Kyoto found the swing in a rushed panic.
He thought he had gotten lost for a few minutes.
Waving casually, he was greeted by 3 unfamiliar faces. Judging by their chakra levels that Kyoto sensed they should've been around Jonin level.
"You my new teammates?"
The three nodded in sync.
They didn't look anything special. Just a girl with straight black hair and golden eyes. A man with a groomed beard and waxed back hair. And a boy with a ponytail.
"Fourth-sama sent us here." The man with the groomed beard began to speak.
"I've got the mission details right here."
Unrolling a scroll, the group of four all leaned their heads over in curiosity.
Mission: Eliminate the Rock-Jonin hidden in the Land of Fire.
Estimated enemies: 7 Jonin
Mission reward: Speak to Hokage for more information (Basic cash reward+more.)
The four all looked at the scroll with ease.
"This should be pretty easy."
"Just some rock-jonin?"
"It's free ryo at this point."
Kyoto looked at the golden sky in displeasure.
' This shouldn't be too hard. '
The man with waxed back hair and a superbly groom beard seemed to have gotten quite enthusiastic at this mission.
"Let's go. Ramen. All on me."
A small ring of cheers blew out from the group.
As the Jonin group along with the Uchiha escort made their way to the ramen shop, they didn't notice that Kyoto had disappeared along the way.
Or rather, they couldn't have.
Kyoto strolled around Konoha in a melancholy mood.
He had a bad history with his teammates.
In the past, he had never gone 3 missions without a team death. It was just the fate of the missions he had received.
The higher-ups knew his strength but used it as an anchor when they gave him teammates who he would have to protect undesirably.
Kyoto looked straight into the eyes of a food vendor.
His sharingan emerged and his eyes strained for a short moment.
"Thank you for your purchase."
Kyoto walked out leisurely, chewing on a stick of roasted lamb covered in honey.
'It's not so bad here, after all.'
Kyoto bit off the last piece before heading over to the Jonin squad who were too drunk to notice his appearance.
"Man-. This wine hits hard."
"Heheeh."
Their faces had long turned a distorting red.
"I hope life can stay like this for a while."
The boy with a ponytail let slip his dreams.
The others listened in their drunken slumbers.
"Yeah. That doesn't sound too bad."
Kyoto watched their talks, isolated at the edge of the ramen bar.
Before the Jonin members knew it, their drunken chatter became drunken snores.
And they fell asleep.
The last good sleep they would be getting.
Kyoto watched them soothingly.
'Guess I should start sleeping too.'
Kyoto pulled out a portable mirror and saw his own eye. Turning it into a mangekyou, the sound of a weeping dragon emerged.
And Kyoto hit the table softly. His figure was lit up by the golden hue of the sun.
Morning came with the buzzing of Konoha. The working day had just started.
As the group of Jonin woke, Kyoto was already lively by the counter speaking to a stranger. The two parted and the entire group slowly strolled over to the office of the fourth.
When they got there, Minato was just in the middle of signing off the last of a huge pile of paperwork.
"Morning."
Minato noticed the group and waved cheerily. He possessed lines under his eyes from a stretched night of work.
The group bowed before stepping into his office.
Minato got to buisness.
"I've placed a tag far into the land of fire. Instead of going on foot, I'll directly teleport you all near the group. Once you land, find shelter and detect their chakra. They're a group of 7 rock-jonin as mentioned in the scroll but who knows if they brought anyone else with them."
"All clear?"
The group replied flawlessly in sync.
"Yes, Hokage-sama."
Minato gave out a weary smile.
"Good, now if you're all ready. There is no time to waste. I placed the tag a while back so they might've passed by it already."
The group braced themselves on the off-chance they met the jonin right away.
Minato placed his hands on two of the group members. Instantly, an after-image was all that was left as they vanished into thin air.
Minato then placed his hands on Kyoto and the boy with the ponytail.
"Good luck."
And they too vanished into mirages of black.
The group found themselves near a twisted tree. It had long died but its roots were still snugly tucked into the ground below.
The group seemed to be in a large hill range.
The sun was blooming as always in the land of fire.
Kyoto looked around in surprise.
'So that's the space-time jutsu that beat me in one move.'
Kyoto sighed.
