(July, year 54 AK)
"This is boring." The unassuming looking woman in her twenties said with a bit of irritation in her voice, "We are tailing this guy for three days and nothing happened so far."
"Sigh, like we have a choice on the matter..." The equally unassuming looking man in his twenties replied as he watched a middle-aged man walking into the same restaurant that the both of them were sitting in, "Kohei is here, get ready to act if something happens."
As Kohei Ishihara slowly walked into the expensive-looking restaurant, he unhurriedly looked around and walked to the private booths and entered an enclosed area of the restaurant. A young boy with a Leaf ninja headband on his forehead had followed him closely.
The woman and the man who were talking previously were seating at a table not too far from the private booth that Kohei had entered, and although the line of sight were mostly blocked, they could still hear what is happening inside.
"Why are we even try so hard here?" The woman asked with a bit of irritation, "It's not like this job could even pose any difficulty to us anyway, besides, Itachi is with the client, even if some morons try something, he will handle it easily by himself..."
"Sigh, this is simply the part of the job, to always be ready for anything and to give it your 100%, even when the job looks easy, you know that, Hikari." The man answered calmly as he continued to pay attention to the private booth where Kohei is.
"Yes, I know, but it doesn't make it any less boring..." Hikari replied to Yuta, as they both were sitting at a restaurant table, disguised as regular adult customers using the Transformation jutsu.
Previously, as they finished the meeting with the client, they were assigned rooms in the mansion and had a discussion of their own. During that discussion, Shisui said that he'll let them handle the mission on their own, and he would only step in if they couldn't handle it without him.
After that, Yuta, Hikari and Itachi decided to tail Kohei Ishihara and observe closely his surroundings for any threat in the coming days. Also, they decided that Itachi would follow Kohei closely in the open, while Yuta and Hikari would do the same in the shadows.
For the first three days they were doing just that. At first Yuta felt a bit excited about this job and about doing actual ninja-like things, but after the three uneventful days his enthusiasm had run dry.
They were following Kohei through the town all day, every day, staying hidden, using Transformation jutsu from time to time to blend with the people, or staying in the shadows of alleys or on the roofs for hours, constantly on guard, waiting for something.
Kohei Ishihara is a busy man, he was all over the town from the early in the morning. Every day he goes and meets with multiple merchants discussing some business, then he goes and inspects multiple stores, workshops and warehouses in town.
After observing the man for days Yuta felt a bit sympathetic towards him, the man is a hard worker. And although Kohei gave Yuta the impression of a noble, stern and imposing person, he is working hard each and every moment he has to ensure the wellbeing of his business.
As disguised Yuta and Hikari were idly chatting, Yuta suddenly felt with his chakra senses how one of the chakra signatures inside the private booth, that belonged to one of the people that Kohei came to meet with, had quickly grown from the chakra level of the regular person all the way to the Chunin ninja level and above.
Yuta quickly stood up and gave Hikari a signal, as he started running towards the private booth.
'So, there is some ninja targeting Kohei after all...' Yuta thought on his way, 'And to think that I didn't notice anything unusual before, that means that the enemy ninja has a good chakra concealment skills, or maybe it's my chakra senses that are not sensitive enough to notice...'
Yuta moved his hands as soon as he stood up and started moving, he was indented to use the Shadow Chains genjutsu right away to paralyze the enemy.
Even when he can't see the enemy, he still could sense their location and direct his jutsu through the sound on his chakra senses alone. But as he formed the firstF hand seal, he felt how Itachi's chakra flared from the area where his eyes were, and Yuta stopped forming the jutsu, as he realized that Itachi had already taken care of the enemy.
Either way, Yuta ran quickly inside the booth, not relaxing his guard at all, Hikari was right beside him.
As Yuta entered the booth, he saw a man in his twenties in usual civilian clothes who stood with a kunai in his hand that was pointed in Kohei's direction, his intention was obvious for everyone. But the man stood frozen, his eyes were lifeless. Yuta quickly realized that it was the same enemy that he sensed before, and now he was under Itachi's Sharingan genjutsu.
