Chapter 08: B-Rank

With the help of his one and only shadow clone, it took Riku only two weeks to completely master the first stage of wind manipulation. Right now, he could embue wind chakra into objects, most notably kunais and shurikens. It wasn’t perfect, especially since what he had had a very poor chakra conductivity but the kunais which did had too high a price attached to them as for shuriken, since they were disposable tools no one in their right mind would make something like that. So Riku was stuck or rather was faced with a new difficult challenge. Work out his wind manipulation to the point that he wouldn’t need those highly chakra conductive weapons and would do just fine with what he had. It was some kind of really harsh control exercise. Like trying water walking before tree walking. If he succeeded in the former, the latter would just be a piece of cake. In the longer term, Riku believed it was a better way than the alternative.

On another note, the Hokage had pulled through with him. The results he got from the old man test of his shurifuins were mixed. On one hand, yes, the shadow clones of the shurifuin worked, all types of them. On the other hand the cost of chakra was drastically raised as the clones copied the tag too, which had chakra in them.

At least for the first test. Sarutobi Hiruzen had proven that he wasn’t called the ‘professor’ and the ‘god of shinobi’ for nothing when he tweaked his jutsu to make it more like the actual kage bunshin. The chakra contained in the shurifuin clones, from the original’s seal, was equally divided. That made them less powerful, of course but that wasn’t much of a problem in the end if you had the wit to use them properly. The original seal would just have to be pumped with a tremendous amount of chakra before duplication and since the seals were applied in the village and not in the field or in the middle of battle, that was easily done.

Hiruzen had debated for time if he should incorporate those shurifuins into his armed forces or not but decided against it. The shurifuin were elements of surprise and ace in a sleeve, should they become a commodity the other villages would quickly catch on and make their own. The seals themselves however were fine. He was really impressed with the flashbangs and the shrapnels tags. Especially the latter, he would have lost an eye with this one if not for Nelo’s kawarimi with him to a safe location. Boar had not been that fortunate and ended up with plenty of rusty nails in his torso. They didn’t go deep as he has been rather far from the expolosion’s origin, but it will leave some small scars. Regardless, the potential of destruction was great and Hiruzen couldn’t pass on them, though they would only be used in last resort or during a war. It was after all a double sword, so to speak.

The old Hokage also liked the smoke shurifuin because instead of a shinobi creating a smoke screen around them, it created a smoke screen around its target. A distraction far better in his opinion. The enemy had his own field of vision restricted and not the shinobi using the distraction.

When he used another shadow clone to visit Riku and give his reports and thoughts on the shurifuin, Riku told him that while the shrapnell type was very dangerous on a shuriken, he had created a tag that could detonate in one specific direction making the type less dangerous for the user and even more deadly for the target. When he did an actual demonstration with leaves instead of shrapnels, Hiruzen was more than sold. The only problem with those seals was that they were pretty advanced and couldn’t be made by any fuinjutsu practitioner like the simple explosive tag and most of them belonged in the Barrier team. They didn’t have the time to do some research to reverse engineer the seals so Hiruzen proposed a deal: Should Riku give his notes about them he would be credited for the seals’ creation and be paid a dividend for every seal created. Even more if sold to regular shinobi in the village. An agreement was reached when Hiruzen accepted that those dividends kept being paid to Riku’s family as a whole if he ever had children or other descendants down the line and that he was dead.

Another thing that the Hokage had asked of the genin was the creation of a few ‘book of seals’ for a test run with Anbu. Riku agreed on the condition that he’d be provided with the materials to make them, the tools that Anbu used during their mission to be sealed in storage seals and also a list of furniture. When Hiruzen saw the said list he was perplexed but agreed. What Riku was asking was rather cheap and in a low quantity. It took two weeks to complete the order and so far Riku got no review about it. In the end he let it go, his training was more important and should the need arise the Hokage knew where to find him.

When he wasn’t working on his seals for the Hokage or training. Riku went on regular C-rank missions with Izumo, Kotetsu and their third teammates who turned out to be a Tokubetsu jonin. Gekko Hayate specialized in kenjutsu and from the few spars Riku had with him to get to know each other, it was very well deserved. The man was very skilled with a blade and it showed. His particularity was a chronic cough. A result of a mission turned wrong and where his lungs had been badly damaged for good. That made it impossible for him to reach the rank of Jonin and go on specific missions like infiltration, assassination and spying. That was how he ended up teaming up with Izumo and Kotetsu in the first place.

