Ch14- The first C-rank mission

The third Hokage was currently in his office, staring at his crystal ball.

One of his few hobbies was to observe new shinobi or peek- no, observe the bodi-, security in the female public baths.

Although he loved seeing the progress of talented shinobi, this year was rather disappointing, with barely two teams making it as genin. Though only one of them showed enough talent to reach the Jonin level.

He had decided to finally give Kaguro's team a C-rank mission. If he was honest, he could barely keep Danzo away from the three, as he wanted them to work for ROOT.

The team was overall pretty quiet, an arrogant Hyuuga, an analytic Uzumaki, and another very quiet but talented kunoichi.

They would make excellent ANBU, especially the quiet one, but she would make an excellent ANBU, not ROOT.

***

"Team Kaguro, you will now receive your first C-rank mission. It is an escort mission to the land of tea."

Seeing as they just nodded, he signaled to the ANBU at the door to let the customer in.

"This is Mizuchi, you will be escorting him to the land of tea."

"Nice to meetcha, Kui! Let's get along, Kui!"

"Hello, I'm the leader of this squad, Kaguro. I apologize for my students, but they are rather the quiet bunch."

"No problem, Kui."

"Anyway, you will be leaving tomorrow. Pack your stuff and be sure to be punctual at the gates at 8 am."

Excusing themselves, the team left the Hokage tower and went home. Seeing as none of his students had any plans to do something together, Kaguro could only sight in defeat, hoping their teamwork wouldn't be too bad. Well, his main headache was Semaru Hyuuga since the two Uzumaki siblings were able to understand each other perfectly.

***

This is bad! The mission had been going on like normal with only a few bandits attacking them.

Surprisingly Semaru was the one most affected by killing another human being while Namiko calmed down after her sister hugged her. The most surprising was Namaki, who had shown no reaction at all, which didn't happen very often. Even if she was an Uzumaki, she was still raised by civilians and thus it was a bit strange.

However shortly after they had entered the land of tea, they had been suddenly attacked by a few Jashin worshiper.

They were not after Mizuchi, which meant that they wanted to use his team as sacrifices. Luckily his team was talented enough to take care of a few Chunin and a weak Jonin-level opponent. This made it possible for him to quickly get rid of the remaining shinobi.

The worst thing that happened, however, was that an S-rank criminal suddenly popped out from the side, sacrificing Mizuchi to his God while they had no way to save him as every injury they caused was also given to Mizuchi.

***

Namaki was livid, the attacks she could use were useless against Hidan and she couldn't even save Muzuchi. Her mission had now gotten severely harder as her first mission as a Konoha-nin had turned out to be a failure.

"What a drag...," Kaguro who had definitely been influenced by the Nara, made his way back to Konoha with his team, to report to the Hokage about their failure.

"Don't blame yourself, we are lucky enough to have escaped. This guy is not only strong but also immortal. You have a long way to go before we can take on someone like him."

Seeing as he was getting no reaction out of his team Kaguro could only sight at himself for letting them pass his test. They were truly troublesome.

As he dismissed his team, Kaguro made his way to the Hokage tower. As he arrived, he was able to hear multiple voices inside.

"Give them to me Hiruzen! At least the civilian children, I will train them."

"No means no! I won't let you take the best batch of Genins of the year. Especially not those two! They are one of the few Uzumaki we have in our village. They can re-create the Uzumaki clan in Konoha if we find more."

"Damn you Hiruzen! You're too soft! They won't be kunoichi for long anyway! At some point, they will have to repopulate their clan. If they want to or not! If needed I will force them to!"

Noticing how one of the people was walking to the door, Kaguro quickly took a few steps back to make it seem like he just arrived.

Seeing Danzo storm out, Kaguro's mood hit rock bottom. He didn't like that guy and if possible wanted to get rid of him as soon as possible. What he had just heard worsened his opinion of Danzo even more, almost letting it hit rock bottom.

*knock, knock, knock*

"Enter."

"Lord Hokage, I've come to give the mission report."

***

As Nozomi sorted the memories which poured into her brain, she felt the bad feeling of failure from her clone as she made preparations to leave Konoha for a bit.

How dare this Hidan disrupt her plans and even think he will get away with it!

***

Trees rushed through her vision as she was too fast to be seen by anyone below the Jonin-rank or Dojutsu user which were rare in itself.

She had collected the information that Hidan was still in the land of tea which was perfect for her as she only needed a few hours till she arrived at the border at full speed.

Hearing cries of pain, Nozomi quickly changed course. Although the scene was gruesome she didn't even twitch an eyelid as she just wordlessly stared at the bloody figure in the middle, Hidan.

He was surrounded by close to a hundred corpses, most of them being young men and women with only a few old and children in between.

However such a sight couldn't faze her, she had seen and done much worse than that throughout her life.

Seeing as this place was unsuitable for her to fight, Nozomi decided to temporarily retreat, waiting for a better place and time for the ambush.

***

'What the hell!' Thought Hidan as he looked at the shinobi in front of him. He had seen her in a Bingo Book once. The scale of death, although she would make a perfect sacrifice for Lord Jashin, he somehow knew that he would die if he fought her. Well not necessary die since he was immortal, but the outcome would be similar.

Despite his best attempts, somehow this bitch knew to avoid his scythe. Since this was his main way to attack, it was hard to fight against this crazy shinigami.

While he tried to at least injure his opponent, she was narrowly dodging his attacks while counterattacking by throwing attacks at him constantly.

"[Earth Release: Earth Prison]"

Nozomi was slightly annoyed now. She had already attacked him enough to let go of her previous frustration, but now she was failing to find a way to kill him since he was immortal.

"[Sealing style: Two elemental seals]"

Although the seal was only temporary, it still stopped Hidan from moving. She had no hope of killing or sealing him fully and had as such decided to try her best to seal as much of him as possible by aiming at his chest.

***

"[Earth elemental seal: Eternal petrification]"

Hidan, even though he was invincible, felt a sense of dread coming from the Jutsu. Unfortunately, he could barely move because a few earth clones had bound him to the earth. He could only try his best to minimize the damage it would do.

As the seal on Nozomi's hand hit him, Hidan had finally managed to get out of his restraints, barely adjusting the trajectory, making it hit his right shoulder instead.

Having hit him, Nozomi quickly retreated as she was running out of stamina while Hidan was still very active. Well, except his left arm, which had been sealed and transformed into stone, hindering him from moving it much.

***

"Oh Nozomi, how was your walk?" Asked the shinobi at the game, completely oblivious of the fact that she just fought an S-ranked criminal.

"Thanks for asking, it was quite refreshing to go out of the village for once. Even if it was only for a few hundred meters."

"Yeah but remember, don't run too far away or we won't be able to keep you safe."

As she made her way back to the restaurant, Nozomi remembered what had previously happened.

She had to go through a really annoying protocol to ask for permission to leave the village, even if only for a few hours.

Since she was legally classified as a civilian, it was very hard to leave the village without people guarding her. It took longer to gain permission to leave than it took to take care of her business.