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As the Leaf forces fought against ROOT agents across the battlefield, a group was formed at the last moment for a special mission. Led by Tokubetsu Jōnin Saika, the group of six carefully made their way across the chaotic battlefield to infiltrate the ROOT base situated inside a hill. The mission was to stop the handful of agents inside the base from destroying evidence.
Hyūga Utsuse had identified some men staying back while everyone else fled the base. They didn't know what was left behind in their hurry to flee, but it had to be of some value if required men to stay behind and take care of it.
"Jōnin Kawamochi, Jōnin Utsuse, please guide us," Saika called out as they entered a long corridor lined with yellow lightbulbs. The hill had been hollowed out and reinforced with the help of Earth Release ninjutsu to form levels, halls, rooms, and a seemingly unending network of corridors.
Time and speed were of the essence to save the evidence from being burned. Navigating the base on their own would take too much time, but with the all-seeing Byakugan guiding them, they could traverse the enemy's base as though it were their own home. The team rushed deeper into the hollowed hill until they reached a set of stairs where Saika received another set of instructions.
"We need to split up," he said to the team. There were agents on the current level and on the one below them. They couldn't afford to deal with them one at a time if they wanted to save as much as possible. "Masaaki, Duna, come with me. The rest of you clear this floor," he said, making a quick decision to split the team into two.
"Remember, you can not kill them. Their bodies will burn."
The team of six was assembled by pulling men from four larger jōnin-led groups. It was an all-chūnin team, and that included Saika, a chūnin-level combatant despite his rank. However, unknown to him, two genin had slipped onto the team.
"Masaaki, I want you front and centre," Saika said as they descended the stairs.
"Understood," Masaaki replied, clinking his knuckledusters against each other.
They entered the lower floor and didn't need Utsuse's guidance to find the two agents present on the floor. They heard them moving around, talking to each other, and as the team closed in, they were hit by the strong smell of kerosene a couple of moments before their steps splashed the liquid accelerant all over the floor.
They were planning to burn the entire place. Setting up explosives would have resulted in a cave-in, but that could be resolved by excavating the earth to regain access to the base. Setting fire to it all was the only reliable way to get rid of all evidence, with the accelerant speeding up the process before the Leaf could have any chance to stop it.
One of the agents stepped out of the room with a can of kerosene in his hand.
Masaaki rushed forward before either side could react and smashed the agent's jaw with his glowing fists. The agent crashed through the wall just beside the door opening, painfully tumbling back into the room. The kerosene can dropped to the ground and splashed Masaaki with the fuel as he jumped into the room with the agent.
Hearing the noise, the second agent came from around the corner. He, too, held a red fuel can in his hand that he immediately dropped to take a lighter from his pocket without a care for his own life. This was a threat to the mission. However, Saika was ready and released a great volume of water in the form of a violent wave.
Water Release: Wild Water Wave.
Kerosene and water never made a good mix, but it worked splendidly when trying to stop someone from setting a fire. The wave of water filled the entire corridor like a flood, hitting the agent like a hammer and dousing the lighter he was holding before it could set off any fires. However, the threat wasn't over as the agent wasn't out of play.
Duna remained calm as he finished signing hand seals. His shadow wriggled before a dark tendril rushed across the floor, merging into the second agent's shadow. Shadow Manipulation Jutsu, the Nara clan's hijutsu, completely arrested the agent's movements.
Saika sprinted towards the second agent and knocked the man out. He shared a glance with Duna, who nodded, and only then did he release the unconscious agent. Duna stepped forward and glanced into the room with Masaaki to see that the teenager had bloodied the agent to the point of unconsciousness.
"Slap them with chakra-suppression seals and tie them up!" Saika ordered
———
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On the floor above, the sole ROOT agent was pouring kerosene into the corridor when he heard the sound of pouring from around the corner as though someone was splashing kerosene onto the floors and walls.
For a moment, he thought that it was one of his fellow agents who had come up to help him cover the floor and was about to call out to him. But then he heard the familiar clink of a lighter being flicked open, followed by the sound of the striker wheel sparking against the flint. A jolt of fear jumped in his chest at the rapidly spreading fire around the corner. The light from the fire cast a man's shadow on the wall, revealing the subject walking away, along with the sound of footsteps.
"What are you doing!?" The agent rushed towards the corner despite the spreading fire because it was the only route to the exit they were going to take to escape the underground base after setting it on fire.
He hastily turned the corner, expecting to see the spreading fire along with one of his fellow agents, only to completely miss the Leaf shinobi standing in the shadow of the other corner, directly behind. The shinobi smashed a blunt baton straight to his head, hard enough that he jerked over to the other wall, immediately knocking the lights out of him.
In the last moment of consciousness, he felt a genjutsu he didn't even know he was under shatter. The fire disappeared as though it was never there, which it never was. Instead, a blond teenager stood in front of him with hands joined in a hand seal. There was a serious expression on his charming face that relaxed as the agent slid down the wall, falling hard onto the kerosene-covered floor.
