Path to Jounin Part 2

Mission Link

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Senshi had awoken early this morning as he always had, and conducted his normal morning maintenance training regime in order to keep himself in shape. This is where his day had decided to diverge from normalcy however. Three days prior he had taken the first of the three Jounin Exam trials. They were three A ranked missions that a Chuunin must complete in order to qualify to take the Jounin Exams. Senshi wasn’t sure what his overall grade on the assessment had been, just that he had passed. He had wondered what the three Genin that he had commanded during the mission were up to, but his training and general duties had taken precedence.
 
He had used the Telepathy seal that he had placed on all three in order to let them know that they would be meeting for lunch today so that Senshi could thank them for their hard work. As he stood outside of the local teppanyaki grill awaiting his team, he practiced roving his eyes over the people around him. It was important for any shinobi to be aware of their surroundings, and the power of observation could tell him a lot about what was going on in the village. He did not have to wait long for the three Genin to appear, as they walked up to him in a group. Senshi gave a polite nod to the three before speaking, “Good afternoon, if you three are ready?”
 
Before any of the three could speak Senshi tensed his hands moving towards the tanto’s he wore on his hips. Beside him, the Jounin who had proctored his first exam appeared in a swirl of snow looking at the Genin and then at Senshi with a slightly raised eyebrow. Senshi finally relaxed his stance as he recognized the man, the three Genin seeming to not have had time to react to the man’s appearance. Now, however they were eyeing him questioningly. “Ah Chuunin Kobayashi Senshi and Genin’s Kimyona Aiko, Yakkaina Josei, and Furigan Shujin. What a surprise to find all three of you together. I apologize for cutting any plans you may have concocted short, but you have all been summoned to the mission office, immediately.”
 
With his message delivered the Jounin made the ram sign, disappearing in a blur of speed as he activated the body flicker technique. Senshi watched him leave for a moment before turning his attention back to the three Genin, all of whom seemed vaguely surprised. “Well….” Senshi’s voice dropped off awkwardly at their plans being cut short so soon. “Follow me then, if we have a summons to the mission office it must be important.” The three Genin merely nodded their acceptance and followed the Chuunin as he jumped to a roof top and started bounding his way towards their destination. He could hear them whispering to themselves behind him, but chose not to make any comment on it.
 
If they wished to include him in their conversation, then they would. Until then Senshi would respect their right to have private conversations amongst each other. If they were going to be working together again, then Senshi didn’t want them to feel as though he was intruding into their personal lives. It would likely make at least Shujin rebel, thus lowering their ability to work as a team. It was important to Senshi that those he commanded work as a unified unit to get things done, since usually a mission involving more than one shinobi was significantly more difficult and bore the threat of death. His mind continued along this line of thought until they landed, as a group, in front of the mission’s office.
 
Taking a single deep breath, he pulled the door open and held it for his three Genin. He looked around the office noting the high volume of traffic the place was currently getting, and thanking his lucky stars that he was here for a mission, not to run one of the desks. He didn’t have more than a few seconds to take in the room before an unknown Jounin approached, the one that had proctored Yazu, his opponent in the last exam, and waved him forwards to follow. Senshi didn’t feel the need to repeat the gesture to the Genin, as they had clearly seen the Jounins silent order. It would not only be a pointless gesture, but it would also possibly tell the three Genin that he didn’t trust them to see the order themselves.
 
With the prickly temperament of one of the Genin, and the age of another he felt that it was better if he showed them that he trusted them to do the right thing. He had learned in the exam three days ago, that at least for Shujin, giving him a task that seemed important to the mission and shoring up his clearly narcissistic personality would get the best results for him. And results were what Senshi cared about. He might not like the younger boy, and he may disagree with his attitude but if he worked hard then Senshi would work on ignoring his faults. That or he would do, as he had done three days ago, and physically put the boy in his place. Any time his father or brothers had said he had a bad attitude or wasn’t being properly polite and respectful that was what they had done.
 
Senshi was just glad that the two girls didn’t seem to have the attitude since he had seriously qualms about using the physical method with them. It wasn’t that he was sexist merely that the upbringing that he had undergone had left him woefully unprepared for how to properly deal with a woman or young girl. This would be an incredibly learning experience for the young Chuunin, and he certainly looked forwards to it. With those thoughts, the team followed the Jounin into a side room and lined up standing at attention. Senshi was one step in front of his three Genin, who were respectfully arrayed directly behind him. He resisted the urge to send a mental command to Josei to stop fidgeting and merely kept his attention on the Jounin who was quietly looking them over.
 
“Chuunin Kobayashi Senshi, you will be conducting the second Jounin Exam Preparation trial starting immediately. These same three Genin that you had for the first trial will be under your command for the second trial, do you understand?” The man’s piercing blue eyes left Senshi feeling slightly unnerved but he pushed down the emotion and have a crisp nod, “Yes Sir, I do.” His voice was just loud enough to sound confident but Senshi couldn’t help the deep growl that it came out as. The older he got the deeper his voice seemed to get, and he didn’t fully understand it all but knew that the husky deep quality his voice was taking on sounded much better than the high pitched young one he used to have.
 
Plus it went nicely with the manly beard of manliness that he now sported across his face. Few shinobi, or even villagers had beards like he did and those that did were usually hard working tradesman like blacksmiths or carpenters. As Senshi was descended from a line of Blacksmiths he had grown the beard in order to honor that lineage as much as he could. Since he was a shinobi and a professional appearance was demanded of him, he took the time to ensure that his beard was well groomed and evenly timed. A win-win situation overall in his mind since it also added to the older, more mature look that he was going for.
 
