Kenta sat in the middle of his apartment’s floor cross-legged as he meditated as he focused on his thoughts and training, it had been three full weeks since the team placements and subsequent Genin final team test.
While all the other rookies had been out on D rank missions with their senseis, things had been different in team eleven. For the past three weeks, they had been under the direct specialised training, he had been with Anko, and various other T&I interrogators from time to time, as he sat in on, and participated in, torture and interrogation sessions, as he learned how to extract information from the subjects of their interrogations.
Sayaka had been there as well but in a more refined criteria. She was working along the Iryō-nins on call on the floor she watched the sessions take place but never acutely participated in the torture. At the end she and the other Iryō-nins would begin to work on the subjects healing their injuries just enough for them to be escorted back to their cells. The subjects were all the worst kind of criminals so they didn’t need to be healed totally, chances where they’d be back in interrogation in a day or so. Only when a subject had to be taken to the medical room, after an extensive session of torture, for treatment would they actually heal them completely so as to keep them from dying before all the information was gained that could be.
The days had been rough since the first, after their first session, they had spent seven hours a day in the interrogation rooms, with criminal after criminal being brought in for Kenta to work on as he learned the rather gruesome craft, but learn it he did, and like most things he learned he got good fast, but that came with its downsides.
After the first session, that night Kenta had spent the whole night staring up at his apartment ceiling as he replayed the events of that torture over and over in his head, well over a hundred times as the reality of what he had actually done set in. He had managed to get to sleep but only for a couple of hours before he had to get up for his morning training, and it hadn’t gotten any better in the days after. Only when he started to throw himself into a new intense training schedule did he start to get back to his usual sleeping patters because he had run himself raged before.
Each day before he went into the interrogation cells, he spent nearly all his chakra on making Kage Bunshins for missions and his training schedule and set them to work for the whole day on the different areas of training. Then once he got out he spent hours doing physical exercise to strengthen his body while he Kage Bunshin worked on his mind, chakra control and Jutsu. By the end of it all he was exhausted physically and mentally enough to sleep using the memories he got from the Kage Bunshins to dull the memories from that day of the torture training .
The intense training Kenta had been undergoing was something that he had been putting off until after his graduation because of how advanced it was. In it he had finally started to train with his individual charka natures in order to master each of them. In his earlier years he had read, or rather his Kage Bunshin had read, multiple books and scrolls on the topic from the shinobi library and he had learned that each chakra nature requires a different set of lessons in order to completely master that chakra nature. Konoha’s starting chakra nature exercises seemed to all be focused on leaves. For example, the first exercise in mastering his wind chakra was cutting a leaf clean in two while holding it between his palms, for his water nature he had to pull all the moisture from the leaf into the palm of his hand, fire nature was about turning the leaf to ash and earth was turning it to dust in his hand, but he wasn’t interested in those last two. The only nature they seemed to be lacking was lightning. Kenta suspected that was because there were so few lightning natured shinobi in Konoha, so he had resolved to develop his own method of the same calibre.
The result ended up being an exercise in which he builds up his lightning chakra in his hands and placing his hands a foot apart before pushing his chakra to make the lighting chakra arc between his hands. At first, it had just been a spark, but soon he had a single arc of lightning chakra going for a few seconds before he couldn’t hold it. His goal for this training was to be able to have a multiple arcs jumping from one hand to the other, but it was slow going, on all fronts.
After two weeks of abusing his clones on all three exercised he’d managed to drain half a leaf of its moisture, make it halfway through cutting the leave with his wind chakra and managed to keep a single arc of lightning going from one hand to the other for just over a minute.
In the final weak Kenta had decided to experiment further by using his elemental chakra to enhance his weapons and his body. He was extremely impressed by the results. While his water element didn’t seem to do much in the ways of combat, both wind and lightning chakras were the opposite.
When he channelled his wind chakra into his sword or tools it greatly increased the cutting damage, enhancing his throwing weapons with it made them fly almost three times faster and pierce three times deeper than when he was just throwing them with regular chakra. Adding lightning to his weapons gave more of a destructive cut, he had blown the bark from a tree three inches from where his sword had impacted when he tested it, it was an impressive effect and it did the same around any thrown weapon from around the point of impact.
One thing that he had been impressed by completely was the effect that lighting chakra had on his muscles when he channelled it through them. He found that it enhanced every aspect of him physically from his speed to the power behind his attacks, it was ridiculous.
He was able to run four times faster than what he could do, and able to punch and kick five times harder and faster, but there had been a couple of unforeseen side effects. One is that he ended up hurting himself on a few of the attacks his legs bruising from the kicks and he needed to ice his hands after a few minutes of continuous fast-paced punches. He was going to have to cash out for some better shin and knuckle protection to soften the blows to his limbs, waiting until he had plenty of cash to burn from his missions before he had cashed out for a set of chakra metal shin guards and chakra metal knuckle gloves both with extra padding and to allow his blows to do even more damage.
The second unforeseen effect had been made obvious when he had decided to see how fast he really was with both his weight and gravity seals released while he channelled lightning chakra through his muscles. The effect had been far greater than he thought it would be, and he underestimated his own speed and strength.
The resulting speed gave him tunnel vision and he ended up running into things. Luckily for him at the time he was alone in the training ground at the time with only his Kage Bunshins watching him. So his pride had been somewhat spared when no one had been around to see him when he smacked straight into a tree because he couldn’t control his speed. Luckily it turned out better for him than the tree which was reduced to splinters and collapsed from the enhanced lighting chakra, high-speed impact.
So he had gained extreme speed but he needed a way to counteract the tunnel vision the speed gave him, it was the problem that was still stumping him and until it was solved he was stuck using either using his lightning chakra with his seals on or his regular speed without the lightning chakra to enhance his attacks, it was as Shikamaru or any Nara would say, troublesome.
