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"He?" Tenten followed the princess's gaze—it landed on Akio.
"That's Akio Namikaze," Tenten explained. "He's the Fourth Hokage's son. A genius ninja from the Hidden Leaf."
"The Fourth Hokage's son?!" The princess was visibly shocked.
"Didn't expect we'd be escorted by the son of the Fourth Hokage," one of the guards muttered, clearly shaken. Even though Princess Mitsuhime was royalty, her country was a small one. Compared to the Hokage of a great nation, a small country's noble didn't hold much weight.
In fact, being the son of the Fourth Hokage gave Akio a higher status than a princess from a minor nation.
"No need to overthink it," a voice suddenly said—it came from the shadow carrying the princess. She was so startled she almost fell off, but the shadow quickly steadied her.
"You scared me to death! A shadow that talks?!" Mitsuhime was completely freaked out.
"Akio..." Tenten also jumped at the voice and looked toward him. But Akio kept walking ahead, like he didn't hear or care about any of this.
Akio's Shadow Clone technique was more than just a regular jutsu—it was like slicing a piece off himself. His senses were shared with the shadow. Whatever the shadow saw or heard, so did he. It would've been perfect for gathering intel at night...
…If only it worked at night.
Without sunlight, there were no shadows, so the jutsu was useless after dark. A great idea—too bad reality had other plans.
"Hey, I've got a question," Mitsuhime said directly to the shadow. "Wanna marry into the Honey Country and be my prince consort?"
That blunt question caught Tenten off guard. Her heart clenched for some reason, and even she didn't know why.
"You're awfully direct, aren't you?" the shadow replied, in a calm and flat tone. In reality, Akio was freaking out inside—this princess is way too forward! What he intended as sarcasm came out of the shadow's mouth completely emotionless, since shadows couldn't express feelings.
"I'm not leaving the Hidden Leaf," the shadow added.
Tenten subtly relaxed, like she'd been worried he might say yes.
"Honey Country is great, y'know," Mitsuhime pressed on. "The flowers, the scenery—way better than the Leaf Village."
"Is it, though?" the shadow replied. "You're a princess on the run, being hunted. They're probably trying to use you as leverage to pressure your country's daimyo into surrendering. The Honey Country is still at war, right?"
"W-Well…" Mitsuhime fumbled. "They have to catch me to use me as leverage, don't they? Doesn't that mean they couldn't break through Honey Country's defenses? So clearly, we're stronger."
The shadow shook his head. "The only reason the daimyo let you leave during wartime is to escape. Not for fun. That country's falling apart. If you go back, you're either walking into death—or hoping we'll save it for you."
"…That's exactly right," Shikaku suddenly said, stopping in his tracks. He'd been thinking it over while they walked. The others stopped, too.
"What?! So that's what's going on?" Guy yelled.
"…." Mitsuhime lowered her head and said nothing. Her guards also looked down in silence.
"If that's the case, then this mission is at least B-rank. Saving a country involves national secrets. Things like entering wars, assassinating key targets, transporting classified intel—that's all S-rank stuff. If you can't explain everything clearly, then sorry—we're heading back," Shikaku said firmly, looking straight at Mitsuhime.
"…Fine. You're right," she muttered through clenched teeth.
"Good thing Akio caught on early," Lee said. "If we walked into an S-rank mission unprepared, we'd be walking to our deaths!"
Akio walked back to the group and stood in front of the shadow. "You'd better give us all the details. Who's after you? How many jōnin, how many chūnin? Are there any Kage-level enemies? Also, increase the mission reward. We'll either request backup or drop this mission."
"I'm sorry—we tricked you," one of the guards said, dropping to his knees. "Honey Country really is on the brink. I escaped with the princess, hoping to get help from Leaf ninja to take back the country. But… we can't afford to pay for an S-rank mission right now, so…"
No one moved to help him up. After all, they'd gambled with the lives of Leaf ninjas.
"But..." Akio glanced at Shikaku. "Shikaku-sensei, did the Third assign this mission to us specifically?"
"Yeah," Shikaku nodded. "Right after the mission request came in, the Third contacted me and Team 3 directly. So…"
"So the Third must've known what was going on with the Honey Country, and still picked us. It's dangerous, but with Guy-sensei here, we can take on Kage-level threats if it comes to that." Akio looked at Guy, who finally dropped his usual cheerful face and grew serious. He hadn't expected Akio to be able to read his strength like that.
And it was true—if he opened seven gates, Guy could fight someone on the Kage's level.
"With one of the strongest from the Leaf—Guy-sensei—plus Shikaku-sensei's smarts and intel skills, I'm guessing the enemy has no more than three jōnin, eight chūnin, and probably no more than fifty genin or lower. The Third specifically sent us to deal with this," Akio said, resting his hand on his chin.
"You're absolutely right, Lord Akio," the guard said. "Our enemy is from the Filling Country—three jōnin, eight chūnin, twenty-three genin. That was the intel we had when we left. After all the fighting, their numbers might've dropped a lot."
Akio shook his head. "Don't count on that. There's always a chance some of your own ninja defected."
"A few dozen ninjas… that's considered a war?" Tenten asked, confused. She'd heard that in past wars, the ninja villages would send hundreds—sometimes thousands—into battle.
"Small countries aren't like the big ones. Just having a jōnin at all is already a big deal. And there's a huge power gap, too. Two small-country jōnin together might not even be able to take down one from a big country. If they ran into someone like Guy, he could take on three at once."
"Hey, Shikaku—are you saying you don't plan to fight?" Guy instantly caught the implication.
"It just sounds like a hassle," Shikaku said with a grin.
"You… you guys…" The guard stared at them in disbelief. They sounded like they were actually going to do it?
"....."