“Your mission is border patrol, as you yourself saw on a C rank mission Chuunin Kobayashi, there is an increased presence of Missing Ninja exploring our borders. Some recent Intel suggests that several of them have come together and are terrorizing the villages. Should you meet any Missing Ninja you are to ascertain their threat level.” The man paused holding up his hand to indicate his first point, before continuing on. “Any Missing Ninja determined to be a non-threat, that have not committed any crime against Kumogakure or our allies, and is D ranked or lower in their bounty is to be captured and brought back here for further interrogation.”
 
Senshi nodded along, with the man’s words committing them to memory while his three Genin were each writing on a small note pad that they carried. He remembered back to when he was a Genin and had done the same thing with his missions. Experience had taught him how to memorize things faster and not required that step in the process. He certainly hoped that his Genin would begin learning how to do that eventually, since it made it less likely that they would give away information accidentally by carrying it on them. The Jounin before them held up a third finger as he continued, “Finally, any missing ninja deemed a threat to Kumogakure, that have committed a crime against us or our allies, or is C ranked or above is to be killed. Their heads sealed into a scroll for identification purposes, and turned into the mission office when you return. You will be on the border for three days so pack accordingly, you leave in an hour. Chuunin Kobayashi, stay behind for a moment.”
 
Senshi nodded his understanding and turned to the three Genin watching as they filed out. He had wanted to share some quick tips with them, but they seemed in a hurry to go collect their gear, and the Jounin had released them. Fighting the urge to sigh he instead channeled chakra into his telepathy seal and spoke to them. “Pack lightly, as we will be on the move a lot. Only bring two tents, and pack enough food for five days. Only bring one change of clothes, to reduce the weight you are carrying, and be sure you all stop by and pick up Kunai, Shuriken, smoke bombs, and some explosive tags. Meet me in thirty at the gate so I can check your gear over.”
 
He hoped the Genin didn’t feel like he was micromanaging but he wanted to ensure that they knew what to bring since this would be their first time out of the village. Especially since this mission had the potential to turn lethal, he wanted them to be well prepared for it. Nothing was worse than being on the run and then getting into a fight exhausted and hungry. If that happened then Senshi knew the three Genin wouldn’t be able to perform to the best of their abilities. The two girl’s voices echoed in his mind with quick confirmations of his orders while Shujin responded sarcastically. “We aren’t babies, we already knew all of that.” Senshi resisted the urge of sending back and annoyed, snappy reply to the boy deciding to let it go.
 
Maybe it was bad to let the boy keep his attitude, and maybe he should sit down and just beat it out of him. Senshi wasn’t entirely certain but he knew if things continued in the vein then he would need to think of another way of dealing with it since clearly his current method wasn’t working as well as he had hoped. He couldn’t have the boy back talking every time he gave an order or made a comment, his disrespect might spread to the other two Genin and that would be bad for the team dynamic as a whole. There were no bad team’s only bad leaders. If Senshi wanted to become a Jounin then he was going to need to learn to deal with snappy, disrespectful, sarcastic, little twats like this kid effectively.
 
He turned back into the Jounin as he began to speak, “I will be accompanying your team for this mission, but I will not be assisting in anyway. It is merely to evaluate you correctly. If you mess up and you or your team end up in a life threatening situation I will not interfere. This is a live or die exercise to truly determine your abilities as a team leader.” Senshi nodded his understanding, not at all surprised at the ruthlessness of his village’s policies. If someone choose to accept the offer to take these exams then they needed to be ready to forfeit their life. Or else they wouldn’t make a good leader for the village. All of this he had learned when he was conducting his Chuunin Exams and the Chuunin Exam trials.
 
With his briefing complete Senshi turned on his heel and exited the room heading towards his own apartment to collect his gear. Once he entered his home he quickly went through his stuff making sure all of his equipment was in place on his body. Hesitating for a moment he reached out and grabbed the Heavens Sorrow Ninjato he had recently received as a congratulations gift for completing his first A rank mission. He strapped it sideways across his lower back and spent several second practicing drawing it. Since he strapped it under Bastuodosodo it didn’t interfere with his drawing the large zanbatou off his back either.
 
In fact the Heavens Sorrow Ninjato’s sheath seemed to be held in place even more securely thanks to his large slab of steel that he called a sword. Nodding to himself he headed out of his apartment and towards the village gates. He was decently surprised when one of his Genin had beaten him there, and for it to be Shujin of all of them. Maybe the boy was simply excited about his first live mission, and for it to be an A rank one at that. Senshi himself had never been on an A rank mission as a Genin so he could appreciate the level of excitement his Genin must be feeling. Pausing in front of Shujin he was about to speak when both of his female Genin showed up together.
 
Senshi rose a slight eyebrow at their increased speed compared to simply three days ago. It seemed like they had been training hard over the past few days, which brought a certain smile to the Chuunin’s face. He enjoyed when his comrades trained hard and increased their abilities. “All right, lay out your equipment.” Senshi ignored the annoyed sigh that Shujin gave instead focusing on watching as the three Genin laid their equipment out quickly and efficiently. Walking between the Genin, his sharp eyes looked over the food that they brought, the change of clothing, and the amount of weapons they were carrying. Giving a satisfied nod to the three he spoke, “All right pack it up. While you do so Shujin tell me how you’ve improved since our last meeting.”
 
The sarcastic, arrogant, little snot of a Genin had the audacity to sneer at Senshi before he responded, his tone was rather superior when he did so as well. “I learned the Water Prison and the Water Dragon technique, as well as improving my speed, chakra, strength, stamina and ability to take more damage.” The only reason Senshi didn’t smack the kid upside the head for his cocky attitude as that because his level of improved in only three days was rather astounding really. Turning his attention from his most annoying Genin he gestured for Josei to brief him in now. Her tone, when she spoke, was far more confident than it had been three days prior.
 
