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Kaito Chapter 104
🕑 Added 2024-07-08 12:24:34 +0000 UTCAuthor note: I apologize for the delayed upload. The website I use for grammar editing was down until a few hours ago. My sincerest apologies.
Kaito Chapter 104
Ignoring the commotion around him, Kaito led Kushina out of the delivery room. Once outside, Kushina turned to her son with concern etched on her features. "Are you okay, Kai-kun?"
A faint smile graced Kaito's tired face as he replied, "Hai, I’m fine Mom. Just exhausted and hungry, that's all."
Kushina smiled back at her son with pride and affection. "Well, let's get you something to eat and then we'll make sure you get some rest, my little hero." She glanced out the window and noticed that night had fallen while they were preoccupied with helping Hitomi deliver her baby.
Kushina exclaimed. "It's already nighttime. We should hurry back home."
….
The early morning sun shone brightly over the Hidden Leaf Village, casting a warm glow on everything it touched. Kaito lay sprawled on the ground of his usual training ground, panting heavily as he caught his breath. The field around him had multiple three-pronged kunai strewn about.
"Damn, this is harder than I thought," Kaito panted out.
Sighing, he stood back up and said, "Alright, let’s try this once again." He stood with a wide stance. Taking a deep breath, he gathered a large amount of chakra before making a few hand signs, ending with the ram hand sign. Kaito disappeared from where he was standing and reappeared, crashing face-first into the ground near one of the three-pronged kunai.
"That hurt," Kaito groaned as he flipped over to lay on his back. wiping the dirt off his face.
Kaito sighed and said out loud, "How was Dad able to react after reappearing? It is disorienting."
Murmuring to himself, Kaito added, "Dad’s notes say it's all about maintaining awareness."
Looking at the sky, Kaito closed his eyes to rest for a bit and recover the large amount of chakra he had used training the Hiraishin.
The morning had started as usual. He had come to the training ground with Naruto and made a clone to supervise Naruto's training while the real Kaito focused on his own. His clone worked on mastering Earth Release.
After that, he sent Naruto back home with his clone and started to work on the Hiraishin.
He threw the tri-pronged kunai around with some distance between them. The kunai had Kaito’s marker on the handle, the kanji 迅速打撃 (Jinsoku Dageki), meaning Swift Strike. kaito found a few sets of his father's tri-pronged kunai without the marker and decided to use it for himself.
While he was able to perform the Hiraishin no Jutsu, he had a hard time adjusting to the perception change. The jutsu also required a large amount of chakra to perform.
Just a few uses of the jutsu left him panting, and it also required him to concentrate intensely.
The Flying Thunder God Jutsu wasn’t teleporting per se, it was transporting through a wormhole between the user and the mark, allowing the user to move through space to reach the marker.
A sharp cry of a hawk pierced the air, drawing Kaito's attention. He opened his eyes and looked up at the sky, spotting a hawk circling above him. Recognizing the signal, he sighed, understanding it meant an urgent summons by the Hokage.
Sighing again, Kaito sat up and gripped the tri-pronged kunai beside him, dislodging it from the ground as he stood. He pocketed the kunai and proceeded to collect all the others scattered around the training ground. Once he had gathered them, his body flickered out of the training ground, heading towards the Hokage Tower.
Kaito moved swiftly, jumping from one rooftop to another, racing towards his destination. As he landed near the Hokage Tower, he spotted Itachi and Hotaru waiting for him.
"Yo, guys, how are you doing?" Kaito greeted them with a casual wave.
Itachi nodded in acknowledgment, while Hotaru cheerfully smiled and replied, "Hey, Kai-kun."
Stopping in front of them, Kaito asked, "So, do you guys know why we've been summoned?"
Itachi shook his head. "Probably a mission. It's been a week since we were last assigned one."
Hotaru stepped closer to Kaito, noticing some dirt on his cheek. "You got some dirt on you, Kai-kun. Here, let me," she said, reaching out with her right hand to gently wipe it away.
Kaito smiled sheepishly. "Ah, thank you, Hotaru-chan."
Itachi, reminded them, "Come on, we shouldn't keep the Hokage waiting." Nodding in agreement, Kaito and Hotaru followed him to the Hokage's office.
As they walked, Kaito turned to Hotaru. "So, Hotaru-chan, how is your mother doing? Hope she is well, ya know."
Hotaru smiled warmly. "Hai, Mother is doing great. The doctors actually discharged her the very next day."
Kaito smiles. "Well, tell her that I said hi."
Hotaru nodded, her eyes shining. "I will, Kai-kun. She’ll be happy to hear from you."
They reached the Hokage’s office and were promptly ushered in.
Upon entering, Team 11 bowed and greeted the Hokage with a polite, “Hokage-sama,” and Kaito with a, “Lord Third.”
Looking up from his paperwork, Hiruzen said, “Ah, Team 11, good, you arrived swiftly.” He took his smoking pipe, inhaled deeply, and exhaled a plume of smoke.
He then tossed them a scroll and said, “I am assigning you three to this mission. This morning, we received an urgent mission request from a member of the Land of Fire. Daimyo’s court.” Taking another drag from his pipe, he continued, “A caravan moving from the Land of Fire towards Taki was hijacked by a group of bandits. The caravan was transporting a precious family heirloom that has been in the client’s family for generations.”
Expelling more smoke, he added, “While this might regularly be a normal B-ranked mission, due to the client’s connection to our Daimyo, they have asked for the item to be retrieved as quickly as possible, thus making this mission a high-priority A-ranked mission.”
