Chapter 11: First C-rank mission!
Ever since he first caught the trio of children's attention with the fuinjutsu, they were sold on the idea. All three were orphans with ninja parents so they were all in the ninja academy, but it was just their third year so they hadn't gotten very far. They knew the basics but were really after some kind of flashy jutsu. Despite that, however, they didn't protest when Aoshi had them focus a lot of their time on calligraphy and special drawing based techniques. At times they whined, but they diligently did their work and Aoshi was pleased with it. He hadn't actually taught them any fuinjutsu, but if the academy actually let that be a class, these three would surely be way out on top. Perhaps if he can become a Chunin quickly, he can start up a workshop and train youngsters there. Konoha had very few seal masters after all.
But he didn't just do it for future gain, although that was probably part of the reason, Aoshi had also gained a liking to these three kids. They showed talent and a nice attitude, but not just that. The square-faced one, also known as Kotsu, was more rough in his drawing but got a lot more emotion through, which would be nice for certain types of offensive seals. Mr. Long-Face, also known as Akira, was extraordinarily calm and composed. If Aoshi didn't know better he'd guess the boy had his grandpa's soul stuck inside him, because his attention to detail was way better than any eight year old should have. The last one was Sir Curls, also known as Oda, and he wasn't particularly talented in one way or another but his work ethic was very good and he was very inquisitive.
If he had the time to tutor them he would, but Aoshi had to focus on his own growth first. He spent a lot of time inside the library gathering information. Everything from tactics to theory on chakra development and even theory on jutsu creation. He was nowhere near that stage but he liked to know what was needed.
***
After two months of hard training with Guy, quite a bit of fuinjutsu training both alone, and with Kakashi's help and loads of library time, it was finally time to go on a C-rank mission.
It wasn't a very special one. A group of two chunin and six genin would escort the owner of the local hot spring to the land of hot water for some kind of transaction. It paid very little and mainly served as a way to get a bunch of genin some experience outside the village. The others who were accompanying him were people from the B-class in the year above him at the academy. People who didn't get picked by a jounin but still wanted to become ninjas. From what Aoshi knew, they were mainly training on their own or in groups of their peers in one of the training grounds. They did missions in groups of five unless they found a chunin willing to lead them, and they would have a tough time getting well-paid missions.
Aoshi was glad he didn't end up in that mess, and he hoped they didn't know of his situation. He wanted to avoid any kind of attention. These other five were the best from that group and they still had to wait eight months before they were deemed good enough just to leave the village. Aoshi was allowed to do so after just two without any jounin to guard his back, which already put a target on him to start with.
He had prepared anything he might need in his sealing belt. He also wore two of the rings with a sealed kunai in them just in case. Preparation was key, that's one of the most important lessons the books had for him.
He showed up at the gates half an hour before the stated time, but wasn't surprised when he saw that almost all of them were already there. He said hello but none of them were people he had really talked to before so there wasn't much of a conversation. He did spot something peculiar though.
These boys used to be rather loud and obnoxious on the playing ground and around school but now they were much more mellow. Their training must have been special. Just a minute after Aoshi, the last person showed up. Aoshi was surprised when he saw him. It was a rather small kid who always skipped classes and never took responsibility. Now he looked proper and serious with trimmed hair and cold eyes. What happened to these kids during the last half a year? Was this the kind of training Tetsuo was sent to do? Or was his worse? What would he be like next time he saw him?
He shook those thoughts away and listened to the leaving chunins. "You all know the job. We will go rather slow because we are escorting a civilian but I expect your senses to be on high alert. Rokushō Aoshi, you will be riding on the cart. I understand you have a decent sensing ability." At Aoshi's nod he continued. "Then I expect it to be active at all times. If you're not sensing and you haven't told me, it's your fault if something happens. Do you hear me?"
Aoshi gave him another nod. "Yes sir. I will sit with the client. My sensing should reach a bit further than any of you can see, especially because of the trees."
The other genin scoffed a little, it seemed there was some disdain for him anyway. One of the chunin continued. "The other five will spread out around the carriage, the two of us will take the rear and the front. Now, into position!"
And so they were off. Aoshi sat in the carriage with the client and it was just then he got his first look at the man. He looked exactly what he'd imagine an owner of the hot springs in Konoha to look like. It was an old very short man with a little white hair on his head and a thin long beard. He looked like a perverted old man to be honest. It wouldn't surprise Aoshi if this man had various spots to peek on his customers.
The man tried to start up a conversation with Aoshi over and over again but the two had very little in common. That combined with the fact that Aoshi hadn't really trained his sensing as much as he should, and you had a recipe for a very quiet ride.
