"So, what are you all doing in my house?" Shiki inquired.
"What? Is coming to visit you a problem? Are we interrupting your "private" time?" Mei accusingly questioned, her glares at Benihime making the reasoning behind her inquiry quite obvious.
"It is not a problem, just unusual." The boy calmly replied.
"Hmph!" The bespectacled girl did not seem to be convinced.
Shiki was also curiously observing him but not with any ill feelings.
Inori on the other hand, finally decided to move onto the main matter of discussion.
"Hokage-sama has commanded our squad to reform for a mission now that you're back on active service." The Violet Rose revealed.
Shiki immediately turned to Mito since these things always went through her for screening, something which nobody missed.
The Uzumaki matriarch slightly nodded but a near imperceptible motion of her eyes noticed by Shiki alone, signaled that there were matters to discuss in a more private setting.
"What's the mission?" The boy asked his sensei.
"Ah! A very personal job. Hunting down a certain individual of interest to our Team." Inori responded.
Shinka and Mei, clearly also in the dark, showed looks of interest after hearing this obvious picking at their curiosity.
"The former village head and now merchant that commissioned our first C rank mission." The Violet Rose dramatically revealed with a bloodthirsty smile.
"He immediately went into hiding the moment we left to clean out the bandits he hired us to exterminate and surfaced in the Land of Lightning later but it seems that after years of no Konoha retaliation, he gained the courage to go down to the Land of Frost.' She added.
Mei seemed eager and Shinka was also showing some rare initiative but Shiki, the most petty out of all of them, showed some apprehension.
"Isn't this just Kumo bait? The Land of Frost is still basically a subordinate nation of their Land of Lightning." The boy pointed out.
"I would think so as well but we got confirmation that Kumo is not paying that much attention to the merchant, clearly not expecting that we would take action ourselves." Inori explained.
"Confirmation from where?" Shiki's skepticism was unabated.
His intuition was not triggering but that might just be because his new surge of strength will ensure his safety.
However, even then, he would like to know if he was walking into a trap, regardless of whether his safety was guaranteed by his prowess or not.
"The confirmation came from Konoha's Intelligence Division, it's good." The Yamanaka assured, her clan handled most of this division's affairs and though her reputation with her fellows was not the best, she still had enough contacts to confirm some things.
"Alright then . . . When do we depart?" The boy inquired, somewhat placated.
"A should be enough to prepare, so tomorrow morning." Inori declared.
"We originally came to inquire when you would be available but since you've arrived at just the right time, we'll settle it like this, yes?" The Violet Rose smiled.
"Sure, if everyone else is okay with it." Shiki nodded.
Shinka followed with a subtle nod of her own.
"Time for some payback." Mei menacingly cupped her fist, clearly also in agreement.
And so, the rest of Team 6 left the Uzumaki residence to prepare, leaving the boy alone with his mistress for the previously signaled private discussion.
"So . . . Do I have to worry?" Shiki inquired.
Mito smiled at her beloved ward.
"Monkey offered this mission as sort of a peace offering, officially approved revenge and an apology for the previous incident. He also personally guaranteed the validity of the information." The Uzumaki matriarch spoke.
The boy quietly listened without interruption, he knew the redhead was not done speaking, they had lived together as ward and guardian for several years after all, their tacit understanding of each other had evolved significantly.
"I believe he's genuine but . . ." Mito pause.
"But his old friend Danzo and his Root are not as trustworthy." Shiki concluded her line of thinking, evoking a smile out of the matriarch's face.
"Indeed. The Root could have interfered with the intel at any point. It can be false from the get go, altered mid transmission or simply doctored after arrival on Konoha. Danzo's shadows spread further and further in this village every day.~" The redhead sighed with disappointment.
"So the Hokage's attitude seems partial to us but Danzo may be messing about." Shiki pondered.
"That said, this can just be the usual routine between the two of them." The boy commented.
He was referring to their good cop, bad cop routine where Hiruzen always presented himself as the embodiment of righteousness while Danzo handled all of the dirty business, "officially" the Hokage knew nothing about it but . . .
"My thoughts exactly." Mito nodded.
"That said, I believe your current strength allows us to take this gamble and verify their attitudes." The Uzumaki matriarch added.
"Very well Mito-sama, we'll play like this then." Shiki agreed.
*
With his training plans forcefully postponed, Shiki bade farewell to Mito as well as Tomoe, Ema and Benihime who now shared a house with him.
Team 6 met up at Konoha's gate at the break of dawn and set off towards the Land of Frost.
At the midway point of the journey, the group was reaching the border of the Land of Fire and Shiki seemed like he was readying himself for war.
"You don't have to worry Shiki. This one is legit." Inori tried to calm him down.
The boy looked at his sensei with a deadpan face, not even deigning to respond with words.
'Damn brat is starting to make me suspicious now." The Violet Rose internally complained.
'Guess I can't really blame him though.' She remembered past incidents and could not bring herself to get mad at Shiki's lack of trust.
"Do you really think we're getting screwed over again, Shiki?" Mei questioned, starting to get nervous.
"I'm fifty-fifty so better to be physically and mentally ready. Just in case." The boy replied.
Shinka made no comment but began readying herself for trouble.
"Alright, ready yourselves for extra trouble if you like but lets discuss what is actually expected from the intel first, yeah?" Inori called out to her team.
The three nodded in agreement, some more eager to move on with their thoughts than others.
"Our target seems to have been very richly compensated by Kumo and took over a booming mining business in the ore rich Land of Lightning which seemed to be directly handed to him as part of his deal." The Yamanaka started.
"He's been looking to expand into the Land of Frost and is going there to sign a business deal with a competitor, a forced acquisition of sorts." She continued.
"This competitor hired Konoha who has gotten a major boost in reputation after our victorious clashes with Kumo to take him out before the deal goes through."
"One thing to keep in mind is that our target will have Kumo bodyguards and, considering heightened tensions, we should leave no evidence pointing to Konoha shinobi." Inori concluded.
"I've been getting pretty handy with elemental jutsu. I can be the main attacker while focusing on Earth Release, Iwa has a bone to pick with Kumo as well so we might be able to frame this on them." Shiki deviously suggested.
Even if the boy doubted the legitimacy of the mission, he was not going to be half assed about it.
+++++
Hey, Author here!
To promote the novel I will be releasing BONUS CHAPTERS on SUNDAYS based on the previous week's power stone count.
100 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter
500 Power Stones = 2 Bonus Chapters
1000 Power Stones = 3 Bonus Chapters
Every earned BONUS CHAPTER on Webnovel will also be posted on Scribble.
Just a reminder that you can read up to a FULL MONTH ahead of this site on pa-treon.
I'm trying to become a full time Author now and I'm not going to be starting any new novels just so I can make sure this one is properly completed.
Find those sweet advanced chapters on pa-treon.com/lusoba without the -