Night fell quickly in the wilderness, swallowing the colors of twilight and replacing them with a palette of deep blue and pitch black. The sky above them, unobstructed by the village lights, was an ocean of stars so clear and dense it felt like you could touch it. Fortunately, there were no signs of rain. Otherwise, they would have had to set up a tent, a process Yuji suspected would become its own comedic disaster. They had also set a few simple traps, just in case, for as long as they were going to be here.
The campfire crackled cheerfully in the middle of their small camp, its flames dancing and casting long, flickering shadows on the surrounding trees. Its warmth felt comfortable on Yuji's skin, chasing away the creeping night chill. He took out a handful of dried flowers from one of the pouches in his backpack. It was called night blossom, a local plant sold in many shops in Konoha. When burned, it released a calming, fragrant aroma, but it also had a sharp secondary scent that mosquitoes and other blood-sucking insects loathed. It was perfect for a campsite. Yuji tossed the flowers to the edge of the fire, and instantly, a gentle, lemony and lemongrass scent began to waft out, creating a fragrant safe zone around them.
The atmosphere at the camp was calm, a silence born from the fatigue of a day's walk. Koji, their grumpy client, refused to sleep in a sleeping bag. He simply sat leaning against the cart wheel, his arms folded, his eyes closed but his ears clearly alert. He still held the reins of his horse loosely, as if even in his sleep he didn't want to let go of control. Akane, after making sure their horses were fed and watered, had gone into the cart to rest.
Across the fire, Kiba was already fast asleep in his sleeping bag, his mouth slightly open. The energy he had used throughout the day seemed to have been completely depleted, leaving him in a peaceful coma. Akamaru slept comfortably in the crook of his master's stomach. Nearby, Masami sat gracefully, a thick blanket covering most of her body. She sipped warm tea from a metal cup, her dark eyes reflecting the firelight, her expression as usual, calm and unreadable.
Only Yuji and Tsukasa-sensei were truly awake. Their teacher sat on a fallen log, staring at the fire with a dreamy gaze. His usual spirited energy seemed to have dimmed slightly, swallowed by the silence and intimacy of the night.
Yuji cleared his throat, loud enough to break the silence and get Tsukasa's attention.
"Is every mission always like this, Sensei?" he asked, his voice calm in the night air.
Tsukasa lifted his head, his dark eyes looking deeper in the firelight. He smiled faintly, a smile that was more tired and more genuine than his usual ones. "Like this how? Boring?"
"Quiet," Yuji corrected. "Waiting. Walking. More waiting."
Tsukasa chuckled softly. "Yes," he said. "Most of them are like this. Waiting, observing, walking. The great fights, the flashy jutsu... that's only a small part of this job. Most of it is about patience." He paused for a moment, then added, "Sometimes, we even have to sleep on tree branches if there are wild beasts lurking below."
"Oh," Yuji said, his tone slightly mocking. "A Jonin can't defeat a wild beast?"
"It's not like that," Tsukasa shook his head, his smile unwavering. "Of course I can. I could turn the biggest bear into dinner if I wanted to. But the question is, should I? Sometimes, the easiest way to win a fight is to not start one at all. Besides," he added, his tone becoming more serious, "if ninjas keep hurting or killing the animals in their territory, they'll learn to fear and hate humans. They'll become more aggressive. It will disrupt the ecosystem. The balance is fragile, Yuji. Our job is to protect it, not to destroy it because we can."
Yuji thought for a moment. That made sense. A perspective he had never considered. He nodded slowly, accepting the lesson. He changed the subject, driven by a sudden curiosity. "So," he said, looking at his teacher. "Tell me. What's the most difficult mission in your career history?"
Tsukasa fell silent. His smile faded completely. He stared at the campfire, his eyes looking into the flames as if seeing memories reflected there. The silence lasted long enough that Yuji thought he might have asked the wrong thing.
"The most difficult..." Tsukasa repeated slowly, his voice losing all its cheerful notes. He scratched his clean-shaven chin. "There have been many difficult ones. Missions where you have to survive on a single ration scroll for two weeks. Missions where you have to infiltrate an enemy fortress alone. But those are all... physical difficulties. They can be overcome."
He took a long sigh, a sigh heavy with burden. "The most difficult," he said, "is when you watch your friend get killed in front of your eyes."
Even Masami, who had seemed indifferent, lifted her head slightly, her sharp eyes fixed on Tsukasa.
"It happened a few years ago," Tsukasa continued, his voice becoming lower, huskier. "At that time, we were in the Land of Rain. A simple reconnaissance mission, supposedly. We were ambushed by a dozen ninja. Apparently, the information we had about their patrol routes was wrong."
"How could that happen?" Masami's calm voice broke the silence, her question sharp and to the point.
Tsukasa shrugged, a tired gesture. "The ninja world isn't perfect, you know? Our enemies are also strong, they have spies, they have strategists. So, even if we were sure of the information we had, it could have been planned by them. A bait. And we were the ones who walked into the trap."
Masami nodded, accepting the explanation without further comment.
