Chapter 6: First Mission

Isshin appears in front of his house. He walks to the door, opens it, takes off his sandals, and heads upstairs to his room to pack for the mission. He seals everything into a sealing scroll and then leaves his room. He heads back downstairs, into the living room, and sees his mother sitting on the sofa.

Isshin says, "Yo, Mom, I'm leaving on my first C-rank mission."

Mika looks at Isshin, surprised, and asks, "Already?"

Isshin nods and says, "Sensei thinks I'm ready for it."

Mika smiles softly before asking, "Did you pack everything that you'll need?"

Isshin shrugs before saying, "Well, everything I needed from my room. I need to head to a store and pick up some ration bars before I head out."

Mika gets up from the sofa, walks over to Isshin, and hugs him before saying, "Stay safe."

Isshin smiles at her while returning the hug and says, "I will."

Isshin lets go, pulls his bandages up, walks to the door, and says, "Later, see ya when I get back."

When Isshin walks out of his house, he closes the door, pulls out his wallet, counts his Ryo, and thinks to himself, 'Should I get some dango before heading out?' He shakes his head. 'What kind of question is that? Of course, I should.' He then flickers away.

Around thirty minutes before the time limit Hayate gave Isshin, Isshin can be seen walking near the village gate with five skewers of dango in his left hand and a half-eaten one in his right. He sees a security booth with two Chunin. One has long, spiky black hair, dark eyes, and a black mark on his chin. The other is wearing a hitai-ate on his forehead with a bandage on the bridge of his nose. The other one has straight brown hair, covering his right eye. He has his chin covered, wearing a bandana-style hitai-ate. They are both sitting down behind a desk, having a conversation. As Isshin walks up to them, he hears them talk.

"So, do you think Kakashi and the other new sensei will enter their teams into the upcoming Chunin exams?" the one with spiky hair asks.

The other replies, "If it was being held in another village, probably not. But it's being held in Konoha this time, so they probably will enter them so they can get some experience."

Isshin walks up after they finish their conversation and asks, "Have you all seen my sensei, Hayate Gekko?"

The one with spiky hair looks at Isshin and says, "I might have. I will tell you if you give me three sticks of dango." The brown-haired Chunin shakes his head and sighs.

Isshin stares blankly at the spiky-haired Chunin, turns around, and starts walking away toward the gate. He sits down with his back against the wall and starts eating the rest of his dango while waiting for Hayate to show up. Around fifteen minutes later, he sees Hayate walking toward him and says, "Yo, sensei."

Hayate looks over at Isshin and says, "Hello. Ready for your first mission out of the village?"

Isshin shrugs and says, "As ready as I can be."

They start walking over toward the security booth. When they get in front of the booth, Hayate asks, "Kotetsu, Izumo, how's it going?"

"Good, I guess," Kotetsu replies.

"Fine," Izumo replies.

"Well, I'm going to take my Genin out on his first C-Rank. Mind signing us out?"

Izumo starts filling out a paper before saying, "Alright, all done. Be safe out there."

"Will do," Hayate says as he and Isshin start making their way out of the village.

After around eight hours of traveling, they stop to make camp. After they finish setting up camp, Isshin asks, "Sensei, the Hokage said that we have seven days to finish the mission, right? How long will it take to reach the village?"

Hayate nods and replies, "Yes, he did. Also, it should take about a day's worth of travel to get there."

"Are we going to train any while we are out on the mission?" Isshin asks.

Hayate thinks for a moment before replying, "Normally we wouldn't, but I did want to teach you a jutsu that could prove useful for you."

Isshin asks excitedly, "Really? What is it?"

Hayate does some hand seals before disappearing before Isshin's eyes. Isshin then hears Hayate say something from behind him. "It's called Transparent Escape." Isshin turns around and sees Hayate appearing out of thin air.

Isshin's eyes are open wide in surprise. Hayate then explains, "Along with you being transparent, your scent is hidden. Only a shinobi dog could smell you. You will only really alert people by the sound you make. Dojutsu users can see through this technique, though." (The wiki doesn't state much about the Jutsu other than making its user invisible so since this is my fic it also works like the Hiding with Camouflage Jutsu :P)

Isshin looks on with stars in his eyes and exclaims, "That sounds amazing!"

Hayate explains how the technique works and the hand seals before saying, "You can practice it tomorrow. You need to head to bed. I'll take night watch and wake you up when it's your turn to watch."

"Alright, sensei," Isshin says before heading into the tent and lying down and falling asleep.

Fast forward two days. They make it to the village, and they start asking villagers they saw on the street where the village leader was. Most of the villagers just ignored them until eventually when they asked an old lady.

