CH_3.17 (076)

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———

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Takuma stepped up to the front of the queue for one of the reception desks in Mission Desk Central. It was the reception desk assigned to him. Every mission assignment and completion submission happened on this desk.

"Good evening, Michi," said Takuma to the receptionist who took the evening shift. He handed her the signed and stamped mission completion receipt for yet another D-rank mission.

Michi, the brunette with a reddish tint in her curly locks, glanced up at Takuma and nodded. She was a woman of few words. Or maybe Takuma was wrong, and she was a socialite, but the constant stream of shinobi at her counter and the pressure of keeping the line moving made her not speak much on the job.

As he was needlessly contemplating and imagining Michi's life, the receptionist shinobi quirked one of her brows. "Your next mission—" she started.

"Ah, may I hold the next mission for a short while? I would like to take a few days of rest," said Takuma, interrupting. He wanted to do a few days of intense boot camp for the coming Ring fights. The weapon category fights differed from what he had in the academy and basic training. The tempo and intensity were harsher, yet every move was deliberate and thought after.

"You might want to take this; it's your first C-rank mission," Michi looked up at him. "If you pass this on, you might not get another for a few months. I'm fine with that if that's what you want."

"I will take that mission, thank you very much," Takuma said instantly. He was ready to exchange a couple losses in the Ring if that meant he could get going on his first C-rank mission. This could be the gateway to more C-rank missions and a chance to meet different chunin shinobi that he could add to his network, as Nenro had said. "So… what is the mission?"

"The details of the mission will be revealed by the chunin team leader in charge," said Michi as she drew up paperwork. "You're to report to the de-briefing tomorrow, and the mission will officially begin two days after that." She slid the introductory mission statement through the slot in the glass pane. "All of the information is present in the document. Your mission completion submission is filed, and the payment will reflect in your account in five to six business days. Good luck."

Takuma stared at the document in hand as he walked out of the queue feeling dazed.

His first C-rank mission, Takuma swallowed. He wasn't sure he would sleep tonight from tomorrow's expectations.

He read to the bottom, and his eyes widened when he saw the name in the team leader column:

Umino Iruka

———

.

Takuma looked at his wristwatch, which had no strap on it because he didn't wear it, and kept the timepiece in his weapons pouch. It was ten minutes before the meeting time, an appropriate time to arrive in advance. Ever since he had joined the Ring, he kept his schedule tight and strived to arrive five minutes before a commitment. But he wanted to be safe for his first C-rank mission and arrived earlier.

The location for the meeting was a large hall with seating inside the Shinobi Complex that shinobi used for all things from eating to catching up with friends to discussing joint missions. He searched for the reserved table in the arena and walked over to find two people already sitting at the table.

One of them he recognized as the chunin team leader, Umino Iruka.

"Good morning," said Takuma in greeting, his eyes briefly lingering at the horizontal scar that stretched across Iruka's face, cutting through his nose and the edges resting on top of his cheeks. "I presume you're Chunin Umino?"

"Good morning. You can call me Iruka," said Iruka, and the other person, a genin, nodded in return.

Takuma sat down at the table and observed the two people. Iruka was young; Takuma pegged him at maybe around sixteen to seventeen years old. Except for Itachi, who Takuma had met in passing, Iruka was the youngest chunin he knew. It was honestly surprising as the other genin sitting across Iruka and beside Takuma seemed to be older than Iruka by a year or two.

"My name is Takuma," he said and gave him his shinobi registration card for verification.

Iruka looked at the file in front of him and nodded.

The other genin introduced himself as Dai, and as far as first impressions went, the man was either aloof or taciturn. Whereas Iruka looked nervous, he hid it well, but Takuma could see that the young chunin lightly fiddled with the mission file, and his eyes darted between him and Dai.

Soon, the third genin arrived. A girl perhaps one or two years older than Takuma. She quickly introduced herself as Emiko and sat beside Takuma, placing him in the middle.

"Now that everyone is here, we should start," Iruka addressed the three genin sitting across from him. "The objective for our mission is fairly simple. A group of thieves has been targeting herb supply deliveries to pharmacies. They have struck multiple delivery carriages with herb orders and stolen the consignment en route. It has created problems for the farms and pharmacies who both take losses from each theft."

"I heard about that in the news," said Emiko.

'I should start following the news,' thought Takuma before asking: "Did they hire shinobi to guard the consignment?"

"The farms use shinobi guards for deliveries that contain expensive produce, but the thieves have been targeting deliveries that can't have shinobi guards as it cuts into the profit and makes it financially unfeasible," Iruka's file had multiple tabs and post-it sticking out from it. "Civilian guards are sent with the delivery carriages, but the thieves are easily able to overpower them.… two civilian guards have been killed by this gang of thieves."

Takuma took that information with a healthy dose of surprise. It was only his first C-rank mission, and death was already involved.

Iruka continued, "What makes this mission important is the client… We aren't hired by the farms or the pharmacy but by the Leaf Military Police Force."

"By the Uchiha?" asked Takuma, baffled. Even the other two genin looked at Iruka with surprise.

"By the Leaf Military Police Force… but yes, by the Uchiha," Iruka said seriously. "The police have been working on this for a while now, and they even sent their members undercover as civilian guards with the consignments to catch the thieves in the act, but the thieves never struck any delivery that had undercover shinobi on it."

The cogs fell into place inside Takuma's mind. "There's an insider giving the thieves information," he said.

