Rescue

Days passed one after another. The chill of early spring had long since faded, and after many days of clear, sunny weather, Konoha grew livelier as the temperature rose. In an age when peace had taken deep root, no one noticed the dangers lurking nearby. Konoha's ninja had always been able to keep every threat outside the village. Aside from the Nine-Tails' attack more than a decade ago, no one could even remember the last time Konoha had been attacked directly.

As the Chunin Ninja Exams drew closer, Mizuki stepped up his preparations. Crisis was a double-edged thing: danger also contained opportunity. Those who came later and refused to settle for mediocrity had always hated the stagnant, unchanging atmosphere.

Mizuki liked these peaceful days too, but with war unavoidable, figuring out how to survive and fish in troubled waters was a decent option.

Just as Mizuki thought he would be waiting until Orochimaru attacked Konoha, he received an emergency summons. He had no choice but to set aside his leisurely job as a task-giving NPC.

By the time Mizuki reached the Hokage Office, quite a few people had already arrived. He was the last one there.

"Ibiki Morino, Aoba Yamashiro, Izumo Kamizuki, Kotetsu Hagane, Gekko Hayate, and me? This has the makings of an S-rank mission. Are we being forced into this?"

"Everyone's here." When the Third Hokage saw Mizuki enter, he continued, "I called you all here because there's a very difficult mission that needs to be completed."

"First, I have some bad news. The C-rank mission to the Land of Waves assigned to the Genin team led by Kakashi has taken a serious turn. It's been upgraded to S-rank. An S-rank missing-nin, Demon Zabuza, appeared during the mission. Hatake Kakashi defeated him in their fight, but couldn't pursue him. Kakashi is now severely exhausted and unable to fight effectively, leaving him in grave danger. He's requested help from the village."

"How could something like this happen?" Aoba Yamashiro asked in surprise. "Wasn't the mission request carefully reviewed?"

"This is my responsibility." The Third Hokage drew a breath and spoke gravely. "When the request was submitted, Mizuki had already raised this concern. The village investigated it as well, but unfortunately, the situation turned out to be far more serious than we expected."

"We thought the other party was just a local strongman, and that at most he'd hire a few wandering ninja. With Kakashi there, it should have been no problem. In fact, Kakashi's team was attacked by two Chunin-level ninja just after leaving the village. The village received a report, but we didn't take it seriously. We never expected Demon Zabuza to show up next. The enemy is far too bold to hire an S-rank missing-nin with no principles."

"Then we need to act as soon as possible?" Ibiki Morino asked.

"Yes. Be careful. Ibiki will lead this six-person team. Your top priority is to protect Kakashi's team. If other forces try to fish in troubled waters in the Land of Waves, stop them if possible."

"But," Mizuki asked in confusion, "why didn't Kakashi abandon the mission? The client lied about its rank, so the village could simply withdraw. Why drag the village into a mess that offers us no benefit?"

"I understand," the Third Hokage said with a deep breath. "You have another, covert mission: secretly help Kakashi complete the mission in the Land of Waves. Although the Land of Waves is far from the village and very poor, it's a strategic location—a vital barrier between the Land of Fire and the Land of Water. If we can bring it over to Konoha's side, it will be a great help to us. So unless necessary, don't reveal yourselves. Keep a low profile and avoid making too much noise, so we don't invite criticism."

"Yes, sir."

"I'll leave it to you, then. Get moving as soon as you can."

After they received their orders and left, their leader, Ibiki Morino, instructed them, "Take fifteen minutes to prepare, then meet at the village gate."

With that, they scattered in every direction.

Mizuki raced home, gathered his ninja tools, grabbed some life-saving medicine, and hurried off. "The side effects are pretty bad, but in small doses, it should work like a temporary healing potion, right? If things get really desperate, I'll just have to gamble with my life."

Mizuki checked the time on his way out and saw he still had a moment, so he went to let Tsubaki know. He asked her to look after the plants and animals in his room, then ran toward the village exit.

"Am I the last one again? I should still be on time, right?" Mizuki asked in surprise.

"No, you're fine. All right, we're together. Let's go!" Their leader, Ibiki Morino, had a stern expression and a face covered in scars. The sheer pressure he gave off was overwhelming. As a good young man of the new century, Mizuki wasn't used to dealing with dangerous people skilled in interrogation and psychological warfare.

The six of them ran at full speed, but barely spoke. Aoba Yamashiro specialized in genjutsu and could read minds; Ibiki Morino was a sadist. The interrogation duo usually kept quiet unless they had a reason to talk. Gekko Hayate was sickly, so conserving his strength and keeping up the pace was the sensible thing to do. Kotetsu Hagane and Izumo Kamizuki, those two best buddies, weren't talking either. The mission was simply too urgent. But Mizuki couldn't stand the oppressive silence, so he turned to Ibiki.

