I arrived around five minutes before the agreed upon time, and I found that despite that, I was the last to arrive.
"Ahhh, there you are! Last to arrive, what took so long? Trying to wash Koji's scent off your face?" I had only barely raised my hand to greet the two before I almost fell face-first into the ground.
I mean really? What kind of greeting was that?
Damn Inuzuka, they have absolutely zero social awareness, and act far too openly with anyone they consider family, which now includes me.
"Please Inuzuka-san, could you not say such things? I represent the noble Hyūga Clan today." I tried my best to make them stop, because we weren't alone.
"Noble eh? I wonder how noble you were with Koji's dick up your ass, would for sure allow you to mimic the rest of your stick in the ass stiff clan members." She laughed and I felt a wave of dizziness go through me at just how dense and brazen this woman was.
Hadn't Koji told them to keep it to private settings for stuff like that? And here she was, mouthing off in front of another Konoha shinobi!
Would I need to kill them both? I mean, it would look bad on my mission record but I didn't care much… and honestly, it wouldn't be too hard, they would never see it coming.
"Wow… did I suddenly get cold here or what?" The Inuzuka Kunoichi nervously laughed, as my bloodlust accidentally leaked out.
I took a deep breath, and calmed down. "I'm sure I asked Koji to make sure you all kept that kind of talk to private conversations."
"Oh sure, but I couldn't help myself, I mean, can you believe it, a mutt from the Inuzuka clan, fucking the future Hyūga Clan's head's future wife? Treating her like his bitch? Fucking marking her face? That's fucking golden, no way I can't say anything meeting you in person."
Alright… that does it… they both have to go…
"And come on, it's just us three, we are all from the three sensor clans, and bugboy here won't say a word, you know how they are, silent as a grave, and he likely knows, their bugs can smell stuff pretty well, and honestly girl, Koji did you good." He continued on without any signs of stopping.
"Name's Inuzuka Mari," she said cheerfully, pushing off the fence she'd been leaning against and striding toward me with a swagger. "Koji's older cousin. Or packmate. Or babysitter, depending on who you ask."
She didn't offer a handshake—just stepped into my space like we were already friends and sniffed once, theatrically. "Yup. That's definitely Koji. Damn, girl. Didn't think he had it in him."
I honestly didn't know what to say, the Inuzuka clan moved at their own pace, and it wasn't easy to keep up with them, their unpredictability was one of the things I liked about Koji, he never grew boring.
"This here," she stuck a thumb towards a massive white hound lounging by the fence. "Is my partner, Riku, and if you need an itch scratched out there and without Koji around, he can help you."
The more she spoke, the more shocked I was at just how brazen she acted, the things she was saying with a perfectly straight face, she was amazing in a way.
Even if I still wanted to end her life for causing me this much embarrassment.
Before I could formulate a response that wouldn't earn me a formal warning from the mission office, the third member of our team finally spoke.
"Aburame Kento," came the low, even voice. He didn't move to approach. Just nodded once from his position beneath a shaded tree, arms folded, face half-hidden behind high collar and tinted glasses. "Ready when you are."
Short. To the point. And mercifully free of commentary.
Mari gave him a sideways glance. "Say Aburame-san? You aren't going to spread around the fact that my clan's Koji turned Hyūga-chan here into his little bitch are you?"
He barely looked at us, clearly uninterested in everything that wasn't his bugs or the mission. "I don't care, as long as it doesn't get in the way of the mission, she is free to sleep with any ninken for all I care."
"Okay, let's just get one thing straight here, I don't sleep with ninken, only Koji, and he is a guy." I quickly defended myself, not wanting some misunderstanding to spread about me.
"Yeah right, only Koji… and Kuro when he is with him eh?" Mari said, grinning at me, a grin I very much felt like planting into the ground.
As I struggled to not just murder the Kunoichi where she stood, the rest of the team, including her own ninken, were thankfully sharp enough to pick up on the very poor mood.
"Shouldn't we get on to the mission?" Kento asked. Clearly not comfortable with the murderous feeling I was giving off.
Riku, too, was doing his best to nudge his partner away from me.
Thankfully for the change of topic, I breathed in deeply to calm myself; this woman was really testing the limits of my patience.
"Right, the mission, I trust you both know what we will be doing?" I finally said, eyeing both of them who nodded, Mari like a puppy, overly eagerly, and Kento just a short, sharp nod.
"Good, I will be in charge, any objections?"
All of us here were at the Jōnin level in rank, firmly within the Elite, power-wise. So a team like ours wasn't given a formal leader. We were adults, skilled and deadly, the best the village had, we were assumed to be able to figure such things out on our own.
It was really just the village's way of not appearing to play favorites, even if they still did in many far more subtle ways.
Mari gave me a toothy grin. "A bitch in charge? Well… I know you are strong, so I guess I can allow it, letting me watch and see just what caught little Koji's eye."
Kento didn't even bother with words. Just shifted his weight and turned toward the road ahead. I took that as an agreement.
"Alright then," I said, activating my Byakugan for a quick sweep of the surroundings. "You both know the mission, so let's not waste time. Inuzuka-san, please take the lead towards the mission location. Aburama-san, you take up the rear, you do you?"
I didn't want to start giving him too many orders, because I still didn't fully know all the ways they used their insects. So I just let him do what he wanted, I trusted he knew what to do, one doesn't reach our rank without that.
