Chapter 17 and 18: The Mission

Two days later.

Max was making his way towards the office of the Hokage. He had told him to go there one day before the exam began, which was today.

Max greeted the ninja in charge of the security as he entered the office of the Hokage. He also noticed that there were more people than usually in the building, most of them been chakras that he didn't recognize.

After announcing himself and entering, Max saw that there were ninjas from the different villages that were participating in the exams this year.

Max glanced at all of them, specially the one from Otogakure. He felt his body shiver for some reason after looking at the guy.

"Good morning everyone." Max greeted as he faced the Hokage and took a knee. This was a way to tell the Hokage that he was ready to receive any order.

Normally, ninjas only had to stand in attention as they waited for instructions, but as there were visitors from other villages, he needed to be formal.

"Genin Max. You were called here because of the unique position that your are found in. You received a recommendation to participate in the chunin exams by the feudal lord, but the rules of the exam don't permit the participation of single entities in the earlier phases.

I brought the representatives from the villages participating in this year exams to have them bare witness of how we deal with this situation." The Hokage said.

He also proceeded to introduce the people in the room to Max. Even though the Hokage was been very casual of the situation, Max could feel that the other people in the room didn't like what was happening.

The Hokage looked at how everyone was looking at Max and only sighed. He had spent a lot of time explaining who Max was and the abilities that he had, but the others still didn't give him room to relax.

"The feudal lord of the fire nation could have recommended you, but you still need to be tested. After some deliveration with the others, we decided to give you a 2 phase exam. If you pass those 2 parts of the exam, you'll be permitted to participate in the third phase of the chunin exams. Meaning that you'll join the other participants in the official exam." The jounin from Sunagakure named Baki said.

"The first phase consist of an actual C rank mission. This mission is nothing out of normal, but you'll have a time limit to complete it.

The second phase will consist of actual combat. You'll face a squad of chunin that already have most of your data in their person, so they'll have time to prepare a battle plan as you do the first phase." The proctor of the third phase of the chunin exams Hayate told Max between coughs.

"The mission is to deal with 2 bandits that have taken residence in one of the neighboring towns. Both of them have experience fighting against ninjas and had a run-in with another team that fail in dealing with them, so expect for them to be in high alert.

Most of the information about the mission is here" The Hokage placed a scroll in front of his table. "You'll have 5 days to complete this phase. Sadly for you, it takes 2 days to come and go to the place that you need to go, so you really only have 3 days to complete the mission.

A jounin from Kusagakure will follow you to verify the completion of the mission. The jounin is instructed to not interfere at al cost, so even after you are death, he won't retrieve your body."

Max quickly got up and retrieved the scroll in the table. He didn't wait for any more instructions since all was already said, so he left the office and proceeded to his house to get his go pack.

It only took Max 30 minutes to get ready and reach the village entrance in the direction to his targets. The jounin from Kusagakure was already waiting for him. Max nodded at him and dashed out of the village.

***

"Don't you think that it was a good idea to make him challenge those two? 3 chunins got defeated by their combination attacks. If it weren't for the intel that those 3 got back, we would had needed to categorized that mission with a B rank." Baki asked the Hokage in the office.

"We need to be fair to the other examinees. If we don't have this level of test for situations like this, most people would try to influence the exams to push through genin from their own village." The Hokage said as he smoked from his pipe.

"Well, the chances of him completing the mission is slim at best. If we also count the second phase, there is no way for him to win." Hayate said after thinking for a while.

The Hokage frowned when he heard that. He quickly looked at the papers that he had in front of him.

Written in those papers was the jutsu that Max had learned to this point, with a quick rundown of his fighting abilities and personal techniques.

'For him to win this, he needs to have a very strong ace up on his sleeves. Fighting those two can be dangerous, but the real test will be fighting that squad of sand ninjas.' The Hokage thought as he looked at Baki.

Baki in the other hand didn't give mind to the looks that the Hokage was giving him. Instead, he was thinking of his own genin that should be making their way towards the first test.

'Even though it looks better than taking the exam with the other, Gaara would quickly lose control of himself if he went by himself to do those mission. That would expose the real reason for us to be here.

Hopefully we could use this opportunity to take out some of the most promising ninjas of the other villages by having Kankuro and Temari in the exams.

Even though their main purpose is to control Gaara until the mission starts.' Baki was thinking.

***

5 hours later.

Max decided to stop and rest. He had been running for 5 hours straight, so he needed to conserve his stamina as much as possible.

After making a perimeter, he sat in one the tree branches and took out the scroll for the mission.

'Thankfully, locating those two won't be a problem to me. With that out of the way, I need to do something to clear this mission as soon as possible.

