As a Special Jonin of Konoha, Akira should have been drowning in missions. The only reason he'd had this stretch of relative peace was because Tsunade had arranged for him to serve as her guard instead.
And right now, Konoha really was short-handed to a terrifying degree.
The earlier Konoha Crush had been like a blade driven straight into the village's heart. Their shinobi numbers had effectively been cut in half. Most of the losses had been among the lower and middle ranks, true, but the damage still cut deep.
You could say that ever since the Nine-Tails' attack years ago, Konoha's reserves had been shrinking.
A huge number of elite shinobi died that night.
Then later came the slaughter of the Uchiha clan.
And the Uchiha had been one of Konoha's pillars. Just counting jonin and special jonin, they could have fielded well over a dozen.
Then Orochimaru's attack came on top of all that, and now Konoha's military strength had fallen to the lowest point in its history.
If the news of Tsunade becoming the Fifth Hokage hadn't been holding the situation together, the neighboring hidden villages that were already circling like wolves would probably have moved by now.
The title of one of the Legendary Sannin still carried terrifying weight.
To clear the mountain of backed-up assignments, Konoha had sent out every jonin it could move.
Kakashi, in particular, had been treated like a beast of burden. In this short stretch of time, he had already taken on three or four S-rank missions in a row.
Normally, for a regular jonin, taking on one or two S-rank missions in a year would already count as an unusually heavy load.
Kakashi had practically been working himself to death over the past few months, to the point where he barely had time to supervise Team Seven.
And it wasn't just Kakashi's team. Asuma's team, Kurenai's team, even Guy's team had effectively been left to operate on their own.
The genin had been forced to organize themselves and grind through C-rank and D-rank assignments.
Meanwhile, the jonin were all outside dealing with the big contracts, B-rank and A-rank work, and elite shinobi like Kakashi were being stretched to the breaking point.
This kind of desperate situation usually only showed up when a war was at its worst.
Konoha now truly lacked manpower. Not just jonin. Even chunin had been pulled thin.
Seeing Akira accept the mission so readily, Tsunade finally smiled. "Good. I'm assigning you three genin. We'll be outnumbered, but I have complete confidence in you."
The opposing side had numbers, including both chunin and a jonin leader, but in Tsunade's eyes, Akira alone could flatten the entire group.
Those three genin were there mostly to gain experience and, while they were at it, to be developed a little under his lead.
Akira was used to operating alone and had no real need for assistants, but after a brief thought, he understood Tsunade's intention and didn't object.
He followed her, and the two of them used Flying Raijin, appearing in the Hokage's office in a blur.
The moment he landed, Akira saw Hinata, Ino, and Shino standing quietly inside, waiting like three posts planted in the floor.
Their sudden arrival startled all three of them.
They froze for a second before snapping to attention.
"Hokage-hime!"
The moment Hinata saw Akira, her pale eyes lit up. Forgetting all restraint, she rushed over and grabbed his arm.
"Akira!"
Her voice was loud enough to make him instinctively frown. Beside him, Tsunade said nothing, but one eyebrow lifted very slightly, clearly not thrilled by the scene.
Akira calmly steadied the overexcited Hinata and smiled. "Looks like you're my team this time."
Only then did Hinata realize how much she'd just exposed herself. Her face turned bright red, and she lowered her head. "Akira-kun... I heard you got promoted to jonin?"
Akira waved a hand and laughed. "Special Jonin only. I'm not a full jonin yet."
"But the village's running short on people, so this time I'll be leading the mission."
He looked over the three of them.
"Stay sharp. This one's an A-rank mission."
Normally, a dangerous mission like this would never be handed to genin, but with Akira acting as the pillar of the team, Tsunade had been willing to allow it.
Ino, Hinata, and even the usually silent Shino all frowned.
"A-rank..." Ino muttered. "That means serious danger."
They weren't like Naruto, charging ahead without thinking. All three of them knew exactly what an A-rank mission implied.
