During the Second Shinobi War, two countries were turned into frontiers for war by the major participants and aside from Sunagakure and Iwagakure, the Land of Rain and the Land of Hot Water could be considered the major institutions that received the worst end of the stick in the war. Truly, the only countries that came out relatively unscathed were Land of Lightning, Land of Water, Land of Fire, and Land of Whirlpools.

But that did not mean the war ended on a good note. Many things came to light and created a new era of conflict. For instance, the Land of Water had started to aggressively conquer the surrounding tiny island nations close to it and consolidate them under their command while the Village Hidden in the Mist sent their Shinobi in the shadows to deal with the leaders of these tiny nations.

While the Land of Water was having its duration of isolated conquest, Iwagakure was not silent. To recover from the war due to losing thousands of men in a failed siege against Uzu, Iwa turned to its previous, equally kicked ally— Sunagakure. Thus, the Land of Wind and the Land of Rock were having conflicts of their own that were causing Sunagakure losses even now. But Iwagakure couldn't really be careless, too, since both the villages were left with only a single Jinchuriki each— the news of the demise of Four Tail's Jinchuriki was spread from Land of Lightning that had the sole survivor from the failed siege, Third Raikage.

Meanwhile, Land of Lightning suffered its most notable loss from the Uchiha Clan who gained stellar War Achievements in Land of Hot Water, and this, by itself, created a conflict between Kumo and Konoha.

While Kumo was trying its best to abduct the individuals with Kekkei Genkai, Konoha had launched its own conquest against the major opponents of the previous war.

With Konoha forces exploring the Land of Rain and Land of Hot Water largely, most of the missions were either created by the Administration of the Village or sponsored by the Daimyo of the Land of Fire involved attacking Kumo and Iwa through these two lands.

The effects on Land of Lightning were direct as Land of Hot Water was directly subordinate to Land of Lightning.

Team Sakumo's mission was of such nature.

[B-Rank Quest: Facility Festivity

Summary: The Uchiha Clansmen noted several underground facilities in Land of Hot Water manned by Kumogakure's Shinobi and men of Land of Lightning. Scout the region, destroy the facilities and bring the remains.

Rewards: 14 SP

Failure: Possible loss of one of the members of Team Sakumo.]

"So? What changes did you bring to this seal?" Minato, as interested in Fuin as ever, paced himself along Kai and Tsume while Sakumo took the lead.

Noting that even Sakumo was paying attention, Kai remarked, "Nothing, really. The seal is exactly the same as Sensei's. All I got for my efforts was growing older in response."

Well, Kai wasn't about to reveal how he managed to bypass the situation of being unable to absorb nature energy and form Senjutsu Chakra to recover his chakra by constantly doing that through this seal. That was the only difference between the Strength of a Hundred Seals and the Strength of Adamantine Sage's Seal. This seal was simply made for Sage Mode, or Sage Transformation to last longer.

Minato looked at the Seal on Kai's forehead thoughtfully while Tsume responded, "Anyway, the seal looks cool."

"It really does," Minato agreed.

"Did you complete your Jutsu?" Kai questioned this time around since he did want to see a perfected Rasengan. He could do it himself... but he was rather busy with his own stuff. To him, elementalizing a ball of chakra should be easy and thus the grind for low-capped skills did not take priority at the moment. Yet, Minato revealed how wrong Kai happened to be as the boy shook his head.

"It feels impossible..."

"Huh? Why?" Kai questioned.

"To keep Rasengan stable so that it does not dissipate after losing connection from the body, the chakra is purposely spiraled into a single point. This is the shape transformation of the jutsu. The other half which would have been adding an element... turned out to be quite hard for me. I tried it only after some completion in Wind Nature Transformation but... whenever I tried to add wind nature chakra, the ball shape of Rasengan would become unstable and all that remains is a weak gust of chakra that harms no one."

Kai frowned deeply. But not letting the unexpected news weigh a fellow brethren of grind down, he smirked, "We'll train together once again. Now that I'm in the team, too, it'll be easier for us to try and find time for it and sparring, too."

Minato smiled in response, "I look forward to it."

Then adopting a somewhat awkward smile, the youth added, "Sorry for being late about it but congratulations on your engagement. I also heard that Mikoto-san is living with you. Does it feel different after being engaged?"

Musing about what happened last night, Kai hummed, "Well, I would have said I'm drained. But I'm built different. Aside from that, nothing really changed. I guess that's what happens when you get engaged to someone you know from childhood... although I'm not that grown."

Minato shrugged at that. Kai simply looked the oldest after Sakumo in their team.

---

The journey to the Land of Hot Water was a matter of hours but given that they were on a taxing mission that required information gathering first and then taking action, it was well within Sakumo's duties to take breaks, and that he did near the borders of the small country.

The last time Kai was this close to the borders of the country, he needed to reach the Uzumaki Clan as quickly as possible but Kai had to hand it to Sakumo, despite his habit of puns, he knew how to make a mission worth all its trouble.

As such, when Sakumo stopped near an open hot spring surrounded by a short clearing with wildflowers decorating the area, he quickly passed orders to surveil the region, set traps, and prepare hidden weapons close to them should the need arise. But given how these open hot springs were the feature of the Land of Hot Water and were used by travelers and merchants on their own risks to relieve themselves from their travels, the group did not have many inhibitions left after performing surveillance according to their own manners.

