RiaN Chapter 36 (Patreon)

“Alright, there’s Tama, now we’re just waiting on Anko.” I approached the group that was already formed, waiting for the first real mission we’d receive. Sure, we had done plenty of lower rank ones, but this was the first that would send us out of Konoha, and had a likely chance we’d be clashing against other shinobi. The nations got along much better than in the original story, but that didn’t mean the shinobi villages weren’t trying to hamstring or undercut their competition.

Plus, there would always be rogue shinobi who left their village. “She’s not coming. Someone finally got what she wanted last night and needs a few days to recover now.” The rest of the girls all gave knowing glances as they could now get closer to me without her hanging over them like a guillotine, constantly jockeying for position and making it harder on everyone else.

Anko really made the previous missions suck way more than they had to, just because she was so damn thirsty for me. I honestly dicked her down just to settle her so she would stop acting like a wild cat fighting over territory. I was happy I slept with Talia before then, because it would have been much worse if both of them were acting like that.

We made our way out of the village and spent the next four days traveling. We could have possibly made it to the destination in a single day if we sprinted all out, but there was no reason not to enjoy the allotted time we were given for the mission. Enjoying the sights and spending time and money in every town we came across, it was clear that this world wasn’t the same as the Naruto I knew from the manga and anime.

It was much fuller; each village near Konoha was surprisingly big, it was obvious how many more people just existed compared to before, and how more incorporated civilians were into the land, almost giving each a tourist feeling where they offered different signature dishes and attractions. None of the girls I hadn’t slept with yet had made any moves on me yet, which was surprising, but I think they were comfortable enough to wait for something to happen naturally instead of forcing something like Anko did.

We made it to the town, a few dozen miles from the border into the land of hot water, where our mission would take place, and I began my spy work to watch the guard placements and rotations for the mansion of the mayor’s. Our goal was to collect the documents inside the safe in his study to prove his cooperation with the land of hot water to smuggle civilians both in and out of the land of fire.

For one, they were allowing immigrants to bypass the security measures in place, letting enemy shinobi more easily embed themselves across the country. Their smuggling out civilians was most likely for the more nefarious reason of turning them into slaves for other countries, where it was still legal. Many lands outlawed slavery, but many also turned a blind eye to the practice, especially if it hurt the other shinobi villages.

It was a boring mission; the ninja they had weren’t very skilled. They were much older than us, but I doubted they even knew the three basic techniques, let alone specialty ninjutsu tied to a clan; no, they were fodder just slightly stronger than civilian thugs. Slightly more wary than normal guards would be, the mayor must have never expected that shinobi would be summoned to prove his guilt and compliance.

We needed to sneak in and hope he didn’t find out we had, because if he suspected anything, he’d flee before he could be captured and tried for his crimes. It would be easier to just kill him, but we needed proof and a reason because of the position in the town he held. Killing him without proof would most likely get us in trouble… But if we found where he hid his money, after proving he was, in fact, guilty, then our country might also turn a blind eye to us taking the funds before we returned a portion to Konoha.

There was no counter surveillance, no anti shinobi security measures, no, the entire mansion was susceptible to a single shinobi who knew the meld in earth(hiding like a mole) technique. With Hinata, we already knew that he was complicit and participated in the smuggling, and had already made fake documents that could pass as the real ones at a casual glance.

She also found the money he was storing… And over half a dozen children in the basement in cages… The plan we made went out the window when we found him guilty of a much worse crime; clear proof of child kidnapping allowed us to capture him and bring him to Konoha directly for him to be executed. Capturing him was trivially easy as well.

A single Konoha shinobi could have defeated every single person in his mansion. The difficulty of the mission was the fact that we were supposed to go unnoticed, but after finding out more information, it made it far easier. With the shinobi being complicit as well, we could kill them without any repercussions, and now the only problem was bringing back the mayor to stand trial for his crimes.

I thought it would be easy as well, but halfway back, two shinobi stopped us. Both wore red cloud cloaks, as I immediately clocked them as Akatsuki. I couldn’t believe our luck, as this should have been a much easier mission. I couldn’t understand why they even bothered to stop us until I saw which two it was. Kakuzu stepped forward as he spoke. “Leave the money you stole from the mayor, and you can go on your way after.”

Kakuzu was a threat, not on par with a hokage, but definitely a hard bug to squash because he could recover from fatal injuries… Hidan was… Actually, pathetically weak if you knew his ability. No, seriously. He isn’t a ninja, just a strong, unkillable guy who could one-shot you if he got your blood, and if you knew how to deal with that, he was extremely easy to deal with. I still warned them.

“Don’t let that other one land an attack, I’m getting a bad feeling from him.” The fighting began, and Hidan charged directly at us while Kakuzu poured out a water attack from one of his string puppets. I moved to intercept him, just before we clashed, I summoned a half dozen clones to help me fight. He moved to absorb attacks, giving himself up just to try and land a strike against me, but because he wasn’t a shinobi, he had no way to tell which was the real me.

None of them needed to be real, though, as one formed a Rasengan and slammed it into his back, which flung him even further from the fight as the rest of the girls dealt with Kakuzu. They should be fine if they’re careful, but a single misstep against Hidan would doom them; that was why I fought him alone. He stood up, the giant wound in his back healing at a visible speed as he rubbed his head.

My clones, who were still active, rushed to him as they opened up their vests, showing the dozens of explosive tags stored inside before they began exploding. Hidan wasn’t hard to deal with; I just needed to weaken him enough so he couldn’t avoid my execution strike. His body was so focused on recovering, he didn’t notice me above him until it was too late.

My blade came down, decapitating him as I stored his head in a sack. He yelled and complained about the cheap shot until he felt his arms and legs get cut from his torso before falling a distance, then he was buried in five separate holes. I didn’t bother burying him as deep as Shikamaru did; he didn’t kill my sensei after all. I just buried him enough that no one would ever find him, unless they knew he was there, before growing trees over his makeshift grave in case I needed to find his pieces for some reason.