But one upside to the three weeks aside from training was that each member of team eleven were now very well off financially. Mainly thanks to Kenta’s mass Kage Bunshin abuse on Anko’s orders.
Every morning for the past three weeks had been the same as the first. Meeting in front of the Hokage tower for Anko to hand over fifty D rank missions, which he then created fifty teams of three Kage Bunshin for each one and sent them on their way before they left for their seven hours in the interrogation rooms.
The result of which was that team eleven now had the highest D-rank mission clear rate on record, and each of their bank accounts with balances over two to three million Ryo each. Which wasn’t all that shocking seeing as the D-rank missions paid between five thousand and fifty thousand Ryo per mission. With fifty missions being completed every day the whole team was well off, and they had Kenta’s Kage Bunshin to thank for it seeing as they never had to actually lift a finger.
But the biggest let down of the whole three weeks had been for Sayaka, three weeks spent treating the outcomes of the interrogation sessions and there hadn’t even been a sign of her Sharingan awakening. Anko had confessed to them both yesterday that she had been hoping that the stress from seeing so many injuries might have brought it out, but there had been no luck so far.
Now, team eleven had been called off its three-week training session for its first official C-rank mission that Anko had already signed off on. They were to meet up with her at the Dango store in an hour or so for a pre-mission celebration and for Anko to give them the rundown on the mission specs before they collected the mission scroll with the official details from the mission desk.
Standing up from his sitting position Kenta stretched out his limbs, he had taken up meditation to help organise his thoughts and quiet his mind over the past three weeks, and did so for half an hour now every morning after he was finished his morning training, showered and dressed for the day ahead.
Midnight trotted over to his side and gave a bark making Kenta smirk at him as he scratched him behind the ear.
“Yeah. I’m excited to, buddy. Our first real mission, I wonder what Sarutobi-sensei has for us.” Kenta grinned with excitement, “Come on let's go meet the others.” He said as they started towards the door.
----------------------------------------
Scene break
Kenta, Anko and Sayaka all cheered as they brought their cups together in celebration. They were sitting in the middle of the Dango shop around their usual table each grinning as they had their small pre-mission celebration.
“Fucking A, three week’s already, damn time sure can fly,” Anko grinned, “But what a great three week’s it’s been.”
Kenta smirked, “Hell yeah, making grown men cry for the mummies by dinner and training all day, life can’t get much sweeter than this. Can it?”
Sayaka giggled, “Plus don’t forget all the Ryo we’re making from your Bunshin. I’ve never seen so many zeros since my last bank statement, I had to have them double check I thought they placed the decimal point in the wrong place.”
Anko laughed, “Yeah and now it will only be getting better now that the real missions are starting for you two. And I got us the perfect one to start us off, one that I just know that you two will want to be a part of.”
Kenta grinned setting his cup down after downing it, “Well don’t keep us in suspense then Anko, come on and tell us what we’re going to be doing for our first Crappy-rank mission.”
Anko smirked as she refilled her cup, before setting the bottle down and picking up a Dango stick, “Well you remember little old Higuma right?”
Both Kenta and Sayaka nodded. Hard not to remember their first time in the torture room, Higuma being the first one Kenta had broken at the beginning of the three weeks. Granted his breaking was by far the quickest and the most gentle of the sessions in the interrogation room, it was tame compared to the things Kenta was learning by the end of the three weeks.
“Hard not to,” Kenta replied as he lifted the bottle to fill his own cup again, “What about him, this got something to do with the information we got out of him?” he asked raising an eyebrow.
Anko nodded, “As a matter of fact it does,” she grinned, “after you two left that little crybaby spilled everything he knew, names, locations, times and dates. Their contacts in the other nations were particularly profitable. Everything he knew about their organization we now know, and we haven’t been sitting idle with it.
For the past three weeks with that information, we’ve expanded our knowledge of them sending scouting teams out to verify the information and tracking their movements. We’re now certain we have the locations of each hidden slaver market in the land of fire. We have eyes on each of their teams of slavers and we’ve verified the location of the slaver encampment. We just haven’t been able to locate the second one as of yet. We believe it’s solely for overflow but so far we haven’t been able to track any of the teams to it. No sign of their so-called ringleaders as of yet either, but Hokage-Sama doesn’t want to wait anymore.
The longer we wait, the more people, the more children, are sold into slavery or worse.” Anko said taking a drink, “He’s given the orders to move on all verified locations. The attacks will be synchronised and will happen in a couple of days, I’ve requested that our team be one of those moving on the main encampment. I figured since we were the ones to get the starting information you’d both want to see this thing through to the end, was I right?”
Both Sayaka and Kenta looked at each other both nodding at the same time in agreement.
“Damn right we do,” Kenta grinned, “A chance to cripple these bastards for good, I’m not missing out on this.”
“Kenta’s right,” Sayaka agreed, “besides I’ve been wanting a piece of these guys since I first saw that bastard Higuma. If the others are anything like him, then the ones they’ve kidnapped need to be saved before it’s too late.”
Anko nodded, “Good, with any luck this mission will have what is necessary for you to awaken your Sharingan, Sayaka. I’m a little disappointed my three week plan didn’t exactly get it done, but there’s no use moping about it, if this doesn’t do it I’m genuinely stumped for idea’s.” she said before eating her last Dango and standing up, “Right then, come on let’s get going, now that we’ve had our fun it’s time to get to the mission desk and pick up our official orders. We can pack afterwards before we leave.”
Both Genin and Ninken nodded as they moved towards the door and out onto the street heading for the Hokage tower and the mission’s desk.
