Naruto: Kage of Kages

Team 6 was already upon the bandit camp, with Inori not actively participating, Shiki was the one to announce the discovery of the bandit camp.

His sensory abilities had improved quite greatly in the month he spent under the blonde jonin’s teachings, finding their targets was an easy task.

But he hid a frown even as he reported the weakness of their targets.

‘Nothing . . . To signs of anything wrong, no hint of an ambush, nothing . . .’ The more normal things looked, the more Shiki’s instincts flared in warning.

He felt himself chill as Kukyo’s effectiveness increased at a rapid pace to beyond anything he had previously achieved.

The white haired boy was certain, a tough and deadly battle, the first of life approached yet he only felt calmer and calmer, as if only now was he doing what he was supposed to, becoming what he was supposed to be . . .

Overly focused on his internal changes, he failed to notice that Inori who was hanging a little back to let her students take point, sported a dark frown on her beautiful face as well.

‘Why is no one around?’ She internally questioned.

‘If they are still so far that I cannot sense them at all then the kid will easily slip through the encirclement.’

‘Even if they are informed of a sensor’s presence which they shouldn’t be, the distance taken should only be outside my passive sensory range so as to give me an excuse as to why I did not know they were coming.’

‘Did the plan fail and those people neglected to inform me?’ The blonde jonin complained in her thoughts but she knew that was not the case.

The plan had worked alright.

‘Maybe it worked too well . . .’ Worries started mounting and Inori was starting to get nervous.

She had agreed to cooperate in delivering Shiki into a trial by fire that would force him to reveal his abilities.

If he managed to get out of it himself, then they would be aware his power and skill surpassed their expectations by far and if not, they would still get a measure of the boy’s ability after which Inori would rescue him in the nick of time to forge a stronger bond than just a sensei.

Certainly not an upright thing to do but the Yamanaka jonin was used to such dirty tasks, there was a reason her reputation was less than stellar despite her very advanced and valuable abilities.

‘Sending him into a deathtrap while risking my own life in the process however, is just doubly unacceptable.’ Inori thought to herself.

She was not a very righteous individual but she was not one to target loyal shinobi of Konoha who did no wrong and no mistakes.

Regardless, no matter how much she stretched her sensory abilities, she could not find anyone ready to ambush them.

‘There are fuinjutsu that can block me but only Uzushio has that level of stuff and they are stingy with it, even when dealing with their longtime allies like Konoha.’

There was only one possible explanation, one that Tsunade had also arrived at.

‘The enemy is aware of my sensory range and is hanging just outside of it, waiting to complete a rapid encirclement when the opportunity arises.’ Inori gravely thought.

Originally, the plan was to goad a nearby shinobi squad of Kumogakure, a village that had hidden connections in this area, into attacking a promising group of young Konoha geniuses that were being blooded in the area.

Kumo shinobi were very likely to take this bait since they often went out of their way to hunt the talented prospects of other villages, especially as war could be seen on the horizon.

This way, even if Shiki got hurt, no one in Konoha would be directly involved and hopefully Mito’s suspicions could be avoided. It was not like such events did not occur and they were not even using their own operatives disguised as the other village in a false flag operation.

Full deniability.

At least they thought so.

‘Those fools in the village!’ Inori internally raged.

‘They underestimated Kumo’s own intelligence network. We had a leak and now they are taking advantage. Not only are they targeting the kids, they are certainly after me as well.’ The blonde jonin concluded.

She was particularly hated in Kumogakure and one particular elite jonin had it out for her.

‘If that bitch is coming with backup things are going to get real ugly real fast.’ Inori grit her teeth.

But she could not warn her team now and just escape.

‘That overly sharp brat is already somewhat suspicious of me. If I give anything away now, that suspicion will swiftly turn into hostility.’

Thus the young Yamanaka jonin could only wait for the moment the other party moved and entered her range.

‘If I’m quick enough to notice, maybe we can still slip through the encirclement.’

Inori could only hope.

*

Her fears were justified.

In a wide encircling formation around the entire valley, an elite detachment of Kumo shinobi awaited the signal for the start of their operations.

A vivacious young woman with a bombastic curvy figure but also fit and muscled, sporting bronze skin, golden eyes and wild auburn hair was leading this group with a special advisor supporting her.

A young man well in his prime, with spiky brown hair covered by a large dark grey hat that doubled as his shinobi forehead protector and wearing a black eye patch.

“Remember what we are here for.” The young man advised his younger female commanding officer.

“I know!” The woman irritatedly responded.

“Then repeat it to me.” The man unflinchingly responded, not giving her any face.

“Grrrr.” The woman growled but the response of the target was lacking.

A minute of silence passed as the tense standoff continued.

“The priority target is a white haired genin brat that somehow became the ward of Konoha’s jinchuriki. If he survives the initial trap, we are to acquire him by any means necessary and eliminate him if that proves impossible.” The woman finally said.

“Very good Zee.” The man responded.

“Now, the target is teaming up with an Uchiha and an Aburame, considering them mere genin is a grave mistake but the real threat is their jonin sensei-”

“Yamanaka Inori.” Zee interrupted with gritted teeth.

“Yes. She is our secondary target, if our trap proves ineffective, Dogan will take charge of the encirclement and the genin, you will take our elites and attempt to take that woman down or stall her otherwise.”

“Yes uncle Dodai!” Zee responded with a lot more enthusiasm this time.

“I’m still in my twenties!” Dodai shouted in protest but the young woman just sheepishly smiled.

“I’ll hang back with a reserve and reinforce as needed while looking out for unforeseen interference.” He continued

“We’re already spending a lot more manpower on a mission like this than we normally would, even exposing the capabilities of our intelligence network, failure is not an option.”

Kumogakure’s plan was simple. Obtain Shiki as leverage or kill him and reveal that they had been tipped off by Konoha’s Root about the boy to cause internal division in Konoha.

Even if the current events were not at all what the Root intended, they would not be able to clean the stain off of them.

Not to mention that the jinchuriki was also the keystone of Konoha’s alliance with Uzushio, if things went well even that relationship would be damaged.

But it was an operation deep into enemy territory with a high chance of failure, Kumo would never needlessly send so many elite shinobi on such a high risk mission.

However, the target’s jonin sensei was Yamanaka Inori, just before she retired from regular spy duty, the blonde had made quite a splash in Kumogakure and earned Zee’s personal enmity, the niece of the Third Raikage hated her with a passion.

And so, this big operation came to be. It was a big gamble that could cost quite a few lives but even if it failed, it could still cause minor divisions within Konoha, the Third Raikage felt that was enough justification to do his dear niece a favor.

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Hey, Author here!

Just a reminder that you can read up to a FULL MONTH ahead of this site on pa-treon.

I’m trying to become a full time Author now and I’m not going to be starting any new novels just so I can make sure this one is properly completed.

Find those sweet advanced chapters on pa-treon.com/lusoba without the -