“I decided to learn more Taijutsu, so that I could be of better assistance in close range. So I learned Intersection method, Leaf Rising Wind, and the Leaf Whirlwind technique. I also improved my own abilities as well.” Senshi rose an eyebrow slightly at the three techniques. Even Shujin was looking at the seven year old with a look of surprise. He could see that Shujin’s response especially was a good confidence booster for the young girl. Senshi gave her a deep nod of approval at the amount of training she must have put in to be able to have learned all of that in such a short time frame. Once he had given her his approval he turned his eyes to his eldest Genin and motioned for her to speak.
 
“I uh, well after seeing how dangerous combat could be in the live fire exercise I decided to go to the hospital and pick up some medical skills. I learned Chakra Anesthetic, an E rank Medical Ninjutsu, and a C rank Medical Ninjutsu.” Senshi was surprised at how much more timid the fifteen year old sounded today compared to how she had been during his first trial. It seemed that he may have put too much on her shoulders during that trial and he made a note to go easier on her during this one. It would give him a chance to allow one of the other two to show case their abilities and would also let the fifteen year old Genin relax after how stressful that last trial must have been.

Senshi realized that relying on someone so much, especially when they had just graduated the academy, was a bad idea. He had considered whether or not she would be able to handle the stress of acting as his second in command and in turn he had probably stunted her combat growth. He would need to find a way to fix this issue so that Kumogakure did not suffer due to his failure. She had the potential to be a good asset to the village and it was his job to help her achieve that goal. At least if he wanted to make a good Jounin, it would be his job to ensure that, that happened. “Have any of you learned how to suppress your chakra?”
 
The question seemed to surprise them and once all three had shaken their heads to the negative Senshi released a small sigh. That would make this more difficult, but he at least had a solution to counter act that. Looking the three Genin over, he decided that he still didn’t trust Shujin enough. Especially with how it seemed his attitude had resurfaced in full force after only three days away from his temporary commander. Plus to be quite honest, he felt that he should reward Josei for her dedication to improving herself. Learning three difficult taijutsu techniques in three days, while also greatly improving her own base abilities was no small feat. With that decided his eyes landed on the seven year old assessing her for several seconds, before he finally spoke.
 
“During the first trial, I relied on you, Aiko, quite heavily. This time, at least for today, it is your turn Josei to step up to the plate. You will act as my second in command, as such when I am not around or if we split up to handle something you will be in charge. Do you believe you can discharge this duty effectively?” Senshi’s stare was hard on the young girl and he could see it was making her nervous but he didn’t let up. If she couldn’t handle his stare of doom, then she would not be good at taking charge in a combat situation. He needed to be sure that she could handle it, before he officially gave her the chance to prove herself.
 
Out of the corner of his eyes, he could see Aiko relaxing more in relief that he wasn’t going to put the burden on her. It made Senshi glad that he had managed to read the situation right, but irritated that the girl didn’t want to try and improve herself more. Especially since in Senshi’s mind, that live fire exercise had been exceedingly easy. He could also see Shujin’s jaw tighten and his eyes alight with annoyance irritation. He could even see the budding signs of jealousy showing in his eyes and decided he would nip that in the bud immediately. It wouldn’t do for any infighting to occur, especially when all their lives would be on the line.
 
His focus shifted fully to Aiko as she took a deep breath and held herself straighter than before. “Yes, Sir. I do accept the responsibility.” Her voice was confident, thought she spoke slower than normal as though she was surprised at her own response. Senshi merely gave her a nod of approval before turning his eyes to Shujin, it was time to nip this issue in the bud. Again. “Shujin, you will be given your chance to lead during this mission as well. Josei is getting the opportunity first because it is clear that she dedicated herself to improving every second over the last three days.” He paused as his Jounin proctor appeared silently by his side.
 
Giving the man a polity nod of greeting he continued to address Shujin, “You will follow her orders in the event I am not around or I will personally see you demoted and sent back to the academy for remedial lessons. Is that clear, Genin?” The boy seemed to relax minutely and he even had the audacity to smirk cockily when Senshi mentioned that he would be given his chance to lead. As though he thought it was his god given right, since he was the only male Genin on the team. His expression, however was quickly changed when Senshi issued his threat. Well really, it was a promise. It seemed that the hard ass and discipline demanding man that Senshi was, was beginning to at least get across to the young Genin.
 
Thank god, because if he didn’t start improving then Senshi was just going to personally kill the boy instead. He’d rather continue on with a two man Genin team, then deal with this boy’s arrogant attitude. Then again, that was probably why he had been assigned this particular Genin. Anyone who had paid even a small bit of attention to Senshi would know that this would be one of his greatest issues when it came to leadership. Learning how to handle someone that had no respect for authority was only going to improve him in the long run, regardless of how he felt about it overall. Still, he wished he could just kick the boy off the team and be done with him. It was more trouble than it was worth, especially since they were going into a real missions. One where people could lose their lives.
 
With a slight sigh Senshi stepped forwards speaking to his Genin again, “Since none of you know how to suppress your chakra, I am going to apply a Seal of Suppression to Josei. You will need to stay within twenty meters of her at all times, if you don’t then you will not be under the seals protection.” The three Genin nodded before Senshi wove the hand seals. Ram, monkey, Ox, then with a sharp, loud clap of his hands they lit up with chakra. Placing a single hand at the base of Josei’s collar bone he watched as the seal quickly appeared. He could still feel the three Genin, because he was within the seals influence himself, but he knew if he stepped more than twenty meters away he would no longer be able to.
 
