Ch. 15 Request
Seeing the eight dead Leaf ninja, the jonin commander of the outpost feared for the worst, only to see the 4 dead Rock Ninja and Chiba sitting there.
There was a tense atmosphere as the Jonin still held onto his weapon for a few seconds before wearily putting it away
"Explain genin" the Jonin commanded Chiba, wanting to understand the situation before anything else.
"When the outpost was attack, I faintly sensed the chakra of the eight Shinobi guarding the tent had disappeared, so irushed over right away. I didn't know if they purposely did that to not draw attention to the supply tent or if they had been killed. So when I went to investigated and found them dead, I realized they were planting explosion tags and didn't have time to call for reinforcements, so I killed them myself." Saying this, Chiba took out a handful of explosion tags to prove his point.
The Jonin looked at the blind Chiba in thought.
"Your sensory abilities are that powerful? I guess they have to be to allow a blind child to become a genin." The Jonin said in understanding, looking at Chiba for a few seconds before he spoke.
"My name is Hanbi Nara, I just got word that my squad was requested to complete an operation near the Kannabi bridge, will you join my squad?" The jonin commander said politely, hiding the mission details.
Kannabi bridge was the heart of the Iwagakure supply line, without it, Iwagakure would have a much harder time supplying their Ninja. This naturally meant that the bridge was a hot zone, and the mission itself heavily revolved around Kannabi bridge, but he couldn't tell Chiba due to mission secrecy.
Hanbi realized that the ninja stationed to protect this supply tent in the outpost were Chunin rank, meaning that the four man ninja squad that wiped them out had to be skilled Chunin aswell. For Chiba to not only sense their presence before anyone else, alongside being able to kill them by himself made him a valuable Ninja. He cared not for his disability, just his ability.
Hanbi wanted to survive this war, and having a powerful sensory Ninja like Chiba under him would greatly increase his survivability.
'Will this blind Uchiha refuse my request, I wouldn't blame him for wanting to stay away from the most heavily guarded location in Iwagakure' Hanbi thought.
While he was desperate to survive this war, Hanbi couldn't bring himself to forcefully assigned someone to a suicide mission, unlike the Hokage who sanctioned his distraction mission in the first place.
Stranding up straight, Chiba turned and looked at the Jonin Commander.
"If you'll have me, I'd love to join your squad Captain Hanbi" Chiba said.
With a smile, Hanbi turned around and started walking away.
"Rest up today, Tomorrow we set off." Hanbi said as he left the tent, leaving Chiba alone in the tent with the new guards.
With nothing else to do, Chiba left as he turned his observation Haki down to 3 feet away from him as he didn't want to see the nearly one hundred dead body's of allies and enemies littering in pergect clarity. The foul smells from the battle was hard enough as the smell of iron and burnt flesh filled the outpost.
Walking into the barracks, Chiba laid down in one of the hammocks and deactivated his Observation Haki temporarily to focus on his Template.
[Template system:
Host: Uchiha Chiba
Template Character: Fujitora
Completion: 34.6%
Template ability:
1. swordmanship [Advanced]
2. Soru [Master]
3. Observation Haki [Master]
Learnt abilities
(Ninjutsu: D+ rank)
Swordmanship: C- rank)
{Milestone}
Daily mission: 1000 slashes, (721/1000) ]
Clicking on the milestone tab on his screen, another blue screen popped up.
[Milestone's:
Genin killed (14/1) : .1%
Chunin killed (5/1): .5
Jonin killed (0/1): 5%
Kage killed (0/1): 25%
Tailed beast killed (0/1): ??? ]
The Genin and Chunin Milestone were glowing gold as he seemed to have reached the necessary requirements. Tapping on the glowing milestone's, the page refreshed.
[Milestone:
Genin killed (13/10) : .1%
Chunin killed (4/5): .5
Jonin killed (0/1): 5%
Kage killed (0/1): 25%
Tailed beast killed (0/1): ??? ]
Seeing the refreshed screen, Chiba quickly understood how the Milestone tab worked. He would be rewarded a percentage for killing a certain number of Ninja from different strength level.
When he redeems a reward, the milestone doesn't disappear, it just increases the number of kills needed to get the same reward next time.
While this did speed up his progress, Chiba wasn't too pleased with the way it worked. Sure, in the middle of a war this seemed very good, but after the war, this Milestone tabs will nearly become useless.
He'll reach the point where he needs thousands of genin and hundreds of Chunin to be rewarded, how could he be expected to do that in times of peace? Not to mention the fact that Chiba didn't feel like going out of his way to take thousands of humans lives was worth the .1% reward.
What gave Chiba hope was the fact that it said Milestone tab, not killing tab. Maybe he has other avenues to gain Milestones other than just killing other.
Looking at the reward for the tailed beast, Chiba could only shake his head slightly as he tried to suppress his curiosity. By the time Chiba Is stronge enough to to kill a tailed beast, it would already be inside of a an enemy villages ninja, making it a declaration of war to kill the Jinchuriki.
While Chiba didn't mind changing the plot of the story, he still tried to not destroy the future of this world by carelessly acting. Starting world war four before the Akatsuki wasn't something that Chiba wanted to do.
Clicking on the Genin achievement once again, Chiba recieved the additional .1 reward as he saw that he'd have to kill 20 Genin for the same reward next time.
