The entire group exited the town of Niigata stealthily. Even if those rogue Kiri ninjas had any spies in the town, they wouldn't notice them leaving.
After leaving, they traveled at a fast speed. They cover the initial 30 kilometers very quickly. The Yugakure ninjas, who were looking down on the kids, had solemn faces. They were finding it difficult to keep up with them. It was a big blow to their pride.
Renjiro looked at their expressions and chuckled. In his experiences, it was always better for actions to do the talking than explaining with words.
They traveled the last 10 kilometers with caution. Hoka and Mieko used their Doujutsus to check for traps and enemies. Fujin didn't use his chakra field. If the enemy had any sensor, then they would sense Fujin's chakra field and give away their surprise factor. Hoka's Byakugan had no such disadvantage.
They reached close to 1 kilometer of the calculated spot, when Hoka said, "Stop!"
Everyone stopped and looked at him. Hoka moved towards the left as others followed him. After traveling about 100 meters, he stopped. Others stopped behind him. The area in front of Hoka was dyed red in blood!
Shunso asked, "Did they have a fight here?"
Tokuhei bent down and picked up a long hair from the blood. He observed it and said, "Unlikely. They were probably just hunting wild animals. Looks like they got a bear."
Fujin observed Tokuhei and thought, 'He's able to guess an animal just from a hair that is dyed in blood?'
Mieko activated her Sharingan and observed the surroundings. After some time, she said, "Found a trail!"
Renjiro said, "Good work. Take the lead. Also, keep an eye out for traps. Hoka, you keep an eye on traps too. And keep an eye for their base as well. Everyone else, don't make unnecessary noise or movements."
Everyone nodded. Tokuhei commented, "It's very handy to have both the Byakugan and Sharingan in the same squad."
Renjiro nodded. They proceeded ahead carefully.
Mieko's Sharingan observed every detail of the surroundings carefully. She picked up the slightest clues. She observed their trail perfectly. Surprisingly, they didn't encounter any traps.
As they kept walking, they left the forest and entered the beach! Mieko frowned. She said, "The trail leads into the sea!"
Renjiro and Tokuhei both frowned. If the base of the rogue Kiri nins was in the sea, then fighting them would get very tricky.
Shunso spoke, "I don't think that their base would be out in the sea. The nearest island from here is around 32 kilometers away. Traveling from that base would be very time-consuming."
Everyone looked at Shunso as he spoke. Shunso continued, "So either their base is nearby or every one of them is a strong Jounin who can travel at twice the speeds of a chunin!"
Tokuhei immediately shook his head, "There's no way that they are all Jounins. Kiri would be shaken if that many Jounins go rogue."
Renjiro said, "There are two possibilities. One is that they have a temporary base here and a permanent one on an island. Or, they just travel on shallow waters instead of moving through the forest to prevent any trail."
Tokuhei nodded and said, "Yes. I believe the 2nd one will be the case. They are rogue ninjas after all. They will be afraid of being hunted down."
Renjiro nodded. He too believed the same. He said, "Let's go back to the trees. We will move along the coast while Hoka checks for any possible bases."
Tokuhei agreed as he thought, 'The Hyuga can look up to 1000 meters. From the edge of the forest, he will be able to check for hundreds of meters into the sea. If their base is truly not here, then we will have no choice but to set up an ambush and wait for them.'
The group went back into the forest. Seeing their initial trail, the group decided to go in the same direction. After moving for slightly over a kilometer, Hoka stopped.
He said, "Found them! They are staying inside a cave on a hill about a kilometer ahead."
Shunso grinned, "They think that they are very smart."
Fujin wondered, 'If they are hiding in a cave, will Renjiro try to kill them all?'
Hoka said, "There are two ninjas guarding the entrance to the cave."
Renjiro said, "Keep moving ahead. I'll kill them both. Fujin, don't attack."
Fujin nodded while thinking, 'My Wind Vacuum Bullet is good for assassinating. But once it hits, it will alert even a sleeping person due to the trail of destruction it leaves.'