With an almost self-satisfied nod the Chuunin stepped back, turning to his Jounin proctor. Before he could say anything the man just made a quick carry on motion with his hand, seeming at least minutely impressed at Senshi’s fore planning with the seal of suppression. For the benefit of the Jounin he decided to finish his brief out loud instead of with the telepathy seal. “We will move out in a wedge formation again. Until we reach the border that is how we will carry out formation out. Josei you will take point, with your taijutsu abilities you are uniquely suited to carrying out this position.” She nodded her acceptance of his order, he didn’t state that it was also because as the second in command she was expected to take on such a dangerous duty.
 
“Shujin with your Ninjutsu abilities, you will be good at the right flank position. Keep yourself within ten meters of Josei so that you have plenty of room to move around within the influence of the seal of suppression.” The boy gave a nod, seeming to accept the mild praise Senshi was giving him without nearly as much cockiness as he had been showing. It seemed the presence of an actual Jounin was at least a slight calming influence on the boy. Hopefully, it would hold out for the rest of the mission. If it didn’t then Senshi would just be forced to start handing out punishments in order to control his obstinate Genin.
 
“Aiko, you will take left flank, I want you to keep within seven meters of Josei however. You’re healing abilities may be needed quickly in the event a trap is laid out.” She nodded, and Senshi turned his eyes to the Jounin wondering if he should say his next piece. But he wasn’t willing to risk the man not working within the confines of Senshi’s plan. “Sir, if you will travel in the center of the pack so as to remain under the seal as well, it would be greatly appreciated.” Senshi waited several seconds before the Jounin simply nodded in agreement. With that over he decided it was time to finish his brief, “I will hold the rear guard, keeping at the very edge of the seals influence. I am fast enough to provide support to each of you as need be. Once we step out the gates we will refrain from speaking and use only the telepathy seals to communicate. Josei, lead us towards the north-western border.”
 
The girl nodded, and turned to head out, Senshi waited for the two others to lead on before following himself. He kept a sharp eye out as they started out to ensure that his Genin were not only remaining quiet, but also that they were maintaining the proper distance. He knew he would need to keep on them for the majority of the run towards the border considering it was going to be boring and their minds were bound to wander. He figured he would schedule a break about half way there in order to let them recuperate some stamina and get their minds completely focused on the mission as well. No point in trying to push them too hard.
 
The hours of monotonous running went by slowly, but as the time neared midday Senshi called a halt to the formation and had the three students set up in a tiny clearing. While they proceeded to relax, let their minds wander, and consume some food Senshi had other plans for himself. He placed out four seals around them, and then a fifth in the center erecting the five seals barrier around them. It wasn’t particularly strong, but it was better than any other defense that he could currently erect in a wide area. The barrier would prevent his team from escaping the clearing, but in the event of an attack it should be able to negate at least some surprise.
 
Senshi knew that he would need to get his teams blood, so that he could erect this seal and have it so that the Genin could come and go as they pleased. For a short term, type of thing however, it was a decent defense and prevented him from having to put any of the three kids on guard duty. He knew that they needed a break to recoup from the long run and being on constant alert the entire time. He certainly wasn’t going to push them too much harder today, since they still had several hours of running that they needed to do in order to get to the border. It seemed that the entire first day of their mission was going to be built around just getting out to the location they needed to be at.
 
Boring, yet quite normal when you realized that most missions did not involve combat. Though Senshi didn’t doubt that they might encounter some bandits or maybe even some missing ninja on the borders. That was fairly common, it would just be a wonder whether the missing ninja were enemies of the village or their allies or not. If they were Senshi would ensure that they received a quick death, per the orders he had been given. No mercy and no quarters were to be given to the enemies of kumogakure. Not to mention if he did have an inclination to save them, then he would just be turning them over to be executed by someone like Taios.
 
It was probably better if Senshi just did the deed as quickly as possible in order to prevent the long term abuse they would more than likely suffer as a prisoner of war. Though the information that could be gained from them had him momentarily considering capturing them instead. But his orders were iron clad, death to the enemies and capture of those who were not. Verify their status and that they weren’t trying to cause any harm to the land of lightning and then let them be on their way. An impossibly easy task for a Chuunin looking at becoming Jounin. With the help of the three Genin behind him, Senshi couldn’t really think of too many ways that this could go wrong.
 
That coming from the Chuunin whose most basic C rank had turned into a fight for life and death against an S class missing ninja. Then again things like that were rare, it wasn’t like he had, had any issued on any further missions that he had been on. Well issues like that at least. Shaking his thoughts off Senshi realized that a half an hour had gone by, more than enough time for everyone to have relaxed and be ready to restart their travels. Senshi could only hope that the three Genin remained as alert as they had been up until this points. He was rather counting on them being able to hold their own and he not having to hold their hands. As he stood up, Senshi was pleased to hear Josei’s voice in his head alerting the other two to prepare to move out.

While Senshi collected the five seals and stored them away Josei got the other Genin into formation ready to move out. Giving her a nod of respect he allowed her to lead them on their way to the borders, ignoring the look that his Jounin proctor was giving him. He had debated adding the man into his telepathy network with the team, but ultimately had decided not to. Senshi sat calmly keeping an eye out on the forest around him, and his team. He was assessing them since he considered them his responsibility. It was his job to ensure that they became good shinobi of Kumo and this path to Jounin missions that they got to participate in only made it more likely that they would become good shinobi for Kumo faster than others.
 
After all they were getting to participate in A rank missions, while other Genin’s were trudging through the horrors of E and D rank missions. After a short thirty minute break the prospective Jounin pushed himself up collecting his five seals and storing them back in his weapons pouch. By the time he had completed that task Josei had gotten the other two Genin’s up and into formation ready to move out on his command. Inspecting the three Genin over quickly, him sent the command through the telepathy link. In mere seconds they were on the road again heading towards the border. As all traveling was, it was incredibly boring until they reached the outpost.
 