While Kai didn't enter Sage Mode to have overkill as an achievement, he did use Piercing Vision to take thorough scouting as only specific chakra seals could block X-ray vision and Kai found no other notable chakra signatures aside from wild chakra beasts placed in the deeper section of the forest.

Soon, Kai returned and found many basic traps set by Sakumo, and finally, once Minato and Tsume returned, Sakumo offered with a neutral expression, "Tsume, we will have a look around if you want to take the bath first."

"Oh, thanks, Sakumo-san," Tsume shrugged while Kai began to undress alongside Tsume, eliciting Minato to gasp, "What are you doing?"

Turning to the youth, Kai smirked, "Tsume doesn't really mind and I think it would be better for me to bath with Tsume and Kuromaru... than hear how Hot Springs are just Oasis minus the desert." His gaze fell on Sakumo who couldn't help but mutter, "That's a good one..."

"No, it's officially not, Sakumo-san!" Kai uttered in a groan, unable to cope with the sheer sense of misguided humor that filled one of the strongest Konoha Elites.

Shrugging, Sakumo looked at Minato, "To be honest, Minato-kun, Inuzuka members may be dangerous in certain traditions but almost none of them care about nudity since they try to emulate the lifestyle of their ninken as humanly as possible. So, I don't think Tsume would mind if you wish to join in the bath, right?" he turned to Tsume who already had her black jacket removed.

"Not really," Tsume agreed. What Sakumo said was true. If possible, most Inuzuka members would rather choose nudity over their clothes despite their functionality and ability to keep them from harm's way most of the time but like their ninkens, the shinobi of the Inuzuka Clan train themselves and their civilian counterparts to wear clothes since a young age.

Blushing red, Minato quickly shook his head, "N-No, that's fine. I'll bath with you, Sakumo-san," he added while looking at Tsume, "I mean, I don't mean it as disrespect or anything but—"

But once being the youth's classmate and aware of his nature, Tsume flashed a light-hearted grin, "Don't worry, it's fine."

"Are we bathing or not?" Kai called out as he entered the hot spring with his clothes set not far off, making Minato's and Sakumo's eyes twitch. Kuromaru was already obediently floating in the water. Meanwhile, Tsume's pin-like black pupils caught glimpse of a treat she'd already outrightly asked before as she couldn't help but feel happy that she would need to train more to fully play catch with that sizeable bone.

On the other hand, a thin and tiny snake coiled around a collected lock of Kai's hair close to the nape of his neck like a necklace and let its tail barely touch the warm water.

As Sakumo and Minato made themselves sparse, one of them unwilling to really bath with a dog and a snake in the water, and the other one clearly too shy for it, Tsume was quick to pull her shirt out, slip her pants down, revealing that she only wore a pair of black, simple panties since she still didn't need a bra for the time being. Grinning even further, Tsume struck a pose without a hint of shame, "So? Can Mikoto-san compete with this?"

She pointed her thumbs at herself with her fingers curled into a fist as Kai rolled his eyes, "Damn straight she can. Now get into the water."

Tsume pouted with her canine barely sticking out from her mouth and slipped out of her panties, a sight that barely attracted Kai's attention. As he said, he took a bath with Tsume purely to avoid having his relaxation ruined by all the jokes Sakumo might be holding back and waiting to let them rip.

"That's so good..." Tsume moaned while leaning on the Alpha as all her physical tension began to soak away, "And best of all, I can pee into—"

"Do that next to me and I'll beat the shit out of you," keeping his eyes closed and chilling while not minding Tsume cozying up to him, he scoffed at her words as he heard a tiny whimper escape her lips but she didn't retort as he could feel her frustration and delight mingle into something twisted once again. In layman's terms, Tsume loved being told and directed only if she decided on someone as her alpha.

And Kai did not doubt that Tsume wouldn't take a second to do anything that would please him but given her lifestyle and her training routine, Kai was already pleased enough. As such, despite feeling the sheer frustration of Inuzuka Kunoichi who claimed herself to be the future Matriarch of the clan and wanted to get down to other seasonal traditions that were inches away from her grip, Kai's hand casually slipped across her shoulders to pull her petite but solid frame closer to him and let his hand stroke her hair and pat her head.

Her eyes widened and the area around the red fang marks on her cheeks... darkened as she grew extraordinarily quiet while closing her eyes and shifting her face somewhat to have her nose brush against the side of his pec.

*Huff*

As if jealous of all the attention his partner had been getting, Kuromaru swam toward Kai and nudged his free arm. Chuckling in response, Kai muttered, "Sure, why not? You're a good boy who doesn't laze."

Kai's other arm scratched and rubbed Kuromaru as the ninken barked in affirmation.

Once they were eventually done with their baths... Tsume made sure to get a full view of what Mikoto took last night and it made her... scared and excited at the same time. What a challenge it will be!

The team left only an hour later after Sakumo and Minato had wholly enjoyed themselves, too, while Kai and Tsume kept a look-out but one thing Team Sakumo, at the point, could agree was on the fact that their mission had started out with a rather amazing note and Sakumo's decision for the impromptu bath earned him quite a bit of good impression by Tsume and Minato who didn't know him well enough.

***

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