Chapter 1: Summoned

Dosu Mibari was nervously waiting in the Shadow Tower’s main waiting area. His kage, the Haikage of Kerumigakure had sent a shishago, an elite shinobi working directly under the Haikage’s command, to summon him for a meeting.

This could mean a lot of things and Dosu had wracked his head trying to think of anything wrong he might have done before coming here but he couldn’t think of anything, he hoped that this was a promotion rather than anything else but he wasn’t convinced, promotions only occurred in the field or after having passed certain examinations.

The door to the waiting room opened and a shishago glided in, making no noise. Armoured head to toe in special brigandine armour that must have weighed as much as Dosu himself, it was eerie to see these elite ninja move as if they wore nothing, their armour had special noise cancelling fuinjutsu inscribed on them that greatly reduced their noise, but they didn’t get rid of all of it, these soldiers were just so good at stealth they appeared to be the apparitions of poorly constructed genjustu.

“The Haikage will see you now, follow me.” The shishago said, their voice muffled by their metal mask. Dosu nodded, too nervous to voice his assent. They went down a long corridor, the walls were black, lined with the portraits of previous Haikage and other important ninja of Kerumigakure.

Soon they were at the Haikage’s office, the shishago opened the door without knocking and entered first, Dosu followed him into the office and bowed towards the large desk at the other end of the door. He had been here three times before, when he became a genin, a chunin, and then a certified combat medic, so he was familiar with the etiquette.

“Greetings Yondaime-sama.” Dosu bowed even lower before straightening back out again, done with his greeting.

The Haikage peered at him from behind his desk, the middle aged man was the strongest ninja in the village and it showed in his hard eyes. The smile lines around his muzzle however hinted to his easy going nature as he nodded at Dosu.

“Mibari-san, how are you? I know it’s only been a few months since you’ve become a combat medic but I have need of your skills.” said the Haikage.

Dosu relaxed imperceptibly, knowing he had done nothing wrong did little to ease his worry and he was glad of the confirmation that he wasn’t here to get punished. He nodded at the Haikage to continue.

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“I have to create a new elite jounin squad, for an N class mission, there aren’t many combat medics in the force and you are the only one off duty at the moment so I’m putting you in the squad. I know it’s a bit unorthodox as you are not yet a jounin but the mission is only short term and I am confident in your skills.”

Dosu nodded again, N class missions were so called because they could not be denied, most were dangerous as well but if the Haikage thought that it was ok to send him in then it was probably low risk.

“Report to Giri-san for a further debriefing, he is going to be your squad captain, you are dismissed.” The Haikage gestured at the door before picking up a pen and writing something down.

Dosu bowed towards the desk with a frown before turning on his heel and leaving, the Shishago already had the door open for him. The journey out of the Shadow Tower and towards the shinobi registration office was a blur as Dosu was preoccupied by the Haikage’s last sentence, ‘Report to Giri-san’? Eiju Giri-sama was the Jonin Commander of Kerumigakure, he was arguably the second most important ninja in the village, if he was the Squad Captain of this hastily made up elite squad then this mission was far more important than the Haikage made it out to be. What could be so important as to require the Jonin Commander to captain the squad?

—

“ID number please.” Said the chunin behind the information desk.

“11SE201.” Dosu replied curtly.

The chunin leafed through the honeycomb shaped shelves behind him before finding the relevant scroll and opening it, using a hand sign the scroll disappeared in a puff of smoke leaving behind a large ledger and a small booklet, the chunin opened the ledger and started murmuring to himself, after a moment he looked back up at Dosu.

“You mentioned the squad captain was Giri-sama?”

Dosu nodded at the chunin. “Yes, that’s what I was told.”

“Ok, your team debriefing happens tomorrow, 9 o’clock in training area Fox. Here is the list of equipment needed.”

The chunin handed Dosu the small booklet.

“And here.” The chunin opened up the last page of the ledger and put it on the desk in front of Dosu. “You have to sign this.”

Dosu picked up a pen that was attached to the desk with a small chain and signed the ledger. The chunin took it and sealed it up in a fresh scroll before glancing up at Dosu again.

“Anything else?”

Dosu had been standing at the desk in a daze, he blushed red and quickly stammered out a no before leaving.

Opening up the booklet he read the list of equipment he needed for tomorrow, it was likely that tomorrow was going to be the start of an emergency boot camp to get the members of the mission up to standard.

The list wasn’t odd though he would have to go and buy some of the things listed, stuff like sealed chains weren’t common enough for Dosu to have on hand.

Tomorrow sure was going to be interesting.