----------------------------------------
Scene break
Coming in the door onto the floor the mission’s desk was located, they heard the rantings of an unmistakable voice that sounded rather angry.
“Enough of this already, give me a real mission, not these chores! How am I meant to get stronger by weeding a garden, or walking some flea infested mutts!” ranted the voice of one male Uchiha in the room ahead of them.
Sayaka sighed recognising the voice as both Kenta and Anko rolled their eyes and Midnight let out a low growl at the last comment.
As the team rounded the corner into the room they were just in time to see Iruka slam his file down onto the desk in front of him as he stood up leaning over the table as he glared angrily at the last male Uchiha. “Stop complaining Genin Uchiha, your team still hasn’t completed the necessary mission numbers required to take on higher ranked missions as of yet! Until that happens you’re staying on D-ranks, no matter how much you yell about it!” Iruka said not impressed in the slightest by Sasuke’s arrogance when he was standing less than several feet from the Hokage who was looking as equally unimpressed until the moment he saw team eleven coming through the door.
While Sasuke glared angrily at the Chūnin, behind him his team had varying emotions playing across their faces. Naruto on the far left looked fed up with the whole scene, mainly because this had been a reoccurring scene for the past two weeks ever since they spend the first-week covering team formations in various situations to try and improve their teamwork and unity. Which to be fair had partially worked, they had learned them well enough, and both Sakura and Naruto knew to implement them as ordered to, but the whole time Sasuke had kept pushing for Kakashi to teach him something useful on his own. The Jōnin had refused of course and referred to the teamwork training as orders direct from the Hokage seeing as only Naruto had officially passed the Genin test both Sasuke and Sakura had to complete these lessons under orders. It was technically true while they weren’t official orders they were necessary to make the team somewhat functional.
To Naruto's right stood Kakashi with a look of annoyance, or what could be discribed as annoyance given how only his left eye was visible it was hard to tell what his actual mood was. But the way his viable eye was narrowed, annoyed, was a safe bet. It had only been three weeks with this team and Kakashi was ready to pull his hair out, between Sakura’s constant questioning over the smallest things and her fawning after Sasuke every ten minutes and the Uchiha’s constant demands for him to give him lessons on high powered Jutsu. He was getting close to calling it quits on this whole team. The only reasons why he didn’t was because Sakura was actually starting to show promise in the minor chakra control training that he had her working on in preparation for him teaching her tree waking. If everything went as he planned over the next week or so her reserves and control would increase drastically giving him a base to start her specialised training on.
The other reason was Naruto, the blond was a machine when it came to training and Kenjutsu. Kakashi was sure that he had the skills needed to advance even further with the right training, but because of Kakashi having to divide his time between the three Genin he could only do so much.
And on the far side of Kakashi stood Sakura looking on worried. Although the scene wasn’t something new, Sakura was always worried when it happened, she was by no means stupid and knew that the Hokage was in charge of the village, and couldn’t understand why Sasuke was constantly showing such disrespect that he was by demanding higher-ranked missions. In truth she knew they weren’t ready for them yet, or more specifically she wasn’t ready for them yet. She knew both Naruto and Sasuke were by far stronger than her in all aspects of being shinobi. A fact that was made more clear every day in training. While she was improving little by little she was so far behind her team mates is scared her, but it didn’t deter her as she kept trying to push herself, training just as hard every day to try and impress Sasuke so that he would take notice of her. Only to fail every time and be rejected on every advance, it was hard to go through and it was slowly getting harder and harder but to her, she knew it would be worth it in the end when she finally got through… if she ever did. Though that was looking less and less likely to happen every day as Sasuke only seemed to get more distance with her and Naruto as each day passed if that was even possible to begin with.
These past three weeks had shown her that things weren’t at all how she had thought them to be and she was just trying to hold onto the one thing she wanted to be real, though she was slowly losing her grip on the illusion of it all.
Anko took this chance to grin, “Well isn’t it funny seeing you lot here, how ya been Kakashi?” she asked as they came up behind team seven.
Kakashi, Naruto and Sakura all looked around to see team eleven coming into the room with amused looks on their faces.
Kakashi smiled below his mask, “Anko, well it’s good to see you too, haven’t seen you since the waves of D-ranks began.”
Anko laughed, “Yeah didn’t really have much time to stop by and chat, with putting these two through their training in my speciality, not a lot of free time to do much else.”
Sakura blinked in confusion, “Um Mitarashi-sensei, what exactly is your speciality?”
Anko grins sadistically at her, “Oh its a very fun speciality, you see I make scumbags talk and spill all their dirty little secrets, even when they don’t want to, with sharp and painful things, for the T&I division. That’s what I’ve been training these two in, well Kenta at least, Sayaka here just patches them up so they can go another round until they spill everything, can’t have them croaking before the do that.”
Sakura’s mouth fell open, “You… you mean your torturing people, and you’re teaching your team how to do it too? That’s… that’s…”
Anko laughed, “Well that is my job bubble-gum, making bad men talk. Heck I’m one of the best in the village at it. When I get started lips don’t stay sealed for too long.”
Kenta chuckled at that, “Don’t be letting Ibiki hear you coming out with stuff like that. He’d have you on door duty for a month same as Ranka has been for the past three weeks.”
Sayaka giggled, “Poor guy is still complaining that his skills are getting rusty not being in interrogations in so long. I think he just wants to cut someone up.”
Kenta shook his head, “Ha, more than likely, poor guy’s probably just pissed cause he was able to hear that one guy screaming a while back. Remember him? The one who was so loud that even with all the soundproofing he could be heard at the far end of the corridor, and even when we stopped it didn’t help any, he wouldn’t stop screaming until we sedate him.”
