The Ultimate Weapon (Naruto Fanfic)

63-Mock Wars (2)

Jinhai was restless, to say the least. Once more, he had to wait around and rely on others to do the jobs he more than anything wanted to help with. It wasn't like he was doing nothing, but there was a certain amount of waiting-potentially for nothing-when you were still guarding the base. Once again, he had to remind himself that this was the best course of action, despite what all his doubts said about the decision.

Like before, only Masato and Hotaka were in his line of sight. It seemed the three wouldn't be doing much in the way of fighting. There was one other team, hidden in the shadows in case of attack. The others were searching for their opponents or performing their own tasks.

It was only a matter of time before something changed. Their captives were still lulled under the genjutsu Masato had created, and though Jinhai knew he should trust the teammate to hold the illusion in place, he couldn't help but worry.

To put Jinhai's emotions into the most basic terms for the past half hour, he was completely nervous. So badly, he wanted to ask again if the recon teams had found anything, but held back on the reminder that he had done so scarcely two minutes prior. He can't help but hope for something to happen that can occupy his mind and chase off any doubts.

Hotaka was gazing out into the surrounding trees, and sighed slightly. "I can't help feeling like this is the calm before the storm."

Jinhai could only nod in agreement, far too tense to verbalize the feeling.

_+_

Kuria jumped to the next tree, looking for anything that seemed even remotely out of place. She was useless in this regard, as was every member on her team, not being sensor ninja. The three, with Nesshin, the sword user from Kiri, rather than Haruna, the stealth expert from Kumo, had to rely solely on what they could see and hear normally. She was a bit jealous of Eiji in this regard, not that she would ever tell him that. His head was already big enough, she thought.

"I'm not seeing anyone in this area," Ikuji was the one to state all of their thoughts, and Kuria sighed a bit.

She looked around once more, in a futile attempt to spot anything they might have missed. Nothing had changed. "Let's move on to the next area."

Though she had accepted Jinhai's plan, she still had the niggling sense of doubt that wanted to worm its way into her mind. While Jinhai had thought it likely they would be working on their defenses in a bid for time to put together a plan, he seemed to have put full stock into that. While true they were working with limited teams, she felt discomfort with how few were on defense.

As she leapt with her team to try and find the opponent's radio module, her thoughts lingered. No plan survives contact with the enemy. Aoi had once said that. While things had gone as expected so far, she felt it was only a matter of time.

Shaking her head, she tried to push the misgivings from her mind. "Let's try to find this radio quickly."

Nesshin and Ikuji just nodded in agreement.

_+_

Eiji sat for a moment, eyes closed as he tried to sharpen his hearing. He also tried to ignore how it seemed that Torai, the close combat fighter from Kumo, could breathe as loud as an elephant. Whether fortunate or not, Eiji wasn't able to hear anything out of place in the forest. As much as he wanted to find the other team quickly, too much haste could cause him to hear or see something too late and they would fall to an ambush.

"Can you hear anything?" It was Torai who had spoken, unsurprisingly. Haruna was rather meek, and befitting her role as a stealth jutsu user didn't make much sound - or much of an impression if you asked Eiji.