Standing up, Chiba when out to finish off his daily quest, mentally preparing himself for tomorrows mission.
------
Inside the Hokage's office, an Anbu was kneeling on one knee in front of Sarutobi Hiruzen, reporting information. However, it was not a front-line war, it was about his son Asuma.
"Hokage, it appears your son's squad was attacked by the seven swordsmen of the mist, they-" the Shinobi was cut off by a rush of chakra flowing out of the old man, filling up the room and nearly suffocating him.
After a few second, the old man reeled in his chakra allowing the reporting ninja to breath.
"Continue" the Hokage demanded, his intense eyes staring at the kneeling Shinobi.
"H-his team leader, Might Dai, used the forbidden eight Gates jutsu, killing four of the seven Shinobi and allowing Asuma and his other students a chance to escape."
Hearing this, Hiruzen stoics face remained the same as he took out his pipe and immediately started smoking, needing to reduce his stress. Whether it was the war or his child, he just couldn't seem to catch a break.
'To think that a Genin like Dai was able to kill four out of the seven swordsmen of the mist. Is this the reason my son begged and pleaded for a month to make him be apart of the same squad as Might Guy, Dai's son?'
"Reassign their squad to a Jonin Ninja to command them, and locate that squad to the medic outpost on the border of Sunagakure to guard."
"Yes Hokage" the ninja said holding his tongue. He wanted to say that such an outpost was already safely guarded by Hyuga clan Jonin, and that it already had ample defense. However the Ninja knew the Hokage already knew these facts, so he Body Flickered away, relaying the Hokages orders.
'I need to end this war quickly, so I can give up the mantle of Hokage to Minato.' Despite the fact that it was supposed to be a vote by the councilmen and the people, Hiruzen already decided.
At this moment, there were three ninja that were strong enough to hold the mantle of Hokage. The Uchiha patriarch, Fugaku. The legendary Sannin, Orochimaru. And the civilian genius, Minato.
Uchiha Fugaku was not even going to be nominated as a potential Hokage candidates. The clan itself was comprised of the strongest and most talented ninja in Konoha, Hiruzen alongside the majority of the other clans and councilmen absolutely couldn't let one of them become the Hokage and have their clan also gain immense political power. If an Uchiha became the Hokage, the clan would be nearly unstoppable in both physical and political power.
Orochimaru was too close to Danzo for Hiruzen to pick and he sensed Orochimaru's disinterest in the village. Hiruzen knew that if Orochimaru became Hokage, he'd wringe Konoha of everything it's worth before leaving just like the other Sannin.
That left him with only one choice, the civilian genius, Namikaze Minato. While a clanless civilian becoming the Hokage did leave a sour taste in his mouth, Hiruzen thought Minato was the safest bet.
Hiruzen could sense that the 'Will of Fire' had left it's mark on Minato and he was Jiraiya's apprentice, making Minato his grand disciple. He had learned the powerful Flying Thunder God Jutsu, so his strength is unquestionable.
The only thing he was missing was reputation and reputation could easily be made during a war. Thinking of this, a smile appeared on the old man's wrinkled face as he summoned Minato to his office.
"Hokage, you were looking for me?" Entering through the office door, Minato, who was dressed in his combat flack jacket, immediately kneeled.
"I'm tasking you with sending your squad to blow up the Kannabi bridge, doing this will ensure our victory in this war. I can only trust you with this task."
Minato remained silent. He understood that this bridge was key to Iwagakure's supply line, but it raised a big question.
"What about the frontline? Onoki may attack at any moment and if I'm not there, he will tear through through the front line unhindered."
If the frontline collapses, it didn't matter if their supplies were cut off as Konoha would immediately lose the war. The front line were located just an hour run away from the Konoha village for the superhuman Ninja.
"That's why Im giving you this task, your Flying Thunder God Jutsu can switch between the front lines and the Kannabi bridge in an instant! Your student Kakashi Hatake is a jonin already, right? Have him lead your squad to fulfill this task as you fight on the front line, when you deem the situation stable, you can teleport to your squad to help complete the task." Hiruzen said.
Minato tilted his head down at Hiruzens request, not allowing the Hokages to see his frown. He didn't like the idea of sending his squad off on their own as even if Kakashi was Jonin level, he was still inexperienced and naive.
"You are the best person to carry out this attack." Hiruzen said, lying through this teeth to pressure Minato into accepting the task.
If Orochimaru was dispatched to the front lines, Minato would be able to complete the task with ease and not have to worry but Hiruzen couldn't have that.
He couldnt risk Orochimaru gaining the reputation of fighting and possibly defeating the legendary kage, Onoki, on the front lines! If he did this, he'd be garanteed on becoming the next Hokage.
Hiruzen was purposely sending Orochimaru on pointless missions way below his capabilities, all so that he couldn't gain any more reputation from the war. This didn't bother Orchimaru as he didn't care about being Hokage, but it angered Danzo to no ends who planned on using Orchimaru as a puppet leader.
"Minato, you are the person I trust the most...This task must be done by you, and only by you!" Sarutobi Hiruzen spoke very solemnly.
With a wry smile, Minato nodding his head, not know this decision would snowball in affect, later killing him and his wife if someone didn't intervene.