The way back
Ryo and the other three gathered at the inn again, with Ryo waiting for the others. Soon enough, Kakashi, Denji, and Haruka returned, and they began to discuss what they had found in their investigations throughout the area. Haruka and Denji had spoken with other innkeepers nearby.
"We spoke with some people. However, they all gave basically the same report, that about a month ago, some strange people appeared, but since it's a city where many come to sleep and enjoy the hot springs, the residents are used to all kinds of people. And then a few days after that, the hot springs began to dry up slowly," Haruka spoke while Kakashi seemed to be jotting down some notes in a small notebook. Once the two finished, Ryo looked at them with a more serious expression and began to share what he had discovered. He recounted the small hole in the hot spring, connected to an unnatural cave underneath.
"We already have the cause, then. However, Ryo, go check the other hot springs to see if they're the same; if they are, then we have our culprit, and we can complete the mission," Kakashi said. After speaking, Ryo got up and flickered away to check the other dry hot springs.
Meanwhile, Kakashi and the other two stayed behind as the jounin discussed a few things with them. In the meantime, Ryo was already at the neighboring inn, quickly checking its hot spring, finding it was also connected to the underground tunnel made by someone. He then moved on to the next one, finding the same tunnel pattern beneath the hot springs.
"Someone did a good job of doing all this without being noticed by anyone," Ryo muttered. After checking a few more springs, Ryo was drawing the extension on a piece of paper, marking where the tunnels ran, covering almost the entire city where there were inns with hot springs.
After an hour, Ryo returned with a rolled-up paper in his hands. Flickering back into the room where the rest of the team was, he placed the open paper on the ground. "Here's the map of the tunnel, which passes beneath almost all the hot springs in the city, except for a few that haven't been active for some time," he said.
Everyone looked at the small paper with Ryo's sketches. The young man didn't have much talent for drawing, but it was still understandable to some extent. Haruka then took a map of the city, placing Ryo's drawing over it, and they could see that it indeed circled all the points of interest in the city.
"So, that's it. Our mission was to find out why this was happening, not to solve the problem. Since it seems to be a bigger operation than we anticipated, we'll have to report everything to Konoha, and then they'll take the necessary actions. I'll inform those in charge of the mission, and then we'll head back to Konoha," Kakashi said, flickering away with the other three to pack up and return to Konoha.
"I wish I could fight whoever did all this, who do they think they are messing with the way people earn money in the city?!" Denji exclaimed, clearly itching for a fight again, but he promptly received a slap from Haruka, who scolded him.
Ryo let out a light laugh as he watched the scene. Sometimes, the normal interactions between his teammates made him feel more relaxed, distancing him a bit from serious and focused thoughts and reminding him to truly live, despite everything that had happened. Ryo let out a soft sigh.
"Come on, you two. Get ready; we have a long way back to Konoha," Ryo said to them. Denji looked at Ryo, rolling his eyes. "Sure, sure. Let's go, Mr. Perfect," Denji retorted. Ryo looked at him, not understanding the reason for that, but he didn't mind in the end. After some time, Kakashi appeared, calling them to leave.
"The mission will rank up as soon as we return. However, our objective has already been achieved; all that's left is to return to Konoha," Kakashi said as Team 13 was on the way back. The team had completed two missions, one of which had been stopped midway as its conditions had changed.
Still, it was a success for Team 13: two Rank D missions and a capture of bandits that would have been Rank C if it were a mission. However, it had been an incidental occurrence. Now, as they returned to Konoha, they all used flickering to move swiftly and skillfully through the trees.
Ryo couldn't help but think that his first missions as a ninja had been much more than just looking for a lost cat. Perhaps because Kakashi was their sensei, they managed to get missions that could have a higher degree of danger. After a few hours of running, they took a break to regain their energy and eat something.
Ryo began to distribute some ninja ration bars, which provided complete nutrition but didn't have the best taste. They stood still for a few minutes on the trees.
It was at this moment that Kakashi took a kunai in hand, signaling the group to be silent and pointing in a direction. Ryo also sent out some location waves to assess the situation better and looked in the direction indicated.
There were some people dressed in black clothes with cloth masks covering their faces. They were definitely not civilians. Some of them were jumping between the trees. It was a group of seven ninjas. One of them had more details on his black clothes, a scratched Otogakure symbol on his headband.
The other six had no headbands but carried weapons such as katanas, kunais, shurikens. One even had a scroll on his back. Definitely, the whole group was made up of ninjas. Now the question was how they had managed to get here in the Fire Country's territory, and whether they were really after Team 13. If that were the case, Ryo and the others would have to fight soon.
[ Author here!
If you like the fanfic, and if you want to support me, I really appreciate it!, the novel will be updated first on patreon! . So come check it out patreon.com /goldenmasterr ]