Iruka nodded. "That's what they realized as well. The investigation is already in its final phase, and they have narrowed down the informant's identity. They don't have enough proof against the person, but they're confident it's him. They have decided to feed the informant incorrect information about which carriages have undercover shinobi and which ones have civilian guards. As long as the thieves follow up on the incorrect information, we will know the suspect is guilty, and the police can interrogate the thieves to get all the proof they need."

Takuma understood the tactic, and as long as the police identified the informant correctly, the plan would be successful if the thieves went for the bait. But he had a question,

"What is our role here, sir?" They weren't police, and from the looks of it, the police had a good handle on the situation; he didn't understand how they factored into the equation of things.

"The Police Force is short of people, and that's where we come in," said Iruka, "We will be going undercover in one of the many carriages as guards. In the best-case scenario, the thieves target another cart, and we don't see any action. Worst case, our cart gets targeted, and we apprehend the thieves with the temporary authority granted to us." There was some tension among the genin that Iruka sensed as he followed up with, "You don't have to worry. I'll be there, so there's need to worry about things going wrong. And all of you are trained shinobi, you shouldn't be worried about civilian thugs."

Takuma nodded. He felt nervous— yes; it was his first C-rank mission, after all. But he wasn't worried about losing his life.

"Any question?"

Takuma had one. "I don't see why this mission has a chunin as the team leader, sir. The thieves are civilians, are they not? Doesn't it seem overkill?" Not all C-rank missions had a chunin shinobi attached to them. Experienced genin regularly served as team leader for C-rank missions. A group of four genin could handle a band of civilian thieves, and attaching a chunin to the mission didn't seem warranted.

"You're correct in thinking so," Iruka closed his file. "This mission was requested at the very last minute— something else must've come up for them to need outside assistance. The Uchiha don't trust outside people easily, which is why they requested a chunin for the mission, to ensure that nothing would— nothing could go wrong."

That was one way to handle the situation, thought Takuma.

And he kept Iruka's slip of tongue to himself.

———

.

Takuma sat in the consignment cart, and he was thankful as they got out of the countryside and entered the urban city. His butt hurt from the bumpy road and the non-existent shockers on the horse-pulled cart. As much as he loved the countryside, he didn't appreciate the bad roads.

He looked toward Emiko, who was under Henge no Jutsu (Transformation Jutsu) to look like a man in his late twenties, sitting across from him with the cart filled with actual production to make it look as authentic as possible. Even he was under the guise of an older man. The carriage was covered entirely, with no way to look outside other than lifting up the fabric— which they avoided doing in case someone was watching. Dai sat outside with the driver while Iruka followed them from a distance in stealth.

"We will be entering a crowded area soon," a sound mixed with a little bit of crackle came from the earpiece he wore in one ear. Takuma looked up at Emiko, who nodded. The thieves were known to use areas with just enough people to take advantage of chaos while maintaining a low possibility of shinobi deciding to act like a Good Samaritan.

Takuma readied himself in case the thieves attacked their—

*Boom!*

A loud commotion explosion interrupted his thoughts.

"They're here," said Iruka through the earpiece.

Takuma undid the string holding the back flap on the carriage and stepped out. He looked over the carriage and saw a large cloud of smoke waft over the entire area.

"Smokescreen, be careful," said Iruka.

"Roger," replied Takuma. Emiko and Dai sounded their confirmations. Short-range comms were available in this world, but they only worked when a shinobi was standing still, jogging, or running moderately— the moment a shinobi tried to move freely, the earbud would come off, or the cable would disconnect. So while they were convenient, they didn't work all the time.

As planned, Emiko stayed at the back of the carriage as Takuma walked forward. Dai was to remain in the driver's seat in case the thieves tried to take the entire carriage with them. Iruka was there somewhere to provide backup, maintain coordination, and issue orders.

A figure appeared through the smoke, and they had a sword in hand. The man had his face covered with a bandana, and he tried to speak something, but Takuma stepped close to the man and dug a punch into their gut before he could say anything. As the man went down, another appeared in Takuma's vision.

"Fuck off!" yelled the man and swung the sword for Takuma, who sidestepped and decked him in the jaw. He dropped to the floor like a sack of potatoes.

Takuma heard the clinking of metal from the other side. He jumped over the carriage and landed behind another man, who stopped. A mistake as Takuma kicked him behind the knee, forcing him to kneel, and then delivered another kick to the head, snapping it to the side. Takuma turned away before the man hit the ground and faced the fourth man, dressed similarly to the others.

This one came to a screeching stop, and a gasp escaped him: "Shinobi!"

He tried to run in the other direction, but Takuma was already in the man's space, grabbing him by the neck. Takuma applied enough pressure on the carotid arteries, and it took mere three seconds of struggle, scratching at Takuma's hand, for the man to limp. He removed his hand and let the man kiss the floor.

The smoke began to clear up, and a fifth man appeared before him. Neither of them moved from their spots and looked at each other. The man had a sword on his back that wasn't even taken out; he tried to reach for it.

"Don't," said Takuma. "It's over now. If you don't want pain… just lay down on the ground with hands behind your head," that maneuver wasn't taught to him, but he assumed if it worked in one world, it would work another.

The man trembled, his eyes going to his companion who had been choked into unconsciousness right in front of his eyes.

"It's over," Takuma said, "do you understand? Nod if you do."

The man nodded.

"Then do as I said."

The man slowly got to the ground and put his hand behind his head.

"Good work, team. The thieves are under our control," came Iruka's voice.

"Well, that was easy," said Takuma.

.

———

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