Isshin walks to an old lady and asks, "Excuse me, ma'am, could you tell us where the village leader is?"

The old lady smiles at Isshin. "Certainly, you want Haruka. He should be heading to the bar around now. You should be able to find him easily. He's an old coot." She chuckles before pointing at a run-down bar and walks away.

"Off to the bar then, I guess," Isshin says.

They head to the bar, order some food, and eat. After they get done eating, Isshin asks, "So how exactly does knowing that the mayor is an old coot supposed to help us find him?"

Hayate shrugs and says, "Worst-case scenario, if we can't find him ourselves, we will ask around the bar and hopefully find him."

As Hayate says that, a scrawny bald old man with a face full of wrinkles, a bushy white brow, and a white messy beard reaching down to his knees, walks into the bar with a walking cane and sits down on a stool in front of the bartender. Isshin nods sagely as he says, "I think I found our guy."

Isshin gets up and walks over to the old man and asks, "Would you happen to be Haruka?"

The old man looks at Isshin and nods. Hayate gets up and walks over. He looks at Haruka and says, "Hello, sir. We are from Konoha. We are here for the bandits."

Haruka then says, "Good, about time. Those bandits will be gone."

Hayate then asks, "Do you happen to know where they are hiding out?"

Haruka nods his head. "About three or four hours northeast."

Hayate says, "Thank you. The bandits shouldn't be a problem after tonight." He looks at Isshin and states, "It's time to move out. If we leave now, we could probably make it there before dusk." Isshin follows Hayate out of the bar, and they start making their way to where the bandits are supposed to be.

Around two hours later, they make it near the bandit encampment. They are currently standing on a tree branch. Hayate asks, "Could you check how many bandits are in there?"

Isshin nods before he closes his eyes and kneads his chakra. He spreads his senses over the camp, frowns, and then opens his eyes. "The information that we got was wrong. I can sense about seventy bandits, and on top of that, I sensed someone with a chakra amount comparable to you."

"Tsk," Hayate clicks his tongue before saying, "I was planning on eliminating the bandits and having you take on the leader, but I guess not anymore."

Isshin pulls a small sealing scroll out before injecting some chakra into it. He puts it back into his pocket before handing Hayate a vial with a clear liquid in it. "What is this?" Hayate asks.

"A slow-acting poison. If we can manage to find whatever is holding their drinking water or booze, we could poison it and wait until they drop before heading in and taking care of the Jonin," Isshin says.

"How strong is it?" Hayate asks as he stares at the vial.

"For shinobi, not very. Probably just makes them sluggish for a while. That is if they don't sense it before ingesting it." He shrugs before continuing. "But as for the rest of the bandits, they should fall into an endless slumber."

"Alright, I'll be back," Hayate says before going through some hand seals and disappearing.

Hayate stealthily makes it through the encampment looking for the storage. He finds it after looking around for about fifteen minutes. Surprisingly, there is no one guarding it. He slips into a tent and sees some barrels. He pops open the lids and finds two that contain liquid, one booze, the other water. He then thinks to himself while frowning, 'He didn't tell me how much to use. Hopefully, using half in each will be good enough.' He then heads back to where Isshin is.

Isshin heard a stick snap and quickly unsheathed his katana. He closed his eyes, kneaded his chakra, and spread chakra over the area. He scowled and lunged at the chakra signature, slashing down. A loud clang was heard. Isshin looked up and saw a sturdy middle-aged man with graying short spiky hair. He has dark brown eyes. He was wearing a fishnet shirt, black pants, and sandals. But what caught Isshin's eye the most would have to be either the bo-staff that was currently pushing his katana away or the fact that this man was wearing a Konoha hitai-ate with a scratch across it.

"So, a Genin from the leaf," the man says before he kicks Isshin in the chest, sending him skidding back.

Isshin coughs up some spit before saying, "So, a traitor from the leaf." He dashes toward the man, feinting a left horizontal slash and slashing out diagonally.

The man smirks as he readies himself for the strike. With a fluid motion, he easily deflects Isshin's strike with his bo-staff. He spins his bo-staff and hits Isshin in the ribs. Isshin jumps backward while holding his ribcage.

