The moment Danzō disappeared from view, Sarutobi Osamu let his posture slump, a low grumble escaping his lips. "A bunch of mountain bandits, and we need to team up with another squad? Our team alone is more than enough."
Kurama Meyuri didn't look up from checking the contents of her gear pouch.
"Since it's a joint mission, we shouldn't take it lightly. It's possible there are shinobi among the bandits. Our primary objective is to rescue the captured civilians unharmed." She finally glanced at him, her expression serious. "This is our first mission outside the village. I have no intention of failing."
"Guess you're right," Osamu conceded with a sigh.
He gave his own pouch a perfunctory check before trotting to catch up with Yuta and Meyuri.
"Hey, Yuta," he said, rubbing the lingering soreness in his back. "You don't think the other squad will hold us back, do you? After what Meyuri said... what if they mess up and we all fail because of them?"
'Hold us back?'
Yuta shot a sidelong glance at his teammate. If anyone is a liability, it's probably Osamu himself. Well, he mentally corrected, and Jiraiya. He's famously unreliable.
Soon, the three figures waiting at the main gate came into view.
There was Jiraiya, his white hair a mess, looking around with his typical lack of focus; Tsunade, her golden hair gleaming as she fixed the white-haired boy with a glare of irritation; and Orochimaru, leaning silently against a tree in his white robe, seemingly detached from it all.
'Just as I thought.'
The moment their team approached, Orochimaru—who had been intently studying a scroll—lifted his head. His serpentine yellow eyes immediately found and locked onto Yuta.
"Our partners have arrived," Orochimaru said, his voice quiet but clear.
His words finally pulled Tsunade's attention from her bickering. But one look at Jiraiya's foolish, leering face was too much to bear. Just before Yuta's team was within earshot, her fist connected with the back of Jiraiya's head with a solid thwack.
"OWW!!" he yelped, clutching his skull.
Tsunade was already ignoring him, her full attention on the approaching trio. Her eyes widened slightly.
'He's handsome,' she thought, her gaze flicking momentarily to Orochimaru for comparison. 'Hmm... I think he might even be better-looking than Orochimaru. There was no question; he is infinitely more appealing than the idiot Jiraiya.'
"Hello," Yuta said, stopping before the legendary trio. "I'm Shimura Yuta. These are my teammates, Sarutobi Osamu and Kurama Meyuri."
He had always been fond of these three in the stories, but facing them now as children, he felt a surprising detachment. Perhaps it was their youth.
Tsunade, for instance—the woman he knew was formidable, but the girl before him was just a six-year-old with a blonde ponytail. He felt no particular stir of interest.
'Absolutely no lolita complexes,' he reaffirmed internally.
"Orochimaru," the pale boy offered with an acknowledging nod.
Tsunade stepped forward, a confident smile on her face as she extended a hand. "I'm Tsunade."
Before Yuta could accept the gesture, Jiraiya shoved himself between them, enthusiastically grabbing Yuta's hand instead.
"The name's Jiraiya! Future legend of the shinobi world!" he proclaimed, throwing a familiar arm over Yuta's shoulders. He then turned his boisterous attention to Osamu. "Hey! You share a name with the old man. Are you related or something?"
'You moron!' Tsunade took a sharp, controlled breath, her fist clenching at her side. 'Stay calm. There are outsiders. Maintain your composure.'
"The... old man?" Osamu asked, scratching his head in confusion.
As a member of the sprawling Sarutobi clan, he was distantly related to many, but he wasn't sure who this "old man" was.
"He means the Third Hokage," Yuta said flatly, brushing off Jiraiya's arm. "You're so distantly related, it barely counts." He turned his focus to the analytical Orochimaru. "Now that introductions are over, we should discuss the mission."
"The Third Hokage?!" Osamu's jaw nearly dropped. He stared at Jiraiya, a wave of disbelief and jealousy washing over him.
'This guy? Is a student of the Hokage? How?'
"Look, it's just a bunch of bandits!" Jiraiya announced, striking what he believed was a cool pose—a gesture that was awkward to everyone else. "I, the great Jiraiya, can handle them all by myself!"
'Doesn't he feel any shame?' Yuta wondered, a silent ache of secondhand embarrassment creeping in. 'Will he remember this in ten years and want to hide in a hole and die?'
Sharing a brief, knowing glance with Orochimaru, the two boys reached a silent, unanimous agreement to ignore the fool entirely.
"A superficial analysis is unwise," Orochimaru began, his voice cool and precise. "While this mission appears to be simple extermination, its core is a rescue operation. The safety of the civilians is the priority, which raises the difficulty. Lethal force is not an option until the hostages are secure."
"I agree," Meyuri added, speaking up for the first time since their groups had merged. "Our strategy should be methodical. First, we survey the bandits' location and terrain. Once we've confirmed the hostages' position, we split our forces. A distraction team engages the bandits from the front, while a rescue team extracts the civilians from the rear."
She met Orochimaru's gaze. "I suspect that precise coordination between two squads is the entire reason for this joint operation."
Orochimaru regarded Meyuri with a flicker of newfound respect.
Her assessment mirrored his own conclusions. His initial focus had been on Yuta, assuming he was the team's core. But it was clear now that Kurama Meyuri was a sharp and formidable kunoichi in her own right.
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