37: Recruited (Double Chapter 1/2)

Seija wasted no time rushing in the direction of the thunder. She could feel the potency of the attack even from over a kilometer away so she could tell that the creature that fired it was a powerhouse on another level.

With the speed she was traveling it didn't take her long to crest a large hill in front of her, revealing the flashes of the lighting chakra that rippled through the air further in the distance. She didn't stop to admire the lightshow, and raced onwards in hopes of tagging both the creature casting the lightning and whatever the heck it was fighting that could be durable enough to withstand such an absurd assault.

Getting closer, she could see in the distance that the battle was taking place on another plateau on the other side of a huge chasm. She briefly stopped to look over the chasm's edge but recoiled when she smelled the absolutely horrific air wafting up from the caverns of the Rotten Vale below. Unclipping her mask from her belt she quickly slapped it on to use its air filtering seal before looking around for a place to cross, shrugging when she found nothing in the immediate area, and promptly slamming her hands down on the edge of the pit.

[Earth Style: Mobile Core]

A pillar of earth rose from the ground beneath her at an angle that would allow her to cross to the other side of the ridge. Unfortunately, she misjudged exactly where the earth used to build this pillar would come from, resulting in all of the earth that would've supported the pillar being used instead to build it out further.

Naturally, the pillar snapped right as it was nearing the required length so she had to leap off of it as it fell, gluing herself to the opposite cliff-face with her chakra as soon as she made contact. She winced when she heard the crash deep below.

'Yeah, nothing to worry about. Just a reminder to not fall into the bloody Rotten Vale, you dumbass... Now let's get up this cliff before we miss the damn fight.' She berated herself before standing and sprinting up the rocky wall to the plateau above.

She crested the edge just in time to witness one of the most glorious displays of power that she had ever seen in all her days.

*KRAKOOM*

The last thunderbolt fell like a titanic spear from the heavens, completely vaporising the roided-out ape that had been lying helplessly on the ground before the winner of the battle. When the clouds of dust and misted-monkey cleared the victor was revealed to Seija's sparkling eyes, standing tall in all its magnificent glory.

It was a mother-fucking unicorn. A bright blue, scaled, wild-maned, crystal-horned, dragonic... Fucking... Unicorn.

[-Monster Species: Arch-Tempered Kirin-]

[Body-type: Herbivore]

[Category: Elder Dragon]

[Body length, including tail: 9 meters]

[Traits: Lightning Chakra, Nature Energy, Senjutsu: Lightning, Lightning Horn, Extreme Agility, Arch-Tempered]

[Rideability: 9.5/10, this equine Elder Dragon is nearly unmatched in long distance travel speed compared to all other land-bound creatures in this world. Can change direction almost instantly. Can leap extreme distances. Sadly, cannot fly. This particular specimen is Arch-Tempered, having gained experience over many years and absorbed the Nature Energy of other defeated Elder Dragons.]

[Approximate individual threat level: Low Tailed Beast (Non-Arch-Tempered variant: High Anbu-Jonin)]

'Firewall?'

"[Yes, Seija?]"

'What the hell does 'Arch-Tempered' mean?'

"[The Great System informs me that when a powerful creature lives for long enough in this hostile realm, it will become 'Tempered' by the experience. A Tempered creature can become 'Arch-Tempered' by slaying and absorbing the Nature Energy from an Elder Dragon. If you would like an example of how powerful this makes the creature in question, the ape-like monster that this Kirin just slew was a 'Rajang', the Kirin species' natural predator.]"

'...You're telling me that even Elder Dragons have natural predators?'

"[Most do not. The relationship between the Kirin and Rajang is mostly unique, caused by the Rajang's incredibly high lightning resistance and their habit of eating Kirin horns to grow stronger.]"

'And this Kirin just vaporised a Rajang.'

"[Correct.]"

'Holy shit that's metal as hell...' Needless to say, Seija was extremely excited to one day find more Arch-Tempered creatures.

The Kushala Daora from before was not Arch-Tempered, and it was already Low Tailed Beast level in terms of strength. She felt giddy as she daydreamed about how huge of a tornado an Arch-Tempered variant could create, before she was snapped out of it by the Kirin launching itself away into the distance, almost shattering what was left of the rocky arena with its hooves. She was left standing there at the edge, with a full view of the sunset over the entire Coral Highlands below.

'I really feel like I should pay my respects to Kaowru someday for dropping the scroll that brought me here. Maybe when we take over Amegakure I'll have a shrine built in his honor. I wonder what his life could've been like if he had used the scroll himself...'

"[Seija.]"

'Hm? What?'

"[You have thirteen minutes to return home.]"

'Ah, shit!'

She immediately began her sprint back down the Highlands to the camp she'd first started from, silently wishing she had asked the Kirin to carry her down even if it would've probably refused anyway.

- - -

Seven days later, the team headed back to Amegakure to receive the results of their test. Of course, they knew they had already passed since they had already received their headbands, but they didn't know what rank they would be assigned. Or more importantly what kind of mission would be given to them as the first test of their loyalty.