Sayaka shook her head, “Well he had good reason. Anko was peeling the skin off his right foot in chunks like a badly peeled orange.”
Anko shrugged, “Gotta give the guy props though, he lasted two hours till I reached his ankle before he finally broke, man that was a lot of blood.”
Sayaka groaned, “Don’t remind me, I had to spend three hours patching the bastards up after you were done before he could be sent back to the cells, and I still wasn’t able to find his pinkie toe no matter how hard I looked.”
Anko raised an eyebrow, “What are you complaining about, we still got the information and you got good practice patching the bastard up before he bleed out. It was a win-win as far as I can see.”
Sayaka sighed, “That’s not the part I’m complaining, it’s just I like to at least finish a job of patching my patients up properly before they’re shoved back in their holes, and that pinkie toe has been bothering me for the past week, we still haven’t found it.” she said as nearly everyone in the room that wasn’t on team eleven turned some shade of green listening to the conversation.
Sakura who looked like she was ready to throw up at the concept of what they were doing clutched her stomach to stop herself from doing just that looking at team eleven with fearful eyes, “How… how can you just talk about torture so flippantly like that, those… those are human beings you’re torturing, people they have…” she started to reason only for Kenta to cross his arms and cut her off.
“No they’re not Sakura.” Kenta spoke his voice hardened, “They’re not people. They’re not human beings. They’re not even animals. To call them any of those things is to insult every decent person on the planet, they’re monster, and that’s all they are. Monsters who’s crimes are so atrocious that they no longer deserve the pity of decent people. Murderers and rapists, they have information that we need, and we get it out of them that’s all there is to it.” Kenta said before grinning, “And after three weeks of seven hours a day making grown men cry like little babies. It’s just as easy to talk about it as everyday life.” He said as his gaze hardened again and his grin fell away, “We’re shinobi Sakura. That means doing what needs to be done is to see the job is completed. So if that includes systematically pulling every fingernail from a man’s hand before breaking each digit and cutting them off before closing each wound slowly with a red-hot kunai just for good measure, to get information that is critical to the completion of a mission then you can bet your bony ass I’ll do so without hesitation. The failure of a mission could cost you, others or your teammates their lives, every mission is important regardless of its rank or where it’s at, and it’s important that we complete each and every one to the best of our abilities.”
Hearing Kenta speak, most of the shinobi in the room started to get their colour back and looked at Kenta with a new found respect as he got slight nods of approval from most of them for his words and reasoning.
Naruto looked on proudly at his big brother’s determination and resolve with admiration. Sakura looked on as well her eyes wide in shock as she started to think about Kenta’s words, and the more she did the more she couldn’t find fault with anything he said, and started to frown thinking of how pathetic she was, when she knew she’d never have that kind of resolve.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Anko smirked at Kenta’s little speech before giving him a sideways glance and grinned at him, “Yeah but D-ranks still suck though right?” she asked openly.
Kenta scoffed, “Oh yeah, without a doubt D-rank’s suck goose eggs” he said plainly as all those who have been giving him respectful looks fell flat on their faces at the blatant turn, while other, Hiruzen, Sayaka and Anko, who had guessed it was coming chuckled amused at the scene.
Sasuke watched on and just snorted to himself, ‘Useless, what strength can torturing bring, strength is being able to kill your enemies not make them talk by sticking them with needles, it’s useless to me, just like all these pathetic missions’
Sayaka stops giggling at Kenta’s little moment before nodding her head in agreement with him, “Oh defiantly, it’s a good thing we doing have to do them anymore.” She said before looking at Anko with a grin, “Right Anko-sensei?”
Anko nodded with a grin of her own, “Right.” She said as she walked forward to the mission desk and Hiruzen who was currently sat behind it knowing full well what was coming, “Hokage-Sama, Team eleven reporting to receive mission briefing on Mission number three-zero-seven-one-five-nine-victor-tango-delta-alpha” she spoke in a mock official tone.
Hiruzen nodded to her as he gave a chuckle, “So noted. As it just so happens I already marked that mission down as accepted by team eleven in preparation for your arrival,” he said taking out a scroll from inside his robes and handed it to Iruka, “check it off the list.” he said seriously.
Iruka took the scroll and nodded, knowing an order when he heard it. Sitting back down he checked the mission number and started to run through the list on the board in front of him. The lower down the list he got and the more pages he flipped up to find the number, the more worry came to his face when he actually did find it and read the mission parameters. He gave a side glance to the Hokage to see if anything was amiss, and then to the waiting teams seeing them still waiting. He simply sighed before marking the mission off the list and handed the scroll back to Hiruzen.
Taking the mission scroll Hiruzen handed it to Anko who accepted as Hiruzen stood up placing his hands behind his back in a serious manner before speaking.
“Quad eleven, your mission is to rondeau with squads B-three and C-Six at the mission coordinates outside of the village boundaries for your complete mission briefing on the unified assault on the slaver encampment and black market sights. Your objective is the eradication of all hostiles inside the encampment and the safe retrieval of the captives. Lethal force on the enemy has been authorised, and the unified assault on multiple fronts has been scheduled to commence at sixteen hundred hours in two days’ time, giving you just over fifty hours to make it to the rondeau point for your briefing on the assault parameters and coordinate with the teams already in place.
A grace period of three days has been assigned to the mission to allow for any complications missed to be taken care off before you are expected to begin your return to the village to be debriefed on its expiration, you are expected back in six days total, happy hunting” Hiruzen finished his briefing.
Hearing what team eleven’s mission actually was got many reactions from those in the room the most prominent was from the two other Genin on squad seven other than Naruto.
