Chapter 3 1/2

A sizzling noise followed by swords clangs could be heard from the entire training area.

It had been a tough two weeks, but Ando had eventually managed to get the fire sword down. A high C rank jutsu that that would heat up any channeled weapon and make it incredibly damaging.

The only reason he had been able to manage such a feat despite being a genin was his fire affinity: the chakra costs would have been too much otherwise.

Even if he had a fire affinity, Ando could only activate that technique 6 times before completely draining his reserves, not to mention the fact that the jutsu required chakra to maintain it activated, although it was significantly less... The best he could do was activate it once, then keep it activated for about 13 seconds. Yeah, not the best.

The solution was to buy a sealed sheathe to preserve heat and chakra. Even with the seal chakra was still required, so the general idea was to buy sealed batteries to connect to the sheathe. Fire batteries worked a bit differently- they had isolating metal reinforced with seals but the inside was also filled with isolating metal, although the better the metal, the higher the cost.

Ando only had enough money for one of those (after talking about it for a while they agreed to separate their expenses for anything that wasn't house related), so he only bought the sheathe. Even with the sheathe the best he could keep the technique up for was one hour and 15 minutes.

In combat, other jutsus were usually used, however, so there would be no 'keeping it on forever' or something, not to mention the usual costs would be required after unleashing the sword.

So it had limited uses really. At best it could be used to gain the upper hand doing a brief sword fight.

Raido explained this is why despite knowing the jutsu, he rarely used it, preferring to simply coat his sword with poison and then fight. Ando didn't have the money for that, not after investing so much for the fire sword.

Tenzuka eventually learned the storage seal and was on his way to getting the exploding tag down, but mostly trained himself in kenjutsu alongside Ando and Raido because of the expenses. He hadn't got that much better in a week but it was better than nothing.

Ando was currently practicing the fireball jutsu, one that was a lot more manageable but required both hands and a decent chunk of chakra. Here his fire affinity once again helped, both in the learning process and in the execution, although they didn't know how many times he could perform the jutsu since he hadn't quite gotten the hang of it yet.

"Right wash up and be at the city gate by three fully prepared. We will meet our guides there."

"Huh?" Said Ando. "What do we need guides for, we're not a bunch of kids!"

"First of all, yes you are. Second of all, Waterfall has different traditions from ours. Hell, they didn't even agree to show us the entrance of their village."

Noticing their confusion, Raido decided to elaborate.

"We call the great five 'hidden villages' out of tradition more than anything. All of the locations of the villages had been mapped out during the first great war. The smaller ones on the other hand actually did keep their locations secret: they didn't have a choice, they would be wiped out otherwise, which is what happened to Whirlpool, as we all know."

"So what they're going to knock us out or something?"

"Yep."

"Fun."

They packed their limited resources in their new sealing scrolls (Tenzuka felt a lot better about himself now that he could potentially make one if he needed to), had lunch and sent a letter to their landlord about what was going on. The woman in question was currently at the hospital for her daughter so they didn't get the chance to say goodbye but it was no big deal.

The walk to the gate was fun. They felt so thrilled about the prospect of travelling that they skipped half the way there, making jokes and laughing at any tiny thing, such was their joy.

Especially Tenzuka. He had never felt so alive.

The two met up with Raido a few minutes before 3 and waited patiently. Surprisingly, Kuga from the research department was also there.

"Right, let's go." Said Raido. "Also, don't ask their names. Don't ask why."

A curious order but one Tenzuka would obey nonetheless.

High ranking ninjas had enough chakra to ninja jump for hours. Unfortunately, neither Tenzuka or Ando were at that level, so they were forced to walk. Not for the entire trip, (otherwise, they'd get there in three weeks!) but they would for most of it.

At the village gate, there were two Taki-nin waiting. They were politely greeted by them and began walking.

After an hour of rotation between ninja jumps and walking, they arrived at a small town. The area in itself didn't have much, but the ninja that were in it were.

"In Taki our missions are dealt with differently. All the money goes to the village leader and ninjas get a monthly pay. We have a single branch that deals with outside missions while the others deal with missions from the inside of our village. We are a unit from said branch and our mission is to take you all to our village!"