"At that time," Tsukasa continued, his eyes still fixed on the fire, "we were fighting a lot of enemy shinobi. Our team consisted of four people. There were twelve of them. We were stronger individually, of course, but we were completely outnumbered. It was raining so heavily that visibility was only a few meters. The sound of the fight, the clanging of kunai, the small explosions from paper bombs, were all muffled by the sound of the rain."
"Then my friend... his name was Kenichi. He was a great Earth-Style user. We had been partners for three years. He couldn't hold them all off. I was busy too, fighting three people at once, trying to protect myself. And then... I saw it. Through the curtain of rain, I saw a tanto blade pierce his chest from behind. I saw his eyes widen in shock. And I heard him scream. A strong, pain-filled scream that was cut short by the roar of thunder."
Tsukasa stopped, swallowing. Yuji could see the muscles in his jaw tighten.
"My mind... went numb at that moment," he whispered. "All the sounds around me vanished. All that was in my ears was a loud, piercing hum. Then, something inside me broke. I don't know what it was. I just... went on a rampage. I stopped thinking. I stopped using strategy. I just moved."
He looked at his own hands, which were now clenched tightly. "The next thing I knew, I was standing in a puddle of water and mud, and all the enemies were lying on the ground. I don't remember how I did it. I just remember a rage so pure, so hot, it felt like it was going to burn me from the inside."
"I went over to my partner," he continued, his voice becoming even quieter. "He was still breathing, but that was it. The wound was severe. I tried to treat him. I'm not a medical ninja, but I know the basics. Of course, it didn't work. I could only hold his hand as... as his light faded."
A heavy silence enveloped the camp. Even the campfire seemed to crackle more softly.
"I buried him myself there, in that wet and cold foreign land. The mission was a success, we got the information we needed. But the hardest part wasn't over. The hardest part was returning to Konoha. I... I had to inform his family. And his fiancée."
He finally lifted his head from the fire and looked at the moon shining brightly above. "Her name was Yumi. A beautiful woman who worked in a flower shop. They had just planned to get married after that mission was over. I had to look her in the eye and tell her that the man she loved would never come home. I had to give her Kenichi's blood-stained headband."
He laughed, a dry, humorless laugh. "Seeing her face as the hope in her eyes shattered... that was much harder than fighting a hundred enemy ninja. That was my hardest mission. And it was one of my missions that failed."
Tsukasa lowered his head, hiding his face in the shadows.
Yuji just sat there, transfixed. The story felt like a heavy stone in his stomach. This wasn't a fairy tale about heroes. This was the ugly, painful truth of a shinobi's life. A victory that felt like a defeat. A mission's success paid for with an priceless price.
He glanced at Masami. The girl was looking at Tsukasa, and for the first time, Yuji saw something else in her usually calm eyes. Not sympathy. It was understanding. A cold, mature understanding of the world they had entered.
"Now go to sleep," Tsukasa smiled, "we'll take turns on watch."
Yuji nodded and went to sleep, Masami following.
At that moment Yuji glanced at the still-burning flames, they crackled with a constant rhythm, sometimes they would rage a little, their sound like music in the cold night.
Yuji then closed his eyes.
…
Yuji woke up not to a sound, but to a sensation. A vibration in the air, a wrong shift in pressure. In his light sleep, his trained senses felt a disturbance. Then, the sound came, the sharp whiz of metal cutting through the night air, heading straight for where he lay.
Instinct took over.
Even before his eyes were fully open, his body was already moving. He rolled out of his sleeping bag with a fluid motion, his hand reflexively grabbing the kunai he always kept beside him. In the same motion, he grabbed his mask and put it on his face.
CLANG!
He raised his kunai just in time. Sparks erupted in the darkness as he parried a slash aimed at his neck. His eyes finally focused, and he gasped.
Above him, crouching with the agility of a panther, was a woman. She was probably in her early twenties, with pale blond hair that shimmered like silver in the moonlight. On her face, was a wild and joyful grin, and in her hand, she held a short tanto that was still pressing against Yuji's kunai.
The campfire had died, stomped out. The camp was now only illuminated by the cold, pale moonlight, creating deep and frightening shadows among the trees. But for Yuji, the darkness was an ally. The moment he put on his mask, he had activated his mist. The invisible sensory mist began to spread from him, utilizing the natural humidity of the night forest. In the middle of the forest at night, no one would notice that the air temperature had changed slightly, becoming heavier and wetter.
Through his sensory net, Yuji could feel the entire battlefield in an instant.
Near the cart, he felt a large and stable surge of chakra, Tsukasa-sensei. His teacher was moving fast, protecting Koji and Akane who were taking cover behind him. Three other attackers, three smaller but aggressive chakra signals, were pressing him. Among them, Yuji felt a smaller, wilder chakra signal that he recognized as Kiba's, who was helping his teacher with quick attacks.
On the other side of the camp, Masami was fighting. Yuji could feel her graceful and controlled movements as she faced a man shorter than her, their fight a silent dance of shadows.
And here, in front of him, was this woman. Her chakra felt sharp and focused, like the tip of her tanto.
"You're quick, kid," the woman hissed, her grin widening. "Usually my targets are dead before they even have a chance to dream."
