Kenji sat in the room with Emi and Taro, his mind racing with the possibilities of their upcoming mission. Waiting until the instructor let them to leave, ‘I guess they’re preparing the other teams’ he thought. It was his first mission and a covert operation at that, and Kenji wanted to make sure the mission would go off without a hitch.

‘Hmm, how am I going to make this work?’ scratching his chin.

He looked over at his teammates, glancing over at Emi, he couldn't help but think about her striking blonde hair and fair skin, which was a common trait among her clan. ‘I still don't understand why they all look Russian,’ thinking to himself. Their clan's ability to delve into people's minds and switch bodies made them a formidable opponent, and Kenji was wise enough to avoid them. Unfortunately, he pissed off the girl beside him during that spar and she seemed to have vendetta against him since then, ‘As long as she doesn’t jump into my mind, I’ll be fine’. Her arms crossed, ignoring the group.

He then looked toward Taro, a young member of the Inuzuka clan, with a muscular build, scrappy wild hair and rough-hewn features. He had a close bond with his ninken companion, Kenta. ‘These ninken are like super dogs,’ Kenji couldn't help but think to himself. ‘With their heightened senses of smell and hearing, along with their ability to communicate with their companions. They’re incredibly useful allies for gathering information.’ Kenji though while watching him and Kenta play around with each other.

‘I need to plan this out, and we probably don't have that much time. How can I make this work?’ Kenji thought while thinking up a plan. ‘Alright, let’s go with that.’

"What do you think we should do, Taro?" Kenji asked.

Taro giving his usual response. "Let's go in hard and fast."

Emi rolled her eyes. "That's a stupid plan," she said, laying out a more strategic approach. "We need to go in covertly like the instructor told us. We can use you and Kenta to sense for any enemies to avoid. How far can you sense?"

‘Haha, got you’ Kenji smirked.

Taro puffed up, showing off. "I can sense one hundred and forty meters in any direction," he said, while giving Kenta a rub. "But Kenta here can sense around three hundred meters in any direction. And, if he’s got a scent, he can pick up a scent a kilometre around him. He's one of the best pups in the pack."

'So we've got radar around 300 meters, and I know Emi's a good sensor, as well.’ Kenji thought but couldn't help be annoyed. ‘These damn clan kids and their inherent gifts. If it was just that, I could deal with it, but the fact that they have larger chakra pools than any civilian is just bullshit. I'm probably one of the best among the civilian kids on that front, but I've only got a bit more than half of theirs. Sure I might be youngest here. But, It’s no wonder that bloodlines are such an attractive force in the wider world.’

The group continued discussing their mission plan, while Kenji subtly guided the conversation in a direction that would help improve their chances of success. When the instructor appeared, announcing it was time to go, the three of them stood up, ready to put their plan into action.

He handed them four bracelets. “These bracelets must be worn at all times, if removed. You fail.” he spoke.

They all nodded in acknowledgement.

Kenji then performed a hand seal, creating a puff of smoke. With an older man appearing out of it, then Emi, Taro, and Kenta following suit, changing into their own disguises.

"Let's go!" Taro spoke excitedly.

The group walked through the village, with the rest of the group disguised as ordinary teenagers. They were determined to blend in with the crowds, trying to avoid any unwanted attention. Yet, for some reason, their disguises seemed to have the opposite effect. While walking people of the village were giving them curious looks and pointing as if there was something amiss with the four of them.

Kenji scanned himself, looking for any flaws in the disguise. He found nothing, but gave his teammates a once over and then noticed something amiss with Taro and Kenta. "Dammit," Kenji muttered under his breathe. 'These morons! Shit, I'm a dummy for not checking them over, before we left. I bet the instructors was laughing his ass off when we were leaving.' Kenji massaged his forehead, with that he dragged the group into an alleyway, a puffy tail was wagging behind Kenta's disguise, “Kenta, your tail's showing."

Emi buried her face in her hands in embarrassment realizing her mistake, as Kenta transformed again with another puff of smoke. This time, he emerged without a tail.

"Sorry, guys," Taro apologized, scratching the back of his head.

The group continued on their journey, but Kenta's behavior was causing trouble. The ninken pup was acting like a dog, sniffing the air and barking at random passerby.

"Kenta, what are you doing?" Emi yelled.

"Don't yell at him!" Taro defended his companion, showing the same level of anger.

