Chapter 194: Into Enemy Territory

"Sir what will be the name of over team?" an Anbu ninja asked.

"Shadow," Shisui said, not at all thinking about it, just saying the first thing in his mind.

After discussing the 'plan,' team shadow went out of the village. Their location was land of iron. There are two ways to reach there: either they have to cross land of Earth and evade Iwagakure and one minor village, which is shorter but more dangerous route; or going through land of sand and many more minor villages.

Since Sunagakure is an ally of Konoha, this path is relatively safer, but since they have to cross the largest country and many minor villages, this is the longer route.

Normally a team would choose the second option since it was safer, but since the mission was very urgent, no one in team shadow had a plan to take that route. They just directly moved toward Iwagakure.

And even if they had any such plan, they would have still taken the same path since Shisui was their leader, and it was mandatory to follow orders of your leader during a mission. Failing to do so may result in termination of your ninja career.

That is, if you are able to come back alive. Team shadow had not eaten soldier pills till now since it was not certain how much time they would need to complete the mission, and if they take the pill and had a fight on the third day, it would be disastrous.

That's why they kept on running toward their location, occasionally using movement jutsu like body flicker and then once again running till they recovered their chakra. Since the complete team consisted of ninja who were specialized in movement jutsu or agility in general, they were already moving very fast without the use of any jutsu.

After 12 hours, they reached the border of land of fire.

"Sir, there is an outpost near this area. I think we should take a rest there before moving further," an Anbu ninja said.

Shisui nodded his head. Even though they were jonins and elite jonin, running at their full speed as well as using movement jutsu so many times would drain energy and chakra like a hole in a pot.

After seeing Shisui nod, everyone sighed in relief. From the urgency and anger they had seen in Shisui's voice, they almost expected Shisui to order them to keep on moving till they reached the location of the mission.

"We still have 4-5 hours of daylight. It will be foolish to go to land of earth now; Iwagakure will surely be active now. Let's wait and take a rest for 8 hours and then continue our journey," Shisui said, easily showing his subordinates why he was appointed as their leader. With experience of war and hundreds of shinobi missions, Shisui already knew how to control his emotions and not let them alter his decision-making capabilities.

They went to the outpost. After seeing Shisui and the Hyuga, there was no need for a thorough check-up as it was very difficult to transform into someone with a working kekkei genkai.

All of the members directly went to sleep except Shisui. It was customary for a ninja to always be on guard when on a mission, especially if that mission is an S-rank mission. No matter how secure of a place you have found for the rest, a Ninja should always be on guard.

Since all of his team members were tired, Shisui asked them to take a rest first while he stood guard, and they could change roles after some time. After a sleep of 4-5 hours, the ninja switched the role and Shisui also rested. The food was arranged for them before leaving.

At 9:30 PM, team shadow entered the land of Earth. They naturally chose the farthest location from Iwagakure; there was no need for them to make any move against Iwa Shinobi without any reason.

"There is a squad 15 km to our left. From the amount of chakra they possess, they all are chunin, most likely a patrol squad," said Satoshi Hyuga with his byakugan active.

"Are they moving toward us?" Shisui asked.

"In our general direction, but I don't think they know about us," Satoshi said.

"Everyone, hide your chakra signature and follow me," Shisui said.

Since everyone present there was an Anbu ninja, they were masters at hiding their chakra, and the other two were elite jonin. So there was no way they would get spotted by a team consisting of chunin.

With their chakra hidden, team shadow started running away from the path of the patrol squad of Iwa. With the help of Byakugan, there was no chance any Iwa Shinobi not particularly searching for them would be able to find even their traces, let alone like the team.

With the help of the darkness of the night, they swiftly crossed the land of earth. By the morning, all of them were almost out of the country, but considering the amount of distance they had travelled, which was more than 17,000 km, they were more than tired.

"We will take rest here. Satoshi, you will keep watch for any enemy. These two will be with you. Till then, we will take rest. After 3 hours, we will change our position," Shisui said.

"Yes sir," Satoshi replied.

With him and Shisui being elite Jonin along with their Dojutsu, they were the most suitable ones for keeping the watch. Since it was still night, the responsibility lies on Satoshi's Byakugan. Naturally, no one objected to Shisui's orders.

After taking the rest, they continued their journey. As soon as they covered the border of land of earth, the change in terrain became visible. The rocky terrain of land of earth started to get covered in a thin layer of snow. The vegetation, which was already sparse in land of earth, became sparser.

This was land of iron. If not for its mineral-rich soil, this would have been named as land of Snow, due to being covered in Snow all year long. The vegetation was very sparse in the region; they mainly bought food from other countries.

Due to the terrain, team shadow changed their clothes, now wearing completely white clothes.

"Luckily the root base is on the outskirts. So this part should be easy," one of the fairly young Anbu Ninja said.

"This is an S-Rank Mission, boy. This is never going to be easy. Always be on guard during such missions, no matter how good a situation looks," Satoshi said, slightly revealing a slash mark on his hands.

The Anbu Ninja nodded his head.

"Enough talking. We are directly going to the base. According to Inoichi, there should be no outpost near the base, but since it is Lord Third's order, we will first check for any outpost in the area of 100 km around the base before taking any action."

"Yes sir," the team replied.

And they started moving toward the root base. After one hour, they successfully reached the location.

"Satoshi, take three Anbu with you. You will be responsible for searching the east side completely. I will search on the west side. If you find anything, don't engage in the fight unless they have spotted you, and if necessary, make sure no evidence is left behind. We will meet here in 2 hours. If any of us is not present at that time, we will search for that team, but one order is absolute: don't get captured at any price. Even though they don't have strength necessary to do so, if they managed to capture you guys, Konoha will be in a very bad spot," Shisui said.

"Don't worry," Satoshi said and took a team with him. Shisui did the same, and they searched the area around the root base thoroughly.

After 2 hours, both teams met at the same spot.

"All clear in the east."

"Same for the west."

With the preparation complete, it was now time to complete the mission.