Chapter 8

"Yo" I approached Hayate with a cheerful expression

"Hi" He first raised his eyebrow and then just gave me a bland reply

"Long time no see. How have you been?"

"I am fine and it hasn't been that long, it has only been 2 months since the graduation ceremony."

"Uhh--Right" I scratched the back of my head.

'Is it me or has he always been this anti-social?'

"Well not that you asked but I am doing fine as well." I replied pointing out that he didn't even bother asking how I was doing.

"...Oh yeah. Sorry"

"Anyway...'

------<Dead Silence>-------

'Damn! I approached him all friendly like we had been best friends or something but I feel uncomfortable even making small talks with him. How did we used to get along exactly? What did we used to talk about? Does he has any problem with me? Did I do somethin---'

"I heard you became a Chunin"

"Huh?....Oh yeah" I replied

"Although I have been promoted to a chunin, my official rank will be found out after the test I will go through in the village, Once I return."

"I see. Congratulations." He said this and walked away

I could tell that he was actually jealous. Although I am pretty sure he will be promoted to a chunin soon. I mean he does possess a kekei genkai, not a very powerful one but still. A kekei genkai is always useful. His is especially used in assassination. Once he gains a good enough mastery over it, he will probably be a great asset for the village.

A shinobi specialised in spying, espionage and assassination. This was also probably the main reason he was taken into the anbu.

"Hey let's get going now." Choza Akimichi said

"Shirou, you will be in front of the group with me. Let's go"

I immediately went to him and stood right beside him. I guess he is still suspicious of me even after confirming my identity.

Well can't blame him. I hardly know anyone in the team except for one.

We set off for the border separating land of fire and land of rice.

There are exactly 15 of us consisting of 2 elite jonin, 5 jonin and the rest 7 are just chunins including me. Only Hayate is a genin here.

'Well, with this much fighting power, the mission will be a cakewalk.'

****

As we continued our advance, I noticed that the terrain and vegetation around us was a little different. The trees were shorter, there were many more shrubs, flowers and pine trees. And there was a different scent in the area, probably the smell of coffee, tea, etc. Since Land of rice is a hub for agriculture.

'This might not be a bad place for a vacation.' I thought

I mean the land of rice isn't a very powerful nation and there are a lot of merchants and farmers there because of the rich soil.

It is a pity that this land will be in hands of Orochimaru in a few years when he establishes Otogakure. And as for shinobi, except for Fuma clan members, there are no other noteworthy ninjas in Land Of Rice and even the Fuma clan is currently in decline.

This makes the village easy to infiltrate. At most the Country has 10 Jonins and probably 1-2 elite jonins and maybe only one person reaching the level of quasi-kage and that is when I am being generous. The probability of there being a quasi kage shinobi in this small nation are almost negligible.

Anyway, moving on, I noticed one other thing in while we were moving at a fast pace, from the corner of my eyes I noticed a footprint on the ground and halted immediately. Giving a gesture to tell the others to do the same.

"Good eye brat." The Akimichi clan head said nodding in approval

"There are many footprints on the ground and even on the trees. This could be enemy's trick/trap so we will proceed with full focus from now on. Do not let your guard down."

"Yes" Everyone replied simultaneously including myself.

"Let's go" he said

And we resumed our advance but with lower pace in order to not make any mistakes in haste. After travelling some distance, the sensor in our group alerted us that there are group of people about 2 km (1.24 miles) away from us.

I was shocked when I realised that there was a chunin sensor who could sense the enemy's chakra signature from 2 km away, until I looked at him to find out that the person who relayed the information about the enemy's location is a Hyuga.

He was using his Byakugan right now.

'I was surprised for nothing.' I thought

Because how hard can it be for someone to see something with such a good pair of eyes.

However, whether he saw or sensed, the end result is that we found a great piece of information. And from now on, we don't have to focus so hard on finding clues spread in the forest in order to track our opponents. So we continued at our pace and moved ahead.

"Don't forget that our mission is to surveil the location, we still don't know for sure if the chakra signature Kyosuke informed us of hostile shinobis or not. Investigate the location properly and report all of your findings to me before doing anything else. However if you find an enemy and find the opportunity to get rid of him do not hesitate. But cover your tracks if that is to happen."

After giving us the order, he stopped. Following him, we all came to a halt as well.

