Even if the boy doubted the legitimacy of the mission, he was not going to be half assed about it.
"Excellent. I can disrupt and pin down our enemies while Shiki deals the killing blow with his Earth Release." Inori declared.
"Mei's Sharingan and Fire Release as well as Shinka's Hidden Jutsu scream Konoha so you're both on perimeter watch for this one." The Violet Rose added, getting nods of agreement from the two.
Mei's nod was more reluctant than Shinka's though, the Uchiha was hoping to get a piece of the traitorous bastards herself after all.
Shiki's suspicions were on the rise though.
'Assigning a kill that cannot be traced back to the village to a squad containing three Konoha clan members with very renowned characteristics . . ."
To him, it seemed all too deliberate.
An attempt to make them slip up by discouraging them from using their biggest strengths.
In fact, he was the only one not affected due to his very diverse skillset but Kumo was now very familiar with how he personally operated as well so Shiki felt plenty justified in his doubts.
'We'll when we get there.' The boy thought.
With his current sensory capabilities, he was confident in his ability to detect any plot well in advance.
*
Team 9 travelled uneventfully for a couple of days crossing the Land of Hot Water into the Land of Frost, a country Shiki had yet to visit in any of his missions.
In fact, of their team, only Inori knew her way around, mostly from her time infiltrating Kumo, the other three only had basic information on it.
However, as they got closer to the planned mission area, Shiki's long range sensory powers began picking up reading that left him feeling quite displeased.
Actually, that was an understatement, he became downright cold and hollow, entering combat mode immediately and stopping in his tracks.
The rest of the team obviously noticed and stopped as well, a little ahead of him.
Shiki put on a creepy hollow eyed smile and directly faced Inori.
"Sensei, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and give you an opportunity to explain." The boy started.
And, while the other three were still reeling from his current state, he continued.
"Not only do we have an inordinately high number of Kumo shinobi hiding in the mission area, clearly waiting for something, I also recognize a chakra signature from Konoha mixed into a group hovering just beyond." Shiki shared.
Mei and Shinka froze, a bit disoriented but Inori felt sick.
"Shiki, I don't know anything about this!" The Violet Rose immediately claimed.
"I want to believe that, which is why I want you to explain, based on what you know of how the Hokage and his Anbu as well as Danzo and his Root operate, what do you think is going on." The boy responded.
Inori realized Shiki's thinking.
If she used her experience in the secretive shadow organizations of Konoha to come up with a probable answer, she was essentially revealing confidential intel. It could be considered a betrayal of her vows as a Konoha shinobi as she would be disrupting a village operation.
'For him, it will be proof enough to believe me for the time being but . . . If I stay loyal to the higher ups, what will he do? Will he just abandon the mission and go back, not playing the game or will he . . .' The Violet Rose did not dare to complete her thought.
She had come to care dearly for her students, she did not want to believe one of them would be willing to do such a thing.
In the end, Inori could only make her choice, and live with the consequences.
"Based on what you sensed, this might be an unofficial Root operation, completely off the books." She revealed her theory, and made the choice to stay true to Shiki, to her Team and to herself.
"What kind of operation?" The boy followed up with another question.
"Do you think the Kumo ambush is tailored for us or just for something?" Inori responded with an inquiry of her own.
"The ambush is solid but far from enough for what they must have realized we're capable of." Shiki replied.
"Then this is likely a way to advance the cause of an intelligence operative." Inori deduced.
"Information that something would happen was leaked, when something does go down, the source will gain credibility and burrow deeper into Kumo but the lack of actual details made the enemy underestimate us, diminishing the risk of losses for our side." She continued.
"This is probably part of the efforts to compensate for the intelligence disaster surrounding that original "C rank mission" of ours." The Violet Rose concluded.
"Hmph. Does the Hokage know?" The boy questioned.
Inori just shook her head.
"The Root's operations are not nearly as hidden from Hokage-sama as Danzo-sama believes but it is not like he knows everything that is going on either." The Yamanaka explained.
'So I don't know if that damn Monkey is incompetent or malicious . . .' Shiki internally mused.
He would consider such things later. For now, it was about what to do in regards to the mission.
"Okay then. In regards to this mission, let us carefully approach the mission area but hover outside Kumo's detection range, not the Root's detection range though." The boy declared.
"What are you trying to do?" Inori asked.
"Checking the Root's attitude. If they do nothing, we do the mission as planned, Kumo's planned ambush is meaningless if I can pull off a quick assassination and withdrawal. But if Root responds to our presence . . . well, we'll see then." Shiki responded.
"Do you still want my support for disrupting the guards?" The Violet Rose carefully inquired.
"No, I got it." Shiki replied and the speed and sureness of the response honestly hurt his sensei a bit.
'His relationship with the Village only gets worse and worse. I was supposed to foster a sense of belonging and bring him closer to the Hokage faction but they screwed everything right at the start.' Inori thought to herself.
'I was finally making progress again after years of knowing and developing Yin based jutsu with him and now they f*cked up again.'
'He probably doesn't think I'm involved, he probably would've killed me with a sneak attack if he did.' The Violet Rose was disheartened by that reality.
'But I still represent the Hokage faction, he doesn't trust them so he can't trust me. There is an unflinching wall between us.' She shook off her musings and refocused on the present.
At the very least, she had to maintain the status quo and not let Shiki be dead set against the village leadership.
The Yamanaka could only hope that the Root the boy wanted to prod and test would make things worse as they often did.
*
Team 6 approached the mission area from a direction that allowed them to pass by the Root operatives without alerting Kumo.
'They didn't make any moves.' Inori internally sighed with relief.
Shiki on the other hand, showed nothing on his face or demeanor but he detected something, he was just waiting to see . . .
See if the party of interest came forward without incentive.
+++++
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 -