"No wonder we were assigned this mission. I didn't expect the two sides to be from Kirigakure and Konoha."
After they set off the next day, Kisame Hoshigaki sensed chakra fluctuations up ahead in the woods, seemingly from a fight. He used Water Release to sneak over and investigate, then returned to report what he had found.
"It looks like your little brother is there too, Itachi."
Kisame added that last detail.
"Sasuke?"
Itachi Uchiha glanced at Shirozumi.
He wondered whether Shirozumi had known in advance that they would run into Sasuke on this trip, and that was why he had told him those things earlier.
At the recent Akatsuki Gathering, Shirozumi's excuse for sending Itachi and Kisame away had been to have them gather intelligence on Konoha.
Itachi had taken the opportunity to return for a look and saw that Sasuke had graduated and become a genin.
What he hadn't expected was for Sasuke to receive a mission of this level so soon after becoming a genin.
Of course, Itachi had considered forcing Sasuke to grow. He couldn't treat him like a hothouse flower.
But he also knew that pushing too hard could backfire. At least when lives were at stake, he understood that much.
According to Kisame's account, two chunin had appeared right at the start of the mission, which clearly made it B-rank already.
There would most likely be more enemies later, perhaps even jonin-level opponents, raising the mission's difficulty to A-rank.
Genin carrying out an A-rank mission?
The enemy jonin wouldn't go easy on them.
It would truly be a fight to the death.
The only good news was that Kisame had recognized their team leader: Kakashi Hatake.
With him there, at least their safety had the strongest possible guarantee.
Kisame thought so too. "With Kakashi Hatake around, Sasuke Uchiha shouldn't be in danger. Do we follow them, or go past them and head straight to the Land of Waves?"
"Do you really have that much faith in the Shinobi World's celebrity, Kakashi the 50/50?"
Shirozumi posed the question.
"...When I was still in Konoha, I carried out missions alongside Kakashi in the Anbu. His abilities are quite solid."
Itachi Uchiha didn't understand why Shirozumi would say that.
"Let's split up, then. Itachi, go ahead to the Land of Waves and contact the mission target. Gather some intelligence while you're at it.
"Kisame and I will stay here and follow them there."
Shirozumi offered no further explanation.
"...All right. But given Kakashi Hatake's abilities and experience, you'll have a hard time following him without being discovered."
"Who said we were going to hide while following them? Kisame, let's go."
Shirozumi beckoned to Kisame and walked straight over.
"Huh?"
Kisame froze for a moment, then looked at Itachi. Seeing that Itachi had already turned into crows and left, he hurried after Shirozumi.
Kakashi's Team.
With their little "standalone episode" of a battle over, Naruto Uzumaki had just stabbed his palm with a kunai and sworn to change, after fear had left him unable to move during the fight.
Then Kakashi reminded him that he would die if he didn't stop the bleeding, and he instantly panicked and begged for help.
It had been a lighthearted scene, with everyone at ease.
But in the next instant, the smile in Kakashi's eyes vanished. His gaze turned serious as he looked toward the figures emerging from the woods.
Two figures, one ahead of the other.
Kakashi didn't recognize the young man in front.
But the one behind him...
The Kirigakure rogue ninja symbol on his forehead protector, with a slash through it.
And that huge blade on his back...
The Seven Ninja Swordsmen?
Kakashi immediately thought of the two chunin he had just dealt with, the Oni Brothers. They had also been rogue ninja from Kirigakure.
"Sasuke, Naruto, Sakura, you need to—"
"They're enemies, right? Kakashi-sensei, I'm going in!"
Before Kakashi could finish, Naruto, who had just made his vow, decided to put it into action immediately and charged fearlessly at Shirozumi.
"Idiot Naruto!"
Seeing this, Sasuke had no choice but to throw shuriken to block Kisame's path forward.
At least that would keep Naruto from facing two opponents at once, especially when the one in the back looked even stronger.
Kakashi moved immediately as well.
Facing a jonin-level member of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, Kakashi couldn't afford to leisurely read his dirty novel while thinking about teaching his students, as he had against the Oni Brothers.
Kakashi's target was Shirozumi too.
In that brief first encounter, Kakashi had already noticed something. Whatever Shirozumi's strength might be, his status was definitely higher than that of the swordsman behind him.
Seizing the man in front would not only ensure Naruto's safety, but was also his best option.
However...
Naruto slid feetfirst across the ground and ended up sitting there, looking utterly bewildered.
Kakashi appeared where Shirozumi had been standing, a kunai in hand, and froze as well.
Where did he go?
"See, Kisame? I told you that you give the Shinobi World's celebrity far too much credit. He attacked without even figuring out whether we were friends or enemies."
Shirozumi's voice came from elsewhere.
Naruto and Kakashi turned toward his voice and discovered that, at some point, Shirozumi had appeared beside Tazuna, the man they were escorting on this mission.
Sakura was the only one guarding Tazuna. When she noticed Shirozumi's sudden appearance, the young girl froze too.
Sakura had just raised her fist to attack when Shirozumi caught her wrist, leaving her unable to move.
"Are you saying that you have no hostile intentions toward us?"
Kakashi's expression grew utterly grave.
Even after collecting himself, he still hadn't figured out how Shirozumi had appeared behind them.
Substitution techniques, clones, and the like all left traces.
But Shirozumi's disappearance and reappearance had left absolutely none.
Not even... a trace in his memory.
Kakashi realized that he couldn't even remember exactly when Shirozumi had disappeared.
So, once he understood what Shirozumi had said, Kakashi immediately followed his lead.
Keep him calm first.
"That's right. One of our mission objectives is also to ensure that this old bridge builder reaches the Land of Waves."
Shirozumi released Sakura's wrist and pointed at Tazuna beside him.
"Mr. Tazuna, not only did you conceal the mission's difficulty, but you also issued the same mission to multiple parties?!"
Kakashi turned his gaze toward Tazuna, his tone full of displeasure.
After dealing with the Oni Brothers just now, they had questioned Tazuna about why he had concealed the mission's difficulty.
The mission they had accepted was C-rank. The Third Hokage had only made an exception and assigned it to these genin because a jonin would be leading them.
Yet ninja had appeared during the mission, raising it to B-rank.
Tazuna's excuse had been that they were too poor to afford the reward for a B-rank mission.
And now another group who had accepted the mission had suddenly appeared.
This was what he called poor? Unable to afford it?
Tazuna was dumbfounded too. Sure, he lied and guilt-tripped people, but he genuinely knew nothing about this!
He was just about to explain when his eyes suddenly darted, and he changed what he was going to say. "I really don't know anything about this. Perhaps the other villagers were worried that genin on a C-rank mission couldn't protect me, so they sold off a few more things and hired them..."
"Boohoo... We have it so hard."
As Tazuna spoke, he began crying, tears and snot streaming down his face.
Clearly, the old bastard had noticed how easily those genin could be guilt-tripped and was ready to pull the same trick again.
Before you continue