The oldest squatted next to the road and rummaged in a pocket hidden inside a sleeve, withdrawing a photograph from there. "This is the target."
"Some goofy-looking kid?" asked one of the younger ones.
"Yeah, a goofy-looking kid who is apparently some fuuinjutsu prodigy," said the senior. "He's summoned up ice creatures and dragons and demons using fuuinjutsu to create contracts for specific summons."
The three youngers nodded.
"So, the job is simple," said the senior. "Bury everything you still got that can show where we came from. We go in, find the kid - according to what our spy gave us - he should be getting out of their Academy around fifteen hundred hours. We grab him, disable him, and then we shift to escape. Once clear of pursuit, we make way to the supply dump where I told you to bury stuff yesterday. Then we go with all speed to our village."
"If we can't capture?" asked the youngest.
"Kill," said the senior. "Kid's a potential resource for the Leaf. We weaken the Leaf, we're still ahead of the game. Not as good as acquring the resource for ourselves, but it'll do."
"-so," said the older woman. "We get this one chance to redeem ourselves to our village. This kid is supposed to be a fuuinjutsu master in the making. Last name's Uzumaki so he might be of THAT lineage."
"That would explain why the kid's even studying fuuinjutsu at that age," offered one of the younger women. "What do we do if we can't nab him?"
"Secondary target is this one - Hinata Hyuga, and tertiary is this one - Sasuke Uchiha," said the senior. "If we can't get any of the three, we don't have anywhere to go - so we HAVE to succeed."
"No pressure," said one of the younger women as she checked the photos. "This Uchiha kid looks constipated or something."
"Yeah, well, the Uchiha have the Sharingan, but they've also apparently got some serious issues," said the senior. "This is a no-kill mission. Let me stress that. Use non-lethal attacks unless there is absolutely no other option. I'm not mentioning any names, am I?"
"Why is everyone looking at me?" asked the redhead.
"Just your imagination," lied the senior.
"What, we just stroll in the front gate?" asked the youngest of the two merchants.
"Why not, we're exactly what our identification says," said the older. "We grab this kid, we get back into good graces with our home village."
"Well, yeah, and we've been doing the rice trader thing long enough that we're pretty good at it," admitted the younger. "It's just that snatching some kid out of a ninja village and making our way back - that seems a little above and beyond our actual talents."
"When have I led you astray?" asked the older.
"Uhm, let's see," said the younger thoughtfully.
"Let's not dwell on the past," hurried the elder. "Here's the gate."
Kotetsu looked to Izumo. "Ninja?"
"Yeah, but genin level if that," said Izumo as the two rice merchants took their cart down the road.
"That's the fourth group," said Kotetsu as he made a signal to where the ANBU was watching.
"Right," said Izumo. "What the heck is going on, anyway?"
"Like anyone would tell US," grumped Kotetsu.
"Check THIS group out," said Izumo, nodding towards the road.
"You've GOT to be kidding me," said Kotetsu as he noted the pennant.
"Hello," said the oldest of the group. "Would it be possible to speak with your Hokage's office?"
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(Posted Sun, 21 Aug 2011 18:09)
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