First Time on the Battlefield

Konoha's gate was not a gate.

It was two slabs of stone. Inside lay the training grounds. Outside was "outside."

Ringo stood beneath the gate and looked up. The archway was taller than he had imagined. Morning light poured in from beyond it, casting stripes across the stone pavement like prison bars.

He stepped through. His first step did not land on Konoha's soil. It was a road, one Konoha had not built. The ground was hard, sandy. In the distance, the air carried the briny scent of the sea.

Naruto had already run ten meters ahead. "Hurry up, hurry up! Is the Land of Waves far?"

"Far." Kakashi did not look up, flipping through Make-Out Paradise.

Sasuke walked at the back. He said nothing. Since they had set out, he had not looked at anyone even once.

They walked for most of the day.

Naruto's mouth never stopped. He asked whether the Land of Waves had ramen, why Kakashi kept reading, whether Sasuke had a deadpan face. Sasuke ignored him. Kakashi occasionally answered with a vague "Mm." Ringo walked in the middle. His eyes were not on the road, but on the system.

The panel glowed in the corner of his vision.

After leaving Konoha, the system's scan range had changed. It had not grown larger. It had become more chaotic. On the training grounds, drop sources were fixed: people training, chakra flaring up. Outside was different. Fragments drifted in the wind. There was animal chakra in the distance. And traces of something he could not identify.

The system gave no prompt. It was not malfunctioning; there was simply too much outside. It was filtering through it as well.

Ringo closed the panel.

Kakashi walked ahead, then suddenly tilted his head. "Ringo."

"Yeah?"

"How many times have you looked to the left since we set out?"

Ringo froze.

"Not at the scenery." Kakashi did not turn around. "What are you looking at?"

"...Nothing. Just a habit."

Kakashi did not ask again. But that turn of his head had not been a casual question.

There was a puddle in the middle of the road.

What Ringo noticed first was not the water, but the system's faint tremor.

[Detected: Abnormal chakra: Source: Ahead:]

It was not the kind of "drop forecast" from the training grounds. It was a combat warning.

Before he could speak, the puddle exploded.

Not with splashing water. The water vanished first. Two people emerged from the puddle—not jumping out, but as though the water had made way for them. Chains followed. Iron chains, their ends fitted with hooks.

One wrapped around Naruto. The other around Sasuke.

Naruto had not even reacted yet. His feet left the ground. The chain dragged him toward the puddle—not into the puddle, but beneath the water, where someone was waiting.

Ringo moved.

He did not think. His hand was faster than his brain.

Wind Cutter, golden, leaped from the card slot. He did not throw it; it was already in his palm. The wind compressed into a blade, so thin it was invisible. Only the sound of air ripping apart could be heard—a hiss.

The chain broke.

It did not spring away. The wind had smothered the sound of iron. The links scattered from Naruto's body, clattering onto the ground. Naruto fell from midair and landed on his backside.

"You saved me again—"

Naruto did not finish. Kakashi had already moved.

Twice. Not two techniques—two movements. The Demon Brothers had no time to react. One collapsed to the ground, the other crashed into a tree. Neither moved again.

Kakashi stood in the middle of the road, one hand still tucked in his pocket.

"...Instant kill." Sasuke's voice slipped through clenched teeth.

Ringo did not look at Kakashi. He was looking at the two people on the ground.

They were not moving. Not unconscious. Dead.

Kakashi's "instant kill" really had been an instant kill.

The system lit up.

Not like usual. This light was dim.

[Detected: Death drop: White ×1: Basic Water Release Fragment: Source: Demon Brothers: Collect?]

Ringo's finger paused over the panel.

This was not something picked up from a training ground. It came from a person. Someone who had been alive just moments ago. Now he lay there, motionless.

The cards from the training ground were bright. White light. This one was dull white, like frosted glass. The glow did not sting the eyes. It was passive.

He tapped "Yes."

A card rose from the corpse. A speck of light became a card and flew into the slot. There was no chime—only a click, like a latch locking shut.

