For the next few days, we spent the morning practicing group combat as usual, during the afternoons we finally learned the Body Flicker Technique.

This time there was enough time after practice for my usual dates with the girls, which may have become turned a bit more handsy and pleasurable when we found ourselves alone.

As for the Body Flicker Technique, it works by channeling chakra actively into our leg muscles to allow faster movement.

The main difficulty and weakness of the jutsu is in controlling it.

Because the chakra distribution isn’t even to all the leg muscles and the ninja is unused to the extra strength and speed granted, during combat it’s impossible to maintain control and balance without paring the jutsu with augmented reflexes.

It is however one of the simplest and most useful jutsu to have when traveling, if we had known the body flicker last week we would have made the journey back to Konoha in two days instead of four.

On the morning after we had mastered body flicker Anko got us another C-rank mission. Seems we were about to get an endurance Body-Flicker course.

We were leaving right that afternoon so we quickly got ourselves ready for a short mission that would take us about a week to accomplish.

We ran out of Konoha heading west, body flickering at as high a speed as we were comfortable with as Anko filled us in on the details.

“Our mission today is to investigate the disappearance of a merchant headed to Konoha from Kusagakure.”

Kusagakura, the word rings some alarm bells in my head already… It’s currently where Orochimaru’s main base is located. And a lot of their official ninjas secretly serve him.

“This merchant was secretly providing us with information from the nearby regions and was scheduled to have arrived in Konoha several days ago.”

Anko continues her explanation.

“Chances are he was either delayed for some reason and we’ll run into him, we find traces of his corpse, or get too close to the border and call out the mission.”

At least they were sensible enough to not send us outside of the Land of Fire, I wouldn't wanna step inside that snake's den.

If I had to guess the mission was assigned to us as more of an easy recon mission for Anko to do while we tagged along.

We body-flicker close enough to check the road from afar as we make our way.

I take the time to think about our growth over the past month.

Hinata had the most growth if I had to say.

Her combat has grown formidable, her mastery of Gentle Fist technique more refined, and, with much greater speed and chakra imbued into it, her moves are hard to deal with and debilitating when they land.

She becomes a true demon when a single Mist Haze Technique robs you of your vision of her while she remains unaffected.

We’re still a few months away from the Chunni exams but I can’t help but compare her with Neji…. She’s still not quite strong enough but it would be a very close fight.

Sakura has come into some actual strength now… that’s about it… her taijutsu is miles ahead, in the top 5 alongside myself, Sasuke, Neji, Lee and Hinata, but she’s still lacking in offensive jutsu besides being able to team up with Slutra for a double pounding.

Sakura learned chakra sensing which is a useful utility skill when coordinated with Hinata’s Haze, but not a single one of us possesses an offensive jutsu yet unless we count shadow clones.

I’m still concerned with er our team’s overreliance on taijutsu. There are too many enemies with techniques that allow them to avoid a melee and we have few ways to close the gap.

As for my own skillset. 

My nerve control is essentially an instant-win button, provided I can reach my enemy, I can then kill them. 

My hormones can help buff myself and debuff nearby enemies.

Both require close proximity to the enemy.

My body has been growing healthily but I’m unaware of where the limits of my demonic bloodline physique lie.

The only path forward I see with my current skill set is learning lightning release and working on using it to improve my speed and close-range combat even further.

I don’t think it’s a solution that can handle everything in the future, not to mention I’d have to invent a jutsu similar to the Raikage’s Lightning Release Chakra Mode by myself, something both extremely hard and incredibly dangerous.

I know where’s the real answer to my problems… I need to focus on acquiring more bloodlines and with it advantages that will give me an edge in the future.

The Chunnin exam is filled with bloodlines I’d love to plunder for myself but I don’t want to just do that. To go in, sleep and dismiss each girl.

I want to bring the girls under my wing, so many miserable stories going on… but my wishes go counter to their wishes and Konoha’s wishes as well.

What to do…

We continue running close along the road for the next couple of days.We stop only for 6 hours each night to catch some rest.

We found several people on the road but none matched the merchant we were looking for.

That was… until we were about 80% of the way to the border.

We found a broken wagon on a road and the dirt around it was a faint red tone. The pair of oxen that were pulling it were dead along with several of its occupants.

Anko’s hand goes to her neck and I fear the worst.

She examines the bodies and the remains of the destroyed wagon before giving us her conclusions.

“Our target is missing and, based on the state of the bodies, the other victims have been dead for about 5 days now.

It is too late to start a chase and our informant has likely long been dragged back into enemy territory for interrogation. We are leaving.”

Sakura seems annoyed with the conclusion of our mission.

“Are we just leaving empty-handed like this sensei? We’ve done nothing but run for the past days and now we just go back?”

“Sakura, as much as it pains us we have to play it safe. The lands outside Konoha are dangerous and you are still only Genin”

“So what if we are just Genin, when are we getting a chance to prove ourselves?”

This time it was me chiding Sakura 

“Sakura, we are still too weak. There will be chances to prove ourselves, but there is no reason to go looking for death”

As we were in the middle of our argument Hinata alerted us.

“Sensei, two ninjas are approaching us fast from the west”