Chapter 12: Lorelai

The next day, Shin allowed Kannin to spend the day trying to learn the special technique, which left Warai and Tetsu to search the ruins. Shin thought this was a good opportunity to deal with one of the hidden goals of the mission. She ordered the kids to stick to the area around base while she went to shore. Even so, she made a shadow clone to watch over the kids while she was gone.

The mission she took was actually a dual difficulty mission. It was advertised as a low C class mission to the genins, but to the jonin, it was actually mid-to high B class.

The first hidden goal was to investigate, and if possible, eliminate the cause of a phenomenon which was causing ships to wreck near shore. Normally, as the name implies, the waters around Uzushiogakure were turbulent and difficult to navigate by boat, but when they were crossing in foot, Shin noticed the relative placidity of the water. This was the first clue. Whirlpools like the ones surrounding the village didn't just disappear overnight. Something was altering the currents.

As for what it was, Shin intended to figure it out. As she was getting closer to shore, she could hear music in the distance. It was faint at first, but she could definitely hear a young girl singing. And when Shin finally made it atop the ridges beyond the shoreline, she could see who was making it. In the distance, Shin could see a woman, seemingly in her 30s, sitting on the sand singing out to the waves--which, now that Shin looked at them, were twisting in a massive vortex. While she saw this, Shin could feel her body becoming slack and her mind going numb.

'Genjutsu!'

Shin immediately put in earplugs to fend off the genjutsu being cast on her. With her will restored, she took out a scroll and wrote the information down, along with drawing a depiction of the woman on shore.

Suddenly, the woman turned her head in Shin's direction, who dropped down behind the grass.

'I really regret not sending my shadow clone here instead.' Without checking to see if the woman was coming over, Shin retreated back to base, where she saw the kids gathering for lunch.

Secretly poofing her shadow clone back, she learned that Kannin hadn't made much progress with the Adamantine Chains Jutsu, and all Warai and Tetsu had found were trinkets and more broken buildings.

Tetsu saw her arriving and shouted out "Harakaze-sensei! Are you hungry? We're making some lunch right now."

As she was getting ready to answer, she realized that they had lit a fire to cook their lunch. Noticing the smoke billowing into the clouds, she ran over and stomped it out, and rebuked the kids saying "Are you trying to tell everyone in 10 miles where we are? Pack your things, we need to move. Now."

Seeing their sensei so serious, the kids scrambled to gather their belongings without complaining. But as Kannin was putting Koseki on his back, he heard the strange sound of singing. He heard Harakaze-sensei mutter 'Shit! I thought I lost her' and clicked her tongue.

"Kids, plug your ears, her singing is a powerful genjutsu!"

But before they could, Warai and Tetsu had already fallen under the woman's spell. They slumped over, hitting the ground like sacks of potatoes. Kannin managed to plug his ears in time, but he still felt sluggish and his mind was almost blank.

Leaning on the crooked side of a derelict house, he saw a woman appear in front of Shin, eyeing her and the fallen children behind her.

-

Yaburi Emiko stood in front of a Konoha jonin and two sleeping genin, taken down by her special genjutsu. Back on shore, she kept getting the feeling that she was being watched. After shaking the feeling off at first, she could resist it and looked back and swore she saw someone, but couldn't be sure. By the time she reached the grassy ridges beyond the beach, all signs of her spectator were gone, but she did see a trail of smoke coming from the ruins of the village, and decided to head there.

What she found was a small group of Konoha shinobi, nothing she couldn't handle, especially since two of the kids had fallen under her genjutsu. A blue-haired jonin stood in front of her, eyeing her down

-

Harakaze Shin stood opposite the woman she saw on shore, now at a much closer distance. Her hair was wet from the sea, a sleek black that went down to her waist. She wore a standard flak-jacked and pants, with loose fishnets beneath, and hiking boots on her feet. Around her neck Shin saw a forehead protector with the symbol for Kumogakure with multiple vertical scratches crossing it out. 'A missing-nin, huh.'

"Who are you and what are you doing in Uzushiogakure?"

The woman remained silent and slid a kunai to her right hand.

"Are you the reason so many ships have been crashing in the sea around here?"

The woman gave a slight smirk, but remained silent.

It was at this time that Kannin got his bearings and ran out to join Shin with Koseki in his hands.

Upon seeing the little grey-haired kid run out, the woman gave a sinister smile and said, "Ohoho, so there were three little brats hanging out here. I'm surprised you can even walk."

While Kannin looked decent, the woman had gotten it right that even though he wasn't as discombobulated as before, he still wasn't fully back. His balance was off and his vision was blurry beyond about 20 meters.

Without looking away, Shin calmly told Kannin, "Kid, go guard the others while I deal with her. She's too strong for you."

Kannin ran to Warai and Tetsu and tried to shake them back to consciousness, but nothing worked. 'I have to break that woman's concentration on the genjutsu. It's the only way right now.'

Kannin looked back at the mystery woman with his sword steady in his hands, and readied for action.