Kohei was also standing up, his expression was a bit shaken, but he kept the same stern and imposing attitude as before, while looking at his failed assassin in front of him.
"What is going on?! What is the meaning of this?!" The other middle-aged man exclaimed with a bit of fear and anger as he hurriedly stood up and took a step back, pushing the chair behind him down to the floor. He stood just beside the failed assassin, looking between the assassin and Itachi, who had his Sharingan active at the moment and still sitting beside the table, looking calmly at the assassin in the eyes.
'Trying to fake ignorance, aren't you?' Yuta thought as he looked at the man who shouted, 'This must be the big buyer, to whom Kohei is selling his trading company now. But there is just one thing, the ninja who concealed his chakra and tried to assassinate Kohei has no active Transformation jutsu right now, he couldn't have that while concealing his chakra, and the man also doesn't have any signs of being under a genjutsu, so that means that the man knew full well who he was bringing here. He is likely the one who hired this ninja in the first place.'
...
'But ninjas rarely work alone...' Yuta thought as he looked around and increased his guard, expecting another attack at any moment, 'And my and Hikari's cover had being blown too, with how quickly we reacted, any competent ninja who saw us would know who we are now...'
'In case that there are more enemies here, we must seize the initiative quickly, we can't just stay here in the open, giving our enemies time to prepare another attack!'
Yuta quickly looked at Itachi and said, "Me and Hikari will take the prisoner for interrogation, you stay and protect the client."
As Itachi nodded, the failed assassin closed his eyes and started falling to the ground, clearly unconscious, while Hikari moved forward and caught him like a sack of potatoes.
'Good, this should put pressure on the enemy's team and divide their group, leaving no time for them to come up with a strategy. They couldn't allow us to interrogate their man, so some of them, if not all, would be forced to pursue us instead. As for Kohei, it is likely that they would abandon their mission for the time being, but only if Itachi stays. But there is also a possibility that they will try again anyway, so Itachi has to stay to protect the client regardless.'
Yuta signaled Hikari and they quickly disappeared from the restaurant, bringing the incapacitated enemy with them.
...
"Now what?" Hikari asked enthusiastically, as both of them were running through the roofs. She kept her Transformation active, same as Yuta, so carrying an unconscious adult like a sack of potatoes under her arm wasn't too hard for her now, as she has the form of a full-grown woman now with the strength that her young trained ninja body has.
Although she would be able to carry that man even in her usual form, but it would be inconvenient thing to do so with her small eight-year-old frame and the limited armlength.
"Now we lure the enemy out." Yuta replied as they jumped from the roof to the ground and ran through the outskirts of the town and soon, they were already running through the tall grass along the river, there is a few trees here and there and soon they were some distance outside the town.
They stopped and Hikari dropped the body beside a tree.
Yuta had an idea, he glanced at Hikari and gave her a couple hand signs, and she nodded. Both of them dropped their Transformations and in a small cloud of smoke their smaller young bodies appeared instead.
...
After that Yuta, being in his usual eight-year-old form, approached the unconscious body, crouched beside him and deliberately slowly formed a series of hand seals for an Interrogation genjutsu, while Hikari stood guard, looking around.
And shortly after that, a bunch of shurikens flew in their direction from the bushes, aiming for Hikari and Yuta...
'Hm, interesting...' Yuta thought as he traced the trajectory of shurikens to the bushes and finally able to sense some chakra signatures there, although their enemies were using chakra concealment too, it wasn't very good and Yuta was able to sense them now, especially when he knew where to look, and now that he sensed them, he won't let them to hide from him again.
'They aren't Shisui alright...' Yuta thought as he had a shiver remembering the training fights with Shisui when Shisui was concealing his chakra and launching one deadly attack after another while staying hidden from him at all times, giving him no chance to retaliate at all.
--- AN ---
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