alley. The man looked around and turned back to face Karin. He raised his hand, and at that very moment, Karin felt danger, but it was too late. A slight pain shot through her shoulder, and then the world seemed to go dark.
..
Mitsuru calmly fanned himself with a hand fan.
"So, the three of you are the escorts the village has provided me?"
"Yes."
"Very good. Ninja-sama, may I ask what rank of ninja you are?"
The man said coolly, "I am Akira, a chunin. And these two are Hideo and Toshio, both genin."
"Hmm… So you are quite strong… I'm really happy the Village of Kusagakure is so serious about accepting missions."
"Of course! You paid a large sum for this mission… The village provides the best service."
"Well, when can you depart? I'd like to head to the Land of Earth as soon as possible."
"Of course, we can only escort you to the first village in the Land of Earth. I hope you understand that we don't have a good relationship with the Hidden Earth Village."
"I understand, I understand! I just need an escort team to prevent any banditry along this path."
"Can we depart today? Say, in about an hour?"
"We will depart whenever you request."
"Excellent! Then let's leave in an hour! I need to tell my workers to put the boxes back on the cart. The goods can't be moved carelessly. The tea leaves will be ruined!"
"We understand, dear customer."
An hour later, the carts began to move toward the exit gate of the Village of Kusagakure. The guards saw them and came forward.
"Halt!"
"Hmm?"
"Is something wrong, Ninja-sama?"
"Nothing in particular. We just need to inspect your group."
Mitsuru asked with a look of surprise, "Inspect? But you inspected us when we entered the village and checked all our belongings and documents. Now we are leaving the village, not entering…"
"Yes, we know, but it's not a good time for the village. We need to do more checks."
Mitsuru looked with surprise at Akira, his hired escort. "Is this normal?"
Akira bowed respectfully and said, "Don't worry, dear customer, this is a normal procedure… you know, there have been a lot of thieves lately."
"Are you saying I'm a thief?"
Akira raised his hands and said gently, "I don't mean you… but it has happened before. A thief or a spy enters the village by some means and then tries to take valuable information or items out of the village… I hope you understand… These people can even be among the workers." He looked at the servants Mitsuru had hired.
Mitsuru calmly nodded. "Hmm… okay." He gestured with his hand for everyone to show their documents. "Go ahead and inspect, just please don't break the boxes… The cost of the goods is even more than the cost of hiring you, Ninja-sama."
He then took out a wad of cash and handed it to the chunin escort. "I hope you keep a close eye on it."
Akira smiled and said, "We will be careful, dear customer." He then went forward and started talking to the gate guard. The guard's duty was to meticulously search every person or box entering or leaving the village, but when the chunin went and spoke to him, he stopped searching the boxes and instead only body-searched the workers.
After fifteen minutes, the guard finally backed off and commanded, "Move out! Everything is fine! There's nothing suspicious."