"What terrible weather," Hitomi said, walking into the cave with the wind and snow, taking off her coat to shake off the snow. "I'm back."
"Welcome back," Chiri replied.
"Make dinner quickly," Miki said.
"Honestly, is cooking my only function?" Hitomi said, walking up to Miki and extending her hand. "Hand it over!"
Miki clapped her hands on the ground, and a large number of bugs emerged.
They were still very fresh.
These tree bugs had been infected and controlled by Miki, and through continuous generational breeding, they had become increasingly plump.
"Some juiced, some stewed for soup, some made into a meat sauce, and then a pot of ant eggs steamed for rice, eaten with the meat sauce, how does that sound?" Hitomi asked.
"You decide," Miki replied, clapping her hands again, and a neatly stacked pile of ant eggs appeared.
"For dessert, I want orange jelly," Chiri requested.
Eating orange jelly when it's snowing outside?
Kiba scratched his head and said, "I want it all!"
Miki clapped her hands, and a group of bugs with glistening orange abdomens crawled towards the snow outside the cave.
Freshly frozen.
Kiba said, "They look really fresh."
Fresh in every sense of the word.
At this moment, Hitomi pulled two scrolls from her Shinobi tool pouch.
She handed one of them to Miki.
"Here, what you wanted."
"Confirmed?" Miki asked.
"Confirmed, it's all in the scroll," Hitomi replied.
Miki took the scroll and tossed it to Kiba.
Kiba quickly snatched it with sharp eyes and looked at Miki.
"The bodies, take them back to the Village for burial," Miki said. "Do you want to confirm, Captain Kiba?"
"..." Kiba opened his mouth, then after a long pause, said, "No need."
Carefully putting away the scroll, he laughed heartily and said, "Time to eat!"
"Don't you have military rations?" Hitomi said, not stopping her movements. She unrolled the scroll, and from the smoke, exquisite pots, bowls, and ladles appeared.
This was the first time seeing a Space-Time Ninjutsu scroll used for kitchenware. Rich and willful.
Kiba scratched his head and said, "Is there none for me?"
"No freeloading without helping," Hitomi said, then with two swift slashes, she roughly dug a pit in the ground. The Flamebug sensibly crawled into it.
Hitomi set up a pot.
"Otherwise, you won't get a bowl and chopsticks."
"But Chiri didn't help either, did she?" Kiba tried to drag Chiri into it.
"I'm on alert," Chiri said, getting up and sitting at the cave entrance. "Someone needs to guard against sudden enemy attacks. We can't rule out the possibility of enemy reinforcements."
Kiba scratched his head vigorously.
Ah, should he argue with her?
"Are you helping or not?" Hitomi urged. "dog senior."
"Helping!" For a bite to eat, Kiba agreed.
"Good," Hitomi said, pointing at the meat bugs. "Chop some, juice some, and dice some."
Why does it feel like I'm the one cooking now?
Kiba looked at Hitomi, scratching his head.
"dog senior, I've had a question before," Hitomi said. "How long has it been since you washed your hair? Is it very itchy?"
"Hmph," Chiri, leaning at the cave entrance, let out a low snicker.
Kiba started to scratch his head, but stopped halfway.
No one had ever told him about this before.
For a moment, he didn't know whether to scratch or not.
He just felt his scalp tingle.
"Hiss..." Kiba gasped, saying weakly, "Please be merciful, spare me."
Alright, the team's hierarchy was now confirmed.
He was officially at the bottom.
Even though he was a captain.
"Spare you? I haven't done anything to you," Hitomi snorted playfully. "Get to work, Captain Kiba."
"Understood," Kiba rolled up his sleeves and drew his white fang blade.
With a few quick chops, he smashed the meat bugs on a stone slab.
Chopping meat paste, right?
He knew this job. When you're single for a long time, you learn everything.
He became happy as he chopped.
With three beautiful girls beside him, how could he not be happy?
After a late-night meal, the four sat on the ground in silence.
No one mentioned the first kill.
A moment later, Miki was the first to ask, "Do we return to the Village directly after the mission?"
Hitomi packed up the tableware and kitchenware, saying, "It's rare to come out. It would be nice to visit other Great Nations. I haven't seen them yet."