Isshin breathes in and grimaces in pain he thinks to himself 'With just one strike he cracked my ribs' Isshin does a few hand seals sheathes his Katana and does an Iaido slash to the man's right side, he manages to leave a small cut before the realizes that he was in a Genjutsu 

the man quickly snaps out of the Genjutsu before he grabs Isshins arm in a vice-like grip stopping the blade from going in any farther he then tosses Isshin away from him Isshin goes flying through the air his back hits a tree causing him to cough out some blood and gasp for air

"You almost got me I guess I should stop playing around," he said as he rushed forward he swung his staff down at Isshin's head and the hit connected or so it seemed the man looked to see wood chips flying everywhere "That was a quick substitution kid," he said as he looks around for Isshin

Isshin is sitting against a tree on top of one of its branches gasping for air he steeles his resolve and goes through some hand seals before he disappears into thin air 

The man is walking around the clearing looking for Isshin he shouts "If you come out I promise I won't make you suffer when I kill you" Suddenly he feels a chill run down his spine 

Isshin slowly makes his way behind the missing-nin trying to not let out a grunt of pain by clinching his teeth, he tightens his hold on his Katana with a determined glint in his eyes he thrusts his Katana through the man's chest as he slowly appears from thin air, and pulls it back out he swings it in the air getting the blood off of it and sheathes it, and watches as the man fell to the ground to his knees

The man chuckles sadly as he coughs out spit "So this is how I go out" he tries to catch his breath as he asks "Mind telling me your name kid?"

Isshin grimaces and replies "Isshin Yamanaka"

"I hope your will of fire never dims like mine Isshin," the man said shortly before taking his last breath

Isshin drags himself over to a tree and leans against it before shutting his eyes

Hayate walks back into the clearing a few moments later and sees a bruised Isshin lying against a tree he hurriedly runs over to check on him after he makes sure that Isshin is fine he walks over to the man lying face first on the ground and rolls him over he looks at his face before sealing him and his weapon away in two separate scrolls.

"Timeskip no Jutsu"

Isshin woke up in a bed and tried to sit up but screamed in pain Hayate quickly ran in to check on him

"oh hai sensei, how long have I been out?" Isshin asked in a sad tone 

"It's been three days, How are you holding up?" Hayate asked looking concerned

"As well as I can be after being chucked at a tree" Isshin chuckles but ends up grimacing in pain

Hayate shakes his head "You know what I mean"

Isshin scratches the back of his head before replying "Yeah I know, I don't know how to explain I knew that when becoming a shinobi I would have to take lives and we specifically took this mission so I could take my first while you were watching to make sure I was safe" he pauses and looks at Hayate and sees a guilty expression on Hayates face he continues "I was completely outclassed in that fight I know I would have died if I didn't kill him and honestly it was a fluke if I wasn't quick enough I would have been the body on the ground on that night"

Hayates looks over with a smile and says "But you aren't, you are going back home to your friends and family" he reaches over and gives him a one-armed hug before asking "So what exactly happened during the fight" Isshin recounts the fight

"When did you get the Jutsu down?" Hayate asks 

Isshin shakes his head "I wouldn't say I have it down that's why I said it was a fluke I knew if I couldn't kill him I would die so I gambled it all on a Jutsu that I could hardly use for three minutes"

Hayate frowns before saying "At least the gamble paid off in the end"

"By the way who was that man anyway," Isshin asks with a frown

"That man was Kazuki Sarutobi a former Jonin of the village he deserted the village during the Third Shinobi War" Hayates states

"do you know why he went rogue," Isshin asked

"no clue" Hayate replies

"did you happen to grab his staff?" Isshin asks

Hayate looks at Isshin puzzled before asking "Why? Are you planning on learning Bojustu as well"

Isshin shakes his head while replying "No, I just want to just collect weapons"

Hayate shrugs before tossing him a scroll and saying "By the way next time you give me a vial of poison tell me how much I need to use"

"why what happened?" Isshin asked while looking down 

"I put half of it into a barrel of booze and the other half into a barrel of water they didn't fall into eternal slumber like you said they ended up just getting sick and I had to finish them all off," Hayate says while scowling

"Oops, sorry!" Isshin says

"oh yeah, when we get back to the leaf expect a big fat bonus," Hayate says as he smiles at Isshin

"Oh really?" Isshin asks 

"yup just imagine all the dango you can eat after cashing in a B-Rank bounty" Hayate looks on in amusement as Isshin is drooling thinking about mountains of dango "Anyways get some sleep we leave tomorrow"

the next day Hayate and Isshin are making their way back to Konoha when they hear cawing they look up and see a hawk circling around them Hayate whistles and the hawk flies down and lands on his should he takes off a note attached to the hawks leg and read it then he takes out a piece of paper writes something down attaches it to the hawks leg it then flies away

"What was that about sensei?" Isshin asks

"It seems like you'll be seeing one of your friends sooner than we expected" Hayate states