[New Mission: Operation Stone-Cutter (B-Rank)]
[Objective: Infiltrate and destroy Tanigakure Outpost Theta (0 / 1)]
[Rewards: 6000 EXP, 80 Dark Hall Promotion Points, 90,000 Ryô, +100 Reputation with Southern Border Command, +200 Reputation with Team 11/41/42, B-Rank Equipment Crate (Random), B-rank Jutsu Scroll (Random)]
The rain had returned. As the three teams were concealing their presence, Ryugo was looking attentively at the mission logs with great expectations.
B-rank jutsu were not so common, even in the Dark Hall Tower. It had taken him extraordinary military achievements to receive one before. As for B-rank equipment, the katana he received from his mother Ayame had been a family heirloom of the Kagutsu clan.
As such, getting both a B-rank piece of equipment and a B-rank jutsu was an extremely rewarding opportunity. It would have never come without the title of Vice-Commander of the Southern Border. But at this rate, becoming a jonin was only a matter of time.
The limestone caves of Outpost Theta were dark. Water trickled down the cliffs. Mushrooms and vegetation grew profusely, but it neither looked edible, or safe to smell either. To the point that Yumi took a few samples in specific vials.
Ryugo watched through his Raikōgan.
The outpost was a hive, one he could not see through with his meagre senses. Team 11, 41 and 42 were attack squads. Each possessed its own strength and weakness. In combat, they could probably take down an outpost twice bigger than this one.
However, they lacked one thing: reconnaissance capabilities. There was not one sensor among them. And it made missions more annoying than they should.
Of course, Ryugo had already compiled the information from Commander Batto's spies, but he would not rely on information like that. He needed to check that it was not a trap from a double agent, or just bait left behind the enemy commander Goro.
If the [Dam in the Mist] mission taught him anything, it was to be extra cautious in missions with variables. Operation Stone-Cutter was one of them.
How many enemies?
How many civilians?
Do they have an elite operative of jonin strength? Several?
These thoughts hovered in his head like a sword of damocles. He would not begin the operation until he had some understanding of the situation. Warriors would find this mindset cowardly and weak. But they were not warriors.
They were shinobi. Assassins. Military.
"Two entrances", Ryugo murmured, his voice barely audible over the rain, as his hands held a map, "The one we see here is the southern gate. Both are most likely heavily guarded"
"We go for the northern gate first, then?" Goto asked, his hand resting on his umbrella's handle, "We can make a diversion to distract them while you thin out their numbers from the southern gate"
"No", Ryugo said, "We need the layout. Confirmation of their numbers. Tetsu"
Tetsu nodded. He didn't need elaborate instructions. They'd practiced this.
He melted into the reeds, a shadow among shadows. Twenty minutes later, he returned, dragging a limp form. A Tanigakure genin, maybe fifteen, his uniform sodden, a nasty lump rising on his temple. He was alive, but unconscious.
[Tanigakure Outpost Guard – Lv. 13 Genin]
"A Tanigakure genin from the southern perimeter", Tetsu said, dropping him at Ryugo's feet, "He was checking a trap"
Tetsu's return gave off two pieces of information. First of all, their protocol was not perfect. Second, they had laid out traps. Fortunately, Tetsu was agile enough to avoid them and even capture one of their sentry.
"Wake him", Ryugo ordered.
Tetsu knelt. He didn't slap the boy. He simply placed a hand on his forehead, his chakra a subtle, invasive probe.
The genin jolted awake, his eyes flying open, immediately trying to form a seal. Tetsu's other hand caught his wrist, pinning it to the mud.
*CRACK*
"Don't," Tetsu whispered, his mask's weeping smile hovering inches from the boy's face. "It'll only hurt more"
His wrist was broken from the impact. Tetsu was not an expert in Taijutsu, but he still was a chunin. After training with kenjutsu monsters like Ameruyi and Ryugo, his physique was naturally forced to keep up with them.
The genin's eyes darted around, taking in the ring of impassive Amegakure shinobi. A silver-haired kunoichi with a scarred face, a boy with the lightning-crackle yellow eyes, one with a blood-stained umbrella, a girl with an ominous gourd. And of course, a monster with a laughing-weeping mask.
All held headbands from Amegakure. Enemies.
