Days continued to pass as I remained busy. Outside of my new friend group coming by to hang out, I was also busy with clan things.
I was, after all, expected to be the wife of the clan head, and that required much more than just being a strong Kunoichi, though that too was part of it. I needed to continue to learn about future duties.
It was honestly things that were normally taught to all girls born into the main families, but as a branch member, I had to learn everything both sides of the clan taught.
Even now, I still have things to learn, and that was all outside of training, which I still had to do, mainly to keep my edge, but it was still something I did daily.
Beyond that, I still had my mother, whom I wanted to spend time with, and friends within the Hyūga clan itself, and I spent time with Hiashi as well.
All things that meant I still hadn't been able to visit Koji, and today still wouldn't be the day, because once more, I was given a mission.
I could only hope my absence wouldn't hurt him too much. After all, I knew well that once I went to see him, I would likely spend the whole day there, and it wasn't easy putting that much time aside right now.
"Ahhh, Alright, I'm Yuki Hyūga, and I will be shadowing you for this mission of yours." I greeted the team of young Genin I would be working with today.
The mission was simple, they would be running out with supplies, about three days from Konoha, and I would follow them. My task was just to watch, and only step in if something went wrong.
Why was I given this kind of mission?
Well, truthfully? There were two reasons for that. One, the elders ensured I wasn't given missions that were too dangerous or too far away from the village; they did their best to shield me from another mission like the one in River.
The other reason pertained to the reason this mission existed in the first place.
These Genin were the same type as the ones whose disappearance we had to investigate on my last mission, and those teams weren't important enough to have someone like me watching over them.
No, the reason I was here wasn't as much to watch over them, as to watch out for them, because there was a shortfall of supplies.
Teams of Genin were showing up with fewer supplies than they were given, so the question was, what happened to the missing supplies?
Naturally, they had been interrogated, but found that they did not know, which meant we had a new mystery on our hands, and among those asked to help solve it was I.
I had reviewed the reports before setting out, of course. Teams like this one had been dispatched with basic gear—bandages, ration bars, chakra pills, tools—and somewhere between here and the front, bits of it vanished.
Not all of it. Not enough to cause a scandal.
Just enough to raise suspicion.
So now I was playing the part of a glorified escort, walking just far enough behind the kids to seem uninvolved, but close enough to keep eyes—and Byakugan—on every move they made.
They were a relatively standard team. Three Genin, one acting as field leader. No chūnin with them. That was the point. They were being tested, observed. Me? I was the silent insurance.
Their names were Kenshi, Rina, and Daichi. Kenshi was the leader, clearly trying too hard. Rina was quiet, scribbling in a travel journal whenever they stopped. Daichi had a bad habit of talking with his mouth full, which made every lunch break a personal trial for me.
Still, they were competent. Mostly. No wasted movement. They took their guard rotations seriously. And they didn't complain much.
That last part alone made them better than half the Genin I'd grown up around.
We were about a day into the trip, and nothing suspicious had happened yet. But I wasn't letting my guard down. Whoever was stealing from these teams—if that was what this was—had to be skilled, so I couldn't be careless.
They might not kill anyone, but that could make them even more dangerous, after all, taking down a team of Genin wasn't hard, but stealing from them without them knowing about it? Even I would struggle with that.
So clearly, whoever was behind this was good, and their skills had to be in either poison or genjutsu, those were the only known methods to pull something like this off, and the Byakugan would make genjutsu useless against me.
At the same time, my eyes should allow me to find whoever was behind it before they could act, hopefully allowing me to escape being poisoned if that is the means used.
So I made sure to keep my Byakugan active at all times as we moved, and with how often they stopped to take breaks, I too had plenty of time to rest my eyes as I only needed to take brief looks while resting to ensure someone wasn't approaching us.
Not that anyone was approaching us, clearly this wouldn't be an easy mission to complete, because as the sun came down for the first night, I hadn't seen anything worthy of attention. Not even the shadow of anything suspicious.
And there really wasn't anything overly interesting about watching a group of Genin running about their mission, even if their poor training did make it slightly more entertaining, given they knew I was there, and kept looking over their shoulders.
The only entertainment I had was playing around with them, allowing them to spot me at times, before disappearing like a ghost, making them question their own eyes.
Still, eventually, night arrived, and while they could take turns resting, I was forced to stay awake all night, turning on the Byakugan every three minutes to scan the surroundings, while hiding in the dark, away from the warmth of the fire.
Sometimes being a Jōnin is hard, much like being an adult, it's far more work than being a kid.
The second day passed much like the first. Long walks. Rest stops. Awkward glances from the Genin. More journal scribbles. More Daichi eating like he was raised by squirrels.
I didn't see anything suspicious.
Not one flicker of chakra out of place. Not one mark on the trail suggesting hidden movement. No tampered supplies. No odd behavior from the Genin.
