(July, year 54 AK)
Yuta reached the meeting place and met with Shisui and others, and after that they went out on a mission that Shisui picked for them. They immediately moved out and soon they were outside of the village, moving at a decent speed to the west.
As they moved a bit from the village, Itachi asked, "Shisui-sensei, isn't the Land of Rivers has its own hidden ninja village? Why don't the people from there just ask their own ninjas for help?"
Previously, Shisiu had briefly explained the mission to them. It was a C-rank protection mission in the Land of Rivers. It is a small neighboring country that lies to the west of the Land of Fire, and it's one of the two routes to the Land of Wind that lays beyond it, the only other way to reach the Land of Wind from the Land of Fire is through the Land of Rain to the north of the Land of Rivers.
The Land of Rivers is a small country that borders the sea to the south, the Land of Fire to the east, the Land of Wind to the west, and the Land of Rain to the north.
Their client this time is a rich family from a small town, Kaito Town, in the Land of Rivers. And Shisui's team is being hired to protect them during a period of two weeks, or until they finalize some sort of a big trade deal, they were currently in the process of making it in the town.
The mission didn't contain much detail, so that was pretty much what they knew at the moment, and they were supposed to find out more on arrival.
"Yea, hiring ninjas from their own hidden village would've been much cheaper than hiring a squad all the way from Konoha, that's for sure." Yuta commented.
"They must have their reasons for issuing the mission to our village instead." Shisui said as they moved through the forest.
"Could it be, that there is something wrong with the mission?" Hikari asked a bit more enthusiastically than she should have, considering what exactly did she said, "Could it be that our client is withholding some important information? Maybe they are targeted by the Land of Rivers ninja village?"
"Our mission is ranked as a C-rank, that means that there isn't any ninja combat expected." Shisui calmly said, "But the information that our client had provided so far is quite scarce, so there is indeed a chance that there is something wrong with the mission. So, keep your guards up at all times when we reach the Land of Rivers."
For the next two and a half days they were moving at a moderate pace through the forest, stopping only during nights.
As Yuta was moving in a formation along with his teammates, he thought, 'This is the thing I don't like the most of all the stuff I have to do as a ninja in this world. The traveling.', Yuta sighed with a bit of tiredness after more than two days on the road.
'The Academy, all of the motivational propaganda, all the training, D-rank missions inside the village that are just odd jobs and manual labor disguised as ninja missions, the battles against other ninjas with a real risk of dying... I find all of that as quite tolerable. But traveling for days on end, eating either something you caught or found, or just resorting to food pills instead, no proper shower but occasional washing in the river if the circumstances allows, having to relive yourself in the bushes...'
'Yea, when I watched the anime about this world, there was a lot of romanticizing of the ninjas job, but they had left behind the scenes that the most of it is just tedious and tiring routine, and only a tiny bit of it is an actual fighting in between.'
'The idea of mastering the Flying Thunder God jutsu or stealing Obito's Mangekyo Sharingan becomes much more desirable now that I think about it, just so I could teleport around instead of having to run for days. But even then, ninjas rarely operate alone and using such chakra-heavy jutsus for just traveling is wasteful, so even then I would be likely forced into this boring and tiring activity anyway... What a drag...'
The terrain had changed recently from dense forest to plains with occasional rivers and small forests. And now Yuta's group has finally entered the town of their destination – Kaito Town.
It was a medium-sized town, the houses and the streets were in a traditional Japanese style, there was a big market in the middle of it where the business seems flourishing and the people looked lively, and there is a big residential area with traditional-looking houses and mansions.
"Is this our destination? This mansion seems quite luxurious." Hikari commented as Shisui led the group to one of the most expensive-looking mansions in the town, "Is it OK that we entered the town and approached this place openly though?"
"This is a C-rank protection mission, approaching this place openly is the part of the job, this way everyone will be aware that our client has ninjas from Konoha protecting them, this alone should scare away most of the potential troublemakers." Shisui calmly explained as they approached the gate and Shisui had knocked on the wooden gate of the mansion's territory, that was surrounded by a tall and solid-looking fence.
Shortly after, they were brought in by a servant and led to a spacious room in a traditional Japanese style, where they asked to sit down and wait for the owner of the mansion.
Shisui was no longer behaving casually after they entered the mansion's territory, but he was in a professional mode now instead. Yuta, Itachi and Hikari had applied calm and focused attitudes as well, no longer chatting among themselves but patiently waiting for their client to show up.
After couple of minutes, the door in front of the group slides to the side and a middle-aged man had entered the room followed by two young men. He walked in unhurriedly, his posture was straight and dignified. He sat down opposite of Shisui and observed them for a couple more seconds, his expression remained blank, and his eyes were sharp.
Even if the man was disappointed like other clients tend to be when they see how young Yuta and others were, he didn't show it at all.
"Can I have the confirmation scroll?" The man said unhurriedly.
"Of course." Shisui replied calmly and pulled out a scroll and held it out while one of the young men who remained standing behind the owner of the mansion, quickly approached Shisui and took the scroll and handed it back to the owner, who unhurriedly opened it up and read it.
"I see. Introductions are in order." The man said shortly after as he closed the scroll and put it aside, "My name is Kohei Ishihara, I'm the head of Ishihara family of Kaito Town. You are Shisui Uchiha, the Jonin of the Leaf village, correct? I have hired you and your squad for protection during the coming days." Kohei said as he looked at Shisui. After initial observation he didn't spare even a glance at Yuta and others, ignoring them completely.
"We have a question, if you don't mind." Shisui said, and as he saw Kohei nodded, he continued, "In a mission request there was a mention of some sort of a big trade deal, during which we are supposed to protect you. Could you elaborate more about that and about what kind of trouble you are expecting, so you had to hire us for protection?"
"It is no secret that my Ishihara family owns a trading company in the town." Kohei said, "But now my family is relocating to the Land of Fire, I will be starting a new business in your country instead. Because of that I have to sell our trading company first. For the past couple months, I was negotiating with the Nagata family, and we had finally come to an agreement that would be finalized and signed in a few days."
"So, you hired us for protection during this period." Shisui commented, "Do you expect something to happen or is it just a precaution?"
"I don't expect anything to happen during the coming days, but the final sum is big enough to attract trouble. I expect you and your squad to handle it if something happens." Kohei said sternly, and Yuta noticed that Kohei had become a bit more tense when he said that.
Kohei wasn't an experienced ninja, so Yuta was able to notice a bit of sweat and slightly hastened eye-movements than before, so he deduced that Kohei was hiding something. And since Yuta was able to notice that, he was also sure that Shisui should have noticed that as well, but Shisui didn't show anything through his expression or body language, nor did Yuta, as he remained as calm and focused as before.
'Kohei was surely lying when he said that he doesn't expect any trouble, huh...' Yuta thought, 'And now that I think about it, there was a slight sign of a relief when he read the confirmation scroll that Shisui gave him... He was probably feeling the relief after he confirmed that Shisui was a Jonin from Konoha, that was what he was focused back then, he knows about the ninja ranks and he expects a Konoha's Jonin to handle everything.'
...
'And he is relocating his whole family and business to the Land of Fire... Maybe Hikari was right after all, maybe our client is indeed being targeted by the ninjas of his own land for some reason, maybe his competitors had hired them to target Kohei's family and business... This is getting interesting...' Yuta speculated as he observed Kohei from the side, while his attitude remained calm, focused and respectful.
--- AN ---
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