"This mission…"
On the road to Shouqi City, Hikaru found himself turning the assignment over and over in his head.
He had no intention of refusing it. Sure, it was complicated, and they still had to figure out what was really going on—but strictly speaking, it was far easier than assassination, hunting, or interception work.
Most importantly, the time limit was a full half month.
Half a month was enough for Hikaru to shamelessly drag his seed progress forward by a huge margin. By his estimate, when the deadline came, he'd probably be sitting at fifty or sixty percent.
And beyond all that… there was an odd sense of familiarity.
"I saw this somewhere before… manga? anime?"
He racked his brain. He'd been in this world for thirteen or fourteen years already—there was no way he could remember every detail with perfect clarity.
Even though he'd started keeping a journal early on, and flipped through it now and then to make sure he didn't miss anything truly important, it still only recorded major events. There were plenty of smaller incidents—like the Sky Ninja Village—that simply weren't worth writing down line by line.
"Wait. Shouqi City… don't tell me…"
Hikaru's expression turned a little strange. After a long moment of digging through memory, something clicked—something interesting.
"If it's that… then this mission is going to be fun."
He kept the thought to himself.
The two of them moved fast. In a single day, they reached a small town near the Fire Capital. After making brief contact with the local ANBU garrison, they rented rooms at an inn and settled in.
They had time. There was no need to rush.
What Hikaru didn't expect was that, late at night—just as he was about to rest—Kakashi came knocking.
"What's up?" Hikaru opened the door and let him in, eyebrow lifting. "Can't sleep? Want to go grab a drink?"
"Don't joke around, Captain. We can't drink." Kakashi shook his head, voice serious.
Hikaru clicked his tongue. He had no idea which brain-dead idiot had made that rule.
In the shinobi world, you couldn't drink unless you were eighteen. Never mind that you might be a ninja who'd killed more people than you could count—if you weren't old enough, you weren't allowed.
In other words: killing was fine. Alcohol wasn't.
Hikaru gave up on that line of thought, shut the door, and offered a mild, gentle smile. "Troubled by the mission? Can't sleep because of it?"
"Yes, Captain." Kakashi nodded and sat down. "This mission doesn't clearly state who the enemy is. But I have a bad feeling. Something's off."
"Oh?" Hikaru's brow arched. Kakashi's analytical ability was top-tier—Hikaru wanted to see what he'd caught. "Go on."
"The missing people." Kakashi's tone stayed calm. "That castle in Shouqi City—over the past century, there are records of groups of people disappearing at intervals. There's a pattern. Not everyone who goes in vanishes."
Not everyone.
Hikaru watched Kakashi's serious face and, inwardly, nodded. Sharp as ever.
A pattern meant you could rule out a lot of possibilities. And following Kakashi's logic, it narrowed down to two outcomes.
"If we assume there's apattern," Hikaru repeated thoughtfully, as if tasting the word, then continued in a smooth tone, "then we can infer two possibilities. One: an unknown organization—or even a village. Maybe even our own—snatching people."
"Human experimentation?" Kakashi frowned, the crease deepening. "If that's the case, this gets messy."
"There's another possibility." Hikaru cut him off, his voice dropping, almost conspiratorial.
"That castle has a serious problem. Or rather… maybe it isn't a castle at all. Maybe it's a beast. Something worse."
"A monster?" Kakashi's eyes sharpened instantly. "Captain… you mean it's feeding?"
Hikaru gave a small nod.
In his memory, there weren't that many people bold enough to run human experiments—at least not openly. They still had to be careful; who knew whether something outside the original story had crawled out of the shadows.
But Hikaru also knew one thing: if some third-rate organization was operating in the Land of Fire, it wasn't doing so without a death wish. Konoha's deterrent was real. Unless someone powerful was sheltering them, nobody gambled their life that casually.
Danzo and Orochimaru were the perfect examples. If they hadn't had Hiruzen quietly covering the mess behind the scenes, and ROOT keeping everything buried, their experiments would have exploded into daylight long ago.
And in this case…
What they were walking into really was a monster.
"If it's a monster, that's actually better." Hikaru reached out and patted Kakashi's shoulder, smiling lightly. "Because people are always harder to deal with than monsters."
Kakashi seemed to catch his meaning. "You mean… the human heart is unpredictable?"
Hikaru nodded once. "So we prepare for both."
Kakashi started to speak, but Hikaru cut in before he could finish. "Whether it's a monster or an organization, we confirm the truth first. And we stay ready to move the moment we have to."
That was all that needed to be said. Kakashi understood what to do.
Hikaru wasn't worried about some secret faction this time—handling the creature would be enough.
He couldn't recall its exact appearance. Aside from knowing it was a giant lizard of some kind, he didn't have details, and he wasn't sure how strong it truly was.
But his earlier point stood.
People were harder than monsters.
"If I remember right… the summoning scroll is in that thing's stomach. As long as we're careful and get the scroll—"
Hikaru had always been cautious, yes. But caution didn't mean cowardice. When it was time to be confident, he had plenty of it.
In this era, the Mangekyō Sharingan still wasn't something that popped up everywhere. Nagato was crippled and busy forging his Six Paths puppets in the shadows. The world's ceiling, for now, was still the various Kage—and monsters like Kakuzu.
Last time, he and Kakashi had escaped Kakuzu. Kakuzu had underestimated them, sure, but that didn't change the fact: Hikaru wasn't weak.
He was confident that even in his current state, he had a real chance against a normal jōnin—and even against some "ordinary" elite jōnin, he wouldn't be helpless.
And if he truly couldn't win?
Running was never that hard.
"With Sage Mode in hand—even if it doesn't last long—it's more than enough for a clean getaway."
Hikaru watched Kakashi leave. He didn't see him out. Instead, he sat on the edge of the bed and thought quietly.
"Besides… one of the things I'm best at is getting away. Body Flicker, escape routes… honestly, I'm pretty good at running."
…
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