Intelligence Gathering

(1.5 Days Later)

The two shinobi walked into a clearing. They had been traveling for hours and finally reached the perimeter of the trading port.

"From the map, the main road we're looking for should be over there." Kamui stated as they navigated the lush river lands. Yugao had given her the map and had her navigate them from the land of fire to their destination; she was getting a handle on Kamui's map reading skills. It was one of the competencies Minato listed as a chunin exam prerequisite.

"That's correct. What do you think we should do from here?" Yugao asked, this time testing her mission progression decision-making skills.

Kamui pondered for a moment, then explained her idea. "We need more information on our target, but we don't want to spook them by walking in as leaf ninja. I think we should use the transformation jutsu to disguise ourselves as interested merchants who are the advance party for a larger caravan. Under this disguise, we could ask for information about how shipping is conducted on the main road and where the ambush points typically are. If we mention that we're thinking about hiring shinobi, we might even be able to get away with asking for details on the bandits to verify lord fourth's information. None of this is sensitive information in this type of setting and should at most cost a few ryo (currency)." Hearing this Yugao nodded.

After thinking for a moment, Yugao responded with her thoughts. "It's not a bad plan. Since we're only expecting bandits, it should be fine to go with this method. Once we start taking missions where we expect ninjas though, we're going to need to take a day or two to case the people who naturally play the roles we're trying assume. Of course, that's if we're allowed the time to do so. By doing that in advance, we'll appear more natural in that role when we perform the in-person information gathering. In this case, it's not needed as our combat level vastly exceeds the expected enemy. Even if people get a little suspicious, they're not our targets. At worst, we tip the bandits off before we kill them."

"So do you want to split up or do this together?" Kamui asked. She didn't want to say it out loud, but she was hoping Yugao would choose to stick together. This would be her first information gathering operation in a mission zone. She didn't want to do it by herself.

Smiling at her student's barely-veiled anxiousness, Yugao responded, "We'll do this together. In fact, I'd like you to pose as my assistant during the mission. You'll be able to get a little experience in playing a role, while also shadowing me to see how I play my part. We'll take this approach for the first couple of these missions to get you used to the different facets of infiltration and intelligence gathering."

Kamui involuntarily smiled in relief. As strong as she could be in combat, things like this had to be experienced in person. She had experimented with this type of operation through simulations in the leaf; it was part of the fourth's expanded academy curriculum, but nothing beats your first time in the field.

Shaking her head at the reminder of her disciple's freshness to the profession, Yugao motioned Kamui with her head and began walking toward the town.

With a thought, Yugao's body was covered in a thick smoke, revealing her normal appearance, but with slightly altered facial features, tanned skin, and black hair. Her attire had changed to a simple cotton brown long-sleeve shirt with black leather pants.

"As a reminder from what you've likely been taught on this technique, it's best to minimize the changes you make to your base appearance for operations like these. You want to keep the transformed variables you have to account for to a minimum. Of course, the exception is if you're directly trying to impersonate someone." Yugao explained her train of thought.

"Right." Kamui said as she too transformed. Kamui's transformation altered her gender to be a male with a slender build, skin texture to be a little coarse, her palms to show obvious signs of callus from lifting heaving wooden objects, her face became more average in appearance, and her skin tanned. Her attire shifted to match Yugao's. Yugao was the boss, while she was the laborer, so she had to make additional adjustments to properly fill the role.

While she practiced a lot, her body didn't show the signs of it normally. It's what happens with Kunoichi. Chakra removes the need for the body to produce callus on the hands or thicken the skin. Instead, it reinforces what's already there in a manner somewhat similar to what Yume told her about the cultivators of her predecessor's dimension; it's why kunoichi are so consistently beautiful after many years of service despite the expected opposite. Male ninjas have a similar effect, but theirs' is less pronounced. While the beautifying effect isn't as prominent with them, they're able to get physically stronger on average than kunoichi in compensation.

Nodding her head at her transformed student, Yugao continued to take the lead as they walked to the settlement in the distance.

After an hour of walking, they finally came to the gates of the town. The town had primarily long buildings with two stories on average. The roofs were generally grey with trapezoid-peaked shapes, the standard roof that would be expected of a traditional Japanese facility. The buildings were laid out orderly in rows that were far enough apart to give merchants room to maneuver with even the largest of goods. It was clear that this town was built with its purpose in mind.

