Fujin continued his training and visited Teru's house in the evening. Fujin expected that Teru's parents would be Jounins as well. Surprisingly, his father was an Elite Chunin while his mother was a normal civilian.
Fujin thought, 'Well that's a bummer. I thought I could make some connections with another Veteran Jounin. That said, it makes sense that not everyone's parent is a Jounin. I guess my expectations were just high due to knowing Mieko's and Hoka's parents.'
Since he didn't have any benefits to gain, Fujin let go of any schemes and just chatted casually with Teru's parents and enjoyed a delicious dinner.
Two days later, the group gathered outside the Mission Center. As usual, Fujin was the last one to arrive earning him stares from all his new teammates.
Mieko said, "You know, a team leader has to be the first to show up!"
Fujin raised his eyebrow and asked, "Says who?"
He thought, 'I remember someone who was 3 hours late on average.'
To stop Mieko from exploding, Hoka said, "Fujin."
Fujin shrugged and said, "It's still 5 minutes to noon. We can agree on an earlier time if you wanna show up early."
Teru sighed at Fujin's stubbornness and said, "Leave it. Let's go get a mission and register our squad."
Everyone entered the Mission Center. They saw Shichiro and approached him. Shichiro noticed them as well and smiled, "Why are you guys here?"
Fujin said, "I want to register a new squad and accept a mission as well."
Shichiro observed the 4 youngsters. He asked, "Are you four forming a squad?"
They nodded. Shichiro was surprised. He thought, 'This is the first time I am seeing such a young team.'
Fujin asked, "Is there an issue?"
Shichiro said, "Not really, but are you guys sure?"
Mieko said, "We wouldn't be here otherwise."
Shichiro said, "Alright. Let me get the paperwork."
Shichiro got busy. The group waited and watched him doing all the work. Mieko suddenly had an idea. She looked at Teru and asked softly, "Teru, will we have to do more paperwork while changing the leader?"
Teru thought for a bit and nodded, "Yes, but we can avoid it by not doing it officially."
A grin formed on Mieko's face. She said, "Let's keep changing our leader officially for every mission. It's about time that we got some revenge for those insane number of bandit-hunting missions!"
Fujin and Hoka immediately nodded. Hoka said, "That sounds great!"
Fujin added, "I agree."
Teru looked at the three of them in surprise and asked, "How many bandit missions were you guys assigned?"
Fujin replied, "Too many."
Mieko followed up, "I did 75!"
Fujin was surprised. He looked at Mieko and asked, "75? Why so many?"
Mieko said, "He kept giving me bandit hunting missions till I joined an Uchiha squad. I was so mad at him back then!"
Hoka said, "Me too!"
Mieko looked at Fujin and asked, "How many bandit extermination missions did you do after we disbanded?"
Fujin replied, "Just one."
Mieko and Hoka looked at him with surprise. Hoka asked, "Why just one for you?"
Fujin replied, "I remember threatening him that I'll plant evidence stating that he is the boss of those bandits if he gave me another mission like that."
Mieko and Hoka were surprised. Mieko grumbled, "I threatened him with violence and Genjutsu, but they never worked! Also, my parents asked me to take those rank C missions."
Teru watched their conversation. He finally asked, "Why did you do so many bandit-hunting missions?"
Fujin said, "Our sensei took us to do a lot of them and we kinda gained a reputation. Leave it, it's embarrassing. Anyways, I like your idea Mieko. Let's do that."
Shichiro was finally done. He handed Fujin a paper and said, "These are the details of your team."
Fujin read the paper. It had some basic details about those 4 and Fujin was mentioned as the team leader.
While Fujin was reading the paper, Shichiro asked, "Which missions are you interested in taking? I have a bunch of bandit extermination missions lined u…"
He suddenly stopped talking and involuntarily stepped back. 3 pairs of eyes stared at him. One pair was as black as the abyss itself. Another pair of eyes were red and spinning. The last pair of eyes were as white as they could be!
He quickly said, "I'm just kidding, no need to look at me like this."
He picked up a file and handed it to Fujin and said, "You can select a rank B mission from this file."
Suddenly, his voice became serious as he warned, "Don't bite off more than you can chew."
Fujin nodded. He looked through the missions. Most of the rank B missions were escort missions for merchants or important officials. Fujin wasn't interested in taking missions that would be slow to complete. He began looking for target elimination missions.
