Chapter: 25

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....

*AHO!* *AHO!* *AHO!*

...

'DON'T HOLD ME BACK! LET ME KILL 'EM!!!'

[I'M NOT!]

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"Now before you get agitated, let me explain."

'THAT'S WHAT YOU SHOULD HAVE STARTED WITH, YOU SENILE GEEZER!!!'

Suddenly, Kaori felt a chill settle down on her shoulders and she forcefully suppressed her emotions before anyone else could sense them. The Hokage already had, that's why he opted to explain, while some of the ANBU members who had sensed her anger were concentrating their bloodlust on her.

Bloodlust, even to a ninja, wasn't something tangible or visible but an underlying current in the chakra flow all around them. It was the subtle disturbance that caused goosebumps to form on their skins, a slight tingling sensation on the back of the neck, or perhaps a sense of dread pooling in their stomach.

A feeling developed by millennials of evolution, the instinct that a predator had taken note of them, just in this case, the predator could be substituted with a ninja. 

Kaori had lost her calm and allowed some of her innate anger to drip into the chakra circulating within her body. A combination of physical frustration and mental anguish combined to leak her anger out for other predators to sniff out and home in on.

The Hokage began without bothering to put up some sort of kind-hearted, helpful elderly pretense and got straight to the point,

"The D-Rank mission is a simple thief subjugation mission, dead or alive it doesn't matter, just remember to keep his corpse intact."

'Which means the man's one of our spies or one of the other great nations,'

Otherwise, the Hokage won't be all that much interested in keeping the thief's body intact.

"The C-Rank missions are standard Bandit neutralization along the shared border of the Land of Fire and the Land of Waves. They have been terrorizing our merchants since migrating from the Land of Waves."

'War brings all sorts of people, huh?'

It was true, war did bring a whole lot of people from other lands into the Land of Fire, them being the most prosperous nation in terms of resources. It wasn't all bad though, among the migrants were craftsmen, artisans, medics, and experts in various fields. Kind of like a brain drain, an extremely brutal and violent one at that.

"Now, on to the B-Ranked mission,"

Kaori straightened up, paying complete attention to the Hokage's words this time around,

"I'm not too keen on entrusting such a mission to a non-combatant ANBU, but Hebi believes you are the right person for it."

'So Hebi's the one who planned this.'

The Nara sure are scary once they have enough time to plan something.

"Think of it as a war-time advancement exam."

They were not that rare, but they sure were unconventional and extremely unprofitable, one had to go through a dangerous and possibly suicidal mission to advance only to be assigned more difficult tasks,

'Talk about a pain in the ass.'

[Running full-body scan to search for potential Nara parasites.]

"Our Intel suggests that these bandits are far too organized to be random refugee groups. They employ coordinated hit-and-run tactics, target caravans not protected by our Shinobi, and leave no survivors."

He paused to take a pull from his pipe and sighed out the smoke, messaging his forehead,

"A few merchant groups are suspecting that we, the leaf shinobi, are the culprit and this is a scheme of ours to limit trade with enemy villages and earn money off of phony escort missions."

Bad. Very bad for the village. Trade unions and merchant groups usually had direct connections to the Daimyo's court. One wrong move and it might just result in a reduction of war funds.

"ANBU SIZUME!"

The old man shouted suddenly, startling Kaori out of her thoughts. Heck, even the poor guy, coughing overhead, would have slipped had it not been for his partner,

"Your mission is to investigate these strange activities, gather intel on the force behind this mess, and exterminate with extreme prejudice. If you can't neutralize them on your own, send a messenger bird and a team of ANBU will rush to your aid. You have one month!"

Kaori snapped to attention, well it wasn't a perfect snap but close enough,

"Yes, Lord-Hokage!"

Sarutobi Hiruzen nodded contently, 

"Well then, dismissed."

Kaori hurriedly gathered the seven mission scrolls, stuffed them inside her gear kit, gave one last respectful bow to the old man, and wished his wife would make him sleep on the sofa for a few months.

***

Kaori stepped out of the Hokage's office and into the bright light of the sun, her heart heavy from the responsibility of seven important missions... not really her heart though, more like her pants. She had stuffed her pockets full of scrolls and now she regretted it, the weight was pulling on her already loose pants,

'Kushina's gained weight.'

[Suggestion: Best not mention it before her if you don't want to get your head cracked open.]

'What do you think I am? An idiot?'

[...Yes]

'...I walked right into that one didn't I?'

Still, her grumbling didn't help the fact that she had her hands in her pockets to keep her pants on or they would have slid right down to her ankle... and she had no intention of being labeled an exhibitionist!!!

Just as she was about to rush back to Kushina's place, a voice called out to her,

"Kaori-san?"

'Great, now who?'

Slowly and carefully, she turned around to see who was calling out to her. Her thought powers focused solely on not dropping her pants,

'Fuck...'

[Individual identified. Uchiha Mikoto.]

"Yes?"

Mikoto smiled gently,

"It really is you Kaori-san!"

Her smile had toned down over the years. It is a wonder what marriage had done to a woman of Mikoto's disposition, she used to be a wild and unruly girl, just like Kushina, always beating up other kids and causing havoc. In terms of talent as well, she was second to only the likes of Kushina and Minato... which meant she was the third most talented person in their class, even better than crybaby Fugaku, 

"Uh-yeah! If it isn't Mikoto-chan..."

'Crap'

[GG]

Mikoto hated being called 'Chan,' so much so that she once beat a teacher to a pulp after he admonished her for her rude behaviour... poor bastard was hospitalized for a week and quit his job another week later.

Mikoto tilted her head to one side, gave the most motherly smile that Kaori had ever seen,

"Ara~ my bad seems like I should call you Kaori-senpai~"

Kaori chuckled awkwardly,

"Ahaha,"

'FORGIVE ME!'

[Wrong order idiot!]

Still, with a soft smile plastered across her face, Mikoto walked over to Kaori, each of her steps sounded like a gong in Kaori's ears. Once they were next to each other, Mikoto hooked her arm with Kaori's waist, like old friends hugging upon meeting after a long time. But an observant eye could have spotted the light blue flash intertwine around Mikoto's fingers as she wrapped her hand around Kaori's waist,

*ZAP* 

"Eek!"

'Oh, right. She's a lightning-style user.'

[Serves you right.]

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