Reborn in the Mist

Midoriwara was a hot island. It’s semi-active volcano sent plumes of smoke and steam into the atmosphere every passing hour and only calmed down after the inevitable heavy rainfalls. It was those rains that let Team Fuguki assault its western coastal fort without a single effort of the defenders making a difference.

That was a week ago, today the fort was theirs to defend. The main invasion force had arrived and helped complete repairs on the damage the fort had taken during Team Fuguki’s siege of it. They came ashore with enough shinobi to hold one fort and prepare an attack on the other primary targets within the island.

The war had only just begun and they had the upper hand. There wasn’t one person amongst them that feared failure…except for Rina. Unlike the others who were assigned to further the greater war effort, to demolish enemy structures, lay traps for the Samurai army bound to come and face them head on in battle, Rina had a different mission.

Before they left the Mizukage handed her a second B-rank mission scroll and instructed her to begin only after Fuguki had given the clear. Her mission was unfortunately not as simple or straightforward as ‘defeat the enemy’, no, she was charged with securing the entire reason for Kirigakure joining the war now; Kekkei Genkai.

She would have three Genin and a Chuunin medic under her charge for this mission and it would be the first she ever commanded. Rina had no opinions of her own on Bloodline wielders, she’d heard her grandmother curse and despise them, and her father seethe at the supposed dangers they presented, but she’d never so much as experienced a Bloodline wielder and for a long time she thought that might be a good thing.

If there’s such a danger that her father the Mizukage was concerned, then she and everyone she loved was better off never encountering them. However, she stood now as captain of a mission that her father’s successor believed would change and strengthen Kirigakure forever and it would be all thanks to her finding the Kekkei Genkai clans of Midoriwara and ensuring their protection.

Despite the division in her heart, Rina felt good about this mission. Sure, as far as she knew it was the only one in this war that even had a chance to fail if the poor signs she’s observed have anything to say do with it. But it was her chance to be useful to the Mizukage, for the longest time he hadn’t spared a minute to train or instruct her in anything and hadn’t so much as relied on her company as he used to.

Rina didn’t want to marry the man as her grandmother intended nor did she want to spy on him like she plotted, but the fact that he was so disinterested in her that even her grandmother’s schemes couldn’t bring him to look her any longer than it takes to finish a cup of tea hurt in a way she couldn’t begin to comprehend or address.

But everything seems possible again with this mission, he would look at her with the same trust, reliability and expectation she saw in the gaze he fixed the likes of Mangetsu and even the low caste Zabuza. She would bring him exactly what he’s asked and more, she would have him recognize that while she might not be a prodigy or a blood lusted demon, she was a reliable kunoichi.

She looked up from her map and took the left turn at the crossroads. Her Genin followed with packs of food, water and medicine for when they found the Kekkei Genkai clan the baron of Midoriwara had driven into hiding.

The island was well maintained and had sections of lush vegetation cramped between roads. The island was bursting with a variety of flowers and even fruit bearing trees like she’d never seen back home, some of the fruits she recognized and others were as strange as the rocky cliffs that were punctured by geyser pockets.

The volcano wasn’t the only source of heat on the island, the geyser pockets forced many communities away from ideal ground to perch and build in awkward positions, like the hillside hamlet town she was leading her Genin to. The last village they’d come across was almost a day’s walk away and they were shinobi at war, haste was their business.

She shook her head. It was easy to see how rifts and division from sheer distance could feed apathy for what the Baron of Midoriwara had done to the Bloodline wielders but she couldn’t help but wonder if there truly was no alternative.

Perhaps this is the way now, Yagura-sama’s way.

After a couple more hours of cutting through brilliant stretches of flowers and lush vegetation, abandoned farmlands and burnt ones, and a little shinobi manoeuvres across and atop the side of the hill, Rina’s team found the village.

It was tucked just on the edge of a cliff that had suffered some tremors in the past decade as below the lowest built cliff house was a bunch of rock crushed and shattered houses. They were mixed in and time had done well to fade away the signs that a rockslide or earthquake had occurred, loosened the non-existent foundation the houses were built on and crushed them under the weight of a shedding mountain.

Still, despite past tragedies the hamlet town continued to live, build and grow there. Rina was in no place to question their wilful ignorance and so as the guards cowered in the presence of so many shinobi she put it all aside for her mission.

“Is there a village head we can talk to about the Nettou clan?” Rina asked, putting on a soothing smile for the guard’s sake.

He blushed and nodded, “What is your business…if I may ask?” he said as though if Rina said no he’d simply nod along and lead the way regardless.

She gestured at herself, her fellow Chuunin who was more or less a Genin themselves and the three actual Genin that had complained all through about how disappointed they were that they weren’t accosted by enemy Samurai on the way.

“We’re here to offer refuge, Kirigakure is.” The guard tried not to look relieved as he shared a look with his partner and waved them in, “It’s true then? You sheltered them?”

Rina could recognize panic well and it was plenty in his eyes, she nodded and kept up her silent smile as he kept his lips sealed. The town was quite sparse of people and though it was just a little town almost all the stores were shut with dust coating their doors.

“Where is everyone?” One of her Genin asked sourly kicking a rock, “I’m hungry, I thought they’d be a ramen bar or something at least.”

It was a fair question and one her fellow Chuunin graciously answered, “It’s wartime, many of the civilians living here have either been conscripted or bought into fighting the war. Isn’t that so?”

The guard shuddered as he felt our attentions on him, “Yes, but we have no grudge against shinobi, we just try to live.”

It was another reminder that the war had begun long before Kirigakure even had a say about it as it does now. Rina looked around, finding only a few adults on the streets working their trades with no customers, desiccated children and animals. The contrast between the island and its inhabitants was clear.

As the guard brought them up the steps of the largest building in the town, a relatively small home where Rina was coming from— she decided with a firm certainty that her mission wasn’t just about finding the Nettou, but helping the islands recover.

“Don’t worry, Kirigakure is here now, everything will be better before you know it.”

Almost forgot, 100th chapter yay! Daimyo War arc begins, look forward to less Yagura and more war front characters. That's all for today folks, see you soon.
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