Chapter – 392 A Change of Plan

Taking into account the urgency of the matter, the members of Team-Ro traveled fast, it wasn't that of a problem considering that each of them had the strength at the level equal or high to that of Tokubetsu Jonin… and maintaining this speed they soon reached the eastern coast of the Land of Fire.

Pointing at the map spread on the ground before him, Watatsumi said to the four members of Team – Ro, "Right now we are now at the Land of Whirlpool, and to travel to the Land of Water, we will need to travel through the Sea."

Rabbit asked, "Captain cough*, which mode of transport should we use to sneak into the Land of Water?"

Hana said with a frown, "What do you mean by which mode of transport? We have to cross the sea, so what else can it be other than a boat?"

Rabbit said, "Ah, sorry-sorry, I did not phrase my question correctly, I meant to ask, which type of boat should we use, passenger boats, Fishermen Boats, Merchant ships, or Pirate ships?"

Watatsumi said, "All the passenger boats, fishermen boats, and merchant ships going to the Land of Water will be thoroughly inspected by the Kirigakure Shinobi, and the security will be especially high, so directly using these methods to sneak inside the Land of Water is very risky and will definitely alert the enemy."

Akame questioned, "In that case a Pirate Ship?"

Weasel said, "But I have heard rumors that some shinobi of Kirigakure disguise themselves as pirates and roam all over the sea to keep track of intelligence that normal shinobi miss…"

"Now that you mention it, I have heard these rumors too!" – Akame nodded, then said, "In that case, which option do you suggest captain?"

Watatsumi thought a little, and said, "We will start with a normal passenger boat, or maybe a merchant ship, and when we reach closer to the Land of Water, we will change to other methods, either we will swim to the Land of Water, or maybe we can just row a simple small boat."

Akame said after a bit of thinking, "But if we use that option, we will have to abandon the ship at least tens of kilometers before the port in order to not get detected by any sensor-nin, swimming such a large distance would be very dangerous, there is also a possibility of encountering pirates."

Watatsumi nodded, "It can get dangerous, yes, but this is our best bet, and don't worry, with my Byakugan keeping track of our surroundings, things will be very easy, I can detect pirates approaching much earlier and thus we can prepare following countermeasures, or avoid them… So, it wouldn't be that much of a problem."

"Alright." – the four nodded and followed.

The captain always has the final say, and nobody can oppose that.

As so the Team-Ro disguised themselves as common civilians and traveled to the Land of Water using a simple passenger boat used by the common civilians.

…

4 days later.

On one of the Islands of the Land of Water.

While studying the map of the Land of Water and determining the route the Team-Ro should use to sneak inside Kirigakure, Watatsumi said, "Currently we are on one of the Islands that is part of the Land of Water, which means that we have already entered the sphere of influence of Kirigakure, so everyone will be at their utmost vigilance. We will camp here for the next few hours to adjust ourselves to the environment of Kirigakure and then venture further inside the Land of Water."

"Alright!" – the four nodded and got busy.

The four of them are trained shinobi, there was no need for the captain to give further instructions and they started doing all the tasks one by one.

Weasel was responsible for setting up traps and alert barriers.

Akame took out rations that they will be eating, the rations mostly include dried meat and bread.

Rabbit and Hana were responsible for keeping watch over the surroundings.

After everything was arranged, they ate the meal and were now resting, a team of alternating two members was responsible for keeping watch over the surroundings.

While looking at the sky, Watatsumi murmured, "Today is a moonless night."

At this time, a flock of crows appeared in the forest, but there was no cawing, and the crows silently sat on the tree branches, neither alerting anyone nor interfering with anyone.

But Watatsumi had a smile when he noticed the flock of crows, "Finally here huh?"

"..." – There was no reply, but Watatsumi did not need any reply, he just closed his eyes, and pretended to be asleep, 'Let's see how it will play out.'

Half an hour later.

Suddenly, the surroundings started to become chilly and the amount of mist in the surroundings slowly increased.

"The amount of mist is… increasing!" – Although the speed at which the mist increased was very slow, it was instantly noticed by Akame and Rabbit, which meant that the enemy is nearby and they plan to increase the amount of mist in the surroundings and then use it to their advantage.

Both Rabbit and Akame looked at each other and instantly devised the plan of action.

The Rabbit turned himself invisible and took the lead in finding the location of the enemy meanwhile Akame was responsible for passing the message to the other three members of the team.

"Captain, wake up… enemy is nearby!" – Akame whispered in a low voice to wake up Watatsumi.

One whisper was more than enough to wake up Watatsumi, Byakugan… and the first thing he did was to activate his Byakugan to locate the enemy, meanwhile, Akame also alerted Weasel and Hana.

