Perfect Vacation (5)
Finding Kumo's track was not easy without explicitly revealing his full abilities and Kai would have done it if it wouldn't make things even more troublesome. As things are, truly, Kai was more than eligible to be the youngest Kage. And then Kai suddenly thought of something...
'Would it really be bad to just become the Hokage?'
Hokage meant being the strongest, generally. Kai really wanted to do something 'great' with this chair. Leave a 'legacy' so... damnable that even this world filled with bloodshed, schemes, and war can look back and... just feel so damned stunned to not help BUT laugh! Being the strongest and bringing peace? Screw that. Kai reveled in violence. He didn't like it, to be honest, but he did 'logically' agree that the world, like a videogame, is just more interesting when it's R18.
"What?" Kai, who had been 'staring' at Minato for a while during their sparring, looked a little weirded out. Kai was a force to be reckoned with despite not going all out since they did not want to alert the enemies now that they were on track.
Lending the blonde youth a hand to help him stand up, Kai replied, "I was just thinking if leadership meant taking on the responsibility or filling the positions of great burdens and being responsible for the appointed individuals..."
Not far from them, taking a 'relaxing' break once again since that was simply Sakumo's groove who liked making every long distanced mission, if not S-ranked level of urgent, a cool vacation. The Elite Jonin, given his experience, could pass on as a 'Deserted' Trave Guide... his words. As such, Sakumo who was giving Ninken grooming tips to Tsume and the girl herself heard Kai's question.
"Leadership? Are you hoping to become Hokage one day?" Sakumo smiled as Tsume's ears perked up and she, too, looked at Kai with astonishment and as usual, mighty respect that far surpassed the admiration even held by Kai's three loyal followers.
"Well," Kai found no reason to lie, "Given recent circumstances," majorly caused by him, "And how the Hokage has always been knee-deep into paperwork, I had my reservations. But a more serious thought about the situation does make being the Hokage a dream position."
"Isn't that something?" Sakumo smirked, "To dream of being on top and still being a servant."
Kai's and Tsume's expressions froze this once and Sakumo quickly noted it. His own expression was mixed with shock, pleasure, and disbelief.
"Wait, THAT was good?" Sakumo inquired as he had been trying to note down the humor of what Kai considered 'good.'
Kai... nodded with a strange expression.
"Well... you got lucky! Kuromaru, after all, has his moments, too," Tsume grinned like a perfect Sass Bitch while Sakumo turned a deaf ear to the girl and wrote down the words he spoke, breaking them into every sarcastic bit he felt could tickle the humorous side of his son's mind, too.
Meanwhile, Kai was surely amused. Him considering being a Kage... and Sakumo actually managing to lay a perfect burn on the position where Kai would have smiled if he wasn't too stunned for the act— What a strange day.
---
The group of facilities recently established Team Sakumo was sent to investigate turned out to be an underground 'research' group. Unofficially, this was a hub that communicated with Kumogakure to spread the influence of the village and the Land of Lightning over Land of Hot Water and its shinobi village.
The only reason why this mission was B-ranked was due to the high number of such outposts all over the Land of Hot water marked by Uchiha Clansmen.
As for how the Land of Lighting spread its influence, that was yet to be investigated as Land of Hot Water fell between Land of Lightning and Land of Fire which made this a sensitive and unavoidable situation for Konoha. Thus, their mission was to mainly understand the manner of Kumo's methods and their objectives.
After discovering one such group under a large village occupied by rather peculiar and happy villagers as the amount of chakra Kai observed was practically too collectively large to go unnoticed and even Sakumo had a hard time deciding how to infiltrate this location. While there were surely villagers who knew nothing about the underground facilities, Kai and others knew that there were even more who regulated the village and controlled the facility.
Given the circumstances, it did not seem well to try and blend into the village. It worked well in the Land of Rain due to the war and environmental factors since it always rained there which made it harder to investigate things relatively. But the conditions were optimal and no shinobi facility worth its salt would let any wayward vagabond drift in without active investigation.
"I got this," Tsume grinned, "Kuromaru and I are going to act like puppies. I'll be transformed into one."
"I read that due to being nourished by natural hot springs, almost all beasts are edible here... including canines," Minato looked at the girl and replied sincerely.
"Monsters!" Tsume hissed while Kai quickly clutched Kuromaru's muzzle to not let it bark out loud.
"The simplest approach... is to just infiltrate the facility old-fashion way," Sakumo hummed, "We'll need to be discreet about it but this also means that once we start the operation, we won't get to relax much. After all, we'll be in enemy territory."
Minato couldn't help but question, "Sakumo-san, shouldn't we scout for more information?"
Of the team, Minato had the least amount of experience in missions due to Jiraiya's long-distance teaching but Sakumo was here to fill such gaps in experience itself as he smiled, "This IS scouting. There will be more missions where conditions won't be perfect and we will have to risk ourselves. That's why train— harder than our opponents. We need to do that to live."