Sakura gasped putting her hands over her mouth as she realised what the mission actually was that squad eleven was going to be leaving to do, “Y-You’re going out to-to kill people?” she stated in shock, but her question was left unanswered when Mt Sasuke finally erupted in anger.
“What the hell! How are they getting to go outside the village on such a high priority mission like that, while I’m stuck in the village doing what amounts to chores?” Sasuke raged unable to contemplate how he was being outclassed by his younger sister and Kenta once again.
Hiruzen ever patient waited for his rant to stop, taking the time to contemplate his response and decided that it would be best to inform Mikoto of the boy’s outburst, he was his mother after all and would likely have something to say about it when he got home. Oh how he wished he could be a fly on the wall in that house to see the boy get his comeuppance for his utter lack of respect.
Clearing his throat Hiruzen answered, “It is simple Genin Uchiha, squad eleven can take on such missions because they have proven themselves ready by fulfilling their mission quota to be allowed to do such. They have proven themselves both capable and deserving of the task they have been assigned which is why I signed off on it. It is not your place to question your Hokage’s decision, Genin” he added with a stern glare.
As Sasuke fumed over that fact and gnashed his teeth in rage, Sakura stepped forward confused.
“But Hokage-Sama, with all due respect I’m confused, how could they have done more missions than us? We both graduated the academy and started taking on missions on the same day.” Sakura asked before bowing her head respectfully to the leader of the village awaiting either her dismissal or response as she was taught to do.
But the response didn’t come from the Hokage, rather it came from Sayaka who smirked hearing her question, “That’s easily answered Sakura but first, just to prove that we have indeed done so…” Sayaka said before looking to Iruka, “Iruka-san, could you please read off the completed tally of D-rank missions for team eleven, for all to hear please?”
Iruka looked to the Hokage for permission to do so and got a nod in response before he started to flick through the reports and ran his finger down the numbers before stopping, “Let’s see here…” he said before his eyes widened seeing the count and he looked up blinking before looking back, and blinked again before sighing he should have gotten used to the shocks by now, “Squad eleven mission reports: completed missions do date, D-rank missions: one thousand and fifty, completed on time and without incident or reported complaints” he said in monotone and shook his head, he really should have known to expect this.
Hearing the number called out once again brought varying responses, Naruto smirked knowing how Kenta’s team had pulled it off with ease over the past three weeks, while Sakura’s bottom jaw literally dropped to the floor as her mouth hung open in disbelief, and Mt Sasuke had another mini eruption of “What the hell! How is that even possible?!”
Kakashi gave an impressed whistle, “Not too shabby” he said trying to hide his impressed look as he looked over to Anko, “So want to share with everyone how you managed to pull that one off, what’s your team’s secret?”
Anko grinned at the question, “It’s simple cyclops, my team’s got a secret weapon, that can complete Dumbass-ranked missions in no time flat” she states proudly.
Sayaka giggled at the comment, “Yeah a redhead who can multiply into his own mini-army” she said covering her mouth as Kakashi blinked at the comment before facepalming.
“Of course” Kakashi sighed, “Why the hell didn’t I think of that, but then again it would only be possible for your team and ours but then we’d never get the same results with our restrictions” he explained while gesturing to both Sasuke and Sakura, “we kind of need the teamwork practice.”
Kenta nodded, “I hear ya Kakashi, but all the same…” he said before looking to Hiruzen, “the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu is a blessing from kami-sama.”
Hiruzen nodded sagely, “Indeed it is.” He agreed before sitting down again, “Squad eleven you are dismissed, you have your orders”
Each member of team eleven bowed at the dismissal, even Midnight bowed his head, and turned to leave. As the two Uzumaki brothers passed each other Kenta stopped as Naruto held out a fist and Kenta did the same in the common gesture before they both smirked.
“Be careful out there Nii-chan,” Naruto said sounding a little worried but knowing that his brother would be fine.
Kenta smirked, “Isn’t that meant to be my line being the older brother and all?” he asked jokingly before shaking his head in amusement, “No worries Otōto, I’ll be back before you know it, just don’t you dare gorge on nothing but ramen while I’m gone. I’ll be checking with Ayame and Teuchi when I get back. If I find out you even had one more than I normally allow I’ll be upping your gravity and weight seals on out Sunday training sessions for a month of Sundays and inviting Lee to join us.” He threatened.
Naruto's jaw drops, “Awe come on Nii-chan cut me some slack!” he groaned in disbelief.
Kenta smirked, “Then don’t slack off then. You want to be Hokage someday Otōto, you gotta earn that hat.” He said thumbing over his shoulder to an amused Hiruzen who was watching on with amusement before Kenta patted Naruto’s shoulder for a final goodbye and walked on to meet Midnight, Sayaka and Anko at the door as they started to walk out of the building.
As team eleven walked down the hallway Sayaka gave Kenta a side glance, “You were bluffing about the whole inviting Lee thing right?” she asked a little worried for Naruto as even Midnight whimpered at the idea.
Kenta scoffed at the question, “Oh hell yeah, I may be a sadist but looking at those eyebrows and that amount of spandex for an extended period of time is a whole other kind of torture that I want no part in, let alone submitting my Otōto to.”
Anko visibly shivered at the thought, “Amen to that, I’m telling you Ibiki could learn a thing or two from that pair about visual torture. That sunset Genjutsu of theirs is something I never want to see again, ever.”
After a few more minutes the team finally exit the tower, getting to the gate Anko then turns to the Genin and Ninken group, “Alright seeing as this mission is a week long, we’re going to have to pack for the trip to and from the mission site, so we’ll leave in an hour seeing as how the Mutt”, *Midnight growls*, “Needs his check-up done before we can leave so that his stats can be compared when we get back. That’ll give us plenty of time to pack for the trip. We meet at the west gate in one hour, got it?” she asked looking at the three getting nods from each of them before they broke up to head home to pack.