Yuji didn't answer. He pushed his kunai with all his strength, using his body weight to make the woman jump back and create distance. As the woman landed lightly, Yuji didn't give her time to rest. He shot forward, launching a series of quick stabs and slashes with his kunai.
The woman laughed, her laughter sounding like a cracked bell. She parried every one of Yuji's attacks with her tanto, her movements so easy and effortless. Clang, clang, clang! The sound of clashing metal was the only music in their deadly dance.
"You've got spirit," the woman said as they locked weapons again. "But it won't be enough."
Suddenly, the tanto in her hand began to glow. A cold, pale blue light enveloped the blade, and Yuji could feel a sharp surge of chakra from it. The woman was concentrating her chakra into her weapon!
Yuji immediately tried to jump back, but the woman was too fast. With a speed he couldn't follow, she slashed her glowing tanto. Yuji could only raise his kunai to block.
KRAK!
The impact produced a deafening sound. A standard academy-made kunai was no match for a chakra-infused blade. The kunai in Yuji's hand split in two, the hilt still clutched in his trembling hand, while the broken blade was flung into the darkness.
The woman grinned triumphantly, seeing her now-unarmed opponent.
But Yuji didn't give up. He didn't panic. In his mind, a cold, calculated plan began to form. An enemy with an advantage would often underestimate their opponent. And the psychological effect of his ridiculously crying mask would only reinforce that.
He threw away the broken hilt of the kunai. As the woman stepped forward for the final attack, Yuji did the same, lunging towards her. It was a move that looked suicidal.
The woman slashed horizontally, aiming for Yuji's chest. Yuji ducked under the slash, his hands moving with a different purpose. His right hand, now empty, came up and slapped the glowing tanto blade from the side. It was a sacrifice. A burning pain shot through his palm as he touched the chakra blade, but it managed to divert the trajectory of the attack by a few inches.
And that gave him the opening he needed.
As he ducked, his left hand moved to his own face. His fingers quickly smeared the "tear" groove on his mask, creating a concentrated drop of chakra water at the tip of his index finger. He was going to use the "diagnosis" ability as quickly as possible!
With his right hand parrying, his body was now within the woman's reach. He saw his chance and thrust his left hand forward, not with a fist, but with his extended index finger, aiming straight and sharp at the woman's stomach.
The touch lasted only a split second.
And in that moment, a flood of information poured into Yuji's mind.
Subject: Female, estimated age 24. Physical condition: Healthy, well-trained. Chakra reserves: Above average for a Chunin. Constant flow to tanto: Stable. Estimated endurance: 3 hours 12 minutes before chakra exhaustion.
Yuji shook his head internally, ignoring the irrelevant data. He switched to more important information.
Physical analysis: No significant external injuries. BUT, detected old internal trauma in the lower right abdomen. Internal scar tissue. A stab wound not fully healed, estimated age: 3 to 4 days. Critical weak point.
Bingo.
If he managed to hit that part with great force, the pain from the unhealed wound would multiply. The woman was certain to faint from the shock of the pain.
The woman immediately leaped back, creating distance again.
She attacked again, this time with a powerful vertical slash. Yuji took a step back, and that's when he did it. With a single, quick hand seal, he created a bunshin, a perfect replica of himself that leaped forward to receive the attack.
At the same time, the real Yuji used Shunshin.
The world around him blurred for a moment. With a short burst of speed, he disappeared from where he stood.
The woman slashed through Yuji's bunshin, which exploded into a puff of smoke. For a split second, she was confused. And a split second was all Yuji needed.
He reappeared right behind the woman.
He didn't waste time. He focused his remaining strength into a single attack. Not a punch. It was an open-palm strike, and it was infused with a cold, deadly intent. He aimed it right at the weak point he had just found. Her lower right abdomen.
THUD!
The sound of the impact was dull and wet.
The woman froze. Her blue eyes widened in shock and unbearable pain. A choked groan escaped her throat.The sound of the impact was dull and wet.
The woman froze. Her blue eyes widened in shock and unbearable pain. A choked groan escaped her throat. Her legs gave way. The glowing tanto in her hand fell to the ground with a soft clink, its light instantly extinguished. And then, she fell forward, unconscious before she even hit the ground.
Yuji stood over her, panting, his chest rising and falling rapidly. Adrenaline was still flooding his system. He had done it. He had won.
He looked around. The fighting in the other parts of the camp also seemed to have ended. He could see three figures lying on the ground near the cart. Tsukasa-sensei stood there, unharmed, with Kiba at his side, looking exhausted but exhilarated. Masami had also finished her opponent, the short man was tied to a tree with ninja wire.
Tsukasa walked over, his sharp eyes observing the unconscious woman at Yuji's feet, then turned to Yuji. There was an unmistakable expression of impressiveness on his face.
Then, he turned towards the cart, where Koji and Akane were now walking hesitantly, their faces pale with fear.
Tsukasa crossed his arms, his usual cheerful smile turning into a thin grin.
"Well," he said, his voice low. "This is quite tiring, don't you agree?"
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