[Chapter Size: 2000 Words.]
Third Person POV
Border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Rain, Year 36.
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Minato went to his tent with his companions as they prepared for their first field mission. The next day, they dressed differently than usual. After all, as it was a spying mission, they had to wear more discreet clothes, something darker than what Mikoto usually wore.
Minato also had storage seals wrapped around his wrists, something Sasuke had in Shippuden. It was very practical to pull his kunais and other weapons from there.
He met Jiraiya, Mikoto, and Hanabi at the edge of the camp before sunrise, while darkness still covered everything, but even so, the camp was quite bustling as always with the changing of the guard shifts and some people arriving with new reports.
Jiraiya looked at each of them, with a serious face as he assessed each one. "It's good to see you here. I hope you're ready. We'll meet a team at the edge of the border and enter the Land of Rain to see the situation on the ground. Remember, you have to stay alert, after all, we'll be in the middle of the battlefield," he warned as the three nodded.
Jiraiya then shot off towards the trees while the three followed him, heading West. It was after two hours of travel that the weather began to change above them.
"So this is the Land of Rain?" Hanabi asked curiously, looking at the sky which no longer looked like the clean sun of the morning before, but rather enveloped the forest in dark shadows and becoming even darker as they continued to advance. The same thing happened with Minato, feeling sentries around the place, however, much less than in the main parts of the camp.
Jiraiya stopped for a moment while the three just followed him, making the same movement. A shinobi with a mask appeared in front of Jiraiya. It was a messenger, as he handed the scroll to him before disappearing, and Jiraiya opened and read it.
"An ambush here?" Mikoto asked, surprised by this.
"It seems they do reconnaissance and intelligence work... there's a lot of them at all the camps..." Minato spoke, after all, he could feel through his haki many of them, but almost no one who was not a sentry could see them, after all, they worked hidden and by the shadows.
"Well, this is interesting. It looks like we already have an important task here..." Jiraiya murmured and looked at the three students. "Now follow me," he requested, and they both resumed their path until there was no more sun, just shadows and clouds heavy with rain.
"There's rain everywhere!" Mikoto commented as they saw lines of water falling from the sky in the distance, while they too entered the place, stepping into a space just of rain.
"It's usually not like this, but when there are heavy clouds, it rains all day," Jiraiya said, since this country seemed to never have a sun in the sky or even clear weather.
They continued until they reached an outpost, much smaller than the previous camps. There were at least about 150 ninjas there with some tents keeping watch at the edge of the border. As Jiraiya approached, he was greeted by the jonins coming up to greet him.
"Commander Jiraiya, welcome!" A man with a jonin vest and some scars on his face, greeted him. Some seemed quite recent as Minato could tell.
"You brought children?" he looked with a grimace, since genins were not involved in the front lines.
"These are my students, so don't worry about that. After all, their safety is under my responsibility," Jiraiya said, and the man nodded, not touching on the subject anymore.
"Well, come with me, after all, I need a more complete report than what I received by the ambu. Let's go to the main tent," Jiraiya said, while the ninjas greeted him quickly as they entered.
He looked at the map on the table and the jonins there. "How is the situation?" Jiraiya asked.
"The same. We still suffer attacks. However, we noticed one thing in the reports," the ninja with the scars on his face spoke with a serious tone.
"Continue," Jiraiya prompted, since the shinobi had stopped as the genins were observing everything attentively in the room, but Jiraiya didn't mind that.
The ninja nodded and continued, "Well, the forces of the Land of Earth are more aggressive than ever. We've heard some reports from the southern country, but nothing compared to what's happening here in the North. It started over a month ago."
"Yes, I read about that in the general reports," Jiraiya spoke nodding, it was quite strange, after all those ninjas were trying to enter the border of the Land of Fire even more than before.
"But it's strange, Commander Jiraiya. It's as if our enemies from the Stone Village are looking for something here. They are trying to breach the Land of Fire's border by any means. We are suffering more attacks than at the start of the war, even though they are losing with this kind of attack," he said, after all, such an attack generated more loss of resources than an advantage in itself.
Jiraiya seemed thoughtful, even looking at Minato for a moment, but he did not believe that it could be him the reason for this. "Well, until we find out, we will stop them in any way. So, hold the position," he said while gesturing to reinforce this area. "Note," he spoke and changed the subject. "Now I would like to know more about the investigation I received from the Ambu messenger a short while ago." He requested.
"Commander Jiraiya, as you know, our intelligence discovered some reports coming from the south to deliver to your allies in the north, the Stone ninjas. There might also be some resources with an incredible amount of explosive tags and other much worse things..." the shinobi explained and had a somber tone for the last words.
