Pre-Chapter A/N:Another chapter on time? Guess my lock-in is going pretty well. If you haven't already, I recommend turning on notifications for my stuff so you can see when new stuff drops right as it drops. Next five chapters on my patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)— same username as here and link in bio.
XXXXXX- KUSHINA UZUMAKI
Their brief detour to the Land of Earth had at least bought them some time on the deadline that Shori-nii had given. He still wanted the compass in his hands, but he had given them till the end of next month instead of this one, which was ending in a matter of days. That meant they had more measures open to them to get what they needed and solve the problems that Shori-nii's request had created for their situation.
The first of those problems was the one they faced now: getting into the Land of Lightning in the first place. Much like Earth, it was made of mountains that stretched high into the air, except that those mountains went even higher here, and then there was the additional factor to consider that the general climate here made for much colder weather conditions.
All three of them were wearing Konoha's latest thermal clothing with seals from Uncle Reiiji's division to allow them to brave the worst of it. The only issue was that with the thermal clothing active, they would stick out like sore thumbs, and Minato's chakra obscuration seals wouldn't work with them doing their job. So once they actually left Frost and ventured into Lightning proper, where there was the risk of running across Cloud patrols, they would have to forgo them.
Mikoto had some experience with extreme cold from her mission in the Land of Iron, but both she and Minato were going to be going in completely unprepared—or, well, as unprepared as any of Shori-nii's students could ever be for any situation, which was to say not much. She tried to use memories of the time he had stolen them from their beds in the middle of the night in the dead of winter and left them several miles outside the village with only their pyjamas and chakra to protect them from the cold. Then a week later, he had done the same thing again, except with him hunting them every time he sensed their chakra. That one had been truly hell.
Those experiences had left them with some frame of reference for surviving the brutal cold without chakra to keep them warm, and without getting so sloppy that they risked detection even without it, but for all that the winter in the Land of Fire was much colder than the rest of the year, it might as well be balmy compared to what the Land of Lightning boasted. The altitudes just made everything a completely different kind of situation.
The air was thinner, the winds would lash against their bodies and rob them of whatever heat they sought to retain, all the while stone would continuously pepper them and their path. Traversing the mountains without chakra was going to be another type of hell, even. She knew Shori-nii had a sense of humour, but this mission was something else… even for him.
"So what do we do?" Mikoto asked, taking her place around the steaming fish they would have for dinner. A few seals to keep the smoke from spreading and a barrier to prevent the smell or their sounds from travelling had given them the space for a small respite in what was already a gruelling slog. Grass, then Earth, and then all the way back to Frost. Lightning itself would be next, and they had no idea what would be awaiting them there.
Shori-nii had denied them access to the collected intelligence that their spy network had gathered. Minato had accepted it easily along with the explanation that he wanted to prevent 'burning assets' for such a mission with limited payoff. Kushina felt that the only reason for gathering information was to use it, so why had they gathered the intel then, if not for it to be used during missions? She felt it was yet another test of their capabilities. That was one problem that came with having the Hokage for a Jounin Sensei.
Even now, after they had all become jounin in their own rights, he was still pulling strings from behind. He had said that they would have to deal with the team being separated, but that had only been the case for months before he found a suitable reason to squash them up together again. It was not that she minded. Teaming up with Minato and Mikoto was a blessing. Even just being outside the village itself was probably something that she needed to thank Shori-nii for. Kushina knew how rare it was for one of Konoha's jinchuriki to spend as much time outside as she was recently getting to.
The Clan council would probably have a collective stroke the day they found out just how far she'd been sent out.
"We go and steal the compass, obviously," she said when it was clear that Mikoto did not want to answer Minato's question.
"Of course, but the question was more about how we go about achieving that goal more than about the contents of the goal itself," he said with a smirk. She smirked back and shrugged.
"We go in and take it. Easy as that," she said.
"I think it is best if we infiltrate as learners," Mikoto said instead.
"What? Why? We can take some monks," she said.
"Have you even seen a map of the Land of Lightning?" her teammate asked, and flushing, Kushina looked off to the side. They knew she didn't exactly like maps. The damn things just always confused her no matter what.
"The Temple is within miles of the village. If we start a disturbance there, we should expect Cloud Shinobi on us in a matter of minutes," Minato said. She took the point with a nod.
"Okay, so we can't just break the gate open and crack some skulls. But why infiltration? We could just sneak in and steal the damn thing," she said.
"Yes, because the three of us are a very stealthy group," Mikoto said.
"Can't be that hard," she replied with a shrug. She'd seen the people that focused on stealth and they weren't much to look at.
