_________ POV Narration _________
"An unmapped village?"
Tatsukio eyed the structures in front of him with a weary gaze.
In front of them stood what seemed to be a small gated community with a rickety wooden fence surrounding what looked to be a small village.
Thatch huts and wooden homes built in the same place, spoke a bit about the history of the group that had settled there.
The huts that were not destroyed meant that the people there had moved in not so far ago. They looked like structures one would use for a temporary home, and there were some wooden houses still unfinished.
They were likely war refugees or nomads who decided to move into a remote region where not many were likely to pass to avoid carnage and contact with the outside world...
'But why would they set up a cobblestone road if that was the case?'
Not only was the road set up, there were also guards stationed at the gate, and patroling the village.
The guards in question were lightly armored, wearing mostly tree barks for protection and carrying around pitchforks and sickles for weapons.
Despite that, it still felt strangely organized for just a group of nomads or war refugees.
Their ideas of what the village was were all not quite fitting with each other. Their first instinct was just to waltz in and try to ask around for some information.
But one train of thought did keep them from doing that...
"What if this is a trap of sorts? It all feels a bit too strange..." Tatsukio was the one to bring up that possibility, and immediately all of them became weary.
Their journey to Konoha was already suspiciously eventful, they expected to mostly pass by trees and look at mushrooms in their journey.
Tatsukio also felt as if he was being watched at times, though he kept that part to himself.
'Is it possible that the Green Forest Union is onto us?'
Of course, the first thought that Tatsukio had was not that the 'Chunin Exam' had already started. Instead, he assumed that the eyes he felt on him belonged to some skilled informant.
After all, the scope of the Green Forest Union sounded quite large from Yue's explanation despite her lack of concern.
It wasn't surprising for a large organization to have skilled people flocking to it. Tatsukio was certainly strong, but there were many shinobi that could easily kill him under the right circumstances, and many that could evade his senses.
"I say our best choice would be to avoid this place..." Yue also felt a bit unnerved by the situation, her instincts were telling her that the village in front of them was not quite as simple as it looked.
"But at the same time, we have the chance to gain intel about a future potential enemy... This may be a place where the Green Forest Union resides..." Morita seemed to also have made a connection between previous events and what stood in front of them.
They had to weigh their options carefully in their current situation.
After all, their mission was strictly to go to Konoha and participate in the Chunin Exams held there. They felt the need to respect those orders.
But at the same time, they felt as if they could bring something of value back to the Brotherhood besides their victory.
'What would please father most?' Was the question many of them were struggling to answer at that stage.
At the end of the day, although older, they were still children looking to please their father. And their father happened to be a man who had just about everything.
Strength, influence, money, information, allies. There was next to nothing that they could give him to catch his attention.
Despite that, he always still paid attention to them. And they wanted to find some way to repay him for that.
It was that wish which made them actually step into the village.
One team specifically removed their masks and cloaks and donned civilian clothing before walking towards the cobblestone path.
It was the team led by Yue, consisting only of girls.
Yue, wore a very basic medieval dress, with her long blonde hair flowing down her back, giving her a rather cute 'girl-next-door' vibe.
Ume wore a one-piece white sundress, her short black hair only reached up to her neck, and bangs covered her eyes for the most part. She currently looked like a prime example of purity.
Momo was dressed a bit more like a traveller, wearing something akin to a merchant's coat and backpack. She looked like a peddler, which was also her cover at that moment.
Another girl that was accompanying them was Naomi, she also had black hair, slightly longer than Ume. Her features were rather sharp and well defined and she had very noticeable freckles on her cheeks.
She was around 14 and was essentially Yue's number-one fan within the Dark Brotherhood, taking after her in many ways and even trying to copy her fighting style to some extent.
Despite only copying Yue, she managed to become number 10 rather easily. And she had squeaked a victory over her siblings to join the current expedition alongside Yue.
Although she ended up being in Tatsukio's team, she was at least able to join Yue in this particular mission.
In her civilian outfit, she looked similar to Momo, looking like either a peddler or a peddler's assistant.