By outpost, it was really a camp site with three foot high earthen walls, mainly just an initial line of defense to save the people who were stationed here from too much trouble. Senshi zoned in on the Chuunin and three Genin that were currently occupying the outpost, and who all looked rather relieved to see them. It seemed this Chuunin had been on his own Path to Jounin Exam as well. His three Genin looked dirty, underfed, and all three were heavily bandaged from where they had taken wounds while on this mission. The Chuunin himself did not look much better, though he did look significantly more tired than the Genin with obvious bags under his eyes.

Senshi walked up to the Chuunin conversing with him quietly while both of their Jounin proctors watched. His Genin moved over to talk to the Genin of the other Chuunin while he was busy with this. “Anything to report before we relieve you?” The Chuunin that Senshi was relieving gave a negative shake of his head before he started talking, “Not much really, there has been a lot of predatory animals in the area and it seemed like a bandit camp of sorts was starting to get set up about eight miles southwest of here. You may want to check it out before it becomes a problem.”
 
Senshi nodded to the man, committing the general area where the possible bandits were to memory before he responded, “Thank you, you are officially relieved.” The man nodded thankfully before moving to collect his Genin and start his own long trek back to village. He looked rather relieved compared to when Senshi and his team had first walked up. Moving over to the Genin he drew their attention to him with a slight wave of his hand before he began to speak. “Set up your tents, it’s already nearing eight PM so we won’t conduct a patrol tonight.” Senshi watched as the Genin pulled out the single tent they had brought like he suggested and began to set it up together.
 
They didn’t yet understand why he had wanted them to only have one tent but as they set to work he decided that now was the time to explain. “At night we will have rotating guard shifts. Two people will be awake at all times while the other two sleep in the tent. One person will be posted here,” He pointed to the northwestern most part of the encampment as he spoke, “and the other will be posted here.” This time he pointed to the southeastern part of the encampment. Both positions would give the guards an ability to see almost a perfect 180 degrees in each direction leaving no chance for someone to sneak up on a properly alert body guard. “I want each of you to cut your thumbs, I’m going to tie you into the most important part of our defense. The Five seal barrier, will afford us an extra level of protection.”
 
Senshi then placed out the seal tags, the main center one being placed on the tenet while the others were all placed on the inside of the earthen walls to give them more protection. Once he had completed that he continued briefing his team, “the first watch will be Josei and Shujin, while the second watch will be Aiko and myself. In the event something happens you are to wake both of us immediately. I suggest you eat and bunk down for the night as we will start patrols in the morning.” The three Genin nodded, even Shujin too tired at this point to give any lip about the fact that he was being put on guard duty. Senshi, who wasn’t exactly tired due to his normal taxing schedule knew that he would need to force himself to sleep.
 
He would need all of his energy to pull this type of schedule for three days straight without appearing weak in front of his Jounin proctor or the Genin. With that in mind he moved to the tent entering it and pulled a protein bar from his weapons pouch. Quickly consuming it he laid down and began to slow and focus is breathing so he could put himself to sleep, but also remain alert enough to assist the Genin as need be. The Seal of suppression would help in keeping all of their chakra signatures masked while the five seals barrier and the earthen walls would afford them just enough protection that Senshi felt safe going to sleep even with inexperienced Genin on watch.
 
The night passed quickly, with no incident. His Genin had awoken him for his watch on time and quickly passed out. Letting them rest an extra hour, Senshi didn’t rouse the Genin until just after seven in the morning. It wouldn’t do to push them too hard since they had no experience with sleep deprivation. They were inexperienced enough that Senshi didn’t want a lack of sleep to compound the mistakes they were bound to make already. It was going to be a tough two more days just making sure that they didn’t make his life any harder than it already was. Once they had all eaten and packed away their gear, Senshi disabled the five seals chakra barrier before speaking aloud to his team.
 
“All right, today we are to head north and patrol that section of the border. We will use the same formation as when we traveled here. We will take a ten minute break every two hours.” The Genin nodded, still seeming groggy from what they would view as a long night. As they moved out Senshi had to correct them several times to keep the proper distance and to make less noise. While him and his Jounin proctor moved quietly through the foliage the Genin sounded like a herd of wild buffalo crashing through the bushes and such. Not only did it give their position away, but it also made the track harder for them than if they merely watched their steps and where they were going.
 
Patrol duty, was as usual, perhaps the most boring duty that a shinobi would have to do. They saw a lot of wild life as they were traversing their patrol path, but none of them seemed to be particularly vicious and in fact shied away from the shinobi that were hunting through the woods. After the first two hours had passed, Senshi called a halt to their trek, allowing the Genin to sit and rest. They were all in decent shape, but it was clear that this mission was already taking a toll on them. Senshi knew that tomorrow was going to be even worse, since their exhaustion would only be compounded by another night of guard duty. It would only get worse if they encountered some enemies today as well.
 
Which Senshi was decently sure they would, considering they were heading towards where a bandit camp had been located. Or well, suspected to have been located at least. They were still at least an hour journey from the Bandits last known sighting area. With this in mind Senshi focused in on his team, he could see the three Genin were all eating protein bars and drinking water. The two girls were stretching, while the lone male Genin was lounging tiredly in a pile of leaves. The boy would regret that since his muscles were going to freeze up and it would take him several minutes to limber up. It was better he learn on his own however, since he would likely not listen to Senshi even if he did try and mention the issue.
 
