Ch 137: Silence before storm

The next morning, Tatsumi greeted Nawaki with a tired expression.

"Nawaki, morning."

"Tatsumi, where did you go last night?" Nawaki asked suspiciously.

"I was stuck with Minato all night, discussing ninjutsu problems with him." Tatsumi forced himself to cheer up.

"But I just ran into Minato. He looked radiant."

"Who knows why he has so much energy? Let's go, let's head to the mission point." Tatsumi took the lead and guided Nawaki toward the gate.

Last night, Whitey relayed a message from Orochimaru, mainly asking them to join the lower ninja patrol team.

In Orochimaru's words, this task was easy and not dangerous—almost specially prepared for lower ninjas like them.

Having encountered so many threats, Tatsumi was happy to accept such a task. So early in the morning, he took Mikoto and Nawaki to the mission gathering point.

When they arrived, there were already many lower ninja teams present. Tatsumi's green vest stood out conspicuously.

"Are you the Tatsumi team?" A gentle voice sounded in Tatsumi's ear.

He looked up and saw a Jonin who appeared to be in his early twenties. He had blue hair and a gentle expression.

"Yesterday afternoon, I received a notice from above saying that a new team was joining," the man continued.

"Yes, that's us." Tatsumi stood up and pointed to Nawaki and Mikoto behind him.

"You are—Kato Eagle? Uh, no... Jonin Kato Dan?"

Tatsumi immediately corrected himself, unconsciously saying the name of his idol.

Kato Dan smiled and didn't mind Tatsumi's subtle mistake.

"That's me. I am now the team leader Jonin in charge of reconnaissance. Welcome to the team."

Standing next to him were his three subordinates, the Nara Shikaku trio, whom they hadn't seen for a long time.

"To become a Chunin at the age of ten, Tatsumi, you are really amazing."

The familiar Kato Dan smiled and patted Tatsumi's shoulder.

"Unlike my three useless disciples."

"Teacher, being a Chunin is very troublesome," Nara Shikaku said, rubbing his head with a look of disgust.

Kato Dan was well aware of Nara Shikaku's personality, so he could only smile helplessly.

Nara Shikaku turned his head and nodded to Tatsumi. "Long time no see, Tatsumi, Nawaki, and Mikoto."

Tatsumi and the others greeted them as well.

Since arriving at the camp, they had been dispatched by Orochimaru and hadn't seen their former classmates for a long time.

"Your Chunin vest is quite nice." Akimichi Choza reached out, wanting to touch Tatsumi's light green vest.

Tatsumi unceremoniously blocked Akimichi Choza's fingers, which were covered in snack crumbs. Seeing his prank fail, Akimichi Choza licked the leftover crumbs off his fingers.

"Tatsumi, I heard you went to the battlefield for a mission. How was it?"

Taking advantage of the relatively free morning, Yamanaka Inoichi quickly asked.

After all, no matter how mature they were, they were still just ten-year-old children, and curiosity was inevitable.

"...It was okay. We just encountered Iwa ninjas with Explosion Release."

Tatsumi briefly described their mission.

The war hadn't changed Nara Shikaku and the others much—they were still as lazy as before. After all, these guys had always been stationed at the Konoha camp, and even the occasional battles were minor in scale.

Kato Dan stood aside, flipping through the mission sheet in his hand. He had already read Tatsumi's information yesterday.

Although Tatsumi was only ten years old, he couldn't be judged by normal standards.

Kato Dan clapped his hands and interrupted the young ninjas' chat. "Tatsumi, the patrol range for each team has been assigned. How about this—you go patrol with Nara Shikaku and the others first to familiarize yourself with the situation. What do you think?"

"Okay, I'll follow your arrangement." Tatsumi nodded.

With everything set, Tatsumi and the others got up and headed to the mission point.

The so-called mission point was just a garrison within the forest.

"Is this what you call reconnaissance?" In a giant tree, Nawaki poked his head out from the rain-soaked leaves, looking extremely displeased.

He thought reconnaissance would be like Yura and the others, but instead, everyone just found a tree to hide in. No wonder they said it was safe.

After experiencing the last incident, Nawaki had also started to mature. But this kind of peace wasn't what he wanted.

He stood up to see where Tatsumi and the others were, but the entire dense forest was silent. The remaining five seemed to have even hidden their breathing, and even Nawaki couldn't determine their exact locations.

Reluctantly, Nawaki hid himself again.

In a tree hollow about ten meters northeast of Nawaki's position, Tatsumi was lying leisurely.

The rain-soaked forest blurred outside the narrow cave. In the scenery shrouded by thick cumulonimbus clouds, only the sound of rain and rustling leaves remained vivid.

Every movement within a dozen meters was under Whitey's control.

Just as he was about to doze off, Whitey suddenly alerted him.

Immediately, he opened his eyes and saw ninjas rushing through the dense forest toward their position.

Judging by their attire, they were clearly Iwagakure ninjas!

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