On the day Fujin was supposed to meet with his team, an Anbu ninja showed up at Fujin's house and passed him a message.
Fujin frowned as he thought, 'A mission on the very same day we decided to meet? That old fox must be spying with that perverted ball again.'
Fujin and his team met in their assigned room at the decided time. Fujin looked at his subordinates and asked, "Are any of you still injured?"
Everyone shook their heads. Fujin said, "Good. Lord Hokage will assign our first mission today. Follow me."
Fujin walked towards the Hokage's building. Yugao, Fumito and Bunjiro followed him while lost in their own thoughts.
Bunjiro was excited. He thought, 'Wow! I never expected that Lord Hokage would assign my first Anbu mission himself. I lucked out by joining Fujin's team. Though I hate Daisuke, I am so glad that he led us to meet Fujin!'
Fumito thought, 'A mission after such a long time. And this is assigned by Lord Hokage as well. I have to perform properly and show Lord Hokage how capable I am. Only then I will have any chance of becoming an Anbu Captain.'
Yugao's eyes were glued to Fujin's back. She was interested in finding out more about Fujin and his skill with the sword. The group soon entered Hiruzen's office.
Hiruzen looked at Fujin's Turtle mask and asked, "Why aren't you wearing the hawk mask?"
Though Hiruzen had seen that Fujin used the turtle mask during sparring, he thought that Fujin would go back to the Hawk mask during normal Anbu missions.
Fujin replied, "That mask gets identified quite quickly. So it kinda loses its purpose."
Hiruzen nodded but he was surprised. Though it was a very logical move, most ninjas wouldn't do it unless the mission demanded a high degree of anonymity. After all, who wouldn't want to build their fame and be well-known and respected throughout the ninja world?
Hiruzen explained the mission details to Fujin's team. Fujin analyzed the details and thought, 'Looks like this will be another long and boring mission. Sigh, I wanted to continue training.'
After understanding the details and importance of the mission, Team Fujin left the office. Fujin said, "This will be a 2-3 weeks long mission. Pack up the supplies and meet me at the village gate in 30 minutes."
Everyone nodded and dispersed. Twenty minutes later, Team Fujin left the village and moved towards the Land of Grass. A day later, they entered a town under disguise. The street was bustling with a high number of people who were going about their lives in a happy mood.
Fumito looked around the town and said, "Looks like the Kagawa family is doing a great job. This town is very peaceful and prosperous and the citizens look happy and content."
Yugao nodded and said, "Yeah. Their family has a few Jounins. So the city should be safe in times of peace."
The group walked to a location from where they could watch the central Mansion very clearly. Fujin's eyes glowed as he saw a bunch of people in the courtyard. They were all flocking around a man in his fifties. He muttered, "So he is Kagawa Noriyuki, the leader of the Kagawa family."
Fujin instructed, "Lord Hokage should have sent him a message mentioning that we will be protecting him from the shadows. So we won't be coming in any direct contact with him unless trouble really happens.
According to our information, he will leave the town after 3 days. Though unlikely, Iwa could send an assassin to kill him while in the city. So we will take turns to keep an eye on him. I and Bunjiro will keep an eye during the day. You two will keep an eye during the night."
Yugao replied, "Alright. We will investigate the city a bit before getting some rest."
Fujin nodded. Fumito and Yugao left. Their experience in the Anbu was longer than Fujin's. So he didn't need to give them many instructions.
Fujin and Bunjiro hid themselves while keeping an eye on the mansion. Bunjiro was a bit nervous. Even though Fujin had guided him earlier, he had provided guidance to the entire group at the same time. He had never interacted with Fujin one on one.
After some silence, Bunjiro couldn't hold it anymore and decided to talk. He asked, "Aren't we in peacetime? Why is Iwa trying to create trouble right now? Wouldn't that cause a war?"
Fujin looked at Bunjiro and wondered, 'What would he think if he knew what I did in the Land of Wind?'
