Next day Kaida woke up early as he had to both get ready to leave for 2 weeks as well as explain to his other two, three if counting Kenta, why he was taking a mission so soon.
He barely stopped Hae from going to the Hokage office to complain about them overworking her children. Luckily she calmed down after Kaida promised to not take any mission for a month after this as well, taking inspiration from his brother.
After the whole family drama, Kaida finally went to the Hokage building to meet Shikaku, as he would be meeting his recruiter today. They would leave in the afternoon, after they stocked their supplies and handled some business in Konoha as well.
Not like he cared about any of that; the mission was just going to be a way for him to go to the Land of Water without raising suspicions.
…
"Good morning Shikaku-san, I hope I am not late," Kaida said, entering the office.
"No, you are 10 minutes early, but it's fine. Come take a seat; the merchant should be here soon."
Kaida nodded and took the seat on the sofa Shikaku was pointing to, though he didn't have to wait for long as soon another knock came from the door.
"Please come in," Shikaku said.
"Hohoho, Shikaku-san, how are you doing?" An old man with a face eerily similar to a fox and a thin beard hanging from his chin entered the office.
'Why the hell did the genre of the world suddenly change? This man looks like a shady elder from a cultivation novel, who appears before the protagonist with no other reason than getting punched in the face and making him look good,' Kaida thought, looking toward the merchant with curiosity.
The merchant's eyes also wandered towards his direction when he felt another presence in the room, but quickly looked back to Shikaku as he found the 'child' sitting in the room nothing impressive.
"Welcome Ryozo-san, I am doing just fine," Shikaku said, pointing towards the seat in front of him for the old merchant to sit.
"Great, I am sorry to be direct, but I hope that my request has been fulfilled. I really need those 20 Jonin level ninja as according to the intel I have got, the rival merchant group wants me dead so that they can get my resources, and that bastard had eyes on my…"
"I understand your concern, Ryozo-san, and don't worry. Konoha is not going to go to a war zone without security; you are a valuable ally of Konoha after all."
Kaida couldn't almost believe his ears. The same person who was cursing this merchant yesterday was now using such flowery words.
'His silver tongue ability may be better than his intelligence... or maybe both are combined anyway,' Kaida thought, but he kept on listening. Now that he thought about it, there were only going to be 8 Jonin and him on the mission, so was he taking the place of 12 Jonins?
'Well this... doesn't sound bad,' Kaida thought.
"Thank you Shikaku-san. When Lord Third said that 20 Jonin would be difficult, I was a little worried, but I knew Konoha would never disappoint their clients," he said, matching the tone.
"Actually, Lord Third's words remain true even now. Due to various circumstances, we had to increase border security recently, and many high-rank missions also arrived at the same time, so we really don't have 20 Jonin free at the moment," Shikaku said.
Kaida saw a flicker of confusion and a trace of anger coming on the merchant's face before disappearing like it was nothing but a mirage.
"But I thought you just said you are not going to send me without security?" he asked. There was a little accusatory tone in his voice which was not missed by Shikaku, but he ignored it anyway.
"I know, and since we can't provide you with 20 Jonin, we decided to do something better. We are sending an S-rank ninja along with 8 Jonins.
This force is much stronger than what you requested, and since this change is from our side, we are not going to charge extra for the S-rank as well," Shikaku said.
'Charge extra? I am already providing more than enough to hire two, but still, money can be earned back but life cannot,' the merchant thought.
"I am grateful for Konoha's generosity then, but can I know which S-rank ninja will be responsible for my safety?" he asked.
Shikaku nodded and then pointed toward Kaida. Ryozo looked toward Kaida, then his eyes went behind him like searching for someone else.
Seeing no one was behind him, he once again looked toward Shikaku's hand which was pointing toward Kaida. After glancing back and forth 2 times, he couldn't control his emotions anymore and asked:
"I didn't think you would joke like that, Shikaku-san."
"I never do such a thing in official meetings, Ryozo-san. He is the S-rank ninja we are providing you," Shikaku said with a smile.
"How is this not a joke? I wanted 20 Jonin for my safety, and you are saying that this boy who is not even an adult yet is stronger than them. Obviously, this is a joke," Ryozo said.
'Wait, this is truly becoming the scene of a cultivation novel. If everything went like this, then soon he will need to flaunt his strength to shut the mouth of this fox.' And like his thoughts were triggered, Shikaku turned toward him and nodded.
Kaida sighed, like he was jinxed by his thoughts, and stood up. After spending days at Mount Myoboku, in whatever liquid he was in, he had somehow grown taller, more muscular—not bodybuilder type but with a lean physique, pleasing to the eye but equally intimidating.
The merchant looked toward him out of curiosity when he stood up. He knew that even if the boy was young, if Shikaku had praised him this much, then this boy was at least a Jonin level ninja, and he didn't want to offend any such ninja.
But with the amount he had given to Konoha, it was his right to ask questions, or so he thought.
But the boy in front of him suddenly closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, there were 3 tomoe rotating in them with a dim red glow. The power coming from those eyes was nowhere near what he had felt from previous Uchiha Jonins.
Before he could even come to terms with the eyes, the boy released a pressure that was hard to see or look at, but he felt it with every bone in his body, like he was being crushed by some invisible mountain. The chair around him creaked, though the pressure soon vanished.
"I know I may look young, but please don't question Konoha's integrity. We will never lie to our clients…" Kaida said, moving closer to the merchant, looking him directly in his eyes. "Because we don't need to lie about our strength."
"That's it, Kaida. He was just joking; please take your seat," Shikaku said, but Ryozo could tell how he waited until the boy could complete his talk.
The merchant wanted to speak, to apologize about the misunderstanding, but his voice was trapped in his throat. The atmosphere was suddenly a little bit hotter than before. He then looked toward the glass of water, went ahead to pick it up, then only he found out that his hands were shaking.
'That was not the presence of a Jonin. Maybe another monster had emerged from Konoha once again,' he thought, gulping down the water.
"I am sorry for the misunderstanding, Shikaku-san, Kaida-san. Also, I am more than happy with these arrangements," Ryozo said.
"Sure, then everyone will be ready in three hours," Shikaku said, and then they exchanged some more details. Kaida could have stayed there, but he asked to leave for some time and went to check on the Jonin below in the basement.
While this was happening in Konoha, Kumogakure had released a scout squad from the border outpost to check the situation of a particular outpost which had not been responding for quite some time.
They had waited for a few hours before this, as the climate of the Land of Lightning was almost bad all of the time, so there might be some reason for delay in communication.
But it had crossed the critical threshold, so they released a squad to monitor the situation of the outpost. Since it could be an attack, the squad was in contact with the outpost all of the time.
They went full speed toward the outpost which once housed over 230 ninjas.
[We are about to reach the location] the Jonin leader sent the message on the minute, which he had to send every minute.
But when they reached the outpost, the scene in front of them knocked their thought process out of their minds, and he forgot to send the message.
[Report]
[Raven squad report], the officer on the other side got worried about the report, but then the voice came back...