23 Chapter 22

Chapter 22

The target was moving suspiciously. Kaen observed that the target was nervous about something. He didn't know why but suspected the target would meet an important client soon. Kaen's job was monitoring the target and reporting to the team leader. Otherwise, Kaen would have already approached his target.

Kaen's team's mission was to investigate the human trafficking that is suspected to be happening in this area. His target was a merchant who grew in power and wealth too quickly. Kaen had to observe the merchant and find out his secrets. For whom is he working? Who are his accomplices? And so on.

So far, Kaen couldn't find anything on his target, but today the target was acting strangely. He would periodically check his appearance and look around like he wanted to find someone. From this behavior, Kaen knew that his target would be meeting a person of interest in his investigation.

"He is moving tonight, so keep a good watch on him," Anko said to Kaen.

They were sitting on the first floor of an inn near the border of the Land of Grass. Kusagakure was a hidden village in this country, technically, it was an ally of Konoha, but in reality, Kusa was closer to Iwa, who hated Konoha the most. So, Kaen knew he had to tread carefully. This mission was B-rank that could turn into an A-rank one at any point.

"Why do you have so much dango?" Kaen asked, looking at two plates full of dango in front of Anko. "We should keep low profiles."

"Says the guy with a table full of pancakes," Anko replied.

"Okonomiyaki is a normal dish full of nutrition. What you are eating is candy," Kaen defended himself. "You will go fat if you continue like this."

"I let you know that I am keeping my body fit and gorgeous. Thank you very much."

"All you have is tits and ass," Kaen said. "Soon you grow old, your tits will sag, and your ass will grow into your tights."

Kaen dodged a bamboo stick that aimed for his hand. The stick was stabbed through the table, so Kaen used wind chakra to cut the stick above it, leaving a tip inside the table to mask the hole it created. Anko quickly looked around at the people gathered at the restaurant that the inn operated on its first floor.

"It seems there aren't any shinobi," Anko said, seeing that nobody reacted to Kaen's use of chakra.

"That is even stranger," Kaen replied. "Even if Kusa isn't a big village, there should at least be one or two shinobi watching the border."

"And most people enter and leave this inn before crossing the border," Anko agreed. "Should we try to garner more attention?"

"No, there are three possibilities why nobody noticed us," Kaen replied. "First, the shinobi stationed in this inn are jonin, and they have noticed us but are keeping their distance."

"It is unlikely. Kusa has too few Jonin-level shinobi to waste on border patrol," Anko said. "It should be chunin-level, but we would have been able to notice them as they could have noticed us."

"The second possibility is that there are only genin put on patrol."

"Again, hard to believe, as genin would be mostly useless there."

"The third possibility is that there are no shinobi aside from us," Kaen said.

"But why?" Anko asked.

"Because a human trafficker will make a deal there," Kaen answered. "If Kusa is involved in it, they can feign ignorance about it."

"They saw nothing. They did nothing," Anko agreed. "If Kusa is involved, it becomes an even more difficult mission than we could ever imagine."

"The target will make a move tonight. That is most certain," Kaen said. "I keep watch over the target. You go inform the captain."

"Don't order me," Anko said, finishing her dango and leaving the inn.

Kaen wanted nothing more than grab the target and question him, but now with the possibility that another village is involved with the target, it becomes difficult to move. A wrong action could create a scenario for war. The Third Hokage kept an unsteady balance to keep the peace. Even if Kaen disagreed with many things the Third Hokage did, he still had to respect what he did to keep the peace for so long.

…

As the night fell, Kaen met up with the rest of his team. Hana was looking around the outskirts of the inn he stayed. She was too noticeable with her dogs, so she was left to work outside people's perceptions. Hana had a task to find the kidnapped people. Yugao investigated the people working at the inn and the recent travelers.

"What is the plan, captain?" Anko asked.

"Kaen, what do we know of our target?" Yugao turned to Kaen instead of answering.

"A building material merchant who is unusually involved in transporting his merchandise," Kaen began. "With his quick rise in power and influence, he is suspected to be involved in human trafficking."

"We know that already, freak eyes," Hana was impatient.

"Continue, Kaen," Yugao ignored Hana.

"We can guarantee that he has done this kind of business more than a couple of times," Kaen said. "That is why it is disturbing that he would be so nervous this time. His next client is something dangerous for him to be like this."

"So, you suggesting we wait until the client arrives?" Yugao asked.

"Captain, thirty-four innocent people are waiting for us to be rescued. We can't risk their lives," Hana didn't like it. "Twenty are children, ten are women, and four are young men. If the client is indeed dangerous, we will put them at risk."

"Anko?" Yugao asked the last teammate.

"It is fucked up, but we can't let such an opportunity go. The one coming is a big fish that could endanger many lives in the future if we let him go now."

"Then our plan will be to wait for the client," Yugao said. "Anko, you will be responsible for capturing our target alive. He has information that we have to have. Hana, you are accountable for the safety of the people. You are to protect them and extract them to safety. Kaen and I will attack and take care of the opposition."

"There are ten mercenaries with the target, their bodyguards," Anko reported. "They seemed to be quite skilled with weapons, but not quite on chunin level. The rest are common thugs. I counted forty-six of them."

