22 The New Journey (Part-4)
The sun had set long ago, and it was past midnight in Iwagakure.
The crowded streets had come to an abrupt silence, and darkness filled the village. However, a small light was emitting from a far-off household.
The light belonged to the office of Hiro-san, the president of one of Iwagakure's largest manufacturing businesses. And a source of their money and supply in this war.
His wife, along with his many children were sound asleep, leaving him alone, behind his desk, his pen scribbling against a sheet of paper. The room was rather small for an office, as it was indeed, part of his home. A window was sprawled open behind him, and the only entrance to the room left open. The room was lightened by single candlelight, sitting firmly on the edge of the desk.
Hiro-san cleared his throat, rising to his feet ever so slowly. It was finally time to go to sleep, he had been working all day.
Just outside the window, strapped to the very side of the building, was none other than the Kan Korimachi. Experienced and resourceful, there seemed to be no better option than Kan to conduct an assassination as cold and disheartening as this.
As Hiro-san slowly rose to his feet, Kan silently climbed through the window, approaching the man from behind. He embraced the man from behind.
...
The Next Morning
Hiro-san was found the next morning, lying atop his own office desk. His eyes had since rolled back, his eyelids closed forever. A large squadron of shinobi filled the room, searching the room for any evidence, "I don't get it... here he is dead.. yet not a trace of the murderer. Are you sure someone killed him?", Questioned one of the masked man Anbu.
"It's almost certain. Hiro-san didn't have any diseases... at least none of which were reported." Said another, running his hand against the corpse's neck, searching the naked body for any clues.
"This will affect the whole village in these times of war...", Said the masked man, as his fist tightened.
He sniffed the air, "I'm picking up on a cherry scent... it's strong... I may be able to track it"
"Woman's perfume? Why would there be a woman in here..? You don't think his wife-"
"No. We've already searched her things, as well as the house. Nothing of this scent in the whole damn house. This gotta be it"
The other masked shinobi approached the cold, naked body. "So what do you think happened then? I mean... woman's perfume... he's naked..."
The other man shook his head, which was covered by a cat-like mask. "Look, Hiro-san being unfaithful is the last of our concerns. Whoever committed this murder was here today, within the time span of midnight to now. That gives this person... approximately 8 hours to have fled the village." He explained, lifting Hiro-san's clothing with a covered gauntlet. "Have these sent to the sensor corps. A.S.A.P. Tell them to capitalize on this cherry scent as much as they can"
"Yes sir"
...
~~~Several Days Later
Iwagakure's sensory team was hard at work, despite only having been given a short supply of supplies to work with. Picking up on the cherry scent, the corps issued a small squadron of shinobi to track down the assassin.
"Ginjo-sama." A woman's voice said as the squad of ninja was hopping from building to building.
"Yes?" Ginjo responded as the woman handed him a piece of paper which gave the briefing of the mission, "I understand that this is your first day on this investigation, sorry we didn't brief you at the village, your requested presence was a little rushed being that we caught on to the possible assassin" The woman said leaping from a building
"Hmmm..." Ginjo said as his eyes ran through the paper, "Hiro huh, I knew him. Gender of the assassin?" He asks the woman traveling with him, "Woman, well we believe it's a woman as we caught onto the scent of woman's perfume"
"Time of death?"
"5:59 sir, can I ask why are you asking me this when the info is all on the paper"
He responded. "Oh, nothing, your nice looking that's all", The woman's face blushed red in anger looking at Ginjo.
Ginjo scanned the area as he picked up on different things in the area where the suspect could have been.
"See this. It's a clear sign that a woman has traveled ahead to the northeast. See if this is the same one"
...
Kan was perched on a bench, which happened to be, oddly enough, made entirely from steel. Enjoying the warmth of the sun, accompanied by the cool breeze. A warm smile danced upon his lips when suddenly, He felt the presence of a small team of shinobi coming forth his way. Kan remained firm, awaiting the arrival of his pursuers. The field in which they found him was rather large, surrounded by trees.
The entire land was filled with grass, aside from the steel bench, Kan was seated on.
When the Iwa shinobis arrived they found this scene.
"What the heck, It's a man, I thought the murderer was a woman", Ginjo muttered
"Oh, you mean me?", Came the shadow of a woman.
"Black Charcoal?"
Ginjo was surprised but made certain hand gestures for the team to get into a specific position.
"It's good that you came to us by yourself. Now we don't have to worry about coming to you... And you, are you the mysterious Kan Korimachi? Our scouts talk a lot about you. It's good that you came here as well. Now I can test your skills by myself"
"You have to survive her to test my skills", Kan said with a smile, "She is not easy to deal with"
As if on cue, Mikoto's irises were over-taken by a dark red persona, and the three tomoe of her Sharingan spun to life.
She smirked. Suddenly, several thousands of flaming senbons formed out of no-where, shooting at the enemies, aiming with the intent to fatally wound, possibly even provide the victim with death.
In the meantime, the squadron defends themselves against thousands of flying senbons coming forth their way, the ones that were closed to her died immediately.
The ones away from her dodged the incoming flame senbons with ease.
Seeing that Mikoto had the Sharingan, Ginjo warned his teammates. "Guys, don't make eye contact", He said as he was looking down, then he noticed how her chakra started to mold
"Not so fast woman", He claps his hands on the ground and causes the ground around Mikoto to quickly lower about 40 feet down.
As he did that, his team used Earth Release: Tearing Earth Turning Palm.
The earth around Mikoto comes tumbling down onto her. And to finish the combo, he commanded the last two teammates to shoot fireballs into the ground where Mikoto was. Some of the fireballs engulfed the earth falling which causes even more damage.