As they moved ahead, Hoka said, "Other than the 2 guards, there are 14 more Ninjas inside. 3 seem to be at the Jounin level. Rest are at the Chunin level. They are all sleeping."
Renjiro said, "Don't check on them anymore."
Hoka didn't understand. He was about to look away from them when he suddenly noticed one of them getting up suddenly. He said, "One of the Jounin level ninjas just woke up."
Renjiro frowned. He said, "Some ninjas instinctively feel when someone looks at them. Though they can't sense the Byakugan, they can feel that something is wrong. Keep that in mind."
After saying that, he suddenly flickered ahead! Instantly, Hoka, Fujin and Mieko also flickered. The Yugakure ninjas, who were alongside them, were dumbfounded!
Shusaku exclaimed, "What the fuck?"
A scowl formed on Tokuhei's face. He said, "Keep up."
He made a few hand signs and flickered as well. Others soon followed him.
Inside the cave, Kubota Mitsuzuka was sleeping. However, when Hoka observed him, his eyes suddenly opened up. He immediately got up and checked his surroundings.
On seeing that no one was around, he thought, 'What the fuck? I swear that someone was fucking looking at me!'
Thoughts ran inside his mind at the speed of light! He immediately came to the conclusion, 'Fucking Hyuga! Those cowards should have issued a mission to Konoha!'
He got up and gathered Chakra on his right foot and stamped his foot on the ground. A wave passed through the ground. It was harmless, but everyone inside the cave felt it. All the 13 rogue ninjas woke up.
Mitsuzuka flickered towards one of the two Jounins. On arriving, he shouted, "Fumimaro! Quickly check our surroundings!"
At the same time, the other rogue ninjas also began arriving at their location.
Kabota Mitsuzuka moved very rapidly. However, there was someone who moved even faster!
Renjiro flickered thrice in quick succession and reached just around 150 meters from the guards. On reaching here, he noticed that there were a few traps set close to the cave. However, he didn't pay any attention to them. He stepped on the ground and disappeared inside it.
A second later, eight earth spears formed under the two unsuspecting guards and pierced them! The guards were shocked! However, even before they could let out a scream, Renjiro appeared from the ground and beheaded them in one smooth action.
As soon as he beheaded them, Hoka, Mieko and Fujin appeared behind him. While they were running, Hoka noticed the traps. Mieko took the lead to avoid them and the other two followed her.
On reaching, they noticed the cave. It was a small hill that was as tall as a 3-storey building. There was a giant cave mouth at the bottom which split into a few paths. This hill was around 200 meters from the beach. The rogue ninjas chose this spot so that they won't be visible to anyone who scouts for them from the sea, but still be close to the sea if they needed to escape.
As soon as they stepped there, they felt a groundwave passing under their feet. Hoka checked the inside of the cave. He frowned and said, "Everyone is up."
Renjiro made a hand sign and said, "I figured."
Fujin, Hoka and Mieko watched their sensei as he built up a massive amount of chakra!
Behind Team Renjiro, the Yugakure ninjas were following. However, without the Byakugan or the Sharingan, they couldn't identify all the traps.
Tokuhei was the first one to notice the traps. He shouted, "WAIT! There are traps ahead!"
However, they were flickering rapidly. 3 of their ninjas ended up activating traps. Immediately, hundreds of needles rained down on them! Tokuhei frowned and made a few hand signs.
Inside the cave, Fumimaro spread his chakra field. Fujin felt his chakra field as it expanded past the cave. He quickly said, "They sensed us!"
Fumimaro immediately sensed the huge chakra built up by Renjiro. He yelled, "CRAP! They are right outside the cave and are about to attack us!"
All the former Kiri nins immediately had grim looks on their faces. Ever since they went rogue, they never had to fight against a proper Ninja squad. The Mizukage faction was too busy fighting the rebels. They didn't have the time to pay any attention to them.
Renjiro put his palms on the walls of the hill!
'Earth Release : Mountain Destroyer jutsu!'
[A/N : As you may have noticed in the past few chapters, the average words per chapter has been increased to 1.5k (instead 1 to 1.5k words per chapter). It will stay the same here onwards.]
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