"And where is the compass kept?" Mikoto asked next.
"Okay, point taken. We'll do things your way," she conceded.
"Good. But we need to come up with a good cover story," Minato added.
"And we need to shave our heads," Mikoto said.
"What? You do know that not all monks are bald, right? Just because that Head Abbot woman was bald doesn't mean everyone has to be. I saw a few people with hair in the Fire Temple," she said.
"It's not about that. You have bright red hair and Minato's hair shines like the sun. We'd stick out like sore thumbs in any attempt at infiltration. And while I doubt the monks are paying much attention to Shinobi matters, the students of the Hokage of Konoha are going to be pretty noticeable. Especially if there are any passing shinobi or anything," she said.
Kushina could already feel mounting irritation at this point. She'd managed to go years without cutting her hair. She'd gotten some crap in the academy for it, and then Shori-nii had taught her some tricks. The next time that stupid instructor decided to pull on it to teach her a lesson, he'd left with gaping holes in his hand that needed multiple rounds of stitching. Washing the blood out of her hair afterwards had been a pain, but it was more than worth it, all things considered.
"Shori-nii is going to pay for this," she groused.
"Heavily. I say we negotiate double the S-rank pay," Mikoto said.
"Triple even. He can afford it," Minato added. She chuckled.
"He'll pay it and won't even care," she said.
"We will. I've been looking at some new furniture for my place," Mikoto said.
"Maybe I'll get a place of my own even. I'll get him to give me a personal account after this," Kushina said. Mikoto scoffed.
"As if he'd ever let you move out of his house."
"Well, someone does have to take care of Grandma. Probably best I get something like a katana instead. Chakra metal and all nice like."
"You can't use a sword," Minato said.
"I can learn. Can't be that hard. Shori-nii knows how to use one and he says he barely put in any practice." She shrugged.
"Fair enough," Mikoto accepted.
"So who goes first?" she asked, taking out a kunai. If they were going to shear their heads to infiltrate, then it was best they got it over and done with now.
"Not it," both Mikoto and Minato said so quickly that their words blurred into one.
"I strongly dislike the both of you," she said, moving to take her seat.
She struggled to hold in her laughter as the sun reflected on Minato's bald head as they began to walk into the Land of Lightning. In the end, it was decided that it was for the best if they travelled into the Land of Lightning as civilian refugees. The Temple was close to the Shinobi village, so they had no idea what the patrols could look like there. There was every chance they'd get caught if they tried to sneak close enough to just approach the Temple's gates.
So they'd assembled flimsy bags and stuffed them with threadbare clothing—the same drab type that they wore now. Mikoto had had to use some kunoichi concealer to blunt some of her more recognisable features. Mikoto was obviously not a civilian from her high cheekbones, so they'd had to be softened somewhat. Kushina and Minato, aside from their hair, had fewer standout features beyond looking healthier than most civilian refugees.
Making their faces dirty and smudged had helped somewhat with that, and then to ensure that any shinobi they ran into didn't feel much like giving them a second look, they'd broken into a farm and had a cow urinate on their clothes before rubbing some of its dung on some places. The smell was going to project far from them. Minato had been able to do some sort of medical jutsu to disconnect their senses of smell so they didn't retch from their own clothing.
That was another fact that was going to sell their story even further—people who smelt and were used to smelling did not notice their own smells, after all. So they began to walk. They made their way from the Land of Frost into the Land of Lightning, fighting the cold, and fighting the urge to scratch at their skin from where the clothes rubbed against them. There were multiple layers they wore to shield them from the elements somewhat, but then that meant their skin itched from the low quality of the clothing. It was all a mess.
A kunai landed in front of them suddenly. She flinched, drawn from her thoughts sharply. The others did so as well to sell their guise. And then there was a man in front of them wearing an oni mask. She drew backwards, cringing from the appearance as best she could.
"Who are you?" the masked man hissed.
"Uh, Shinobi-san. Pardon me, shinobi-san. I am Lee, a baker's apprentice, these are my Master's daughters Maki and Mai," he said. That had been the story they'd decided to go with. Being baker's children would explain the lack of the traditional sunken cheeks that most refugees would sport.
"From where?" the hiss returned.
"The Land of Frost, Shinobi-san. Kabuki village under the mountain and next to the—"
"To where?" Minato was interrupted by the masked man. None of them bristled at the rudeness, ostensibly too deep in the throes of fear to care. She was just freezing.
"The Lightning Temple. We mean to take oaths and serve as monks," he said.
"Why?"
