Naruto: Tango with Death

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Several months passed, all packed with action as I made more progress than ever. Actually, I wasn't the only one, as both Izumi and Laiko seemed to have been incensed by the mission in the Land of Tea, as well as my own efforts, and improved quickly.

We also had a few C Rank Missions, which fortunately only went bad once, and even then we had managed to deal with it accordingly. It had been a great way to bolster our confidence, but also had us increase our training.

At the same time, while I had less and less time to see my friends from the Academy, I got to meet the other active Genin Teams.

Of course, I didn't get acquainted with every Genin in Konoha, there were far too many for that, but not every Genin was in a team.

Actually, when an Academy Students graduates from the Academy, they are by default put in a team under either a Jonin, a Tokubetsu Jonin or a Chunin in rare cases.

Then, those Genins would be allowed to train for up to three years in that team, at the end of which it would disband. Not every Genin could become a Chunin in three years though, and for those who survived those three years yet failed to earn their promotion, they don't just disappear.

Instead, they continue officially being Genins, although in reality they are in an awkward position between Genin and Chunin. It wasn't really a place where any Genin wanted to end into, but that was the case for the majority nonetheless. It wasn't unusual for those people to turn rogue.

As for me, I only met the teams, so they were all around Izumi's age. We didn't receive the same missions as the independent Genins, so we didn't mingle very much with them.

I got to meet Four Eyes a few more times, and he seemed to have festered hatred towards me, which didn't really come as a surprise as I learned he had been changed by the job.

Anyway, I improved a lot, but I had completed one mission after the other, and so had my team, and we were getting really exhausted. The village wasn't heartless, and we could be allocated vacation missions.

Vacation Missions was not an official term, but it was a common notion among the village's Shinobi. Those were relatively lengthy missions that did not involve too much risk, and took place out of the village.

For us, who lived on the edge of death everyday and spent our days with killers, this was really a vacation.

Our though, was… peculiar.

"Sukaina, you should seduce that guy, he's already totally into you and he could give us so many vacation missions…"

Throwing a deathly stare at Laiko, I practically growled, "Another word and I will emasculate you with my bare hands, Laiko."

Laiko snorted and started laughing. As my hands were getting itchy, Izumi patted my shoulder and said, "Come on, it's not that bad. There are worse suitors to have. I mean, that's the Daimyo's son."

That's right, our mission was issued by the Daimyo's son, Takashi. I met him when we did the D Rank Mission to find Tora, Madam Shijimi's cat. Back then, he had recited a poem to me.

Now, I wasn't really bothered by the mission in and on itself, I mean we would get to spend a month in a beautiful lakeside mansion, but what bothered me was what I learned.

Takashi didn't just like me, he was borderline creepy about it. In the few months since we met, he had issued a total of sixty seven missions asking for my team.

Sixty. Seven.

That's an absurd amount of missions, and I get he has the money and authority to do that, but that's just creepy.

Although, I can't really judge him so readily. We lived different lives, and did not see the world in the same light. That's why we even accepted the mission, actually.

I mean, he is but a boy. At first, I made the mistake to treat his behaviour as the actions of a mature adult who fought for his life daily on the battlefield, because that's all I was surrounded with, but then I remembered that he wasn't.

No, he was a normal 12 years old who had some influence. So I decided to give this a go and accept the mission, the rest of my team followed along as they weren't really concerned with any of those problems.

After restraining myself from unleashing my inner demon and throwing a Bijudama at my two childish teammates (I wish I could throw a Bijudama), we didn't take long to arrive at the mission's location.

As promised, we arrived at a gorgeous mansion, on the side of a small lake. The mansion itself was bigger than the academy back at the village, yet it was perfectly surrounded by soldiers.

At the mansion's main entrance, two rows of servants were standing in line, forming a path at the end of which was a butler, as well as Takashi.

We all felt awkward as we walked in between the servants, who all bowed as we walked past them. Finally, as we arrived in front of Takashi and the butler, the old man with salt and pepper hair bowed down and greeted, "We humbly welcome you to Lakeside Manor."

Next to him, Takashi, who was dressed in a rather simple outfit, smiled as he said, "You've finally arrived! Come, follow me inside, and make yourself comfortable."

At least he had the politeness to not ignore my team. To be honest, I was expecting him to be rude to my team and focus entirely on me, but I guess he was being decent enough for now… Maybe I still haven't gotten over my Xianxia trauma.

But can you blame me? I mean, that world's filled with psychos, I regret ever reading that shit.

Anyway, once inside Amai-Sensei asked, "Were rooms arranged for us, or will we have to arrange our own…"

Takashi waved his hand around as he replied, "Of course you were all given a room! I mean, look at the size of the house, even 48 servants struggle to keep it clean, so we have more rooms than necessary. I'll lead you to them."

And he did exactly that. Our four rooms were next to one another, they all faced the lake, and the surrounding rooms were all empty.

As we checked out our rooms, Takashi coughed lightly and said, "Well, as you may know, your mission is to protect me. For that, I will need someone to be watching over me at all times. Well, reasonably, of course. You don't have to worry though, you won't be alone for this mission."

As he said that, two people suddenly walked into the room, and looking over at them, I recognized the two Guardian Twelve we had met back then.

One of the two, the monk, bowed slightly in a prayer as he greeted, "My name is Chiriku of the Fire Temple, nice to meet you. I hope we will be able to cooperate together to protect the young master."

Next to him, the other guardian, who dressed in light fur armor, and had a Bo in his back, said casually, "Name's Kitane. If you're cool, then we're cool."

If you're cool, then we're cool?

I lagged a little hearing his words, and it seemed both Laiko and Izumi felt the same way. Thankfully, Amai-Sensei seemed as unphased as always as he replied, "With two of the Twelve Guardians with us, I can only feel reassured. My name is Amai, Jonin of the Leaf, and those three are my pupils. They may be Genins, but they all can be very resourceful."

I quickly winked at them, and introduced myself, "Sukaina, Genin of the Leaf. I'm a good all rounder."

Izumi followed, "Izumi Uchiha."

Following in her footsteps, Laiko added, "Laiko Yamanaka."

They weren't the most pleasant, but it did tell the two Guardians enough about our team. The two clans were well known around the world, especially in military groups, so their name was enough to explain their strengths.