Chương 17: Interlude 4

Tea Country Kurenai Yuhi, Elite Genin"What the hell was all that?" Raido grumbled as they settled down for the night, sleeping bags in their chosen corner of the large courtyard.

"This mission has been going downhill since it started." Asuma grumbled back, already laying down on his mat with a face that was pinched together and deep scowl on his lips. His hair was a bit frazzled from the fighting, and she could almost hear him grinding his teeth in thought.

"First that Ogress lady, then a three-prong attack like that?" She was shaking out her jacket with an annoyed expression, letting dozens of tiny purple particles loose. Almost being bombed a second time on this mission, Asuma being an idiot was one time too many already. Her other coat was still absolutely stained in soot.

"Asuma." Gaku-sensei spoke quietly, leaning back against the wall in a relaxed manner to take pressure off his leg, but remaining upright to take the first night-shift.

"Your Flying Swallow- do you think it could have taken out that moth?" Asuma glanced over, lips pressed as he considered that. After a few moments, he responded.

"... Maybe- if I had a clean shot. My fire ninjutsu might also work-""It wouldn't." Gaku shook his head, cutting her teammate off.

"It was hard to tell, but it was also engulfed in that Fire Ninjutsu the summoner used and emerged fine. I'm almost certain it's highly resistant to fire, if not immune."

"... Then I'd need a good shot. Flying Swallow is great at piercing, but it only does so much damage." Asuma grumbled in a troubled fashion.

"If I hit a wing, it might not even notice."

"I don't remember hearing about that puppet during the war." Kurenai pointed out with lips pressed.

"Is that what took you out, sensei?" Gaku shook his head slowly, reaching into his front pocket and withdrawing both a lighter and a cigar. Oh sure, perfectly willing to smoke in front of them but when she tries spending her own money to buy some sake he stops her. Hypocritical sensei.

"No- he took me out when one of those bolter's blew up underneath me. If I had my flak jacket on, I could've kept fighting, but it had been ripped off earlier in that battle." Lighting the cigar, he took a long drag of the noxious stick before letting it out in rings. After a moment, he continued.

"I check our Bingo Book every time we're back in Konoha, back to front. There's absolutely no mention of a puppet like that in his arsenal." He let his eyes drop to the rest of them.

"Either it's brand new, or no one has been able to retrieve information on it yet." A hidden jutsu, as they were semi-officially labeled. A technique that has no information pertaining to it, often because anyone who has seen it has died against the surprise factor. They were semi-frequent, their Team had fought against two such jutsu before, over the course of the war, and both had nearly killed at least one of them.

'The most dangerous kunai is the one you don't see', was the common saying. This was less a 'kunai' and more a hundred kunais, from the glimpses of it in action.

"We'll have a more thorough debriefing about it later- when we're back in friendly territory." Gaku declared bluntly, taking another drag.

"If nothing else, this is going to be an update for the bingo book- it's good that we saw it on somewhat friendly terms first, a Hidden Jutsu like that-""Not exactly a hidden 'jutsu', is it?" Asuma interrupted with a musing statement, throwing off the mood.

"It's a puppet- that's like a weapon or something."

"Well 'hidden weapon' doesn't really flow off the tongue, you big monkey." Kurenai grumbled at him for interrupting the very-serious moment, making the thick-headed Sarutobi chuckle and lean back.

"Hidden Art, maybe?" Gaku proposed, an amused tilt to his lips as she turned a glare in his direction.

"Don't encourage him, he's bad enough already."

"Super Secret Shinobi Tool." Raido proposed raising his hands before his eyes and spreading them apart in a dramatic fashion. All three of the boys on her team were unified in this- annoying her. Emphasis on 'boys', with how they were smirking at her. In the face of such opposition, Kurenai could only sigh and surrender, setting her jacket aside and settling down into her own sleeping mat.

"Get some sleep, pups- I'm imagining tomorrow is going to be a very long day." Gaku commanded with a shake of his head.

"What's on the agenda again? Talk to the client, eat some breakfast, have yet another big meeting with a bunch of ninja who hate us?" Asuma asked, throwing a blanket over his body to deal with the somewhat cool night temperatures. It was November, after all, it was pretty chilly.

"Don't forget- avoid being killed by all those ninja who hate us." Radio added, somewhat pessimistic.

"Not all of them hate us." Kurenai countered, mostly to alleviate her own nerves more than anything else.

"Yeah, just most of them." Asuma, the idiot that he was, didn't notice her worries and plowed ahead.

"Don't worry though- My big strong arms will carry you to safe- grkh!" She pulled her arm back from throwing her jacket at his face, glare on her face as she tried to settle back down again, stomach knotted up in tension.

"... Oh sweet, a free jacket." She glared at the stars above, silently considering applying a genjutsu to the big monkey that was sleeping near her.

"Oh man- it even smells like perfume. Cherry and lavender. This will go great with my natural musk."

