First Mission

That night, as Lin Cheng stayed at the hospital to keep Kakashi company while Might Guy received an IV drip, he slowly turned toward the window and sneered.

He gestured to Kakashi and the other two, who had also noticed something, telling them to stay put. Then Lin Cheng slowly walked outside.

A moment later, after a brief disturbance that was hard to detect, Lin Cheng returned to the room.

"What happened?"

Kakashi asked.

"From the way they're dressed, they look like Konoha Anbu, but there's something a little different about them," Lin Cheng said gravely after thinking it over.

"...They're probably from the Foundation. You didn't kill anyone, did you?"

"No. I just knocked them out without anyone noticing and hung them upside down from a tree."

"..."

Beneath Konoha, at the Foundation headquarters.

When his subordinates failed to return, Shimura Danzō grew impatient and immediately sent another group to investigate.

After a long while, a subordinate reported back: the men he had sent earlier had been knocked unconscious and hung upside down from a tree.

Shimura Danzō was furious.

He held his temper until dawn. The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, had only just entered the Hokage Office when Shimura Danzō, who had spent the whole night fuming, stormed in.

"Hiruzen! We absolutely can't just leave those two brats alone! That bastard had the nerve to knock out my subordinates!"

"I don't recall telling you to send anyone to watch them. You overstepped your authority in the first place."

With the ever-present pipe between his teeth, Sarutobi Hiruzen barely raised his eyelids before returning to his work.

"You! Fine! Fine! Keep letting them do as they please, and don't come crying when you regret it! Hmph!"

Shimura Danzō pointed furiously at Sarutobi Hiruzen for a long while. Seeing that Hiruzen wasn't paying him any attention, he slammed the door on his way out.

At the sound, Hiruzen looked up, glanced over, then shook his head and went back to work.

With Danzō no longer bothering them, Lin Cheng and Kimimaro spent several days touring Konoha under Kakashi's guidance.

During that time, Lin Cheng ran into Naruto several times as he caused trouble all over Konoha.

But not wanting to get on certain people's nerves, Lin Cheng chose to let it go with a smile and didn't engage with him.

After a few peaceful days wandering around Konoha, the Lin brothers were officially assigned to the Anbu!

Soon afterward, they received their first mission since joining Konoha.

As Konoha Anbu, they were to help their allied village, Sunagakure, capture Renfu, a Sunagakure missing-nin who had fled into the Land of Fire.

Kakashi was the team leader, with Lin Cheng, Kimimaro, and Yamato, one of Orochimaru's former test subjects, as his teammates!

Of course, Yamato wasn't called Yamato at the time.

He went by Tenzō!

Though they had only just met, Lin Cheng's outgoing nature quickly won over the taciturn Tenzō.

The four followed the information they had received to a spot near the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Wind.

Looking at the barren landscape around them, Lin Cheng's eyes flickered with surprise.

"I didn't expect there to be such a desolate place in the Land of Fire."

"We're already near the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Wind, so it's not that strange."

Kakashi, wearing an Anbu mask, shrugged to show that this was perfectly normal.

"Why would the target choose such a deserted place to hide? And he's pretty unlucky, too! They still managed to find him here!"

"Unless he completely cuts off contact with the outside world, it's only a matter of time before he's found."

"True! Everyone slips up eventually. It's only natural that he'd be found."

Lin Cheng shrugged like Kakashi and ultimately agreed.

"All right, enough musing! We're already close to the target's area. We could run into him at any moment, so we'd better stay alert! And don't forget, he's a puppeteer who knows how to use poison."

"He definitely uses poison."

Lin Cheng nodded in agreement.

"What do you mean?"

"Because he's already using it!"

Before the words had left his mouth, Lin Cheng had vanished.

When he reappeared, he had a ninja dressed like a Sunagakure shinobi tucked under his arm.

Seeing the missing-nin forehead protector on the man's head and getting a good look at his face, Kakashi and Tenzō were speechless.