So with Mari leading the way, we shot out of Konoha and into the forest.
We moved fast, but not recklessly—silent shadows weaving through the trees.
I kept an eye on our flanks with my Byakugan while Mari followed the old supply route like she owned it, occasionally ducking low with Riku to sniff out residual trails.
Kento brought up the rear, eerily quiet, his insects fanning out around us like a fine mist. He never said a word, but every now and then, I saw a subtle gesture—one finger twitching, a slight tilt of his head—communicating with his hive in ways only he could understand.
Our mission was simple enough, shouldn't even be too dangerous, and perfect for our team, or rather, our team was the perfect one for the mission.
So far, Konoha could still afford to keep the freshest Genin away from the frontlines, instead, they did supply runs from Konoha to where they were needed.
In theory, this meant they would operate in friendly territory without any real dangers, but reality wasn't always that kind.
Recently, three teams and the supplies they carried had gone missing, and them going rogue had been ruled out, which meant someone had taken them out.
Given the nature of shinobi, it wasn't much of a surprise, but that didn't mean it could be allowed. If the fronts couldn't get supplies, they would fall, and Konoha couldn't afford to give the teams responsible too much support, all the heavy hitters were needed.
So the teams themselves couldn't be improved, which meant it was vital that the attackers were dealt with, and that the land of fire itself was purged of enemies.
It wouldn't last, more would sneak in, but as long as we kept clearing them out, the few losses suffered in between were within the acceptable range.
We were the scalpel meant to cut out the infection. Quiet, precise, and fast.
It wasn't long before Mari raised her hand in a fist and dropped into a crouch. Riku mirrored her, ears peaked, muscles taut. I halted beside her while Kento silently joined us at the edge of a worn path that curved through a dip in the forest.
"This is the place their tracks ended," Mari murmured. "The Genin squad passed through here around three days ago. No reports after that."
I activated my Byakugan again, eyes scanning the landscape with a slow sweep. The trail was indeed faintly visible, faint chakra residue, footprints, and a discarded ration wrapper. Clearly, the work of Genin, careless and inexperienced.
And indeed, it just suddenly stopped, without any explanation, the once easy to follow trail was gone.
That wasn't the work of Genins, that was the work of a professional.
Whoever did this made sure to clean up after themselves, and very well, leaving no clues at first glance.
Thankfully, we didn't have to end it at first glance. "Alright, let's see what we can find, don't stray too far. My Byakugan confirms no hostiles are nearby, so we should be safe, but no need to be careless."
Mari gave a low whistle and dropped to all fours beside the faint outline of a footprint. Riku began circling the area, nose low to the earth, his tail stiff with focus.
"Whoever scrubbed the scene knew what they were doing," Mari muttered. "No blood, no drag marks, even the scent trail's been masked. It's almost too clean."
I didn't need to get down and dirty; I could see just as well from the comfort of a large branch as I could from the ground. And I could see faint chakra traces quite a way below. "It looks like they somehow turned the earth upside down, burying their traces."
It was puzzling, because the ground didn't look like it, but the chakra seemed to indicate it… Ninjutsu were really amazing, despite my vast knowledge of them, there was still so much I didn't know yet.
"Earth Release, maybe?" I mused aloud. "Could they somehow have flipped the surface around and yet somehow make the surface look normal, without leaving chakra traces?"
"Unlikely, such a thing should leave a trace, but neither you nor my Kikaichū has detected anything," Kento added, shooting down my theory.
"Well, only one way to find out, we gotta dig up and see if there are some scents buried down there, or something else we can use." Mari said as she eyed the ground, trying to spot anything that looked wrong.
Mari sank her fingers into the soil, testing the surface with practiced ease. "Feels normal." She brought a handful to her face and sniffed it, letting Riku smell it. "Scent is normal, like a normal top layer, nothing out of the ordinary."
"We need to go deeper. Are either of you skilled in Earth Release?" I asked, still scanning the terrain for chakra disturbances.
Mari shrugged. "I'm more claws and fangs than fancy hand signs. My ninjutsu's limited clan stuff and offensive ones, none for digging."
"I possess a single D-rank Earth Release technique," Kento replied, kneeling beside a tree. "Primarily for burying bodies. Crude. Inefficient. But sufficient for shallow excavation."
Charming.
"Well," I muttered, "it's better than nothing. Kento, try to shift a square meter of the soil where Riku's circling. Focus on depth. If they buried traces, it should be down there."
He gave a curt nod and performed a simple sequence of hand signs. The ground trembled faintly—just enough to loosen the topsoil in a neat, controlled square. It collapsed inward, revealing layers beneath.
Mari was on it instantly, sniffing again, her expression tightening. "There's something here. Blood. Old. Faint. Maybe three days."
Riku let out a quiet growl. His nose pointed at a darker patch of disturbed earth within the hole.
"I have no chakra trace, so I need either of you to do something with what little we have."
"So much for those magic eyes, eh, princess? No match for a big fat Inuzuka, Wah!" She was interrupted by a kunai I threw her way.
"Whoops, my hand slipped." I said, flashing her a smile.
"Hand slipped my ass! Stupid Hyūga bitch." She cursed but didn't finish the sentence.
(chapter end)
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