The four nodded.

They walked to a nearby river. On said river was a huge wooden boat filled with plenty of sails made out of some type of leather.

"This is our main method of travel; the speedster. It requires a total of 20 ninja to operate at all times. Some perform wind spells, others preform water-"

"I'm sorry, what did you say?" Interrupted Ando. "Spells?"

Tenzuka kicked him lightly for the rude tone.

"Ah yes. Leaf ninjas say jutsus don't they? Well, your traditions come from shinobi clans after the clan wars over 100 years ago, as do all major villages. Ours comes from the unification between a hidden clan that has existed for over 2000 years and the Uzumaki after the fall of Whirlpool."

Tenzuka blinked. He remembered studying that the fall of whirlpool lead to wave and waterfall, but he thought that they had built the villages, not that there were already people there.

Kuga didn't seem to be surprised though.

"Yes," she said, "the famed dark seighters."

The taki nin nodded. "That's their name in our language. Come along now."

They bordered the boat and looked around.

"This speedsters, like all boats, are handmade from the terraworm clan. The wood is incredibly light yet resistant, and takes about 20 years of preparation, if one starts from zero. It otherwise takes a few weeks once the terraworms special trees grow."

Ando whistled. "Damn remind me not to touch anything."

The taki nin chuckled. "That won't be required."

A few nin walked out from below deck. They were carrying a large jar.

"This is a special recipe from the dark seighters. It will force the user to sleep for 4 to 6 hours. For security reasons you are all required to be below deck and asleep at all times once we start traveling. I hope this won't be a problem?" He said in a tone that was polite, but also didn't seem to take no for an answer.

They all nodded.

"Great! You will all be allowed to awaken three times for meals and toilet shifts. I will personally supervise."

Oh boy.

The uncomfortable concept was actually quite convenient and efficient in practice.

For starters he didn't know how long they had been traveling. They said the recipe lasted from 4 to 6 hours, but they all awoke at the same time, which meant that there was also another secret recipe to wake them up. So that meant they could force them to sleep and awake for as may hours as they wanted. Did they have an 8 hour shift? A 6 hour one?

They weren't allowed above deck so nobody knew what time of the day it was. All in all it was a disturbing experience.

But a smooth one. From Tenzukas perspective, they had been traveling for a few hours. In reality, it had to be at least 4 days because he had been woken up 13 times.

The Taki nin were usually quite focused, but the 'guide' had proven to be incredibly interesting. Tenzuka could listen for hours.

After waking up a final time, the guide had announced they had arrived.

Tenzuka expected to see some sort of port connected to an open area.

But that wasn't the case. Oh sure, they were at a port all right but the hidden waterfall...

...was actually underground.

It was a sight to behold. A massive cave filled with huge pillars of rock everywhere. On these pillars was an extraordinary amount of glowing plants of all types of colors, most of them being blue and green.

Houses were apparently made of some type of sturdy dirt which was then covered by a thick layer of yust- a product produced by the Terraworm clan that was supposedly super easy to clean, according to their guide.

It was also easy to decorate. The most prominent colors were red and blue (apparently they were also the cheapest) while green was very rare.

While the plants gave off a lot of light, they weren't as strong as lightbulbs, so the area looked very dim. The temperature was cold but not too much, probably around 16 to 18C which meant they couldn't be too far down...or maybe there was artificial heating?

At the center of the 'village' was a huge river that came from- you guessed it, a waterfall. It was huge and pretty, due to moss behind it that made the water glow.

"Behind the waterfall is the dark seighters clan house. Never go there please, or they will kill you, no questions asked. Not even our own villagers can go there without an invitation."

The leaf ninja nodded.

They passed by many civilians that were living their everyday lives. Some had glowing plants, others were carrying wood or small animals. Some were talking at bars, others were at windows talking between one another. The only artificial behavior was the wide berth that was left for the taki nin that were guiding them.

"Is there some sort of animosity between the waterfall and the leaf?" Asked Kuga. "I don't understand why they are giving us such a wide berth."

The taki nin gave a small laugh in response. "Oh no it's because we are part of the exploration branch. You see, to leave the village one has to be part of this group, otherwise you cannot return. Only the elites can become part of this division."