‘Goddamn it,’ Kenji cursed inwardly, his patience wearing thin. He spoke up, "Listen you three, shut up. You're drawing attention. We'll be at the training ground soon. So stop acting like kids." He pointed to a building with a good view of the grounds. "Can you guys climb up to the roof?"

The group nodded.

"Good," they approached the building into another alleyway out of sight and Kenji focused his chakra on his feet and started climbing up the wall as if he was walking on solid ground. But the rest of the group stopped what they were doing and looked on in awe.

"What?" Kenji asked, noticing their expressions.

"How are you doing that?" Emi asked, amazed.

"It's just chakra," Kenji explained. "Focus a fixed amount of chakra to the bottom of your feet. You'll need to balance it though, and with alot of practice, you'll be able to do it easily."

"Okay," Emi nodded unsure about herself, while Taro and Kenta listen in interest. The group finally made their way up to the roof, with Kenji taking the easy route and the rest of them climbing from balcony to balcony.

Once up there, Kenji pointed out at to the grounds, "we can see a patrol on the ground. Who is it?"

Taro chimed in, "It's the other class," he recognized them, it was the other group of students in a different class.

"Alright, we know who our enemies are," Emi interrupted and started taking lead, "Kenta, you can lead as scout. Let us know if anyone gets close or if there are any traps along the way."

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Kenta barked in response, "Woof."

"And guys, we can drop the disguises," Kenji added. "It should be easier for us to travel. We'll be smaller and harder to spot. We need to go silent, you all remember hand signals?"

They all nodded acknowledging that they did.

"Move!" Taro signaled, his hand slicing through the air. The four-man squad crept through the dense underbrush of the training ground, their eyes peeled for any signs of danger.

As they scaled the towering trees, Kenji’s mind raced with the possibilities of what lay ahead. Seeking and searching for anything that looked amiss. He’d trust his teammates, but couldn’t help think in the back of his mind to be cautious.

As the team moved through the training grounds with stealth, their chakra signatures concealed as much as students could. With them encountering several patrols along the way, but with Kenta’s sensitive nose, he spotted them before they could be a threat, and avoided them on the way.

"We're getting close," Taro signaled, as they approached the edge of a clearing. "There's a whole bunch of them up ahead."

"Be on high alert. There could be traps or ambushes waiting for us." Kenji motioned.

They peaked into the clearing, and saw a group of students that looked to be waiting restlessly as they guarded an item, that was sitting on a stump.

“That looks like our target.” Emi gestured. “We need a distraction. Taro, Kenta, set up a distraction for guards and draw their attention to you. Kenji and I will approach for retrieval and on Kenji’s signal. You divert, is that clear,” Emi signaled.

Kenji reminding them. “If you aren’t been chased, the rendezvous location is here, otherwise, backup will be at the roof where we scoped out the grounds from.”

The three of them nodded, with Taro and Kenta disappearing into the thick brush as they started preparing a distraction. While Emi and Kenji stealthily made their way closer to the target.

Emi raised her hand in a stopping motion. Kenji stopped understanding the signal. “I’m going to mind-body switch with one of the guards, protect my body and signal the others when I do the transfer.” Emi gestured.

Kenji nodded. With Emi performing the mind body switch jutsu and then her body collapsed, with Kenji catching her before she hit the ground and dragged her body into cover.

‘Alright, she looks ready. Time to signal.’ Kenji then pumped some chakra into a tag that let Taro know they were ready.

With several smoke bombs immediately going off in the distance. And a person yelling loudly, "They're here! Quick, catch them!"

The guards left their posts and ran towards the commotion, while the guard Emi had switched with stayed put to guard the totem. 'So far, so good,' Kenji thought.

Emi quickly knocked out the other unsuspected guard, and then retrieved the item. Making her way, towards there location. When she got close enough, she threw the totem to Kenji who caught it. Giving the okay signal. And then ran back to her post and proceeded to collapse to ground.

“Good work” she patted Kenji on the back.

“Alright, let’s retreat to rendezvous.” Kenji signaled. And with that, they made there way back with haste to there rendezvous location while the patrols were distracted and reunited with Taro and Kenta.

“Alright, let’s go. Before they realize we’ve got the object. Good job with the distraction Taro, Kenta.”

Both of them smiled in their success.

With that, the group made there way out of the grounds. ‘Alright, looks like everything has gone according to plan.’ Kenji thought.