Walking up to the guard, Kamui, flashed a subtle genjutsu with her transformed eyes. It basically had him view the papers that Yugao was handing him as legitimate. It wouldn't work on chunin or above due to its effects being rather obvious to those who knew the signs, but these were just civilian guards who barely reached the genin level. This trick would do fine.

Once they were inside, Yugao got to work. She implemented Kamui's plan mostly to code and began asking around for information on the main trading road. Throughout the conversations, she managed to gather a few key details. She created a list of expected ambush points from the accounts of multiple people, a more detailed map of the area, and received a final interesting detail; the bandits had an unhealthy penchant for explosions. There were blast marks all over most of the raided areas.

After renting an inn room, the two sat down in their now semi-private chambers. Kamui used the smallest bit of chakra she could to still the air in a small perimeter around them and prevent any vibrations from escaping the room. It was a risky move, but it was better than letting anyone hear them through the walls.

"I think this bandit group is more than what they're letting on." Yugao stated.

"Is it because of the explosives?" Kamui asked. That point had been a little odd to her as well.

Yugao nodded; with a stern tone, she explained, "Yes, explosives on the scale of what was described are pretty expensive. Shinobi don't mind using them for demolitions if there's a mission worth the price. The problem is that bandits, by their nature, have to work with very little. If you think of it as a profession, they live in a high-risk industry with no safety net for injuries or sickness. Some of them even have families to support. With that in mind, they need to maintain the highest profit margins for every raid they conduct. Constant use of explosives is out of character for a bandit group and shouldn't be within their means."

Kamui's eyes widened and spoke her thoughts, "That makes sense. This mission is sounding a little fishy. I mean, wouldn't that have been something that should have been in the mission report? It doesn't seem like something unknown. It's the standard modus operandi of the bandits. It's not like killing all the merchants in a caravan will prevent any follow-up investigations from discovering the shrapnel and scorch marks. There's no way they could have missed it."

Yugao nodded. "I agree. Something's fishy with this. We need to be cautious moving forward." She spoke.

"So…... what? I don't think any of this would change our plans. I say we observe one of the raids and confirm our suspicions. We'll watch their methods, save the caravan in their hour of need to keep our conscious clean, and I'll use my sharingan to pull information from the bandits." Kamui asked, trying to come up with an effective course of action.

"That works. Another option would be to let the bandits finish their raid and follow them back to their compound." Yugao suggested. It's not an option she would take, but she wanted to see what Kamui was willing to do. This was actually something shinobi were required to do at times depending on the situation and importance of the mission.

"I'd rather not. If I didn't have the sharingan, I may go with that as the most viable option. I do have it though, so it's not necessary." Kamui said. As someone who was quickly gaining draconic attributes, Yume had clarified that the death of others wouldn't affect her as much as it would were she fully human. Regardless, she would have a bad taste in her mouth if she just let the caravan members die unnecessarily.

"That's fair. Alright, the next major trade caravan leaves for the land of fire's capitol in two days. We'll wait till then and gather information to reinforce our assumptions. Make sure you never leave this room without your transformation applied." Yugao explained.

Kamui smiled. "Actually, my aunt showed me how to do this cool seal. Can you lift up your shirt really quick? It needs to be applied to an exposed stomach." Yugao's left eyebrow raised at the request, then she complied.

Kamui placed a finger on Yugao's navel and quickly a black diamond mark appeared where her finger was placed. Once it appeared, it flashed and small markings climbed up her body till she was entirely covered in them.

Surprised, Yugao asked, "What's happening?"

Kamui didn't respond for a few seconds. Then, the markings receded and the mark was back to a normal black diamond.

"This seal takes in your current transformation, saves it for future use, and will maintain its application as long as it's active. Basically, you'll never have to worry about the transformation dispelling as long as you have chakra in your body and the seal remains active. It's persistent, so it'll stay on you even when not in use. If you have time, I can teach you some of its features; it'll take about an hour though. It's the same seal Tsunade is known to use. She just connected hers to a strength of a hundred seal; connecting the two is not a good idea in my opinion, but she's never around for me to tell her that."

Yugao chuckled and nodded. "I would like that. Thank you."

Kamui smiled softly and spent the next hour running through the seal's features. Over the next two days, the two continued to make information runs. Yugao even had Kamui go on her own a time or two.