"But how do they recognize you all so easily? I thought there was no official dress code?"

That certainly looked to be the case. Nobody was wearing a vest of any type. If anything, they seemed to be wearing normal civilian clothes.

"It's because of our skin. If you look closely, everyone of us are tanned while the average person is incredibly pale. That is an official sign of being part of the exploration division."

"Ohh I see."

They walked for a bit passing many civilians and houses. Like before they were almost entirely lit because of the glowing plants, but some of them had lanterns and candles. Curious.

The guide didn't comment on that though.

They eventually made it to a huge building with an extraordinary amounts of plants. Like there was more plants than walls.

"This is our leaders tower. You may call him 'leader' or 'chief.' I hope you enjoyed our services."

"It was a great journey, thank you." Said Kuga.

They entered.

The interior was saturated with yust of all types of colors, even rarities like dark green.

They were lead into a small hallway made of dirt and wood. Tenzuka noticed a small lantern in the mix.

The hallway led to a cozy wooden room lit with candles and yellow plants. There was a small carpet on the floor were a man, not even in his twenties stood. The guide bowed to him and left.

"Hello," he said as soon as they walked in. "My name is Shibuki, but please refer to me as 'sir' in front of others."

"It's an honor." Said Raido as he introduced everyone.

"I hope you enjoyed your trip. I apologize if our methods are a little strict but it's for safety reasons."

"They were easily managed. Thank you for your consideration."

"Right. I hope you enjoy your stay."

"We most certainly will."

Shibuki smiled and stood. "Please follow me."

They were lead to an underground passage that lead to some sort of study chamber. There were plenty of books, a huge rock table-

And a corpse. How nice.

"I apologize for this rapid shock but I would like to get this over and done with: this is the real reason why I agreed to this."

"Because you wanted us to stare at a dead body?" Said Ando. He received a light kick to the leg, courtesy of Raido.

Shibuki laughed. "Nono, because I need to discover who is plotting against me."

The leaf ninjas looked at him in shock.

"Allow me to explain: as you all have probably noticed, the dark seighter clan is incredibly prestigious. This is because of their position when the village was built: there were a series of mines already made by them for thousands of years, they were in charge of everything, they were respected, they were loved. They were the ones that invoked the policy of never allowing anyone that leaves the village to return, unless they belong to the exploration department."

He turned towards the corpse.

"But now a days, people don't have a background of escaping poverty or annihilation. This village is everything they know. That's how it has been for the past three generations. They no longer respect and love the clan, they hold contempt. The people see the clan as backwards and too traditional. They have started to use other means of lighting for example-"

Ah, the lanterns. Tenzuka had actually noticed those.

"-or new ways of eating or living. There is a divide between the village and that clan. I'm worried that this will result in an internal war, which is why I need an unbiased opinion. Someone who doesn't hate or love the clan because of their background. This is a job for-"

He was interrupted by a loud noise. Everyone turned to see a girl had her face flat on the ground and was covered by books.

"-Fu." Shibuki sighed. "What are you doing?"

The teal haired girl got up from the ground and gave a cheeky smile.

"I heard the konoha nin were here! It's plan time!"

Shibuki shook his head in embarrassment.

"As I was saying, Fu here is going to detect the traitors at a speech I'm going to give. Your objective is to ask as many questions as possible for the following days you stay here when Fu is present, so she can detect their ill intent."

"How so?" Said Kuga. "Does she have an empathy ability?"

"Yep!" Chirped the girl proudly. "I can sense when people wish bad to others, and if the intent is strong enough, I can even guess who."

She bounced towards them and appeared to be concentrating.

"You!" She said, pointing at Raido. "Don't like a guy called Azuma because he's in a relationship with a girl you like!"

To Raido's credit, he didn't blush.

"You hate a guy called Orochimaru!" She continued, pointing to Kuga this time. "Geez he looks weird."

She then turned to Ando. "You hate your Uncle!"

Ando looked away in response.

"Aaand you~" she said as she faced Tenzuka. "Dislike... A girl? It's a bit hard to say. Tenten? Is that her name? The hate is a bit week so I'm not really sure."

