As they move closer to the tent Zitsu notices the somber look on everyone's faces. Besides a few noises and muffled voices, the surroundings are quiet.
The further Zitsu walks into the camp the tenser it becomes, like the mist is pressing down on his body.
Arriving in front of the tent Zitsu's hands are trembling, whether it's from nervousness or excitement, even Zitsu is not sure.
Dunra flips open the flap to the tent and walks inside. Seeing this Zitsu hesitates before entering as well.
The inside of the tent is quite plain. A few ninjas are standing around a large table, on the table is a large map of the island. Looking at the map he can see their current location on the shore. Mountains, valleys, and rivers are drawn on the map with dozens of Xs and Os in certain places.
Before he can get a better look three ninjas stand in his way, blocking his view.
A bald middle age man walks up to Dunra. He face looks devoid of fat as every bone can be clearly seen. On his forehead is a horizontal scar where his eyebrows should be, the scar is so deep it seems to be carved into his bone. Large black circles surround his sunken eyes, trying its best to hide their blue luster. Along with the standard Kiri attire with the blue flak jacket, he's wearing a large black trenchcoat.
His face twists into the ugliest frown Zitsu has ever seen before he slowly opens his mouth.
"Dunra." A hoarse voice fills the tent "Why would you bring a someone in here at this time? You know we were in the middle of planning." As he finishes speaking he walks back towards the table "Kill the Kid."
As his voice falls over five ninjas begin to make their move.
"Mei brought this Genin." Before they can act Dunra speaks.
The room goes quiet, as if frozen in time. Light perspiration can be seen on the five ninjas who were making their move. Even the ninja who gave the order stumbles slightly as he heard the name.
Seeing this Zitsu's right eye twitches slightly, even now he has to rely on her protection.
Clearing his throat the man faces Zitsu "I'm Taskmaster Eishi, why are you here kid?"
Zitsu looks Eishi in the eyes "I'm here to fight."
"Good!" He looks at the headband around his neck and nods "You are a bit young, but you are a ninja." Eishi looks around the room before his eyes fall onto a particular person.
"Dunra you are in charge of sea defense, go back to your post. Kid, you will be on Fumio's team. Wait outside till he brings you to your campsite."
"Yes" Dunra nods before turning to leave.
Not overstaying his welcome, Zitsu follows. Outside the tent, Dunra turns to Zitsu.
"Just wait here, Captain Fumio is a good man. Good luck kid, I hope we can meet again." Dunra shakes his head as he walks away.
Zitsu rubs the underside of his bracer through his sleeve as he waits outside the tent, feeding Samehada chakra. To keep Samehada from being detected he's surrounding it with a layer of chakra. Trying to convince it not to absorb the chakra took him an entire week. Between feeding samehada, keeping up the transformation, and now cloaking it in chakra has reduced his chakra regen to a third of what it used to be.
Unless someone had the Byakugan like Ao, they wouldn't be able to notice it. He doesn't know how long it took Kisame to get Samehada to have the same chakra signature, but he knows it will happen eventually.
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After twenty minutes the ninjas inside the tent begin to exit one after another. Zitsu follows them with his eyes, trying to figure out who Fumio is. Suddenly a man stops in front of him.
The man has shoulder-length red hair covering the left side of his face. The half that can be seen is fairly handsome. He has a straight eyebrow, dark yellow eye, a small nose, and thin lips on a round face. He's wearing a dark blue sleeveless shirt with black pants. A dozen scrolls are attached down each of his legs and a belt filled with pouches at his waist.
He stares at Zitsu before waving his hand and walking away.
"Strange" Zitsu mumbles before following after him.
Walking further from the center of the camp the tents get further apart from each other and are broken up into groups. Noticing this, Zitsu figures the camp is broken up further into individual divisions like the military. They have to walk for almost an hour before they reach their destination.
They arrive at a group of a dozen tents. As they do two people walk over to greet them. They both have Jonin level chakra, but he doesn't know their skill level.
