If choosing a kunoichi, Hinata has been acting a little strange lately, often hugging herself. Not sure what's going on with her for now;
Yuhi still seems to be guarding Samui, and it always feels like she's going to ask a lot of questions. Better not.
"Ino is actually a pretty good choice, but I could also just go in without picking anyone."
But, not picking feels like a bit of a waste.
After all, as long as the mission is completed, the people who participate in the instance can get stronger.
And his current strength is more than enough to protect them.
Might as well pick someone.
Ino, who tends to be a bit love-struck, is always obedient and sensible in front of him, and won't cause any trouble.
"As long as it's not like the first mission, where we ran into an enemy like the Sage of Six Paths, it's fine."
After selecting Ino as his companion, Uchiha Kage quickly stepped formally into the instance.
———
"Rain?"
As soon as he entered the instance, Uchiha Kage felt the icy raindrops hitting his face.
Looking up, it was a gray, gloomy sky with heavy dark clouds.
In the distance was a vast stretch of mountains and forest, and—
Right at the foot of the mountains, what looked like a somewhat shabby town, or rather, village.
"This time's mission is…"
[Mission: ￥＃@＆*%X]
'A string of garbled characters?'
It was the first time Uchiha Kage had seen such a glitched prompt inside the dream space.
He felt a little uneasy.
But after sensing the chakra brimming within his body, he quickly brushed off that uneasiness.
"So cold… Kage?"
Not long after Uchiha Kage appeared in the instance, a blonde girl in a purple midriff-baring outfit also slowly manifested in the air.
Feeling the icy rain, she immediately hugged her arms to shield herself from the cold.
But soon, after noticing Uchiha Kage right beside her, she quickly relaxed her arms and ran over to him.
"Great, I get to see you again in a dream, Kage!"
Ever since that last time in the "dream" when she met Uchiha Kage and did a bunch of embarrassing things with him, Ino had been wanting to come back again.
Unfortunately, she hadn't been able to since… the dreams she had on her own were nowhere near as real as this.
And now, she had finally entered this kind of realistic dream again.
"Let's find somewhere to hide from the rain first."
Looking at the girl clinging to his arm, her chest gradually getting soaked from the raindrops, Uchiha Kage decided to take her to find a place to shelter from the rain.
Besides, with the mission glitched, it didn't seem appropriate to try to explain (or bluff about) the existence of this instance space to Ino.
But…
Luckily, Ino completely took him and this place as just part of a real dream.
So he didn't need to explain much at all.
"Mm! I washed myself really well this time, super fragrant, can't let this rain mess it up…", Ino looked annoyed at the raindrops still falling from the sky, then leaned her soft body even closer to the boy beside her.
Hoping to slightly reduce her body's contact with the rain.
"A place to hide from the rain… wasn't it a flower shop last time?"
'Cave, under a tree? Somewhere outdoors might be okay too…'
'But kind of weird and cold.'
Ino's mind was still wandering through the improper events of the last dream.
She was even wondering whether Uchiha Kage would lift her skirt first or unbutton her top first.
Would he start from her face or the protruding part in the middle, or lift one of her feet first…
Ah, just imagining it made her feel shy.
'But since it's a dream… oh well. Hehe!'
"Wait, looks like someone's lying in ambush ahead. Let's observe first."
After scanning the surroundings with his Byakugan, Uchiha Kage quickly spotted several ninjas hidden in the mountain ravine.
These ambushers clearly weren't targeting them, newcomers to this world…
Also, those ninjas' headbands weren't from Konoha.
'Where exactly is this, and in which timeline?'
Uchiha Kage felt it necessary to investigate carefully first.
"Eh?", After being warned by Uchiha Kage, Ino followed him to hide behind a rock formation and looked confused.
This time, besides being outdoors, there was an actual plot?
Though compared to jumping straight into the main theme, having a storyline was indeed better.
Thinking that, Ino didn't find the rain as annoying anymore. On the contrary, she even felt that being in the rain seemed kind of… romantic?
