The first thing they had to do was discreetly observe and locate any hidden nin that might become their enemy and eliminate him. While her Sharingan wasn't a complete sensory kind like Byakugan, Mikoto knew she could count on Kai for this. His sensory skills were honestly amazing and he was quite reliable... not that she wanted to admit to the smelly boy who was getting bolder and bolder due to the influence of the wrong company. But she put such thoughts aside, now wasn't the time to enter one of her usual bouts of the frustrated inner monologue about how the genius boy didn't have to follow the acts of a grown-up loser... ugh!

Like usual, she flickered around the forest and set up wired traps, and had her poisoned kunai gripped in her left hand. Her body moved quickly and nimbly, her strength growing every day by sparring with the beast who won't stop until he fell to the ground exhausted or luckily, paralyzed.

And she was done soon. The area was littered with traps and her team was already clear not to enter the location without any thoughts while she waited for them to lead any shinobi or Kunoichi here.

---

'My job is the hardest dattebane!' Kushina whined. It really wasn't. She just liked being a lazy kitty which meant others would have to do more work while she could kick back and relax but Mikoto wouldn't have it. Not to mention she just didn't feel generally good after Mito dropped that bomb on her and when she slowly realized the implications of what a Jinchuriki was... let's just say, the Tomato has never been more frustrated. Not for herself but the fact that the village expected Mito to just die and pass on the devil to her...

She suppressed the negative emotions she'd been feeling lately and tapped the tree again. She had started to learn the chakra sealing matrix from Mito and while she wasn't as quick as Kai, forming short-ranged detection seals with the transmitter tags on the rest of her team was right up her alley. The seal spread from the contact of her palm and the bark of the tree before disappearing. Of course, she also had to keep an eye out for the other traps this close to their base.

Much to her annoyance, she detected multiple Uzumaki traps that just made her more enraged. She did not like her clan's name being sullied in such a manner at all! Almost all their C-rank missions had something related to Uzumaki seals that enabled bandits to do horrible things and promoted a wave of unhinged merchants who simply revered money!

Disabling all these, Kushina continued to lay her own, decisively better seal marks without a hint of exhaustion in her chakra as she was simply built differently!

---

Her task, Nono felt, was the simplest. Well, she wondered if others would consider being called a bait the simplest but she had grown accustomed to it and felt that it may also be the reason why Mikoto chose her for the act. And a bait can be anything but dangerous. Safely keeping her forehead protector aside as it was also sealed with an identification mark meaning— losing the headband wouldn't do, Nono thought for a second and looked around before hiding behind a tree.

Transformation jutsu can be seen through easily so she changed out of her clothes. Her mesh top was kept on before she wore a faded light brown top over it and a lovely blue skirt that reached her thighs. Ruffling her hair somewhat, Nono took out a sealing tag from the storage seal and hesitated.

When dealing with bandits, she never needed to hide her chakra as they couldn't sense it but other shinobi can at a close range. The tag would suppress her chakra but also impede her from using the chakra, making her pass on as a civilian. Of course, the tag was expensive and had a short life but its value didn't make her hesitate. It was the thought of being completely defenseless in front of an enemy shinobi who just may NOT be another perverted freak of nature...

But she accepted the role of the bait.

Slapping the seal on her smooth stomach before rolling down her mesh shirt and brown top, the girl walked out with a nervous expression while hiding the small storage scroll she spent a fortune on within the sky-blue pouch slung diagonally over her torso.

And she continued to move aimlessly, making sure to yelp weakly at the slightest sound and trip out of nowhere, letting her skirt flip over her buttocks to reveal a pair of light green panties. She did get her pattern of tripping out of nowhere by doing this on missions to lure out a few bad apples constantly. Letting out a pained mewl and sitting up, she dusted herself off and pouted cutely before continuing and mumbling just in the right volume for her voice to spread out, "Mmmm... I'm lost... dad... mom... where are you?" Wasn't that the billion ryo question for an orphan like her?

"Hehe, don't worry girl~ Daddy found you!"

'Huh... amusing. So shinobi act the same way as bandits when they see a civilian girl or is it just to cause more damage to our land by demoralizing villagers and others by utilizing various forms of assaults as tactics?' Nono thought internally but a loud shriek escaped her lips!

---

"Aaaaaghhhhhhhh!" Kai heard the loud shriek and knew it was the signal. A part of him wondered if something really happened to Nono but he suppressed that part. He had been in enough missions to realize that the best way to help his teammates with the mission is by completing his part first in times like these.

