45 Departure

The sun shone through the big windows overlooking the village of Uzushio in the Uzukage's office. The ANBU agents were expertly hidden, and not a single one was out of place. The three of us looked at our sensei, who wouldn't tell us what we were going to do today after we had finished our morning training.

Aoi looked deeply at Hanzo as Hanzo stood there, appearing as relaxed as possible, as if nothing could interrupt his perfect start to the day.

"Do you believe they're ready, Hanzo?"

"Yup, in fact, I think they were ready from the first time they stepped out of the academy. Now that we've gotten their little introduction to the world of ninjas out of the way, it's time to let them see what it's like in its entirety."

Aoi nodded and opened a drawer in his desk, pulling out a rolled-up scroll and handing it over to Hanzo. "This is your mission, then. You are to clear out a bandit encampment located near the coastal town of Mizukura. There should be no survivors, and I expect a clean mission report. Is that clear?" The third Uzukage looked at all of us, and we nodded with resolute expressions.

"Good. This will be your first-ever C-rank mission, and you will be given credit for it. Whether it goes smoothly or not will determine if you get future assignments like this one. Dismissed."

We all walked out, happiness evident on all of our faces, albeit for different reasons. Mine was because I'd be able to see the rest of the island, while both Benimaru's and Kiyoko's was for the chance to prove themselves and have their first "real" fight.

Looking at us all with dead eyes, Hanzo said, "Go get your stuff packed and be at the front gate in 15 minutes. If you're even a few seconds late, you'll regret it." We nodded, and all three of us flickered away.

Arriving back at the house, I ran upstairs to pack my stuff, running by Kushina's room and frowning a little. Sending my chakra to the seal, I sent a message.

"Going on my first mission outside of the village today. Wish me luck!"

Almost instantly, I got a response back that was imbued with so much jealousy that I stumbled and nearly fell to the ground. 'That's my little sister,' I thought as I finished packing my stuff and sealed it in a storage seal.

Channeling chakra to my eyes and activating the two X's of my Kanjogan, I took off towards the gate, leaving a tiny afterimage behind me.

Arriving there, I saw our sensei, looking half asleep.

"Hey, sensei, has anyone else shown up here yet, or just me?"

"I don't know. Use your fancy eyes and take a look around to answer your own question." My eyes flattened into lines as I looked at my sensei.

"You really don't mince words, do you?"

"You're just finding that out after being my student for a month now?"

I thought about that for a second. "Point taken."

"What are we waiting for? LET'S GO!" Benimaru rounded the corner and sprinted up to us.

Hanzo looked at him and shrugged. "Sure, let's go. Kiyoko has that fast speed of hers, so she'll be able to catch up."

We turned to start walking as Kiyoko appeared in front of us, frowning. "I knew you guys were bad, but leaving without a third of your team isn't very nice."

Smirking at her, I remarked, "Eh, you were just going too slow, especially for having the swift release."

"Man, it's a weird day when I start to agree with you, Rusty."

"That nickname doesn't even fit. My head isn't anywhere near that color."

"Whatever you say, Rusty." He grinned at me while I rolled my eyes at his childishness.

"Alright, brats, enough talk. Let's head east and clean up some bandits." We nodded and left through the village gates. The gates and walls were quite a sight, being made entirely of white rock. The wall stood out against the canvas of nature, especially with the red waves and seals on the sides of the entrance.

Expanding out from the gate were walls for as far as you could see, similarly plastered with red waves and seals. Every few hundred feet, there seemed to be a supporting tower that helped reinforce both the security and structural integrity of such an immense piece of protection for the village.

(A/N: You can find a picture of the village's gate in the 'various pictures' auxiliary chapter.)

Turning back to the task at hand, we started to sprint at our full speed, so it didn't take us a full two days to arrive there.

"I want you guys to remember that when you go through the forests around here, you need to be super careful. There are special routes and paths that I'll give you when we get back that detail the best ways to go. Do any of you know why that is the case?" Hanzo-sensei asked as he looked back at us, waiting for an answer.

Recalling a bit of it from the academy, I answered his question. "It's because if and when conflicts happen, and enemy forces start to land on our island, we can go into full guerrilla warfare mode." Nodding, Hanzo turned back to the path we were taking.

"Exactly right. You could easily not be paying attention and get yourself blown to pieces by one of your own village's traps, so be observant and be careful."

We all nodded, recognizing the threat that the sealing techniques our village uses poses to enemy forces that want to step foot on our land. 'Not to mention the Mori clan that literally allows the forests of Uzu to be their home-field.' I shivered but also smiled at the thought that even though we are on an island, we had it locked down almost completely from invading forces.

---

A day and a half later

We arrived at the edge of a campsite that looked like it could house 30+ bandits.

"Shiran, see if you can sense anyone around the campsite. This campsite looks like it could be being used by more than 30 people." He looked over to me, and I nodded.

Using my M E, I expanded my sensory range as wide as the camp was and frowned a little. "I don't sense many chakra signatures right now, definitely not as many as the size of this camp would suggest."

"Then we wait." Hanzo replied in a soft but gruff voice, signaling for us to go farther back into the trees to sit and wait.

(A/N: Starting the first real mission from this point on. I've been trying to build up chapters a little bit so I can make powerstone goals for you guys on top of the 7-10 chapters a week. Does 70 for one and 120 for two extra chapters a week sound reasonable enough or no?)