By the time, the other two were awake, Watatsumi instructed, "Prepare to fight, we are surrounded by over a dozen Kiri shinobi, not even a single one should be allowed to escape as that would be detrimental to our mission, kill them all except for one, for intelligence extraction."

"Yes!" – the four nodded and instantly prepared for the fight, externally they did not let it show on their faces, but internally the four can't help but sigh.

It hasn't even been a full day since Team-Ro has sneaked inside the Land of Water, the infiltration mission to Kirigakure hasn't even started yet, and the whereabouts have already been exposed to the enemy! This is obviously a very blow for them who were performing an S-Class Anbu mission for the first time.

Watatsumi just said, "Act in the teams of two, Akame and Rabbit, 7 shinobi at 2 o'clock, Weasel and Hana, 5 shinobi at 6 o'clock, I will act alone at 10 o'clock. Now split up and show them hell!"

"Also, don't die on me!" – after giving them a few words of a pep talk, Watatsumi disappeared from his position with a body flicker.

"Yes, Captain!" – The other two teams also nodded at each other and went in the direction assigned to them.

By now, the cover of mist was very thick and it got to the point where even one couldn't even see anything below his/her neck.

But nobody panicked, as they are exceptional shinobi, Akame and Hana were responsible for sensing through the cover of mist, Weasel for some reason can also see through the cover of mist, while Rabbit's invisibility became more of a threat in this thick cover of mist.

Not long after, sounds of metal collision, explosion, wind cutting, water crashing, vapor forming could be heard throughout the forest, however, the crows neither panicked nor cawed… but nobody knew that as these crows were hardly visible in the moonless night covered in mist.

At this moment, these crows converged into the shape of a human silhouette and appeared behind Watatsumi, who had just killed the last Kiri shinobi on his side by blasting a mini-Rasengan/Finger Rasengan in the forehead of this Kiri shinobi.

"You are here Itachi…" – Watatsumi said as he inserted his left hand enveloped in Chakra inside the brain of the only alive and unconscious Jonin and took out a ball of light from it.

"Mm-hmm, what is that ball of light Kuroto-san?" – Itachi who was covered in a black cloak curiously looked at everything Watatsumi was doing, especially at that ball of light in Watatsumi's hand.

Watatsumi said, "Oh this? It's a memory ball… in simple terms, it's a recording of this shinobi's memories from the moment of his birth to the moment of his death. And I am reading it to gain a complete understanding of Kirigakure's exact situation from this shinobi's point of view."

"That… is a very good and practical Jutsu to extract intelligence out of someone…" – Itachi said in appreciation.

Watatsumi nodded as the memory ball in his hands faded away, "It is… Its only weakness is that it doesn't work on those who are dead."

"Which means that anyone alive is vulnerable to this Jutsu." – Itachi said while looking at the positive side.

Watatsumi nodded, and said, "Anyway, now that I have gained a good level of understanding of Kirigakure's situation from this shinobi's point of view, let's go and see how the members of team-Ro, including your Karasu Kage Bushin Crow Clone, is doing against the enemy."

Itachi nodded, his body again split into hundreds of crows, out of which one crow landed on Watatsumi's shoulder while the rest dispersed in the forest.

Watatsumi and the crow on his shoulder moved towards then jumped on top of a tree, silently observing the battle.

The whole battle lasted for about fifty minutes and finally ended with the victory of Team-Ro. However, the state of the four did not seem very good as they incurred some injuries.

The most injured is Akame because she acted as bait to draw out enemies for Rabbit to kill, therefore, she was the first target. Aside from various cut wounds, poison is also present in her body, therefore her combat effectiveness is greatly reduced, fighting is another thing she is having trouble even walking.

Then next are Hana and Weasel, their injuries are also not that simple, on their side was a Jonin leading the team, as such, they also suffered, albeit less than Akame.

The one to suffer the least injuries among the four is Rabbit, thanks to his invisibility, he was a difficult target. But considering that his body is weak, therefore he seems to be tired after such a long fight.

Since the enemy was defeated, the fog soon cleared up, and Watatsumi alone returned to the group.

He had, of course, killed the few escaping Kiri shinobi.

Seeing the Captain return uninjured, the four of them breathed a sigh of relief, "Captain."

Watatsumi glanced at everyone's state, then after a bit of mulling he said, "There is a change of plan, we will be meeting someone, the four of you will be staying in his command for the time being, and I will perform the task alone."

.

.

Read up to Chapter - 646 on P.a.t.r.e.o.n. Page: p-atreon.com/Milta_translations