"Asuma, shut up." — Meetings between this many foreign ninja was something she normally only saw in the Chunin Exams, the one time they had tried. They didn't end up failing, but they had to pull out midway through thanks to their Sensei being killed. It was irritating, but that was the way these things went sometimes. It had been a couple years since, and they hadn't gone back to the Chunin Exams since.

Allegedly because they were always on extended missions around that time, dealing with various parts of the war-effort, but she was beginning to suspect that Gaku-sensei was just too lazy to go. Which is why it was rather shocking to hear him say.

"I plan on remaining behind to protect the client- my team will join the hunter-team." One arm on an improvised cane, the other in a cast, Gaku looked utterly calm in the face of the foreign ninja and samurai all giving suspicious glares his way.

"Also, I'm still working with two broken limbs right now." He admitted somewhat more candidly, provoking a ripple of mocking and derisive laughter from the others. She furrowed her brows into a mildly reproachful look at the sound.

"I'm good for a scrap, but I'd just slow any hunter-team down." The other day had been stressful, with the attack and the move. The gas-grenades, a firebomb ambush, waves of corpse-clones attacking. It was only more annoying because her specialty, genjutsu, was mostly useless in all three situations.

Genjutsu worked by injecting chakra into a target's system and manipulating them from within, she could make any normal enemy fall over and die, but that didn't work so well when their chakra-networks were already dead. She can't convince a corpse that it was being strangled by ivy- that doesn't work!

"Sensei?" Asuma asked with a raised brow. Gaku turned to them and shrugged.

"You've been ready for Chunin for a while now- It's just been too much of a hassle to take you to the exams." He shrugged, provoking another round of chuckles from the gathered foreign nin, this time somewhat more earnest. She knew it!

"I'll remain behind as well." Mari called out- a Suna Jonin who had lost her arm helping Gaku. Kurenai had been fairly suspicious of the woman for a while now, but the lost arm was enough to convince her that she was mostly what she appeared to be on the surface. An upbeat and somewhat thoughtless woman who tried to be friendly to everyone she met. In some ways, it was more dangerous than a manipulator. Mari continued with a sheepish smile.

"For uh… obvious reasons." She declared, wiggling the bandaged stump that used to be her arm. There weren't as many chuckles in response to that, but more tense nods. They had spoken to their clients this morning about the matter. At least they did, she couldn't exactly confirm that the foreign ninja had also done so. Judging from the absence of a handful of ninja, some of the nobles had decided to flee the country instead, returning home or heading off to wherever in the wake of the attack.

The ninja from Yugakure, for example, never showed up again. Madam Gozen, as annoying as she was at times, had been rather courageous in the face of the repeated attempts on her life. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. A few more called out with similar 'I'll be sticking this one out' style exclamations.

The end result being about one-third of the total gathered ninja being declared for staying behind to guard the clients while this sub-mission was being carried out. Eight on the hunter-team, five on the garrison-team. At least one from each 'faction' for those who had the numbers to spare, which made sense. There was no reason to trust anyone else here. Which made a lot of the other ninja glare suspiciously at them, because the Konoha team was three times larger than anyone else.

Kurenai did her best to keep her composure in the face of all the tension in the air. Three ninja from Konoha and one each from Suna, Kiri, Iwa, Ame, and Tani.

"With regards to the bounty on Laughing Smoke's head- That's at least eight million last I checked. That'd be in addition to the one-million payout for this emergency mission." The large, dangerous looking Kiri-nin with red hair growled out, arms crossed and head tilted back. He was bringing attention to a rather dangerous thing with that.

"Fact of the matter is- I'm sure every one of us here wants that bounty. You chucklefucks gonna stay out of my way on that?" There was a great deal of glaring and growling at that- sharp and tense motions as the gathered shinobi reacted to that statement. Kurenai tensed, shifting her center of balance back a bit and readying a leap away, fingers twitching.

"It'll go to whoever kills him, naturally." The Braggart called out, fingers twitching as he rearranged rocks and piles of sand on the ground before them- providing little visuals for who was staying and who was going, mission information as it was developing, and more.

"In the interest of easing tensions- I'll go ahead and forfeit most of my share if I end up getting the killing blow. Eight on the hunter-team, eight million bounty? That's one million for everyone, double what we're being paid already."

"You'd be willing to give up seven million like that- sandass?" The ninja from Iwa grumbled, an annoyed look constantly in his eyes.

"I was being paid two hundred thousand for the escort, walking out with two million is already way more than I was expecting." Ryoma the Braggart shrugged in a nonchalant manner.

"No reason to not play it safe here, walking home with some money is better than having to worry about both an enemy in front of me and an enemy behind me. I'd rather we just kill this guy and everyone go separate ways after." The difference between Jonin and the rest of them, Kurenai mused, was the ability to stay calm and focused under immense pressure. That was the biggest thing that separated them and the Braggart. He was even younger than them. By less than a year, but still younger.

"Grh." The Kiri-nin growled gently, nodding to himself in an annoyed fashion.

"Yeah, that's probably the best way to settle it." He raised his face to glare at the other ninja, arms crossed.

"Hear that, lowlives? You just got a free meal ticket, because I'm doing the same. That cash should keep you fuckers in line." Asuma spoke up at this, nodding his head and speaking for the team.

