Rest In Peace, my paycheck :(

The dust slowly began to settle revealing a beaten Shirohi on the ground with a sword at his neck, Habara was standing over him with a beautiful smile that seemed more demonic then previously. Kuzumi approached and placed a hand on her shoulder, "Let him up."

Habara shook his hand off her shoulder with a snort, "Fine, whatever…" After helping Shirohi to his feet Kuzumi pulled a pot from a storage seal, then filled the pot with multi-colored sand, "Separate each color to a section of the pot, your not allowed to use any of your body parts nor are you allowed to move from your spot."

Shirohi nodded as he began thinking, this was obviously a chakra control exercise but he had done exercises that he felt were more difficult. However he soon realized the problem, all his previous exercises were done within his grasp. This time he was nearly 6 feet from the pot, he had to not only stretch his chakra but finely control it to separate the sand…

He looked up at Kuzumi to find him wearing a sadistic grin, realizing he was showing his thoughts. Shirohi frowned as he muttered, "I'll show you…"

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(One Month Later)

Shirohi could no longer persuade the Hokage to allow him to skip missions, however this month had proved fruitful both his Kenjutsk and Chakra Control had drastically improved. He still had yet to completely sort the pot of sand or defeat Habara; who seemed to get stronger with every spar. He had yet to find out why Murakai was here other than to try to buy his seals at ridiculously low prices. It takes almost 100 Ryo to produce a stack of seals unless he makes the ink himself and Murakai refuses to raise his offer…

His first mission is to escort a group of Genin alongside their Jounin Instructor to a base in the Land of Grass, he had read through the mission file a hundred times, planned routes, back up routes, and back up routes for those back up routes… by the time he had finished there were a total of 23 routes none of which crossed over each other or meet a main road, avoiding side roads was nearly impossible without circling all the way around Hirohito Village which would force them to go through both the Land of Rivers and the Land of Rain.

Compiling all his notes together he lit them aflame, no reason to leave crucial information of their supply routes for any potential spies to get ahold of…

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Danzo called upon all the high ranking members of root; his specialty force which he had personally groomed to perfection himself… "#21, #35, and #2 find any and all relevant information on Shirohi Tensuki, #4, #14, and #3 Find the supply route for the supplies headed to the Land of Grass and hurry back, #1 and #6 began assembling an assault force to ambush the supply route once you have the needed information. I want this done by the time they leave."

"Hai!" x8

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Another day passed and Shirohi was at the Village gates dressed in a long black hooded cloak, his once pristine and shiny silver mask now replaced with a polygonal mask made in such a way to reflect Kunai and light equally. While it would prove counterproductive at night he had a spare in a scroll that was black.

Soon a group of four meet Shirohi's eye, and he recognized them as the four that brought him to Konoha from his previous home… putting the past behind him he approached the four getting into character as he gave an exaggerated bow.

"Ginkamen, if you would follow me…" Hiashi watched him skeptically, the Hokage had told him a mercenary would be joining them on this mission. While he wanted to refuse, he had no ground to do so, this mercenary had the Hokage backing him so any refusal would be the same as refusing the Hokage's orders.

With a soft mutter the veins around his eyes popped as he estimated the mercenary's strength, he felt befuddled as the chakra signature seemed familiar but couldn't quite place a finger on why but this only furthered his suspicion, during his thoughts they had already left the village and were now on the outskirts. Hiashi eyed the mask the mercenary was wearing, his Byakugan couldn't penetrate the mask so he couldn't see an outline of the man's features.

Mentally noting this man was most likely proficient in seals, he took a look at the map Ginkamen had drawn in the dirt. A spider web of lines spreading across the map, "Alright, ignore all the lines but this one the rest are simply to confuse prying eyes… We will take this route all the way to the border then we will change directions, you all know the clone jutsu right?"

He got a round of nods, "Alright, create 2 clones each directly on top of you with each should resemble you but not exactly, when you finish we will begin." They we're all confused but heeded his words, Ginkamen then whispered "When I attack Shunshin directly to the south for 50 KM, there would be a tree with a cross etched into it I'll meet you there."

As soon as he finished his words he charged directly at the Jounin digging his Kunai 'deep' into his chest popping the first clone but the second fell to the floor covered in 'blood' then he quickly made light work of the surrounding Genin before flickering away.

Hiashi was the first to arrive and he was shocked, he knew they had a tail and was going to deal with it personally but it seems Ginkamen had other plans. After they all arrived Ginkamen pushed them behind the tree and lifted up a patch of soil revealing a set of stairs leading underground, "Hurry up before they arrive, that won't fool them for long. They don't have a sensor or they'd already be on our tail."

Back at the scene of the four deaths, an Anbu checked the bodies. He had nearly chased them down until he realized something was amiss, sadly he'd have to return to inform the Hokage that he lost them… he shed a few 'not' tears at the thought of the deduction of his pay.