"Do I have to answer?" Said Tenzuka looking at Shibuki.

"No. I already know her abilities are genuine. It was just to show off a bit to be honest."

Ahh it was a threat. Sort of like 'I know if you guys will work against me so don't do it' sort of thing. Not bad.

"So what's with the corpse? And why is it so strange?" Asked Ando.

Indeed the body was weird. Short and hunched over, it didn't have much body fat and the eyes were weird. The skin looked rough and the nose was pretty big. All in all it looked like some sort of human goblin hybrid.

"Oh he's a member from the Dark seighter clan. I killed him this morning."

Oh.

"Well, I'm off to get rid of him. Please don't provoke anyone without Fu."

Since Fu was their new official guide, she took the group around the village showing off different important buildings and clan grounds. They never went inside of course, since they hadn't revived an invitation. Fu took them to all sorts of bars to try many different foods.

"Glowing red plant is sweeter." Said Ando.

"Yeah but the blue one is juicier." Replied Tenzuka.

"I'm with Ando," Said Kuga.

"Same." Said Raido with a smirk.

They laughed as he fake grumbled.

"If it makes you feel better, I prefer the blue ones too." Said Fu.

"Hah! See?! She gets it!"

There was another round of chuckles.

They walked by a playground when an a monste- a dark seighter appeared. This guy was even uglier than the corpse and that's saying something.

"A message from Ooki-sama!"

Who now?

Raido opened the letter.

"An invitation from the dark seighter clans leader... tell him we would be honored."

The ugly ass motherf- the probably competent ninja nodded and left.

"Whoa." Said Fu. "That guy hates his own clan leader."

They looked at her.

"It's as if we're hanging out with a mind reader." Joked Ando.

Fu smiled. "Come on there's more to see!"

Night time came and the squad was in a hotel. Like the rest of the buildings it was made with dirt and yust (although now that he was inside the structure he could see that they also used rocks and metal rods to keep everything in place), and the beds where made out of this weird brown sponge that was covered in cloth.

"I'm not sleeping in that." Said Kuga. "It has more bacteria than my bloody toilet."

"How do you know?" Asked Tenzuka.

"Jutsu, obviously."

"Please teach me." Said Ando.

Tenzuka looked outside his window where Fu was.

"Shouldn't we keep to the mission?"

"We did so today." Said Raido. "Tomorrow will have more opportunities to provoke since we will go to the dark seighter clan compound."

"Yeah but what if the perfect opportunity comes tonight or something?"

Raido looked at him.

"How so?"

"I don't know, shouldn't we just continuously prepared?"

"It's a common error in reason." Interrupted Kuga. "It's your first mission so you want to do everything perfectly. You will quickly find out that constant alert is worse than normal alert."

She turned to Raido. "He does have a point though, despite his bad explaining skills; maybe an opportunity could arise at night?"

Raido brought a hand to his chin.

"...Fu will go to sleep eventually right? Which means we only have to work until she does that. It can't be more than four hours, so we'll each take a shift-"

Ando groaned.

"What's the matter?"

Ando looked at the group with an expression Tenzuka couldn't quite place.

"It's just...Fu. I mean I don't have anything against her personally but the whole 'gonna shout out you're most hated guy in front of everyone like a total jerk' thing isn't really my type. Like ok I'll work with her if the mission requires but damn I don't wanna do extra."

"It's ok." Said Kuga. "I feel pretty much the same way. It was pretty rude of her, but remember that people who lack social skills, most of the times at least, is because they didn't have the opportunity to learn them. She probably doesn't mean any harm."

"I get it but doesn't mean I like it. Can't just Tenzuka go if he cares so much about the mission? We have what a weeks time? I forgot how long this thing lasted."

"Two weeks." Said Raido. "But that's also considering traveling days. Assuming it took us 4 to get here and 4 to go back, we only have 6 days."

He then looked at Tenzuka.

"So are you ok with the first shift?"

"Sure."

Fu was already leaving however, so he ran a bit to catch up.

"Huh? Weren't you guys going to sleep?"

"Sort of. What time are you sleeping by the way?"

"Ok I can't sleep. Like not always, but these days I can't."

"How come?"

She looked around.