Hidden well using a simple fuinjutsu trick that kept his chakra in check, the small piece of pebble suddenly poofed and Kai stood up with an eager expression before flickering away. He had felt Nono's presence grow quite weak before she started running in Mikoto's direction with two chakra signatures in tow. One of them was quite... relaxed. The other was hidden and kept a safe distance as if just observing the ninja chasing the helpless girl for his amusement.

Kai moved quickly, already having located the remaining two shinobi and a kunoichi who still guarded the hidden entrance in the unassuming location, and targeted the kunoichi. Kai was made to realize that kunoichi are generally more competent and focused even if not many fill the upper hierarchy of the Shinobi World. Of course, this realization came the hard way through Mito, Tsunade, Mikoto, and Kushina being badasses.

Thus, he moved stealthily, the tap of his foot on the branch not even shaking it as he flickered away the next second and weaved through the surrounding traps nearby before locating the dark-haired kunoichi in a reddish uniform wearing a brown flak jacket and a headband with Iwagakure's mark.

Her pupils contracted as the blow came too suddenly. She almost fell from the branch she stood and kept a lookout of felt an arm catching her and stopping her from making any noise during her last moment and as if not satisfied, the quick-acting but short-lasting paralyzing poison laced on the kunai made sure she stifled and disgruntled in her last moments.

Kai silently took out his kunai from the woman's heart and then back. Shinobi and kunoichi of another village have high value as their body may just hide a secret. A Kekkei Genkai that can be recovered, a special jutsu, a new weapon, a different body structure. Anything that can be useful will be salvaged. Not minding the blood, the woman's body disappeared with a soft poof after he set a small silence seal. Her corpse, of course, was placed into the small storage seal on his palm. Unlike the sealing scroll which lasts long, the seals on his body can, at most, be only temporary due to his lower expertise and had a time range before the seal and everything in it disappeared.

The other two Shinobi were huddled together, whispering amongst themselves softly.

"Damn... those two will have a lot of fun with the girl and she's pretty, too... sigh, just my luck. The slaves barely have any fight so it ain't fun and there's nothing else to do in this worthless land than taste delicacies."

As if empathizing, the other man patted his friend's back. A mistake.

Kai's kunai stabbed through the arm and into the other shinobi's back as they acted quickly but still too late when he let go of the kunai and snapped his arms in their direction as they retreated with one man tearing away his hand with a pained scowl. One had his temple pierced by four senbon needles while another four pierced the second shinobi's bran after accurately passing through the man's pupils in the same location one after another— Boom!

'Damn, I need to mark my Senbons better," Kai groaned and sealed both the men.

---

*Boom*

The soft but very noticeable sound of an explosion made the red-uniformed shinobi's heart shudder. He instantly got into action and looked around vigilantly and realized that the girl was a bait and he didn't care about the man that much to warn him and let himself fall into an even weaker position.

*Swish*

Four shurikens flew in his direction as the shinobi deflected them with his kunai and when he began to form hand seals, a kunai suddenly struck one of the wayward shurikens.

'What the?'

The shinobi couldn't react as the shuriken cut a small string and a board hidden within the leaves of the higher branch where he stood snapped down, throwing dozens of senbon needles in his direction.

'Fuck!' Growling, his hand changed and chakra coated his body before turning into a layer of thin but solid rock.

*Thc*

*Tch*

*Thc*

The needles crashed into his body, barely piercing the rock armor when a small smoke bomb rolled down his feet and exploded in a very ridiculous pouf and not even a bang that could have alerted his teammate. They came prepared, the enemies. Shinobi realized and when he thought of spreading his awareness to the short-range it would, he suddenly buckled down and began vomiting his breakfast and shitting all at the sama time.

Kai's diarrheal smoke bomb... no shinobi would expect a prank cranked up this high as the pepper in the smoke started to burn his eyes.

*Chhk*

A kunai firmly lodged into the man's head and if Mikoto had any thought of collecting his body, she refused to do that now, utterly nauseous not by the blood by other shit... literally.

'Damn... thank god Kai never used it on any of us or... I would kill him!' She snorted inwardly.

---

Nono gasped and huffed. The mission should be a great success by now and she was tired. As strong as her body was, she had to limit herself from running too quickly while exerting her muscles in a way that showed she was trying her best or her cover would be blown. This kind of running was also quite a bit exhausting as she leaned against the tree with no one in sight fully knowing that the shinobi chasing her wanted a dramatic flair and to give her a false sense of security.

A hand suddenly caught her wrist from behind before pinning her against the tree as she gasped and struggled with the man's depraved coo ringing behind her and his other hand keeping her face tilted and pushed against the tree, "Girl, you're gonna grow into a fine woman. Marry a good man, but I'll make sure you remember the fine taste of Iwa..."

