Chapter 33: Hunting Time

3rd POV:

The night has passed as Kakashi woke up earlier than anyone else in the village. He seems pumped up from the upcoming battle they will face during the following days. He strolled around the village and stopped at an open space where he saw many people bruised up and were tied up. These people are of course the bandits Kushina fought yesterday. Kakashi then began warming up to be ready for the battle.

After a few minutes, the villagers and the rest of Team One began to wake up and were gathered by Aki. Tsunade asked them because she has something to announce.

"It seems all of you are here. I am here to remind all of you to keep an eye on the bandits we caught yesterday and also the ones we are about to catch. We will be not here until the evening so I ask you to guard them. Is that clear?"

All villagers nodded at the same time and discussed among themselves their schedule and rotation.

Team One on the other hand looked at the scroll given to them by Hiruzen and also the map is given by Aki. The map has marks in it which indicate the location of the bandit's base. The scroll on the other hand has information on how they act.

"It seems like the bandits in this area are only part of one bandit group. They divide themselves and scattered in this area so they can raid more villagers easier. It also seems like they report every day to their boss which is in the largest base so he can know which of them are still safe. All in all, there are eighteen smaller bandit groups in the area." Tsunade states the details of its mission.

"Tsunade-sensei, we can divide our team into two so we can defeat them faster. Also, we can attack them when they sent their report so that we will not alert them of our activity after we defeat them. In this way, we can have the next day attacking the other based because they will not know what happened."

"That's right Kakashi. We will go with your plan. You really have the battle tactics of your father. As for the division, Kakashi and Kushina will team up while I and Shizune will. These are your targets Kakashi and Kushina."

Tsunade then bit her thumb as blood came running down. She swipes it on her other palm and made hand seals. She slams the ground and marking can be seen on it.

'Summoning Jutsu'

Smoke came out of the ground. After a while, it dissipates, and a slug-like creature shown itself.

"Tsunade-chan, what can I do for you?"

The slug suddenly talked to them. Team One on the other hand seems not surprised. It is because they have seen this summoned animal regularly at their training and are healing their small bruises during the spars.

"Katsuyu-sama, I need your communication skills. Can you split it into two so you can accompany Kushina and convey my words?"

Katsuyu then split into two and attached itself to Kushina.

"Just speak to Katsuyu-sama when the bandits reported to their boss. In the meantime, observe their actions because from my experience, all bandits in the same group act similarly to each other. Good luck."

Kushina and Kakashi went to their first designated base. The base was in a cave, they saw two bandits standing in front which seems like they ate guarding the base. Kushina made a hand seal and a clone appeared beside her.

"Kushina-san is that..."

"Yep, Tsunade-sensei taught me how to do a shadow clone. She said that because of my enormous chakra reserve, I can make hundreds of these. And she also said that when they dispell, I can see their memories and experiences. So we can just leave one clone to spy on them and move to a different location. This way, we will save more time."

'I didn't expect Kushina-san can think about this. But then, where did Naruto's intelligence came from?' Kakashi asked himself.

Time quickly passed and it is now late night. During the day, all Team One encountered some bandits in the area and they caught them. They even helped another village from the bandit raid. When they interrogated the bandits, they found out that these bandits are just a solo bandit group and were different from the bandits they are spying.

Suddenly, Kushina's shadow clone dispelled and she got their memories. It seems like the bandits already reported to their boss about their situation.

Both Kushina and Tsunade informed each other through Katsuyu and they went straight to the base. Kushina and Kakashi sneakily approached the base to avoid being seen. Kakashi and Kushina both knocked the guard bandits unconscious. They then transformed themselves to match the appearance of the bandits and went inside the base. They saw about fifty bandits inside the base. One bandit approached the transformed Kushina and asked a question.

"What are you two doing here? Aren't you two supposed to be on guard duty?"

Suddenly, Kushina jumped upwards while Kakashi made hand seals. Streams of lightning surged through the ground which paralyzed all bandits in the cave.

"That was easy. Why did we transform then?"

Kushina asked Kakashi. It was Kakashi's idea to transform themselves and enter the cave.

"Well, consider training when entering an enemy's base especially a ninja one."

Kakashi just wants to prepare Kushina to be ready at all times. He wanted Kushina to be stronger than the Kushina in his past life.

"Well then, let's go to the next one. I think we can finish them all when the sun rose and we do not need more days."

"Yes yes, I know you miss Minato-san but still, be careful and do not be rash in attacking."

Kushina then blushes when she heard Minato's name.

"What are you talking about? Who will miss that bookworm?"

Kushina turned around so that Kakashi will not see her face. But Kakashi can see her ears being red from the side. He just shrugged and ignored her.

The two of them then went to six more bases and they just did the same thing over and over again. They then got a message from Tsunade through Katsuyu and they met up near the village where Aki is.

"Kakashi, Kushina, it seems like we will finish this mission earlier than we thought. But we have a small problem, we found out that the bandit's boss convinced a rogue ninja to join them. We have no idea who that is but I suggest that we be careful attacking the last base."

The three genins nodded at Tsunade's words.

"But Tsunade-sensei, wouldn't this mission be classified as B-rank, or even A-rank base on the enemy ninja's strength?"

Kushina asked Tsunade with a nervous tone present in her voice.

"Don't worry, I am here with you you know. And well, if they really have a powerful ninja with them, then they should have raided more villages. It's either that ninja is weak or is just lazy. And well, with my strength, only the Kages of different hidden villages can beat me."

It's true, during their training, Tsunade's taijutsu improves a lot because of Dai's help and she is currently the strongest of the Sannin but just a little bit. Couple that with her sealing jutsu from Kushina, the Sannin's combined strength can now defeat Hanzo if they fight again.