"Captain"
"Captain"
A woman and man, both in their late twenties, greet Fumio upon his arrival and glance at Zitsu.
The woman's hair is tied into a long black ponytail with a small oval face and strong cheekbones. Sharp eyebrows sit atop her forest green eyes and a small nose. Her thin lips appear to be in the shape of a permanent frown as she sizes up Zitsu. Her top consists of nothing but a dark blue flak jacket, exposing her well toned and muscular arms. Her shorts extend to just above the knee and boots to just below, leaving only her knees exposed on her leg. On her back is a giant black claymore.
The man has extremely short brown hair but long sideburns outlining his strong jaw. His dark brown eyes are barely noticeable due to the symbols tattooed all across his face and down to his neck. Looking at this Zitsu assumes the tattoos cover his entire body.
Just as Zitsu was sizing them up, they too were sizing him up. Not seeing anything special they turn back to Fumio.
Fumio nods his head before pulling a scroll from his leg and a brush from his pouch. Unrolling a part of the scroll and tearing it off, he begins writing something.
Handing it to the woman she takes it with haste and begins to read. The man stands shoulder to shoulder with her to read as well. After a few seconds, he attaches the scroll to the leg again, causing the paper in the woman's hands to go up in flames.
As the ashes fall Fumio walks away.
Seeing this Zitsu doesn't know if he should follow or not. Suddenly the woman opens her mouth.
"Zitsu right? Welcome to the team." A strong voice comes from her mouth, completely capturing Zitsu's attention.
"Yes, I'm Zitsu. I just arrived and not sure what I'm supposed to do." Looking around he slightly regrets coming here, missing the comfort of home.
"Well" The man opens his mouth "I'm Settan, and this is Yaeko. We are second in command of Team 13."
Zitsu nods at them both before asking the question that's been bothering him. "Why doesn't Captain Fumio speak?"
"Huhuhu" Yaeko laughs "Because you aren't his enemy. Have you heard of Dojutsu? A form of Kekkei Genkai dealing with the eyes? Well, Captain Fumio is from the Onsei clan."
Zitsu tilts his head
Seeing this she continues to speak "Onsei clan has a powerful Kekkei Genkai, their voice is a type of Otojutsu, able to put those who listen to their voice under a powerful Genjutsu."
As she finishes speaking it causes Zitsu's eyes to go wide. Seeing this causes Yaeko's eyes to narrow, but her frown never disappears.
"Ok, that's enough. Let's go meet the rest of the team, we have a mission." Settan turns his back and walks away.
Yaeko shrugs her shoulders and follows after.
Zitsu rushes next to Yaeko and looks up at her. "So, what does Team 13 do?"
"Team 13 has an important job, when an outpost or secret base is found, it's our job to raid it, we are a strike force." Shaking her head she stops speaking.
Hearing this Zitsu is slightly shocked, isn't this job really dangerous? Thinking about it he calms down, what job isn't dangerous?
Walking further into their section of the camp he sees a few people sitting around a fire. As the sun is currently setting the fire illuminates their faces.
Seeing some of the people, Zitsu is stunned once again as he recognizes a few of them.
As Settan and Yaeko arrive everyone rises to their feet.
"This is all of Team 13, we have five Chunin and eight Genin including you." Settan gestures towards everyone.
Looking at the twelve of them Zitsu recognizes five, three of the Chunin and two of the Genin.
"Take a moment to introduce yourselves, because you may not get the chance tomorrow. We have a mission tonight and will leave when the sun sets." Yaeko looks at everyone before she walks away with Settan.
As they leave, the first person to step forward is a young woman around twenty years old. She had brown eyes and long blonde hair with two long strands framing her heart-shaped face, extending down towards her chest. She wore a pair of turquoise earrings along with the standard long sleeve attire of Kiri complete with forehead protector and flak jacket, but more importantly, she wore a jade green bangle on her right arm.
"Hi, I'm Suiren."