Lemitsu wanted to sit in the cart. He had never sat in a moving cart before and wanted to know what it was like. He always saw other merchants sit and ride them and imagined what kind of adventures merchants went on.
Going from place to place, seeing new people and locations, Lemitsu learned that merchants would usually specialize in selling a specific type of good and wondered what kind of product he would sell if he ever got the chance. Right now, he was transporting jewelry—not his first choice, but life throws curveballs sometimes.
If given the choice, he would sell weapons. When he went to the weapon stores back in the village, they were always so expensive and would stay on the shelf for so long. He had tried to bargain the price of a cool sword that he had seen collecting dust on a shelf down to a more reasonable amount, but the shop clerk just laughed him off, saying, “Swords don’t got an expiration date. This is a ninja village; someone will buy.” He had tried to argue with the man's logic, but he wouldn't budge.
The cart beckoned him to sit in it. He had been walking for so long, and it was so boring. Amon said that the team needed real mission experience, and even though Lemitsu nodded and agreed with Sensei, he actually didn't get it. He had wanted to leave the village and go on an adventure, and the Land of Snow promised to be just that. It was just that Lemitsu didn't realize how boring all the walking was going to be.
He had practiced with his elemental type a little, and it was cool he had fire. The Leaf village had a lot of experts in fire-style jutsus, and he couldn't wait to be able to summon giant fireballs like a dragon. The Third Hokage had even been rumored to have taught lessons on how to use fire-style. But you could only spend so much time channeling chakra and trying to shape it into an elemental type for so long.
Lemitsu's feet were starting to hurt from all the walking he had been doing, and sitting down in the cart while he practiced would feel really nice. He turned to complain to Moko about it, but noticed she wasn’t at her assigned location. 'Oh no, she must have been attacked by a super-skilled assassin. They show that in movies where the last guard realizes too late that they are under attack and then is quickly defeated.'
Lemitsu decided he was not going to be taken out without a fight. He stealthily took a kunai out from his sleeve and subtly moved his head around to get a lay of the land. There in the corner of his eye was movement, and out of reflex, he turned his head to see.
In a betrayal most foul, he saw both of his teammates sitting in the cart practicing their chakra control. “Hey! What are you two doing?”
“Hmm, what?” Moko asked lazily, turning her head towards him.
“Why are you guys sitting in the cart?”
“My feet hurt,” Moko whined.
“It’s easier to practice,” Rei chipped in.
“We are doing a mission. We can't just sit in the cart.”
“'Just sit in the cart'? Are you calling me lazy? I am guarding and practicing at the same time. You are the one who is just walking around like a weirdo.” Moko stuck her tongue out at him.
“I am guarding the client like how Amon-sensei told us to. We need to be ready to fight at a moment's notice.”
“Yeah, but we are also disguised as merchants. If we are tired of walking, wouldn't a merchant be tired also? I'm sticking to my character,” Rei responded helpfully.
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Lemitsu thought about it; technically, Rei has a point. If he wanted to stick to his character, he should ride in the cart. “Hmm, I guess that makes sense. Alright, if it’s for the sake of the mission.” He went to take a seat.
“You can't sit here,” Moko said.
“What? Why?”
“There’s not enough room.” She lay down to take up more room.
“Yes, there is.”
“No, there's not. There's no room for weirdos. Keep walking.”
Lemitsu opened his mouth to argue back, but suddenly a crossbow bolt slammed into the ground near them. “What?! We are under attack... This is all your guys' fault.”
“No, it's not!”
“Yes, it is.” A dozen men rose up from a distant hill and charged at the cart from their flank, while eight more came from the bend in the road in the front.
The team had a few seconds to see and understand what was happening. Attacked from two sides with the forest on their left and the open road they were walking behind them, but not given enough time to maneuver the horses to retreat back.
The ones coming from the front would arrive first, so Lemitsu physically and mentally prepared himself. This would be the first time he had gotten in a real fight. Off to the side, he saw his teammates leave the cart and get ready for the dozen coming from the right.
More crossbow bolts flew by, and Lemitsu had to double-check what the bandits were aiming at. The shots went wide and embedded themselves into some trees. Were they warning shots or something? The bandits had their weapons armed and ready; the looks of hate in their eyes were unmistakable. They wanted everyone dead.