Fujin shook his head and said, "The peace you see is only on the surface. In reality, this peacetime is a continuous war between the Anbu of various countries. Every action we take is to increase our advantage in the next war. The village that does this the best while building its military power will likely be the one to win the next war."
Bunjiro was shocked by that answer. His understanding of the world shattered. He muttered, "Doesn't that mean that the next Great war is a certainty and the peace is only temporary?"
Fujin nodded, "Pretty much."
Bunjiro's mood became a bit depressed. He asked, "Does that mean we will be fighting Iwa ninjas for sure this time?"
Fujin replied, "Not really. Fighting between Anbu can become very complicated. This might just be a false alarm. Or perhaps Iwa faked information so that we would waste our time protecting him while they attack someone else. Only around 30% of the missions actually involve any combat. Life and Death battle is even more rare. But, it is better to just assume that we will be in a Life and Death battle in every mission."
Bunjiro nodded and the two became silent once again. After a while, Fujin asked, "How are the other 4 doing?"
Bunjiro wasn't surprised by the question. He replied, "Tatsuya was in the same Genin team as me. Though he failed last time, he is participating in the current chunin exams and has qualified for the last round. He should be able to become a Chunin.
Daisuke, Ryoma and Buncho were put in the same Genin squad under a Chunin sensei. But, we had an argument after the graduation exam. So I don't know much about what happened to them later. I heard that they participated in this chunin exam but were eliminated in the 1st round."
Fujin was surprised. He asked, "You five used to be so close to each other. Why did you suddenly argue?"
Bunjiro let out a sigh and answered, "After you guided us for the last time, they just practiced the 3 basic ninjutsu and didn't train any further. But me and Tatsuya began learning the elemental jutsus and hence gained a better rank in the exam.
So after the exam, they blamed us and said that we trained in secret instead of training at the same speed as them. They stopped speaking to us after it."
Fujin shook his head in disappointment and replied, "I see. That's a bad attitude. But seeing how strong you have grown, I guess it was good for you."
Bunjiro nodded. After the argument, he had become very careful in choosing his friends. He only befriended the ones who worked as hard as him and pushed him to be better. He looked at Fujin and secretly sighed in relief.
He thought, 'Daisuke said that he was friends with Fujin from the time that they were very young. I was afraid that Fujin would get angry at me since I abandoned his friend. Luckily he is moral and just and doesn't blindly side with his friends.'
Bunjiro felt that his worries were just. After all, Daisuke was the one who brought their group to Fujin and he claimed that he had played with Fujin since they were 2 years old. However, Fujin had long forgotten that. After all, he wasn't sure whether he could even consider those memories as his. He had agreed to guide them just as an experiment.
Since they didn't have anything to do, Fujin began talking with Bunjiro about his abilities. Sensing the chance to gain additional guidance, Bunjiro told him everything about himself.
Fujin made a few comments on how he could improve further. After learning everything about him, Fujin thought, 'Looks like Renjiro isn't the only one who trains his students very seriously. He lucked out by getting a Jounin sensei who was dedicated to raising the next generation.'
Fujin said, "Your progress is very good. Your control over Water jutsus is good. But, you should focus on improving your speed. Work on your Body Flicker jutsu. Learn how to do it without making any hand seals and sustain it for longer distances. When you combine that speed with your sustained Water Shuriken offense, you will see far better results."
Bunjiro immediately nodded. He recalled how Fujin had disappeared in front of their eyes and his clone had appeared behind them. If he could replicate the same, then his attacks would become much more deadly.
Fujin asked, "Do you use a Training Seal?"
Bunjiro nodded and replied, "Yes, Sensei bought one for each of us a few days after we became his students. It exerts pressure and resistance up to 125 kg. I can currently handle up to 69% of the maximum pressure."
Fujin replied, "That's good. Focus on maxing it out. When you do, I'll make a new one that can exert pressure up to 500 kg."
Bunjiro said, "I will do it. Thanks, Captain!"
