On the Way for the First C-Rank Mission

Sometime later, after the team accepted their first C-rank mission, they gathered in front of the village gates before going out. After checking out on the gates with the guards, before leaving the village Koichi stopped his team and spoke.

"Ok then, time for a little briefing for you guys. As I taught you, outside of the village you always stay on guard no matter what, anything can happen. Even if your mission is just a C-rank bandit extermination inside the Land of Fire borders, sometimes information can be incorrect, or situation may change, this is quite common for the mission to suddenly increase its rank by a level or two. If you always stay on guard – you survive, if not – you die, as simple as that.

For the whole time while we outside, I expect you to obey all my orders without question. Don't speak unless necessary, don't act on your own initiative. As of what you should do, and how you should react at any unexpected situation on the field – all of that I already taught you during this two months.

And one more thing to make things clear. The way I taught you and the way I gave you instructions, as well as the way we will operate on the mission, is not exactly the way shinobi of the village usually operates."

Koichi observed his team but didn't saw any surprise on their faces. He clearly expected to get some questions and interjections, but all three Genins were just attentively listening without much of a reaction.

When Itachi saw that Koichi stopped and waited for something, he glanced at his teammates and saw that they didn't intend to say anything, so Itachi said.

"Well, sensei, father told me that you are a former ANBU captain, and you were in ANBU for more than ten years up until now, so it's understandable that you have higher standards than normal Jonins."

Hearing that Koichi looked at Hikari and Yuta with curiosity. Seeing that Hikari said with a shrug, "While I wasn't told about it, I already guessed that much."

Yuta gave Hikari a glance then looked at Koichi and simply nodded.

"Hmm, I see" Koichi said and then continued, "You see, standard shinobi usually not that strict on missions. But I was in ANBU for most of my shinobi career, and the way I taught you is somewhat similar and simplified version of how ANBU teams operate. Don't get me wrong, I don't expect you to join the ANBU or anything like that, it's just the way I prefer our team to operate, that's all.

Well then, our mission is to exterminate a bandit group close to the borders with the Land of Grass. There are approximately twenty bandits that ambushing the caravans of merchants in the area. Our employe is a local noble that governs in that area, but we are not meeting him, our job is just the extermination. The normal bandits should not be a problem for you, but as the mission is taking place in close proximity with the Land of Grass border, there is a chance that there might be some rogue ninjas from Kusagakure or Iwagakure with the bandits, so be ready for that to."

"Yes sensei!" Genins replied.

"Well then, we will move in the formation 9, let's go!" Koichi ordered and team moved out.

Team moved out of the village and went in the north-west direction towards the Land of Grass, positioning according to the ordered formation, Koichi in front, and at the distance of 10m behind him the rest of the team, Hikari in front, ready to intercept any enemy, Itachi in the back, covering the rear, and Yuta in the center, as the weakiest link among the group, at least when it's about the physical strength.

It's being only a 6am when the team went outside of the village and moved at quite the fast speed, hopping from branch to branch, as it's the easiest way to travel for shinobi in the land of Fire when there is no straight road to their destination.

'Well, it's quite the fast speed I must say, we are moving 50km/h or so, something like that is impossible in my previous life, just another reminder of my new supernatural reality... With that pace the one way trip will take around two days or a little less than that, and considering my usual training, this much I will be able to endure without a problem.

But what is bothering me for some time is that soon I will have to kill some people... I was mentally preparing for it in all this years, it was easy to get used to this idea and accept that I will be killing people in this world, most likely a lot of people.

As I will definitely not be like Naruto was, the talk-no-jutsu user with zero kills, something like that is just impossible.

Besides it's just bandits this time, the human scum that only robs and kills civilians, I can't care less about their lives, and I definitely will not feel guilt or something over killing them. It's just the idea of killing itself makes me uneasy, but that feeling should go away as soon as this mission is over...'

Group moved at constant pace without talking, taking only one short break to eat some ration bars and drink some water, quickly resuming the travel after that. After the sunset when it became dark, Koichi stopped the team and spoke.

"It's become dark now, we will rest here overnight and continue tomorrow early in the morning."

With that said, Koichi jumped down from the tree branch on the ground, made some hand seals and pushed his hand to the ground. With that a cave appeared underground with a narrow vertical passage.

"Jump inside, I will set up some traps and alarms." Koichi ordered his team.

It was already dark, and the narrow vertical passage looked like black and endless hole in the ground, Hikari looked at it hesitantly, and Itachi just went ahead and jumped inside like it's the most natural thing to do.

Koichi, that is already leaving to set traps, suddenly turned around and said, "I almost forgot, Yuta, want to watch how I will set up seals around the camp?"

"Sure" Yuta replied and followed Koichi, while being quite exhausted he still don't want to miss out on the chance to observe a Fuinjutsu master at work.

But it turns out not that exciting of a scene that Yuta imagines it would be, as Koichi is simply pulled out some seal tags and placed them here and there around the camp, activating them. When seals activate, they become invisible. With that done, Koichi and Yuta returned to the camp and jumped underground through the passage.

'Well, that was just the waste of time, Koichi just activated some seals, and it's too dark to properly read the seals. I was able to briefly recognize some concealment elements, along with some elements of unknown purpose on the seals, that's all...'

Koichi pulled out a glowstick and lit it, placing it in the ground in the center of the space, it barely illuminated the cave. Koichi looked at Itachi and Hikari seating on the ground and then looked at Yuta standing beside him and spoke.

"We will stay guard two hours each, Yuta you stay first, then Hikari, then Itachi, I will be the last one." Koichi said laying down on the ground using a small bag as a pillow.

Hearing that Itachi and Hikari followed the Koichi's example.

'Well, let's stay guard then, I'm a little exhausted but the first guard is the easiest one after all.'

With that thought Yuta went to the entrance and jumped outside, found a good spot for observation on a nearby tree and activated his sensory technique to stay at full alert during his watch.

After two hours Yuta went inside, tapped on Hikari's shoulder waking her up, when Hikari opened her eyes and nodded, Yuta went to the side, lay down on the ground and went to sleep.

The night went peacefully, and early in the morning group continued moving toward their destination, after Koichi removed the seals around the camp and removed the cave using some jutsu.

At noon, when team taken a short break, Koichi said.

"We will arrive at our destination in four more hours. There is a small town close to the place where the previous robberies were committed. We will go in there and gather more information about the bandits first. After that I will decide if we go after bandits today or stay in the town overnight."

With that being said, the group resumed their movement. When the team arrived in the proximity of the small town, Koichi said, "We will go in disguise of the Henge jutsu as the traveling merchants from the Land of Grass, so make a proper transformation."

After being ordered, Genins used a Henge jutsu to transform themselves into adult merchants, then after twenty minutes of Koichi pointing out some flaws and adjustments in the discuses for his team to look appropriately, he performed the jutsu himself, mainly changing the clothes, adding some baggage and removing the scar on his face, the team finally went inside the town.

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[AN: Traveling routines will not be described in such detail later on, it's just that this is the first time in the story, and I wanted to add some color in to it.

5 extra chapters in advance on my patreon /SycoreNovels

Any support will be appreciated!]