His aggressive sniff against the nape of her neck suddenly made Nono smile secretly. She had seen such scenes in her genjutsu many times and now realized that she may be into getting pinned down, but it won't be by some Iwa filth and suddenly used the man's moment of enjoying her fresh scent to grip his balls with her hands already being THAT close. She also went ahead and used her stronger than a dame's body to grip the erect but pathetic shaft of his and break it in half!

The shinobi's expression froze before he shuddered and tumbled back, making Nono believe that despite being fully aware, many shinobi do NOT keep their balls protected and made her wonder why Kai did by having a crotch guard. Realizing that her curiosity was piqued at what kind of actions would lead him to make such protective decisions, Nono pulled her top up, making the Iwa nin ogle at her and glared at her while unable to cope with the pain of crushed castration and removed the seal on her stomach before chakra became her friend again and the next second, her shuriken became his forehead's friend.

"Nice work... I was planning to move the moment he did something to your clothes," Mikoto appeared as Nono smiled appreciatively and shook her head, "It wouldn't have been necessary than I could have strangled him but... thank you. I feel warm and fuzzy knowing someone is looking out for me."

"Then don't speak that with such a straight face!" Mikoto blushed slightly rubbing her forehead with a groan and looked away. The moment she looked back—

"What are you doing?!" Mikoto gasped as Nono was only in her panties with her nubile body made aware of Mikoto's eyes as Nono bent over and began taking out her clothes while speaking, "Without any other indicator, we are to assume that the perimeter is secured. I wished to change into an outfit that I could move better in."

"Then... cover yourself!"

"That's my intention by clothing myself."

---

The team of four soon unsealed the cavern and unleashed hell on the merchant by the name of Izu who was being funded by Iwagakure, the man admitted. But their mission, again, wasn't to capture the pawn but eradicate him and his goons. The location was empty with not a slave in sight but their intelligence was indeed correct about the slaves being shifted daily. It was clear that the shinobi on the mission cared more about the slaves than Izu and his 'bodyguards.'

This also meant...

Kai, Kushina, Mikoto, and Nono looked at their slightly trembling transmission tag, and the use of Kushina placing her seal finally came in as she growled, "If we kill the reinforcements, we can find their nearest outpost and possibly free those slaves!"

Nono looked amused but knew better than to show logic to an Uzumaki and kept her silence while Mikoto shook her head, "This isn't just a chain of slave trading but a chain of transportation. The moment the other shinobi in the link realized that the reinforcement, or rather, shinobi responsible for moving the slaves didn't return on the allotted time, they will leave."

Kushina bit her lips as Mikoto smiled, her Sharingan rotating into life as it glowed softly in the dim surroundings, "That said, we can release another batch of shinobi from their pathetic life."

The remaining trio smiled knowingly and got into action to surprise the enemy by leaving through the exit and ambushing them near the entrance.

---

Tsunade hummed a soft tune and looked at the four masked assailants in sleek grey masks with slits for their eyeholes and a familiar mark of Kirigakure on the top region of the mask. They wore grey flak jackets like most Anbu of various villages and wore black sleeveless shirts and matching pants.

But Tsunade knew better. If this assault really came from Kirigakure, the hidden bastards would have used means like creating a mist to make a favorable situation for themselves but these men didn't. They were still assessing her. It was small details like these that made Tsunade even more annoyed that being in council was making her smarter the wrong way. All she wanted was an inspiration for iryo nin. More iryo nin!

Still, these men were imitating Kirigakure's hunter-nin so that when their current mission will inevitably fail, the problem wouldn't reach their actual employer but Kirigakure.

"Well... I'll have to give Nono a thorough check-up after this," Tsunade smiled as the shinobi were on her the moment her lips parted and she fought while easily chuckling and talking. While a Jonin, others knew better than to consider Tsunade just an ordinary one. At the young age of 24, she was already hailed as the current strongest Senju for a reason.

*Bang*

Her fist tore through the sharp sword from its blade and pierced out of the nearest shinobi the next second as blood leaked from under the mask of the man yet Tsunade only threw him away with a flick of her arm as he exploded in front of his comrades, creating a sudden smokescreen as the ground cracked the next second and trees were uprooted, making the remaining three shinobi jump up to where Tsunade waited for one of them!

It was an utter massacre as she didn't even try to keep them alive and torture them for more information because she wasn't an expert in that regard and most ninjas working in the shadows have seals on them preventing them from betraying their organization even if it meant life or death.

***

Shoutout to Mitsogon, Aliosman, and Victor Gonzalez!!

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