Tiger nodded and dispelled his Shadow Clone. Danzo got into action as well. He dispatched a couple of Root squads. Both squads consumed soldier pills and travelled straight to Iwagakure. Their goal was to inform Iwagakure of the fact that Fujin was sent to eliminate the Yanagi family.
Danzo saw the two squads leave and thought, 'Iwagakure suffered heavily at Fujin's hands last time. They should understand that his threat is far greater than the benefits of befriending the Yanagi family. So Onoki will use this opportunity to set up a trap to lure and kill Fujin.
But, according to my calculations, they will fail. Onoki and the Jinchurikis can't move. They can only send Kitsuchi and more Jounins. Though I'm not sure what training Fujin did, considering how intense and secretive it was, I believe he should have trained in a way to counter Kitsuchi and other Iwa ninjas.
So Fujin won't die. But the same can't be said about his teammates. However, losing 3 Anbu ninjas in exchange for dozens of Iwagakure Jounins is beneficial for the village. This clash, in addition to the previous one, will significantly weaken Iwa's morale and confidence.
More importantly, getting ambushed for the second time will make Fujin question Hiruzen and the Anbu organization's competence and intentions. I can use that to recruit him. Hiruzen has been giving Fujin diplomatic missions and taking him along for negotiations. Such a waste of his potential. Only under my guidance can he contribute the most for Konoha!'
Danzo's strategy was extremely treacherous. Even more impressive was that he came up with it in mere minutes. His scheme would cause heavy damage to Iwagakure and create a deep wedge between Fujin and Hiruzen. If everything went according to his plan, then he could get a very capable subordinate. Even if calculations were inaccurate and Fujin ended up dying, Danzo wouldn't suffer any losses or lose any sleep over it.
Fujin was unaware of the treacherous trap targeting him. Though he had taken sufficient precautions against Danzo, he never imagined that Danzo would use such an unconventional method to create trouble for him. He entered Eagle's office. Tiger, who was near the office, noticed him entering.
Eagle saw Fujin and said, "It's good to have you back."
Fujin nodded and said, "It's good to see you again as well. We will be hitting the ground running. Have any good missions?"
Eagle nodded and handed Fujin the mission to eliminate the Yanagi family. Fujin read the information and analyzed, 'Hmm, a typical elimination mission. They have 2 Jounins, but they are from Taki and not one of the 5 major villages. It won't be any challenge to eliminate them.
However, since Iwagakure is involved, a couple of their Anbu could also be hiding there. That could make things interesting. But…'
Fujin sighed internally and thought, 'It'll be a rather lousy mission for my last Anbu mission.'
Fujin placed the mission file back on the desk and said, "It's not good enough. Do you have any rank S mission?"
Eagle was confused. He said, "This is a rank S mis..."
Fujin interrupted him and said, "It's too easy. I want a tougher mission to test my team. Something that will have multiple Jounin level ninjas in the enemy ranks."
Eagle wondered, 'Is he upset that his team wasn't much help in the previous mission and wants to put them to the test?'
Suddenly, Eagle's eyes widened. He asked, "Do you intend to…"
Fujin nodded and said, "It's time. Yugao and Fumito are already very capable."
Eagle nodded and said, "Alright."
He went through his files and grabbed another file. He handed it to Fujin and said, "This is a mission from the Land of Hot Water. Their southern territory has seen a lot of attacks from Rogue ninjas from Kirigakure. The high number of attacks shows that there is some sort of cooperation among those rogue ninjas.
Lord Hokage believes that Kirigakure itself is involved in these attacks and these rogue ninjas are just a front. As we aren't sure of the situation, we were planning to send 3 Jounin squads left by 2 Elite Jounins to deal with this situation.
However, since you want a more difficult mission, your squad can take it. But, you will ascertain the situation first. If it is beyond what you can deal with, you can retreat. We will be sending the units we planned one week later. You will cooperate with them to get the job done."
Fujin went through the details in the file and said, "Alright. We will take this mission."
He tossed a seal to Eagle and said, "If we can't complete the mission, this seal will burn."
Eagle took the seal and said, "Alright. Good luck. Meet up with the Daimyo of Hot Water to get updates on the situation. They could have already found out the location of any enemy bases in their country."
Fujin nodded and stored the file in his bracer before leaving. He quickly met up with his team and they left the Anbu Headquarters. Tiger noticed their movements and thought, 'I was right.'
He quickly sent another Shadow Clone to Danzo to inform him about Fujin's team's departure. Unfortunately, despite making an excellent plan on the go, Danzo failed to consider that Fujin would refuse the assigned mission and take a mission that required several squads to complete and wasn't supposed to be an Anbu mission!
So the Root ninjas he deployed moved in the complete opposite direction of Fujin's squad. While Tiger could glance a few times at Fujin inside the Anbu Headquarters, he didn't dare to chase Fujin outside to keep an eye on his movements. So Danzo would stay unaware of the real mission that Fujin took for a few days, making it too late for him to do anything about it.
Fujin's team moved rapidly through the Land of Fire. En route, they had used Transformation jutsu to disguise themselves. No one would be able to link them to Fujin and his team. They rested at the border between the two countries at night and continued moving the next day. At noon, they reached Yugakure.
They quickly flickered in front of the Daimyo palace. The samurai guards were startled to see 4 masked ninjas suddenly appearing out of nowhere. Before they could ask anything, Fujin tossed a file and said, "We come from Konoha regarding the mission Lord Daimyo issued. Inform him of our arrival."
The Samurai caught the file and looked at it before replying, "Alright, stay here for a few minutes."
He immediately sent a servant inside to deliver the message. Opposite the Daimyo palace was a small shop. As soon as Fujin's squad arrived, his eyes immediately moved towards them. He observed them and within a second turned them away.
He thought, 'From Konoha, eh?'
If Fujin had known that the words he spoke were heard by a shopkeeper across the street, he would be surprised. After all, though he wasn't too soft, his voice wasn't loud enough to be heard on the other side of the street.
The shopkeeper analyzed, 'Two fatties, 1 skinny and 1 with a slightly decent build, all 4 men. Lord Raikage had said that the squad he is looking for has one girl who has long purple hair, a blond man and two with black hair. And none of them were fat. This isn't the squad he is looking for.'
He went about his business and didn't look at the Konoha ninjas again. Unknowingly, Fujin had dodged two menacing bullets in two days! Had he known about it, he'd be amused and be thankful that luck was finally with him. Unfortunately, he had no way of knowing the two devious schemes he avoided unknowingly.
After a few minutes, Fujin and his team were invited in. They were escorted to the conference room. On entering the room, Fujin noticed the Daimyo sitting on the farthest seat from the door. Several Nobles were also sitting in the room. In addition, there were a few Samurais in the room. There was a familiar face as well.
Fujin looked at a large man sitting next to the Daimyo and thought, 'Tokuhei… Since when did he start sitting next to the Daimyo? Is there a change in the internal politics of this country?'
Tokuhei was one of the few who advocated for more funding for the ninjas in the Land of Hot Water. On the other hand, the Daimyo and most of the Nobles wanted to completely stop funding for the ninja academy due to numerous reasons.
Though Fujin was intrigued, he didn't have any time to investigate it. The Daimyo said, "This mission will require more than just four ninjas. And it will be a joint mission with our ninjas. Why did Lord Hokage send just the four of you?"
Fujin replied, "Lord Hokage believes that Kirigakure might be the ones backing the rogue Kiri ninjas. So this mission could be far more complicated than what you imagined it to be."
[Alternate Title: Dodging Two Bullets]
