The next morning the group of four met at the gate right at the appointed time. They were greeted by the disgruntled bridge builder. "I've been waiting super long."
"We arrived right at the appointed time Tazuna-san, it was your choice to be early." The man grumbles and takes a swig of his sake.
"Whatever let's get going, Wave is super far from here." It really wasn't, it was only off the coast of Fire country. Which was still a long travel for a civilian but it's not that far relatively speaking. The man still wasn't feeling confident in the ninja hired to escort him, but he couldn't do anything about it.
"Alright team we'll be moving in a diamond formation, Hinata you will be taking point with the Byakugan. Sasuke and Haruka you're on the sides, I'll take the back."
"I bet you take it from the back too."
"Tazuna-san while I cannot force you to stop with the comments, I'd ask you to refrain from being so crude." She was already sick of this client. Well if nothing else she can use it as lesson in being patient with clients, no matter how much she might dislike them. "Now then, let's move out."
With that the group takes off toward wave. It was a nice day, if a bit hot and overall made excellent travel weather. It hadn't rained in a few weeks so the ground was dry and easy to travel along. The genin were quietly passing a ball between themselves. None of them were looking at one another or acknowledging the fact that the ball was there. They simply caught it when it came near them and tossed it to one of the others. Tazuna thought it was more than a little weird. The hottie with a body speaks up.
"Haruka it slipped my mind earlier, but go ahead and deactivate your resistance seals. Every little bit of speed could matter on a mission, so I'd rather you have them off now." The redhead nods and brings a hand up to her hair stick. He didn't really get it but whatever that must be ninja stuff.
Well he was curious so might as well ask. "So what exactly was that supposed to do?"
"I have something called a seal on the charm in my hair senbon." How was it a hair senbon and not just a regular hair stick? "It makes it feel like I'm wading through mud when it's active. So when I turn it off I'm faster. I use chakra to turn it on and off." He didn't truly get it, but he nods anyways. It sounded like magic to him but it was nothing if not interesting.
"So you have super speed now our something?"
"More or less."
Well that's not something you hear everyday. She probably still wouldn't help much, she was much to small. But it was still interesting. So he turns to the boy on the team. "So what's your superpower?"
"I can see things in slow motion and breathe fire." Okay now they were just fuckin' with him. It's one thing to say they can run super fast. He had kinda seen that in action during his stay in the village. But that was straight magic
"And I don't suppose the girl up front has X-ray vision or something."
"That's actually more or less correct." Wait what? No they had to be fucking with him. Maybe they were still mad about the comment to the woman. Whatever let them be petty.
He didn't notice that the team had stopped throwing the ball as they passed by a puddle. He didn't notice that two figures rose from said puddle and wrapped up the woman. He did however hear the sickening squelch of someone being torn to shreds. He turned on time to see the redhead blink out of his vision and reappear with her foot embedded in the stomach of one of the assassins.
The other one was yanked back as his comrade was shot backwards from the force of the kick. He disconnected the chain before he could be pulled back and was met with spinning red eyes. Suddenly he found himself staring down the Mizukage's right hand man. The man was ripping the arms off his oldest brother and beating him to death with them. The man had turned toward his younger brother and started stalking toward him. The assassin watched helpless as the man, no the demon, did so. He was screaming at his body to move but it just wouldn't. Think, why was this happening why couldn't he move!
The answer revealed itself to him as the Genjutsu broke and he found himself tied up next to his surviving brother. He was being looked down at by the jonin he could have sworn he killed. She spoke. "Would you like me to extract info from you the easy way, the hard way, or the very hard way?"
"Fuck off you dumb bitch."
"The very hard way it is. Do you want to know what will hurt you worse than me cutting off your fingers?" She didn't give him a chance to answer as she continues. "Cutting off your brothers fingers. Isn't that right Meizu, missing nin of Kiri? According to the Bingo book you're a B-rank ninja wanted for trying to assassinate the Mizukage only to be stopped by her Jonin commander. You and your two brothers. One of whom died in the process. So you fled for yours and your remaining brothers life. It'd be a shame if her were to be crippled because you refused to talk." The assassin remains silent and she does as promised, cutting off the index finger of his brother. The pain seemed to jolt the younger brother awake as he screams out. "The sooner you talk the sooner your brother stops suffering." He couldn't even respond before another finger was cut off and an ear piercing scream ripped through his brothers throat.
The man broke quickly. "Alright! Alright! Dammit I'll talk! Just stop already!" Why did he always get stuck being a lapdog to some bitchy woman? First the Mizukage, then the bitch Gato hired. Now this woman.
"You should have just done so earlier. Now then, who hired you."
"The shipping magnate Gato."
"Why did he hire you?"
"He wanted me to assassinate the bridge builder."
"Why?"
"The man is some kind of threat to his business after Gato took over the country."
"Who else is working with you?"
"Some bitch. I don't know her name."
"I see, is there anything else I should know."
"Yeah your lips look like they were made for sucking cock."
"Glad to know you'll be enjoying your time in Konoha's T&I." With that Kurenai injected him with a poison that would keep him unconscious until given the antidote. Something that the Konoha T&I department had in spades. She quickly did the same with the other brother not having a use for him. She turns and walks towards Tazuna. "You lied. This mission is at least B-rank if not higher." She also notices out of the corner of her eye her genin were shooting her weird looks.
They had forgotten just how scary she is when she's mad. But that's probably part of what makes her a successful elite jonin.
"I'm super sorry! My country could only afford a C-rank it was our only hope. Please you've gotta help us!"
"You know if you wanted to endear yourself to us maybe you shouldn't have insulted my genin and spent your time sexually harassing me." She could leave this fool to rot and no one would blame her.
"I'm sorry, please if you all leave now I'll probably be killed and then my daughter and grandson will cry." Of course the ass had a family waiting for him. They always do.
"Kurenai-sensei if nothing else wouldn't making a country indebted to us be worth more than a C-rank?" Hinata was right, the actually monetary worth that could end up being gained is closer to S-rank. But the level is more than most genin could handle. Though on other hand her genin did just take out two B-rank missing nin with little trouble. She'd hear them out.
"Well what do you three want to do?"
"I think we should help them." Hinata didn't really care, but the small country could be useful in the future if she and Haru-chan end up defecting.
"I'm in agreement with Hinata." He had a chance to fight even stronger opponents, he could feel his excitement welling up.
"I don't particularly care, so if the other two are up for it then so am I." Well the votes were in.
"Alright we'll continue the mission. But Tazuna-san if I hear one thing I don't like from you. Be it insulting my genin or being crude towards me then we will turn around and your people will rot. Not only that but I need to know exactly what's going on." She gives him time to explain while she leaves an encrypted note for the Hokage with the Demon Brothers.
The man nodded vigorously and said, "Yes of course! Thank you so much!" Then his expression becomes somber. "Gato arrived in our country two years ago. At first it had seemed like a wealthy business man was simply interested in expanding into the country. The people didn't particularly mind or care. We had all just figured that maybe we'd get some better roads with the taxes the Daimyo could levy off him. That was about it. Then he bought up all the ports. And in case you don't realize. For an island nation like wave, the person who controls the ports controls the country. That's when he started to hire bandits to collect taxes from the people. It only took a little while before the entire country fell under his control. Ever since he's been robbing us blind and using our ports to smuggle opium across the Elemental Nations."
"Where's the Daimyo in all this?" Hinata's tone was one of confusion.
"He went missing not long after Gato showed up, we all assume he was killed by the man." The man continues his previous train of thought. "That's why I'm building my bridge. Once it connects us to the mainland we won't be totally dependent on the ports anymore."