Namikaze Legends

Chapter LXI: Takigakure

After being led through underground paths and forced to swim underwater again and again, eventually the blindfolded Konoha team wound up on a shore outside once more judging from the sound of birds and open air... which were basically telltale signs that you were back outside.

The blindfolds were taken off of the eyes of the drenched foreign shinobi as they were able to look around. There was a massive lake and the biggest tree that any of them had ever seen in their lives dead center in the village as the lake flowed out down a huge waterfall at the edge of town.

The portion of Takigakure that was lived in by the general populace sat around the outside edge of the lake, with trees and buildings, which were of course dwarfed by the size of the main tree of the village that seemed like it could fit all of the settlement inside of it, using either its width or its height.

Really, enough couldn't be said about that goddamn tree. It was absolutely gargantuan. Bigger than anything in Konoha by far, even the Hokage Monument. It had to be at least a mile in circumference around its base.

"So." Naruto said as everyone on his team with the exception of Lee seemed to be irritably trying to dry themselves off, "Do all of you guys have to do that every single time you leave the village? That whole swimming thing?"

None of the Taki ninjas said anything in response, instead continuing to lead the Konoha team across a long bridge built over the lake to the island that the great tree was situated on.

Lee leaned in to Tenten who was still rather upset about having to swim just to get into a village as an ally, "That probably means no." He whispered to her way too loudly to be the least bit subtle.

"Uchiha." The leader of the Taki escort team said to the apparent leader of the Konoha visitors, something Naruto was still stewing a bit over, "You are aware of just what the situation our village has asked yours to interfere in entails aren't you?"

"That if we're unable to find the real source of the upheavals around Tsuchi no Kuni's borders you're probably going to have to go to war with Iwagakure." Sasuke said bluntly, "Yeah, we know."

As callous as it sounded, what did they expect or want him to do, freak out and panic? Sound timid about it? No. There was a problem that they'd been called to look into, and that was what they were going to do. They would search as hard as they could, and they would come back with what they found.

It was information-gathering. A 'gimme' mission that had been given to Menma and company in order to get the former away from Killer Bee, something that they were all just now realizing after the run-in outside of the village. Technically the only possible way to fail this mission was for all of them to die so that no one came back to Taki to give any kind of report at all.

Barring that vastly unfortunate outcome, there was really no possible way to screw the pooch on this one. It was almost idiot-proof as far as B-rank missions went.

Well, it was B-rank in Konoha's listings because while it was dangerous and required actual ninja work, its consequences wouldn't affect them to an extremely heavy degree... as far as a war occurring between an ages old enemy and an ally would anyway. For Takigakure, due to the sensitivity of the mission content and the potential fallout from its outcome far outweighing how it would affect Konoha, it was A-rank.

So while there was no way to really fail without the team being annihilated, depending on what they came across the consequences of their work could have been huge.

Strangely enough, Sasuke's no-frills attitude didn't ruffle any feathers amongst the Takigakure escorts. In fact, seeing someone so down to business and ready to roll made them feel better than the originally disjointed feeling they'd gotten from the visiting team.