"The reinforcements should arrive in about 10 minutes at the main gate if they keep their pace." Shiki declared.
"Good. About time." Inori replied, tired from handling the discontent of several of the caravaners.
"It would be best if you go leash your people a bit tighter Tenma-dono. The people coming have higher status in the village and may not respond to "unreasonable complaints" as well as we do." She warned the caravan's leader.
"This . . . It will be hard to do that in the current situation but these people, they wouldn't harm their protection targets, right?" Tenma questioned.
"They won't, I don't want a black mark on my mission record after all . . ." Shiki replied.
His team looked at him with bafflement. They knew he was the one most likely to "teach a little lesson" to the ungrateful offenders.
But then the boy completed his sentence.
". . . But, if after the mission is complete, they all die under mysterious circumstances, that'll not be our problem at all." He casually threatened, making Tenma freeze in place as the rest of the group continued towards the gate.
'Now that's more like it. Was beginning to think he was replaced.' Mei thought to herself.
As for Tenki and the Land of Iron trio, they were continuously learning more about the quiet boy that had previously kept all of his thoughts to himself.
Benihime in particular was meticulously memorizing the boy's every action like a researcher working on their favorite topic.
Kind of creepy, especially since she was about Shiki's age and did not have the benefit of a previous life.
Children of the shinobi world were truly precocious in all manner of ways.
*
After waiting a few minutes at the gate, Tenma catching up in the meantime, the reinforcing group finally arrived.
"Always finding trouble, eh brat?" Tsunade teased with a grin.
"The way I see it, trouble finds me. My reaction to it is the real problem." Shiki responded in monotone.
The Senju princess' facial expression cramped up immediately at the sheer audacity and shamelessness of the boy, casually admitting the problem as if it was something to be proud about.
The three folk stiffened a little bit at the attitude while the rest of Team 6 just shook their heads, already familiar with Shiki's shenanigans.
Thankfully, the already perpetually stoic yet still teenaged Uchiha Fugaku, stepped up and spoke to move things along.
"What is the situation?" He asked Inori.
Mei pouted at her elder brother's overwhelming professionalism as a shinobi that made him ignore her in favor of inquiring about mission details first.
"We had an unforeseen encounter with Kumo shinobi, Shiki and Mei did, to be precise." The Violet Rose started.
Fugaku's brow twitched, showing he was more worried about his dear sister than he let on, the fact that he, eldest son and successor of the Uchiha clan's head came all the way here, was plenty enough to clue others in about his feelings on the matter.
"It was a squad of four, likely a Jonin sensei and his students but the sensei was an Elite Jonin and one of his students was the son of the Third Raikage, also at Jonin to Elite Jonin in actual strength." Shiki explained.
"Shiki detected them ahead of time and we prepared for a possible attack. When it became clear that they would indeed come for us, Shiki struck first, taking the two weaker enemies down in an ambush before retreating towards my position for a second ambush."
Mei spoke, continuing the boy's explanation.
"I held back the Jonin sensei for a few minutes, mostly due to him being a favorable matchup for me, while Shiki defeated and captured the Third Raikage's son, his sensei retreated afterwards, sensei he would probably have been defeated if I was reinforced." She concluded.
"So you want me to fix up the prisoner who is badly injured and deliver him back to Konoha?" Tsunade inquired.
"Yeah." Shiki answered.
"Kanata-san will then accompany you back while Fugaku-san and Makoto-san will help us with Kumo's retaliation that is sure to come. Didn't Mito-sama brief you all." The boy spoke.
"Just making sure." Tsunade shrugged.
"You all okay with that, right?" She asked her temporary squad, obtaining unanimous nods.
Following the conversation, Shiki took Tsunade and Senju Kanata to the temporary clinic run by Maya and Ema.
There he would unseal Ay and help stabilize him while the Senju princess worked her medical magic.
As for Uchiha Fugaku and Hyuga Makoto, they stood behind with the rest of Team 6 to discuss what could be expected from Kumo.
"For starters we can expect the escaped Elite Jonin, Dodai. He used Fire and Earth Releases along with his Lava Release Kekkei Genkai which produces rubber in his case." Mei explained.
"The rubber from his ninjutsu is vulnerable to Fire Release so Nii-sama and I should be well equipped to handle him." The bespectacled girl added.
