Chương 74: The Joint Mission

That evening, after Tsume and Kiba returned, Tsume asked about the mission. Shin repeated what he'd already told Hana—she sat nearby through all of it and didn't say a word. Tsume went through a few reminders about what genin needed to keep in mind and told him more than once to listen to his team instructor. They ate dinner. Shin showered and went to bed. Same arrangement as always—he shared a room with Kiba.

He was up early the next morning, same as every morning, settling into his practice on the veranda that faced the courtyard. Hana was up not long after him. She saw him sitting there, took it for granted, and left him to it—going off to handle chores and start breakfast. When Shin finished and stood, he found Hana crossing the garden with an armful of laundry, yesterday's washing now dry. That made him think of his bloodstained clothes. She'd washed them.

And last night, the story he'd told her—if she'd seen those stains before cleaning them, she had to know he was lying.

"Hana-nee-san." He called out just before she reached the door.

"Hmm? What is it?" She turned with a smile.

"... What's for breakfast?" He looked at that open, untroubled face and said nothing about last night. He changed the subject instead.

"Whatever you'd like." She smiled and disappeared inside with the laundry. Shin stood on the veranda and exhaled, barely. After breakfast, he headed to the meeting point Squad Two had settled on: the overpass where they'd first gathered as a team. Sai was already there when he arrived.

"Morning, Sai. Early start."

"Morning, Shin Takami." Sai smiled. That smile. At first glance it struck most people as deeply wrong—too fixed, too present. Shin didn't particularly mind it. The same as always: a standard-issue tantō on his back, black close-fitting clothes, pale midriff visible. His skin had that unhealthy pallor to it, like someone who lived more in shadow than under open sky. Two days ago, during the fight, Sai had used a strange painting-based jutsu. Shin had found it interesting.

"That jutsu you used the other day—the one with the drawings. What was it called?"

"A secret technique." Sai kept smiling. He didn't say anything else. He'd already said it was a secret technique. There was nothing more to ask. Shin dropped it, and they talked the way they usually did—which meant Sai gave very little. They waited on the overpass a while longer before Yugao and Sōen arrived, both a little late.

"Yugao-sensei." Shin greeted her, then gave Sōen a short nod. Sōen's mouth twisted. She reached over, pressed a hand firmly onto his head, and ruffled until his hair was a proper mess. She was slightly taller than him. Girls developed faster.

"Is that any way to greet your older sister?"

"Good morning, Sōen-nee-san!!!" Shin said. Yugao laughed softly beside him. She pulled three envelopes from her vest.

"All right. These are your mission payments." Sōen's eyes lit up. She was at Yugao's side in an instant, taking her envelope. Shin and Sai accepted theirs in turn. The envelopes were thick—there was real weight to them. Both boys tucked theirs away without looking inside. Sōen tore hers open and counted the bills one by one before she was satisfied, then put the money away. Shin thought about it. She lived alone. Every expense she had, she earned herself. That wasn't easy for anyone.

"That C-rank was just the start," Yugao said.

"We've got plenty more missions ahead." She didn't say anything about how the three of them had performed. Shin had no idea what she thought. He'd expected more C-rank work. Instead, Yugao led them straight into a pile of D-rank requests. He asked why. She just smiled.

"C-rank missions don't come every day. That kind of pace would wear everyone out." So Squad Two went back to weeding gardens and catching cats. …… Days passed. The squad didn't go out every single day, though their completion count sat highest among this year's genin cohort—most of it D-rank. After that first C-rank mission they'd taken on a few more, all escort work: guarding merchant convoys through the Land of Fire, similar to the trips Shin had made with Tsume before graduation.

Traveling under the Leaf's name meant nobody with any sense looked for trouble. Progress was slow and the roads were almost entirely safe. Shin felt more at home in his own skin as a shinobi. Squad Two's name was spreading among this year's class. They'd overtaken even Squad One—Neji Hyuga's team. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. …… Two months went by. Shin sat in the shade of a tree, back against the trunk, his katana resting against the bark beside him.

He had a scroll open across his lap and was reading with full attention. It was one of the three scrolls Danzō had given him two years ago—this one full of sword techniques and blade-based jutsu, which Danzō said had once belonged to Shisui. Shin had found it worth studying. He'd worked through the fire and water release scrolls too, picking up a few C-rank ninjutsu from each. What set the scroll's contents apart from the swordsmanship Shin already knew was simple: everything here required chakra.

These were a shinobi's arts. Most of it was Leaf-Style Kenjutsu. Scattered through it were Uchiha-Style blade forms as well, which had surprised him when he first came across them. Despite being called sword techniques, they were, in the end, jutsu that used a blade as their medium. That was the truth of it. One entry stood out: the Crescent Moon Dance, listed as the secret art of Leaf-Style Kenjutsu, said to have been developed by the Second Hokage himself. Ranked A.

That put it far beyond where Shin was right now—and not just because of the difficulty. It wasn't pure swordsmanship. It was chakra shaped through a sword. What Shin practiced was something else entirely. Pure cutting. The occasional flowing form, the occasional flourish—but nothing that asked for chakra. He'd been thinking about this problem for a while now. He could hold his own against another swordsman. He could handle taijutsu at close range. He could shear through iron without strain.

But if someone opened up with a wide-range fire release, what was he supposed to do? Cut through fire? Cutting through something without physical form was incomparably harder than cutting iron. And so he kept returning to this scroll, hoping to find something. So far, he hadn't. The conclusion was always the same: whatever was written here called itself kenjutsu, but it was jutsu wearing kenjutsu's clothes. What he was looking for wasn't in it. He'd have to ask Yugao-sensei.