Kid was stubborn like that, and Senshi didn’t see it as something worth arguing about. “All right, last reports show a bandit group just over an hour from our current location. We’ll head towards there, once we pick up signs of their presence we will follow it and find the bandit camp. Our main goal today is to exterminate them if we can.” The Genin nodded tiredly before standing up and heading in the direction Senshi located. Senshi could also see that the Jounin proctor was starting to become annoyed that he had no idea what orders the Chuunin was issuing to the team. It wasn’t something Senshi was entirely worried about however, as maintaining silence seemed like a smart thing to do. Even if he was marked down on the exams for the Jounin not being able to hear his orders, he was fine with that since it meant these Genin would be more likely to live through this experience.
 
Living Genin were far preferable to a bunch of dead Genin that could no longer support Kumogakure after all. The next forty seven minutes flew by excruciatingly slow, but once they had Senshi began to notice tracks in the area. It looked like a decently large group of people had been trekking around. He could even smell human feces from where some of the bandits had likely relieved themselves during some sort of rest break. He used the telepathy seal to guide the Genin on the same track the enemy had used. It wasn’t long before they came upon a camp, or to be more accurate, the remains of what had been a camp. The ground was destroyed in several places, the remains of several fire pits, and even blood on the ground in several places.
 
It didn’t take long for Senshi to see the direction they had headed off in, there were bloody drag marks and almost no foliage in the area anymore. Direction his Genin towards the location he had them move off the path the bandits had clearly been following and instead move through the woods. He reduced their speed so that they could focus more on stealth, since much of the blood had been relatively fresh. Another thirty minutes of travelling and Senshi with his three Genin’s began to hear the sounds of a relatively large group of people in front of them. Motioning his Genin to move another five meters to the left so that they were farther away from the trail that was being created he focused in on the sounds.
 
Several minutes of travelling later and they could finally see the rear of the group they were tailing. Another few minutes later, when they were a mere five meters from the rear Senshi could now see the front of the group. He had the Genin slow their pace so that they wouldn’t out run the group of bandits for now, instead taking a moment to count how many there were and to think of a plan. The slowed pace allowed them to enhance their stealth further and since they were several yards off to the left of the group they were afforded an even larger stealthy position than if they’d been traveling on the trail. Senshi pulled the team to a halt and had them take up positions to keep an eye out around them.
 
“Stay here, I’ll be right back.” He then took off, using his better stealth capabilities to get ahead of the column of bandits. Crouching down in a tree he waited patiently for several minutes until the line of bandits began to trek pass him. Counting quietly, and observing them carefully, he came to the conclusion that the fourteen bandits were rather over confident in their abilities. Their sentries didn’t seem to be paying much attention and their point man was just plodding along not really paying much attention to where he was going. “Head along the route we were taking to rendezvous with me.”
 
Senshi sent the mental command and a moment later Josei responded back with a crisp, “Roger, sir.” It seemed that she was taking her position as second in command rather seriously. She seemed to have had a chat with Shujin as well since the boy seemed less sour about what was going on. Senshi made a note to let Shujin get some leadership experience tomorrow while they were doing a patrol on the southern border. It would alleviate some of the boy’s sourness and animosity towards Senshi and make him more a team player. It was a scant few minutes later when the Genin arrived next to Senshi, he gave a brief nod to the Jounin to acknowledge his presence before he began to brief the team.
 
“There are fourteen bandits, walking along in a column. They are not paying much attention, however this does not mean you should underestimate them. Treat this as though you are about to fight fourteen shinobi, understand?” After a chorus of agreement from the Genin, Senshi continued, “We will move up till we are a hundred meter ahead of their column. From there, Shujin you will be in the most dangerous position.” Senshi kept his eyes on the boy as he mentally sent them the orders. The boy immediately gained an excited and self-satisfied look to his face. “It’ll be easy.” The boy’s thoughts came across the line, dripping with arrogance. So much so, that Senshi wanted to berate him but chose not to.
 
These were bandits, not exactly the most difficult of foes, and it would be a good learning experience for Shujin, to not be so arrogant. “Shujin your job will be to attack them with your water dragon and two water clones from the front. Josei, you will come at them from the left flank taking any that attempt to flee from that direction.” Senshi looked at both of his two combat oriented Genin, ensuring they gave him nods of understanding before he shifted his attention to Aiko. “Aiko, you’re going to in charge of ensuring none of them escape to the rear. They should be focused on running to the right flank, where I will be because of Josei’s follow up attack. Are there any questions?”
 
Shujin and Josei seemed to have no problem with the plan but Aiko seemed to be having doubts in herself. She was looking at the other two and Genin and back at Senshi with an odd awkward, yet shy stare. It took her a moment but she finally spoke up, “Hum… but what if they do come at me in force?” Senshi nodded to the girl, pleased that she had finally worked up the courage to speak. “Aiko you will need to handle them, however Aiko I want you to start pushing towards Aiko after your initial attack. Shujin you will start pushing towards Josei.” They nodded but Senshi could see that they were confused by the plan.
 
“You all be the hammer, and I the anvil that they will be crushed against.” Ahhh, a good ole blacksmithing reference, they’d surely understand it. “By attacking from the front Shujin you will push them towards Aiko, they will instinctively flee in the opposite direction. Those that don’t,” he nodded towards Josei and indicated himself with a wave of the hand, “Will come at Josei or I. When you start to herd them more towards Josei they will begin to flee towards Aiko and myself.” Senshi could see a dawning of awareness in at least two of his Genin’s eyes. They were beginning to understand his plan and why he had them moving in the directions he did.
 