"Follow me."

Fu could already ninja jump for quite a bit with zero difficulty, which was impressive because height-wise they seemed to be more or less the same age. She also had already learned quite a number of chakra control techniques, because she effortless ran on walls or even underneath roofs. It looks pretty cool.

Tenzuka couldn't really do those things so he'd just jump around and tried not to lose her.

They eventually arrived at a cave that looked more like a labyrinth than anything, and walked for a while.

The pathway lead to a nice area that was flat except for a single rock and had a light green glowing lake.

"This is the spot I go to when I need to hide. They can't follow me too closely or they risk 'showing themselves' which works to my advantage because as you saw earlier there are tons of different paths to take."

Tenzuka nodded. "Wait what?! You were being followed?"

Fu looked at him with a raised brow.

"Well yeah, I thought you knew- why else did you follow me?"

Tenzuka blinked. Because she said 'follow me' but that didn't sound really impressive.

"Because I was given orders to of course. You didn't hear because you were outside of the hotel but we had this huge discussion of protecting you-"

Fu laughed. Like not 'few chuckles' laughter but full blown 'on the ground with tears'. This went on for a bit.

"I'm sorry for that," she said between chuckles. "It's just that I have this joke-"

She stopped talking.

"Anyway," she said a bit more somberly this time, "as we were saying earlier, I can sense when people hate each other right?"

Tenzuka nodded, relieved that the embarrassing moment was over.

"It's actually more accurate to say that I detect malicious intent. For me they are like chakra signals in the air to be picked up. When a person wishes me enough ill, the sensation remains even if they are villages away. Literally."

She unconsciously hugged herself.

"It's only when the sensation is strong though. When it's too weak it's covered up by everyone else's 'noise' if you get what I'm saying."

Tenzuka nodded. It was a bit weird but probably super useful.

"Well recently I learned how to trace the signal back to it's origin. It was way harder to detect two who it was targeted, especially when the person is away and I don't know them, but words are usually attached to concepts, like peoples names."

"Ah so that's why you knew Tenten's name, I thought it was weird. Why didn't you know Ando's uncle then?"

Fu shrugged.

"He thinks more about his uncles person and face more than his name. His mind remembers him as 'that guy with the ugly beard."

"Oh."

"It usually means that the hate comes from a young age, in fact if I concentrate hard enough maybe I can sense why-"

"Please don't." Said Tenzuka quickly.

Fu looked at him in confusion.

"Why not?"

"It's rude to peoples privacy. Like I know that sounds a bit 'goody two shoes' but people will tell you all sorts of traumas they had if they feel comfortable enough, trust me: people like talking about themselves. If they don't tell you it's because they don't think that they can trust you enough, and if you skip the 'trust faze' you'll never have a deep relationship."

Fu looked at him weirdly.

"Remember the woman that came with us in that lab coat? She's a psychology expert so she can explain ten times better, but as part of the research division I know a bit myself. Especially life hacks. I know a lot of those."

"What do you mean when you said I'd never get a deep relationship?"

Oh crap had he pissed off literally the most important ninja he was supposed to work with of this mission?

"Well I'm not an expert or anything so I'm could be wrong, but basically there's this life hack to get people to trust you right? It says 'ask small favors' and it is known as the 'Tobirama Senju effect.' He's our second Hokage."

Fu nodded.

"Right well he studied all sorts of ninja branches but also in psychology and sociology. As the leader of the village it was his job to make things run smoothly right? Part of this was making allies or defeating enemies. The rule is basically to ask small favors, small favors so they say yes, but good enough so people feel as if they are 'investing' in you. Like if they wanted a favor back they'd know you would say yes."

"What has that got to do with me?" Said Fu.

"Well you're skipping that. People telling about themselves or asking for help is a thing they only do to people they have a bit of trust. Like imagine you have the power to control people to do whatever you want: people would stay away from you right? But if you become friends with someone, they willingly do what you want. It's the same thing for information. I have no idea if what I said makes sense."

"Sort of? I mean I don't get why I need to ask a small favor before reading their ill intent if I can just do so anyway, like I'm imagining waiting for enemy nin to become my friends-"

"Huh? Nono, you're only supposed to do this to people you want to get close to. Like friends. A partner. Teammates and the like."