Everyone in Squad Two worked with a blade—Sai being the exception, fighting by other means. Sōen and Yugao were both pure kenjutsu practitioners. Yugao carried a katana, same as Shin. She'd have something worth hearing.

"Shin Takami." The voice pulled him out of his thoughts. Sai was walking toward him through the trees.

"Sai. What is it?" That smile was in place.

"Hokage Tower. The Third wants to see our squad." Hokage Tower. Guy stood before the Third Hokage with Squad One assembled behind him. The Third sat at his desk, head bowed over a document, with no sign of speaking. The office was quiet.

"Lord Hokage, might I ask why you've called us here—" Guy cleared his throat.

"In a moment." The Third glanced up, saw everyone watching him, and smiled warmly. Neji, Rock Lee, and Tenten had no choice but to keep waiting. More time passed, and a knock came at the door.

"Come in." Yugao entered first. Then Shin, Sai, and Sōen.

"Lord Hokage." Yugao registered mild surprise at finding Guy already there. She crossed to the desk and bowed. The two squads looked at each other. Squad One was baffled. Squad Two hadn't expected it either.

"Mm." The Third nodded.

"You two squads are the best-performing groups among this year's genin class." Everyone looked at him.

"I have a B-rank mission I'd like to assign to you." He picked up a document from the desk and passed it to Guy. Both squads reacted at almost the same moment. Us? It meant both teams working together. That surprised everyone.

"B-rank?" Yugao murmured, a crease forming at her brow.

"Lord Hokage, isn't it too early to be sending them on a B-rank mission?" In the standard grading system, D-rank work happened mostly inside the village—low stakes, physical labor, minimal risk. C-rank meant going outside the village, with the real possibility of combat along the way. B-rank meant combat was likely. A different tier entirely.

"I know it's early for them. They've only been genin a little over two months." The accepted norm was at least a year of real experience before genin took on B-rank work, with a team leader who had substantial chunin-level experience backing them up. A fight between shinobi was nothing like a fight between civilians. One wrong call from a new genin and they didn't come home.

"Which is why I'm sending both squads together." The Third looked between Guy and Yugao.

"With two jonin leading, this should be sufficient." Guy passed the briefing to Yugao. She read it carefully. An escort mission. Get the client safely to a specific location in the Land of Wind. The Land of Wind. Wasn't that an allied nation? Why was an escort there rated B-rank? She turned it over in her mind. She didn't know the politics well, but she understood enough of how things worked.

An alliance was a document—drawn up in traded interests, and what was written in it told you nothing about what ran underneath. If they ran into shinobi on this mission, the odds were good they'd be Sand.

"Any concerns?" the Third asked, looking between Guy and Yugao. Yugao didn't answer right away. Guy waited, not filling the silence. She looked at the genin. Lee and Neji both had the same look—expectant, nearly bright. Tenten hadn't gotten there yet, still running through a list of potential complications behind her eyes. Shin and Sai were harder to read. Sai smiled. Shin's expression was still. Sōen's wasn't. She had her face arranged, but her eyes were somewhere else entirely.

"Sōen." The Third's voice was quiet.

"Is something wrong?" He had read her file. Her last two teammates had died on a B-rank mission. The girl hadn't let go of it yet.

"Nothing, Lord Hokage." Sōen bowed immediately. Other eyes moved to her, briefly. Among everyone in the room, only the Third and Yugao knew what lay behind it. The Third looked back to Guy and Yugao.

"No problem at all, Lord Hokage! You have our word this mission will succeed!" Guy stepped forward, hand pressed to his chest, fully committed. With Guy already on record, Yugao gave a small nod.

"Good." The Third smiled.

"The client is in the village at the moment. You can go meet them today and work out the details." He said a few more things, and then both jonin offered their thanks and led everyone out. ….. Outside the building, Yugao gathered the six genin.

"This mission will run about a week. Go home and pack what you need." She ran through tomorrow's assembly time and a few other details, then left together with Guy. Six genin stood on the street.

"Hey!" Lee's voice cut through the quiet. He turned to face Neji, Shin, and Sai with his right thumb extended, a flash of teeth.

"Let's all give it everything we've got!"

"Sure," Shin said. Neji said nothing.

"Of course—thick-eyebrow weirdo." Sai's smile didn't move. Lee's face went slack.

"Thick— thick-eyebrow weirdo?!" Shin was used to it. Sai didn't say much, but what he said found its mark.

"Are we really going on a B-rank mission?" Tenten drifted toward Sōen, sounding like she was still confirming it for herself.

"Yeah." Sōen's smile was strained. She was elsewhere.

"Sōen-nee, are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Just tired." Sōen's gaze swept the group once.

"I'm heading home first."

"Sōen-nee..." Tenten watched her go. Shin watched too, a small frown settling across his face. He didn't know what was weighing on her. Whatever it was, it didn't sit right. Sai and Lee said their goodbyes. Tenten waved at Neji and Shin and headed off.

"Guess we should head back too, Neji." Shin turned toward him, ready to leave.

"Shin Takami." He turned around. Neji stood with his arms crossed, pale eyes fixed on Shin.

"People are saying you're stronger than me." Shin paused. Then he understood what this was.

"You called it hearsay yourself. That means it isn't settled fact."

"I'm curious how strong you actually are." There was something in Neji's expression that looked almost like anticipation. He's going to want to fight me right here, Shin thought, with a quiet edge of concern.

"This B-rank mission will show us." The concern went away.

"I'm looking forward to seeing what you can do," Shin said. Neji's mouth curved slightly—apparently, that was a satisfactory answer. His gaze settled there, steady and sure. Same class standing as Shin. An early graduate, on top of that. A post-graduation record that hadn't stopped climbing. Squad Two's name had grown fast. Neji had been waiting for a chance to put the question to rest. He'd get it on this mission.