"There will be opportunities in the future," Chiri said, indicating that the mission was paramount.
"Then let's explore," Kiba said.
"Hm? The mission isn't over yet?" Miki asked.
"You've already passed the Anbu entry exam," Kiba said. "The real Anbu mission begins now."
"What is it, investigating the cause and effect of this mission?" Hitomi asked.
"No need to investigate. Kumogakure isn't doing this for the first time," Kiba said. "The Village can't always be on guard for ordinary C-rank bandit extermination missions. There's no manpower to scout bandits to determine if they're traps. Therefore, Kumogakure repeatedly tries this, torturing captured Shinobi for intelligence and Ninjutsu. If they capture a Bloodline Limit Shinobi, they immediately retreat."
"Has the Village had a precedent of Bloodline Limit Shinobi being captured?" Miki asked.
"Yes, the Senju Clan," Kiba said. "And the Hyuga, but only a branch family."
"Then the Uchiha..." Chiri asked.
"The Police Force generally doesn't go on missions. Since Konoha's establishment, there hasn't been a situation where an Uchiha member was captured for many years," Kiba said.
"Kumogakure is so keen on Bloodline Limits, have they researched anything?" Miki asked.
"I don't know. There's been no leak of intelligence on that," Kiba said. "Maybe there is, maybe there isn't."
Kiba said in a deep voice, "Kumogakure is less a Village and more a family, a large family led by a single family, tightly bound by brotherhood. From the Third Raikage down to the gatekeeper Shinobi, almost all are from the same clan, the Yue Ye Clan."
"With tattoos, swords, strange clothing, eccentric behavior, and arrogant, high-profile actions, they are completely out of step with traditional Shinobi groups. Many suspect and speculate that they were once..." Kiba thought for a moment and said, "Samurai Ronin from an underground gang organization, hence their despicable, shameless, and unscrupulous actions."
"And the Yue Ye Clan has always been self-proclaimed. According to Anbu intelligence, they may not be blood-related."
"But they are unusually united, so united that since the establishment of the Five Great Nations, not a single Cloud Ninja has been turned by another Village."
"On the contrary, the most troublesome spies in the Village are from Kumogakure."
"Because of this unity, Konoha has limited knowledge of Kumogakure's secrets."
"And the most interesting thing is that successive Raikage are called 'Boss' by the Cloud Ninja."
Kiba concluded.
"Unlike Shinobi, their thought processes cannot be understood with a Shinobi's mindset. For example, Kinkaku and Ginkaku, who brazenly launched a coup and killed the Second Raikage on the spot, who knows what they want to do with their obsession for Bloodline Limits and secret techniques."
"How interesting," Miki said. "Yakuza, huh?"
"Back to the main topic," Kiba said. "The real mission this time is assassination."
"The Village had already planned three assassinations beforehand, all of which ended in failure, with many good operatives lost."
"The mission difficulty is S-rank."
"We will be the final assassination squad."
"The target of the assassination is Hanzou, a Jonin from the Hidden Rain Village in the Land of Rain."
"This will be a lone operation in enemy territory. The target is extremely dangerous, and the mission is extremely lethal."
Kiba's voice was particularly serious and grave.
"A one-in-ten chance of survival."
"Secretly issued by Hokage-sama, above all, no information about the mission is to be leaked."
Hearing this, Miki narrowed her eyes.
The Third Hokage would not issue such a mission without Mito's approval.
Then, if it wasn't to eliminate dissent,
There could only be one reason.
Was this the strategic vision of the Shinobi Hero, Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi?
Loved it, loved it.
Three Medical Ninja assassinating Ghost Hanzo, who uses poison.
Is this a dragon riding a face?
"Understood?" Kiba asked.
"Understood," Miki, Chiri, and Hitomi replied in unison.
So, what was happening in Hidden Rain Village that caught Konoha's attention?
"The mission is refusable. The Village no longer holds hope for the assassination," Kiba said at this point. "You are an exception. This mission will not be recorded. Besides us, no one will know."
"Why refuse?" Miki said. "Pull the boat closer!"
"???" Kiba scratched his head.
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