Chapter 30: Special Task

Arriving at the 102nd Outpost of the Northern Border, the eight newcomers were split up and assigned to their barracks by the commanding Jonin, who was already anticipating the arrival of reinforcements. Tekku had to share a room with Haruto, who wasn't happy about that fact as he became quite jumpy around his younger genius teammate since they learned what Itachi did. Meanwhile, Hana and Kurenai also got a room together, and they didn't have any problems with each other.

The Outpost was a small watchtower with all the barracks underground. It was already manned by 20 other Shinobi, with the commander being the only Jonin. The rest of the troops consisted of a Tokubetsu Jonin, a Hyuga acting as Vice Commander, and only Chunin. Among them were four mixed combat and scouting squads responsible for patrolling the 40 miles of borders they were assigned to. Additionally, there was a Sensory Squad led by the Hyuga, who maintained a rudimentary sensory array, allowing them to detect bigger troop movements in the area.

With the additional two Jonin and two Tokubetsu Jonin, the combat power of the Outpost skyrocketed. In case of an invasion, they would act as the main combat force to hold the line until the main army arrived. Meanwhile, their team was the lowest-ranked and most inexperienced among all the teams stationed at the Outpost. Since their team mainly consisted of Genin active for less than a year, even if the team was quite talented and Kurenai had the strength of a Tokubetsu Jonin, their main task would consist of inland patrols, watching all the areas where an enemy team could have passed through, and relative safe supply runs to the closest villages and hidden warehouses to collect different supplies like food, water, and weapons, and deliver them to the Outposts in the area.

Well, this was the main task for the rest of the team. Tekku was a bit of a special case. "Are you Tekku?" asked the middle-aged Jonin, who also acted as the commander of this Outpost. He was a brown-haired, average-looking man with a thin scar running down his cheek, giving him the impression of an experienced veteran.

"Yes, Commander Sarutobi! What can I do for you?" asked Tekku respectfully while standing straight and looking at the man. He was a member of the Sarutobi Clan, the same as the Third Hokage, Asuma, and Konohamaru. His name was Kenji Sarutobi.

"I learned from your profile that Hokage-sama sent me that you are a certified Fuinjutsu expert. Is that true?" he asked, interested while critically eyeing the very young Genin.

At that question, Tekku nodded with a serious gaze. "Yes, I recently became one. I even started with the permission of the Third Hokage to study the material I need to become a Master." He explained to give the leader a good idea of his capabilities. "Why are you asking?"

"Hmm, that is impressive for a Genin, especially for such a young one. How good are you in trap seals and sensory seals?" asked the commander.

"I know that a Sealing Expert only needs expertise in two different fields besides the standard ones, but I have mastered all the knowledge available and learned all the standard seals. So I would say I am not bad in both of these fields," replied Tekku completely honestly, as this was no secret for the Hokage. However, he wouldn't share how far he already was with the Sealing Master materials, as he wasn't supposed to have a copy of the books.

"That is amazing! If you are fine with it, I will assign you an additional mission besides the standard B-Rank Outpost Mission you get each month while you are here. This will be an A-Rank one, as Sealing Experts are a rare commodity in the Village," offered the commander. Tekku knew that he had no good reason to refuse, and why would he? The A-Rank pay and addition to his portfolio were nice. "The content of the mission will be basically you placing Sensory Seals and traps in strategic positions. I will send you with a team to these locations over the next few weeks, and you will prepare the necessary traps there. The important thing is the Sensory Seal, so we are aware that someone is approaching from there. Is that possible?"

"Of course, Commander. What kind of seals do you have in mind? For the traps, I would offer standard Explosive Arrays for large-scale traps, and for the smaller ones Poison Gas tags. I could also create Weapon tags, but they are expensive since I would need the weapons. As for the Sensory Seals, as far as I understand you, we need an additional early warning system in specific limited locations. So my idea would be a sensor seal connected to a Twin seal. If a Chakra Signature of a Genin or larger is in the area, the sensory seal will register it and send a signal to its twin that we keep in the Tower, which would begin to glow. Additionally, I would connect them to the Trap seals. Once the traps are triggered, the seal burns down and becomes charred, so we know that we have to replace them and that the enemy passed through there," explained Tekku as he thought about the specifics.

"Sounds exactly like what we need. What materials do you need?" asked Kenji as he nodded, pleased by Tekku's focus on the task and quick offer of solutions.

"Hmm, standard tags, and..." began the Genin, listing the items as the Commander noted them down so he could place the order for the next supplies, allowing them to start as soon as possible. These traps could save the lives of many Shinobi at this border, as Iwa had become more aggressive since the attack. Iwagakure had already sent multiple teams to probe their defenses and had engaged in multiple skirmishes with them. They had even lost a four-man team during one of these encounters, which was why they needed reinforcements so much.

In the blink of an eye, two months passed at the border. Tekku went on multiple patrol missions with the other members of Team 10 but also completed his A-Rank mission. During them, he was accompanied by the elite combat team, as his job was too valuable to leave to just Chunin. If something were to happen to him, they would lose a major strategic advantage with his seals.

As planned, he placed his seals on multiple strategic locations and blind spots that weren't used by civilians who could accidentally trigger them. During these runs, he luckily didn't encounter any enemies and completed the task safely. Since he finished his work, he only had to redo two of them as they got triggered twice, wiping out some weaker Chunin teams. It was unlikely that they would work on a Jonin, as they were often quite chakra sensitive and quick in their reactions. Also, their experience would allow them to spot most traps. At a high enough level, such traps simply stopped being effective, but the true purpose of them was the Sensory Seals, which worked like a charm. The fact that the traps took out some cannon fodder was just a welcome bonus.

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