“Josei will then force them more towards myself and Aiko. The presence of Aiko will by that point frighten them towards the only safe location they know. My direction. Where we will finish them off quickly.” The Genin nodded in understanding and Senshi finally motioned them to move out. It didn’t take long before they were all in position and the trap was laid. Moments later Senshi watched as a Water Dragon lashed forwards, weaker than he would have expected, but more than enough for these bandits. He could hear the screams, and the sounds of fists beating on flesh as Josei entered the fray.
 
That was when the first of the group came running at him, Senshi gave a particularly vicious smile as his hands flashed through the hand signs summoning forth two water clones. He handed each a seal scroll that had water sealed in it and they spread out to cover his own flanks and ensure no one escaped. As the first three bandits appeared, two headed for his left clone and one headed for his right clone the clones unsealed the scrolls. Water flooded the area they were in and a short few hand seals later the left clone used Water needles to kill the two bandits quickly while the right clone used the Water whip technique to kill the third bandit.
 
Senshi and his clones began to move forwards focused on what was in front of them when Senshi heard a scream. His hands flashed through hand seals and suddenly he was replacing himself with the water from the water dragon technique. He was just on the verge of his clones ability to operate and he could feel them moving forwards covering the ground quickly in order to ensure they had room to maneuver. He turned to look at one of the men that had managed to knock Josei down, she was bleeding lightly from her head wound and holding herself awkwardly as though her ribs has been broken.
 
Shujin was laying, a kunai sticking from his chest, blood seeping out from around it. Meanwhile Aiko was staring down what had apparently been a missing nin and not a bandit. Senshi felt like kicking himself for not realizing that one of the fourteen men had been a shinobi and not a bandit himself. Here he had been lecturing his Genin to not be over confident and he himself had fallen prey to that particular vice. He of all people should know better after that disastrous C rank mission with his team against Maku the World’s Greatest Chef.
 
Lame title. Senshi formed a single hand seal and activated the Body Flicker appearing in front of his student. Forming the seal of confrontation he watched as a rainbow colored barrier extended in front of his body catching the blow of the kunai as it came down towards Aiko. The seal shattered under the force of the blow, but it managed to negate enough of its power that Senshi caught the arm wielding the Kunai with his own hand. “Go tend to the other two Aiko, I’ll handle him.”  She gave a fearful nod scrambling to start running around the missing nin.
 
The man attempted to disengage with Senshi in order to go after her but with a twist of his body Senshi threw the man in the opposite direction. Pulling his own tanto’s from his hips he positioned one for slashing and the other to defend himself. The missing nin scoffed at him before dashing forwards. Senshi however had no intention of allowing this guy to close with him more than necessary and felt the wind chakra course through one blade. He then charged lightning chakra into the other blade, despite these blades being meant to channel wind chakra he had a plan that required this.
 
Slashing out with the wind chakra enhanced blade he let loose a decapitating air wave’s technique, which the man moved to the right to dodge. At the same time he lashed out with his lightning enhanced tanto, releasing it from his grip and throwing it with his mastered version of Raiton Kunai Cutter. The blade lanced forwards catching the man by surprise and burying itself hilt deep in his stomach. Slightly lower than Senshi had wanted, unfortunately for the missing Nin. Rushing forwards as the force of the blow threw the man backwards Senshi made one clean cut across his throat before he could force himself up. Pulling his tanto from the man’s stomach he wiped them off on a clean spot on his clothes before heading over towards his Genin.
 
Aiko was covered in blood as she focused on healing Shujin and Josei was sitting awkwardly on the ground. Speaking aloud to them, “Aiko calm down, you can heal him. Focus on slowing the bleeding then closing the wound. I’ll heal Josei.” The girl gave a hesitant nod as Senshi crouched down next to Josei and formed the hand seals so that he could perform the C rank version of the medical ninjutsu on the girl. Several minutes later and her broken bones were healed, he was lucky that it had only been hairline fractures. He then moved to her head and healed the small, bleeding wound there. He turned his attention backwards towards Aiko and Shujin pleased to see that she had managed to close his wound.
 
Pushing himself to stand up, he moved off checking all the bodies and ensuring that they had killed all fourteen. His water clones had handled the ones who had ran towards them and once everyone was accounted for he collected them up piling them next to a tree. He propped the missing nins dead body in front of the pile so that anyone who came would see the missing nin propped against the piled of dead bandits. Using the blood of the fallen enemies, he wrote a short message on the tree behind them. It simply read, ‘Attack Kumo and this is the consequence’. Once he had finished that he motioned for his Genin to join him.
 
“All right lets head back towards the camp you three need a break.” He received weary sighs of acceptance as he led them back towards the camp, ensuring that they maintained their formation. Once at the camp he allowed them to re-set the camp up and relax. He had never actually seen Genin be this tired. To be honest Senshi remembered being a Genin and doing more than they did usually. Then again he had to be logical and remember that the Genin had just graduated from the academy. If he recalled correctly they had graduated less than a week ago. Senshi would have the Genin’s maintain the same guard shifts that he had put in place the night before. They made the most sense after all, and since it was only past mid day he would stay awake to be extra support during each guard shift.
 
He then made a plan to be transitioning between the three Genin, to talk with them about what they had faced and ensuring that they were physically healthy still. All the Genin would bear scars from this mission, some physical and some mental. It was Senshi’s job to ensure that these scars didn’t prevent them from doing their duty. He was only really concerned about this issue because he knew that they still had another full day of patrols tomorrow. If something were to occur during those patrols and they were too focused on what had happened today then they would be a major liability. Not only would they put the entire team in danger but they would also likely put themselves in danger. While Senshi had not particular attachment to the three, he knew that reducing Kumo’s forces by three shinobi, however weak they currently were, was bad.
 
