Naruto excitedly shouted, "I did it!"
He quickly made the Tiger seal and shouted, "Body Flicker jutsu!"
However, nothing happened this time. He kept standing in the same place. He tried it a few more times.
"Body Flicker jutsu!"
"Body Flicker jutsu!"
"Body Flicker jutsu!"
Unfortunately, he failed every time. Suddenly, he heard a chuckle. He turned around to see Fujin who said, "That's enough for today, Naruto. You did good work by managing to do it successfully once within just 2 hours."
Naruto immediately said, "Just a few more minutes. I'll completely master it!"
Fujin shook his head and said, "No. You are tired. And, this jutsu will take a long time to master. Right now you only managed to flicker by a couple of meters. That isn't very helpful in the battle. You will need to practice sincerely for a few weeks until you can flicker for at least a few dozen meters and can do so continuously."
Naruto unwillingly nodded and left. Fujin went to sleep as well. While he hadn't stayed up all night like Naruto, he did wake up absurdly early even by his standards.
The next day, Fujin returned to his training, while Naruto had a rather eventful day. He met Konohamaru and later in the day created his legendary Harem jutsu.
The day after, Fujin had just begun training when he had an unexpected visitor. One of Hiruzen's Anbu Guards visited Fujin and called him to visit Hiruzen's office. Fujin wondered, 'Hmm, did something happen?'
He flickered along with the Anbu Guard and reached Hiruzen's office. When he entered, Hiruzen sent everyone out and activated the seals. Fujin became serious and waited for Hiruzen to start speaking.
Hiruzen asked, "Fujin, you were planning to go out for some missions, right?"
Fujin nodded. He had asked to go out of the village a couple of weeks ago but was asked to stay in the village by Hiruzen. He replied, "Yeah, training all the time becomes boring and stale. I find it more helpful to go out for a week or two for a change. It helps me relax and increases my efficiency in training."
Hiruzen said, "Good. We have a couple of situations. I'll let you handle it. Suna has been acting strangely for the past few months. From the reports from our spies, it almost looks like they are preparing their forces for something. They have raised their security so much that even the spies have been unable to send messages out for the last two weeks."
Fujin realized, 'I see. They are starting to prepare for an attack on Konoha… But shouldn't there still be some time? Or is Rasa more serious than in the original story? Hmm, yeah, that should be the case due to my interference. He'll be hating Konoha even more and at the same time will be preparing even more.'
Fujin asked, "Do you want me to go to Sunagakure and investigate what exactly is happening?"
Hiruzen immediately shook his head and said, "No, that will be very risky. While you could infiltrate with the help of merchants, if you were discovered, then you'd be surrounded by thousands of enemy ninjas. Though you have a flying summon, you will still have a difficult time escaping if the Fourth Kazekage finds you. There is no reason to take such a risk."
Though Hiruzen's words were full of concern for Fujin, his thoughts were the exact opposite, 'The last time I sent him to Suna, he almost created another country! The Western area of the Land of Wind is still very unstable, forcing Rasa to deploy more than 1500 ninjas there despite there being no external danger. The Wind Daimyo transferred a lot of funds that were meant for Sunagakure to those affected areas, making Rasa even more desperate.
Right now, we only have suspicions that Rasa is up to something. We don't know who Rasa plans to target or if this is just an exercise to ensure the preparedness of Suna's forces. However, if I send Fujin…'
Hiruzen strongly believed that Konoha and Suna would be at war if he sent Fujin there. He didn't dare to do so! Not to mention, Shikaku had explicitly asked Hiruzen to not send Fujin there and threatened to go on a month-long vacation if Hiruzen did so.
Fujin wondered, 'Since when did he become so caring? Just say that you don't want to provoke Rasa.'
While entering Sunagakure would be risky, there wasn't much danger for Fujin. While he still couldn't use the Flying Thunder God jutsu to teleport a long distance away, he could just inform Ryu and his sons that he would be going to a dangerous place and be prepared to reverse summon him once he burnt the seal. As long as Fujin was aware of the danger, trapping him was very difficult. It was unexpected situations, like Roshi's Tailed Beast Bomb, that were a bigger threat to him.
Hiruzen continued, "We can't interfere much in Suna. What I want you to look into is the Land of Rivers. As you know, the Land of Rivers is supposed to be aligned with us. However, the Yamakawa family has been acting strangely for the last few months.
From what the Anbu observed, it looks like they have made a deal with Sunagakure. The Anbu squad was planning to act, but they discovered traces of Suna ninjas and decided to retreat. We believe that Suna has stationed an Elite Jounin and a few squads in their town.
I want you to look into their family. If there are indeed Suna ninjas hiding there, then eliminate all of them and eliminate all adults in the Yamakawa family. Bring back the bodies of their family head and the Suna ninjas with their brains intact."
Fujin nodded and asked, "What's the second situation?"
Hiruzen continued, "It is in the Land of Rivers as well. A couple of our Chunin squads disappeared in that country. I'm afraid something strange is happening there. We deployed some Anbu squads but they didn't find anything. My first thought was Sunagakure, but it is very strange for them to do something like this. If they are planning something, then they wouldn't alert us by doing something so small.
Once the Yamakawa family is dealt with, spend some time in that country to see if you can find any clues. If you can find and clear that issue, then the mission will be considered as complete. Otherwise, just return in 2 weeks and report your findings. I'll just dispatch more forces to find out what happened to them."
Fujin nodded. Hiruzen asked, "Who do you want to go with you in your squad?"
Fujin replied, "There is no need for it. I'll just go by myself."
Fujin was planning to use this opportunity to meet up with his Phantom Haven Society subordinates and create another set of a few thousand Flying Thunder God marks in the Land of Fire. If he had teammates, then that would be difficult to do.
Hiruzen wasn't surprised as he understood that Fujin preferred working alone. He said, "Alright. Other than the bodies you bring back, make it seem like everyone in the Yamakawa family was killed by Sunagakure ninjas."
Fujin said, "Alright. Do we have any idea as to which Elite Jounin was sent?"
Hiruzen shook his head and said, "No. The squad couldn't gather much information as they would have been in danger if the information was true."
Killing an Elite Jounin wasn't an easy task. Only a few ninjas in Konoha could do so consistently. Hiruzen would have needed to dispatch Eagle along with a few squads of experienced Anbu ninjas to be able to ensure that Konoha wouldn't suffer needless losses. And that force couldn't guarantee that they would be able to complete the mission.
Since he had the option of sending Fujin, Hiruzen didn't need to go through other complicated alternatives.
Fujin replied, "Alright. I'll leave within a few hours then."
Hiruzen nodded as Fujin disappeared from the room. Fujin entered his house while thinking, 'It looks like Konoha crush will happen after all. Though I interfered, what I did should have infuriated Rasa even more. The attack might be more fierce than what I remember.
Orochimaru and Rasa will also need to consider my existence and make arrangements to ensure that I don't cut through Suna and Oto ninjas or directly attack the barrier the Sound Four will erect. Hehe, I am looking forward to what they come up with.'
Fujin made preparations and left the village. Around the same time, Eagle entered Hiruzen's office.
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