"Hey, Captain, don't you think our team's a little oddly put together?"

"What's odd about it?" Ibiki replied.

"You and Aoba Yamashiro are good at extracting information, Izumo and Kotetsu can handle the front line, and Gekko Hayate's good in a one-on-one fight. Isn't that a pretty good team? What do you need me for?" Mizuki was asking even though he already knew the answer. The original story never mentioned it, but Konoha had probably sent a rescue team. It was highly unlikely that a veteran ninja like Kakashi wouldn't report an unexpected development to the village. And the second attack had left him unconscious; he'd barely managed to fend off a powerful enemy. Holding out alone while protecting a Nine-Tails Jinchuriki and Sasuke Uchiha didn't fit the way a jōnin operated. Konoha had most likely sent support. Whether they arrived in time or there was something else going on, Mizuki had no way of knowing.

Originally, Mizuki shouldn't have had anything to do with this, but unfortunately, he hadn't been thrown in jail like in the original story, and his three-month punishment was nearly over. As one of the more capable Chunin, it was perfectly normal for the village to assign him a mission to test him and give him a chance to redeem himself. Besides, his habit of slacking off had probably annoyed people too.

Well, I brought this on myself. If I don't get anything out of this, I'll have worked for nothing.

Before Ibiki could answer Mizuki's question, Kotetsu Hagane complained, "The Third Hokage really does see everything. Making idle ninja do some work was a brilliant idea."

"Who's idle? I haven't made a single mistake at work these past two months."

"Don't argue, cough, cough." Gekko Hayate couldn't resist joining in. "As long as we meet up with Kakashi before Zabuza attacks again, we'll have completed most of the mission. Cough, cough."

"Hey, buddy, you should stop talking." Mizuki couldn't take it anymore. "You need the rest more than I do. Seeing a model ninja like you come to work sick makes me ashamed of my selfishness."

"Heh." Ibiki actually laughed. "There probably won't be any major fighting on this mission. With Kakashi there, we're not the frontline fighters. We just need to protect the three Genin and the client in secret. We'll decide what else to do based on the situation."

"Please, Ibiki, don't laugh. You're even scarier than before," Mizuki said, unable to resist a jab. "By the way, Captain, the Chunin Exams are coming up after this mission. Could you give me an easy assignment? Look how busy I've been lately—I've lost a ton of weight. Even Tsubaki feels bad for me."

"That's a shame. The assignments have already been decided. You'll be informed when the time comes."

"What? That's so heartless. I worked so hard in the Forest of Death recently."

"Then you should talk to Anko."

"I'll have to talk to the Third Hokage about my pay next time. Sigh."

"Mizuki, stop complaining. Cough, cough." Gekko Hayate really wouldn't let it go. "I have to handle the preliminaries before the third-round finals. How about we trade?"

"No thanks," Mizuki said without hesitation. Facing a sleep-deprived One-Tail Jinchuriki sounded terrifying. If he hadn't known about it, fine—but knowing and still walking into that mess would just be asking for trouble!

At last, after more than three days of forced marching, the six-person rescue team reached the Land of Waves and secretly met up with Hatake Kakashi.

"Hey, Kakashi. I heard you got beaten up pretty badly. That's a surprise," Mizuki said sarcastically.

"True enough." Kakashi didn't deny it. "Zabuza is one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, after all. Ninja of his caliber are famous for a reason. They're not easy to deal with."

"All right, we'll take it from here. Get some rest. We'll support you from the shadows. As for Zabuza, you can deal with him yourself when the time comes. The Silent Killing Technique is just too troublesome. When we're at a disadvantage in strength, numbers hardly matter. If Zabuza takes the initiative and has the home-field advantage, there's nothing we can do," Ibiki said.

"Of course. Leave Zabuza to me. I'm relieved to have you handling everything else. Please help look after the three Genin."

Night fell. Mizuki rested in a temporary tent with Aoba Yamashiro and Gekko Hayate. Ibiki Morino had split the six of them into two teams, and he was keeping watch somewhere else with Izumo and Kotetsu.

"Kakashi and Ibiki were careless. It's hard to imagine anyone directly provoking Konoha, but according to what I remember, Kakashi had a rough time in the final battle. Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto Uzumaki almost got killed. If Haku hadn't held back, they wouldn't have lasted long enough for Naruto to power up and turn things around."

Based on Mizuki's analysis, even if he hadn't changed anything, it was highly unlikely that Konoha wouldn't send a rescue team. But the team hadn't appeared in the original story, which made the reason intriguing. What had held up the rescue team and left Kakashi fighting alone?

Mizuki wasn't as optimistic as the others. If nothing unexpected happened, this time they might have to fight hard.

"This is a real fight to the death, nothing like that time I played around with Iruka and Naruto."