Fugaku nodded.
"You did well Mei. To match an Elite Jonin of Kumo, even for a short time, not even a year after becoming a full fledged shinobi . . . You do the Uchiha name justice." He praised his sister in a rather typical Uchiha fashion.
Mei rolled her eyes at the strange form of compliment but still smiled in acknowledgement since she knew it to be honest praise as she had gotten used to deciphering the attitudes of her father and brother after learning from her much more empathetic mother.
"Dodai is also a sensory type, a very good one at that but besides this and his ninjutsu ability, his taijutsu skills are just on par with a regular, non-taijutsu based jonin. Also, he is great at breaking genjutsu but doesn't cast any himself." Inori added her own info on the man.
"Do we know who else might come?" Makoto inquired but the Violet Rose just shook her head.
"We should just keep Kumo's specialties in mind while preparing for anything." She said.
"The enemy has two options. Run to the nearest Kumo outpost for quick reinforcements and immediately go for a couter-attack on us or call actual solid reinforcements from Kumo itself." The Yamanaka continued.
"All things considered, they should go for the second option, Dodai was part of the group that ambushed our Team 6 in the past, he knows randoms won't help much against us, even if we had no reinforcements." Inori concluded.
Knowing the escaped Kumo shinobi was part of the group that had ambushed his sister months ago, Fugaku's dark eyes showed a faint glint of red.
If Kumo actually came for another round, they would be in for a rude awakening indeed.
*
Back to the medical team side, Shiki got a close view of a master at work.
Despite still being a teenager at this point, Tsunade was a true artist on the operating table.
She used the Mystical Palm which Shiki had already mastered to a large degree but the way she used it?
Shiki could only admit defeat, it would take a long time of practice for him to even think about catching up, especially since she was still in her rapid growth period when both skills and power rapidly rose.
In his previous life, many considered that Sakura had surpassed her master but the boy had not been among them.
Even if adult Sakura edged out Tsunade in skill, she still only learned everything her master taught her without adding anything significantly new to the mix.
Not to mention that as a Senju, not only did Tsunade have superior chakra reserves compared to her disciple who was known to make up for her relatively mediocre ones with her supreme control, she also boasted incredible physical strength and resilience without any jutsu.
While Sakura's monstrous strength relied nearly exclusively on her Chakra Enhanced Strength, Tsunade could crush rocks with her bare hands without any chakra added in the mix.
Her resilience and survivability without her Creation Rebirth was also much higher than her student's
Though this could also be seen as a point in Sakura's favor, she managed to match her master despite her lower baseline stats.
The Strength of a Hundred Seal made up for her lacking chakra reserves and her chakra control made her Chakra Enhanced Strength as potent as Tsunade's despite the inherent difference in physical ability.
All of this to say, Senju Tsunade was truly one of a kind in the shinobi world.
One could not forget that from the Second World War all the way to the present, Tsunade barely trained and improved due to her trauma.
She had literally wasted her prime year so her ceiling might have been even higher than it was shown in the series.
However, if Shiki were to be asked about how Sakura could surpass her in the future, then he could only point to the pinkette's genjutsu talent which was mentioned but never really explored in the original series.
But I digress.
What truly mattered, was that Tsunade, with Shiki and Kanata's assistance, managed to stabilize Ay and determine he would not become a cripple despite the extensive damage inflicted by the boy during their battle.
After some preliminary treatment, Tsunade asked Shiki to seal him back up just in case.
He had been opening to keep the scroll with him in case he needed to capture someone else but it looked like he had to give it up to the returning two man squad anyway.
'Unfortunate.' Was the Shiki's thoughts as he entrusted his beloved capture sealing scroll to Tsunade.
+++++
Hey, Author here!
To promote the novel I will be releasing BONUS CHAPTERS on SUNDAYS based on the previous week's power stone count.
100 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter
500 Power Stones = 2 Bonus Chapters
1000 Power Stones = 3 Bonus Chapters
Every earned BONUS CHAPTER on Webnovel will also be posted on Scribble.
Just a reminder that you can read up to a FULL MONTH ahead of this site on pa-treon.
I'm trying to become a full time Author now and I'm not going to be starting any new novels just so I can make sure this one is properly completed.
Find those sweet advanced chapters on pa-treon.com/lusoba without the -