Ninjutsu and Cannons

Standing in an open sewer, Itsuki and Kuhara were scraping, trying to unplug the waste waterway for the past hour. Kuhara looked like he was going to faint from the nauseous stench. Itsuki on the other hand was whistling merrily, his smell and taste buds inert with a clever application of medicinal chakra while standing on the sewer water.

Disgruntled Kuhara and Itsuki kept at work cleaning the drain.

"Why are we doing this mission again?" Kuhara asked. Itsuki threw him an amused glance. He had been asking the same question over the past hour.

"Because we needed an easy and short D-rank to complete our mission quota," Itsuki replied. D-rank missions are another area where reserves take the short end of the stick. For genin teams, D-rank missions are chores that are there to supposedly help them with team coordination, missions like painting fences, babysitting, or even catching Tora. But what it really is a way of making connections, like the fences a team paint is usually for the house of a Konoha Council member or a Noble of Land of fire, the child being babysat could be the grandson of an Elder, and Tora is the beloved pet cat of Diamyo wife.

But D-rank for reserves is much more like actual missions. Standing guard outside the T&I department for a day, doing perimeter patrol around the village are the usual missions carried out by reserve corps. But not all missions are as glamorous. Missions, like they are currently performing of having to clean a sewer, are also available for those in urgent need of money or completing their mission quota.

After finishing the sewer mission, Itsuki and Kuhara arrived at the mission hall. Reaching the mission desk, they turned in the completion slip.

"Finally, fifty D-ranks in six months complete!" Kuhara said out loud. Turning to Itsuki, he asked, "What about you. How many missions you have left?"

"Adding this, just one more." Itsuki replied. Moving on to the Mission board, which covered the two entire walls of the mission hall, he starts looking for a specific mission from a specific person.

"Just one weak is left for six months period to end. Quickly find and complete your missions." Kuhara said. Itsuki's vision zoomed on one mission request and removed it from the mission board.

"Urgent D-rank mission request to fix broken toilet by Senior medic Mogusa." Kuhara looks over the shoulder and wrinkled his nose in disgust. "Why don't you quit being a ninja and become a plumber?"

Itsuki ignores him and submit's his mission request before leaving for Mogusa's home. Knocking at the door, a kind-looking elderly lady opens the door.

"Ah Itsuki, come in, come in. Mogusa was just waiting for you." Itsuki enters the home, noticing Mogusa sitting on a sofa, he greets the elder medic with a bow.

"Good Evening Mogusa-sama"

"None of that Itsuki." Mogusa waved his hands at Itsuki's respectful gesture. "Although I have to regrettably inform you that the flush is working again," Mogusa said with a smile.

"I found what you were looking for." and pulled out two brown-colored scrolls and placed them in front of Itsuki. Picking it up, Itsuki opens and reads the title.

"Earth Release: Subterranean Voyage and Earth Release: Rock Gun Technique. Any news of others?"

"No, these both are B-rank and still took months to find and negotiate. The rest you requested were all either A-rank or rather uncommon B or C rank jutsu. You were very lucky to have got subterranean voyage at all. Its last owner got it from an Iwa-nin during the last war but could not learn it even after ten years of trying."

Itsuki didn't expect getting jutsus would be this hard. But it made sense, most of the jutsu he asked for were earth release ones mainly used in Iwa. In Konoha, earth release is rarely used, and even then it is used for defensive or supporting techniques like earth wall or underworld swamp.

Mogusa continued on, "Most ninjas do not share their jutsu unless it is to their students. But there is an unwritten rule to never question how you got a technique so unless you start using techniques like Flying Raijin or lightning cloak, no one will question where you got them."

Pulling out a map of elemental nations, Mogusa pointed at the point of intersection of territories of Grass, Earth, and Waterfall. "This is Naki, a lawless city where a lot of Rogue nin gather, and many are from Iwa. You could get what you want from there if you have enough strength and money."

Itsuki nodded, keeping that in mind. Jutsu he wants will definitely not be in hands of some low-level genin so going there now could prove dangerous.

Pulling out a scroll from his jacket, Itsuki opened and ran his chakra through the storage seal.

"THUD" With a muted sound of heavy impact on the table, a pile of gold biscuits appeared in front of Mogusa, who nearly jumped in shock.

