Surprisingly, peace-loving guy Masaki was the first to react as he threw five shurikens towards where Umbra was instantly. In response, Daigo enlarged his fist and blocked them with his fist. I was worried that his arm would get injured but was relieved to hear the familiar sound of metal clashing against metal.
It seems he has inserted a metallic plate inside his gloves. Good thinking on his part. Masaki and Mei both have started weaving hand signs in preparation for an attack.
Seeing that the situation was getting out of control, Yoru and Itachi both rushed towards Masakai while Mao and Renji weaved hand signs in preparation for a combined attack.
Sayuri was also going to rush towards Mei, but before any of that could happen, a katana appeared on Reiga's right arm as he instantly stabbed it towards the ground.
As the lightning katana stabbed the ground, the sound of a large explosion followed as debris flew around everywhere.
Everyone stopped what they were doing and their attention went towards defending themselves. But the aim of the attack was never to injure someone, but rather to stop everyone from killing each other.
Reiga's voice turned into something that I have never heard before.
"I think the introduction part is over for now. Rei, call back Umbra and stop this childish prank."
I understood him pretty clearly and decided not to create more problems. I would do the same to Nao if he behaves like that again. But it wasn't going to do us any good to antagonize the team any further. So, I gave the fakest smile in the history of fake smiles and spoke,
"Of course." I made eye contact with Nao. "Sorry about that. I'm still young, and it seems this is not the type of prank that people are used to. Next time, I'll try to make it more enjoyable for both sides."
Umbra silently retreated back and returned to my shadow, taking his rightful place. Nao could move freely again and before he could even open his annoying mouth, Reiga cut off all the possibilites of that.
"Let us back away before any actual bloodshed happens here. We will meet again at dawn and start our mission then. Cooling off for the night would be the best for us."
Reiga's tone made it really clear that this wasn't a request. So, without wasting a single moment, we retreated back using the 'Body Flicker Technique.'
The guards on the gates were already prepared to attack if anything went wrong. No matter what happened, if we fought, this would be a loss for the kiri-nins. They were on the gate of Konoha after all.
Yoru suddenly started laughing after we entered the confines of Konoha.
"It seems you also have an interesting kid in your squad, Reiga."
"Shut up. You're way too cheerful about the situation, Yoru. We'll need to work with them from tomorrow. Do you know how much of a pain this is going to be?"
"Don't act like you don't have any fault here, Reiga." Yoru said with a smile. "I have eyes too."
Reiga, straight up, stopped talking after hearing that. After all, he is the one with the main fault here.
Nao was the leader of the group, and he had tried to antagonise us. So, as the leader of the Konoha teams, it's supposed to be Reiga's duty to deal with the situation.
But being the lazy guy he is, Reiga thought that I would defuse the situation with patience. And that was not a wrong assumption on his part. Usually, I would've tried defusing the situation passively in a peaceful manner. I hated useless conflicts after all.
But I just straight up hated people like Nao. I've been on the receiving end of bullying many times before, and whenever I see a bully, I can't help but react. I was weak before, but I currently am not, so I have every right to defend myself and put them in their place. I did not regret it and I'll do it again if it needs to be done.
'Thanks for backing me up there, Umbra.'
'Always. I'm your shadow, remember?'
I smiled in my mind hearing that.
"Seriously, Sensei, you should've at least taken down one of them. They were being so mean to Rei." Sayuri said as she whined.
"That is what it means to be a shinobi, Sayuri. Sometimes, you just need to shut up and be the bigger person. Shinobis don't use words to convey things; they do it by action."
"But you literally did nothing back there, sensei."
Before Reiga could respond, Yoru interjected,
"I'm going to take my team and practice for a bit, Reiga. You should do the same, Reiga. You really shouldn't slack off."
Before they left, Renji spoke in his same timid voice, "Best of luck, guys."
Mao, the other teammate of Itachi's team, called him, "Let's go, Renji. I don't want to waste my time here."
It might've been my imagination, but I noticed her looking towards Daigo for a second before leaving. I tried understanding what the story was by looking at Daigo's face but couldn't decipher anything.
What the hell was that look for? I'll find out about it later.
Just as soon as Yoru's team left us, Reiga also took this chance to get away. I thought he was going to admonish me for my actions but he totally ignored it for the time being and started going on about some work he had in the village.
"You guys should bring the necessary tools for this mission." He threw a wooden piece right towards Daigo, and as usual, Daigo caught it pretty easily.
"Go to the shop and buy as much stuff as you need. Showing this symbol will let you buy anything free of charge."
"Anything we want?" Daigo asked with disbelief.
"No, just the stuff you need for the mission. You are only permitted to buy ninja tools with it."
We were honestly a bit demoralised by that, but not too much. Getting the opportunity to buy any ninja tools was a hard thing to pass up. Reiga was clearly trying to buy us off using money, and it was working. He might be one of the worst jonin sensei ever, just after Kakashi, but he had a few redeeming qualities.
Sayuri and Daigo bought a lot of explosive tags and kunai. Due to their short range and restrictive fighting style, they needed new tools to circumvent that problem. Daigo has been working really hard to counter elemental ninjutsu from a range. They were the worst counter for taijutsu specialists like them.
On the other hand, I didn't have any particular necessity at that moment. I've already got everything I need. I mean, Sayuri was right. I already had most top class stuff. Even my sword is jonin level.
But suddenly I remembered about something that I really need for this mission. More so because of the special mission given to me by Hiruzen.
I needed something that would allow me to store the Nuibari. I have no idea about how to even make a single fuinjutsu. So, buying a storage scroll was the only course of action for me.
I took the one with the largest space. Free stuff was always good stuff. By the time we finished our shopping, it was already dark outside.
We have literally wasted our day shopping instead of training. I could already feel that tomorrow was going to be a long day, so without much delay, the three of us split up and went towards our respective homes.
I took a little detour and went to my personal training spot. The night was still young, and Umbra & I had some practice exercises to do.