D rank missions were boring, annoying and pointless. Sora could beat almost every Chunin level ninja at the young age of 5 and yet he was catching stray cats or painting people's fences for a minimal amount of money that he didn't even need. So after the first two missions Sora substituted himself with a Shadow Clone. Something he learned to make once he had enough Chakra and wasn't as dangerous to preform. Although at most he could make two.
Two weeks passed and nothing too major happened. Often his clone would get challenged by Kazuma, who hadn't ever won a match against him. Aside from that he learned a couple of new Jutsu and his stats had increased once again. Sora started to get anxious though, it wouldn't be long before the attack of the Kyuubi would happen and he really had no idea if his gourd would work. On the off chance that it wouldn't work, Sora was desperately training and trying to do anything he could do to hopefully prevent the death of his teacher and his wife.
Today was a different day than usual though, because for the first time, he was being sent on a C-Rank mission. Sora dispelled his clone and discretely took its place instead.
At the Hokage office Minato explained what their mission was. "It's a relatively simple mission, there's been some suspicions that illegal drug usage and selling has been taking place inside a small village bordering Konoha, it's about 10 miles away from the Northern Gate and you should be able to get there and back by today, if not then tomorrow". Akashi nodded and then turned to his team, "You have an hour to get whatever you need. By the end of that hour I expect you to be at the Northern Gate". Sora, Kazuma and Rey all nodded and split off to their houses. But Sora's attention was on the pop-up in front of him.
[Quest Alert! C-Rank Mission! Or is it...?
Rewards: +150,000 Shop Points, +75 to all stats, Random Devil Fruit]
The stats and the shop points were most definitely appealing, but the Devil Fruit was what grabbed his attention. However from the rewards alone, Sora could tell this wasn't going to be a simple intelligence gathering mission. Sora's mouth was literally watering at the thought of having a powerful fruit like the Pika Pika no mi, or the Gura Gura no Mi. Maybe even Kaido's Dragon Fruit, or Marco's Phoenix one. Although he would have to be extremely lucky to get those since they're only possible models he could get. If he didn't get a good fruit he wouldn't eat it, although technically every fruit could be overpowered in a way, he didn't want to lose his ability to swim to get some mediocre ability that would only be good if he used every possible method to maximize its potential.
Sora arrived at his house, quickly informed his mother and father that he had a mission outside the village, got his stuff and then left after saying goodbye to Itachi.
After hearing that Sora had already become a Genin, Itachi applied for early enrollment and would probably graduate next year. Sora frowned at this though, in the original timeline, Itachi had graduated at seven and it was because of the death of his teammate he had managed to unlock his Sharingan. Would that possibly delayed? Sora wondered before shrugging. He was already planning to drastically change the timeline by keeping Minato and Kushina alive and then also prevent the clan being wiped out.
Reaching the gate, he saw that apart from him, only Akashi was there. Akashi nodded in greeting and Sora nodded back. There was weird awkwardness between them. Sora was from the Uchiha Clan and Akashi was from the Hyuga Clan. Akashi seemed to be completely different from the rest of his clan though, he didn't have that air of arrogance around him, nor did he look like the type who had a crazy dream or anything. Overall Sora liked the guy, except for the awkwardness between them, he was a rather nice person.
Luckily though, the awkwardness didn't last too long, as a few minutes later Kazuma had appeared. Kazuma was a very loud and annoying person, and whilst Sora didn't usually mind guys like that since some of his favourite anime characters were like that, Kazuma simply didn't have that Charisma around him like Naruto or Luffy did.
About 20 minutes passed and they were getting tired of waiting for Rey. Kazuma was especially impatient and wouldn't shut up which made the whole ordeal worse. When she finally showed up, Even the normally serene Akashi was tempted to gentle fist her to the moon and back. She was on a carriage, being carried by horses, and she wore an extravagant dress whilst loads of cargo lay next to her. "Are you going to the fucking Daimyo's party or a ninja mission?", Kazuma and Sora both asked and shouted at the same time..
-----
After some bickering and convincing, half an hour later they finally managed to get Rey to travel like a normal ninja and send the horses and the carriage back.
The village they were going to was called Nikai village and wasn't too far out. Traveling at normal ninja speeds they would arrive their in a couple of hours. Of course that's only because Kazuma and Rey were there, if Sora and Akashi went alone they would be able to get their in under an hour.
Their journey to the village was uneventful and nothing happened. The situation seemed pretty relaxed but Sora stayed on guard. A quest with rewards like that means that it will be dangerous.
Arriving at the village, Sora's decision to stay on guard turned out to be a good one as almost instantly they were ambushed. There were eight people who ambushed them but they were only normal bandits though. Sora jumped at the closest one, swiftly knocking him out with a kick. He turned to his right to see that Kazuma and Rey were battling a bandit each whilst Akashi, to his left, had already taken out three. That left two more who were at the back, trying to run away. Sora threw several shurikens at the backs of the two, they were probably dead but Sora couldn't tell. At the same time, Kazuma and Rey finished their fights.
Akashi looked at Sora surprised, 'Only five years old and yet he's already at a Chunin Level, not to mention he's killed before'. He then spoke up to the team, "Listen up, we're retreating, It's my fault we got ambushed. I got careless and didn't scout ahead with my Byakugan. But aside from that...", rather than finishing his sentence, Akashi threw a Kunai seemingly pointlessly at a tree.