"Ahh so enemy nin is fair and square?"

"Yup."

"Huh." She looked at him with a bit of respect. "You must have a lot of friends."

Tenzuka looked at the floor.

"You'd think so." He said with humor.

"Shit."

Tenzuka looked up. Fu was in a crouched position and was staring at a wall.

"You ok?"

"Yeah but the entrance we came in from is crowded with dark seighter nin."

"Ah cool, I get to say hi before anyone else does."

Fu looked at him gravely.

"They want to kill me."

There were words that could describe many situations clearly and accurately. Sometimes they exaggerated a bit, sometimes they didn't explain enough.

'Oh shit' was a very quick way to explain the situation. Did it even begin to cover it? Hell no.

Tenzuka and Fu where behind a rock trying to figure out how to stay alive.

It turns out that the dark seighters were mostly blind but had every other sense increased, at dog levels, according to Fu.

Since she would go to the cave regularly to explore, her scent was all over the place...

But it was especially in their current location.

"Ok so there are 27 in total. Most of them are jonin."

"We have to get out of here. There's no way we can take on that many!"

"But how? There's no escape!"

Tenzuka looked around.

"What about the glowing water lake? Does it go anywhere?"

"Yes but the water absorbs chakra and a creature lives at the other side. I had to run away last time."

"I'd rather take my chances with probable death rather then certain."

"Certain? They're after me, you have immunity because you represent konoha. You should leave while you still can!"

Tenzuka looked at her with genuine horror.

"What?! I can't do that!"

"Why not?"

Tenzuka blinked. Uhh...

"Well I'm a witness. I can expose them later on. Plus there's no guarantee they care about being allies of konoha! I mean they want to kill their own ninjas! What is wrong with them?!"

Fu but her lip. She seemed uncertain about something.

Tenzuka didn't care. It was time to get the hell out of here.

He grabbed her by the arm and they both jumped in the water.

Which was a mistake.

Fu didn't seem to have any problems, but his head hurt as soon as they got in. Damn could the water absorb chakra! He'd have 20 seconds at best!

They swam as fast as they could but Tenzuka wasn't going to make it. While running out of chakra didn't spell certain death like the myth said, it did knock you out, which was a huge danger while being underwater.

He swam even faster, his life literally depending on it.

He lost consciousness.

The ninja breath jutsu was pretty costly, but for her it was no big deal.

The chakra draining water was also annoying but it was even less problematic than the jutsu.

Tenzuka was swimming like his life was about to end, which now that she thought about it was true. He would die in here.

Shibuki had given clear orders: if the situation came to it she was supposed to let even Taki-nin to die, let alone a Konoha-nin...

But he didn't hold any ill intent towards her abilities, heck, he wasn't a hateful person in general, which was nice for a change.

But Shibuki was right, he'd have to die.

For now she had chakra to spare, her wind affinity and high levels allowing her to survive quite easily in these waters, so she'd help, but against that thing...

She shivered. The past encounter had left her quite afraid.

The boy lost consciousness as predicted and she grabbed him, placing a palm on his chest and infused her chakra into air. His nostrils let out bubbles, meaning it was working but also they had to get out of here.

She swam for a minute and a half in total before arriving to the other side, the chakra requirements were enough to knock out most jonin.

She quickly escaped the water and ninja jumped to a ledge and made an earth dome. A basic technique for Taki-nin.

She had very limited time to recuperate her lost chakra. Her ability to sense ill intentions told her so.

About thirty minutes of resting her first opponents appeared. Small snail-like creatures with four limbs that were pretty harmless. They were the curious children of a more dangerous animal that would arrive as soon as she killed one.

She closed the windows to her dome and made a multitude of small tunnels underneath her. Hopefully the snails wouldn't be able to enter.

The damn things sensed chakra and were attracted to it like moths to light. They would try their best to enter.

It took them about an entire hour to get inside. By then Fu had regained her chakra completely since ages and was ready for battle.

She separated some of the walls to make a door and kicked. The snails on it were thrown to their deaths.

She closed the tunnels, squeezing the life out of the few that were in.