CH_5.4 (147)

CH_5.4 (147)

Nenro followed the Uchiha from Takuma's team at breakneck speed. They had just defeated their targets when the Uchiha came running in a second later, telling them that they had an unaccounted enemy team coming in.

"There's a chunin among them; are you sure?" Nenro asked the moment he saw Takuma, a nervous edge in his voice.

As he finished the sentence, Masaaki's team arrived as well, led by Fuma Arisu. They had similar tense expressions painted with anxiety and unease.

"Chakra levels confirmed by Minoru," Takuma was sitting cross-legged on the floor, his brows tense in concentration. He glanced at them for a moment before going back to staring hard at the floor.

Nenro glanced at the sensory-nin part of Takuma's team. He had gotten over the fact that Takuma was leading people from clans like Fuma and Uchiha; he worked in a place with no shortage of those clan members— but having a sensory-nin under his command was much more of a surprise. Sensory-nin were extremely rare. He was thoroughly glad that they had a sensory-nin among them.

"How can we be sure they're an enemy force?" said the Yamanaka from Masaaki's team.

The Inuzuka from Nenro's team scoffed. "Of course, they are. Who else would come to a drug farm? Anyone besides us is an enemy." Despite the rough words, Nenro could tell that Inuzuka was agitated from the large brown ninken rubbing his head against his partner's leg as though trying to calm him down.

"The question is, who are they, and why are they coming here?" asked the Yuhi on Nenro's team.

'That's not the question,' thought Nenro, but before he could voice his opinion, Takuma spoke up.

"That's irrelevant. We don't need to know who they're, only that the chunin among them will wipe us out," said Takuma. "But to guess, they're probably a courier team visiting to collect a consignment delivery."

That made sense, thought Nenro. The farm was a production plant, and the produce they grew needed to go out so it could be sold. Nenro bit his lip— their luck was horrible.

"This wasn't taken into account," Akimichi from Masaaki's team sighed, rubbing her forehead with a frown.

Takuma shook his head. "The delivery schedule wasn't part of the intel package."

"We are unlucky," Akimichi groaned.

Nenro glanced at the people around him. Their expressions were darkening by the second. Everything had been going extremely smoothly to this point— they hadn't encountered a single problem from scouting to capture. The morale that should've been at a high had plummeted to a sinking low.

"We don't have much time; a few minutes at best," said Takuma. "We need to come up with a plan to take them out, or..."

"Are you insane?" the Inuzuku interjected.

"... at least survive until our chunin can replace us," Takuma finished. He looked at the Inuzuku, "We don't have a choice. We can't run or hide, and we don't know when the chunin will finish their fight. We have no choice but to engage."

Nenro swallowed deeply. Running or hiding would turn them into deserters, and there was no worse fate than that of a deserter— turning rogue would be a better choice than returning to the village if they decided to avoid this. Moreover, allowing the incoming chunin to go unchallenged would risk the lives of Hidden Leaf chunin. The priority was clear— the highest-ranking shinobi were to be protected and supported so if everything went wrong, they would at least survive.

It was so much easier to replace a genin than a chunin and, similarly, infinitely simpler to replace a chunin than a jonin.

Everyone in the group knew that, so they realized they had no choice.

"We are going to ambush them," Takuma stood up.

"Who made you the leader?" Yamanaka narrowed his eyes.

"I can do damage," said Fuma Arisu.

"I know. You're on partial-damage duty," Takuma replied. "Arisu, Yamanaka, and Yuhi— you three are in support. You guys are going to cover our asses. If someone's in a bad spot, get them out. If you see a chance to attack, you go for it.... If one of us gets injured, pull them away.... Anything to increase the chance of survival EXCEPT tanking unless both me and Akimichi are dead."

Nenro stared at Takuma. How could he look so calm in this situation? How could he keep barking orders to nine people in such an abrupt situation like this? What was going through his mind? How was Takuma envisioning this would turn out? Did he believe they would be able to survive the upcoming battle? Was it his previous experience that gave him confidence?

Nenro had many questions but no way to know the answers.

"There isn't enough time to formulate a traditional plan of action, so everyone will need to improvise the fuck out of it," said Takuma. "For this to go well, every one of us will need to be mindful of our surroundings and each other— if we don't support each other, at least some of us will be dead, and if we don't get back up in time, it's up to all of us.

"As for the ambush. This is what we are going to do..."

After Takuma explained the 'plan,' he asked the teams to split up before they positioned themselves for the ambush, but before they could move, the Uchiha spoke up.

"Are you not scared?" he asked Takuma.

Takuma, who had half-turned away, returned to look at the Uchiha and then gazed at the group. "I am terrified out of my wits," he said, "but I want to keep living, and that desire for survival is what keeps me going right now." He chuckled, "If I'm going to die, then it's not going to be on a B-rank mission out here in the middle of nowhere. I want to die in a warm bed when my skin is wrinkled like a witch, and I have problems shitting— which seems an unlikely scenario in our occupation, but it's nice to have an end goal.

"And well... there's a disgusting amount of porn in my house, which I would like to be disposed of before I die. Have to clear my browser history before I kick the bucket, if you know what I mean," Takuma laughed boisterously as he said that last part.

Nenro didn't understand what Takuma meant, but he had gotten used to it after years of their friendship. Others, though, looked just as confused as he did when he didn't know Takuma as well as he did now.

"If we live today, Arisu is going to take us all to the best restaurant in the village and foot the entire bill. Gorging ourselves to death is a much better way to go out," Takuma shot a rare grin at Arisu.

"Sure, why not," said Arisu with a small smile.

The situation hadn't changed, but the mood was lightened considerably.

Takuma motioned to Akimichi, and the two stepped away to have their team discussion.

Despite knowing Takuma had been leading a team for three-quarters of the year, Nenro never thought Takuma to be the leader material. At most, Nenro thought Takuma would be a decent manager, but now observing him in the moment, Nenro could tell that even though he was rough around the edges and not as charismatic as some other people he knew, Takuma was definitely a leader material.

He sighed before turning to Masaaki and the Uchiha.

"Let's share what all of us can do. We have a chunin to kill, and it's going to take all we have..."

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