Off to the Frontlines

Before going to the gate, I rushed over to the Hatake Clan's weaponry to get a new sword because if at some point I get low on chakra, my Kenjutsu will be my only saving grace.

This didn't take long. I just said I am off to a dangerous mission and needed a sword and they provided one. Besides, my reputation in the clan has increased a lot ever since I officially became an Elite Chunin. They have been calling me a genius of the same level as Kakashi and I even had a small meet with the clan elders.

They even came to my house themselves and congratulated me for it. They are really nic people so the meeting wasn't stressful at all.

Coming back to the present, as I arrived to the gate I could see a huge crowd. It was the 100 shinobis going with me and most probably their family members as well as some civilians who came to see them off.

I arrived near the two shinobis stationed at the gates for their duty.

"Is everyone going on the mission here?"

The two were surprised for a second but immediately composed themselves and said "Yes".

This also brought the attention of all the 100 shinobis present here to me.

The news of my promotion has already been circulated through the village and I am immediately recognised by the Jonins and the veterans here as soon as they hear my name. Some even recognise me by my face which is why the ones on the gate keeping duty like 'Those two guys from Naruto' recognised and answered me immediately.

However, there is no Genin who knows about me which is why all of them looked at me suspiciously as if this was some sort of joke. It didn't help that I was shorter than almost everyone here. Except for a few kunoichis but that doesn't help either.

To be honest, this is one one of the reasons why I didn't want to go to the mission. Now I have to get them in line, make them understand that I am in command and also take care of them throughout the mission.

I am pretty sure that if I wasn't wearing my Chunin vest then someone would have already called me out.

Oh that reminds me I have never really given a description about my appearance have I?

Well I have medium-length silver-white hair and a taper haircut fading as it reaches my nape, black eyes

'Alright let's get this over with.'

"All of you listen up. We are leaving now and I am the one who will be leading this mission so stay with the group and try to keep up with me if you don't want to be left behind." I said my piece and ran out the gate.

I looked behind to see all of them following behind with a disapproving look on their faces.

But I don't care about any of that. I just need to get them to the front lines and hand them over to the person in charge over there.

After travelling for a few minutes, I stopped everyone so that I can decide on the formation as well as keep in mind the ranks of everyone present here.

"All Chunins or sensors among the group step out."

A total of 15 people stepped out and after asking them, I realised there are 3 sensors in the group and all of them are among the chunins whereas there are 12 more chunins without any kind of specialisation.

So, I just decided on a simple formation. We will be in a diamond formation with our weakest members on the outerside, the three sensors are in each corner of the diamond except the back but I put 5 chunins at the back. The rest of the genins will be in the middle.

I will be in the front right behind the sensor so I can give commands fast and easily.

The chances of us coming across an enemy on the way to the camp are very low but better be safe than sorry.

We continued our journey till sunset and decided to find a clearing and set our camp there with everyone taking turns to keep watch.

I got a tent for myself since there is no way will I be sharing one with the others. After resting for a while I decided to head out to the campfire to see what everyone was up to.

Walking out of the camp, I saw a group of 15 people sitting around the fire. I recognised five of them to be chunins while the others were all genins.

'I guess it's kind of good that they are getting along with each other besides the difference in ranks.'

As I walked close to them, I heard what they were talking about.

"It is so frustrating following orders from a child"

"Yeah. I mean who even is he? Treating us like useless idiots. We are also ninjas of the same village."

"Yeah we went through the same tests he did and who even made that little kid a Chunin anyway. He looks like he'd be blown away by a little wind."

"Yeah I bet I could easily beat his ass to the ground."

"Then why don't you give it a try?" I said appearing behind the group

"!!!"

All of them immediately turned their head around to face me with shocked faces and hands on their ninja gear ready to attack.

'Just sneaking behind a ninja is enough to make them feel pressured no matter who they are.'

After they recognised who they were going to attack, they relaxed and the one who looked to be their leader or at least the strongest one among them spoke up.

"Ahh so it was you captain. You should not scare us like that what if we had attacked out of reflex."

"Oh, sorry if I scared you. I didn't realise that your senses were that weak since I wasn't exactly hiding my presence." I said

This made all of their faces contort in anger.

"N-No we weren't scared" their leader replied

"Oh just forget about my rambling and get back to the conversation. You said something about beating my ass and I told you to go ahead and try." I said

"Oh-no no that was just a joke. I wouldn't dare to go up against my superior. You are obviously much stronger than me." he said sarcastically

"Oh don't be so stuck up. I myself don't fancy bullying my juniors but I am willing to make an exception just for you."

"Also I really don't enjoy just taunting each other with words so let's just get this over with already. You know what I'll make this more interesting. If you manage to defeat me you can be the leader of this mission. I will take full responsibility of talking to the superiors that it was my decision to step down as the leader."

"However, if you lose you will follow literally every single one of my orders without a question."

"Alright but I hope you don't go back on your word afterwards." he said

We cleared a good space and more and more people surrounded us in order to watch our fight which is exactly what I wanted. If everyone sees the fight it will be much easier to bring all of them under control.

All of them surrounded us in a circle and started cheering for the person in front of me.

"Are you a close range fighter or a long one?" I asked

"Close range" he replied giving a smile.

"Good then this will work." I said "We are still on mission and can't risk each other getting seriously injured anyway so we will fight without using ninjutsu and we will use the chakra to dull the weapons."

"Alright" he replied

"You" I pointed to one of the genins close to us watching the fight, "give the signal to start the fight."

So the said genin walked closer to us held his hand up and immediately jumped back to the crowd after saying the word "begin".

We both dashed to each other and got into a Taijutsu fight.

He threw a jab at me which I dodged by bending down and threw a punch to his sides which made him groan in pain as he staggered a few steps behind.

Although my move was very simple and easy to predict, it was fast enough for him to be unable to follow it.

"You are awfully slow." I said

He again dashed at me but this time with his gauntlets on and launched a fury of attacks.

'Well he is a brute. The worst kind of ninja. He barely qualifies to be at Chunin level.'

I appeared behind him and as he turned to look at me, I launched a fury of attacks of my own which hit him straight in the face. Then I kicked him in his stomach which had him falling to the ground.

Not wanting to continue this any longer any longer I placed my sword on his neck and forced him to surrender.

Since I had accomplished what I wanted to do, I just went back to my tent and slept.

Normally in these cases, the winner of the fight probably gloats more and disrespects his opponents a lot but I don't enjoy doing that to someone much weaker than me.

Had he been a strong opponent I would have enjoyed the fight but crushing those extremely weaker than me isn't exciting at all.

In the morning after, I made us head out as soon as sunrise and then we continued on our journey again. I got like 4 hours of sleep last night but I was still feeling fresh because I had been doing force control even while sleeping.

This time the journey was a lot more peaceful and everyone followed my orders without a question and we were actually able to pick up the pace.

At this rate we will reach there by noon i.e. if we don't come across an enemy on the way there. But even if the enemy ninjas have managed to get past our borders to launch an attack on our backup or supply route, it can only be a very few number of shinobis and I can take care of that much myself....hopefully.