Takuma stood off against Raiden's team. He had tried to be friendly and they had laughed it off. It was fine if they didn't want to be friends— he couldn't fault them for not wanting to be chummy— but he couldn't allow them to look down at him and his team. If they were going to be working together, a dynamic had to be established— and his team wasn't going to be the bitch in that dynamic.

"You should hold that tongue; it'll get you in trouble," Onikuma Yuko, the tomboy, narrowed her eyes and stepped forward.

"I won't get in trouble… at least not here," said Takuma, unfazed. "I doubt that your dense head could differentiate an insult from praise."

"You're trying to pick a fight with us?" asked Izuno Aya, the girl with cat aesthetics.

"Not really," Takuma shrugged. "I'm just making sure that everything is clear between us. I understand if you guys don't want to have a friendly relationship, but I will not see us disrespected."

Aya scoffed, "Respect has to be earned."

Takuma laughed, "You guys haven't done shit that would make me value your respect. Just keep that attitude of yours to the side and we will be good. Capiche?"

"What will you do if we don't do that," Yuko cracked her knuckles.

Takuma flicked his wrist and a kunai slid out of his sleeve. He raised his hand and pointed the blade towards her face. "If we're going to fight, then let's do it here because at least they would be able to fix the damage before we leave. I don't think you'd like to be opened up on the road. I haven't hunted a bear yet; I don't mind changing that during this outing."

Yuka's eyes widened threateningly. "Oh, you won't be able to touch me without getting your bones crushed."

"I doubt that very much," Takuma's tone was taunting.

"Takuma, enough," Dai put a hand on Takuma's shoulder.

Takuma glanced back at his teammates and then glared at Yuko and Aya for a moment before replacing the kunai back into the hidden mechanism. He didn't forget to shoot a look at Aburame Susumu before turning back to his bed. The Aburame was observing but didn't say a word, so Takuma didn't know what exactly he was thinking, and assumed that Susumu would stand by his team.

Raiden's team didn't fan the flame and all six genin returned to bed soon after.

———

.

Next day, early in the morning, just as the sun was coming up, Takuma was eating porridge in the garrison's mess. The night had passed peacefully without any surprise attacks during sleep. He had checked his body to ensure the bug boy hadn't done something unsightly with the insects that he grew in his body.

He glanced at Yuko and Susumu sitting on a different table. The relationships between the two teams had deteriorated and was worse than when they had started off, but Takuma was satisfied because their team had put up a firm front.

Takuma turned to his team. "I'm sorry if you two felt that yesterday went too far. I had no intention to pick a fight with them, but they were looking down on us," he said. He didn't feel particularly apologetic about what he did, but he made a decision on behalf of the team without consulting them— he owed them an apology.

"What's done is done, there's no use crying over spilt milk," Yumiko commented softly. "What we must do now is to not let this escalate into a needless tension that hinders a mission."

Takuma nodded.

"… Shimura Raiden looks down on civilian-born shinobi," Dai's baritone voice reached their ears

"You knew Raiden before this?" Takuma asked the second oldest member among both teams (save Raiden).

Dai nodded, "We kept an eye out for chunin. Just as they scouted us, we took note of them in case opportunity arose for us to be part of their rotations…. When Raiden became a chunin, he immediately attracted the attention of genin wanting to be on his team—"

'Did Dai target Iruka because he was a new chunin?' thought Takuma. As chunin were on a lookout for genin, the same went the other way round.

"— some of my friends and I tried to get into his rotation…. All of them got rejected," Dai glanced at Yuko and Susumu, "and every one of them, myself included, were civilian-born shinobi."

"Did he say that to your face?" Yumiko frowned.

Dai shook his head. "No, we didn't know it back then. We thought he didn't consider us suitable, and moved on. Rejections are more common after all. It was sometime when Raiden had established rotation did I notice every one of them were from clans…."

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A silence fell between the three. They were all civilian-born shinobi and were well aware of the rooted class prejudice against civilian shinobi by those from clans. They were looked down on because of lack of pedigree. Like any discrimination, it was done behind closed doors, outside of the public eye— but when one really looked, it was everywhere.

Of course, not everyone was like that. The Akimichi clan taking Masaaki under their wing showed that at least some people in the Akimichi clan valued people for their skill and potential instead of their ancestry.

"… So, that's why he was so put off," murmured Takuma. During the travel, Raiden didn't look particularly chipper. He must've not liked working with civilian-born shinobi.

Just then, Raiden came into the mess hall followed by Aya. Raiden's black muscle-shirt clad body and the perpetual mean face made him look threatening as he walked past his team and stood over them.

"I heard you had some choice words for my team yesterday," Raiden's black eyes glowered down at Takuma.

