"This is so boring~~ Why haven't we run into a single enemy~~"
Naruto had said this for the third time now, the blond boy bounding around like an oversized dog—darting this way, sniffing that way—in a manner less reminiscent of searching for hostiles and more like a hound tracking rabbits.
"Come on, who actually hopes enemies will attack us~"
Bringing up the rear, Kakashi was mildly exasperated, though the hint of a smile in his eyes made it clear he didn't dislike Naruto's enthusiasm. After all, he seemed to recall once having a similarly reckless companion of his own.
"A C-rank escort mission won't involve hostile shinobi. At most we'd need to deal with bandits or highwaymen along the road—the kind who go down in one hit. Even if they showed up, they wouldn't be worth getting excited over."
Sasuke's explanation was matter-of-fact, which prompted a subtle sidelong glance from Hinata. If she remembered correctly, this version of Sasuke was considerably more talkative than his canon counterpart.
Clearly, the crew's communal lifestyle had forcibly dragged this reclusive boy into close quarters with everyone else, eroding at least some of the walls between him and the group.
Still, he had a point. According to the original story, Tazuna beside them was already on the monopolist Gatō's hit list, and the assassins sent to deal with him should have been in position by now. So why hadn't they appeared?
Furrowing her brow slightly, Hinata's eyes sharpened as she activated her Kekkei Genkai, intending to thoroughly scan their surroundings for anything she might have overlooked.
Kakashi approved. Ever since leaving Konoha, Hinata had been periodically activating her Byakugan to check the perimeter. With its x-ray vision and near-360-degree field of view, the Byakugan was unquestionably one of the shinobi world's premier reconnaissance tools.
He didn't know Hinata was verifying plot continuity, of course, but her vigilance was exactly the kind of awareness he valued. Once you left the safety of Konoha, the world outside was riddled with danger—even an ostensibly risk-free C-rank mission couldn't be taken lightly. That was the correct mindset for a shinobi: meticulous attention to every detail.
On that point alone, Kakashi had no objections whatsoever to Hinata serving as Team 7's field leader. He'd initially worried the pale-eyed girl might be too calculating to respect the fundamentals of shinobi craft, but that concern now seemed entirely misplaced.
"All right, Naruto, settle down for a bit..."
Just then, Hinata stopped walking. Her tone carried a new edge. "I see something bad. Everyone, stay sharp."
She was right. Just as Hinata knew from the storyline, the enemy NPCs who should have appeared along this route were indeed present—but their condition was... not quite what she'd expected.
Guided by Hinata's precise coordinates, the group quickly located the thicket she'd indicated. What they found made Naruto instinctively take a half-step backward. Having never seen a corpse before, the impact clearly rattled him.
Two bodies hung from the central tree. Judging by the dried state of the blood trailing down from them, they'd been dead for some time. Their standard shinobi garb and the Hidden Mist forehead protectors on their brows made their identities unmistakable—these were no ordinary people.
"Looks like they're Mist shinobi—killed here for some reason."
Kakashi's expression hardened instinctively. There were no towns nearby, which ruled out accidental death. These two Mist ninja must have been ambushed while lying in wait here—meaning...
Someone else had likely been setting an ambush. Possibly targeting a group exactly like theirs.
"But if this was a killing, why leave something like that behind?"
Having already witnessed his share of carnage, Sasuke was largely unfazed by the grisly scene. What drew his attention was the bizarre symbol on the ground—unmistakably drawn in blood. A circle with an equilateral triangle inscribed within it. This clearly wasn't meaningless.
"Could be a revenge mark, or a family crest signifying identity. Either way, whoever did this is clearly a vicious individual."
Kakashi had no intention of approaching the bodies. Instead, he turned his focus to observing his three students.
Naruto's performance was the weakest. The blond boy's near-terrified expression made it clear he still lacked any real awareness of the bloodshed that was an inevitable part of a shinobi's life.
Sasuke's composure was within expectations. As the survivor of a clan massacre, an above-average tolerance for this kind of horror was hardly surprising.
But Hinata's reaction was harder to read. Her face showed no fear, no revulsion, no unease—only an emotionless detachment, tinged with the slightest hint of surprise.
"Strange. There are no villages or towns nearby, so why would someone like this be out here? And they seem to have been killed outright by some peculiar assailant—their clothing and bodies show almost no signs of struggle. Whoever killed them overpowered them with ease."
Noticing Kakashi's gaze, Hinata tucked both hands into the pockets of her jacket and offered her analysis in a level tone.
Indeed, the presence of these two Mist ninja was well within her expectations, and she recognized the telltale symbol on the ground immediately. But what puzzled her was why these two things had ended up here together.
It didn't add up. Unless... some unforeseen coincidence had occurred?