Blood.
Tsunade briefly summarized the mission intel, then fixed the three of them with a serious look.
"This entire operation is under Akira's command. You may all be from the same generation, but Akira's strength and judgment are far beyond yours. In the field, I expect absolute obedience to his orders."
Ino and Hinata nodded obediently. "Understood."
Shino adjusted his dark glasses and silently inclined his head as well.
Shino was different from most people. He had low presence, yes, but his actual ability was the real thing.
At this point, he already had chunin-level strength, and with his steady, analytical temperament, he was an extremely dependable teammate.
Fortunately, all three of them were sensible. None had Naruto or Sasuke's prideful streak.
Shino, in particular, had already reached his own conclusion. Out of their year, only Akira and Shikamaru had been promoted to chunin, and Akira had then been rocketed upward again to Special Jonin.
That told him everything he needed to know about how the leadership viewed Akira's ability.
And during the Chunin Exams, Akira's terrifying pressure alone had been enough to convince him. As someone who lived by the instincts of insects, Shino trusted that kind of primal fear.
So when it came to Akira acting as team leader, he accepted it without question.
With the mission scroll in hand, Akira led the three of them out through Konoha's gates.
Standing by the window, Tsunade watched the four figures disappear into the distance and murmured to herself, "Once this job's done, and after a few more S-rank missions, I'll be able to promote you to full jonin without anyone saying a word."
"Akira, you're meant to become a shinobi as great as my grandfather. Before that day comes, though, you'll need enough achievements to shut every loose tongue in the village."
Even as Hokage, Tsunade couldn't simply hand out favoritism. She knew Akira had the strength. Building his record was only a matter of time.
As for why she had placed Hinata, Ino, and Shino on his team, that was entirely for Akira's future benefit. She wanted him tied to the Hyuga, Aburame, and Yamanaka clans.
For someone of civilian birth, those relationships were valuable political capital.
Years ago, before Minato rose to power, the Third Hokage had done the same thing, frequently placing him on teams with children from the major clans to build goodwill.
Akira led the three of them out of the village and made straight for the Land of Water.
The Land of Water was far away. Given the pace of ordinary genin, just reaching the port would take more than ten days at minimum.
Akira had never been to the Land of Water before, and without a pre-set marker, Flying Raijin was useless.
And even if he had left one there, he wouldn't have burned that much chakra just to save time on travel. Only an idiot would do that.
In truth, even without space-time ninjutsu, Akira could have crossed the distance in a matter of hours just by relying on his Lightning Flicker.
But because he had to match Shino and the girls' speed, he had no choice but to act like a patient nanny instead.
It took them more than five days to cross the vast Land of Fire and reach the port.
The rest of the trip would have to be made by ship.
Once aboard the passenger vessel, Akira stood alone on the deck, looking out over the endless expanse of sea.
Hinata quietly walked over to his side, the ocean wind tugging at her hair.
She wanted to ask where he had disappeared to these last few weeks, but didn't know how to begin.
Akira turned his head, saw the hesitation on her face, and smiled gently. "If there's something you want to ask, just ask, Hinata."
Her cheeks flushed. Gathering her courage, she looked up at him. "Akira... were you on some kind of secret mission during that time?"
Akira thought for a moment, then casually lied. "Nothing that dramatic. I was just staying home."
The moment he said it, Hinata muttered under her breath, "That's not true."
She'd worked up the courage to go knock on Akira's door several times, and every time she'd found the house empty.
With his absurd hearing, Akira caught the complaint and smiled helplessly. "All right. I was doing some private training."
"Besides, I'm one of the Hokage's personal guards now. Most of my time's spent in or around the Hokage Tower."
"The reason you couldn't find me was just that I'm pretty good at hiding my presence."
Saying that to someone from the Hyuga clan, owners of the Byakugan, was almost ridiculous.
Still, Hinata wasn't the type to keep her eyes active and sweep the village all day long.
Though she was only half convinced, she nodded anyway.