----------------------------------------
Scene break- Uchiha District
Arriving back at the clan head house in the Uchiha district, Sayaka took off her shinobi boots as she entered, as she did so the door to the kitchen opened revealing Mikoto drying her hands.
“Sayaka-chan?” Mikoto said in confusion, “What are you doing back so early? I thought you had gone to meet up with your team?”
Sayaka gave her a smile, “I did Kaa-chan, but I had to come home to pack. We’ve been given our first C-rank mission, an extermination and retrieval of a slaver camp two days outside of the village. Anko sensei gave us an hour to pack while Kenta-kun takes Midnight for his check in before we go. We should be gone about a week.”
Hearing her daughter’s explanation Mikoto first looked shocked but then her expression changed to one full of pride as she smiled before hugging Sayaka, “Oh that’s wonderful Sayaka-chan, oh I’m so proud of you, you’re first C-rank already and not even a month into your shinobi career yet, oh Fugaku would be fuming knowing that you got one before your brother did.”
Sayaka rolled her eyes at that, “Yeah, Sasuke-Nii wasn’t one bit impressed himself.” She commented remembering her brother’s words.
Mikoto stopped hugging her daughter hearing that and released her looking at her with a raised eyebrow, “Sasuke knows? What did he do now?” she asked openly.
Sayaka sighed and nodded, “Yeah he knows, he was there at the mission desk when we were getting our mission. Before we arrived he was practically demanding for team seven to be given something more than an in village D-rank mission. When he heard we were getting a C-rank and a high ranked one at that, he completely flipped. I don’t know what he was thinking speaking like that in front of Hokage-Sama.” She said shaking her head still in disbelieve at her brother’s behaviour.
Mikoto sighed rubbing her temple, “I don’t know either, but I shall definitely be having words with him about this once you’re gone. He can’t go on acting like this if he still wants to remain heir to the clan. If he can’t control himself and show the respect owed to those in power he doesn’t deserve to have his own.” she said before shaking her head, “but that’s enough on your brother, go and get ready for your mission, I’ll see you again before you leave.” she smiled trying to change the mood of the conversation.
Sayaka smiled, “okay, Kaa-chan, I’ll be back in a few,” she said as she quickly took the left corridor and headed to her room at the end.
Sayaka’s room was well organised with her bed against the far wall as you entered, and a low sitting window to the left of it next to a set of segmented box shelves holding multiple scrolls, on the opposite side of the room was a desk and wardrobe, her walls painted a deep wine red with wooden flooring.
Coming into her room Sayaka went over to the shelves and started to pick out individual labelled scrolls marked for what they contained. She remembered back to when Kenta had taught her how to first make storage seals and scrolls so she could keep her equipment organised for quick packing.
Picking out scrolls labelled, Kunai, shuriken, clothing, explosive tags, ninja wire, camping supplies, ration bars and water. She moved them all to her bed before taking one of the three longer scrolls on top of the shelves that was the same thickness as the smaller ones but three times the length.
Sayaka unfurled the longer scroll to reveal the multiple storage seals in rows of three inside before she started to lift the smaller scrolls and seal them inside the larger one. As she sealed the last one in she moved to roll the scroll back up but stopped as her gaze flickered to the mahogany box with a brass latch that sat on her desk. She bit her lower lip in thought as she rounded her bed to her desk running her fingers over the carved Uchiha crest on its top as she remembered back to when she first received this.
----------------------------------------
Flashback
A younger Sayaka was looking up at her mother standing in the living room, it had been less than a week after the clan massacre and her mind was reeling after hearing the story her mother had just told her.
Mikoto kneeled down in front of her daughter with a proud smile on her face, holding in her hands the red mahogany box with its lid open showing the contended, a completely black scroll with three red tomoes on its front, sitting on a ruby red silk cloth.
Mikoto closed the box and the latch before holding it out towards the young Sayaka, “It’s your responsibility now. When the time comes, you’ll know when it’s time to be used,” she said still with a proud look in her eyes.
Sayaka hesitantly took the box and ran her fingers over the carved crest in wonder as she slowly nodded.
----------------------------------------
Flashback end
A smile graces Sayaka’s face as she looks at the box and undoes the latch on its front revealing the all black scroll still inside, taking a breath she lifts it out and looks at it, ‘I don’t know why, but I feel like you’ll be needed’ she thinks to herself before moving to her bed once more and sealed the black scroll in the farthest storage seal for safe keeping before she rolled the larger scroll up and slotted it into the carry case and slung it over her shoulder before heading for the door.
----------------------------------------
With Kenta & Midnight
After splitting up Kenta took his partner to the Inuzuka Veterinary clinic for his check-up, Kenta pushed open the doors as he and his partner entered inside only to see Kiba and his partner Akamaru by the front desk, both smirked seeing each other.
“Hey Kenta, Midnight!” Kiba called, “Where you two been? Haven’t seen you around the village lately, only those Kage Bunshin of yours.” He commented with a grin.
Kenta chuckled, “Yeah we’ve been in specialized training, while Anko had me use my Kage Bunshin to keep our mission stats up, well specialized for me anyway,” the redhead grinned, “just here to get Midnight a check-up before our team leaves on our first C-rank mission”
Kiba blinked in shock, “No freak’n way, C-rank already? Damn dude, you just keep leaving the rest of us in the dust” he said looking slack-jawed.
“Congrats,” came a voice from the back as Hana came out of one of the examination rooms, “I’d say it’s about time you got out there and showed them what you’ve got” she grinned, “come on in the back here and I’ll give Midnight his once-over before you can head out, I’d imagine your both itching to get on the road.” she said before heading into the back with a hand gesture to follow.