Dirk and Bat, huh? Their combination jutsu is going to be a real problem. If I could just use those weapons, this won't need to be such a bother. Sadly, I need to show of my abilities, not my weapons to pass this test in the eyes of the Hokage.' Max thought as he looked at the information of those two.

Max read up all that he needed to read from the scroll, so he put it back in his backpack. He also decided to shuffle his equipment around as he noticed the mention of the weakness of the duo.

'These two katanas will do the trick. I just need to at least take out one of them before they notice what I have done.' Max thought as he gathered up everything and prepared to leave.

Before leaving, he looked at a specific direction. He knew that the jounin from the grass had rested the same time that he did, so he planned to go out and reach the town by night.

'Let's see if you can keep up.' Max thought as he sprinted.

Max also wanted to find out how fast could he reach the town at his current condition. Apart from training with Guy and Tenten, working with Muri and teaching with Inoichi, Max hadn't done such a long run.

***

The next day in Utari Town.

"Hey Dirk, don't you think its best for us move? Even though we defeated those ninjas, they still got away. Maybe they are planning to do a second attack on us." Said Bat.

Bat and Dirt were now situated in an inn just outside the gates of Utari Town. Since repelling the attack from the 3 man chunin squad, they had stayed put in the inn.

"We still have to recover the product that the Boss told us to pick up. Since those guys interrupt us, we need to change the plan and steal back that package as it leaves the town." Dirk said as he smoked from a pipe.

"I know that, but we have to be careful about those ninjas. Been on the bad side of those villages is never a good thing." Bat said.

"Well, if they try to attack us again, the best they will do is increase their squad by one. The information that they gathered about us will make them underestimate us, which will give us time to do our mission and leave." Dirk said as he smiled. "Ninja these days think themselves so smart. This should be a good opportunity to make them wake up."

"Let's hope so. I don't really want to deal with ninjas this much." Bat said.

Bat was the more cautious of the two, but he also was the one that was more easily influenced. Dirk didn't like Bat personality, but he still knew how useful his abilities were.

As both of them conversed about their planes, Max was already scouting the inn that they were staying at.

Even though Dirk and Bat were confident in their hideout, Max had noticed that no one in the inn was unarmed. They people that looked like they were just passing the time in the lobby of the inn tried to hide their weapons, but Max noticed them by chances as he passed by it.

After sometime looking at the inn, Max noticed that there was always a certain number of people there. Those people shifted positions every now and then, but they never left the premises of the inn.

'They seem to be waiting for something. If that something arrived in the next two days, it will give me the perfect opportunity to ambush them. If those two days pass, I fill need to infiltrate the inn and attack.' Max thought as he hid himself in a place with a clear view of the inn.

With his sensor abilities, Max could identify the number of people inside the inn at any given moment. With it, he located the chakra of two people in the second level of the inn.

'The chances of them being the targets is pretty high. But I need to confirm it latter tonight.' Max said as he waited.

The jounin that was watching Max also noticed the irregularities of the people in the inn, so he took another hiding spot as he waited for Max to act.

***

In the night, an old man made his way to the counter of the inn. The old man looked beat by the journey that he took, so anyone that looked at him could see that he was looking for a place to stay the night.

"Welcome uncle, how could I help you this evening?" The receptionist received the old man.

"Little girl, I'm looking for a room to stay." The old man looked tired and in a bad mood.

"Wait a moment sir. I need to confirm if we have a room free at the moment." She said as she started to read the papers in front of her.

While she did that, one of the men that were in the lobby got up and walked up the stairs. After a couple of seconds, he came down and nocked in the wall one time.

"You are in luck sir. We still have a room free. Would you like to rent it for the night?" She said.

"Of course." The old man nodded as he paid the receptionist and took his room key. After the old man walked up the stairs, the receptionist looked at the man that went up the stair.

The man just signaled her to let it go and they resumed to do their fake job.

The old man walked to his room and enter it. After leaving his bag in the table, he sat on the bed and spaced out for a moment.

'They easily let me stay inside the inn. For whatever reason the duo wasn't alarmed by my presence.' The old man said.

The old man was in fact Max in disguise. He decided to enter the inn to scout the identity of the people inside the inn. After taking every precaution that came to his mind, he waited until dark to enter the inn as a late arrival.

'Since their guard is this low, I'll use this opportunity to check on them later. For now, I need to wait after midnight to sneak to their room.'

Max quickly laid in the bed and closed his eyes.

Outside the inn, the jounin responsible for witnessing the first phase of the test was surprised after seen that Max got in the inn so easy. After thinking for a while, he decided to move towards the top of the inn to continue his surveillance.

As a jounin, he wasn't worried to alarm the possible targets with his presence. After doing some hand signs, his body started to become invisible. After completing his transformation, he moved to the top of the inn silently and used his heighten senses to view the rooms below him.

He quickly noticed that Max was resting in one of the rooms while the targets were doing the same in another one.

