The Konoha ninjas rested for 6 hours. Everyone recovered most of their chakra. During this period, Mieko and Shunko's wounds were healed twice more. The wounds that could be seen were all healed. Only the internal wounds remained as no one had the expertise to deal with them.

When everyone was well rested, Akihiko said, "Work with Sora to get all the children out. I will contact Hiroshi."

He left the underground barrier. And opened a scroll and led it on the ground and made a hand seal.

At the next moment, a man was summoned. He opened his eyes and looked at Akihiko and asked, "Are the children safe?"

The man was a clone of Hiroshi, the leader of Kusagakure.

Akihiko nodded, "They are. But we are very far away from any village. You'll have to call your forces here to escort them safely."

Hiroshi nodded and handed Akihiko 6 scrolls and said, "You can summon them. They will make the arrangements."

Akihiko took the scrolls. He was about to summon them when Hiroshi's clone bowed deeply and clasped his hands together in front of him as he expressed his thanks. "Akihiko-san," he said, his voice full of emotion, "I cannot express how grateful I and the entire Kusagakure are for what you have done. We will never forget it."

He stayed bowed for a few moments longer, his head lowered as a sign of respect and gratitude, before straightening up and looking at Akihiko with a deep sense of appreciation. Akihiko nodded and said, "It's fine. We too don't want to see young children having to suffer. I am glad that they are safe."

Hiroshi's clone smiled. Akihiko opened the 6 scrolls and activated them. 6 Jounins of Kusagakure appeared. Hiroshi's clone instructed them to follow Akihiko's instructions and asked them to arrange for the children to be sent back.

All 6 Jounins used whatever means they had to send messages to the villages from where the children went missing. When the villages got the messages, they immediately sent their forces out to bring the children back.

Meanwhile, Akihiko informed Hiroshi's clone about the Jashinists that kidnapped the children. Hiroshi's face grew grim after hearing how strong and numerous the enemies were. He upgraded the Mission rank to S.

Akihiko passed a few scrolls to Hiroshi's clone and said, "These contain dead bodies of kidnappers. You can use them to placate any anger towards you."

Hiroshi accepted the scrolls and thanked him again.

In the barrier, the Konoha ninjas made a tunnel to exit underground. Haru cancelled his Genjutsu. The kids began waking up. The Konoha ninjas brought them out of the underground.

They left the kids in the care of the 6 Jounins and just stayed around to ensure that nothing unexpected happened. One of the 6 Jounins had brought a lot of food materials. They cooked a delicious lunch for the kids to calm them down. The Jounins also checked every child and verified whether every child was present. They sighed in relief after verifying that all children were safe and present.

After a few hours, Kusagakure ninjas sent by the villages began arriving in groups. They took the children from their villages and left after thanking Konoha ninjas. After the last group left, Hiroshi's clone handed Akihiko the mission rewards for the upgraded rank. He thanked Akihiko once again and handed a scroll to one of his jounins with all the details of his talks with Akihiko before dispersing into a rock.

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The Konoha ninjas left. Shunko and Mieko were having trouble moving at full speed. So Genji and Haru carried them on their backs respectively. After a day's travel, the group returned to Konoha.

Akihiko said, "Great work with the mission. It was completed successfully. I'll report the mission to the Hokage. Sora, take the kids to the hospital. Masaru, inform their parents about it. Others can leave."

Akihiko looked at Fujin and said, "Fujin, I was a bit skeptical when Mieko suggested your name. I accepted because we didn't have time to wait for someone else. But, you have done a great job on the mission. Keep training hard."

Fujin nodded and said, "Thank you, Uncle Akihiko."

Shunko saw Fujin with some jealousy in his eyes. Of the 3 chunins to take part in this mission, Fujin was the only one who wasn't injured. While he and Mieko had to be hospitalized, Fujin didn't even have a scratch on him.

The group dispersed. Fujin walked back to his home while analyzing what he should do next, 'I have to talk with Teru and Hoka and check whether they are ready to form a team with me and Mieko. Though I'll have to check up on Mieko first and see when she will be fit for undertaking missions.

I also have to do some research to come up with a proper plan to sneak in. If I can't find and learn methods that would assure me of safety and anonymity, then I might have to scrap those plans. No point in risking my safe environment for rewards that I might not even get.

In addition, I also have to learn Vacuum Cannon. And since it needs so much chakra, I won't be able to use chakra for anything else when I train. Once I learn it, I will get back to training Lightning release jutsus. The next set of jutsus will focus on enhancing my body. They should be exciting.

Anyways, it's late afternoon. Though the travelling and fighting have been exhausting, my soldier pill should last until tomorrow afternoon. So I might as well train like crazy today. I'll take a 24-hour break when the drawback of the pill hits me. Though I should check on Mieko in the evening.'

Fujin made a hand sign. A shadow clone appeared next to him. Without a word, he flickered away. Meanwhile, Fujin rushed to training ground 23. He went to the center of the ground and sat to meditate as he went through his memories of using Vacuum Cannon jutsu.

He visualized the jutsus while analyzing, 'I wanted to make a very thin but long vacuum core. However, my attempt failed and I ended up creating a way bigger vacuum bullet core and hence managed to pour a lot of Wind chakra into it. So it became faster and more powerful.'

Fujin got up and began forming the vacuum core. Soon, he poured wind chakra into the jutsu and expelled a Vacuum Cannon at the tree in front of him. The cannon hit the tree at the center. It didn't just create a hole in the tree, rather the impact of the jutsu exceeded the width of the tree. The top half of the tree was sent flying into the air. Any tree up to 150 meters in line with that tree was destroyed similarly.

A smile formed on Fujin's face, 'Powerful. Very powerful. I don't think any normal defense can withstand this attack. The only ones that possibly could resist might be Raikage's defense and Sussano. I wonder how this attack will fare against Gaara's defense and Rashomon.

Still, the preparation time of this jutsu is more than twice that of the Vacuum Bullet. The chakra needed is close to 8 times it. I need to modify the vacuum core to be more efficient for such a huge size. And I need to see if I can achieve a similar result by using less wind chakra. Otherwise, breaking defenses would be the only thing this jutsu is capable of.'

Fujin began working on his ideas. He tried changing various shapes for the vacuum core but didn't have any success in improving the jutsu. He trained until his chakra ran out. Not having any success, he went to his home and freshened up and rested for a bit.

In the evening, he bought a few Dango and went to see Mieko. After reaching the room, he saw that Mieko and Shunko were both resting in the same room.

He walked to Mieko's bed and said, "Hey? How are your injuries?"

Mieko snatched the box of dango from his hands and said as she opened it, "I am doing well. It's just that since I was hit by such a strong lightning jutsu, the doctors want to keep monitoring my internal organs for a few days. I'll be released in four days."

She opened the box and began eating rapidly. Fujin's eyes twitched as he said, "You know that they can't run away, right?"

Mieko said with her mouth full, "They ran away last time!"

Fujin needed a few seconds but realized what she meant. He replied, "Ah, your mother! That makes sense. Hahaha."

Fujin's laugh annoyed her but she kept eating till she finished every last dango.

A smile appeared on her face. She looked at Fujin and said, "Now if she gets angry, I can put most of the blame on you."

Fujin waved his hand and said, "Running away is my speciality. So don't worry, she won't have anyone but you to yell at."

Mieko snorted in displeasure.