Will of Fire: Kakashi Hatake

Chapter 19

The wall had been as boring as Akira had anticipated, but at least the training she had each day made the week go by fast. She had the early morning shift, meaning she couldn't run by Kakashi's place anymore. She had to report to her superiors on the wall before the sun had even risen. There she would patrol her section of the wall until mid-morning when her relief came. She was allotted time for a brief lunch, then she went to ANBU headquarters for training with Seek.

He drilled ANBU protocol into her head, and she learned the jutsu he had been talking about on their mission. Though without practicing it, obviously. He taught her all of the rules and regulations that she was expected to memorize, then she would train with her team for the rest of the afternoon.

She felt more at home with them following the mission, and their teamwork had improved immensely. Now they flowed seamlessly as a unit.

After the week-long hiatus on the wall, they were back to being assigned missions. The first one they went on was another assassination, and this time it was just Seek and Akira going. Seek had assured her that the intel they had received was more cohesive this time, nor were they going as far out.

Their mission took them down the main road in and out of the village for a couple hours. Akira and Seek kept to the trees, moving swiftly through them, Akira's sensing ability on high alert. It was another rogue ninja, this one from the Land of Grass. They had been robbing traders that traveled this route and Lord Third had found out about it. He had sent a missive to the land of grass informing them that the leaf would be handling this issue. They were to assassinate him, and any companions he may have. It was what Seek referred to as 'total annihilation'.

Eventually, they came upon the spot that their intel had indicated that the rogue ninja would hide in to catch victims unaware. Akira didn't sense anyone nearby, so she and Seek took up positions farther down the road to scout for incoming traders. The rogue ninja had been attacking every other day, and there had been no attack the day previous.

Akira and Seek hid high in the trees and waited in the shadows, unseen. Their plan was to scout for the rogue ninja before the traders got there. The ninja had been disguising themselves as traders and waiting for the actual traders to come through. They would take care of the ninja and remove their bodies from view before the caravan rolled through.

They had only been there for about ten minutes when Akira sensed three unfamiliar chakra signatures coming up the road. She could tell that chakra was actively being used by one of them, probably a genjutsu to disguise themselves.

She put her hands together in front of her face and blew a whistle to inform Seek that they were coming. It sounded like a bird, but had a distinct pattern to it. Then she pulled down her mask and moved lower in the tree.

Across the road, Seek mimicked her position in his tree. They were close enough to the road to see down it, but not be seen by wandering eyes.

Three old men were walking up the road toward their position. The lead one was holding a walking stick and pretending to use it. He was the one that was using his chakra.

Seek caught her attention and flashed four hand signals at her. Wait for confirmation.

She nodded and turned her attention back to the so-called travelers. As they got closer, she was able to hear their voices better.

"Same plan as last time, boss?" One of them asked. His voice was not disguised. He sounded much younger than he appeared to be.

The old man in the lead nodded. "Yes. You two will take the cart in the back, and I'll take the one in the front."

That was all the confirmation they needed. Akira looked at Seek, who nodded. Then she held her hand out in front of her, aimed toward a spot on the ground that would be right in the ninjas' path. Holding the chakra infusion sign, she turned that spot on the ground into a pit of quicksand without changing the appearance of it. As part of her training, Akira would be taking the lead on this one. She could feel no other chakra signatures in the vicinity. Good.