Going into the back examination room Hana made her way to the filing cabinet in the corner and started looking for the file she needed as Kenta, Midnight, Kiba and Akamaru came into the room.
“So dude, you know what type of mission it is yet you’re going on for your first C-rank?” Kiba asked as he leaned against the wall.
“Transportation, bodyguard detail, scouting and research, travel assistant?” Hana rhymed off as she looked for the file.
Kenta smirked, “Bandit extermination and captive retrieval,” he told them and watched their reactions as Kenta looked at him once again slack-jawed and Hana swerved around to look at him for a minute blinking before pulling Midnight’s file.
“Damn that sounds badass!” Kiba finally responded recovering from his initial shock.
Hana nodded as she moved over to the examination table with the file, “I agree though it does sound a little up there for a first-time mission, got to be top of the C-ranks that’s for sure” she reasoned as Midnight jumped up on the table for her to begin his exam.
Kenta nodded, “Maybe. But my team has been involved with the mission from its very first intel gathering session, hell I was even the one who broke the guy to get the intel on the slaver camps. We want to see this mission through to the very end.” he reasoned.
Hana raised an eyebrow hearing that and Kiba looked at him in shock, “You tortured a guy?” Kiba stated not sure how to take that.
Kenta nodded, “He was a slave trader, a murderer, rapist, and part of a slaver ring who kills families, rapes women and takes young girls to be sold as slaves.” Kenta stated with obvious disgust with what he was saying, “The bastard had intel and I got it out of him, that’s all there is to it.” he stated plainly.
Both Inuzuka siblings scowled at that, “I hope you made that bastard hurt.” Kiba stated as Hana went back to Midnight’s examination.
Kenta smirked, “Oh I did that alright, though I just wish I could have had him a couple sessions later after I had some practice in so I could have made him hurt a whole lot more for a whole lot longer,” he said with his smirk turning sadistic.
Hana grinned hearing that comment as she adjusted something in the file, “Sounds like Anko is rubbing off on you.” She stated openly.
Kenta grinned, “You’re only just realizing that now?” he stated like it wasn’t that big of a shock.
Hana gave a barking laugh before shaking her head, “You got me there.” She replied as she marked down the slightest change in his eyes, ears, coat measurements, claws, teeth, gums, anything that could indicate to decrease in health upon their return before nodding, “Alright you’re good to go, Midnight here is as healthy as any Inuzuka Ninken partner I’ve seen, one of the strongest actually next to the triples, Akamaru and Kuromaru”
Kenta grinned as Midnight gave a bark as he got down from the table and returned to his master, Kenta scoffed, “I think that’s Midnight saying thanks for the compliment, but then again, you did train us both in the Inuzuka techniques after all” he grinned back.
Hana chuckled, “Well that just proves it, I’m a damn fine instructor, and that you two were damn fine students,” she smirked, “that’s why I know you’ll both be fine on your mission. No one will be able to lay a finger on the pair of you.” she added as she closed up Midnight’s folder and put it back into the filing cabinet, “Alright the pair of you are good to go.”
Kenta nodded, “thanks, Hana-chan, we’ll see you when we get back for Midnight’s check-in, shouldn’t be more than a week, we’ve got to meet up with two other teams to coordinate for this joined assault, it’s a two day trip there, gonna be running for a while” he sighed.
Kiba grinned, “Well you two better get going then. When ya get back we’ll all meet up for a barbeque celebration, all the teams to welcome you back and celebrate your first official C-rank mission success. I’m sure Hinata will be thrilled to have Naruto there.” he grinned.
Kenta gave a chuckled, “Yeah but Otōto is still clueless about her, or her crush on him, I guess it’s just true what they say about blonds.” he chuckled, “I’ll have to see about fixing that when I get back, maybe see about getting them together.”
Hana gave a laugh, “Oh I’m sure Hiashi would be thrilled about that,” she laughed sarcastically, “He’s not exactly the type to like anyone outside of his clan.”
Kenta gave her a feral grin, “Well if he does have a problem with it he can take it up with me. I’d be happy to pull that ten-foot pole out of his ass and beat him over the head with it if he so much as tries to keep them apart after I set them up.”
Kiba started to laugh hard, “Oh man, that’d be a fight I’d pay to see” he laughed clutching his gut.
Hana gave a grin, “Yeah you and about thirty others I can name off the top of my head” she added.
Kenta rolled his eyes and shrugged his shoulders, “Well if he tries anything everyone will see,” he said walking out the door, “see you two when I get back, gotta go pack.” he commented as he walks to the door heading out of the clinic with Midnight coming up behind him.
----------------------------------------
Time Skip
Getting back to the Uzumaki apartments, both Kenta and Midnight went inside. Midnight went to lie down on Kenta’s bed while his master packed their things, which wasn’t going to take long at all, given how well organised the older Uzumaki was with his scrolls and equipment.
Kenta made his way over to his bed also and pulled out a large low lying metal reinforced black case from under his bed, undoing the latches on it he opened it to reveal the multiple compartments inside each containing various scrolls each marked differently with various kanji.
Kenta quickly set about removing his scroll on his sash and replacing them with others from the case with the right equipment for the week ahead of him before closing the case up and sliding it back under his bed only to pull out a smaller one and opening it up to reveal several Kunai pouches next to sharpening stones
Undoing his own Kunai pouch from his hip Kenta quickly replaced it with one from the box and plucked out a fresh sharpening stone before closing the case up as well and pushing it back under the bed.