Their team headed toward the village, and to make things less inconspicuous the two largest among the guys also went with them.
Namely, Bull, a muscular 1,84 meter(6.0367 feet) teenager, who now dressed like a mercenary would, carrying various pouches and a rather large iron mace on his belt.
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His short black hair was covered by a leather helmet which cast a small shadow over his eyes. His only visible features were his nose, which was larger than one would expect, and a cross-shaped scar on his cheek.
Otherwise, he had a sharp jawline and an intimidating air about him.
Accompanying him was a slightly less muscular Akio.
A 15-year-old with short brown hair that covered his eyes.
He was lanky, only a few centimetres shorter than Bull, standing at a rather impressive 1,78 meters(5.8399 feet).
A silent and observing young man. He looked more gloomy and lifeless than Bull but was a kind soul, and cared deeply for all of his siblings.
He wore clothing similar to Bull, a leather helmet and pouches covering his lightly armoured clothes.
His weapon of choice seemed to be a sickle tied to a chain, which was currently hanging from his belt rather menacingly.
He didn't have the same dangerous air about him that Bull had, but he made the people around him feel uneasy with just a look.
And that uneasiness was likely well warranted, as the young teen was Number 5 among his siblings, he and Bull were rather relative in strength.
Akio and Bull were to act as guards to an otherwise 'oblivious' group of travelling merchants.
Their team headed into the village, while the others all started infiltrating the village through various means.
Some chose to hop over the fence in the cover of the night, sticking close to walls and embracing the shadows as part of their bodies.
Others chose to dive into the earth and emerge on the other side, removing any chance that they would be seen whilst jumping the fence.
All of them were using the technique that their father had taught them. Their heartbeats were almost non-existent, suppressed within their bodies alongside thier chakra.
It was going to take a highly skilled sensor to be able to sniff them out, and they were hoping that the enemy had no such person among them.
Morita and Tatsukio were the most skilled in that technique, so they trusted themselves enough to get a good vantage point at the gate of the village, where more guards were stationed.
By the time the infiltrating squad rolled up to the gate, the moonlight was already shining dimly in the sky.
"State your business!" The wood-armoured guards at the gate immediately stopped the group of 'peddlers'.
"Greetings!" Bull immediately stepped in front, placing his fist into his palm and bowing slightly in a formal salute. The behaviour of a soldier.
His loud and brash behaviour was quickly contrasted by the next person who spoke.
"We are a group of travellers looking for a place to spend the night..." Akio was a lot more direct with their intentions, skipping over casual greetings instantly. His cold gaze swept over the gate guards.
His glowing green eyes were only slightly visible through the brown bangs of hair covering the upper half of his face.
The guards seemed to be rather uneasy at the sight of the two 'mercenaries'.
Momo waved for the two of them to take a step back as they seemed to be scaring the guards.
With a swagger and a business-like smile on her face, she stepped forward.
"My, apologies for those two. They feel the need to speak out for us but aren't quite good at it...
We here are a band of small peddlers currently heading for the Land of Fire, we happened to find this village and are wondering if it's possible for you to let us spend the night here?"
Momo made sure to turn up her charm, despite her being a tad young, she was still very well-developed, most would not be able to guess her age at first glance.
Especially since she decided to wear padding for certain features for this particular mission. Men tended to be a lot kinder when speaking to women they found pleasing to the eye.
She was the perfect one to lead their team to gain entry into the village.
And her strategy seemed to work perfectly, as they were all allowed entry into the village. Bull and Akio were asked to give their weapons to the guards, however, which they did without much hesitation.
They had spares in seals hidden within their clothing at the end of the day.
They were all led by a few guards towards a larger building, which seemed to be an inn and tavern.
Plenty of people were present, men and women of all ages eating and celebrating something.
They all became quiet the moment that the newcomers came in. All of them looked towards Yue and her group with a questioning glance.
Momo ignored their gazes for now and merely walked up to what looked to be the owner of the Inn and lightly tapped the counter.