Minato nodded as Kai and Sakumo noted a hint of dismay flash past Minato's gaze and that probably emerged from an aversion to unnecessary conflicts than cowardice but again, Minato didn't consider himself out from the conflicts. He killed a prisoner to graduate, after all.
Being as proficient as a Jonin Elite in all the seven affinities of chakra, not that anyone knew outside Kai's little circle knew it, he could still critique Sakumo's use of Earth Tunnel Jutsu with a look and smugly find out that Kai himself would not have wasted the additional chakra that Sakumo did no matter how tiny this wastage was.
The group did not waste a second and entered the tunnel while the displaced dirt that was forced outside was sealed off by Kai into a scroll.
While it certainly was dark within the cave, Sakumo went ahead and covered the entrance of the cave, making things even more difficult for Kuromaru, Tsume, and Minato. As for Cinnamon? She continued to nest over his arm as if it was nobody's business. Orochimaru did claim that Cinnamon was a hybrid that did not age— an earlier experiment for her to achieve similar results on humans that failed eventually. So... theoretically, Cinnamon was one constant that could be with him his entire life.
The group stopped not long after entering the tunnel with a hard metal surface blocking their path. Knowing better than to touch any part of the facility directly without any information on the kinds of traps they might activate, Kai and Minato cracked down on the task to use Fuinjutsu to locate similar Fuin traps that could be hidden easily but it was mostly Minato learning from Kai on how to set an isolation seal which worked to suppress and suspend any seal under rank C and D not including certain exceptions.
Again, the Isolation seal was developed by the Uzumaki because it was just so simple for the redheads to isolate a region of fuin created by many backward peers in the form of other shinobi villages. In essence, the Isolation seal was a flex and a watershed. If it got suppressed, then it wasn't worth setting up in the first place.
The only thing actually risky about this situation was cutting off a sizeable chunk of the metal surface to enter the area. So, Minato prepared explosive tags in case they got discovered while Kai and Tsume prepared themselves for an attack while Sakumo let his Lightning Chakra flow into his famed chakra saber that shared Sakumo's moniker— White Fang. Again, Kai did use piercing vision to look past the metal wall and found no obstruction. But he was still pretty surprised by Sakumo's decisiveness to just enter the facility in such a manner. It was either this boldness that paved his path to such a level of strength and position... or he got this bold after reaching such strength and position. The former would be admirable and the latter would most certainly bode trouble sooner or later.
Then again, Sakumo was publicly known to be the most favorable individual for the Hokage's title after Hiruzen... Kai did have to give credit where it was deserved as even Kai felt he would take actions this or more brazen than the one in front of him given his level of strength.
Blue electricity arced and buzzed around the saber as Sakumo gently stabbed his blade into the large metal chunk and the blade slipped into it as a hot knife would penetrate a chunk of butter. The metal surface began to heat abruptly as Sakumo continued to fully cut out a large hole and used his hand to let chakra flow through it and stick to the surface of the metal to pull it back.
Revealing the astonishing strength hidden under his athletic and somewhat buff physique, Sakumo casually held the large chunk of metal midair with the pure, unadulterated strength of his back, shoulder, and traps while he looked through the well-lit, earthen interior of the facility.
It was a carved room with dried and large botches of blood. Adopting a stern expression, Sakumo stepped into the facility and looked at the circular pattern etched on the floor with a triangle drawn within.
"Now... what the hell is that? Some fuinjutsu?" Sakumo beckoned others and set the large metal chunk nearby as he inquired Kai and Minato...
Who were genuinely confused, too.
"More like a bad geometric art? Maybe that's why the blood? It was so bad that the artist was killed?" Minato frowned and considered the situation seriously while oblivious to the humorous undertone in his words.
"A good start," Sakumo smiled but then he heard Tsume and Kuromaru growling loudly. The remaining trio turned to look at the duo... full of aggressiveness as they were staring down on the floor.
"What's going on?" Kai inquired.
"Something is challenging me..." Tsume growled, "I can smell it from here."
Enhancing their sense of scent, only Sakumo caught the scent Tsume was talking about and that, too, due to his lawful connections to the Inuzuka Clan.
"Interesting... but it isn't challenging us." Sakumo crouched down and pushed Kuromaru aside to pick up a strand of dark brown fur that it stood upon, "This animal was challenging someone else... But if it triggered a Ninken like Kuromaru then it must be able to hold an equivalent chakra capacity of more."
Turning around as a short buzz of lightning turned the fur into ashes which calmed Kuromaru a great deal, Sakumo added, "Let's get going. We're the scouts and our main objective is to return with information so keep your safety a priority, too. We're not Anbu, squad, so let's keep it less sacrificial!"
Kai was impressed. Another hot take. Maybe Sakumo was a natural at dissing Konoha instead of Suna... Ironic.
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