The team of four did at least one C-rank of every type and Riku’s performance had been nothing short of exemplary. His seals, tags or shurikens, his chakra control and most importantly his decision making made Hayate understand why his teammates took in a genin from the pool under their wings. He believed them when they told him that Riku was above the mark for a genin but they had been purposely vague about what it actually meant. He had nothing bad to say, he liked Riku’s attitude and personality and liked working with him.

Nothing was perfect of course, the first mission where Riku had the lead so to speak, ended with a knife to his shoulder. Nothing life threatening and from no real fault of his own beyond the fact that his mistake came from a lack of experience and not from bad planning. At least now Riku knew that you didn’t ‘forget’ about the enemy you put down to take on others because the down enemy may in fact play dead and take you by surprise. That was alright with him however. He took the painful lesson in stride and made a suture practice out of it. A proud reminder of what he learned, something he was quite happy about.

“I’m no masochist, I won’t go get myself hurt on purpose but it’s proof that I made a mistake and lived another day to not make it again. Others are not so fortunate.” he had said when Izumo and Kotetsu found out he was happy about the scar. They were baffled by such an outlook and maturity from him but put it on the ‘It’s because he’s a prodigy’ list.

Into the second half of the second month since his first C-rank, his senpais, after discussing it with Hayate, decided it was time to try a B-rank. What made a star contrast between C-rank and B-rank was that the latter involved enemy shinobi. If they were to be honest, it was a bit much for Riku and they agreed, however they wanted to test him in a real situation against ninja. While they were willing to wait a bit more the ‘perfect’ B-rank appeared at the MAD. Such an opportunity couldn’t be passed up as it was rare.

“So, we’re in for a bandit extermination mission with three missing nin, two genins level and one chunin level, who originated from Tanigakure? How many bandits are there with the nukenins?” he asked his senpais.

“Twenty if the intel is correct.” Izumo replied.

“Anything else? Prisoners, hostages, slaves?”

“Not that we know of.”

“Location?”

“At the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Rivers. A bit North of the sea.”

“Right at the border? That’s…Brilliant. They cross to Fire country if Tanigakure is pursuing them and cross to Rivers if we’re the one pursuing them. They’re lucky Rivers is neutral and not an ally despite being neighbors and much smaller.”

“Yes. “

The journey to the Western border of their homeland was a short one. Travelling by tree hopping considerably shortened the time spent on the road which would have amounted to weeks. Instead it took them five days to reach the border. From that point it took them three more days to find the bandits camp. Hiding among the tree leaves and at a good distance Riku’s shadow clone did his very best to memorize the terrain, and the number of enemies through every angle, by simply circling the camp. Once he believed he had enough information, the bunshin dispelled.

“Oh!” Riku exclaimed just as he lifted his arm, spoon in hand, to his mouth.

“Your clone is done with recon?” Kotetsu asked. He was currently guzzling down dry meat.

“Yeah and it’s not good but manageable.”

“More enemies than expected?” inquired Hayate.

“Yes. Twice as much. I saw a shinobi, he wore a headband from a village I didn’t recognize.”

“What did the symbol look like?”  a pensive Izumo wondered aloud.

“A music note. His headband wasn’t sliced, so I think they’re on a mission to create trouble from both Konoha and Suna. Or at least one of them.”

“I don’t remember a village whose symbol was a music note… A new village maybe?” Hayated commented, coughing a bit in the middle of his sentence.

“At least we know there are more shinobi than our intel said. Twice the amount of bandits though… It won’t be easy.”

“We can always wait for the cover of the night.” Riku proposed and pulled a block note from his back pouch along with a pen. He began to draw a rough map of the camp but was still paying attention to the accuracy of the information, most notably the distance. “I couldn’t confirm it but I’m pretty sure, because of the disposition of the tents, that the nukenins are in the central area. Everything else around is for the regular bandits. I didn’t find any prisoners, which I’m not surprised with how organized they are. I don’t think they’re a regular bandits group but one with a specific purpose because of that.”

