The shadows

ch12

Naruto met his team by the gate. He was the first to arrive, but he didn't have to wait long. After a short greeting, they moved toward their destination. Before getting far from the village, they stopped in a clearing to discuss their course of action.

Since the mission was to test Naruto's skills, he would take the lead. The bandit camp was small and reported to have around 20 members. These kinds of missions were guaranteed success without complications.

Usually, when a bandit group was reported, the Hokage would send a spy to check the information. If they were dangerous or had rouge shinobi among them, they would be taken care of by Jonins.

Suppose they had sensitive hostage situations or complications. In that case, it might even be done by ANBU, but it rarely happened unless high-ranking rouge ninjas were involved.

However, if it was only civilian bandits, it would fall into the chunin or genin team missions category. And this one was straightforward due to the small number.

The camp was located outside a village that was 2 days away from Konoha but within the land of fire. Naruto was also aware that he had 2 ANBU watchers he was not supposed to be aware of.

Over the years, his senses have become so sensitive that nothing could escape his notice, even without the sage mode. However, this wasn't the information that even Danzo was aware of.

Danzo knew he was a fantastic sensor and often compared him to the Nidaime. Still, he believed his range was more limited, and his senses had a limit. Still, finding the ANBU wouldn't be hard for him.

These 2 ANBU belonged to the Hokage. The ROOT agent Danzo planted would join later as he could sense his Chakra already near their destination.

Naruto knew that one of the ANBU was his usual stalker. From the time he began his outings in the village, sometimes when he was training, he would feel this ANBU watching him.

His Chakra wasn't familiar, but he was never hostile, just curious and excited when watching him. Naruto knew that it was natural that he didn't recognize him since he was an Uchiha.

The only Uchihas Naruto known by Chakra were Sasuke, Itachi, Obito, and Madara. Plus, based on his Chakra, he was a teenager, around 14. His Chakra was strong and warm.

He had the signature Uchiha fire Nature but a secondary affinity towards wind which was trained and not natural. His natural secondary, which was really weak, was water.

His Chakra gave Naruto an expression of a fireplace. Strong and raging yet controlled and protective. It also seemed playful and sparkling sometimes when Naruto searched for his Chakra around the village.

Naruto brought back his attention to the current conversation. His teammates were going through the details. Naruto listened to them and decided to give his own input.

" The camp is far from the village for a fight without worrying about the civilians. My idea is that since the camp is located in the woods, we should be able to use the cover of night to get close enough."

" Based on the reports, there should be a shift change for the guards around 2am. We can use the disorientation to sneak into the camp. I can make shadow clones and send them inside the tents to take care of the ones sleeping while we take care of the guards."

" I can make around 10 effective clones. 4 of them can stay outside the camp in the trees in case some try to escape, while the other 6 go for the tents."

" Since there are only 2 entrances, I suggest we split into 2 groups to take out the guards," Naruto said thoughtfully.

After a little more discussion, his team agreed, and they continued their journey. Soon it was nighttime and time for camping for the night. Naruto took the duty of making dinner.