———
Uchiha Kage didn't have to wait long before the sound of ninja clashing came from the riverbed below the mountain.
"Konoha headbands…"
Although the ninjas lying in ambush in the ravine weren't from Konoha, the ninjas who had fallen into the ambush definitely were.
There were about fifty ambushing ninjas wearing Amegakure (Hidden Rain) headbands. The Konoha ninjas charging into the trap numbered around thirty.
Fifty against thirty, and with the advantage of a planned ambush, it should have been a massacre.
But the result…
The Konoha ninjas survived in the end.
Of course, it was a tragic victory, less than ten of them were left.
What remained were dozens of corpses of enemies and comrades, either drifting in the river or strewn across the rocky terrain.
Blood dyed a large portion of the river red, and a mix of rainwater and blood flowed over the scattered rocks.
Even from a distance, with Uchiha Kage's sharp senses, he could still smell a strong stench of blood.
But it was soon washed away by the rain.
Rainy days really are the best for killing people.
"Kage… just now, that was…", At first, Ino had looked forward to a "story," mistakenly thinking a romantic "hero saves beauty" scene was about to unfold.
But as time went on, and the brutal, bloody battle in the valley played out, she was completely shaken out of the "this is just a dream" mindset.
"Where exactly are we now?"
'Is this a nightmare? Or reality…'
The girl anxiously tugged at the boy's sleeve.
"This may be a dream, but it's not for fun."
Uchiha Kage gently held the girl's hand in his, reassuringly.
Then he watched as the few surviving Konoha ninjas began heading down the mountain.
———
"Damn it! Ambushed in a place like this!"
"Where's the medic ninja? Can he still be saved?"
Cradling a blood-soaked comrade, one surviving ninja frantically searched for medical tools.
"The medic ninja died earlier in the battle. We're on our own now… He's not breathing anymore."
After flipping the deceased's eyelids and feeling his neck, the leading ninja shook his head and continued searching other bodies.
"These Rain guys didn't even carry supplies!"
Annoyed, he rolled the last enemy corpse to the riverbank. The squad leader of the Konoha ninjas had sunken eyes and a tired face.
They had planned to retreat and seek resupply, but got lost in the rain and then ambushed almost to annihilation.
Their luck was just terrible.
"There's a village ahead…"
After scouting the area, one ninja hesitantly reported to the group.
"Hmph, those Rain bastards might be hiding in that village too. Go search and flush them out!"
"Yes!"
Even though the chance of Rain ninjas hiding in an ordinary village was close to zero, no one objected to the leader's order.
Without supplies, they couldn't possibly make it out of the mountain forest. Their only option was to "borrow"… some food and resources.
Their justification: the villagers were sheltering escaped Rain ninjas.
The somewhat shabby but overall peaceful village was soon engulfed in flame after the Konoha ninjas began their "search."
Dark smoke rose sparsely through the rain.
And cries and screams rang out…
"Konoha vs. Amegakure… is this the Second Great War?"
Following the Konoha ninjas, Uchiha Kage and Ino soon arrived at the village at the mountain's base.
Originally they were just looking for a place to shelter from the rain, but now it seemed putting out the fire took priority?
"How could Konoha's ninjas do something like this?"
'This is definitely a nightmare.'
Ino shook her head, unable to accept it.
Attacking a civilian village, this wasn't the Konoha ninja image she had in her mind at all.
They looked more like bandits described in books.
"During wartime, against enemy nations, this kind of thing isn't rare."
After all, Konoha wasn't full of saints either.
But…
If he remembered right, Nagato of the Akatsuki, his parents and family, were supposedly killed in a scene like this by Konoha ninjas…
'So is this mission to save Nagato?'
A meaningless mission, the first rain encountered in an instance, and Konoha ninjas turned bandits, all triggered a series of associations in Uchiha Kage's mind.
"S-Stop! Let go of that woman!"
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