Land of Rivers (1)

[Merchant Convoy Assistance - C-rank mission

The [Golden Turtle] merchant union has requested a group of genins for the sake of bodyguarding their convoy to the Land of Rivers bountiful city Jakami. However, the convoy possesses items of high value aims at passing the borders illegally, without paying the frontier taxes, which may cause soldiers to try and arrest them.

Your task is simple: you must make sure that the items reach Jakami's famous business called [House of Wine]

Task - Bottles of Red Beetle Wine delivered to the [House of Wine] (0 / 280)

Rewards: 1500 EXP, 2 Bottles of Red Beetle Wine, 400 000 Ryo, Reputation gains]

C-rank missions were suited for experienced genins and newly promoted chunins. Within the Sunagakure Genin corps, many would die in this kind of missions. Surely, the mission was very rewarding, but it should not have been very difficult, since it had a pretty long duration. Long duration missions were more likely to be rated above their difficulty to compensate and give out higher rewards, even if the tasks were not very difficult.

However, Kaito knew that there was no such thing as fairness in this world. The naruto series showed it pretty well. A C-rank mission could easily turn into a B-rank, or even A-rank mission due to unforeseen development.

Three weeks passed in a flash, and Kaito's group met with their first shinobi enemies. On their forehead, there lied the three lines representing the Hidden Village of the lands of rivers, Tanigakure. However, Kaito's expression showed surprise.

They were patrolling tanigakure shinobi.

The first one had short spiky hair. His hands were covered in bandages and he wore a mask, making Kaito evaluate him as a taijutsu specialist, seeing as he had neither a tools nor scrolls. There was a small probability of him being a ninjutsu specialist, but his strong build made Kaito think otherwise.

[Level 10 Tanigakure Genin]

The second one was a woman, a bit taller than her comrades. Her hair was tied in a ponytail, and wore glasses. She had an average body, untrained and similar to citizens. She was most likely a ninjutsu specialist. However, she also happened to be the weakest of the group.

[Level 9 Tanigakure Genin]

The third one was the scariest. He was short and young, most likely fifteen years old, but his eyes were indifferent in the face of danger. He wore a mask as well, and possessed black hair. He immediately took out a kunai upon seeing the Sunagakure headbands on their head, and it seemed like there was no room for negotiations. After all, despite being deep into the Lands of Rivers, the convoy did not have any representative from the lands of Rivers, meaning that it had gone through the frontier illegally in order to avoid taxes.

After all, the lands of Rivers and the lands of Wind were not allies. There had been a ceasefire, but years of wars and battlefields between Konoha and Suna taking place in the Lands of Rivers made them hostile to their kinds.

[Level 25 Tanigakure Chunin]

Kaito made a sign to Eiji and Aki: "Protect me at all costs. I will wear them down.

Taking out two scrolls, Kaito immediately summoned his two puppets: the Shield Warrior Puppet and the Shuriken Launcher Puppet. Now that he had gotten his hands on poison and improved his shuriken launcher puppet, he possessed incredible firepower. Fighting as a group was more likely to be efficient.

However, the black-haired shinobi from Tanigakure released an incredible amount of chakra. Unable to process what was happening, Kaito immediately took cover, using the Shield Warrior Puppet to protect him and the shuriken launcher.

'Thank god I thought to use ground hooks to face this kind of situation...otherwise I would have been blown off...'

However, when he looked around him to evaluate the damage, he realised that most of the mercenaries had been blown up against trees and suffered injuries. Mr Hiroshi, the head merchant of the convoy, had a spike on his chest. Knowing that the mission had failed, Kaito's eyes became cold. The goods were most likely ruined, and his client's odds of survival were small. However, the evaluation of damages would have to come after the elimintation of his opponents. This was not a game. This was a battlefield.

Eiji was the main target, and although he managed to regain his footing, the wind cut his chest, and there were wounds. He had been blown off dozens of meters away from the main battlefield. As for Aki, she managed to take cover behind the caravan, but was she was facing the charge of the taijutsu specialist. Of course, Eiji was charging forward to block him, knowing that Aki would be incapacitated otherwise.

'Damn it...I guess this is the limits of formations...'

This time, he would have to fight a man eight levels stronger than him. Yet, for some reason, Kaito showed no fear. Perhaps it was his art of puppetry that made him confident. Or perhaps it was the thought of levelling up from this combat.

Regardless of the reason, Kaito's fingers flickered in less than a second after the wind stopped blowing.

[Katonjutsu - Fire Shuriken]

Eighty shuriken were shot instantly, half towards the tall tanigakure shinobi, the other half towards the short dark-haired tanigakure shinobi, who appeared as their leader.

*SPLASH*

The battle had begun.