But suddenly, a loud blaring sound filled the training ground. ‘Shit! Is that the emergency signal?’ But before Kenji could think what was happening, a large explosion was heard. ‘Fuck! This is real.’

“Is that the emergency signal?” Taro asked in disbelief.

“Yes” Emi spoke worriedly.

"Guys, we move silently, and move back to the village carefully. Any other students we find, we bring them into the group." Kenji spoke authoritatively.

Abruptly a large fire jutsu that looked like a bird could be seen in the sky, moving towards it’s target from a distance. ‘Holy shit! What the fuck is happening?’

Kenta barked interrupting Kenji thoughts, and Taro spoke up. “We’ve got three people heading towards us! Kenta doesn’t recognize their scents’.

“Defensive formation, prepare for battle. Don’t hold back, and use whatever tricks you have.” With the three of them moving into defensive formation.

Three masked nin appeared shortly, and charged at them while Kenji grabbed a stack of shuriken, throwing it at the assailants. With Emi following suit and throwing her own stack. Unfortunately, they were deflected and dodged, as they continued on charging at them.

Taro and Kenta bodies started rapidly spinning as they charged towards the enemies, attacking them like drills spinning towards the enemies. "Fuck, don't charge you moron! Emi, we need to back them up.”

With both of them following along, backing up Taro and Kenta. The battle moved into a close-combat. Kenji engaged with one of them, as their kunai's clashed against each other, Kenji used all his experience with the flowing leaf style to keep himself unpredictable as they battled. Finding a chance to backup his teammates, he threw a bunch of shuriken supporting his teammates, giving them some space to breath, they were barely able to defend themselves.

But Kenji's assist came at a cost, he received a shallow slice across his shoulder.

'Shit,' he then blocked another incoming strike from his enemy, and countered with a punch, from an unusual angle, catching his enemy off guard and winding the masked nin. And followed through with his kunai plunging it towards their chest, only to sense a barrage of shuriken coming his way.

'Fuck, they're not giving me any room to maneuver,' he cursed, stopping his attack and deflected them, as he jumped out of the line of fire. His opponent got back up, ready for another round, but the leader of the group charged at him.

Kenji threw more shuriken to buy himself some time. His eyes darting over to his two teammates. 'Dammit, They're all down. I've got to get out of here.' But before he could make his escape, the masked nin appeared right next to him, and Kenji engaged.

The two of them fought fiercely, their kunai's clashing as they moved along the trees. Kenji had a moment of respite and jumped back, throwing his kunai, which forced them to block it.

'Good, the other two are watching on,' Kenji thought, his mind racing with new tactics. 'I'll have to try that, hope this works. I've never done this in battle.'

The masked nin threw a kunai at him in return, but Kenji saw his chance and performed the substitution jutsu, swapping places with the kunai being thrown.

'Fuck yeah, it worked,' his eyes alight with victory, with his kunai thrusting towards the enemies skull. 'Let's finish this bastard off.' He could see the shock and fear in their eyes. But before he could, another masked ninja appeared instantly behind his opponent, blocking his attack.

'Shit, where the fuck did he come from?' Kenji thought, sweeping with a kick and backing away with a bunch of shuriken's thrown at his new opponent. 'Escape routes, I need to be out of here ASAP. Dammit, what am I going to do?' But the newest masked nin took off his mask, revealing a blonde-haired, fair-skinned man in his twenties.

"Calm down, student," the man said. "This is just a test."

"Bullshit," Kenji replied, keeping his guard up.

"Sensei, he's not going to stop."

He sighed, "Fine, but finish this quick and don't let me save you again."

The ninja nodded and charged at him, much faster this time.

'Shit, was he holding back?' Kenji thought. 'Are they really not enemies?' With that they engaged in another fierce fight, with Kenji being on the back foot, using every ounce of his skills to keep himself alive. His kunai was suddenly knocked out of his hand and slammed into a tree at a distance. Kenji notice that while flipping to avoid a slash at him. The masked ninja stashed away his weapon and followed through with a punch into his gut.

'Oof... Fuck, am I going to die?' Kenji thought, as they continue their battle into hand to hand combat. 'I’m nearly out of chakra, I can do this one more time, but let’s see if I can catch this bastard off guard again before I escape.' Kenji took the chance, taking another harsh hit and reached into his enemies ninja pouch. "Bingo. Tags. Take this, you bast..." But before he could finish the thought, everything turned to black as he lost consciousness.