"The Konoha team will do similar. If we get the kill, we'll split the bounty evenly."

"Easy for you fuckers to say- there's three of you." The Iwa-nin practically snarled at them, planting his hands on his hips and giving a sneer. That was a good point, there was infact three Konoha ninja in the hunter-team, which meant they'd be getting a disproportionately large share of the wealth. She wasn't really sure about how that could be amended without some form of favoritism, so she kept her mouth shut instead.

"But sure- I'm game. If it keeps the rest of you off my back while we're working."

"About as fair as it's going to get." The Ame-nin grumbled.

"I'll agree to the same." Gazes turned towards the ninja from Tanigakure, the rather immodestly-dressed woman wearing mesh, a mask, and very little else. She shrugged to their gazes.

"I wasn't going to be getting the kill anyways, so it doesn't cost me anything to agree. I'm just happy to be getting something, being honest." Of course the woman who dresses like a prostitute is happy to get paid for doing nothing. Kurenai restrained her judgemental looks as best she could. The Tani-nin, seeing her looks, made a smug little flaunting gesture. Kurenai's eyes narrowed into aggravated slits.

"That settled- we move onto tracking." Ryoma called out, scratching new lines in the sand related to their agreement to split the bounty.

"He fled at oh-three hundred-twenty four this morning. That was nine hours ago- I imagine there's still a reasonable amount of trail to follow. Anyone willing to reveal tracking capabilities for this joint-mission?" That was an important distinction. Not 'who is a capable tracker' but 'who is willing to reveal tracking abilities?'. An advantage your enemy didn't know about was a powerful one, and everyone here was potential enemies.

"Chairomaru should be able to follow the scent. I won't ask him to fight without me, but he should be able to lead you to wherever Laughing Smoke is holed up in." Gaku spoke up, nodding his head and revealing nothing of importance. Everyone here was already aware that he was an Inuzuka, had a ninken-companion, and that ninken were excellent trackers. Sensei lost nothing by revealing it.

"I'll be able to find him, even without your dog." The Kiri-nin growled confidently, grinning to reveal shark-like teeth as he reached up to tap the side of his nose.

"When a shark smells blood in the water- we can find it. Laughing Smoke was sent running by Suna over there, I'll be able to find him." Ryoma nodded, writing more in the sand.

"Then you and Chairomaru will be part of the tracking team. You'll follow the trail until you come across a natural stopping point, then come back to report the location to the rest of us so we can formulate a plan of attack. I'll leave it to your natural judgement to decide what a good stopping point is- finding his base of operations or leaving the country would be my suggestions." The Kiri-nin scoffed in a dismissive fashion, but didn't argue against the implied order.

"After which, I'd suggest we split into two main groups." Ryoma continued, splitting the rocks that represented them into two groups of four.

"A direct combat group to divert attention, and a flank group to circle around and strike key targets. Possibly two flank groups depending on terrain."

"I'll be part of a flank group." The Kiri-nin claimed, reaching down to tap his needle-like sword and a coil of wire.

"It's no Nuibari, but my needles will be more than enough for whatever Smoke has for us."

"Anyone willing to work with him?" Ryoma asked the gathered ninja.

"Fuck that- I'll go alone." The Kiri-nin waved a hand off.

"I don't need others slowing me down here." Ryoma shrugged easily.

"If that's your preference. Anyone else with a skillset suited for a flank-group? I'll go ahead and put myself down in the 'distraction' group, my Wood Dragoon is best suited for going loud."

"Aint no fucking way I'm working with Konoha." The Iwa-nin grumbled.

"Put me in for flanking- I got enough for that. I'll go alone too." Two pebbles separated themselves out from the other six.

"I'll act as overhead." The Ame-nin declared, voice distorted by his gas-mask.

"Someone has to keep track of the battlefield and make sure everyone else is in position." Ryoma tilted his head.

"Do you have a way to communicate with everyone?" The Ame-nin nodded, reaching back to pull out a scroll, then opening it up in a puff of smoke. In his hands was a small stack of electronics.

"Earpiece radios." He explained as he tossed them, passing them out to the gathered nin in the hunter-team.

"Maximum effective range is one kilometer. Inconsistent communication out to two kilometers. Ineffective past that." She caught the little earpiece as it was tossed her way, carefully inspecting it for anything that might be a trap. Seeing nothing, she tucked it into her pocket and brought her gaze back up.

"That'll do, thank you." Ryoma nodded, clipping his own radio to his inner collar and moving along.

"Tani, preference for flank or frontline?"

"Definitely flank." She responded with a nod.

"I don't have the muscles to duke it out in the open like the rest of you."

"We'll be part of the distraction group, with you then." Asuma declared with a nod, hands on his hips.

"I'll go ahead and ask that you try to avoid hitting us with any of those big attacks you were throwing out earlier."

"I'll do my best- but please tell me if you get scratched. My poison isn't lethal on its own, but a paralyzed diaphragm will still kill you." She made a note to stay far away from him when the fighting started.