Paths of Divergence

Wild Hunt

Chapter 17

-Wild Hunt

At the exact time they were to meet, Team Kari shows up at the village gates. The massive doors remain open, large amounts of traffic coming in and out of the village. After checking things out with Kotetsu and Izumo, the two responsible for keeping the front gate secure, the team of ANBU burst out into the forests of the Land of Fire. Quickly, they glide along the ground, Shizake leading them on a direct route to the mission's location.

Since the mission requirements called for civilian clothing, each of them are outfitted in very casual attire. Shizake wears a long sleeve gray shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He dawns red shorts accented with blue and keeps with the usual black ninja sandals since they provide comfort and maneuverability. Shozen has a basic white tee, gray pants, and like his Uchiha comrade, ninja sandals. Toshi dons a yellow tank top with a kanji in red printed on the front, black pants, and geta sandals.

"...Looking a little flashy there eh, Toshi?" Shītto teases.

"Shītto, I swear I'm going to smack you so hard upside the skull that your eyeballs will pop out. We have to blend in as much as possible, don't we?" Toshi replies, annoyed at her teammate's comment.

"Just messing with ya."

As for Shītto, he wears a light green hoodie blue shorts and some sandals to top it off.

They make no waste in time, keeping a grueling pace towards their objective. The day is long and tiresome but thankful for the ninja, the weather outside is cool yet refreshing. Several hours later, they decide to camp out. Quickly, they throw together a campsite just as the sun falls below the horizon. The night seemingly goes by in a blur, each of them rotating watch duties through out the night. In the life of being a ninja, having to travel is almost like a gray area where time passes unbelievably quick. Between the small talk and anything regarding mission parameters, even days can go by without a second thought.

After a day and half of travelling, the ANBU team land on the path that leads directly into the trading outpost. Hundreds of people walk in and out of the web of paths that leads to all parts of the world. Some come by caravans, domesticated animals leading a slew of hundreds of merchants all belonging to a single unit. Even a lone tradesman with a single donkey carrying supplies slowly makes his way to the epicenter of potentially the worlds meeting grounds for supply and demand.

"I've heard these places are pretty crazy..." Shizake begins, "The guard is composed of ninja from all over all with the same interest of protecting the interests of their homeland."

"You're telling me, with my Byakugan I've already spotted several ninja," Nitatchi says.

"Don't try to make yourself too suspicious, Shozen... we need to keep a low profile. There could be sensor types for all we know," Shizake says.

"But technically we're guarding the interest of our homeland, shouldn't that make us okay with the guards?" Toshi asks.

"Perhaps, but I would rather not try to spook our target. For all we know he could be among the guard."

Kenta gazes around at all the commotion going on, slowly speaking his thoughts to the group, "There's so much to this place, and it's huge. I've never seen one of these. Think about it, each path stretches to the far corners of the world. We could go to any country if we wanted to."

"Exactly. It's the epicenter of a huge network of goods. There's probably billions of ryō worth of items just in this place. The crooks can examine and pick out their targets easily," Shizake replies.