Upon entering the mission center, a familiar face appeared in front of Fujin. A face he hadn't seen for quite a few years. Shichiro looked at Fujin in surprise. He said, "I haven't seen you here in a long time. It's good to see you again. Do you need any help?"
He thought, 'The last time I saw him, he was only a Chunin. Now, three years later, he has become an Elite Jounin and is also a council member. What rapid progress!'
Fujin smiled and said, "It's good to see you again, Shichiro. I'm just bored from staying in the village and want to kill some time. Do you have any bandit elimination missions inside the Land of Fire?"
Fujin's question caught Shichiro by surprise. He chuckled, "This brings back the memories of the Bandit Exterminators. I recall how unwilling you three used to be to accept these missions. I never thought you'd willingly ask for them.'
Fujin chuckled as well and replied, "I'm just bored. Thought I'd help out a bit in this regard. Just give me the missions that are located in one area. Also, give any missions that involve killing rogue ninjas in the same area. The rank of the mission doesn't matter as long as I don't have to interact with anyone."
Shichiro nodded. He was aware that Elite Jounins would frequently go on rank S missions by themselves. He quickly took out every elimination mission that existed in the southern part of the Land of Fire.
Fujin accepted the missions and went through the files one by one. He analyzed, 'Hmm, these bandit camps target the trading route between Konoha and the Lands of Noodles and Tea. Didn't Hiruzen create two camps along their borders?'
As Fujin read more mission files, he realized, 'I see. Due to the establishment of those two camps, the trade between the three countries has blossomed. The Land of Tea and the Land of Noodles even took advantage of the situation and increased their trade relations taking advantage of the safe conditions created by Konoha. The Land of Fire benefits as well due to the transit tax these two countries pay.
However, since the trade has increased so much, it has attracted more bandits and rogue ninjas, especially from the Land of Water. No wonder the two camps aren't able to clear out all of the bandits and rogue ninjas. Oh well, these missions should be plenty. Though I still haven't mastered the Flying Thunder God jutsu, it is never too early to start preparations.'
A mischievous smile appeared on Fujin's face. Shichiro noticed it but didn't understand. Due to Fujin's high position, he didn't ask. However, had Hiruzen seen Fujin's smile and known the fact that Fujin had experienced some success in the Flying Thunder God jutsu, he would have understood it immediately.
Fujin was someone who had covered his house with tens of thousands of seals. It took no genius to figure out what he would be doing with the Flying Thunder God jutsu.
Fujin accepted all of the missions. There were a couple of rank S missions that involved a few rogue Jounins. However, most of the missions were ranked C and B.
Shichiro had properly arranged the missions in order so that Fujin could target them one by one on his way with the least amount of travel. Fujin stored the missions in a scroll and left the Hokage Building. He leisurely walked towards the gates in Konoha and left the village.
On leaving, he muttered to himself, 'Alright, I have taken my sweet time in going to the mission center and leaving the village. Now let me see how many snakes will crawl out.'
Fujin didn't have a lot of expectations from the missions to provide him with a challenge. Encountering Elite Jounins during a rank S mission was rare. As for rank S ninjas, encountering them was even more unlikely. If not for an organization like Akatsuki, Fujin wouldn't have seen many rank S ninjas either. So Fujin decided to expose his movements and bait anyone scheming against him. Be it Danzo or any enemy country who'd want to target him.
On leaving the village, Fujin began moving south at a normal speed. It wasn't slow for anyone to get suspicious, nor was it fast enough to make others unable to keep up. While he jumped from branch to branch, Fujin would occasionally touch the trees he stepped on with his palm. A marking would appear wherever his palm touched and it would disappear in a moment, leaving no trace behind.
After moving some distance from the village, Fujin activated his chakra field. Fujin's chakra field spread for 2.5 kilometers around him. A look of surprise appeared on Fujin's face as he thought, 'Hmm, no one is following me? Or are they just keeping some distance?'