“Organized? How?” questioned the Tokebutsu Jonin.

“They’re patrolling the camps. Seriously I mean. I felt an air of discipline from them. Not common for bandits.”

The three veteran shinobi looked at each other and wondered for a moment if that mission wasn’t completely fucked up and far more difficult than the B-rank it was. Or supposed to be.

“What do we do? 40 bandits plus at least four shinobis? It’s a bit much.” Kotetsu said.

“The problem is not so much the bandits. I can block them by putting a barrier around each tent, provided I have enough tags and we’re not found out under our henge. The problem…”

“Are the nukenins.” Izumo cut in.

“I mean… I could probably put a barrier around their tents too but that’d be difficult without getting caught. If that is successful, I can use a type of seal to incapacitate them all.”

“What does it do?”

“It releases a sleeping gas.”

“Since when do you have that?” inquired Kotetsu. So far, to everyone's knowledge, Riku didn’t use poisons of any kind. They knew he was very knowledgeable but that was it.

“A week before we left? Some plants bloomed a bit early and I got a good deal for the chemistry equipment.”

“Any information about that gas?” Hayate asked.

“It’s relatively fast active. Less than a minute for a single breath and if the target is around 70 kg. The gas is invisible but sadly not odorless, I didn’t quite manage that yet. Good news is, I did manage to cover its smell with the smell of burning walnuts.”

His teammates noded, pleased to hear that. Nuts were common in the land of Fire, with all the forests and trees. One just had to lean forward to pick some, so the odor of burning walnut wouldn’t be so much out of place than another scent. It wasn’t a perfect solution by anything means but it was better than nothing considering.

“I only have enough for one tent though. Theirs.”

“It’s more than enough.”

“The question is…”

“What do we do with the Shinobi?” Kotetsu finished Izumo’s start of a question.

“Wouldn’t capture be preferable? They’re from a village we don’t know and are acting in Konoha’s territory. It will be troublesome to bring them back home though.” Riku commented.

“Capturing the genins is not necessary but the chunin or higher, is.”

Everyone nodded in agreement and understanding at Hayate’s words. Genins were genins, the lowest rank. Chances are, they didn’t know anything about anything, perhaps not even the purpose of their mission beyond ‘do this’ and ‘do that’. The chunin on the other hand should know more as the leader of the mission. Or so they hoped, because if a jonin was present, things would get a whole lot more complicated and fast.

From there, they began to detail the plan. To make sure that everything would go smoothly as long as possible before everything went to shit. Because it will. They had no doubt about it. Some would call it superstition, some would call it experience but the point was, since the intel and the parameters of the mission was all wrong, the universe won’t suddenly make everything go right. With the three and half men present, they knew that it could only go worse.

Once the plan and the multiple contingencies were decided, Riku began writing seals. He had enough for himself, but he couldn’t be everywhere at the same time, even with one shadow clone. So he gave spares to his teammates so they could act at the same time or if he could not.

When night fell, they found themselves lucky. Clouds were covering the stars and more importantly the moon. The full moon was only a week away but its glow would have been enough to provide enough light and make their infiltration more difficult. With a night wind that had risen when the sun set, they decided to infiltrate the camp earlier than expected for fear of the clouds moving too fast and revealing the moon. It also forced them to change their point of infiltration from West to East so their scent would not be carried to their target.

When everyone was ready, Izumo and Kotetsu took care of the first patrol of bandits. The pair of outlaws were ambushed from behind and had their neck broken. The snap of the bones had not been loud and was much better than a kunai to the throat. Even though they were against the wind, they didn’t know if it would last and didn’t want to take the risk of their kills’ blood’s scent being caught by the shinobi. That was taking into consideration that one of them may have a very sharp nose (which was unlikely) but refuse to leave a potential indirect threat hanging in the air.

Riku moved quickly to seal the two bodies inside his book. He didn’t like doing it but it was the best and fastest way to hide them. At the same time his chunin friends henged into the two men they killed, gave a salute to Hayate (who was already placing seals at the back of the nearest tent) and Riku, then got back to making the rounds.

