Chapter 20

'Lava Release is such bullshit,' I thought to myself as I jumped over a wooden fence and continued my escape from Kiri's she-devil. How did I get here? Well, the answer to that question requires a bit of a story. It all started two months ago.

XXXX

I walked into the mission room again, and this time, the desk chunin seemed to have been waiting for me. "Gaara of the Desert, the Kazekage will see you regarding this mission," he said, and I nodded before walking away. This was the first time Rasa was personally requesting me for a mission since the escort mission a year ago. Since then, I'd basically smashed mission record after mission record. The B-rank quota had been met in the first three months of my decision to start speedrunning missions.

The A-rank missions were a mite more complicated. Turns out that the first mission had been something of an outlier. Since then, all the missions required some sort of research into the target, and time spent covering up the assassination or not making it obvious at least. Assassinations were the only missions I bothered to accept at this point. I could accomplish them single-handedly, and there was very little room for my time to end up being wasted by things out of my control, so I could move at my own pace. I avoided escort missions like the plague.

I walked into Rasa's office with my back straight and my head held high.

"Gaara, I have another mission for you," he said without taking his head off the papers he was reading. I waited for him to continue.

"Lord Nayohara personally requested you for this mission. A merchant in Kiri has caught his ire. It's A-ranked, but the pay is more commensurate with that of an S-ranked mission," Rasa said, probably trying to sweeten the pot, but he had me at Nayohara. I owed the man. Staring at the gleaming 47 floating next to my fuinjutsu skill was enough to remind me of the fact.

"I'll accept the mission," I said to him, and he fished out some scroll from his desk before tossing it to me.

"Good. Your team will be waiting for you at the Gates."

"Team?" I asked.

"A jounin is required to lead teams of ninja on missions. You cannot be promoted without showing some leadership traits," he said, placing emphasis on some of the words he said, clearly passing across some message. I nodded at his words and left the office.

I wondered how best to do this. A year of pretty much non-stop missions meant my appearance had taken a bit of a backseat. I checked a mirror as I walked past a store and noticed that my clothes had some scuffs and scratches, but beyond them and my hair, I didn't look too bad. Not badly enough to warrant a change of clothes or a haircut at all. Not in my opinion, at least.

I shunshined towards the gate and found the team that had been set aside for me, and imagine my shock when I was easily able to recognize all of them. Temari, Kankuro, and Baki. I marched towards my former sensei and ignoring the awkward greetings from my siblings, pulled him over to a corner.

"Genin on an A-ranked mission?" I asked him, and he just looked at me.

"The Kazekage has given his orders," he said.

He probably wasn't any more pleased with this situation than I was. Although, we probably had different reasons for our annoyance. I didn't want Genin slowing me down, and he probably didn't want his charges dead on a mission far beyond their skill levels. I had to applaud Rasa for his ingenuity, though. Baki couldn't go against his orders, and he gave me the one mission I would never reject out of hand once things got too troublesome.

I returned to my siblings with a forced smile on my face. "I am Gaara of the Desert, Chunin of Sunagakure, and I will be taking point on this mission." Kankuro made to say something, but Temari jumped on him with a hand over his mouth.

"Please take care of us," she said with a bow, her hand still over our brother's mouth. Good. No awkward confrontations or attempts to bond. I only hoped things remained that way.

"Our mission will take place in Kirigakure. We've been asked to remain anonymous for the entirety of it, so once we leave Kaze no Kuni, we will travel as civilian refugees," I said to them, taking charge with ease I would never have expected.

We moved as one from the village. At least, if I was going to get stuck with any team of genin, it was probably for the best that it was this one. Baki's training would ensure that they were at least competent enough to not slow me down too much.

Of course, I'd spoken too soon. It ended up taking us three days to leave Kaze no Kuni itself.

"What do you mean you haven't been taught to Desert travel?" I'd asked Temari with a snarl on my face.

Baki just shrugged at me, clearly holding back a self-satisfied smirk. Teaching them the chakra technique to circulate chakra through their coils to prevent themselves from overheating had been an ordeal on its own, and then having to constantly stop for breaks as Kankuro's frankly pathetic chakra reserves made him need to stop more often than I was expecting.

At the end of the day, I was able to keep a hold of my temper by imagining a gleaming jounin vest at every instance. Where the Jounin vest was insufficient, the Kage hat and robes stepped in. At least, with the constant breaks, my clones were able to get even more training in. I'd have to dispel them once we left Kaze no Kuni, though. The farther I got from them, the more chakra was lost in the dispelling process, and something told me I'd be needing every drop of my reserves for this particular mission.

