The next morning, tatsuya began packing a standard shinobi travel backpack, with the essentials.
Extra kunai and shuriken, cantine of water, dry rations, unopened pack of explosive tags, a couple changes of clothes and more.
After packing tatsuya began dressing, unlike when he was in the village attending the academy, he was now an official shinobi about to head to war, so he bought a new set of clothes.
Black shinobi pants tied at the ankles with white bandages. Black multi-terain sandles, sleeveless turtle neck mesh under shirt, mid thigh mesh under shorts, short-sleeved v-neck t-shirt. Over the shirt was a black long-sleeve wind breaker, with green sleeves.
Tatsuya zipped his wind breaker all the way up before, strapping his shinobi pouch to his waist and a double kunai holster to his right thigh, after rapping said thigh with white bandages.
Flinging his backpack over his right shoulder, he clicked the waist buckle before leaving his room to head downstairs.
Upon reaching the 1st floor, tatsuya happen to come face to face with his mother, who's face was etched with worry.
Tatami walked up to tatsuya, and began fussing over him, causing tatsuyas chest to feel warm. "Be careful out there, war is not easy!" She said, her voice soft.
Tatsuya pulled his mother into a comforting hug. "Don't worry mom, I'll definitely come back!" He said before releasing his mother and heading towards the door.
Tatsuya waved his goodbye, before exiting the house, heading towards the hokages tower.
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After 6 or so minutes of walking at a decent pace, tatsuya reached the hokages tower to find both enshu and daigo already waiting, their clothes like tatsuya now consisting of darker clothes, and shinobi equipment.
"Morning, enshu, daigo!" Called tatsuya, his hand raised in a wave.
"Morning!" The 2 returned as tatsuya reached them.
"Sensei hasn't made it yet?" Asked tatsuya, looking around before his gaze fell on enshu, a member of the Nara clan.
Enshu shrugged. "when I left, shikaku Sensei wasn't in the clan compound, so I'm guessing he's in the tower." He said before stuffing his hand in his pants pockets.
The trio went silent after that, though the silence didn't last long as shikaku came walking out of the hokages tower.
"Good, your all here!" Commented shikaku, coming to a stop before his genin team.
Looking over the 3, he saw that all of them were now wearing darker colour's, while also being armed to the teeth.
Nodding, he gestured for them to walk, their destination the villages east gate.
After walking for a while, shikaku spoke. "We are heading to kikio pass, konohas forward base of operations against sunagakure!" He said, his hands, like enshu stuffed into his pants pockets.
"We'll be moving with a wave of reinforcements sent to the encampment set up in kikio pass!" He added, as their group made it to the east gate. Said gate was crowded with shinobi of all ranks, along with carts filled to the brim with supplies.
Shikaku gestured for them to fall in, before heading up to the gathering of jonin leading the party.
Tatsuya, enshu and daigo found a tree to stand under, their eyes raking over all the gathered shinobi.
The trio saw genin from their class, along with genin from the other graduating classes.
"Alright listen up!" A voice boomed from the gate, a jōnin with a nasty scar running across his face, and dull blond hair cut short, stepped forward.
"I'm Nimetsu Kiriu, and I'll be in charge of this group of reinforcements heading towards kikio pass. Gēnin stick with your teams, no wondering off. Chūnin, watch them, make sure they do nothing stupid!" He paused before turning to the gate, with a signal the gate began opening outwards.
He gestured forward with a hand, after the gate fully opened. "Move out!" He boomed before exiting the gate first, everybody began following behind.
Shikaku merged back with Tatsuya and the others. His posture lacking any of the previous laziness he showed.
"Stay sharp, enemy shinobi have a habbit of infiltrating deep into fire country, if you slack off, you might just catch a kunai to the neck!" Shikaku said, his voice hard and filled with the bitter experience of being ambushed in their own turf.
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To be continued!!