Before we left, Mom had checked our packs three times, while Dad tried to give us a speech about what it meant to be a Chūnin on a real mission. I have never heard him speak so coherently for so long. Naturally, they were not the only ones who knew we were going away, because I also told Sayuri. She had listened when I told her we had a training assignment outside the village under Jiraiya-sensei, and she had not asked for details because she was smart enough to know what was going on. So, instead, she just held my hand and looked into my eyes, saying:
"Come back."
Naturally, I promised I would, while Minato also wrote a letter for Kushina, telling her that we will come to visit the moment we are back, even if they don't want to let us in. After everything was done and dusted, we were already off, dressed like people who had never heard of shinobi in their lives.
"Feels weird," I said, looking down at myself as we were walking, still in the middle of the darkness, just before sunrise.
"That's the main point," Jiraiya-sensei adjusted the strap of his pack, looking at us.
"I look like a clerk." I glanced at him, shrugging, "That should have been Minato. I wanted to look like a hunter!"
"Too bad." Jiraiya snorted, "And he doesn't even look like a hunter either."
Well, he still looked better, totally unfair. Unlike him, I had been forced into dull green and gray garb, while he got to wear some blue and yellow... Totally unfair, not to mention, I was now wearing glasses. Me. With the Sharingan. Why do I have glasses?! What Uchiha needs glasses?! What?!
"This is character assassination," I groaned, pouting.
"You are a junior trade scribe," Jiraiya-sensei said with a tired groan. "Your character is supposed to look like that. Both of you! You are my assistants while I'm traveling to write my book, do you understand?"
"Yeah, yeah." I moaned, rolling my eyes, only to get stabbed in the back.
"Well," Minato smiled faintly. "They suit you."
"Want your own?" I hissed, throwing him a look. "I can give you two big black ones."
"I'm not lying."
"Tsk... That just makes it worse! Stop complimenting me!" I moaned, because this reminded me of my old life. I HATED WEARING GLASSES! I have perfect vision now... and I haven't unlocked my Mangekyō, so I don't need these.
"If you are this talkative, let's go over your current identities," Jiraiya said, interrupting us.
"Yes," Minato answered first, "My name is Nami, and I am your apprentice bookkeeper for this trip. Originally, I am from a merchant household near the eastern Fire roads, and now I am serving under apprenticeship, spending it by accompanying you to hone my skills."
"Very good," Jiraiya nodded. "Renjiro."
"Yes, yes..." I sighed. "My name is Ren. I'm a junior scribe, the inventory assistant, the one who makes sure you have inks and quills to spend. And a tragically underappreciated genius, who got kicked out of his original household and now finds work traveling under the greatness of the greatest writers ever."
"Without your additional fluff," Jiraiya stared at me, slapping the back of my head.
"Haaah," I shrugged. "Ren. Junior scribe. Inventory assistant. No genius. No tragedy. Dumb-dumb."
"Much better. And who am I?"
"Sōta," we both said at once, "You are an independent writer and also a retired tea trader. You have trade papers from three ports because of it." Then I added, "And the owner of two slightly worrying debt notes, with collectors looking for you in the Land of Grass. Oh, and a wife in every town."
"..." Jiraiya just looked at me, before shrugging, "Just one ex-wife, too many would draw suspicion. But yes, we need some interesting and less positive additions to make it more believable."
"One more question!" I raised a hand, now that he wasn't arguing against one of my additions, "Why do Minato and I get girls' names?"
"They are neutral ones, exactly because who knows how you will need to blend in," Jiraiya-sensei said, suddenly super serious, while I was afraid that I would have to pull a Haku on someone. "Your cover has to be flexible." He said, looking at both of us. "If anyone asks too many questions, you do not improvise unless you have to. You let me talk. Got it?"
"Yes, Sensei!" We both answered, and I was about to ask what our real mission would be, but for now, he only told us one thing:
"You will know only what you have to know related to certain situations. Despite your capabilities, there is some very sensitive information related to our travel, and I can only reveal as much as necessary to complete your tasks. If any of you get captured, we can't let them learn about it."
Like we were about to be captured... Minato had put a Hirashin marking on Sensei, so both of us could, if we were in deep shit, blink to his position. If he was close enough, that is... The further a mark was, the more chakra it needed, and we wouldn't be able to travel untold distances. I wish we could, because traveling without using chakra... Ugh. By the end of the first hour, I was miserable.
"This is the hardest mission I have ever done," I whispered.
"Really...?" Minato glanced at me. "Because we're walking?"
"Yeah!" I nodded, "It's slow as hell!"
"Endure it until we reach the borders." Jiraiya spoke up from behind me, "We will hire a carriage from there."
We first traveled east-northeast through Fire Country, and, probably to annoy me, we didn't take the fastest route. Jiraiya-sensei avoided the direct roads, taking us through multiple farming villages, small shrines, roadside inns, and some logging sites here and there. When we passed by them, none of the locals really cared about it, unless we were buying something.
"Where are you boys from?" an old woman asked us on the second day, handing Minato a skewer of grilled fish when we stopped eating.
"Near Hinoe," Minato answered smoothly.
"What family?"
"Small one. My uncle keeps ledgers for Sōta-san." He continued, half his mouth full, while I was amazed at how smoothly he could do it.
"And the other one?"