"Hello there, how much for a night's rest for all of us?" Momo's tone was sickly sweet and friendly. Her demeanour made it hard for the Inn owner, a burly man with a thick beard, to act intimidating to her.
"W-well, for the 6 of you it'll be around 6000 Ryou, we'll have to clean some of the rooms first though." The owner responded, stumbling over his words very briefly before regaining his composure.
"That is just fine with us! We'll sit down and maybe order some food in the meantime." Momo reached into a pouch near her back pocket and placed a small cloth bag on the table.
"That should be enough to cover our meals as well, we'll just take the house speciality!" Momo gave the Inn owner one last smile before they all walked towards one of the larger tables and sat on the uncomfortable wooden chairs.
They all looked at each other for a minute and silently went over their thoughts.
They all made very similar observations. Which they discussed over hushed tones in roundabout ways.
They spoke as if they were describing a place they had visited in the past, and how it was similar to the village they were in now.
For one, the village they found themselves in was nowhere near built. There was a great imbalance in population numbers when it came to gender.
There seemed to be a lot more men than women around, and they looked less than friendly.
They were all seemingly workers, either tilling dirt and planting corp, or building homes.
The guards were likely also workers, but they were taking shifts in patroling the village and guarding the gates.
There was only one entrance to the village, and despite their rather unfriendly demeanour towards travellers, they still seemed to have an Inn and Tavern built.
'A place with the infrastructure and amenities for travellers with residents that don't quite welcome them... Now that's certainly a bit suspicious...' Yue couldn't help but tilt her head as she looked into an open window with curiosity.
It could just be that they had gotten to the village before they built it, and they weren't quite prepared to greet travellers yet.
But then why would they even bother building a road leading to their gate?
Why would they start working on a road when the village itself was unfinished?
There were too many baffling questions in Yue's mind, she needed them answered before she made any sense of the situation.
But before she could think any further about that, she and her siblings were interrupted by a rather large group of burly men, the largest among them at least on par with Bull.
There were around 20 of them, and they for some reason decided to crowd around the table that Yue's group sat down at.
"Ahem! It seems that we have some fresh meat pulling up tonight boys!" The largest among them, likely their leader, spoke out first.
"Fresh Meat? That's no way to refer to a humble group of merchants." Momo scowled as she spoke, displeasure etched in her tone.
"Hah, girly has a mouth on her." One of the men spoke. "Who cares about her mouth? Look at her body!" One of the other men commented, gaining a few jeers from his fellow ape-brained compatriots.
"Tsk... What an annoying bunch..." Yue scowled as her ears perked up. She felt as if their jeering and laughter were grating her eardrums.
"Damn, this one's got a mouth too! Bit less of a bust on her, but I'd still take her!" The men quickly picked up on her speaking, quite ignorant to the expression that was growing on Yue's face.
Her siblings noticed it though, and Bull immediately acted. Standing up and grabbing the leader by the Neck.
"W-wh-" The leader didn't even have the time to react, one of his hands reached out to grasp at Bull's bulky wrist, but he didn't even get to squeeze it at all before he was sent flying across the room.
Despite them being similar in size, Bull was far stronger than any normal human, and he was easily able to throw the leader across the room, causing some of the men who had crowded around their table to stumble and fall to the floor.
"I'd appreciate it if you lot minded your own business tonight..." Bull's voice sounded a lot deeper than the vast majority of grown men in the room.
Before any of the men could react, Akio also stood up, walking to Bull's side and making it clear that he was not going to stand down in a fight.
The girls pretended to be a bit scared by the situation, at least some of them did. Yue was just annoyed that she didn't have an excuse to kill all of them now.
Bull's action had managed to save a lot of lives that night, as the wierdo workers had backed off to retrieve their leader. And they no longer bothered Momo and the others for the rest of the night.
Before long it was time for them to go to their room. A large one with a tatami mat for each guest to sleep on.
But before they went to sleep, they all huddled together once more, before opening the window to 'let in some air'.
That air in question came in the form of none other than Tatsukio and Morita. Who also joined the meeting.
"Now then... What have you all found out?"