Bandits

The group of shinobi took only a couple of days to set up their trap, and yet, already they were experiencing it's boons.

After isolating an area of road which was relatively far away from the nearest towns, and also concealed in the form of forests surrounding it, the group of "merchants" vanished.

The route itself, whilst not necessarily a major road, still did experience a sizeable amount of traffic from civilian craftsmen bringing their goods towards Kumo, mainly in the form of basic weapons.

And whilst the group of shinobi did not attack every target and draw attention to themselves, they also were not shy with their looting, seizing the cart before sending the merchants back to where they came from, albeit unconscious.

As for what they did with what they gathered?

Mizuki used some of the extra enclosing seals he brought with him to seal them all inside of his scroll.

After all, it was the only way to move unhindered despite possessing such large amounts of weapons, and the group had to be ready to move at a moments notice, all according to the orders of their hokage.

However, for now, the group played the part of small time looters and bandits.

And loot they did.

A week later and they were still at it, shamelessly transforming themselves into bandits before rushing towards the carts and capturing them.

There were remarkably few guards, as the war presented better opportunity outside of guarding small time merchants, and those who did have guards were all incompetent at best.

Mizuki and the other two shinobi were all realizing that the previous timeline of two months for the mission was woefully optimistic, and there was a possibility of them being stuck there for easily double that.

After all, a month had already passed since they left Konoha in the first place.

However, the prayers of the three shinobi did not go unanswered, as that very night, a messenger eagle came to them.

This one containing the next steps of their original mission.

. . . . .

Mizuki: "Those instructions 'bout what we need to do next?"

Neko: "Fucking Finally Huh?"

Guy: "At last! We may unleash our power of youth upon the world!"

Neko tore open the letter carefully scanning it and memorizing it's contents before passing it to Guy, then Mizuki to do the same.

With the latter again using his fire chakra to burn the letter to ash after they all memorized it's content; destroying the evidence.

Neko: "Take 10 minutes to pack things up. We will then spend an additional twenty minutes planting evidence before departing"

Mizuki: "Right!"

Guy: "Yes Sir!"

The Letter delivered to the konoha shinobi contained two orders and a scroll at the bottom.

The first of these orders, contained the location to which they would be sabotaging in order to try to shake the alliance between Iwa and Kumo.

However, it was the second order which was being focused on currently.

In order to grow the tree which would ensure the downfall of this alliance, there would first need to be the planting of the seeds.

However minor, anything that can be misconstrued as foreshadowing to this event could be considered useful in order to add validity to the framing.

And that as what they were doing right now.

Enclosed in the scroll, was a set of kunai, unique to solely Kiri.

After packing up their things, the Konoha shinobi were to scatter these kunai along the edge of the road and around the area where they spent most of their time.

The point behind these sites was not to be found immediately, but rather, to be found after the sabotage.

After the event would occur, Kumo would search high and low, desperately trying to rationalize what had just happened and be skeptical of Kiri really being the perpetrators.

But with "evidence" that kiri backed bandits had been disrupting the Kumo war effort?

Well, that could easily create a messy conflict between the nations, if not create a massive internal conflict within Kumo itself.

. . . . .

The second part of the mission went on without a hitch.

The group were all able to pack their things, realistically plant the evidence, and make the "crime scene" look as real as possible before turning and moving on.

That's when their problems started.

As the shinobi were just about to leave the scene, Neko's ninken started sniffing around, letting loose a low pitch growl that can barely be heard.

Neko: "Son of a Bitch"

Neko: "There is a squad of two shinobi moving around this area. We do not know what they are here for, but considering that we are the only thing worth any note for miles, I think we have a fairly safe guess."

Mizuki: "Well, what do we do? We can't let them find this place. If they do the entire mission is in jeopardy"

Neko pondered for a moment before opening his eyes, a newfound look of determination and clarity found in them.

Neko: "Allright, this is how we are going to let things work."

Guy and Neko both stealthily tried to exit the range which the two shinobi were looking, Mizuki being nowhere to be found.

The duo mainly relied upon the Ninken's impeccable sense of smell, and ability to sense chakra in order to try to detect where the shinobi were and attempt to avoid them.

So far, the two were fairly successful, able to put large amounts of distance between them and the area in which they had planted the evidence.

Slightly nervous, Guy looked down at his transformed form, only to see a "wallet" which in reality, contained a set of kiri kunai.

This was their escape strategy.

They were just merchants who managed to escape the bandits after being proven useless to them, and were sneaking so as to not alert other potential bandit groups nearby.

However, this was all a Plan B.

Plan A was, of course, incredibly simple.

Don't get caught with your pants down.

A Plan which seemed to be looking more and more realistic as time was going on, as the kumo nin were failing to even notice them.

Alas, it was at this very moment when the group experienced the phenomena known as Murphy's law.

"Anything that can go wrong will"

And that is what happened.

Just when they thought they had gotten away.

Just when they had thought that they had succeeded.

They realized that they indeed had not.

For at this moment, the two shinobi's chakra flared up before they closed the distance between themselves and the duo, clearly having just detected them.

A confrontation was about to occur.

Yet, is was unknown to both parties who it is that they would be confronting.