Chapter 49: Consecutive Rank C Missions

They soon reached the village. On entering the village, the girl on Renjiro's back got a few curious looks. The squad entered the Village Chief's house again and laid the girl down on a bed in his home. Renjiro said, "She needs immediate medical care." The Village Chief nodded and went out to send someone to call the village doctor.

At that moment, a middle-aged man came running towards the Village Chief house. On seeing the Village Chief, he quickly asked while sobbing, "Chi... Chief, m..my daughter? Is she...?" The Village Chief quickly calmed him and said, "Yes, she's safe. Enter my home." He quickly ran to the house and rushed to his daughter. On seeing him running, Renjiro stopped him and said, "She's injured, don't hug her or hold her tightly." The man finally stopped and sat down next to the bed and began sobbing after seeing the bandages on his daughter.

Soon a doctor arrived and began attending to her. The father and the village chief thanked Renjiro and the genins again and again. After a few minutes, the Village Chief handed Renjiro a paper, and the squad left the village and moved back to the town.

After reaching the town, Renjiro said, "Take today off. Explore this town. However, stick together. We'll meet in the same restaurant as yesterday's at 1 pm." After he left, Hoka said, "You know, because so much happened, I didn't notice that we completed the mission and returned back to this town in merely two hours!" Mieko nodded. Fujin sighed and said, "Yeah, and the actual fight didn't even last for a couple of minutes. Even though killing was hard to adjust to, the fight itself wasn't a challenge."

Hearing that, Mieko asked for all the details. Hoka had already seen it all with his Byakugan, so he didn't ask for it. After giving out the details, Mieko felt a bit anticlimactic about the rank C mission. Fujin chuckled and said, "Next time you snap at that guy, force him to give us a rank B mission." Hearing that, Mieko loudly replied, "Hey, who snapped?" This yell attracted the attention of nearby people and made Mieko go red with embarrassment. She thought for a bit and said, "But yeah, I guess we should ask for rank B missions."

The kids then toured around the town. They tried some of the local food there and played a few games. At 1 pm, they met up with Renjiro in the restaurant. After occupying the seats, Renjiro looked at Fujin and asked, "So, how are you doing?" Fujin said, "I am doing fine sensei." Renjiro nodded satisfactorily and said, "Good. You have handled your first kill very well. I am proud of you." He then looked at Mieko and Hoka and said, "Next, it'll be your turn. Prepare yourselves." The two young ninjas nodded nervously.

Lunch came and the team started eating. While they were eating, Mieko suddenly asked, "Sensei, when can we do Rank B missions?" Renjiro squinted his eyes and asked, "What brought this on?" Mieko said, "We want to fight against the enemy ninjas. Just fighting bandits is not much fun." Renjiro scoffed and said, "Hmph. You guys ain't ready." However, he saw Mieko's determined face. Knowing the trouble she'll cause, he quickly added, "If you ask this again, or pester me for rank B missions, I'll make you do rank D missions for an entire year." This threat made Mieko quiet down quickly.

Team Renjiro didn't do much for the rest of the day. The next morning, a similar procedure was followed. Team Renjiro was hiding in a Bamboo forest, while looking at the Bandit hideout. The bandits had cleared out a small area, and constructed 3 small huts and 1 medium-sized hut to serve as their base. The medium-sized hut was in the centre, while the other 3 were around it. Fujin had sensed 12 people inside those huts. Renjiro asked, "So, who wants this one?" Mieko beat Hoka by saying, "ME!" Renjiro nodded and said, "Alright, we'll leave this hideout to you."

Mieko began walking forward stealthily. But soon she stopped and returned. She looked at Hoka and asked, "Hoka, do they have any hostages?" Hoka checked and answered, "No, all 12 seem to be bandits." Mieko asked, "How many are there in each of the huts?" Hoka answered, "There are 9 in the central hut, 2 in that hut, 1 in the hut on the right and the last one is empty." Mieko nodded and used Earth Military Movement jutsu to stealthily move forward.

Of the 5 ninjas, 3 were together in the main room, while the other 2 were in the smaller rooms. Mieko said, "Hmm, both the ninjas in the smaller rooms have their rooms very close to that exit from the main base." Fujin nodded and said, "Yeah, we will have to be careful while killing them. If they make a lot of sound, it'll alert everyone in the main room." The bandits too were all over the base. In all, there were 4 exits from the hideout to above the ground. One was located in the main room, while 3 were just outside the exits from the main room to the corridor.

Fujin thought, 'This base is very well built. I wonder if it started with something small and was slowly expanded as the bandit group grew larger. Or, if the base is something that naturally existed and was just occupied by these bandits. Also, if we didn't destroy those bandit groups, would they have grown in this manner too?'

Fujin looked at his teammates and said, "So first, we have to decide from where to attack them." Mieko replied, "Let's just attack the main room. Most bandits are present there." Hoka nodded and added, "Yeah, this way we'll deal with the majority of them in one blow, and we can then pick out the scattered bandits one by one." Fujin replied, "Yeah, good idea. But if we do that, then the scattered bandits can try to escape." Hoka replied, "Yeah, but we can just chase and kill them." Fujin replied, "But it'll be very troublesome to hunt them all down one by one. Especially if all of them run in different directions. Also, by destroying the main room, the bandits in all the other rooms will be alerted, and the ninjas will be alerted too."

Hoka thought a bit and nodded in agreement. Mieko asked, "Then, what do you think?" Fujin pointed in a direction and said, "That room there is at one edge of the hideout. And also has one of the five ninjas there. Let's start with that room. We will sneak up on the ninja and kill him. Then we will clear the nearby rooms and slowly and stealthily head to the main room. This way, this direction will already be cleared when we destroy the main room. So killing them all will be much easier." Mieko and Hoka thought for a few seconds and agreed with the plan.

The genins then discussed the plan further and decided on the details. Once everything was planned, they checked their weapons, and were about to begin their attack. But Mieko suddenly asked, "Wait, who will kill the ninja?" Hoka quickly replied, "I'll kill him." Mieko rebuked him, "Why you? I will kill the ninja." They then looked at Fujin. He said, "My sword provides me with a longer range, I think I'll be more suited to killing him." However neither Hoka nor Mieko agreed to that logic.

The argument about the kill went on for a minute. Renjiro observed his genins and sighed. Fujin then said, "Well, all three of us can kill him. So let's just decide with Rock, Paper, Scissors." On hearing that, both Hoka and Mieko looked at Fujin with a deadpan expression. Mieko said, "That's so childish! We are ninjas!" Fujin scoffed and asked, "Well, do you two have any better ideas?" Hoka and Mieko looked at each other. Not having any other idea, they reluctantly agreed.

They soon got in the posture to play the game and began playing. Renjiro now looked over with amusement. The first three rounds were tied. Fujin thought, 'This is fun. I guess that's why Goku and Vegeta did this so often.' Mieko thought, 'I am not sure if I'll wi..... Wait!'

As the trio began the 4th round, Mieko's eyes suddenly turned red. She saw that both Fujin and Hoka were about to do Rock, so she went with paper. And said, "I win." Hoka quickly protested, "Hey, no sharingan. That's cheating!" Mieko rebuked him, "Well, there were no rules stating that we couldn't use sharingans." Fujin, who just wanted to start the mission, chuckled and said, "Well she got us there. Remember to set the rules properly next time." Seeing that he didn't have Fujin's support, Hoka reluctantly agreed.

They then looked at each other and nodded. All three made hand signs and disappeared within the ground. The bandit base, which was properly hidden and even well defended due to being underground, was about to feel the terror of being hunted by a squad, in which every member could freely move underground.