With the evidence sealed, Riku signaled to the Tokujo that he was ready to use the barrier. The latter used a kunai to silently make a cut in the tent for him to go and nodded at the dirty blonde then went inside. Immediately Riku activated the barrier, closing the area from the rest of the world. No one could go in or out and the same for sound. After twenty seconds, Hayate showed his face through the hole he created and Riku deactivated the barrier, freeing the man.

The swordsman was very happy with the barrier, not only did it allow him to silently kill 8 bandits but it also allowed him to cough without being heard. He had been restraining himself for fifteen minutes already and he was reaching his limits.

When light came from the corner of the next tent, Riku pushed Hayate back the one he came from and picked a kunai in each hand, following him. They waited a minute iun silence but with tension for the guard to pass. When it happened, just like Izumo and Kotetsu, they snapped the enemies’ neck and brought them inside the tent where Riku took the opportunity to release the dead bandits he had sealed.

Once done, they made their way to the next tent and reiterated their modus operandi. 8 more hostiles were dead, bringing the total to twenty at the very least, not knowing how well their friends were doing on their side. There were five more tents to deal with and when they secretly took a look at them they saw their henged teammates getting out of one. From their impostor friends’ position, Riku and Hayate believed that it was also their second tent they visited. Taping the genin shoulder with his hand, the Tokujo signaled with the other the central tent. Nodding in understanding, Riku made a shadow clone and handed him two seals. The clone took them and made his way discreetly to the other side of the camp by taking the long way. Once his job was done, without being seen, he dispelled, letting Riku know that he could act. Hayate drew his sword, just in case things would go wrong and was on the lookout. From his position, he saw Izumo and Kotetsu deal with the last patrol that came their way to ask if they saw the third patrolling team that he and Riku took care of.

Riku put the two seals completing the barrier in place and a third containing the sleeping gas inside the tent by delicately making it go under the tent’s cloth. Once everything was ready he made the hands seals to activate the barrier then the ones for the sleeping fas tag. He held the barrier for five minutes, just in case, then turned to his teammates and gave them a look. The chunins dispelled their henge and took their weapons out. Hayate took a stance, ready to strike, then gave Riku a nod.

The dirty blonde acknowledged the meaning behind the nod and released the barrier.

The chunins got inside stealthily, and took a look around. Everything was in order but in the case of one of their enemies feigning sleep they didn’t drop their guard.

Riku quickly summoned ninja wire and tied one shinobi up and tossed his surplus to Izumo who tied another. In less than a minute the six enemy shinobi ( and that had been a surprise) had been neutralized.

“The bandits?” asked Hayate.

“All dealt with on our side. You?”

“Same.” the Tokebutsu jonin answered Izumo.

“Now we just need to…”

“Wait.”

Everyone turned to Riku who had interrupted Kotetsu, and who rushed toward a wooden crate. He emptied its contents quickly and put one of the genin, a teenager inside it before closing it.

“What are you doing?” the hot head of the group inquired.

“I’m testing something.”

Riku put tags on the eight corners of the crate and activated a barrier. Then he picked a page from his book of seals and ripped one out. He put it on the ground and put the crate on top. After a few hand seals, the crate was stored inside the seals on the page.

“Testing what?” Kotetsu insisted ,not understanding what Riku had just done.

“Seals can’t store breathing… beings. When  they are summoned back, they are dead. That implies that… well… the dimension where everything is stored is not… live-able for whatever reason. Probably because that dimension’s laws of nature are different like… time doesn’t pass there because when you summon food that you store hot, the food is still hot. I mean…” tried to explain Riku but he was getting lost in his explanation.

“By putting that guy inside a crate and putting a barrier round it, you hope to have found a way to keep him alive.” Izumo said in a more understandable way, making Riku smile because he got it.

“Yes! If it works we may be able to bring them back for T&I and have a better than expected journey back.”

“Huh… Clever. Regardless of if it works or not.”

Riku believed that a ten minute wait would suffice so in the meantime, everyone looted everything in the camp to be stored in his book. It was free resources after all. When the allocated time was over, the dirty blonde summoned back the crate, removed the barrier and checked the status of the prisoner inside.

His grin told everything his teammate needed to know.