He also confirmed the identity of the targets which meant that Max was close to complete his first test.

***

Later that night.

Max got up from his bed and made a clone of his transformed self. After the clone took his place on the bed, Max moved some of the planks in the sealing and entered the attic of the inn.

He found some traps as he made his way towards the room of the duo, but he easily moved pass them without triggering them.

After positioning himself on top of the duo's room, Max confirmed the identity of targets. He lowered his heart rate and calmed his nerves as he made his presence even more scarce to prepare for the possible confrontation.

He knew that they had their guard up since there was someone else in the inn with them, but Max still got surprised by how high they had it.

'Is almost like they know that I'm here. But, how?' Max asked himself.

*Swosh*

Max suddenly heard the sound of something moving at a great speed. He didn't feel anyone targeting him, so he didn't move when he heard it, but the jounin on top of the roof acted differently.

The jounin jumped from the roof as he noticed that he was been targeted by someone. As he got closer to the floor, he noticed that one of the guards of the first floor had suddenly aimed his crossbow to the roof and shot.

'Dammit.' The jounin thought.

As he made contact with the ground, his camouflage jutsu got dispelled. The sudden appearance of him alerted the other guards as they aimed their crossbow at him.

The jounin quickly acted as he disappeared from the view of the guards. The guards weren't at a level that they could follow the movements of a high-level ninja, so they quickly lost sign of him.

The duo quickly jumped from their beds as the looked through the window at the disappearance back of the jounin.

"Ninjas and their tricks. Thankfully we were here when that ninja moved. If it weren't for your nose for iron, we couldn't have found that rat." Dirk said as he patted the back of Bat.

"Still, you noticed how fast that ninja moved? That one should be a jounin! We are not prepared to face such opponent." Bat said as he got a shiver seen how fast the jounin moved.

"Don't be stupid. If a jounin was after us, we should have been death by now. There is no reason for a jounin to escape from us after been discovered with how strong there are. That should be a chunin with a very good speed." Dirk said as he frowned.

"You're right. I can't imagine a jounin escaping like that. Since we are the targets, they should have- SHIT!"

"FUCK"

Bat and Dirk cursed at the same time. Their expression had changed as a dangerous thought passed through their mind.

"If they are after the package too, we need to get out of here!" Bat said as he looked at Dirk with some fear in his eyes.

"Right. We are the only ones that can identify the package, so they should have left us alive for so long just to get their hands on it.

We need to quickly report to – AHH" Dirk moved his gaze back to Bat as he was finishing saying that when he noticed that someone was behind Bat.

Bat tried to turn around to face the sudden presence that he felt behind him but couldn't as a katana had already pierced his chest.

Max took the opportunity that the jounin had given to him and ambushed Bat. He heard of the weird sense of smell that Bat had so he decided to deal with him first.

'Who could have thought that knowing fuinjutsu could help me so much.' Max thought as he retrieved his blade and took some distance away from Dirk.

When Max infiltrated the inn, he moved all his ninja tools inside one of his scrolls. That meant that he had nothing metal on his possession when the duo decided to let him in.

After noticing the jounin in the roof and making him flee, the two had lowered most of their guard which gave such a massive opportunity to Max to take out one of them.

The duo couldn't be blamed for this since almost all ninjas have tools on their person, which they used as their focus to identify threats towards them.

"With the loss of your partner, you should just give up." Max said as he used his left hand to retrieve his pouch from one of the seals in the scroll on his waist.

Dirk noticed how Max was making items appeared from nowhere and understood the oversight that they made. Still, Dirk quickly recovered from the death of Bat and charged at Max.

Max saw how Dirk was charging at him and smirked. The information on Dirk said that he specialized in close quarters combat and short weapons. This limited his range of attack, but Bat made that limitation insignificant.

Bat was the range expert of the two, which made their combination perfect to the point of even defeating three chunin.

Sadly for him, Max took out the Bat in the first strike, which now made him easy to be dealt with.

Max decided to jump back to increase the space between both of them, but Dirk smirked as he saw that.

"DIE!" Dirk suddenly throwed 6 knives at Max. Dirk knew that after the ninjas got the intel of their fighting style from the last fight, they would think that he only knew how to fight up close.

Seen that Max choose to jump back after his charge made him be open for a brief moment, which Dirk capitalized.

'Even if he can dodge those knives, the fight will start to swing in my favor. I just need to hold on until the rest of the guys get here and help me deal with this one.

If I can capture him, I should have some leverage if that jounin decides to comeback.'

Dirk thought of all that as he saw the knives get closer towards Max. 'You can't escape.' Seen that Max wasn't able to dodge those knives, Dirk smirk became a full smile.

*SPLAT*

"What!?"

Dirk suddenly screamed as he felt a katana pierce his chest.