After chatting for a little while longer, Akira led her back into the cabin.
Inside, Ino had already bought dinner from the ship's captain and laid out a fairly lavish spread on the table.
Seeing the dishes, Akira smiled. "Ino, you didn't have to go to that much trouble."
Ino sat down right beside him and grinned. "When do I ever get to go on a mission with you? Of course I'm treating this like a paid vacation."
It had been months since she'd really seen him, and she'd missed him badly enough that she seemed ready to glue herself to his side.
Shino and Hinata thanked her too. This meal clearly hadn't come cheap.
But just as Akira picked up his chopsticks, his nose twitched faintly, and he immediately sensed that something was off with the food.
Without revealing anything, he swept his gaze across the room and saw that Ino, Shino, and Hinata had noticed absolutely nothing. They were just about ready to dig in.
Using chakra for a closer check, Akira found that the problem was simple enough. Sleeping powder. The crude kind.
He let out a faint sigh inwardly. He'd hoped at least one of the three would catch it, but apparently he had been overestimating them.
Too soft. Far too inexperienced.
Looks like the ship's captain was connected to the rogue ninja they were hunting. Or maybe he was simply the sort who specialized in turning one group of criminals over to another for profit.
Akira understood the situation perfectly, but on the surface he ate the drugged food as if nothing were wrong.
With his current body, a sedative at this level was no more meaningful than drinking plain water.
After the four of them finished eating, shadows stirred outside the cabin. The captain and several crewmen were peering through a crack, cruel grins spreading across their faces.
The captain lowered his voice and whispered to them, "Don't rush it. Wait till the drug's fully taken effect and they're all dead weight. Shinobi are tricky. Don't screw this up."
The sailors all nodded nervously.
None of them had chakra. They were ordinary men, so even Akira hadn't paid them much attention at first, much less the inexperienced trio traveling with him.
By the time the drug finally hit hard enough for Shino and the others to realize something was wrong, it was too late. One by one, their limbs gave out and they slumped forward onto the table.
Seeing that, Akira very cooperatively rolled his eyes and collapsed too, pretending to be unconscious.
A full ten minutes passed before the captain, certain there was no more movement inside, crept into the cabin with the others at his back.
Looking at the four fallen targets, he spat in satisfaction. "Tch. So much for shinobi. Just a bunch of inexperienced brats."
"Move. Tie them tight. And do the hands first. Make damn sure they can't form hand signs."
"If we hand these four over to Akita-sama, we should get at least five million ryō. One jonin and three genin? Five million's practically a bargain."
As they fumbled with ropes, one of the sailors asked nervously, "Boss... what if Konoha finds out and comes after us?"
The captain smacked him across the back of the head. "You idiot. We hand them over to Akita, we take the money, and we disappear. Once Akita gets them, he'll kill them and wipe the evidence clean. Who's ever going to trace it back to us?"
"Besides, with five million ryō in our pockets, we can leave the Land of Fire and live like kings somewhere else."
To a high-level shinobi, five million ryō wasn't exactly a fortune.
To men who had spent their lives hauling freight across the sea, though, it was more money than they could ever dream of spending.
After all, even Asuma, one of Konoha's top elite jonin, had a bounty worth only a bit over thirty million.
If this job went through, the captain could retire on the spot and live in comfort for the rest of his life.
The sailors' eyes lit up when they heard that. Their movements sped up immediately.
But just as they stepped forward with the ropes, ready to bind Akira first, the "unconscious" boy vanished from the floor without warning.
The captain caught the motion out of the corner of his eye and felt his heart drop.
He had barely begun to turn toward the door when a cold short blade touched his throat from behind.
The chill of metal sank straight through his skin into his bones. He froze completely, shaking so hard his whole body rattled.
Akira was standing behind him.
The captain couldn't see his face, but the pressure pouring off him was enough to rob him even of the courage to look back.
Thud.
A dull sound came from behind him, followed by several bodies hitting the floor.