Our chosen route was through the Land of Fire. While I wasn't keen on being in Danzo's territory, it was the most direct and subtle route. Besides, our treaty with Konoha meant we had clearance to cross their borders at will.

The time wasted in getting out of Kaze no Kuni meant I had to rework the plan to consider the delay.

"Present yourselves," the Konoha Chunin asked, and I stepped forward.

"Gaara of the Desert, Chunin of Sunagakure. Moving through your borders for a mission in the Land of Waves," I tossed him a dummy scroll Baki had given me, and he nodded after examining everything.

"You will be given a Chunin escort," he said before whistling into the treeline. Four Chunin dropped out of the trees and took places around our group. I just shrugged and said to the one in the lead, "I hope you can keep up." He audibly scoffed before I shot up from the ground like a bullet. Two tendrils of sand appeared behind me and caught both Temari and Kankuro in their grips. Kankuro actually shrieked in fright as the tendrils lifted them up from the floor and forced them to float beside me.

We were behind schedule already, and I really needed to make it back before my twelfth birthday. It would be pretty fucked if the person I needed to secure my promotion was already dead by the time I actually completed the mission to get the promotion.

We were out of the Land of Fire by the end of the day and could move to the Land of Waves at a more relaxed speed. Baki had calmed an irritated Temari and Kankuro during the journey, and I knew I'd lose some points for that stunt.

Passage into the Land of Water was easy to find. We found a ship that was going to dock at the Land of Waves for a few hours to restock and make its way to the Land of Water immediately afterward.

Posing as a father and three kids after changing into the best examples of civilian clothes we had. Luckily Baki had, at least, taught them the value of being prepared, so everyone had the outfits they needed.

That just meant all we needed to do was wait on the ship during the transport. It took a whole day for us to even get to Waves. The weather was something else. After restocking, the Land of Water was approximately another three days away. The only bright side was that this ship was going to be docking on the same island as our target.

Two days later, when we could see the island under the cover of night, I had Baki wake the kids up, and we dove out of the ship, heading right into the ocean and swimming to the island. We didn't want any record of our passing, and Baki had already genjutsu'd the crew into forgetting our presence here. It wasn't the strongest in the world, but it should be sufficient for a few civilians.

We arrived and wasted no time in setting up in one of the half dozen empty apartments close to the docks, and I set off to do some scouting of my own.

The Island was pretty close to empty at this point, showing the situation in the Land of Water. My knowledge of canon told me there should be a civil war or something ravaging the land right now, and a look around the Island gave me loads of signs that that was true. Poverty was common. Starving children littered the streets, making me somewhat of an oddity with my clean clothes and well-fed appearance. I retreated to the apartment after the looks were getting too much and I deemed the information I'd gathered as enough.

Our target stayed in the large manse close to the center of the Island. It was a small Island, so he was pretty much the only one with any good amount of wealth. He was also the mayor of the Island, which the scroll definitely hadn't mentioned.

Still, the mission would go forward.

"So how do we kill him?" I asked my siblings and Baki, wanting to get some ideas from them. This would probably end up being my most complicated assassination mission yet.

"Poison," Kankuro answered instantly.

"And how do we deliver it?" I asked them.

"Food," Temari suggested. I nodded at the idea. I was more fond of using medical ninjutsu to stimulate sudden heart attacks in my targets, but this might require an even more delicate touch.

"Good. Temari, you will scout the manse under a transformation and find two of the kitchen staff for you and Kankuro to impersonate. I will be taking the place of his food taster. People like him always have one, and Baki will remain here to secure our escape route. Is that fine with everyone?"

They all nodded, and I smiled. Guess we had a merchant to kill.

The plan itself ended up taking little over a month to get all the vectors to come together. To my irritation, I was the main delay. In a shocking turn of events, the food taster and our target were actually friends, so I dedicated the time to learning all that I could about the man I'd be impersonating in a short while.

His name was Lee. He spoke with a drawl that I'd have some trouble replicating, and he was prone to making out-of-pocket comments and replies. Day after day, I watched him move across town, from store to store, observing his interactions with the citizenry and his employer, in those rare occasions the merchant deigned to leave his manse. If the scroll wasn't so clear about making the thing look like an accident, I'd have sniped the idiot the moment he showed his head outside.

Still, we were ready. I'd seen enough. I dropped down behind the taster as he turned into an unoccupied alleyway. He was head before my feet even hit the ground, and I was quick to stash his body into my inventory and take on his appearance.