Takuma glanced at Aya, who had a flash of superiority in her eye. He felt it bubble inside him, the urge to lash out and lay out some nasty words about complaining to daddy, but he held the urge, even though his tongue was begging to let his thoughts out.

"Look at me when I'm talking," Raiden commanded. "Did your parents not teach you basic manners? Why do I even need to ask… of course, they didn't," there was a knowing tone in Raiden's voice that screamed that he was looking down at him without outright saying it.

Takuma didn't know what to say. Unlike Raiden's team, Raiden was a chunin, and he couldn't talk back to a higher-ranking shinobi.

"Apologize to my team, all of you," Raiden said not only to Takuma but Yumiko and Dai as well. "Make it genuine and bow deeply."

Fortunately, Takuma didn't need to talk back.

"I don't think so." Iruka walked into the mess and had a crease between his brows. "If you have a problem with them, come to me, and I'll do the needful…. You don't get to order my genin, Raiden."

Raiden narrowed his eyes at Iruka and shot a glare at Takuma, Yamiko, and Dai before walking away to his team. Iruka walked away to the food line and made himself a plate before sitting down with the team.

"Any of you mind telling me what happened?" he asked.

Takuma recalled the events for Iruka, who stayed silent and didn't touch his food until Takuma was done.

"You were rash," said Iruka after listening. "And while I don't agree with the way you did it, you were right to stand up for your team." His tone was serious. "However, from now on, we don't pick fights with them. If they provoke you, report to me, and I'll take it up with Raiden."

"Do you think he'll punish them?" Takuma asked. He doubted that Raiden would find fault in his genin. "He's overly biased to clan shinobi, I don't think he would punish them for us," he made sure to keep his low to a whisper so that it won't be picked up by the other table.

"I won't deny that he's partial to clan shinobi, but Raiden is still a chunin with a great track record. Shimura shinobi are drilled with operational priority, and Raiden embodies those teachings. If something interferes with the completion of the mission, he'll address it regardless of his personal views. At the bottom-line, you can trust him to do what's required," said Iruka.

Takuma was skeptical if that was true, but he didn't have any points to argue. He took Iruka's word and was comforted in the fact that Iruka was in his corner.

———

.

Right after the breakfast, the teams left Miya Lake garrison and continued their journey. They entered the Land of Hot Waters that sat between the Land of Fire and Land of Frost. The mission didn't warrant it so they entered through official channels without deception.

Takuma exited the small questioning room with a sigh. "Do they always spend this much time at the border," he asked Iruka. He had been outright interrogated and the experience reminded of customs at airports.

"Get used to it. Inter-country travel will always be like this for shinobi with very few exceptions. Always make sure to have all the correct papers because they will turn you back if you are missing even one thing," Iruka said, seemingly not bothered.

Takuma sighed. He guessed that was to be expected. Letting a foreign shinobi into the country even if Land of Hot Waters was allied with Land of Fire was a national security risk. He got it, but it didn't make it any less annoying.

"To think we need to do this a couple more times," Takuma groaned.

———

.

Land of Frost was as the name suggested. It was a cold country with temperatures in the single digits all year round. After living in the hot Hidden Leaf for two years, Takuma felt the effects of the cold seep into his bones, making him thankful for packing a warmer set of clothes.

"This is it," said Iruka as they stood a distance away from the fenced village, hidden in the bushes.

A wooden board stood in front of a fenced village entrance that said—

[Shiyuka Village]

Even though the true mission was the information exchange between Hidden Frost village and them, the bandit clearing mission was still very real and their responsibility. It was their cover, the sole reason they were in the Land of Frost— they had to do to maintain that cover. Before they could make the information exchange, they had to complete this before moving on.

Takuma recalled the mission briefing. The situation in the Shiyuka village was interesting as the common modus operandi was to hit places they could profit from, and then quickly move on before any authority could touch them. Bandits gangs were always on the move to ensure they weren't caught.

The bandit gang in Shiyuka had taken root in the village, which made them different.

According to the client, it was the villagers who had invited the bandits into the village to protect them from the increased bandit activity that had popped up in the area. The bandit gang had accepted the proposition and agreed to provide protection in exchange for money. It worked out well for them as the bandits did as they promised and kept the other danger away, and peace was achieved.

Alas, good things always came to an end.

Hidden Frost launched a wide-scale clean-up around the area. Because the bandits had protected the village, the villagers hid the bandits from the shinobi by integrating them into the village as common folks while the clean-up was going on.

The problem? The bandits never left…. They stayed in the village and what had been a mutual agreement turned into extortion.

The villagers weren't able to oppose them because of fear, but they also couldn't take it silently as the bandit gang's greed grew and their demands grew more.

So, they contacted shinobi to take care of the stuff.

"Let's clear this up quickly," said Raiden. "Collect information and meet back here in an hour… Disperse!"

And within a second, the eight shinobi disappeared.