Chapter 69 : Schemes in the Darkness

Team Renjiro and the Merchants from the Land of Tea were traveling for the 13th day. Toshio said, "We should enter the Land of Tea by evening. We will need another 2 days to reach the port though."

Renjiro nodded and said, "Keep an eye out." The genins obeyed.

The group journeyed until noon when they came across an open field. They decided to take a break for lunch there. The field was about as big as a Football field. And it was surrounded by dense forests on one side, and a hill on the other. Fujin and Hoka checked whether the area was safe, and didn't find anyone.

While having lunch, Renjiro noticed something but didn't say anything. His students or the merchants didn't notice any change in his expressions. However, he was observing his students closely.

Fujin, while eating lunch, activated his chakra field out of habit.

When he did, he was shocked! Around 200 people had entered the forest and were around 600-900 meters away from them! They were moving rapidly towards them.

Unlike Renjiro, Fujin's change in expression was easily noticed by Hoka and Mieko. They became alert and looked at him.

Fujin said, "Around 200 bandits have surrounded us and are closing in. 150 in the forest and 50 on the hill."

Mieko scowled, "More bandits?"

Fujin looked at Renjiro and said, "Not just bandits. Around 50 have high chakra. With maybe a dozen Chunin level and 2 Jounin level chakras!"

That shocked Hoka and Mieko. They both looked at Renjiro. Renjiro was impressed with Fujin's alertness. He smiled and said, "Well, here's your B rank mission. Or was supposed to be. This looks more like rank A."

He then got serious and commanded, "Prepare to deal with the bandits and Genin-level attackers. I'll deal with the stronger ones. Don't worry about the goods. Give main priority to your and your teammates' lives. And then to the lives of the merchants."

The team nodded and got up. Seeing them get up, the merchants understood that there was an issue and got alert too. Toshio in particular became very worried. They all immediately got up and hid behind their carriages.

Two days earlier -

2 people stood and observed the open field in the middle of nowhere. Both of them were Jounins. One of them was Wagarashi Tomio, who was from the rival family of the Wasabi Family. The other was Tamanaha Norio, who was a rogue ninja from the Land of Rivers. He had a bounty of 5 million Ryo.

Wagarashi Tomio said, "From the information that our spies sent, 5 escort teams were moving from Konoha toward Degarashi port. One of them will be passing through here. When they do, they are bound to rest here."

Tamanaha Norio asked, "Who is escorting them?"

Wagarashi Tomio replied, "The weakest team. A Genin squad."

Tamanaha Norio was surprised, and then began laughing arrogantly, "Just Genins? They'll be dead in no time."

Wagarashi Tomio was annoyed by his arrogance. He warned him, "Don't underestimate them too much. They are led by Senju Renjiro, an Elite Jounin. The Senju clan has a strong relationship with the Wasabi family. So it's a possibility that they are trying to sneak him in with this team. Also, their genin team has a Byakugan user. So we will have to be very careful."

Tamanaha Norio frowned upon hearing that. He thought for a bit and said, "Elite Jounin will be tough to kill. The only way will be if he desperately defends the Genins. As for Byakugan, I have a way. One of my men has a rat summon. He can use them to keep an eye out from a long distance. Once they have their guard down and rest, we can make a move."

Wagarashi Tomio nodded. This plan was appropriate. They might not be able to kill Renjiro, but killing the merchants shouldn't be an issue.

As his genins were about to engage in battle, Renjiro recalled his meeting with the Hokage before accepting this mission.

Hokage's office - 2 Weeks earlier :

Renjiro entered the Hokage's office and saw the Hokage and another old man.

Hiruzen said, "Renjiro, meet Wasabi Daichi."

Renjiro looked at the old man and asked, "Wasabi? From the Land of Tea?"

The guy nodded and replied, "Yes, from the Land of Tea."

Hiruzen continued, "There's a power struggle in the dark in the Land of Tea. There appears to be a scheme in the works against the Wasabi family, and maybe the Daimyo as well."

Renjiro analyzed the information and asked, "The Wasabi family has had a good relationship with Konoha as well as with the Senju clan for decades. So do you want to help them?"

Hiruzen nodded, "Yes. Unfortunately, we can't as it is just a scheme. If we interfere, we will damage our relationship with the Tea Daimyo."

Renjiro nodded, as he had already reached this conclusion.

Hiruzen continued, "Daichi here has an important position in the Wasabi family as he handles their finances and many important deals. So their opponents want to eliminate him. I want you to escort him along with your team."

This surprised Renjiro. He asked, "This seems to be a rather important mission. Why send genins?"

Hiruzen replied, "Their rival faction has a few hundred ninjas under them. Even if I send an Anbu team, they won't be able to protect him. The only way to protect him will be to send a larger team to protect him, but..."

Renjiro completed his sentence, "But you can't do that as the Tea Daimyo won't like it."

Hiruzen nodded and added, "And if I were to send a huge force with him, the opponent won't attack, and stay hidden. So it won't accomplish much.

So we will follow this tactic. First, we will split up the enemy forces. There are 5 routes from here to the Land of Tea. You'll take Wasabi Daichi with you while going on a rank C mission to escort Merchants. You'll leave through the 5th route, as it's farthest from the sea and will prevent any interference from Kiri.

Soon after, I'll send 3 chunin squads on such escort teams along 3 other routes. Finally, a squad of Anbu will escort a decoy along the central path. They will send the majority of their forces against these decoys as they have the stronger teams assigned to them.

This way, we will split their forces into 5 and have a legitimate reason to kill the ones attacking them. The other 4 teams will be allowed to retreat after killing as many of them as they can or engage in a hit-and-run tactic if they can. You, on the other hand, will need to move to Degarashi port at a fast speed, so that their remaining forces don't regroup and target you guys."

Renjiro and the Hokage then discussed the strategy more and fine-tuned it and took action to implement it.

Back to Present -

The bandits at the front were just around 100 meters from the edge of the open field.

Hoka excitedly said, "Finally a good fight!"

Mieko was also excited.

Fujin, who was thinking, suddenly said, "Don't activate your Sharingan or Byakugan. I think they are trying to disguise themselves as normal bandits, so let's pretend that we didn't notice them. I have a technique I want to try."

Saying that he walked in toward the forest. Hoka and Mieko wanted to argue against him, but bandits had started to rush out of the forest. A few also began descending from the hill and shooting arrows.

Hoka and Mieko noticed it. Hoka quickly made a hand sign, 'Rock Shield jutsu'.

A Rock shield appeared behind the merchants. All the arrows shot at them were blocked by it.

At the same time, around 50 bandits, 15 of them being ninjas, came running from the forest toward them. Since the ninjas were disguising themselves so that they could take the enemy by surprise, they too were moving at the same speed as bandits. More bandits were exiting the forest every second.

Fujin unsheathed one of his swords and held it in his right hand. Chakra immediately began flowing through it and transformed into wind chakra instantly.

He then held the hilt of his sword with both hands, pulled his sword back, and then swung it with full force forming an arc towards the incoming bandits.

As he swung the sword, a sword slash appeared, and began moving at a rapid speed. When close to Fujin, the slash was extremely small, but as it moved it expanded exponentially! Alongside the slash, strong winds appeared which caused some dust to rise.

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