I walked forward, doing my best to replicate Lee's gait in my movement. It was approaching the time for my target's dinner, so I was forced to make haste a bit. The gate guards let me right in, exposing the weakness of relying on non-shinobi guards. None of them even gave me so much as a second look as I walked right to the dining room.

I waited for the target to approach. It was actually impressive how I'd somehow managed not to learn his name over the time spent watching him and his taster.

"Lee. How's the day going?" He asked.

"Easy. Easy come, easy go." I replied, and both Temari and Kankuro looked at me like I was an idiot. I guess I could see through their disguises just as easily as they could see mine. The merchant laughed, shaking his head.

"Never change, Lee. Never change," he said through chuckles and waved me forwards once the food was set before him.

I walked and took a spoonful of every dish that was set on the table. It was a wide spread of dishes. The variety was good, and every single dish there was poisoned to the core, but that mattered little to me as I took spoonful after spoonful, conveying my enjoyment to the target. When I finished, he waved me away and dug right in.

"So how's the mood looking?" He asked me as he ate his food. The kitchen staff had since been sent away, so it was only the two of us.

"Good. The people are happy," I said in reply, giving the answer every noble wanted to hear.

"Piss on that. The people have never been happy, and Lee knows I don't appreciate lies. So, who are you?" He asked.

"When did you figure it out?" I asked.

"The moment you walked in. It was a feeling, at first. But then once I started eating, I could see it. Lee could never stand still for that long," he said, and I resisted the urge to facepalm.

"My turn now. Who are you? Some rebel scum? I already told your bosses. I'm not interested," he said, clearly mistaking my reason for being here.

"Not a rebel, I'm afraid. You see, I was sent to kill you."

He paled almost instantly, and as he prepared to scream, I shunshined to his side and paralyzed his vocal cords. I guess that plan was fucked then. The poison was supposed to take hold any moment now, so I just stood and watched him as he coughed and choked at first, and then slumped on the table.

Only then did I call for the guards, and in the chaos, I slipped away. Well, that was just a bit fucked. Just a bit. I'd been made in minutes. Well, that was one detail I'd be removing from the report.

I returned to the apartment after switching disguises three times to throw off any watchers. "How did it go?" Kankuro asked, clearly nervous.

"Perfectly," I replied. "Mission Accomplished."

"Pack it up. We should be out of here in an hour," I said, and that's when things went to shit.

"Oh, don't leave so quickly, my dear Suna-nin," a voice said out, and I turned in shock along with the rest of the room (including Baki, scarily enough) to see the face of a woman I'd recognize anywhere.

Blue low-cut gown, red hair, and boobs that had their own gravitational pull. Mei Terumi. Fuck.

"You stole my kill," she said, pointing at us with a scowl that clearly didn't suit her beautiful features.

"Scatter," Baki ordered, and it was only those orders that saved most of their lives. Kankuro and Temari jumped out one set of windows while Baki took the other. I just stared right ahead at my assailants.

"Not running?" She asked, tilting her head.

"Let's not pretend that you're anything more than a distraction to send us running like headless chickens so the team with you can have an easier time picking us off," I said, moving to where our things had been placed and packing them methodically.

"Oh goody. A smart one," she said, plopping down on a couch with the scowl now replaced by a more fitting smile.

"So what is it you want? I doubt a stolen kill would necessitate this kind of reaction," I said.

Now, her smile got noticeably wider.

"You, of course. You think Suna could send their Jinchuriki into our territory, and we wouldn't be interested?" She asked me rhetorically, and this time, I didn't resist the urge to facepalm.

"Yup. You're the target. By staying here with the misplaced desire to buy time for your teammates, you've played right into my hands."

"You're not scared at all? I'm a big bad Jinchuriki, after all," I said, trying to make her hesitant about this thing.

"Jinchuriki to the weakest of them all. And a Jinchuriki that's been shown to not be willing or able to utilize his tailed beast's power. My dear, you're the definition of a soft target," she said, shaking her own head at me with clear pity.

By some unspoken signal, we both began weaving seals at the same time.

She finished first, "Lava Release: Melting Apparition Technique," She intoned while my own wind release jutsu was barely in time to punch a hole in the river of acid she spewed my way, allowing me to remain safe from the attack.

"Two ninjutsu specialists battling it out on such a small Island? There's not going to be much left standing, will there?"