Fujin kept moving while occasionally leaving the Flying Thunder God markings on the trees. After travelling a few kilometers, he suddenly increased his chakra field to 3.5 kilometers.
To his surprise, he still didn't sense anyone. He analyzed, 'It's nearly 25 kilometers away from the village. Still no one? Is no one following me or are they taking precautions by staying out of my detection range? Or are they very good at hiding their chakra?'
A smile formed on Fujin's face. He muttered to himself, 'Though I couldn't complete the step of sending a jutsu through the Dimensional Void, my training for the Flying Thunder God yielded a different kind of result.'
He stopped activating his chakra field and closed his eyes. In an instant, a picture formed in his mind. Everything in a radius of 4.5 kilometers, be it on the ground, in the air or under the ground, appeared in Fujin's mind. In this picture, Fujin saw two disturbances behind him which implied that there were two chakra signatures trailing him.
Since his progress in teleporting through the Dimensional Void had slowed down, Fujin worked on increasing the range up to which he could sense the coordinates of his markings. In the last month, it had increased to beyond 15 kilometers. While he was training it, Fujin detected a new ability.
While detecting the space coordinates of his markings, Fujin suddenly sensed some disturbances in the Space that he was detecting with the help of the Space-Time Sensing Technique. On investigating, Fujin discovered that the disturbances represented chakra signatures. It was unreliable at the start but with training, Fujin became capable of using it to sense other chakra signatures within his range.
It was different from normal sensing that required Chakra Fields. Since this method didn't require a chakra field, others couldn't detect that someone was sensing them. The only thing Fujin wasn't sure about was if others who have talent in space-time Ninjutsu would sense it, but on experimenting with his Shadow Clones, he understood that they didn't sense anything.
Another advantage that Fujin's new detection method had was range. Fujin could detect his markings within a radius of 15 km. Though he couldn't use this sensing ability for the entire 15 km, he could use it for 4.5 km, which was greater than what he could normally sense. Not to mention, it was still improving rapidly unlike his chakra field which was very difficult to improve further.
In addition to sensing, it also gave Fujin another ability. He could feel that he was very sensitive to disturbances in space-time. So if someone else used Space-Tine Ninjutsus, they would have a hard time sneaking up on Fujin. While Fujin wasn't sure how effective it would be, it was still a happy surprise.
As Fujin activated his new sensing ability and the picture formed in his mind showed two disturbances in the space-time field, a smile formed on Fujin's face. He realized that his guess was accurate. He was being trailed!
Around 4 kilometers behind Fujin, two masked Root ninjas were trailing Fujin. Both were very careful as they trailed him and had concentrated chakra in their eyes to observe any changes. One of them said to the other, "Lord Danzo's analysis was perfect. His initial chakra field stopped at 1.5 kilometers from us but it suddenly expanded so much! Had we been closer, he would have discovered us."
The other ninja replied, "Yes. As Lord Danzo said, this guy is full of mysteries and his actions are very unpredictable. We have to trail him properly and collect as much information as we can. If there is some issue with him, Konoha will be in a lot of trouble considering his high post. Pay more attention. He has deactivated his chakra field. Trailing him will become more difficult."
The Root ninja nodded. Though they were trailing Fujin, neither was aware of the fact that they were already discovered by the person they were trailing. And thanks to the large distance between them, neither could sense what Fujin was up to.
Neither of them sensed any danger as they were moving. All their attention was in the front. Since Fujin had deactivated his chakra field, their eyes couldn't see it. Hence, they didn't know how far ahead Fujin was or where he was heading. They had to trail Fujin merely from the signs he left while moving, which wasn't easy by any means. In addition, they had to ensure that they didn't get too close to Fujin and get detected if Fujin suddenly activated his Chakra Field.
As such, neither of them could sense the Vacuum Blades that beheaded them from the back! They died without knowing how they were detected and who their killer was!