Standing up Kenta nodded and started back towards the door as Midnight went to join him only for the red head to stop just as he was about to open the door and sigh, “Of course how could I forget the most important thing,” he stated out loud before he walked back to his bed and went to his bed side table and took out the empty top drawer and flipped it to reveal the sealing array on its bottom, with a quick hand sign he opened it revealing a scroll as its contents with the Kanji for Pocky on it, which he quickly swiped and put it into the inside pocket of his flak jacket and breathes a sigh of relief.
“That was too close, an entire week without Pocky would be like… a week without breathing” Kenta mused to himself as he turned and headed out the door, Midnight beside him, to meet up with his team, whistling a happy tune.
----------------------------------------
Scene break
It was half an hour later when both Kenta and Sayaka were waiting by the west gate of the village both rather quiet rather than talking as they psyched themselves up for the mission ahead of them.
Midnight lay by his master’s side his eyes closed as he rested in the mid-day sun when his ear twitched and his eyes opened just as a gust of wind blew through and Anko appeared in a swirl of purple leaves a smirk on her face.
“Well, I’m all set.” Anko stated with a small bag brown bag over her shoulder, “Ready to hit the road you two?” she asked as she looked at her two Genin.
Both Sayaka and Kenta nodded in return as the three of them plus Midnight started out the gate, Anko flashing the mission scroll to the gate guards as they walked past and out onto the road.
About five minutes down the road and still with nothing being said Anko looked over her shoulder with a grin, “So you two excited for your first time out of the village, big bad Crappy-rank mission, got you hyped so much you’ve stopped talking?” she mused.
Neither Sayaka or Kenta could keep grins from their faces at that, Kenta shook his head, “I guess we are a little nervous.” he said with a half smirk.
Sayaka nodded, “Yeah it’s a lot to take in, our first time out of the village and for such an important mission.” She voiced in agreement.
Anko nodded sagely, “Yeah I can’t blame ya, I was probably the same my first time out on a high profile mission as well, but that’s a good thing, means you’re taking it seriously, if ya aren’t, mistakes get made and people get dead, either you or your teammates.” she explained as they walked, “You have to always keep your guard up when your outside of the village, while we’re not at war with any of the other villages right now, that would only be a second thought on another shinobi’s mind if they see you and the opportunity to kill you to weaken the village if even a little.” she explains as they continued.
Kenta scoffed, “And that’s not even taking into account all the nuke-nins and suicidal bandits who are stupid enough to take pot shots at us.”
Anko nods, “Don’t underestimate them. Even a stupid fool can get lucky, all it takes is a shinobi or Kunoichi to drop their guard or underestimate them and it’s lights out.”
Both Genin nodded at that, the apparent reality of things beginning to settle in, they weren’t in the safety of the village walls anymore, this was serious they had to keep their guard up even if they were still relatively close to the village they were in the open an attack could come from anywhere they couldn’t get sloppy.
Anko nodded in approval seeing the pair start to glance around keeping a watchful eye on their surroundings, it showed they were even more alert than before, she smirked, “Alright then, there’s a medium sized settlement in a three day jaunt from our position, the slaver camp is meant to be just due north of it, we’ll be meeting up at the base camp the other squads have set up two clicks south of that position in order to go over assault plans before we make our move, the sooner we get there the longer we’ll have to memorise the details of the attack.” She stated before coming to a dead stop in the middle of the road causing Kenta and Sayaka to stop as well as Anko turned to face them, “Regardless of what was said earlier in the missions office, odds are that you will both have to spill blood in this mission, taking another’s life isn’t an easy thing to do, but it’s part of the job, and everything up to this point has been to prepare you for that. But when it all boils down to it, none of that will matter, in the heat of the moment it will be either them or you, either they die or you do, my only advice that I can give you is to make it quick and clean, kill them before they have a chance to fight back, I know you can handle yourselves in a fight but I don’t want either of you two risking yourselves if you can end them before they can even pull their weapons. This is our first mission outside of the village, I don’t want to bring either of you back in body bags just because you decided to give these fuckers a chance to defend themselves, they don’t deserve it”
Kenta nodded, “We know Anko. We’re ready for this. We knew what we were getting into when we signed up to become shinobi, this is an extermination mission, we weren’t expecting to take a back seat and just watch the whole time. We’re a third of the attacking force, we’ll have to get our hands dirty if this mission is to succeed. I already accepted that when I heard the mission details.” He said with solidarity as Midnight gave a bark of agreement from beside his master.
Sayaka nodded as well, “We both know what we’re getting into Anko. You don’t have to baby us. We’re ready for this. The one’s we’re going to be killing deserve it, they deserve no mercy for what they’ve done. The world will be a better place with them gone.” She said adding her two bits to what Kenta had said, “While it goes against the oath I took as an Iryō-nin, to preserve life, their deaths are necessary to prevent more lives from being ruined and taken to early. It is our job as a shinobi to do so, and I will see it carried out as ordered.”
Anko looked over the two Genin in front of her and saw their confident and serious expressions she could see that they meant every word they said. But she also knew that those words would mean little to nothing when it all boiled down to the heat of the moment. Talk was cheap. It was in the moment when the decision had to be made that was what it would all came down to, she only hoped she’d be there to back them up if it all turned pear-shaped.
Putting on a smirk she nodded, she was proud of both of them for their determination to see their orders carried out at least she wasn’t about to lecture them anymore on the matter. They would learn their lessons on their own all too soon enough she just had to hope that they didn’t break from the experience after the fact.
“Alright then,” Anko grinned, “let’s stop wasting time then, shall we. We’ve got a mission to get to, let’s move it double time.”
Both Genin and Ninken nodded to the older shinobi before they all leapt two the tree’s and sped off through the branches towards their mission location.