A shiver ran up Lemitsu's spine. If it wasn't for Amon's test on day one, the killing intent would have made him take a step back. Now it just made him hesitate a little. The bandits were almost on top of him before he decided to strike. Using the basic clone jutsu, he made four copies of himself. The look of shock in the bandits' eyes cured him of any fatigue and fear he felt.
The bandits struck out at the clones, but their own numbers and the fact that Lemitsu activated his jutsu right before their attack meant they got in each other's way. Dodging the clumsy strikes, he countered. With a powerful right hook, he lashed out at the side of a bandit who had missed with his spear thrust. The man folded in on himself; his eyes bulged out as the blow carried the man off his feet and slammed his body into one of his fellow bandits.
The two fell over as their legs intertwined and tripped each other up. Lemitsu ducked and weaved around the bandits' strikes. They moved almost comically slow and, thanks to the clones' movements, their organized strikes became chaotic.
Again, he struck out, and again, the bandits' bodies flew from Lemitsu's strikes. Punches and kicks flew out from angles that the attackers couldn't defend against. The crunching of bones was an unpleasant sound, but no matter how much he disliked the sound, the bandits disliked it even more.
“Retreat!” one of the bandits shouted out. Grabbing one of his fallen men, the bandit ran into the woods. Flailing their weapons at him, the bandits fled. Moving to check on his teammates, he saw the girls standing tall around a pile of fallen bandits who were crawling away with assistance from fellow injured bandits.
Lemitsu went and checked on the clients who were huddled inside the cart. They all looked fine, and except for a crossbow bolt that was embedded in the side of a crate, nothing looked wrong. Taking a second to breathe, Lemitsu realized that he had just fought in his first battle.
Out of his eight opponents, he had defeated three to four of them. He made them retreat; he won. A smile spread across his face as he quickly looked around to make sure they weren't being tricked, and a second wave of attackers would show up. But he could only see his teammates circling the area to detect for traps.
“We won. Moko, Rei, we won! We have won our first battle.”
Lemitsu saw Rei smile while she kept a lookout and quickly flashed him a smile before returning to her duty. Moko also looked beside herself in happiness, but was trying to hide it. “Well, yeah, of course. Like there would have been any other outcome,” she said bashfully.
“Well done, team. I am proud of you,” Amon said while he walked out of the forest where the bandits had just retreated to.
“Amon-sensei! You’re back!” The three shouted in unison.
“I am. I had an errand I needed to run, but I’m glad I left the mission in you guys' capable hands. I have notified local authorities; they are going to be raiding the bandit camp later tonight. I will assist them in rounding the lot of them up, but you guys did a good job, especially being your first time in battle.”
“Hey!” The merchant husband spoke up. “I paid for a full team, and I was attacked! I expect my cut of the rewards. We had a deal.” The man spoke belligerently.
Amon looked at the man, and Lemitsu watched as his teacher smoothly and effortlessly leaped onto the cart. “I am glad to see that you and your family are safe. I notice that you have gained new merchandise back in town as well.” Amon sat on the new crates filled with jewelry. “If something would have happened to you or your new cargo, I imagine many people would have been upset,” Amon said while staring the man down. Lemitsu couldn't understand what was going on, but from the pale look on the man's face, he had to guess that their client had done something wrong.
“Anyways, I have good news and bad news for everyone.” Everyone gave off a mixture of noise, but Amon just waited till they settled down. “Good news is that we don't have to use our transformation jutsus anymore, and we can relax in the cart till we get to the port.”
“Awesome!” Lemitsu cheered as he released his disguise and turned back to his normal twelve-year-old self. “What's the bad news?”
“We have company. I suspect they will be our escort till we finish the rest of our mission.”
Lemitsu felt a disturbance in the air behind him and turned around. Standing in the middle of the road, still inside the Land of Fire, were five ninjas clad in military gear and ski masks. Clad in weapons, they all had ninja headbands on with four dots on them like the number five on a six-sided dice, but with the top left dot missing. The Land of Snow ninja were inside the Land of Fire.