"All right, Hinata, you can mull over the rest later. For now, let's put some distance between us and this place."
Walking over to pat Hinata's head, Kakashi wasn't keen on lingering. If the situation didn't directly concern their party, it was best not to get involved.
"Oh, and Naruto—no need to be scared. The odds of us being killed aren't that high~ so you can stop shaking."
Tossing in a jab at Naruto's timidity, Kakashi clearly had no intention of coddling him on this front. If you called yourself a shinobi, you had to accept the bloody reality that came with it. Hinata and Sasuke had both arrived at that understanding on their own; Naruto, evidently, had not.
"Damn it~!! I've been training hard too!!"
Equally aware of how Sasuke and Hinata had handled the scene, Naruto clenched his fists in bitter frustration. For him, this kind of weakness and cowardice was intolerable.
But Hinata had no interest in the blond protagonist's current emotional state. Her mind was elsewhere entirely. Based on the Jashinism symbol, this was unmistakably the work of Akatsuki's Immortal Duo.
Hidan was a psychotic devotee who killed for pleasure. That he'd slaughtered two random Chūnin he stumbled across in the wilderness was entirely unsurprising—they must have been lying in wait to ambush Tazuna when the Immortal Duo happened upon them by chance. If it had been Kakuzu alone, he probably wouldn't have bothered; these nobodies' bounties weren't worth his time.
But for Hidan, killing them had been as casual as snacking. And against an S-rank missing-nin with an immortal body, these two Mist ninja—nominally Chūnin but in reality so weak they couldn't even beat canon pre-power-up Sasuke—wouldn't have had time to run.
That explained why the two had ended up dead here. But that wasn't the point.
To spell it out more clearly, consider a comparison.
First, identities. Kakashi's group were active-duty Konoha shinobi; Hidan and Kakuzu were missing-nin. In principle, active-duty shinobi had a standing duty to apprehend rogue ninja, and rogue ninja had no qualms about killing a few more active-duty shinobi. The two sides were essentially cops and fugitives—virtually zero room for negotiation.
Second, strength. Even though Team 7 had been enhanced at least threefold beyond canon, they were still nowhere close to the Immortal Duo, even with Kakashi, an elite Jōnin, backing them up. Hidan alone was trouble enough—between his immortal body, the Curse Technique: Death Controlling Possessed Blood, and the taijutsu skills that let him go toe-to-toe with Sharingan Kakashi in the original story, even he by himself would probably be more than the current Team 7 could handle.
And Kakuzu was on another level entirely. His fight against Hashirama was too mythically vague to parse, but the combat prowess he'd displayed in canon was unambiguously Kage-tier. Five elemental ninjutsu working in concert, mask creatures that could hunt down and attack targets independently, and five lives' worth of durability—his effective combat power in a straight fight was easily five times Hidan's or more. Against Hidan's limited offensive repertoire, Team 7 might at least have a chance of escaping. Against Kakuzu? Forget fighting—even running would be impossible.
Third, motivation. Hidan was a homicidal lunatic. Encountering living humans in the middle of nowhere meant his default response was kill first, don't bother asking questions, and he didn't even have the perverse impulse to do anything else to them first before killing them. As for Kakuzu, while he didn't kill indiscriminately, Kakashi's head was probably worth at least ten or twenty million ryō on the underground bounty market. If Kakuzu spotted them out here, far from any reinforcements, the Akatsuki's finance chief would be more than happy to collect that bonus.
Conclusion: encountering Hidan and Kakuzu here meant certain death.
Absolutely, positively certain death. Unless Naruto could tap into the Nine-Tails, but given his feeble control over its chakra at this point, going Nine-Tails would probably just result in him swiping a claw at his own teammates first.
So...
Confirming all of this, Hinata pressed a palm to her forehead in silent exasperation. At this point, she'd almost rather have run into that guy with the oversized sword—Zabuza.
WHOOSH!!
Right then, a piercing whistle of displaced air sliced through the silence. Kakashi's eyes snapped wide and he roared: "GET DOWN!!"
Everyone hit the dirt on instinct, arms over their heads. A thunderous impact of blade biting into wood followed, and an enormous cleaver embedded itself deep in the trunk of the tree directly ahead of them.
"Oh~~ I see. So you lot were the ones who killed my two subordinates~ And here I was wondering what happened to them."
A hulking figure materialized atop the planted blade, his arrogant voice cutting through the suddenly thickening mist. Killing intent as dense as the fog itself began to spread from the moment this figure appeared. As he slowly turned his head, the eyes beneath his forehead protector glinted with the ferocity of a vengeful spirit. Without question, this was someone who had killed more people than he could count.
But...
Mm~ there we go~
Rising to her feet, Hinata casually brushed off her clothes.
Looked like there was nothing to worry about after all. In every sense of the word.