A good Jounin would not allow his team to be distracted by these things or to end their lives before they could truly give back to Kumo as a whole. With these thoughts in mind he decided to get Shujin out of the way first. It would be a pain to deal with that boy at any point, so best to just get the worst one out of the way first. As the boy was sitting, seeing as it wasn’t his guard shift yet, by the outside of the tent Senshi approached him. “Shujin…” Senshi trailed off immediately unsure of really how to do this, as it wasn’t something he had ever done before. The boy merely looked up from his kunai, which he continued to wipe one his pants leg nervously. With an awkward shy, Senshi began again.
 
“Shujin… how are you doing after the kills and your injury?” Apparently being completely up front and blunt with the boy was not the way to do it. He gained a rather dark look to his eyes and looked away from Senshi scoffing as he did so. “How do you think?” Senshi gave an awkward shrug at the boys hostile tone. To be honest other than feeling the life blood of chakra leaving an enemies system when they died, he generally felt nothing about when he killed. When he was injured, Senshi merely dealt with it as a hazard of the job. But he knew, from his interactions with those he now called friends, and the amount of books he read that not everyone felt that way.
 
“Is it bothering you that you killed? Or is it that you were injured grieviously?” The boys eyes hardened at Senshi as he glared at the man who had once been his classmate. He again began wiping the kunai on his pants leg nervously. Senshi watched the movement wondering if he should take it away from the boy before he injured himself with it. “Its… I’m the man of the team. I shouldn’t have been the one injured. They should be relying on me to save them, but instead… you just don’t understand Senshi. You didn’t see it.” The boy petered off, his voice filled with hate and self loathing not only for himself but also Senshi sensed that some of it was directed at one of the two female Genin.
 
Turning his head to the side in slight confusion, Senshi realized that yes, he had missed everything that led up to two of his Genin’s injuries. Maybe finding out what had happened would help him assist the distraught boy. A task that he was beginning to regret undertaking at all. “You are correct, I did not see what had transpired. Will you fill me in on it?” Shujin just continued to glare at Senshi sullenly as though to refusing to answer. Senshi decided to incorporate an interrogation tactic that he had read about once. It required that the interrogator to merely sit quietly and stare at the person, since the theory said that the person would then become unnerved and begin to spill secrets that he may or may not wish someone to know.
 
So Senshi sat back, staring at the boy quietly, it took far longer than he was comfortable with but finally Shujin gave an annoyed sigh. “Fine. I saw the missing nin guy, wheoever he was, aiming to attack Aiko. He’d been at the back of the formation. I wanted to take him out, figured if I did, I could probably get myself promoted to Chuunin or something. Anyways I went after him and in my rush he stabbed me. He was about to kill me when Josei intervened, kicking him out of the way. But he was so fast compared to her, he just lashed out. Josei was hurt, because I got careless.” Senshi nodded along as the Genin spoke, he had no desire to tell him it would all be okay.
 
His reckless desires to prove himself had gotten one of his team members put into a precarious position and almost got them both killed. It had only been the fact that Senshi had been the superior in techniques and speed that had allowed them to avoid dying. Senshi spoke, and while his tone was not harsh it as also not forgiving, he was now Akihana-sama after all. “You are correct. You decision to be reckless put Josei and possibly Aiko in a position where they could have been killed.” The boy hung his head, acting as though Senshi had smacked him or something. “However, you are a Genin. This is your time to make mistakes and to learn from them. This time…” Senshi paused emphasizing his words now.
 
“This time, you all lived and will learn better from them. Do not repeat your mistakes and you will have atoned for this one. Do you understand?” His voice had no give in it, Senshi wasn’t going to excuse the boy for the mistake he had made. At the same time he was understanding enough to know that Shujin was a Genin and he had much to do to grow into his own strength and intellect. The boy nodded and Senshi stood up. He turned to go repeat the process with Aiko and Josei but they both stared at him before each one sent the same message over the telepathic link. “We can talk when the mission is over if you’re still available?” Senshi nodded to the two of them before motioning that they go back to their guard duties.
The next morning, after pulling guard shifts all night, Senshi gathered the Genin up and headed towards the south border to patrol it. Luckily for them, there wasn’t any issue that they had to deal with out there. It became just a normal patrol mission where they didn’t encounter any issues. Just another boring duty that Senshi had grown used to. This time, however, Senshi treated it like enemies were everywhere. His Genin even seemed more on edge after what had happened the day before. Once their patrols were complete they returned to the camp, only to be relieved the next morning. Their trek back to Kumo was quiet and once they entered the gates Senshi faced the Genin.
 
“You all did extremely well, thank you.” He paused seeing the tired looks on their faces. He could understand why they looked so weary after everything they had been through. Most Genin did not have to deal with nearly as much as they had. “I will contact you all later, I owe you a meal after all. For now, go home and rest.” With that Senshi turned to his Jounin proctor and followed him towards the mission office in order to file reports and listen to his own debriefing.
 
TWC: 10,329

Requesting:
A Rank Mission Complete
4000 Ryo
Permission to Move to the Next Mission

Techniques (With Max Stat Discount):
 Seal of Suppression (2250/2250) - 750 word discount
Rainbow Fort Seal (2250/2250) - 750 word discount
Water Needles (1500/1500) - 500 word discount
Water Whip (1500/1500) - 500 word discount
Water Replacement (750/750) - 250 word discount 
Total Words needed for all techs: 8,250

Edited, my bad I miscounted words, added the final 1500 I need, that was part of my next JE but all is well I'll just add words to that one.

Edit 2: kids this is the reason why drugs are bad: Aki I'm an idiot for some reason I wrote 3250 for the two B ranks instead of 2250. I'm fixing it but just ignore the above first edit, I'm gonna leave the extra words in still.

Approved for edits