"Hm?" I looked up from pretending to examine my own skewer. What was this? Interrogation? Gossip-loving granny, that's what we needed. "Me?"
"No, the frog behind you." The witch-looking raisin-faced woman snorted, while I glanced behind me, searching for the frog, playing into being the slow one, just to annoy her.
"What frog?" I blinked, turning back around, properly confused.
Naturally, Jiraiya-sensei choked on his own food while Minato's mouth twitched as the woman stared at me and I stared back through my stupid glasses, half of my mouth open, slowly raising my fish and biting into it.
"Are you stupid?"
"Stupid is as stupid does," I answered, furrowing my brows, making the old hag snort, not really appreciating my Forest Gump impression.
"He is not really a bright one, is he?" She muttered while Jiraiya paid her, making him shrug in frustration.
"No, he is not," Jiraiya-sensei said, and I think it was way too believable. Haaah... It almost hurt.
In the end, as we traveled forward, we stopped at inns when we came across any. Jiraiya-sensei spoke to people, gathering notes as he said, for his book. We even stopped to earn some pocket money by delivering a sealed packet to a broker who clearly owed someone else money and was terrified of us when we showed up. By the time we reached the southeastern edge of Fire Country, we had an extensive history that could be traced back if someone bothered to do so.
"It is actually clever," Minato said as we were walking. "We are not hiding by leaving no trail, so we are leaving many small, useless trails. I don't think any of our lessons taught us this."
"Espionage is my specialty," Jiraiya said, smiling to himself. "A clean disappearance is suspicious; always remember that. Not to mention, if you just show up, and people can't find out anything about your background, you will be shooed away. There needs to be enough traces for people to sniff it out. If they can't find anything, they will get suspicious, which makes our mission harder."
A few more stops and 'background building' later, we reached the Land of Tea, which was not a great shinobi nation. It had no hidden village of its own, or at least not one anyone would care about, and its security reflected that. We crossed over without anyone really inspecting us. As for the country, I had learned that it relied on trade, led by the main local families.
Jiraiya-sensei became Sōta completely there. He complained about fees when we booked a carriage, then argued about cargo classification when they tried to rip us off by charging for Minato and me as luggage. He even became the Jiraiya I knew, because he flirted shamelessly with a woman stamping our travel papers... I don't think that part was actually an act either. Throughout all this, Minato acted as the picture of a polite apprentice, while I stood beside him, trying not to die of boredom.
My boredom only ended when we reached the shorelines within the country. It was... nice. Long, flat shores, a bit rocky, not sandy like we were in the Caribbean, but still, pretty nice. There, we were catching a ferry that was bringing us toward the first of the Tea islands: Nagi Island, according to the papers. From there, we would be island hopping, leaving a trail, creating more diversions, before attempting to sail towards the Hidden Mist's territory... the Land of Water.
I didn't even notice that we were on our 'trip' for two weeks by then. I also got used to switching from boat to boat, and after zigzagging between the small islands, it was time for Sensei to make the jump.
It didn't take long for Jiraiya-sensei to find us a place aboard a merchant ship bound for a minor outer island in Water Country waters. Per the description, it traded fish oil, salt, lamp fat, and some cheap iron tools. We were just climbing aboard when the captain of the ship, the Gull's Debt, a short woman with sun-dark skin, gray-streaked hair, and thick, strong arms, glanced at us. I think Jiraiya-sensei mentions her name... mmm... Captain Renga?
"What's wrong with his eyes?" she asked, pointing at me. Me? Again? Why me?! These. Damn. Glasses. Do I look like Kabuto? Do I really have such a punchable face?
"Poor vision," Jiraiya said simply.
"Poor manners, too," I added as she kept staring at me, only for Jiraiya's heel to come down on my foot. Without flinching, I smiled through pain and continued to come on board.
"What about that one?" Captain Renga looked at Minato next. "This one can't speak?"
"Yes, I can," Minato said. "It's just rude to do so without permission."
"Hmph! The dumb and the smart, eh?" She snorted, "Cause no trouble on my ship, kids, or I will watch you drown if you wall over."
"Understandable," Minato said while Jiraiya paid for passage in coins.
Finally, when we were on our way that night, Jiraiya-sensei gathered us below deck between stacked barrels and hanging nets as he unrolled a rough sea chart.
"Nagi Island, this is where we left from the first time," He began, tracing our previous trips, "And now, we are here. From this point onward, the ship follows a merchant lane northeast by east, then bends wide to avoid the main waters patrolled by Kirigakure, as they are smuggling spices. I caught a whiff of it before."
"That's why we chose this ship?" I asked as we leaned closer, examining the route.
"Yes." He nodded as he tapped a small island mark near the outer edge of Water Country's island chain. "First stop is Ishiguro Island. There, we will keep our ears open and gather rumors. If Kiri is moving ships toward Uzushiogakure, the outer islands will hear about it first, as they have to go past them. If we find nothing, we go deeper and deeper, but I want to draw up a possible map of where they saw more traffic than before."
"And that is why you are a writer..." I murmured, understanding it, "You will ask the questions as gathering background information for your book. Ask how the waters are here, how frequently ships come and go, asking about rumors and legends, yes?"
"So you are not actually dumb, huh?" Jiraiya chuckled, making me grin, "Exactly. And your first task will be the same. You will gather the same knowledge for me, and then, we will decide where to go from there."