"Tis the bandits, Shinobi-san. They destroyed our village. They took all the food and the gold, and they even killed my master. So I decided to take the girls to the Temple. A passing monk came some years back and said the Temple always had a fire and bread for any who needed it, and we felt—"
"How do you know your way?" he interrupted again.
"We have a map, you see, shinobi-san." Minato began to take the map out of his pocket, and as he unfolded it and began to move to show the Anbu, the man disappeared.
She breathed out a silent sigh of relief. Their chakra obfuscation seals had held. The seals' main job—forcing their chakra to remain at their stomachs, which also happened to be where the seal tags were placed, and strangled flow to the rest of their body while also obscuring their main reserves from sensing at a certain distance—it had the effect of making them seem to be civilians with extremely underdeveloped chakra pathways and sell their pretence. Of course, it came with the effect that they couldn't use chakra while it was adhered. Even the slightest application of chakra would set it alight. Minato's other chakra cloaking seal was objectively better for most cases, but it just didn't have the longevity of Shori-nii's obfuscation seal which it had been based on.
They did as civilians would have in their situation and pretended to be suitably impressed even as all three of them had been able to sense him weaving the seals for the body flicker and track his escape path. They kept their guises on for the rest of the journey though, moving at a civilian's pace through the snow. At least they were able to light fires when they stopped to rest each night.
The bread that Mikoto had had in her seals had been used as supplies for all three of them after having been unsealed and wrapped up in their luggage while they were in the Land of Frost. It helped to drive home their guise, but the lack of access to her sealed ramen was already beginning to get on Kushina's nerves. That, and several other factors combined to make the whole experience an exercise in patience.
It took them the better part of a week to reach their target. They had to stop even when they weren't tired to help in selling their story to any watchers. And even worse, they couldn't have any discussions that went contrary to their disguises, so for most of it they just remained silent. It was better to live in silence than it was for them to accidentally say something that made their covers fall apart on closer glance. And so they suffered through much of their days: boredom, cold, itchiness.
All of it blurred together into one of the most uncomfortable periods of her life. She silently regretted all the times she'd wished for more missions to get her out of Konoha. She'd rather be helping Grandma use the bathroom right now than digging her foot out of another snow mound only to plunge it in another one.
The gruelling march did not come to an end when they could finally spot the Temple in the distance. It was built into the side of a mountain. She knew that Kumogakure itself sat at the top of the same mountain. It was a massive thing. Wider and taller than her most vivid imaginations had conjured up. The top of it stretched so far that it was covered by the clouds themselves. So that was where the village got its name from then.
Spotting the temple didn't bring an end to the march, but much of the irritation was gone. Now her steps felt lighter. The cold bit, but she had become used to it. At least she hoped she had become used to it and not that she had frozen her nerves so badly they could not feel the cold anymore. That would be terrible. And she knew the rest of this would be equally annoying.
Being a monk for however long it would take them to find the compass and get the chance to steal it would be hell. She'd never been religious, and while the Uzumaki clan had their own religious practices, she hadn't adhered for a long time. Grandma cared little for it, and Shori-nii cared even less. Whatever it was the monks were up to—even if it had some sliver of truth in that the Sage had truly lived—wasn't something that she wanted much involvement in.
Even with spotting the temple, it had still taken a day and a half for them to reach it. At least the line at the gates was much shorter than the Konoha one. Considering what the hike to get here had been like, she understood it.
They reached the gate and were met with a man whose head was just as bald as theirs. He smiled on seeing them lift their cloaks.
"From Frost?" he asked. All three of them nodded, and Minato spoke a quiet, "Yes, sir."
"I am incredibly sorry for your losses," he said, and he did seem to genuinely mean it.
"Thank you," Minato murmured.
"Names and skills, please," he said.
"Lee, Maki, Mai. I was a baker's apprentice. Maki was a seamstress. Mai learned some calligraphy," Minato said, speaking for the three of them.
"Oh, good. You can work in the kitchens then. We always need people working on more robes. And calligraphy? If you're any good, you can work on transcribing the holy books," the man said, noting something down on the pad he held before he looked up again.
"Come in, come in. Let's get you showered and in some warm clothes. Must have been hell walking all the way here," he said, and then they were let into the temple's gates. They had let the wolves into the henhouse.
In four weeks, the temple would burn, and none of those who stood within it knew.
A/N: Doing some more down to earth activity. How's it look? We didn't get the chance to really explore missions as much with Shori's formative years, so I want to do some of that with his team. Next five up on patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga) (same username as here and link in bio), support me there and read them early.