The captain knew instantly that his men were dead.
He nearly lost control of his bladder on the spot. "M-my lord, please! Spare me! I'll tell you everything! Please don't kill me!"
Akira's voice was flat and cold. "Who is Akita?"
The captain's guts turned to water. He wanted nothing more than to slap himself for talking too much earlier.
If he'd kept his mouth shut, maybe he could have made something up.
Now, with that blade at his neck, if he lied, he knew it would cut clean through him.
A sharp pain pricked his neck. Warm blood slid along the blade.
The knife was so sharp that Akira didn't even need to press. The captain had merely twitched in fear, and his skin had already opened.
The pain cleared his mind instantly. He didn't dare resist.
Words poured out of him.
"Akita's the leader of a group of rogue ninja in the Land of Water. I heard he used to be from Konoha... he was a jonin!"
Akira asked, "How many people does he have? What kind of strength are we looking at?"
That question completely stumped the captain. He stammered, "S-Shinobi sama, that... that I really don't know! I'm just a sailor, how would I know th—"
He never finished the sentence.
A flash of steel.
One of his arms flew off.
Blood erupted like a fountain.
"AAAAAHHHH!!"
The captain dropped to his knees in the spreading pool of blood, clutching at the stump of his shoulder with a twisted face.
The cabin instantly filled with the smell of fresh blood.
The knife, now red, returned to his throat.
Akira's voice was still as calm as a judge handing down a sentence. "I don't want to ask a third time."
The captain's face ran with sweat, tears, and mucus, but under the agony he forced himself to speak as fast as he could. "Akita's group has about fifteen people! Five chunin! Nine genin! And Akita himself is jonin!"
Terrified that Akira might take the other arm too, the captain hurried on without being asked.
"They put out a bounty! Any Konoha ninja coming from the Land of Fire, if they're captured and handed over to Akita, it's fifty thousand for a genin and three and a half million for a jonin!"
Hearing the numbers, Akira's lips curled into a cold smile. "So Akita knows how to mobilize local enthusiasm, does he?"
Kirigakure was isolated, and the Land of Water was an island nation.
If Konoha shinobi were coming in from the Land of Fire, there was only one likely reason: they were there to hunt rogue ninja.
There simply wasn't much normal traffic between the two nations beyond missions and conflict.
"Where is their hideout?"
By now, the captain was completely broken. He wailed, "I really don't know the exact location! All I know is that the handoff point is in Shiramizu Village in the Land of Water! If we brought the prisoners there, we were supposed to give them to a contact in the village!"
Akira nodded once he had what he needed.
"All right."
The captain heard those words and, for one brief instant, thought he might actually survive.
Then pain ripped across his throat, and the world dropped into permanent darkness.
Akira disposed of the captain's body the same way he did the others.
Overboard.
Fish food.
Then he turned back, waking the unconscious trio.
Hinata opened her eyes groggily and stared for a second before suddenly springing upright, a kunai in hand, her whole body tense as she scanned the room.
Then she noticed the bodies scattered across the cabin, sailors sprawled in their own blood.
Ino and Shino woke a moment later, taking in the same grim scene before all three turned as one toward Akira.
He calmly sheathed the bloodstained blade and said in the same even tone, "They planned to sell us to the very rogue ninja we're hunting."
"You three, while the bodies are still fresh in your minds, memorize their faces. Then use Transformation Jutsu and disguise yourselves as them. We're going to Shiramizu Village and gather more information."
"I already got what I could out of the captain, but your awareness is awful. You bought food and ate it without the slightest guard up."
The three of them flushed with shame under the scolding.
The truth was that Akira hadn't identified the crew as suspicious at first either. He'd only become wary once he came into contact with the food itself.
That kind of cheap sedative could have been detected by any of them with a little more care.
But comfort had made them careless.
At least there was still time to recover from that mistake.
Akira formed hand signs, and with several soft pops, a few shadow clones appeared beside him.