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"So these bastards wanted to pass poison to the north," Jiraiya murmured with a bit of anger. After all, although the camp that took care of the infected people was in the center of the border, Orochimaru's camp and others in the south were the ones suffering from the attacks with the dispute with the Sand ninjas.
Jiraiya began to think about the scenario. "Probably, they were carrying this type of poison to use on the allied country's forces against us, overloading the medical camp as a strategy to find an opening in Konoha's forces. This is quite bad," Jiraiya murmured.
"Jiraiya sensei..." Minato suddenly spoke, gaining the attention of the ninjas in the tent.
"Speak, boy." Jiraiya asked, not getting angry at the boy for interrupting his conversation with the jonins.
"They wouldn't just send a quantity of poison, right? Is there a possibility they would send the recipe? Wouldn't that help us speed up the process of finding a cure?" Minato spoke, after all, that would greatly help Tsunade, knowing how the substance was made.
"Well, you are correct and I'm sure Tsunade would love to see the formula... Maybe this mission is both a curse and a blessing, it all depends if we can intercept this team coming from the south." Jiraiya spoke while the ninjas had a serious look at him.
"I'm glad I came here, because I will lead this mission with my students and other squads," He announced while the shinobi looked at the children who seemed to have neutral looks and then nodded.
"I want a group of 30 ninjas specialized in infiltration to accompany us, we need to penetrate this country and find out what route the Sand ninjas are using inside it." Jiraiya spoke and all the ninjas began to leave the tent.
Jiraiya looked at his student before continuing, "You are already ready, we will stay here in this camp until our companions are ready. Soon, we will depart for the Land of Rain," Jiraiya spoke. "Now I will talk a little more with the jonins." Minato, Mikoto, and Hanabi nodded leaving the tent, while the heavy rain soon hit them outside.
Minato paid closer attention to the camp, although he had already noticed the size and number of people here, he noticed other things like the ninjas walking back and forth not caring about the rain or even the mud made by thousands of footsteps being made on that wet soil every day, it should already be mid-morning, but everything was dark and gloomy.
"How far do you think we are from the Land of Rain?" Mikoto asked while Hanabi opened her Byakugan out of curiosity.
"I believe we are a kilometer away from the place..." Hanabi responded looking to the east.
"We might stay a long time in this camp; it would have been better to continue in the tent..." Mikoto couldn't help complaining as the rain fell on them all the time.
They spent some time in the camp while Minato looked at the rainy sky, wondering if this country really never had sun. After that, Jiraiya got organized and brought some masks for them.
"Take these. We are leaving now. Put on your hoods and don't take them off at all while we enter that country," Jiraiya instructed as they picked up masks.
"It looks like we're a bunch of mysterious ninjas now," Mikoto commented with a small smile.
"I feel almost like an Ambu like this..." Minato spoke, not failing to think about his military career, he might join the Ambu in the future, it would be an interesting experience to work some time in those forces... After all, Minato didn't consider himself a good spy; he trained to blow things up and be highly destructive.
After that, all three got themselves sorted. Some random masks were chosen,
"And I thought we were going to wear frog masks." Hanabi commented, though it would be quite obvious to the enemy.
"Anyway, let's go," Minato said, and the three began to head towards the exit of the camp, there were several ninjas while Jiraiya was giving some more instructions, all of them wearing the same uniform, with dark capes and hooded masks.
"Remember, we will follow in different teams as we enter the country and try to gather information. If possible, avoid direct confrontations and blend in with the population," Jiraiya instructed, his gaze fixed to the west. "The primary mission is to understand the enemy's movements and intercept any communication or resource coming to the north." He said.
All the ninjas nodded, "Now we need to be even more discreet entering the country, so keep to the shadows and avoid any ninja, understand?" He asked.
Once again, everyone just nodded and silently, "Now let's go!" He said and all the ninjas departed the next moment, while Jiraiya and his team followed a route as everyone split into groups of 2, 3, and 4 people in other teams.
They swiftly passed through places with difficult visibility while Minato could even feel the other teams separated, keeping a low profile as they passed through the forest, it didn't take long to finally feel that they were in the Land of Rain.
The team successfully continued their infiltration, meanwhile, in another part of the Land of Rain, a boy looked at the rain falling on his window, there was no rain inside his house, while the door opened and a woman with red hair entered.
"Stop looking out the window..." She requested.
"But mom... why is everyone leaving and we're staying here... isn't it dangerous?" the boy asked with some fear in his voice.
"My boy... your father believes that we will be safer here inside, there's only hunger and death outside, everything will be alright," She tried to calm her son.
"I know... it's just that I'm scared..." the boy said, putting his head between his knees.
"It's okay, you are a very strong boy, Nagato. Soon the bad men will leave and we'll return to our life as before..." And she approached and hugged her son lovingly.
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