Songs For The Heartbroken: That's What You Get

Chapter 25

The Land of Grass turned out to be, to absolutely nobody's surprise, just that: a never ending field of grass. There was the occasional isle of trees within the great green ocean, but the extent of it still took my breath away. And not in the good sense.

There was nowhere to hide, nowhere to seek cover other than the tall blades of grass that reached my ribs. I felt exposed. Any shinobi who knew the terrain better would have been able to pick us off like fish in a barrel, and I hated it. It was a brilliant location for traps as well so my nerves, I knew, would be on edge until we got out of the god awful place.

To both Hota and Taka, this was not an issue, since Hota had the Byakugan and Taka was a traps master himself. I just held the terrible disadvantage of having to see my opponent, but I figured I'd burn that bridge when I got there. It was useless to panic about something I couldn't change, not to mention a mistake only a rookie would make. I was no rookie.

After what seemed like a lifetime of drifting aimlessly in that never ending sea of grass, my ears picked up the soothing sound of running water. It was then that Jiraiya-san turned to us with a wide grin and welcomed us to the Capital of the Land of Grass. As he parted the blades one last time, we finally got the chance to see past the green wall that had surrounded us the entire trip there.

The entire city had been built below ground level, and not one building was more than three stories high. The river that bordered the entire west side of the city had a dam built onto its side that fed the streams which provided the entire city's water supply. And the docks, just as the entire place, were hidden by the surrounding grass. There was no security detail that I could see as we made our way down the path carved to the side of the cliff, but I was convinced they didn't need one, since the entire grassland was most likely mined with traps for unwanted guests.

The capital was definitely not a big city; I myself would have called it a Town. The place was only ten blocks long and eight wide, and there appeared to be more shops, pubs and inns than residences, which would have made it more of a place for commerce than for people to live in.

Without a word, Kosuke, Taka, Hota and I took off to do some recon and intel gathering while the adults went off to sort out our accommodation. Id didn't take us long to find the merchant's district, so once we did, we split up into two groups: Kosuke and I would search the eastern side of town and Taka and Hota would do the western most side. Long ago, we had decided that when looking for a specific person, it would be much easier if we were to cover different areas and make the search and Intel gathering more time efficient. Kosuke and Hotaka would be the trackers and Hota and I would cover them while they poured their entire effort into the search. Of course, the added effort of Doyun and Danno when they arrived would help narrow the seemingly endless possibilities. We were not a tracking team after all.

Still, the only thing I could bring myself to think about was the reason Jiraiya-san had requested an Infiltration team for a tracking mission. We had Kosuke, Hotaka, and Sensei, but we were not a fully qualified team, and definitely not ideal where finding such an important target was concerned. Why would he risk not finding his contact when he had such valuable information? Unless...

Unless there was no such person. He requested our team, which meant we had something that was of use to him. But what could our team have that no other did? We were simply a clan less saboteur, a branch family Hyuuga and...

Well kick me in the head and call me brainless.

Of fucking course.

"Kosuke-nii?" I asked the hound with the most unbothered expression I could muster. I didn't nail it.

"Hmm?"

"How long have you known that our target didn't exist?"

"What are you talking about, Pup? The toad man gave us a scent, how could he not exist?"