Mikoto descended downward, lower into the depths of the earth. Surrounded by darkness, the only light source was provided by the woman's glowing red eyes.
Mikoto suddenly pushed her palm downwards, "Wind Release: Gale Palm"
The winds originated from her palms and spiraled downwards very quickly, Pushing her up, making her jump several hundreds of feet in the sky.
She began weaving a set of hand signs, whilst airborne. She noticed the ones below, planning to severely wound her with their fire release techniques.
The very second her enemies had been focused on shooting streams of fire down on her. Mikoto thrust her arm forward toward the desired target area. Concentrating the immense heat at her fingertips and shapes it into a spear in a mere second, she throws it forward
"Fire Release: Sun Spear"
"Shit....", Ginjo said to himself noticing how large the flaming spear was; knowing he would just die if he tried to help his squad-mates.
"But I can't take her out by myself. And there is also him", Ginjo looked at Kan sitting peacefully.
BOOM
The Intense heat creates a desert around the area. The beautiful lake, The trees, the grass, everything was gone, burned in the flames of purgatory.
When the hot dust settled. Many cracked walls came into view. Many were destroyed as well.
Huff Huff
"Took way too much chakra to create so many walls, but I should be ok... Is everyone alright?", One of the team members rushes over to give more chakra to Ginjo.
Mikoto disappeared, appearing before the rushing man's path, separating him from Ginjo.
With the man rushing forward, Mikoto made eye contact with him. A single tear of blood ran down her eye as she did this, forcing her to shut the eye afterward. Afterward, immensely powerful flames shot out at the other two shinobi, at such a pace, that these flames had been deemed impossible to evade.
Impossible it was as Ginjo of course could not save them from the flames. "Damn..." He thought as he knew they would die from the flames.
Ginjo was angry, Parts of the ground then start to crack as large chunks of the earth floated around him even his hair started rising up against the gravity, "Black Charcoal before I kill you, tell me, was it your mission to kill Hiro", Ginjo asked
"..."
Mikoto stood firm. facing forward for several seconds, watching as her victims screamed in horror as a result of the black flames.
She turned back towards Ginjo, tears of dark red blood spilling from both eyes.
The man seemed rather stable despite having witnessed his comrades die in battle just moments ago.
"No. The mission was not him. He was just a high-value bait to lure you", Mikoto admitted. She looked up, locking into eye contact with her opponent. The three tomoe of her Sharingan began to spin wildly.
"How does it feel to know the hunter becomes the hunted", another drip of blood poured down from Mikoto's left eye.
Mikoto quickly weaved a set of hand signs, preparing to strike first in the match-up. They were all alone now, well except Kan who was just chilling in the background.
Mikoto vanished instantly, so fast that even her own Sharingan could barely keep up. Along the way, a long, black sword formed in her right hand. At an intense speed, she appeared behind Ginjo, when in reality, she had simply gone through him in an instant, striking him with her blade.
Ginjo was able to partially turn the insides of his body into the mud a little before she cut him. The mud protected his vital points, and with his skin as hard as Iron, it reduced the damage just a bit, but he was still stuck, forcing him to his knees.
Mikoto examined the splattering blood with her red eyes. An image she had long grown accustomed to. She turned, eyeing the man who on his knees.
"Funny enough, even you are not our mission", Mikoto stated, approaching the man slowly
Her shapely hips swayed to the side, and her large features bounced voluptuously with each and every step she took.
She gripped the blade in her right hand, placing her left hand onto the top of Ginjo's head, then bending down, so that she was eye level with him, "You are just another highly valued bait", Her eyes rotated, and Ginjo was already in the Genjutsu.
Unbearable heat surrounded the area, with only two living beings still left. Kan and Mikoto, "Let's just complete our mission", Kan said finally standing up
She glared at him, "You didn't do anything"
Kan shrugged, "I was thinking of something very important"
"What is it?"
"How to lower my rank back to Genin again. It seems impossible as of now though"
"..."
...
On Iwa main gates, a limp body was on the ground whose breathing was irregularly fast and was wearing ragged cloth blood coming from a wound, sticking out all over the place.
"Ginjo sama..!!", suddenly came the voice of an Iwa kunoichi, who was returning from some mission. She checked his pulse.
"His heart rate is abnormally fast. We need to get him to a doctor", The Iwa kunoichi yelled at the guard. The guard cleared his head. He picked Ginjo up in his arms and ran out of the alley to the hospital.
When they got him to the hospital; Doctors immediately cut his shirt open only to see a paper bomb sticking on his chest.
!!!!!
BOOM
No one could even react before it blasted
With infinite rubble, and pieces of flesh flowing everywhere.
The entire hospital along with the countless Iwa shinobis was dead. Blasted to the core.
When Tsuchikage heard this news he was furious.... He swore to kill the person who did that.
XXXXXXX
Kan and Mikoto returned to the village at incredibly fast speed. Only to meet an Anbu at the gate.
"Kan Korimachi, Mikoto Korimachi. Hokage-sama summons you. Immediately", The Anbu said
Kan and Mikoto look at each other before hurrying towards the Hokage tower.
When they enter, they see the Hokage reading various documents.
"Hokage-sama", Kan and Mikoto kneel
"Kan, Mikoto. I heard about your development in Iwa. Good job. But we must divert our attention for now. You two are ordered to travelled to kiri borders. Konoha has hands on the scroll of Kiri bloodline users. It currently is in the hands of Gennin Gai. Please retrieve the scroll as soon as possible. It's very important", Hokage said urgently
"Yes Hokage-sama", Mikoto said
"Kan", Hokage said, "No matter what you do; countless lives are depending on you. Remember that. You were on the frontlines till recently. You know what it means to be a leader in a war, right?"
"Yes Hokage sama"
