"Fuck! A mission in the middle of the night. And it's raining like hell. Perfect. Just perfect."
Seimei muttered under his breath as he dashed toward his home to pack up everything he needed for the upcoming emergency mission.
Tonight, he was chilling inside his home. He had been tweaking with the Fuinjutsu seals to create some basic games for fun.
After all, even he deserved a few days off after a month of grinding, training, academy classes, and mandatory missions.
However, his leisurely time ended abruptly when an ANBU ninja with a ridiculous animal mask covering his face suddenly showed up, urging him to visit the Hokage Office immediately.
Apparently, his father, Senju Tobirama, had summoned him and many others for some reason.
He looked at the dark, cloudy sky and the heavy rain that fell with a pitter-pitter sound before falling into deep thought.
He didn't know what madness it was.
But since it was an official summons from the Hokage's side, he had to answer.
Being a fifth-year S-class student had many perks. But it also had its fair share of drawbacks.
For example, the Hokage could assign him any mission at any moment if he deemed it necessary. And as a fifth-year student from S-class, he had to accept the mission, just like any other official Shinobi of Konoha.
The world must have gone mad.
He hadn't graduated from the academy. And yet, he was forced to work extra hours.
It looked like he could not escape the life of an overworking workhorse in this life either.
But even though he cursed, he still went back to prepare for the mission. After all, before the main mission started, they had to try their best to rescue their fellow Konoha ninjas, who might still be fighting enemies.
Although the chances of them being alive were slim, Seimei would never give up on rescuing them, as long as there was even the slightest chance of saving them.
What truly irritated him was the reason why the Konoha ninjas were facing danger almost 800 miles away from Konoha.
The reason was simple.
There was a traitor in the Land of Fire, the very soil Konoha vowed to protect in exchange for gaining an almost autonomous military stronghold of ninjas from the Daimyo.
And there wasn't just one traitor.
It seemed that a whole ninja clan, more accurately, an independent ninja clan, had betrayed the Land of Fire, and they were colluding with the ninjas of the foreign nation.
And that ninja clan was a relatively stronger one among all independent ninja clans residing in the Land of Fire right now.
The price of betrayal was death.
So, Seimei and his group had to exterminate the independent ninja clan, along with the foreign ninjas hiding within that clan.
"The mission is quite dangerous, and the number of ninjas participating in this mission is fewer than I expected."
"It looks like, despite having a couple of hundreds of thousands of active ninjas, Konoha is still short on manpower. It's not surprising, though, considering over 70% of all active ninjas are tasked to exterminate chakra beasts every day."
"I don't know about dealing with the horned alien bastards in the future, but these chakra beasts are one hell of a headache."
"These fuckers are increasing their population like rabbits. Not to mention, out there somewhere, there are chakra beasts with SSS-class danger ratings."
Seimei muttered. He was already inside his room, ready to pack up all the necessary things he might need for this mission.
He walked to a large cabinet, weaved a Fuinjutsu runic structure in the air, and pressed the hovering, bright-blue runic structure on the cabinet's door, unlocking it.
The cabinet was filled with several ready-made potions, pills, and ninja tools. It also contained a large number of boxes of explosive tags, a few storage bracelets, and a pile of throwing weapons, including kunai, senbon, and shurikens.
Interestingly, all the kunai were marked with his unique Flying Thunder God Mark, which read: "Your Father is Here!"
He was fairly confident about using the Flying Thunder God Technique in combat situations.
With constant grinding and his proficiency panel's help, he managed to level up the Flying Thunder God Technique to the peak of LV4.
Although he had not unlocked the second stage of the Flying Thunder God Technique, where a user could teleport even when a specific spatial marker is on the move, he could teleport to the stationary spatial markers with ease.
No lag. No ripple. No hesitation.
He could only say that when it came to teleporting to any stationary spatial marker, his Jutsu activation and subsequent actions were "Smooth as Silk."
"Heh…"
Seimei chuckled as he shook his head lightly.
He picked one of the storage bracelets, wore it on his right hand, and filled its sealing space with all the tools and supplies he deemed necessary to complete the mission safely.
While doing so, his thoughts couldn't help but drift toward his teammates for the mission.
A total of 28 ninjas are participating in this mission, including Seimei and the ANBU operatives.
However, the independent ninja clan that had turned traitor should have 80 capable ninjas at the very least.
And they still didn't know how many foreign spies and ninjas were hiding in that place.
"Fortunately, our team has two S-rank ninjas this time. One from the Uchiha clan and the other from the Senju clan."
"Other ninjas, who are participating in this mission, possess Chunin-level combat power at the very least, including several full-fledged Jonin and two Elite Jonin."
"With such a lineup, we shouldn't have any problem completing our mission, right?"
Seimei muttered before closing the cabinet.
He changed into his combat uniform.
He also wore his silver-white gloves, made of chakra beast core and fine chakra metal that amplified the power of the chakra he channeled through the gloves.
Next, he picked up his ninjato and stored it in the storage space of his Fuinjutsu storage bracelet as well.
"Alright. I am ready."
"Time to join the rest of the team."
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While Seimei and his group were preparing to head out, Jiro and the two other full-fledged Jonin-level ninja, who had been fighting Uchiha Natsu a moment ago, stood at the edge of a cliff.
They looked down at the bottom of the cliff with a grave expression. The rain and the stormy night made it absolutely impossible for them to observe the bottom of the cliff, where the deep valley seemed to devour the very light.
Behind them was the corpse of one of their fellow ninjas, who had died miserably by having his entire upper body blown apart.
The ground was marked with countless cracks, craters, cutting marks, and uprooted trees.
Jiro clicked his tongue in annoyance. "That Konoha bastard. He jumped down but took our captain Shin with him."
The ninja on his left asked, "Should we go down?"
Jiro snapped at him. "Go down? Down there?"
"In this weather? Do you have a death wish? Don't you know that this valley is at least 400 meters deep?"
"That Uchiha ninja lost one of his arms, and he had countless injuries all over his body, including broken bones."
Jiro sighed and turned back.
"Don't bother. There's no way he is surviving the fall. As for Shin…"
Jiro paused before continuing, "Never mind. Let's go back."
"We have to report the situation to them right now."
Jiro began walking again. The other two ninjas glanced at each other before following him.
We have already come this far. There's no turning back. Not anymore. Jiro thought silently as he dashed toward his clan's grounds.
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