Why Are You Standing There? Keep Playing, Keep Dancing!
Evening.
Seeing that it was about time, Hagoromo got ready, put on his Anbu attire, and picked up the fox mask beside him.
He vaulted out of his window and headed straight for the Konoha Gate.
He watched the rising moon disappear behind clouds of darkness.
Hagoromo began thinking about that night's mission.
A dark moon and a high wind: a night for killing.
He figured they probably wanted him to draw blood. After all, in his two years as a Chunin before becoming a teacher, Hagoromo had only ever undertaken one B-Rank Mission at most.
Most of the others had been C-rank escort missions.
Ninja were killers by nature, and that went without saying for the Anbu.
Their first rule was to protect the Hokage and prevent outside enemies from invading Konoha.
Second came reconnaissance and assassination missions, as well as handling matters that couldn't conveniently be made public.
Things like dealing with people who threatened the village's safety, or the dirty work of disposing of bodies and erasing evidence.
In short, ninja had to draw blood, and the Anbu stood out in particular.
As he neared the village gate, Hagoromo stopped on a rooftop and waited quietly.
He looked around, but there was still no sign of Kakashi.
He could only hope the guy wasn't mourning his 'dead' friend.
If he was, Hagoromo would have a long wait ahead of him.
After a while, Hagoromo suddenly heard a faint sound.
He turned toward it and saw a conspicuous head of silver hair not far away.
Seeing that Hagoromo had spotted him, Kakashi waved, then raced toward the gate.
Hagoromo stepped forward and followed.
As they approached, the gate, which had been closed, swung open.
Kakashi, who was in front of Hagoromo, threw a kunai straight into the registration board hanging above.
The two gatekeepers seemed used to it and took the travel report straight off the board.
Without so much as looking at Kakashi and Hagoromo in their Anbu attire, they let them through.
Wait, Kakashi shows off like that?
And the Anbu get perks like this?
Hagoromo only glanced at them before following Kakashi out of the village.
"Captain, what mission are we carrying out?"
Once they were outside the village, Kakashi showed signs of slowing down, so Hagoromo hurried to catch up.
Seeing that Kakashi was still traveling, Hagoromo spoke up and asked first.
Kakashi was wearing a mask, so his expression was impossible to see.
He simply said in a flat voice:
"The target is a mountain stronghold on the border of the Land of Fire, near the Land of Rice Fields."
"It's been very active lately. The villages around the stronghold have been raided, and many children have been abducted."
"So far, there's enough evidence to suspect the stronghold of smuggling and trafficking."
"So Lord Hiruzen has ordered us to cleanse the entire stronghold and investigate thoroughly to find out who they're connected to."
Hagoromo blinked beneath his mask. It's a bloodbath, so why make it sound so official?
"And my assignment is?"
"The Anbu members of Squad Six have already gone ahead to set up an ambush, so your assessment task is—"
"Deal with every bandit in the stronghold on your own. You only need to leave the leader alive."
Kakashi's tone didn't waver in the slightest as he said it, as though those people's lives weren't worth mentioning in his eyes.
"Yes!"
Hagoromo agreed without asking anything else.
As for who was connected to the bandits behind the scenes, that was a matter for Kakashi, the captain.
It wasn't something Hagoromo himself needed to consider.
Besides, if he wanted to make it back in time to teach on Monday, he could only travel at full speed.
With that thought, Hagoromo picked up his pace.
He wasn't the same person he had been a month ago. Even if he traveled at full speed now,
he would still have enough stamina and chakra left when he arrived.
Kakashi, who was keeping pace beside him, noticed when Hagoromo sped up and frowned slightly beneath his mask.
He considered reminding him to conserve his strength, but after some thought, he said nothing.
And so the two raced toward their destination without exchanging another word.
Among the mountains, a bandit stronghold was in the midst of a celebration.
The stronghold's leader was a burly man with a scar over his right eye.
He sat sprawled in the seat of honor, watching his men celebrate with abandon, and burst into laughter.
Grinning to reveal a mouthful of yellow teeth, he raised his cup and shouted, "Everyone, we've got another big job coming up, so let's call this meal a celebration."
"Drink up!"
"Yes, boss!"
"Boss, you're the most generous!"
The bandits, already drunk, were even more delighted to hear this.
After all, tonight's feast was one of the best they'd had in the past few months. If they pulled off another big job in a few days,
wouldn't they get to eat and drink their fill again?
But in a corner, an old man with a pipe in his mouth frowned slightly.
He didn't know who their leader had gotten involved with lately.
Afterward, the leader had begun raiding nearby villages, even abducting children, whom he normally wouldn't have cared about.
Then, the next day, the old man hadn't seen the children.
He had asked the leader, but the man had vaguely brushed him off, saying they'd been sent back.
But how could he not know what sort of man the leader was?
He wouldn't give anything that didn't benefit him a second look. And if he'd really sent the children back, it wasn't as though the old man hadn't asked the others in the stronghold.
Almost all of them had said they knew nothing about it.
"Boss, I think maybe we should wait and see first. We've been drawing too much attention lately, and I'm afraid someone might come after us."
With that thought, the old man rose, his pipe still in his mouth, and called out his suggestion to the burly man in the seat of honor.
In an instant, the revelry in the stronghold fell silent.
After all, the old man had been the previous leader's adviser. Although the current leader had killed his predecessor and taken his place,
he had spared the old man's life, since he was the only clever person in the stronghold.
"Shut up!"
The leader hurled the cup in his hand at him and stood up. The scar over his right eye looked somewhat menacing as he fixed the old man with a burning stare.
"I let you keep your worthless life because you've got a bit of skill."
"And now you want to stop me from making a fortune? Keep it up and I'll chop you to pieces!"
"Hmph. Whether you listen is up to you. I won't concern myself with it anymore."
The old man saw the burly man shouting at him without giving him any face, and the young wolves around them, upon hearing that they couldn't make a fortune,
were all staring daggers at him, as though they wanted to take a bite out of him.
He forced himself to say those words, then ran out in a panic.
Those left behind looked at one another. The burly man in the seat of honor pulled the woman sitting beside him close and shouted:
"Why are you standing there? Keep playing, keep dancing!"
At his words, the hall came alive again.
Only the scarred man held a wine cup in one hand and squeezed a rounded object with the other.
His eyes, however, followed the direction the old man had gone, and a vicious smile curled his lips.
Since he won't obey, kill him!