After looking through all of them, he thought, 'As I thought. None of them is in the Land of Fire.'
He removed 3 mission papers from the file and handed them to Shichiro and said, "We will take these three missions."
Shichiro was surprised once again. He accepted the mission papers and asked, "3 at the same time?"
Fujin nodded, "Yeah, they are close to each other."
Shichiro read the papers, 'Hmm… All are missions to eliminate rogue forces in the Land of River. Given the data, it's unlikely that either of these would be tougher.'
He looked at the youngsters in front of him and said, "Alright. Good luck and ensure that you stay safe."
Fujin nodded and accepted the papers and left along with his team. Fujin shared the mission papers with his squad and said, "I have selected 3 missions in the Land of River. They are very close to each other and not very far away from the Land of Fire border. So if anything goes wrong, we can retreat to safer places quickly."
Everyone nodded. After they were done reading, Fujin said in a serious tone, "I am the leader of these missions. And my policy is always safety first. I am fine if our mission fails, but none of us must die or be crippled. So always emphasize more on our safety rather than the mission. Is this clear?"
Hoka, Mieko and Teru were surprised by the seriousness in Fujin's voice. Mieko teased, "Wow Fujin, you sound exactly like Sensei!"
Hoka agreed, "That's true."
Fujin sighed at their antics and asked again, "Is it clear?"
All three nodded and said, "Yup."
Since everyone agreed, Fujin asked, "Is everyone prepared to go?"
Everyone nodded. The squad immediately left Konoha.
The group travelled the whole day at top speed and took a break at a Patrol camp close to the border at night.
They got up early the next morning and continued their journey. At around 8 AM, they finally arrived close to their destination. They stopped around 2 kilometers away from their destination.
Fujin looked at the map and said, "They should be around 3 kilometers to the west from here. Keep an eye for traps"
Hoka activated his Byakugan and Mieko activated her Sharingan. The squad moved forward.
Finally, Hoka said, "I can see them. They have built a small camp ahead."
Fujin asked, "What sort of camp?"
Hoka replied, "Mostly bamboo huts next to a river. There are 35 people in the camp. Only 12 have chakra with 3 at Chunin level and 1 at Elite Chunin level."
Fujin said, "Alright, that should be manageable. Let's get close and stick to the plan."
The group immediately flickered through the forest and stopped at the outskirts of the camp. Fujin asked softly, "Are there any who aren't in the camp?"
Hoka checked the surroundings and answered, "I can see 4 people in a 1 kilometer radius. But they don't have chakra."
Fujin thought for a bit and replied, "Alright, let's ignore them. We will destroy this camp directly. Prepare your jutsus."
Everyone quickly made hand signs.
'Wind Release: Infinite Breakthrough jutsu'
'Fire Release: Majestic Destroyer Flame jutsu'
Instantly, a massive Fire approached the camp. Since they didn't detect anyone, everyone was caught off-guard. Only their leader acted quickly and weaved hand signs.
'Water Release: Water Wall jutsu'
The water from the river suddenly flowed out and formed a wall between the camp and the incoming fire. The Fire-Wind combo jutsu hit the Water Wall and went straight through it. Their leader shouted, "Everyone, escape underground!"
The few ninjas who knew Earth Release quickly escaped underground. The Fire engulfed the entire camp and burned everything down. Over 30 died by being burnt alive. Their screams were all that could be heard in the vicinity. However, the attack wasn't over.
Hoka saw the 4 rogue ninjas escaping underground and said, "Now!"
Both he and Teru slammed their hands on the ground.
'Earth Release: Stone Spear jutsu'
Immediately, spears formed around everyone who had escaped underground. The rogue ninjas had just relaxed slightly on escaping death. Not a single one was prepared to defend. A dozen spears pierced into the body of all four of them.
Hoka watched and said, "They are all dead."
Fujin spread his chakra field to recheck. He said, "Yeah, none of those 35 survived. And there is no one in a 1 kilometer radius who can use chakra."
Mieko sighed and said, "That doesn't feel like a rank B mission at all!"
Fujin replied, "It is a rank B mission. Just that they feel too easy. This was the reason for forming this team, remember?"
Teru said, "Yeah. Let's complete the remaining 2 missions today as well."
Everyone began moving towards their next target.
After completing a rank B mission in less than a minute, the newly formed squad completed another 2 rank B missions on the same day with terrifying efficiency!