The members of Team 11 nodded. Hotaru asked, “Where was the caravan hijacked, Hokage-sama?” She peered over Kaito's shoulder to look at the scroll, as did Itachi.
Hiruzen replied, “It was hijacked within our borders. The exact coordinates are in the scroll.”
Itachi looked up from the scroll and asked, “How long has it been since it was stolen, and how long do we have to retrieve the heirloom?”
Hiruzen puffed out another smoke cloud and said, “It was stolen late morning yesterday, and the client has given us the next four days to locate and retrieve the heirloom.”
Nodding, they accepted the mission with a unified, “Hai.”
As they left the Hokage’s office, Kaito said, “We’ll meet up at the main gate in 30 minutes.” Both Hotaru and Itachi nodded, and all of them body-flickered away to prepare for the mission.
....
Thirty minutes later, they met at the main gate, checked out with the village guards, and set off. Kaito took point as Hotaru and Itachi followed his lead.
After a few hours of tree hopping, they reached the place where the bandit group hijacked the caravan. They landed, and Itachi, observing the surroundings, said, “This must be the place.”
Kaito crouched down and ran his fingers through the soil. “The trail is faded," he remarked "Probably because of the rain."
Turning to Hotaru, Kaito asked, "Hotaru, can you use your Byakugan to see if there are any clues about which direction the caravan might have gone?"
"Already on it," Hotaru replied before making a hand sign and activating her Byakugan. With her enhanced vision, she scanned the surrounding 2 kilometers.
“It was reported that the bandits moved towards the Land of Grass,” Itachi stated, looking at the mission scroll.
Hotaru confirmed this by saying, "There are tracks leading in that direction."
Kaito nodded and turned to Hotaru. "Lead the way."
With a nod, Hotaru jumped onto a nearby branch and began heading in the direction of the tracks. Kaito and Itachi followed closely behind.
After an hour of tracking the trail, Hotaru spoke up. "The trail ends in about a kilometer, it appears to lead to a cliff."
"They must have looted the caravan before throwing it off the cliff," Kaito deduced.
Hotaru deactivated her Byakugan and confirmed, "Hai, the caravan is at the bottom of the cliff."
"Let's go see if they left any clues behind," Itachi suggested.
....
Kaito deduced, "We are definitely dealing with skilled shinobi here."
Itachi nodded in agreement, adding, "They have covered their tracks well, it’s unlikely for a group of bandits to hide their trail this well."
Kaito noted, "We're near Konoha's border with the Land of Grass. It's possible they may have come from there."
Glancing up at the sky, Itachi saw that it was approaching late noon. He suggested, “We should split up to cover more ground “.
"I can send some crows to search for leads," Itachi decided. "And Kaito, send out a few clones to scout as well."
He instructed Hotaru to head south while Kaito would go west. “We’ll meet back here at midnight.”
With a nod, Kaito reached into his ninja pouch and handed out two ear clips one for each, and explained, “These will allow us to stay in contact. Just send some chakra to them to speak, and the others can hear.”
Hotaru examined the ear clip and asked, "Do they work like radios?"
Kaito confirmed with a nod, “Hai, like that, but without range limitations.”
Kaito then reminded them, “Only find the location and do not engage the enemy. Scout if you can. don’t engage them without knowing who we’re facing.”
Both Hotaru and Itachi nodded before wishing each other luck and body flickering away.
Kaito watched them leave before creating several shadow clones to send out in different directions. He also created another clone and tasked it with following Hotaru while remaining hidden from her Byakugan sight and keeping her safe. With the tasks done, Kaito body flickered to the west, heading into Kusa.
....
After an hour of travel, Kaito came upon a town.
Kaito thought to himself, “I should look around here and see if I can find any leads.”
Using the transformation jutsu, he transformed into a middle-aged traveler. With his disguise in place, he entered the town, keeping his ears open for any useful information as he walked past many people.
Finding a tea house, Kaito decided to drink some tea and walked in, sitting behind a Kusa-nin. He ordered some green tea and waited for it to arrive. Another Kusa-nin soon entered the tea house and greeted the one seated behind Kaito.
Kaito thanked the waitress as she served him his order, while he overheard the conversation of the two Kusa-nin.
One of the Kusa-nin asked, “Hey, Sanji told me that you were injured pretty badly in your last mission just a few days ago.”
The other Kusa-nin replied, “Hai, I broke my arm and had pretty bad internal bleeding.”
Kusa-nin 2 asked, “Huh, then how are you well enough to be here now?”
Kusa-nin 1 said, “Oh, that. My injury was deemed serious enough to use that red-haired bitch’s body for healing. Say what you will about her, but her healing ability is top-notch.”
Hearing the Kusa-nin mention a red-haired woman with exceptional healing abilities, Kaito’s mind immediately connected the dots. “Shit, Karin,” he thought, recalling the only other member of the Uzumaki clan still alive.
Comments
Ouraga_n
The kage of the village of Kusa must not be very high he must be at the level of kakashi so the rescue should not be difficult, it is more the political incident which will result from it which will be problematic. An other possibility is an intrusion, placed a hiraisin jump and making an exfiltration via hiraisin later.
Ouraga_n
given Karin's current age, think more about her mother, as Karin must be around 6 years old.
Wyatt Coney
Karin gonna be his adopted sister isn’t she it makes sense