"So, all that is left is to see what our mysterious client will bring with him," Kaen said. "I will keep watch for him."

"As long as he doesn't bring shinobi, it will be a piece of cake," Anko said.

"If I may, captain," Kaen looked at Yugao and waited until she nodded. "I would suggest leaving the client and his forces to me. If I see that he has a shinobi in his ranks, I will attack them and pin them down with me until the rest of you deal with our target."

"Very well, your eyes are best to determine the enemy," Yugao agreed. "Go and start your watch."

Kaen didn't waste time answering and turned himself into a bird using transformation jutsu and flew into the air, disappearing into the trees. To transform yourself into an animal, you needed excellent chakra control and almost perfect knowledge of humans and the animal physique. You needed to know how every bone and muscle worked in the animal, or you will turn into nothing but an abomination.

…

Yugao wasn't surprised to see Kaen effortlessly turn himself into an owl and fly away. She knew well how good he was at chakra control, and she read the report saying he studied under lady Tsunade for a year. It wasn't a secret that lady Tsunade was the best in controlling chakra in the village, if not the world.

Unlike her, though, Hana Inuzuka was annoyed. Yugao could understand it, as they were classmates, and Kaen was always better, but she probably thought she surpassed him as she got promoted to chunin first. Yet, the difference was apparent between them from only this one skill.

"You should take it as a lesson not to let your rank cloud your mind," Anko patted Hana's shoulder.

"I am not a kid. I knew very well how skilled freak eyes is. It just unsettles me that I have never seen what he is truly capable of. I can't imagine surpassing him without knowing how strong he is."

Yugao smiled slightly at Hana. She, too, has a friend she wishes to surpass. Still, at least her goal was more achievable. She still remembers the sight of the Uchiha compound after the massacre, but she still doesn't know what kind of jutsu Kaen used to leave those marks. As Yugao was preparing for the mission, a black snake slithered to Anko.

"Our target is on the move," Anko informed us.

"Let's move," Yugao ordered.

They quickly arrived at the site where the target was. The target paced with his guards surrounding him as another group of men came. Before they moved, an arrow appeared before Yugao's feet. She took it and read the note attached to it. From the message, she understood that only the green-haired guy was a shinobi, a missing-nin from Tagigakure.

The man who came was even more pompous than their target. He had a dozen mercenaries accompanying him aside from the shinobi. Yugao didn't hear anything of importance between them, only the client berating their target and checking on the people he was about to buy.

"It seems we have some rats scurrying around us," The green-haired shinobi turned to Yugao and her team.

Before anyone could make a move, arrows started flying, killing a few mercenaries as the shinobi dodged them. Yugao moved, as did her team. Anko quickly apprehended their target and his client as the green-haired shinobi dodged and deflected arrows. Hana moved with her dogs and protected innocent people.

Yugao cut down the mercenaries with deadly precision. Even though there were many of them, none could even touch Yugao as she killed them one by one. Few arrows seemed to protect her back, and she didn't need to worry about the enemy shinobi. Everything went smoothly. Yet, she got concerned for Kaen as she heard an explosion from his direction.

…

Suika, a missing-nin from Tagigakure. He was a jonin back in his village. Kaen didn't know anything more about the shinobi as he didn't ever expect to meet him. So, Kaen shot arrows at him and watched how he moved from a distance. From his movements, Kaen could determine that he was proficient in taijutsu.

"I had enough of you," From this yell, Kaen added to his mind that he was impatient. "Fire Release: Flame Whirlwind."

The jutsu was a powerful one. It sucked the air around while creating a flame whirl. The arrows were burned or pushed away. Kaen memorized the hand seals and how the jutsu was used. He added it to his arsenal. Suika tried to locate Kaen, but Kaen moved around in a circle with his shadow clones, shooting arrows at him.

Kaen could see how agitated Suika was as he used a summoning jutsu. Yet when Kaen saw an army of spiders emerging from the jutsu. For a moment, Kaen froze. He saw as those spiders spread themselves around, crawling on trees and searching for him. Kaen didn't want them getting near him, so he used fire stream jutsu to burn every spider he saw.

"Finally showing yourself," Suika yelled, rushing at Kaen, expecting him to be weak at close combat.

Kaen, seeing no more spiders, moved more quickly. He wanted to get away from that area. There might still be some spiders hidden in the ground. Seeing Kaen running away, Suika got even more confident as he moved closer to Kaen. Suika kicked Kaen, sending him flying, only for Kaen to turn into smoke and disappear before chains appeared from under his legs and wrapped around him.

"Don't resist," Kaen emerged from beneath Suika. "The chains drain the chakra. It is over."

As Kaen apprehended Suika, he felt something creep on his neck. Kaen didn't dare even to look as he felt the legs. He just used and fire explosion jutsu. It was powerful close-range jutsu that made the body explode stream of fire, knocking and burning everything close to him. The jutsu as well burned everything that was on his body. It needed almost perfect chakra control not to burn yourself.

"Are you all right, Kaen?" Yugao was the first to arrive and see Kaen without any clothes, and the enemy shinobi burned to a crisp.