The third shinobi rushed in and immediately began to apply chaka-suppression seals and cuffs.
Nenro breathed an audible sigh of relief as he lowered his hands from the hand seals for the genjutsu. It was his idea to handle the situation in a calmer fashion by reducing the possibility of a drawn-out battle—which would be extremely risky even if they outnumbered the agent, given he could just start a fire—by trapping the agent in illusions. It was fortunate that his teammates agreed to it without an argument.
"Are we sure there's only three of them?" one of the Leaf shinobi asked.
"I think we can trust Jōnin Utsuse's word on that," Nenro said, eyeing the unconscious agent just in case the man decided to suddenly wake up. "Let's get him out of here. I'll go check downstairs to see if they need support."
Nenro ran back to the staircase only to see Masaaki coming up with a ROOT agent lying limp over his shoulder, with Duna similarly carrying another agent behind him. Saika, who was last in the row, looked up at Nenro and asked, "Is it done?"
"Yes, sir."
"Good. Okay, let's get out of here."
"Sir, we should cut off the generator. We wouldn't want something to spark and set the whole thing on fire," Nenro said, pointing to the light bulbs on the ceiling.
"...Right. That's intelligent, Chūnin Nenro," Saika said, his eyes lighting up in realisation.
Nenro and Masaaki shared a look but didn't say anything.
Masaaki and Duna took the three unconscious ROOT agents outside the base while the others ventured out to find the generator powering the base. They were soon contacted by Kawamochi when Utsuse saw them running around the base and asked them what they were doing. After hearing their reply, Utsuse gave them the generator's location, allowing them to shut down the power and exit the base.
"That went well," Masaaki whispered to Nenro as the group celebrated the successful mission while awaiting any further orders. "With this, we won't get in trouble, right?"
"Definitely improves our chances," Nenro whispered back. "Though we should definitely clear the misunderstanding with Tokubetsu Jōnin Saika before he finds out from someone else."
"You do it."
"Yes, I was about to suggest the same. You just stand behind looking apologetic."
With that, the two genin stepped towards the tokubetsu jōnin, who believed them to be chūnin.
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Turning back time to before any of the Leaf jōnin-led groups had clashed with any of ROOT's fleeing parties, Sarutobi Asuma received a mental communication from Kawamochi while he was contemplating the identity of the unknown jōnin. He looked around, but the person he wanted to delegate the task to was missing.
"Where is Okubo Momoe? Call her here."
Soon after, Momoe arrived by his side.
"You called for me, sir?" she asked.
"We need to send two chūnin for a special mission into the ROOT base to stop them from destroying evidence. Choose two to send and then reassign their subordinates to other teams appropriately. Do not send any that don't have teams, and don't pick yourself," Asuma said, but when she didn't reply, he turned to look at her. "Chūnin Momoe?"
Momoe snapped out of her thoughts and replied clearly and confidently. "Yes, sir. I'll do it."
Momoe left his side to complete the order, but instead of going to the chūnin to tell them to report to the location for a special mission, she headed to where her own team was and pulled Nenro and Masaaki aside.
"I have an opportunity that might be very good for both of you." Momoe explained the situation to them and then asked, "I know it's a risk, and I won't force it if you don't want to. Frankly, I don't have the authority. I think both of you are beyond chūnin material; you're already chūnin level. If you stay here, you'll get the same amount of credit as one of the five hundred genin participating here, which isn't bad, but if you participate in this special mission, the chances of you getting a promotion soon after this operation will rise very high…"
She couldn't tell what Masaaki was thinking or if he was thinking of anything at all, but Nenro had a pensive expression.
"This very well might come back to bite us," he said. "It's a great risk."
"How about this? I'll stick my neck out first. Jōnin Asuma gave this task to me in very clear words to send chūnin. I'll take responsibility for it if you get into trouble, and you can claim that you didn't know about the chūnin requirement. He's a jōnin; he isn't going to get in trouble, so all of it will fall on my head."
Her words surprised both of them, and they exchanged looks.
"Why would you take this risk?" Nenro asked.
"You know why. All of us are civilian-born shinobi," both of them were well-aware about the things she had been doing to support and connect civilian-born shinobi, "and I think both of you have great potential. If this turns out to be a success, not only will it be great for your careers, but you could also help others up with you. If you're still leery on it, then forget this conversation ever happened. No hard feelings."
"Sure, I'll go," Masaaki said almost immediately with an excited look on his face.
Momoe had to admit that she was often surprised at how easily he made his decisions in life.
Nenro, on the other hand, took some time before saying, "…Well, they do say t's better to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission. Let's do it."
And that brought a smile to Momoe's face. "Amazing. Now, go earn yourself some expedited promotions."
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