"Shut up, Clone," She said before diving out of the same window the original had used when we were covered by the acid for a brief second. Well, fuck.

XXXXXX

I dispelled the clone the second Mei left the room. We weren't going to win the fight 2-on-1, and escape was pretty much the only thing on my mind. This was the woman who would become the fifth Mizukage, and as strong as I'd gotten, I wouldn't give myself good odds against a Kage-level opponent. Slightly scary considering Orochimaru was only a few months into my future.

"Come back here," She shouted as she chased me through the streets.

"No," I shouted back.

'Lava Release is such bullshit,' I thought to myself as I jumped over a wooden fence and continued my escape from Kiri's she-devil.

She burned through the fence just as quickly, and I began to notice that I was being hemmed in.

I turned to one alley only to find a few kiri ninja there waiting for me, and rerouting to another, I could see the approaching dead end. I turned back to her and stood upright.

"Okay. You've got me." I turned to her with my hands raised up.

"Good." She said, and I used the opportunity to rush right at her. She had reinforcements coming. If this was going to happen, it had to end quickly.

The stream of acid that rushed at me was instantly cooled by a vacuum palm as I jumped over it and weaved my own seals. She jumped out of the way, hopping over a building as my fire dragon blew up much of the surrounding area. When my eyes caught hers, it was to see her smirking as a water dragon floated in the air behind her.

I silently prayed for my chakra to not fail me as another fire dragon built up in my lungs. When I unleashed it, it was without a doubt the most powerful fire-type jutsu I'd ever used. The fire and the water clashed, filling the air with steam. Steam I took advantage of to hide my escape as I jumped towards the outskirts of the island. Of course, it wouldn't take a rocket scientist to realize that the area I was running to would also be the area my attacker would have the greatest advantage in. As I ran, I opened my inventory as much as I could, spreading sand over the floor and the general area. Baki and the siblings were nowhere to be found, so I had to do something about that.

When Terumi and her posse of Kiri Jounin found me again, I was standing in the center of a desert of my own making. "I'd advise you to give up on this mission of yours. Killing you all isn't really that high on my list of priorities," I said to the crowd of shinobi who stopped at the very beginning of my sand island.

Before Mei could reply, one of the Jounin ran right at me. He was gone in a shower of blood between one second and the next. With wind chakra flowing through every grain of sand in my control, it was child's play to make my sand move at speeds beyond the average jounin. "Mei Terumi. I really don't want to kill you here," I told her. It was a bluff, partly. I wasn't sure I'd actually succeed in killing her. She hadn't pulled out that boil release of hers and even though wind release should be enough to take care of that, there had to be way more tricks up her sleeve to justify her eventual ascension to Kage.

"I'm not leaving without you, Ichibi Jinchuriki," She said, and the scowl that broke across my face was very real. I hated that. Being referred to like I was nothing more than Shukaku. Part of me wanted to cast away the sand and beat them all with just my ninjutsu, but I wasn't stupid. Not that stupid, at least. Two jounin jumped at me, and a single scythe of sand cut them both in half before they made it halfway across my personal desert. Mei weaved seals and spat out a river of lava. I lifted a single hand and forced sand to cover and consume the lava, while producing more and more sand from my inventory. To an onlooker, it must have been like sand was pouring right out of my hand. The more sand I had on hand, the less of a threat my attackers became.

Of course, Mei's attack turned out to be a distraction as two jounin appeared out of thin air right behind me. Their attacks were caught on my automatic defense, and the sand wrapped around them before crushing them to death on its own accord. That was one difference between Gaara and me, it seemed. My automatic defense was far more bloodthirsty than his.

The lava was finally buried as more and more sand was consumed. Pure mass had its benefits. Speaking of mass, I partitioned my mind to use part of my concentration to force the sand around me into the earth to make more of the kind of sand I could use. No need to empty my inventory when I could make a desert with a grain, after all.

Mei and I stared right at each other. The Jounin with her seemed more hesitant about the entire thing, but she was smiling. It was a slow, steady smile that built across her face and then consumed it.

I couldn't see the reason for her smile until a man appeared right next to her, coming out from a shunshin. The eyepatch gave him away as Ao, Mei's bodyguard, and general Kiri anbu. After he appeared, seven more Jounin arrived. It took me a few seconds to realize what the bundles they carried were.

"They better not be dead," I said through clenched teeth and narrowed eyes.

"Of course not. But that can be arranged," the future Mizukage said with a smug smile on her face.

"I'm going to enjoy killing you," I told her, and she had the guts to laugh.