There was one more white card in the slot.

Water Release. Basic.

He was not happy. He simply remembered.

This was not collecting.

It was taking.

"The Demon Brothers, Hidden Mist chunin." Kakashi stood before Tazuna. "Opponents of this level came to kill you. What haven't you told us?"

Tazuna said nothing. His hands were shaking. Not from old age, but because he could finally speak. That kind of shaking.

"The Land of Waves is controlled by Kado."

Kakashi did not move.

"Kado is a merchant. He controls the Land of Waves' sea transport. Everything that goes in or out has to pass through him. I'm building a bridge, and he won't allow it. Because once the bridge is finished, his ships will be useless."

Tazuna looked at the ground.

"I don't have the money to pay for an A-rank mission. So I hid the truth."

Naruto started to speak. "Then you—"

"But I have to build it." Tazuna cut him off. His voice was quiet, but his hands had stopped shaking. "The people of the Land of Waves can't leave. They can't sell their goods. They can't afford medicine. The children don't have enough to eat. I'm not building this bridge for money. I'm building it so they can get out."

Ringo looked at him.

This man was gambling his life for his country. Not a warrior. A bridge builder.

Kakashi sighed. "The mission rank has changed from C-rank to A-rank."

He looked at Team 7.

"You can withdraw. The three of you are genin. An A-rank mission is beyond your capabilities."

Naruto clenched his fists. "I'm not withdrawing."

Sasuke said nothing. But neither did he say he was leaving.

Ringo looked at Kakashi. "Those two said something earlier."

Kakashi narrowed his eyes.

"They said, 'Lord Zabuza.'"

Silence.

Kakashi's Sharingan turned beneath his forehead protector. Not for battle. To confirm.

"The Demon Brothers are Zabuza's subordinates," Kakashi said. "Momochi Zabuza, a rogue ninja from Hidden Mist. S-rank."

S-rank.

Ringo's system did not tremble. It was not because there was no danger, but because the target was too far away. The system could not reach him. Still, it flickered once—not as a warning, but as a record.

"We continue," Kakashi said. "But remember this. From now on, this is not an escort mission. It is a battlefield."

That night.

Ringo sat beside the campfire. Naruto was asleep. Sasuke leaned against a tree, eyes closed, but his breathing did not have the rhythm of sleep. Kakashi kept watch in the distance.

Ringo opened his card slot.

The newly added white fragment. Water Release. Basic.

It had not come from training.

It had been taken.

He clenched his hand.

S-rank. Zabuza.

When Kakashi had said "S-rank," the system had flickered once. Not gold. Not orange. Something more uncertain, as though it were detecting a signal in the distance. Too far away. Too unclear. But there was something there.

What would an S-rank drop?

It was not greed. The system needed stronger materials.

In the distance, mist began to rise.

It did not fall from the sky. It grew from the ground, like water bubbling up from beneath the earth. But it was not water. It was mist. Not natural mist. Someone was creating it.

Kakashi stood.

"He's here."

Two words. Not tension. Confirmation.

Ringo turned back. The mist glowed under the moonlight. It was not white, but gray, like someone breathing in the distance. Light. Cold.

Not the cold of weather.

The cold of killing intent.

There was a blade in the mist. Not something he could see, but something he could feel. Heavy. Huge. Pressing from deep within the fog.

Kakashi's forehead protector lifted slightly. The Sharingan turned beneath the moonlight.

"Naruto. Sasuke. Get up."

Naruto jolted awake. "What is it, what is it—"

Sasuke's eyes were already red. Sharingan. Two tomoe.

Ringo stood. Wind Cutter was still in the card slot. Water Release was there too. But it was not enough. Against an S-rank, it was not enough.

The system trembled faintly. Not a red warning, but—

[Detected: S-rank rogue ninja: Momochi Zabuza: Distance: Approaching: Recommendation:]

After "Recommendation" was blank.

It was not that the system did not know.

It was that it had no recommendation.

Because there was no avoiding this.

The mist thickened.