"Please take this as the payment." Itsuki calmly said to shell shocked Mogusa, who instantly denied it.

"I can't take it. This is too much." Mogusa could judge that the pile of gold in front of him could fetch millions, way too much for two B-rank Justus.

Itsuki ignores him and pushed the pile towards him, "This is not just the cost of B-rank jutsu. After one week, I will most likely leave for a long term mission from which I might not return. If that happens, Ichika will grow up in an orphanage with no one to support. When she grows up, give this to her as my final gift."

Mogusa shook his head, "If you don't return, Ichika will die soon after, don't you know that. Your treatment is all that's keeping her alive."

"Yes, but not for long," Itsuki replies.

Mogusa gives a sad nod, understanding his predicament. "Just don't die out there. And be careful."

Itsuki did not reply as the mood inside the room turns somber. Both knew that Itsuki's situation was quite dangerous and the possibility of not returning was very real.

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Reaching his room, Itsuki opened the door. Immediately a small figure crashed into his legs and hugged him around his knees.

"Itsu" A sweet voice of Ichika greeted him. All worry and uncertainty of the future vanished from his face. Picking up little Ichika, he lifts her up high.

"My sweet little flower." Itsuki laughs out loud, without a care in the world.

The chimes of sweet laughter filled the room.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Land of Lightning, Kumogakure, Village Council Room

The Fourth Raikage A was not having a good time. The entire council room resembled a fish market, elders shouting at one another, elite jonin arguing, and division heads butting heads.

Reaching the end of his patience, A raised his fist high and smashed it in the desk in front of him, blowing it to smithereens.

"Shut up before I make You!"

The entire council immediately froze at its place, before shuffling into their seats and silence engulfed the entire room.

"Now you, Matsuda tell me from the start what in the name of Kami is this ruckus all about."

Matsuda, a balding old man who held the position as Head of Research and Development Department, stood up from his seat. "R...right sir.

Fumbling through notes in his hands, he started explaining, "During the second Great Ninja war, after the destruction of Land of the Sky, a division was set up in the R&D department to reproduce the weapons used them. Over three decades now, this project continued and the end result was this weapon of mass destruction." Matsuda clicked a button and in front of the entire council, a projector switched on, showing schematics of a gigantic triple barrel cannon.

"This is chakra cannon, 30 meters long behemoth of a weapon, capable of firing beams of pure energy capable of single point damage rivaling tailed beast bomb or it could disperse the beams, wiping out entire armies at a time." He explained breathlessly.

"That's all well and good, so where is the problem," Raikage questioned Matsuda solemnly, understanding the gravity of the situation. Such a weapon in hands of Kumo could be like having an extra tailed beast.

"Problem is in making the cannon. The barrels of the cannon needs to be made of pure chakra metal. And considering the size of the cannon, chakra metal required is more than what the entire world produces per year. We simply will not have enough chakra metal even if we kept on accumulating it for decades." Matsuda finished.

The fourth Raikage furrows his brows, looking displeased. "And what, we keep on accumulating chakra metal for decades, weakening our forces just for this?"

A senior Advisor speaks up, "We do have other options but executing them may very well lead to war." Walking up to the map of elemental nations, he marks three locations, one in Iron, the other in Land of the stone, just near its border with the land of the Earth, and last just at the border of the land of the Hot Springs and Land of Fire.

"These three locations are the only unexploited chakra metal deposits large enough to satisfy our need for chakra metal. This," Pointing at the marker at the border of Land of Fire, "location is still undiscovered by Konoha, if we are careful enough, we could get chakra metal right under the nose of Konoha but if we were found, the resulting conflict could commence Fourth great ninja war."

As the advisor finished, a heavy silence filled the room. The options they have were very limited, at one hand they could take the safe route but wait decades before their efforts bear fruit while on the other hand, take actions now and risk a war.

Raikage contemplated his choices as the entire council watched him with trepidation. Another war is not something they want to risk just yet, with the Third great ninja war ending not even a decade ago.

Raikage suddenly gets up and faces T&I head, "Prepare the counterintelligence department, get them to come up with an excuse as to why our five Anbu teams are near Konoha."

One advisor asks, "A-sama, are we going forward with the plan?"

The Fourth Raikage turned to face the entire council and stood from his seat. With steel in his voice, he answered the gathering, "Yes, we are going forward with the Plan."