It obviously wouldn't be a D-rank mission. Those were just chores for kids to learn basic teamwork and get to know the local citizens on a more personal level. Amegakure had no need for this kind of mission, since there was no academy full of spoiled kids to train. If you were a shinobi, you were expected to know how to follow orders in a group already. Though they didn't mind much if you didn't. You'd die in battle anyway if that were the case, and thus would no longer be anyone's problem.

As the team approached the recruitment center, the doorman spotted them and pointed past the building, down an alleyway. Heading through it, the four new shinobi found themselves emerging onto another street, right in front of a large office building. At least, it was the closest-looking thing to an office building anywhere nearby. The kanji for 'Rain' was displayed on a huge sign above the entrance.

A second doorman in front of this building called them over.

"You must be the new team that was recruited the other week. Your first mission is ready to be received. Just head into the Mission Office behind me here and collect it from the front desk."

Seija and the others nodded and stepped through the double doors. They were first greeted by a large, empty waiting room. Seeing as they had already been told to go straight through, they did not wait for anybody to call them in and just walked straight through the room to the reception desk at the far end.

'So this is the Amegakure equivalent to the Hokage Building in Konoha? Seems that Hanzo himself doesn't just hand out all of the missions in person, unlike how old Hiruzen does it over there.' Seija thought to herself while observing the black-haired receptionist sitting behind the counter.

The woman looked up from where she was spinning a pen between her fingers and straightened her glasses.

"Greetings, you four. Thank you for arriving on time. Are you aware of why you have been summoned here?" She politely asked while putting down her pen.

Yahiko answered. "Yeah, we're here for our first mission, right?"

The woman tilted her head for a moment, but still nodded.

"Partly correct. While you were indeed summoned here for your first mission, you are also summoned to receive your official rank, and to officially name your team. It makes record-keeping significantly easier if everything that you do can be placed under one name." She explained.

"Ah, right... uh... guys? What are we calling ourselves?" Yahiko sheepishly asked the rest of his team.

Konan wasted no time responding. They had planned this all out over the previous week, Yahiko had simply forgotten having been put on the spot. They were planning to one day usher in a new dawn for Amegakure, and their team name reflected this perfectly. Strangely, in Konan's opinion, Seija didn't seem to like the name much, but she didn't put forward any alternatives so the name still stuck in the end.

"Our team will be called 'Akatsuki', Yahiko is our team leader."

The receptionist raised an eyebrow and glanced down at one of the documents in front of her.

"Are you certain that you wish to officially make him your leader? From what we've seen, the masked young lady next to you is much more qualified."

Before Yahiko could make a scene about that, Seija raised a hand.

"As much as he might not look like it, Yahiko is a better choice. None of us other three are really leader material, and I specifically don't want to deal with the responsibility of the position at all. Besides, where will he learn how to lead a team if not here?" She said.

The receptionist accepted that explanation and noted down the new team name and Yahiko's position as team leader.

"Very well, with that out of the way, here are your IDs." She handed out a card for each of them. "You are all Genin ranked shinobi currently, but we predict that you will improve that rank swiftly. And to facilitate that..."

She reached under her desk and pulled out a small scroll with the letter 'C' bound to it by a rope. "This is your first mission. You may read the details of it for yourselves. I can tell you though that the deadline for completion is one week. Good Luck." She waved them out of the reception.

- - -

"Bandit removal? I thought first missions were usually escort tasks or other boring stuff like that though?" Yahiko wondered aloud as the four of them sat on a nearby rooftop reading the scroll.

Nagato facepalmed.

"Yahiko... we were told yesterday that to test our loyalty we would be given a more dangerous mission first." He said.

"O-Oh! Right! Yes... I knew that." Yahiko laughed as he scratched the back of his head.

Seija clapped her hands to get everyone back on track.

"Right then. We've all read the scroll by now. There are three bandit camps that Ame's scouts have spotted out in the woodlands to the south-east of here. Since they've only been stealing food and other such supplies from the local villages, there are no hostages. I'm guessing that the higher-ups picked us for this job because we're all well-versed in ranged Ninjutsu, which would make short work of any civilian bandit camp if we just wanted to kill them all. Hopefully that won't be necessary, though. Thoughts?" She asked the team.

Konan nodded, "I agree with that judgment. But how should we go about this? Do we move as a team and work through the camps one-by-one? Or do we split up and take a camp each, with two of us teaming up for one of them." She very unsubtly glanced at Yahiko as she spoke.

Yahiko didn't notice her looking at him, but he was going to speak anyway.

"I think we should split up! We need to get famous fast, right? So we should clear this job as fast as possible and request another one right afterwards!" He announced.

Everyone else agreed that splitting up would indeed be the best plan of action for their time, although first...

"Before we all run off to go straight for the bandits, make sure to stop by the villages that have been impacted by the attacks first, and also on your way back. It's hard to make a name for yourselves without actually talking to the people you're helping, and we should probably also bring their supplies back to them. We'll need public opinion to be in our favor in the future." Seija reminded them.

With that, everyone performed a last-minute check of all of their equipment, before scattering at top speed to their respective targets.