Terror, raw and immediate, seized him.
"I won't tell you anything", he gasped, trying to sound brave, "Kill me"
"We will", Ryugo said, his tone conversational, "But first, you'll talk. Tetsu, the quick version. Even small settlements have rotations. We don't know when they will notice his disappearance"
Tetsu's free hand came up. He didn't use the Etherium powder. He simply focused, and a single, fat tear welled in the corner of his visible eye. It traced a path down his mask, darkening as it fell.
It didn't hit the ground. It hovered in the air before the genin's face, a perfect, black droplet.
"Look at it", Tetsu murmured, his voice weaving into the patter of rain.
The genin tried to look away, but the droplet seemed to pull at his gaze. It was a void. A tiny, sucking absence of light.
"Genjutsu: Laughing Horror (C)"
The genin's breath hitched. His chest started to tremble, his lips turning upwards. He felt an irresistible urge to laugh, but he could not. His nerves were stimulated to the extreme. It was a sensation of joy that he had never felt before. At first, it was as if he had heard a joke. But seconds in, he wanted it to stop. It started to hurt. It started to tire him.
A minute in, his muffled laughs and hiccups were mixed with tears behind.
Two minutes in, the urge to confess, to unburden himself of every secret, became a physical pressure in his chest, worse than any knife.
Only then did Tetsu spoke.
"The outpost", Tetsu prompted, his voice a whisper, "Numbers. Positions. Layout. Tell me everything you know"
The words spilled out of the genin in a choked, desperate torrent. "N-northern gate… six of us…genins. Two-hour shifts… S-southern gate, same… six more… Commander Boro's orders after the dam… Central cave… three chunins… they stay in the command cave… they rotate sleeping so one is always awake… they can be at either gate in three minutes if the alarm sounds…"
"The civilians?", Ryugo took over
"Potters… clay miners… maybe a hundred… they sleep in the deep caves… they're not fighters… please…"
"The alarm system?"
"A… a bell at each gate… and a chakra flare seal in the command cave… if the bell rings, the chunin on watch activates the flare…"
Ryugo listened, cross-referencing the genin's panicked description with Commander Batto's information. It matched. From this point on, the plan was simple. They just needed to execute it.
"Thank you," Ryugo said
The genin looked up, a flicker of hope in his terror-glazed eyes. "You'll let me go?"
Tetsu's hand moved. A single, sharp senbon, drawn from his sleeve, entered the genin's temple. His body went limp.
"No", Tetsu said to the corpse, his voice flat. He withdrew the needle and cleaned it on the wet grass.
Goto let out a slow breath. He'd seen Tetsu's genjutsu before, in training. Seeing it used for real, this cold, efficient extraction, was different. It wasn't flashy. It was just… effective. Horrifyingly so. His ruthlessness, too, was something unforeseen.
Tetsu used to be kind, almost too kind. Ever since Ameruyi had gotten kidnapped by the Dotuki operative, he changed. Perhaps, he had become the most ruthless out of the three monsters.
Ryugo cursed inwardly. He had been too slow. Although he fundamentally did not care about this little experience, he was also very stingy. A loss was a loss, no matter how small it was.
Yumi whistled softly: "Nice and clean. No screaming. I like it."
Ameruyi said nothing, her one good eye fixed on the cave entrance.
Ryugo traced a quick diagram in the mud. "Three key locations. North gate, south gate, central command. They've split their chunin strength to hold the center, able to reinforce either gate in three minutes. Splitting our forces would lead to equal combat at a gate, then we'd face three chunins rushing in. This is not optimal."
He looked at his team.
"So we don't split. We concentrate. We hit the northern gate with everything we have. Nine of us against six genins. We obliterate them before they can ring the bell. Then, when the three chunins rush from the center to reinforce…"
He tapped the diagram between the central cave and the north gate. "…they run into an ambush. Ameruyi, Tetsu and myself will handle them. In the meantime, you clean the southern gate freely. That way, we allow for no survivor. A clean operation"
Goto stared at the simple lines in the mud.
His mind, sharpened by a month of Ryugo's tactics, saw it unfold. The brutal simplicity of it. It relied on perfect timing, perfect stealth, and overwhelming violence at the point of contact.
His eyes shined with killing intent.
It was a wonderful plan.