The Meeting

The remainder of the travel passed as planned, with the group of three all making haste, taking minimal amounts of breaks, only to sleep, and even then, they were only able to stop for four.

With their long hours of travel and the relatively quick pace they set, the group was able to reach the Kusa border in just shy of two days.

With the group arriving at the border just as the sun was starting to sink over the horizon.

Perfect timing.

Naturally, the group went through a relatively unguarded section of the border, with only a couple of watchmen manning the area.

Waiting until it was dark, the group was effortlessly able to give them both the slip.

Mizuki almost felt bad about it, knowing that they were about to drag a country into a war that wished they had no part in.

Truly, some things never changed, regardless of what universe one was in.

. . . . .

Under the cover of darkness, the group was able to rapidly move through Kusa, rushing across the fields upon fields of tall grasses from which the village got its namesake.

All In all, it took another day and a half's worth of travel in order to reach the base, arriving over a day earlier then what was expected of them, the country a couple of degrees cooler then Konoha due to it's more northern geography.

Deciding it to be for the best, the group headed off to the nearest town where the outpost was set up near to get its supplies.

Using the cover story of fleeing merchants given to them by Konoha, the trio checked into a raggedy old Inn on the far side of town, being forced to all cram into one room.

. . . . .

Neko: "Call it!"

Screaming those words, Neko leaped towards the bed, landing on the dingy matters, causing a creaking sound.

Neko's face rapidly changed to one of fear, but quickly bounced back upon realizing that the bed was fine.

Mizuki & Konchu: {How the hell did he get promoted this far.}

Glancing around, Mizuki noticed that there was only one seat available for another one of the teammates to sleep on, forcing the third person to sleep on the floor.

Mizuki: "All three of us can rotate, I'll take the floor the first night, the two of you can decide who gets it tomorrow."

Flashing both of his teammates a slight grin, Mizuki unsealed the sleeping bag from his scroll, placing it down on the far side of the room.

After waiting for each other, the three men got up and hit the town in their disguises, anxious to gather information, and most importantly, grab a bite to eat.

After all, they had been in the wilderness for the past half a week.

Neko: "Konchu? Did you-"

Konchu: "Yes sir. I placed a bug in the room, on the Clerc who checked into the hotel, along with all of the leaf shinobi who we randomly brushed by and some randomly selected villagers."

Neko: "Good. Now, we wait."

As the group had been on the road for nothing to do for the past four days, they all had plenty of time to discuss ideas for how they were going to complete the mission, before finally coming up with a strategy.

Konchu would place his bugs on a variety of people, with the bugs depositing their eggs on those who brushed past them as their host continued about their day.

Eventually, a passive web of infiltration was created.

Konchu was known for using a special kind of bug, even among his clansmen.

Konchu's bugs were specialized in infiltration and reconnaissance and as such, whilst their combat abilities were subpar, they all had heightened senses, and could be used as a sort of artificial camera and mic for the caster by simply infusing their chakra.

Soon, the waitress arrived, taking the orders from the three men, who all ordered relatively large portions of food, clearly happy to be back in civilization once more.

The day went on, and the trio put it to good use.

With Konchu staying back in the room to monitor the bugs, and Neko and Mizuki acting as if they were simply admiring the town that they had found themselves in, subtly gathering information from those who they approached about who the potential spy may be.

. . . . .

Just like that, four days passed, with there being seemingly no new developments in their investigation, with the spy clearly being incredibly cautious.

By this point, their stay was starting to grow suspicious, and they would be forced to leave and abandon their identities if the mission dragged on for another day.

Mizuki groaned slightly as he crossed another one of the villagers off his list of people who he had interviewed so far. No luck with this one either. By this point, Mizuki had gotten used to his schedule of interviewing random locals to see if they could reveal any useful information.

It was during one of these routine investigations that a seeming stroke of luck hit the team, as a bug bit down on the back of his neck.

The signal that the group established for communicating something urgent.

Mizuki rushed back to the hotel room to see where it was, only to see that Neko had made it there before him, and was already talking with Konchu about whatever it was.

Mizuki: "Just made it here, what did I miss?"

Neko: "We found him, he had transcribed copies of the varying shinobi's profiles in his room."

Neko: "He can't have sent it away using a summon, as the thing would have been detected by the formation around the base. Meaning, that he must hand off his information to a middle man "

Mizuki: "What is the plan captain? Do we get him now and force him to out the meeting place he uses to capture the middle man, or do we follow him and risk losing them both?"

Neko contemplated the question for a little whilst before coming to a decision.

Neko: "We wait until nightfall before following him."

Neko: "We may not be able to prep our positions, but the alternative is the potential of the middleman realizing that something is up and fleeing."

Neko: "The middleman is the one instructing the spy, and as a result, he will have more crucial information about Iwa's next move. We can't just let him go."

Konchu and Mizuki nodded in agreement before preparing what they could.

Konchu grabbed an insignificant belonging of the spy to use for his scent to help the Inuzuka and his Nuinken track them down.

Neko sent off a falcon back towards Konoha warning of the spy's identity, what documents they had planned to steal, the strategy that the team was going to use, and theories the group had come up with about what Iwa's endgame was.

If the group was going to die, it was crucial that they at least make this information known first.

Soon, the day turned into night and the trio had all finished their preparations.

The group acts according to the strategy they discussed, with Neko and his Nuinken leading the group, tracking his scent.

Mizuki remained in the center of the formation, is the main damage dealer of the group, with Konchu bringing up the rear with his bugs scouting the general area to prevent being ambushed.

Neko: "The scent is moving, the spy left the base"

Hearing this the group rushed with newfound haste, before keeping a distance of around 200 meters as they followed the spy through the fields of tall grass, hiding among it.

Eventually, the spy finally came to a stop in an open clearing, with the tall grass fields surrounding it.

The group nodded to one another before scattering in the tall grass, trying to encircle the spy, who was now just standing in his spot waiting, clearly expecting the arrival of somebody.

The figure could hardly be seen, with a cloak covering all of their features, only revealing a bulky silhouette.

??: "Do you have the documents?"

Spy: "Yes sir!"

The spy then reached into his cloak and pulled out a scroll, which contained all of the information about those guarding the base.

??: "Excellent work, with this our invasion, will progress much smoother."

Mizuki: {Invasion! They will be launching a full assault on Kusa! Is this what Shisui meant when he said to get out fast?}

Mizuki's thoughts were quickly interrupted by the feeling of the bug on the back of his neck biting down hard.

A decision had been reached.

They needed to act.

Now.

Mizuki tunneled under the earth, creating a shadow clone along the way who split up from him and went towards the other shinobi, both making sure that they were unnoticed.

Once they were both in range, there was not so much an ounce of hesitation as two pairs of hands shot up out of the earth, each grabbing a pair of hands before dragging them underground.

The two shinobi were taken by surprise, hindering their reaction time, which would become a big mistake as the shadow clone had a large smirk on his face.

Shadow Clone: "Boom"

Saying those words, the shadow clone inflated slightly before exploding, causing a pillar of smoke and rocks to fly in every direction.

Mizuki let loose a silent tsk sound as he pulled himself out of a different hole in the ground, as he had fled as soon as his shadow clone was about to blow up.

Needless to say, Mizuki escaped without injury.

However, his cause for disappointment was something else.

His opponents were able to escape the attack with less damage than anticipated.

They lost the element of surprise, their main advantage.

Things could only get worse from here.