Something Precious

Chapter Fifty Seven

Naruto welcomed the cold, calm focus that washed over him on a mission. He waited, hidden in the bushes like a predator stalking its prey. His blue eyes like ice, dangerous as they set sight on his targets, a small group of Mist shinobi huddled around a small cooking fire. They spoke quietly to one another, with low voices that Naruto could only just make out. Judging by their age and their careless discarding of kunai and various other ninja tools around their campsite just waiting to be picked up by an enemy, they couldn't have been of higher rank than chunnin which made Naruto wonder, there must be others nearby surely and he needed to know how many.

The terrain was rough and the ground was mostly course dirt mixed in with sharp gravel, the odd tuft of yellowing, dried out grass sticking up here and there bringing little contrast to the beige and browns of their surroundings. There was a thick forest that circled the vast area which held a mountain like structure made of rock and riddled with caves in the center. That was Naruto's mission, in one of those caves were three Leaf shinobi, they were trapped and surrounded by the Mist. And even if the Mist didn't attack, they would most certainly die of dehydration - somehow, it didn't seem like water was easily accessible around here.

Naruto checked the rough map he had been given. When the Leaf shinobi had sent out a letter telling the Hokage of their predicament, they had also drawn a rough map of the mountain thing, and an idea of where it was they were. The compass rose was drawn messily in the corner like the artist either had a very unsteady hand, or they were working on a rough surface. Most likely the latter.

The map probably said the cave entrance was on the south side of the mountain - the whole thing was kinda messy and difficult to decipher - which meant he should be staring right at it. Now all he had to do was get past the chunnin and any other possible encampments he came across. Not difficult. Not for Naruto. For now, however, he needed to do a little eavesdropping.

"I'm telling you, if we just wait a few days they'll be too weak to fight back, we can just attack them then." one of the shinobi said as if she thought it was a genius idea.

One of the shinobi's teammates nodded along to her idea. The other one didn't.

"Tanya, you know who they are right? Even if they are weak, they are still formidable and require caution."

The girl, Tanya, scowled. "Not with our numbers. There are a hundred of us and only three of them."

A hundred? A hundred? Did they deploy a hundred forces for three people? That was a little overkill. . . more than a little.

"And I heard that one of them is already injured, they might be dead already. I say we just go for it." Naruto's heart dropped. Injured? He held himself back from immediately rushing to the mountain, he needed to wait and see if the chunnin would divulge any more useful information.

"Well it doesn't matter what you think!" the other shinobi snapped. "We aren't of rank to make those decisions."

"Maybe if we bring it up to the ones who are of rank they would listen to us!" Tanya argued back.

"Tanya, you know the captain is a tactical genius, he has the mountain surrounded so they cannot possibly escape without us knowing. So by waiting and cutting off their food and water supplies we may drive them out from hunger or dehydration or they will die on their own, so there is no need for such risky actions." the chunnin argued calmly.

Tanya huffed and Naruto decided that he knew all he needed to know. One, that there were roughly a hundred shinobi. Two, that one of the Leaf shinobi were injured. Three, that the mountain was surrounded by encampments such as this one. And four, these shinobi in front of him were in fact, chunnin. He had no more reason to stay hidden and listen.