"From here on out, we will split into 5 teams of three. Try to find out as much as you can about the situation. We will all meet here in 3 hours. Also, if there is an emergency, follow the protocol and send a signal."

He then looked at me and Hayate, "You two will be coming with me. Let's go."

As soon as finished saying that, he moved towards east. Although I had no idea what he was planning, I started following him along with Hayate. But it wasn't that difficult figuring it out after looking at the rest of the 4 teams.

He planned on setting up a 1.5 km(0.93 miles) perimeter around the location where the enemy is most likely to be present. It will make scouting and reporting much easier than just blindly following in a single direction.

He didn't gave the exact order to anyone but the rest of the jonins knew about this strategy and there were also at least one jonin present in each team. As experienced Jonins, they knew what they had to do even without getting proper orders.

After 5 minutes after reaching our assigned location, the thorough investigation began. We were told to find anything suspicious directly to the team leader.

As we covered the area and got closer and closer to the point where all of the teams would converge....

"BOOM!!"

A deafening explosion took place at the location we assumed to be the enemy's location.

The explosion carried with it an enormous amount of dust and sand. Enough to cover our vision. It was clear that the enemy was using this explosion as smoke screen. But the thing that stood out the most was the shade of red the explosion carried.

Immediately afterwards, A few drops of a red liquid fell on my hands and later it was as if it was raining red. It didn't took me long to figure out that this was blood.

'Did the enemy blew themselves up as a suicide attack?' I thought

However, I was immediately proved wrong as we heard cries of agony echo in the area. Those were the cries of our allies. The enemy had launched their attack on all of the teams.

And it wasn't much later that our team was attacked. However, what came out of the smoke was a woman tied up with ropes, crying and wailing. She was thrown at us.

I wanted to save her, but the seal attached to her across her stomach prevented me from doing so. I stepped back and jumped far away while grabbing Hayate who was still in daze.

She was blown away at the moment she was closest to us. But since we got out of the way at the right time, we minimised the damage and were only inflicted with some scratches and dirt on our clothes as we were blasted away because of the shockwave of the explosion.

To use ordinary civilians as weapons. This was a disgusting tactic. I couldn't even suppress the disgust rising from deep within me.

My face contorted and stomach churned at the sight of flesh of that poor woman falling in front of me, her decapitated head which fell before me still had that horrified and helpless look on her face.

'I get that to win the war you might use underhanded moves, but this isn't this just crossing the line.'

I gripped my sword in anger and rushed back towards my position.

The oddest thing about their attack was that there was no shinobi visible. Even when the human grenades were thrown at the precise location we were in, there had been no sights of any shinobi present.

This couldn't have been a trap, because they were thrown at our exact locations continuously. Also right now one of the things I was thinking about was that how were they able to carry out this attack without us even noticing anything about it.

We had a Hyuga in our team, there was no way he couldn't have seen the attack coming. There should have been at least a signal informing us about the enemy's attack.

The only way that this was possible was if the Hyuga had already been taken out by the enemy.

'This is bad. At this rate, the death toll would be way too much.'

Jonins should still be alive, but we will lose most our chunins before even having a face to face encounter with the enemy.

"Whhosh-!"

A man was thrown towards me, but I was distracted with my thoughts and he had come too close.

'To avoid it this is the best thing I can do.'

I gripped my sword and got into stance.

I used my lighting to cover my sword and accelerated.

The thing with the paper bombs is that if the paper is cut, it only bring with it a small explosion. And not to mention, this is Iwagakure's paper bombs, they already lack quality. It will take 2 seconds worth of time for the explosion to happen even after I cut the paper in half.

And for a shinobi of my speed, it will be more than enough time to escape.

I made up my mind in less than a second and looked ahead directly in the eyes of that man.

He was only a few steps ahead of me and closing in, I increased my speed drastically and slashed his chest.

I stopped a few metres after the small explosion. I was completely unharmed, obviously the same couldn't be said for that man since his bits and pieces were already spread out.

However, my feelings had changed in that split second when I decided to kill him. I no longer felt any disgust at the enemy's tactic.

Right now as I looked at the dead body of that man, I felt nothing. Absolute coldness resounded inside my heart.

'There is no need to be angry at the death of someone unrelated to you. Their lives have little meaning to you, don't cloud your judgement because of them.'

I told myself that and continued ahead. Also, just because I don't feel that disgust and anger anymore. Doesn't mean that they are going to have a painless death.