Songs For The Heartbroken: That's What You Get

Chapter 22

The briefing in the Hokage's office played over and over inside my head as we ran full speed on the familiar road to the south west. Team eight had ran that road towards the Land of Rivers more times than we could all count or even cared to keep track of. As an infiltration oriented team, the country where tradesmen from all over the world congregated to do business and 'mingle', was somewhat of a must have in our insiders repertoire.

We were to make contact with and aid a Konoha comrade with the recovery of contact of theirs that had gone missing two days prior. The person was supposed to be the best insider our comrade had, and supposedly had no reason or tendency to disappear. If he had gone off of his own free will, our spy's mission had been compromised and needed to be ended without leaving any loose ends behind. If, however, his contact had been taken, he needed to be recovered and we had to make sure his kidnappers had not taken what they wanted from him.

The Hokage had refused to give the entire team all of the information, so now, we only shared the common knowledge of our destination: Kawa no Kuni. The Intel was compartmentalized in such a way that Akira-sensei held the name of our spy, Hotaka knew the route we were to take, Takahiro had the location of the safe house we would be using as a rendezvous point, and I had been told which escape route we were to use should things go south.

It was both a strong point and a liability that no member of our team had the entire picture, but it was a necessary precaution. Our comrade was after something big, and we could not compromise his mission were one of us to be captured. What did seem odd was that he had requested a genin team for the task that, to me at least, seemed like was over the limit of our capacity. I figured it was for the sake of remaining unsuspected were the enemy keeping an eye on the newcomers in town. A genin team would most likely be on a C Rank mission or simply out on a training trip. No one would suspect snot nosed brats came to aid I the retrieval of an informant.

It made sense, but this spy had to be either very powerful and confident in their skill to employ a genin team, or they were straight out stupid. I hoped for all our sakes this person knew what they were doing, because even if we were more capable than most genin, there was only so much we would be able to do. Either way, we were still going on that mission, so there was something we didn't know about that was clearly pivotal to this mission's success.

We all settled into our on-the-field routine when Hotaka deemed our camping site safe enough for the night. He was usually the one to choose our place to rest when we were out ever since Sensei had discovered he had a natural ability when it came to finding the safest, most guarded places within our surroundings. Takahiro would then set up the perimeter and secure it while Sensei and I set up camp and Hota stood watch.

The night was still, warm enough not to need any extra clothing yet cold enough not to make anyone uncomfortable. It was pleasant, the sounds of the forest around us signaling how very alive it was even when the sun went down. There was no fire, we had no need for warmth, and our ration bars did not need cooking. We sat in the dark, Taka reorganizing his tools, Akira-sensei sleeping with his head on his companion's fur, Hota keeping watch, and I sharpening and cleaning my blades. Taka and I would go to sleep once we were done, and Hotaka would keep watch until it was somebody else's turn.

We barely spoke, we didn't need to. This had become such second nature over the years that there was no need for question or other verbal exchanges. We never spoke while making camp in the field, it disturbed whoever was on watch and we didn't want anyone creeping up on us.

Morning though, was completely different. A fire was made and water was boiled. All of us would have tea, except for the unlucky soul that had had middle watch, they always had coffee. We made small talk as we planned for the day's trip and set emergency codes and procedures beforehand, in case of an ambush. We refilled canteens and packed our belongings in between meaningless conversations. Mornings on the field were always my favorite, they felt like home.