105 Regroup

After the confrontation, the night passed relatively uneventfully.

After scattering away, and fleeing far enough from his teammates and deep enough into the forest, Mizuki used chakra walking to scale a tree, eventually resting on a hidden branch, the highest one that could reliably sort his weight.

Upon laying down some rudimentary defenses for his current position in the form of paper bombs scattered across strategic locations, Mizuki allowed himself to drift off to sleep.

. . . . .

Mizuki woke himself up just before sunrise, taking a moment to himself to fully awaken, letting loose a large yawn before silently packing everything up from his position and rushing towards the preordained rendezvous point.

All in all, it took Mizuki just shy of ten minutes to finally arrive at what they had previously established as their tertiary rendevous point, or "Point C." A little clearing by the creek which they used to get water whilst impersonating bandits.

Mizuki was the first of the three to arrive there, giving him time to reflect upon his actions the previous night, and just how dumb he had been.

After all, how many shinobi out there can use white flames?

Mizuki couldn't think of any other characters in Naruto, canon or filler, horned celestial race or otherwise, that can do such a thing.

Only him.

And he just tossed the attack out yesterday like it was nothing.

Fortunately for Mizuki, the people who knew he specifically used white flames that were outside the village could be counted on one hand.

After all, even if he had been able to outwit Gari, he was still seen as not enough to be put into the bingo book.

He was still just an abnormally powerful chunin to them.

Albeit, one with the potential to rival some of the villages' top shinobi, but still currently a chunin nonetheless.

However, it was clear that this would be his last opportunity for such carelessness.

After this mission, assuming he pulled it off successfully, Mizuki would be known as a chunin with not only a unique and interesting style of jutsu but a boy who is able to face some of the shinobi world's most famous or those directly related to them, and still live to tell the tail.

In other words.

Shit would get a whole lot more complicated.

Soon enough, another five minutes of pure silence passed, the only sounds being those of nature.

The whistling of the wind as it blew through the trees. The sound of the crickets all chirping in the grass. The rushing of the water as the creek flowed downstream.

However, all of these were interrupted by the sound of a certain shinobi rushing towards the rendevous point.

. . . . .

Guy: "Youth!"

Konoha's green beast arrived at the rendevous point just shy of ten minutes after Mizuki, carefully scanning the area before seeing Mizuki.

Guy: "Mizuki! Good to see you made it!"

Mizuki: "Yah, you too! Any injuries?"

Guy nodded.

Guy: "Some minor burns along my chest and Arms."

Mizuki: "No problem!"

Mizuki's hands glowed a faint green hue as he used the mystic palm jutsu, healing up Guy's injuries and bringing him back to his peak physical condition.

It took around another five minutes for Mizuki to completely heal the boy, as Guy's injuries were all relatively minor in scale.

Luckily for them though, as soon as Mizuki finished his healing, their captain himself finally entered the clearing, his ninken accompanying him.

Mizuki: "Just on time"

Neko: "hehe, sorry for the hold-up."

Mizuki: "Any Injuries? I'm not the best, but I am decent enough at healing to get the job done."

Neko: "Thanks, my right arm is pretty badly scorched from that lightning"

Mizuki: "And your ninken?"

Neko: "Oh, you mean Usagi?"[1]

Mizuki: "Usagi and Neko. Y'know, I'm starting to see a trend here"

Neko: "Fuck you too"

Mizuki began healing Neko, discussing what their strategy would be in the first place.

Neko: "Ok, what are the risks that they know who we are"

Mizuki: "I'd give around thirty percent. I accidentally used my white flames last night."

Neko: "The Ones you used against Gari? You should be fine. I doubt that you were important enough to be directly written about."

Neko: "At most, you are seen as a slight anomaly by some of the Iwa shinobi. No need to worry. Still, don't use them for our final showdown. And if you do, make sure to kill any witnesses. We can't risk them finding out who you are."

Mizuki: "Yes sir"

Guy: "Captain, what about you though?"

Neko: "Me?"

Guy: "Isn't your clan famous for its use of ninken as partners in combat. Wouldn't that give us away?"

Neko: "It shouldn't. Even if the Inuzuka Clan is the most well know ninken users, that doesn't mean that we are the only ones. Not by a longshot. Hell, even Sakumo Hatake himself had a pack of ninken which he raised"[2]

Mizuki: "So, what are we going to do?"

Neko: "We can't stay here for long nor can we receive any more orders via bird. There will probably be a platoon of shinobi sent here to flush out the forest, and we are too far behind enemy lines to have effective two-way communication. Not to mention how we would practically be screaming our locations with such a method."

Mizuki: "So it is all up to us.."

Neko: "Very well then, we shall take a vote to determine whether to abandon the mission, due to the failure of risk have such a high chance and consequences."

Neko: "All in favor?"

Mizuki raised his hand.

Neko: "All against?"

Neko and Guy raised their hands.

Neko: "Very well then, it has been decided."

Mizuki: "Will we be following our original plan for the sabotage?"

Neko: "Yup. Although now there will probably be increased security and vigilance among the guards, we have absolutely no room for error. Do you understand?"

Mizuki: "Yes"

Guy: "Yes sir!"

Neko: "Let's get going then."

. . . . .

[1] Well, I decided to continue the little naming trend here lol. Usagi means rabbit.

[2] Kakashi had a pack of ninja hounds, but it is never really stated how he learned to tame/acquired them beyond stating that he raised them during the 3rd great shinobi war. So, I decided to make their origin Sakumo. Won't affect canon at all really, just something I felt would be nice to add.