'I guess I shouldn't have restrained myself to one sharingan.'
The group of Jonin started making plans immediately.
The groomed bearded man had revealed himself as Toko last night. The girl had revealed herself as Asura. And the pony-tail boy had revealed himself as Ponet.
Toko spoke sternly.
"I'll make our base of operations, Asura can check for their chakra signals and Ponet can do some surveillance. Kyoto, you do whatever has to be done on your end."
Kyoto nodded in agreement. He didn't want to be bound to a role.
Since Kyoto hated working in teams, he decided openly that he would end this mission on his own, within the shortest time frame.
The plan was to just blitz his enemies after he found their hiding spot. From there, he would unleash a barrage of powerful lightning Jutsu relentlessly.
Sending out huge chakra waves, Kyoto easily discovered the existence of 7 Jonin level chakra flames.
"Ho?"
The others looked at Kyoto strangely.
Kyoto wasted no time.
"I'll be ending this mission right now."
Toko sent his hand out.
"Hey- wait a minute-."
Zzst.
"Lightning style: Lightning steps."
Kyoto was gone in a flash of blue thunder.
His figure trailed through the hillsides so fast that the lightning behind him appeared after he had already gone forward.
He apparated from left to right, top to bottom, and all around as his thunder form struck forwards at around 70mph.
The other Jonin could only watch in disfigurement.
Kyoto, who was essentially leaping up before dashing down through his thunder steps found that there were only around one hundred meters before he would make contact.
Kyoto laughed, amused.
Sending a huge influx of chakra into his feet, the next leap he did sent him soaring over the chakra flames.
He found a half-hidden base that seemed to be concealed by a camouflage of grass as he loomed in the sky, still gaining height in the air.
His breath burned due to the height as he unleashed a few swift handsigns.
"Lightning style: Lightning bomb: Threefold"
Three spheres of pure blue and white formed. Kyoto compressed them as far down as he could until the buzzing produced by all the lightning became a faint rumbling.
Kyoto watched as the fruits of his chakra went down, slowly becoming nothing more than a joint dot.
Boom.
A storm of thunder rose and crackled below Kyoto.
The force of 3 lightning bombs unleashed.
Kyoto breathed heavily as the force sent his hair up.
Thunder crackled below him for another 7 seconds It became a legion of whips that frenzied due to the vast chakra that had been placed within it.
Dark clouds of dust, intoxicated by blue energy slowly subsided.
Kyoto realized that the chakra flames had been significantly weakened but they were still lively.
Going against his original plan of spamming lightning attacks, Kyoto dived down using his lightning steps to boost himself in the air.
As the momentum rose within his body, he did some handsigns.
"Lightning style:Inbikiri Ekido no Jutsu"
The wind in the air made his voice hushed.
Kyoto dove down face first.
Although his arm should've broken upon touching the ground, Kyoto instantly used an opposing force to counter his momentum. That and his hashirama cells saved him.
Kyoto's left arm hit the ground swiftly, his palm was pressed flat.
Lightning burst out from his left arm crazily, forming a sudden shockwave that went out madly.
Boom.
Violent air crashed through the surroundings along with an abrupt wave of lightning that traveled for a hundred yards in every direction.
The lightning waves continued being sent out until Kyoto noticed all the chakra flames disappearing one by one. The chorus of booms finally diminished.
Kyoto's legs hit the floor as he looked around.
"Well, that was... easy."
All it took was a few lightning bombs and a lightning rage jutsu...
Kyoto searched the base and found it deserted. What was left of it, at least? All of his lightning bombs had formed a burrowed dirt crater.
"It can't be."
Kyoto's eyebrows furrowed.
He searched for where he had last observed the chakra flames. But when he reached each of the locations he found nothing but thin air.
An explosive kunai flew into the air before imploding a few hundred meters to his left.
Boom.
Kyoto cursed as smoke faltered in the sky.
"I've been had."
Somehow, he had been tricked by false chakra flames and now the real Rock-Jonin were attacking his team. He on the other hand had just wasted a lot of chakra sending out Kage-level lightning jutsu into an empty crater.
Kyoto put as much chakra as he could force into his feet.
His face showed how desperate he was to not let another teammate die under his prudent actions.