If there was someone out there stealing supplies, they either weren't hunting for new targets, or this team wasn't their target, which was likely, after all, there was more than just one supply group out there.
Still, there was nothing I could act on, and soon the dirt trails gave way to beaten paths lined with fresh boot tracks, kunai cuts in trees, the faint smell of steel and smoke in the air.
The forward camp came into view just before dusk on the third day.
A rough-looking camp appeared on the horizon. Dug-out trenches, watchtowers that looked like they'd been built overnight, and reinforced many times since then.
The walls themselves looked weathered, yet sturdy, able to withstand kunai, but little more, which was the norm for this kind of wall.
Few walls could withstand ninjutsu, so they weren't made for it. Here, it was an earthen wall, and a wooden one behind that, with shinobi patrolling it and watching us approach from their towers.
Well, they watched the Genin, because I was keeping myself hidden until the kids reached the camp, that was my job, and it wouldn't end for another few minutes, which meant if someone wanted to act, now was the time.
So I kept my guard up as I allowed the Genin to pull on ahead as they left the forest and came to a halt in the cleared area before the walls and trenches. There, I watched with the Byakugan as they confirmed their identity and were escorted into the camp, all with nothing happening.
"Ahh, what a waste of three days." I muttered, tired and irritated, from three days without sleep.
Shaking my head, I quickly left my hiding spot, allowing the shinobi in the towers and on the walls to spot me right away, and they were instantly on alert. After all, it did seem rather suspicious.
They had just let in a team of Genin, and now a lone person arrived, almost as if they had been trailing the team from before. Yeah, I was suspicious as well.
Instantly, a group of them body flickered around me, keeping their range to stop me from attacking them, but close enough to attack me quickly.
Yet no sooner had they arrived before I saw their guard drop, the Byakugan in my eye sockets was a massive giveaway to my allegiance, even more so than the hitai-ate on my forehead.
"Name and purpose?"
"Yuki Hyūga. Escort and observer for Team Two-Seven. Authorized to remain overnight before returning to Konoha." I very slowly and visibly reached into my pocket and pulled out a letter, which I handed over.
He took it, opened it, and nodded before handing it back. "You're cleared. Welcome to Camp Eastfire. Jōnin Hyūga, there is hot food and a place to sleep for you, and thank you for your work."
The relief on the guard's face was subtle but real. They were running a tight operation out here, clearly. No tolerance for mistakes. No room for trust without proof.
"Straight path to the left, past the mess tent. You'll find a free cot in Barracks Three," the shinobi added, gesturing briefly.
I nodded, accepting the directions with a faint bow. "Understood."
Walking into the camp was like stepping into another world. The air here was heavy—thick with sweat, smoke, and tension. Not fear, exactly. Just… exhaustion.
Well, I was no less tired, and quickly made my way towards the command tent, mostly because I was curious about whether or not there was a problem with the supplies, and I hoped I could ask someone about that.
Finding the command tent wasn't hard, as always, the Byakugan was a cheat, it really was. People rarely realized just how useful the ability to see chakra through objects was.
"Is Commander Nara able to see me?" I asked the guards standing by the tent.
They looked me over for a moment, "Wait a moment." One of them said, before ducking into the tent.
"You may enter," he said a moment later.
With a nod, I entered, and inside was indeed a Commander Nara. I hadn't been told there was one, but honestly, every camp had a Nara in charge; only those led by someone like Jiraiya or Orochimaru didn't have one. And they still had their own Nara, this kind of thing was really the Nara clan's thing.
"Ahh, Jōnin Hyūga, I guessed you might be showing up, curious about the results of your mission?" he asked.
"Yes."
"Well, I'm not really supposed to tell you, but there isn't any harm in telling you either, so. All the supplies were there, but I guess you expected that." He explained with a lazy tone.
"I did skip sleep for a few days just to watch those kids, so I admit, I was curious if someone had somehow managed to sneak away some supplies under my eyes." I admitted.
"I don't blame you, this mystery is indeed giving everyone a headache, so many supplies just going missing? That's not normal, not at all," he sounded so tired. I was starting to question which one of us had been staying awake for days.
"Let's hope we solve it sooner than later, because I would hate another mission like this, not sleeping for a few days in a row is rough for my skin."
"Yeah, I feel sleepy just thinking about what you went through. But you can enjoy the camp, get some food and some rest, and leave whenever you want." He generously offered.
With a tired bow, I excused myself and left the tent, my limbs heavier than I cared to admit. Three days of alertness. Three days of nothing. No thief. No clue. No resolution.
Just questions.
Still, there was a hot meal waiting. A cot. And tomorrow, the long way back home, even if I would finish it far quicker than a bunch of Genin.
(end of chapter)
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