It was rather uneventful really. The man kept talking for hours on end. Turns out he really didn't need any kind of response to just keep talking. The genin outside had started chatting among themselves about how they wanted to try the hot springs they had heard so much about. Aoshi just wanted to be done so he could get back to improving himself. At least this worked as some kind of sensing exercise.
And that's when he felt it. To his left were three unknown chakra signatures which clearly belonged to well-trained individuals. At least compared to the newly graduated standard he was used to. He couldn't pinpoint if they were stronger than the chunin leading the mission but for his own safety he hoped not.
He quickly picked up a sealing tag and wrote on the back of it. Then he folded it up into a shuriken and threw it at the main leader of the group.
The chunin was clearly annoyed to get a piece of paper thrown at him but when he saw Aoshi's serious look, he opened it and read.
---
Act annoyed, as if it was a prank. The explosive tag on the other side of this is real.
Three guys above genin level about 150 metres to the east south-east of here. I doubt the other genin can handle them.'
---
A slight frown marred his face before he went along with it and acted annoyed and threw it back towards Aoshi who leaned out of the window but 'missed' and the chunin at the back caught it.
Seeing as the important people had been told, Aoshi just focused on sensing all around to see if there was anything else of note. He couldn't sense anything else but suddenly they moved a lot faster towards his location and he took out a kunai. "Sit tight sir, this will go quick."
As soon as he said that, four senbons were sent towards the genin outside but the leaders were prepared and intercepted them. "Come out! I'm very interested to see who we're facing today." The main chunin called out with glee.
Two men came out of the bushes. They looked like your typical bandits. Shaggy clothes, poor weapons, dirty faces and bandanas without any markings on them. One was slightly shorter than the other, but they looked like brothers. Suddenly the other chunin started laughing tauntingly. "Bandits? If that's all then we might as well leave you to the genin so they can get their first blood, or what do you say, Hachiro?"
In complete arrogance, the chunin looked over to the real leader, called Hachiro, with a grin on his face. Meanwhile, Aoshi was focused on finding the third bandit. Fear spread across his body as he realised what was about to happen. "Beneath you!"
But it was too late. The third bandit had used an earth release to hide underground and used several stealth techniques to hide his chakra very well up until the last second.
"Earth release: Reverse Guillotine!" A sharp, angled, stone blade flew out of the ground at a high velocity. It was right beneath the unsuspecting arrogant chunin, in between his legs, and split him perfectly in half in front of everyone. Panic ensued among the genin. None of them had truly seen death like this before, including Aoshi.
Their leader fell down in two pieces and everyone except Hachiro took a few steps back. Aoshi once again stood next to the client.
Hachiro, the surviving chunin, called out "Udon, Dai. Take the client 1km north and let out a beacon. The outpost should help you. The rest will hold them off." He didn't look at them but instantly knew what went through their minds as the third bandit threw his first punch at Hachiro.
"Snap out of it! Focus on the task at hand!" They all nodded and went into action. Aoshi put a sleeping genjutsu on the client so he'd be easy to carry and then went to the battle. He saw Udon and Dai, the two more muscly genin around, grab the client and run.
The other two bandits tried chasing them but Aoshi interfered by placing them in a quick genjutsu. "Demonic Illusion: Mud Devil's Coffin" Since they weren't prepared, they were momentarily stuck. The illusion showed Aoshi making hand signs and then mud came flowing from the earth to drag them down into a tightly packed mud coffin. They were completely unable to move and for every second that went, they suffocated more and more.
The technique is a rather strong one which he came up with when he was practising with Kurenai, but it had one big backside. The illusion made the body think it couldn't breathe in. When the body overrides the brain and does it anyway, the illusion will break.
This gave them a good window to escape and gave Aoshi just enough time to get up close to them. As soon as he placed his right hand on the face of the smaller of the two bandits, their eyes opened at the same time. In panic Aoshi did all he could do, he absorbed chakra with everything he had. In seconds, the guy was empty and his brother glared with fury at Aoshi while the little guy fell to the ground dead.
Aoshi completely missed that however. Apart from the whole thing where he had actually taken a life by sucking his very life-force out of him, Aoshi couldn't focus on anything other than what happened inside his body. Aoshi felt like he might explode. The chakra this guy had was a lot more than expected and Aoshi's body couldn't handle it. Every part of him felt like it was burning and he could literally feel how the chakra was trying to tear his skin apart so it could escape.
He couldn't focus on anything else but pain, so he completely missed when the brother absolutely launched him away with an intensely powerful punch. Aoshi flew across the battlefield, his head struck a tree, and he was out almost right away. His last action was to use an experimental seal he had on the skin on the right side of his stomach. His most important bag was sealed away and then he lost consciousness, not hearing or seeing anything from the battle that surely kept going on.