Chapter 66: Combat Plan

Three days later, Yuna came back to Tazuna’s house, but was feeling a little dissatisfied.

‘That was too easy… I wanted to manipulate Gatou into betraying Zabuza and Haku, but that idiot was already going to do just that. What in the world gives him the confidence to try and kill a jonin level shinobi with a bunch of small-time gangsters? Well, he did manage to hire an additional jonin- level missing-nin from Kiri, but I doubt he would be willing to fight against Zabuza and Haku at the same time. Especially not for a small fry like Gatou. At least I managed to set everything up inside Gatou’s warehouses. Now I just have to wait and see how everything plays out.’

While approaching Tazuna’s house, Yuna saw Sasuke frantically running up a tree just to cut the tree bark with his kunai and then jump down again, while Sakura was passed out on the ground.

‘Has Sasuke finally snapped? What the hell is he doing?’

After getting closer, Yuna also noticed that Anko and Naruto where currently tossing a ball entirely made of water between each other.

‘Oh? It’s the chakra exercise I disguised as a game when we were younger. I guess Naruto told Anko about it and she wanted to give it a try.’

Yuna didn’t want to disturb their game, so she quietly entered Tazuna’s home and the first thing she saw was Kakashi sitting at the table looking slightly lost. He was muttering some nonsense about “sensei”, “rasengan” and “monsters”. Yuna could vaguely make a guess as to what this was about, but decided not to talk with Kakashi about it.

‘The water ball looks rather similar to the [Rasengan], so I guess he is brooding over Minato’s death. Not sure what the monster part is about, though.’

“Yo, Kakashi. I’m back. You might want to take a look outside. Sasuke seems to have gone crazy. He is constantly running up and jumping down a tree.”

Kakashi, however, only gave her an annoyed look and then looked away again.

“Now, now, Kakashi. Don’t be like that. I even brought you a present.”

After saying that Yuna tossed a scroll to Kakashi which he easily caught.

“A present? What is it?”

“The composition of Gatou’s men.”

“WHAT!? Where did you get that?”

“Okay, it was like this: I was just taking a walk inside the village to gather some information, when a bunch of kidnappers cornered me inside an alley and knocked me out. Next thing I know, I am tied up inside a dark room, but luckily I know my way around ropes, so I quickly loosen them and pickpocket the door lock to get out of the room.”

“Those kidnappers were apparently part of Gatou’s group, so they actually brought me to his base. After managing to get out of the room, I started to look for a way out of the building and coincidently found that scroll in your hand.”

“…”

“…”

‘How can she spout this much nonsense without showing signs of a single lie being told?

“…”

“…”

“Whatever, let’s give it a look.”

Kakashi decided to give up thinking to deeply about it and that he would rather just read the information Yuna got instead of bothering to find out where they came from.

‘I see, Zabuza and one additional jonin called Kenta Kuse. He should be in the bingo book if I remember correctly. Very bloodthirst and uses a sword. Pretty normal for shinobi from Kiri in general. A person called Haku who should be around high chunin level, another chunin-level shinobi called Teruo Hase, two names I have never heard of before and about 50 goons that more of less have the strength of a fresh academy graduate, but have some fighting experience. Might as well test Yuna a little’

“What do you think, Yuna? How should we act?”

“Well, the main target is obviously Tazuna, so the enemy will invest most of his forces in attacking him. Since Zabuza and Haku seemed to be working together, I assume those two will attack Tazuna and I guess Kenta will be there, as well. There will probably be a small detached force that attacks this house in an attempt to kidnap Tazuna’s family. I guess that one will be led by Terou and will have a few goons, as well. As for the remaining goons, hehe, they will sweep the battlefield after everything is over.”

Kakashi’s eyes widened in surprise when he heard Yuna’s speculation.

“You think Gatou will betray his hired Shinobi?”

“Yes, I have no doubt about that. The village’s economy was pretty much non- existent for the last few years and yet Gatou tries to squeeze even more money out of it thinking that if he oppressed the people even further that they will automatically generate money out of their suffering or something like that. He is stupid, arrogant, greedy and delusional. There is no way a man like this is willing to pay the money to buy a mercenary of Zabuza’s caliber. Now that there are even more expensive shinobi mercenaries I am even more sure that Gatou will betray them.”

Kakashi thought about it for a moment and then nodded his head.

“That, indeed, seems rather likely. So how would you deploy our side?”

“Mhh…You should fight Zabuza, again. That much is obvious. I personally would prefer to play with Haku, but I could also go against Kenta while Anko takes on the one I am not fighting. We can just leave Tazuna’s home to Naruto. He has already plastered seals all over the building, might as well make use of it.”

Kakashi’s eyebrow twitched a little when he heard that Naruto has put seals on the house, because he didn’t notice him doing it and couldn’t feel the seals, either.

‘He probably did it while he was on night watch, but I find it rather troubling that I can’t detect them at all. Just how far has he advanced in sealing?’

“As for Sasuke, mhh… hard to say. This might be a good chance to make him push himself to awaken his Sharingan. Terou might be a good opponent for that, but I don’t know if Naruto can gauge the correct timing to stop the battle. It is probably safer to just have him guard Tazuna. As for Sakura…honestly, she is completely out of her league on this mission. Let her stay here and allow her to defeat a goon or two.”

Kakashi thought for a moment and then nodded his head.

‘She analyzed that rather smoothly.’

“Sounds good. We will do it like that.”

Moments later, the door opened and Anko and Naruto walked in. Anko was carrying Sakura over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes while Naruto was doing the same with Sasuke.

“Welcome back, nee-san.”

“Welcome back, Yuna. How was your walk?”

“Haha, I’m back. A few things happen and I got my hands on some new information about the composition of Gatou’s men, but except for that, everything was normal.”

“Oh? New information? That’s always useful.”

Kakashi could feel his eyebrow twitch again at how easily Anko dismissed what she just heard and how Naruto and Anko both don’t seem to be surprised that Yuna’s “walk” took her three days.

“Anyway, for now all we can do is protect Tazuna and wait for the attack. Naruto, you will be responsible for defending the house together with Sakura.”

Naruto couldn’t help but be a little disappointed at that.

“That is a pity, I would have liked to give Zabuza another shot. Oh well, guess I’ll upgrade the seals for now.”

Naruto quickly deposited Sasuke at the table and then ran outside with an excited expression on his face.

‘I am not sure why, but I kind of pity whoever will attack this house. Who knows what kind of abomination Naruto is currently creating out there?’

Just when Kakashi finished that thought, Naruto walked past one of the windows. His hands were constantly moving around creating seal after seal in midair and moments later, he had already moved past the window. Kakashi could have sworn there was a spark of insanity in Naruto’s eyes, but it could have been his imagination. Kakashi couldn’t help but shudder a little.

“A-anyway, now, we wait.”