Sehnsucht [Naruto Fanfiction]

Chapter 24 - Hospitals

Chapter 24 - Hospitals

Hitori was heading back to Konoha after completing her mission without any problems. The high-ranking noble had a messy torso wound from a sword, but it hadn't been healing through traditional means, which led him to request the services of a medic from Konoha. It was infrequent to have a medic from ANBU do this sort of job; usually, an ANBU cell would escort a medic if anything. But Hitori was already ANBU, and Itachi wanted to ensure that the identity of the medic was not revealed due to their clients' status. In the past, similar situations had arisen where a client had been healed, then the medic had been requested somewhere else and then been killed because they had healed someone's enemy. Itachi's job was to make sure that this didn't happen.

Luckily, he was great at his job, and she had been assigned an excellent cell to travel with. It had made sense to give her the Captain's spot for the mission since she would be the one telling them how they needed to complete the job. She hadn't worked with two of the others before, and the third was one of the new rookies, but this was a good, simple first mission. The only thing he hadn't got the hang of was masking their trail to her standard. He wasn't doing a bad job, but he could have done better. But he needed to get used to it, so she kept him on it anyway.

From her left, the only other girl in the cell, Sayu, called out. "Captain, I sense movement from southwest of our position. They are moving fast. Too fast and too many for a patrol unit." She was a sensor type, and Hitori had heard that her ability was impressive for her age.

"How far away are they?"

"Maybe 500 metres?" Although Hitori couldn't see her face, her narrowed eyes showed her concentration.

"Can you tell how many there are?" She replied with an even tone, still deciding whether they needed to check it out.

"I can't be 100 per cent sure from this range, but at least 7, maybe 8." Her much softer voice didn't travel as well through on the wind, but Hitori still heard her.

"Let's do nothing for the moment. We aren't far enough from the village for it to be considered non-threatening, but we shouldn't act rashly." She explained simply and they kept up, not slowing their pace.

After another few minutes, Sayu said they were still following them, and Hitori told them to stay put. Their trail was mostly concealed, but it might not be good enough if they were bounty hunters. Bounty hunters usually had trackers in their group who specialised in hunting down shinobi, and if this mystery group was anything like that, they might be in trouble. She tried her best to cover it even more and hoped it would be sufficient before she caught up and told them to push on faster.

Unfortunately, they didn't let up, and Hitori grit her teeth. They would either have to keep going toward the village and hope they would back off, which put the village at risk, and other Konoha shinobi patrols and villages and towns in the surrounding area, or turn back and fight. Hitori found herself wondering what Itachi would do in this situation. Although she knew he was too bright for her to emulate, she knew his thought process was always rational. He always recommended that she check it out if she wasn't sure, but she would have to take the group back or go alone. But she had a better idea, although she wasn't sure if it would work.

"Let's slow down. If I can put a mark on one of the trees, I may be able to get a better look at them. But I'll be out of range if we go too fast." She explained as she put two marks on one tree, facing opposite directions, hoping that would be sufficient.

"Sayu, stay behind me and keep me updated on their position. You two stay just in front of me on the right and left and make sure I don't run into anything. I won't be able to see properly when I'm using the mark." She gave out orders like it was second nature and they didn't spare a second to make their new formation.