Chapter 24: Dual Sensor Synergy
In the evening, the team met near the gate. They waited for a few minutes for the merchant who wanted their escorting services and once he was there, they leisurely sat down in one of the caravans.
The mission wasn't too scary or dangerous for most of the journey, but once they find the ninja, things would have to get serious.
Kira spread his bugs around and they moved in the forest along with the caravan.
"I don't have too many bugs under me, so the range I have is limited to only 200 meters and that's only when I put my bugs in a fan shaped area in front of us and leave the behind empty." Kira said as he looked at his team members.
Raichi nodded, "It's passive, so it's more useful than Sachi's byakugan as it consumes too much chakra to keep it active all the time."
Sachi looked embarrassed when she heard this, but Kira, who noticed this quickly responded, "Sensei, I can only sense the location of the people in this radius. She's a taijutsu specialist and can provide information on looks, the weapons the target is carrying and a lot more. I'd say that our scouting capabilities perfectly compliment each other."
(A/N: From now onwards, I'll use sensei instead of teacher to adress Raichi. Either that or team leader depending on the circumstances.)
"You're not wrong." Raichi replied, nodding as he glanced at Taka who had his signature expressionless face, "I heard that you sparred against Taka and won."
"Well... yeah." Kira said as he shifted his attention to Taka.
He wasn't really exceptional at anything and was a regular chunin who was good at a few specific things. He had no bloodline techniques like the sharingan or the byakugan and nor did he have access to clan specific techniques like the Nara clan's shadow techniques.
All in all, he was an above average ninja who was both talented and hardworking.
Once Kira realised this, he let out a sigh, but he wasn't too dispirited about it. If he was his teammate, then he would wholeheartedly support him the same way he planned on supporting Sachi.
The journey was long but comfortable aside from the fact that he had to relieve himself in the woods. As they neared the hidden rain village, Kira got a signal from one of his bugs and immediately stood up.
"One person at the north east." he said as he turned to look at Sachi, who nodded and immediately activated her byakugan.
Byakugan could be used for scouting in two different ways. One was to use their 360 degree vision, but this gave them limited vision radius. The second method was to concentrate on one direction and the distance they could see would be exponentially increased.
"Adult male with a katana strapped to his waist. He also has a large scroll strapped behind his back. No headbands."
Raichi sat where he was silently as he watched the three kids take action. The mission was for them to build experience and not for him to babysit them. Unless the situation called for it, Raichi never had any plans on helping them out.
Hearing Sachi's words, Kira turned to look at Taka, "He has a katana, so he's most probably specialised in kenjutsu. Do you want to take action? I'll support you from behind."
Taka silently nodded and got out of the caravan as he continued to walk beside it. Kira and Sachi followed behind him, but Kira jumped onto the caravan's roof and assumed the high ground.
He called back all of his Kikaichu except for the ones that were near their target as they still had to spy on him. Once they got close enough, the man began to move and Kira did his job as a scout and alerted his teammates.
"He's coming and judging by his speed... he's way faster than any of us so there's a high chance of him being a Jonin." he said, his words directed towards Raichi who instantly jumped out of the caravan and leisurely stood beside Taka and Sachi.
His three tomoe sharingan activated and he looked in the direction where Sachi was looking at, and a few seconds later, their target emerged out of the thick forest.
"Hmm, indeed. His chakra is at a Jonin level, but in actuality it's at a place where he could be considered a top notch Chunin too. A top notch Chunin, or a entry level Jonin. I'll give you guys the choice to either abandon the mission or to push forward.
If you choose to push forward, you should keep in mind that you won't receive my help. If you choose to abandon the mission, I'll take care of him and take all the mission rewards for myself."
At first, when the ninja saw the sharingan, he was ready to instantly turn around and run away, but when he heard the guy's words, he decided to wait and see. He grabbed his scroll and waited for them to come to a conclusion.
Kira looked at Taka and Sachi's expectant expressions and sighed, "As much as I want to abandon this mission, it looks like these two want to give it a try. Not like it matters really. If things go bad, you'll just step in to save us so it'll be better to use this opportunity. Even if we lose, it's way better to keep our lives compared to getting some money."
"Smart kid." Raichi commented as that was exactly why teams were given a team leader.
Kira didn't wait and looked at his two other teammates, "You know what to do."
Taka nodded and dashed forward to clash with the Ninja who had just tossed his scroll on the ground before grabbing the Katana that was strapped to his waist.
Taka was in the front while Sachi was right behind him. The jonin didn't stand waiting and rushed forward to meet them midway, immediately clashing swords with Taka.