Kazuma was about to question his Sensei's actions before two shadowy figure jumped out of the tree and landed in front of the team. One of them was a middle aged man. His skin was a bit pale and he had eyebags under his dark eyes. He wore a black short sleeved shirt, grey baggy pants, and normal black ninja sandals. On his wrists were two metal bracelets. He had Dark Bluish hair that almost seemed black and on his forehead was a Kirigakure headband with a cross on it symbolising the fact he was a rogue ninja. The other one was a young man who looked to be about 18-19 years of age. He had brown hair and matching brown eyes. He wore similar clothing to the other man minus the bracelets but he just seemed to look more... healthier. He also had a katana laying on his hip.
"What do we have here? Three little leaf brats and a nameless Hyuga, They'll probably go for a nice amount..", the middle aged man's voice sounded out, it was extremely croaky and displeasing to hear. The young man next to him gave a simple grunt and nodded.
Akashi narrowed his eyes and got into a fighting stance, "You guys head back to the village and call for reinforcements, I'll stall these two". "No chance Hyuga. Ken, finish those brats off and then come help me", the middle aged man said whilst rushing out at Akashi. Relentlessly attacking him and not giving him any chance to counter.
The other Rogue Shinobi faced the three children. "It's better if you don't resist. I'll make this as painless as poss-"
Sora was having none of his empathetic bullshit. He coated his leg with chakra and kicked ferociously at him. The Shinobi was knocked back and a dust storm raised up. Although it looked like he was taken care of, Sora knew better.
Once the dust cleared up, the Shinobi was revealed to be unscathed apart from just a light bruise on his arm. "Alright then". Suddenly the Shinobi disappeared from sight. He reappeared and kneed at Sora, who just barely managed to block and reduce the impact by jumping back.
Ken's momentum though, did not slow down at all. An onslaught of punches and kicks were brought down upon Sora who could do nothing but defend. Ken finally stopped when Kazuma had thrown multiple shurikens at him, forcing him to jump back.
Sora gave him a quick thanks which was ignored. His eyes widened when he saw Kazuma rushing at the Shinobi. "Get back you can't handle him!", Kazuma continued rushing the Shinobi, ignoring Sora's warning, only to get punched away. Akashi was distracted long enough for the enemy to get a quick slash on him with a Kunai.
Sora also had no time to worry whether Kazuma was dead or alive as Ken once again came rushing at him, this time drawing his sword. Sora withdrew his dagger and parried and dodged as many attacks as he could. The sound of metal slashing overtook the battlefield for the next couple of minutes and Sora came out with multiple cuts and bruises, there was quite a bit of blood on him. Despite the situation he was in, he couldn't help but smile. Something that did not go unnoticed by Ken the enemy Shinobi. "Despite the fact you're about to die at the young age of 5, you're smiling. Why is that?", he asked. Sora was taken aback by that question and he had to ponder over that a few seconds before answering, "I don't know. But the constant rush, the excitement, the adrenaline. It's all so.. Exhilarating. Although I've killed before, I've never had a proper battle, the circumstances of that were kind of different from right now". Ken closed his eyes and nodded, "I see".
Before Ken could rush at Sora once again though, Sora asked him a question, "Why are you helping the bandits though? Especially when you're so close to the village. What would you do if they sent a strong Jounin on a mission and this place just so happened to be on his route?"
They stood there in silence for a few seconds. Letting the sound of the other battle going on take over. "I don't know where or how they got it, but 3 million Ryo is not an easy amount of money to resist". Sora nodded in agreement before he and Ken once again clashed.
----
Rey who had been inactive the entirety of the time and had been bat shit useless finally really realised there was something that she could do. No one was paying attention to her so she was in the perfect position to go back to the village and ask for reinforcements. And she did just that.
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Sora who was under an onslaught of sword slashes from Ken was on the verge of unlocking a certain bloodline limit. The amount of times Sora was getting kept on reducing until he was able to parry almost all attacks sent at him. 'I need to go faster. Faster...', At speeds a regular civilian could not see, metal constantly clashed and Sora's dagger was visibly cracking. He continued to block and block, until his dagger was on the verge of breaking. That was when he saw it. An opening. Ducking under a horizontal slash, he leaped in close, his grip on the dagger threatening to break the handle, and stabbed cleanly through Ken's stomach. Sora retrieved his dagger and Ken retreated back. His attention was fully on Sora's eyes. They were shining red, with one tomoe on each eye.
Ken was about to make some hand seals for a Jutsu, when something unexpected happened once again. The Genin he seemingly killed, had stood up once again. "Damnit, I'll be the one to defeat you! Sora stay back!". Ken clicked his tongue in annoyance, it seemed he would have to get rid of the weak one first.
Sora grit his teeth in anger. No. He wouldn't kill Kazuma. He coated his legs in as much Chakra as they could handle and then used the Shunshin to close the distance between them. Just as Ken was about to slash down, Sora had appeared beside him, His ruby, red eyes were gleaming in all of there glory as the world seemed to slow down. Sora let out a dangerous breath, muttering the name of his technique, "Recoiless...", his leg was now outstretched, merely inches away from the enemy's head. "Kick..."
Upon contact, Ken's head felt like it someone slammed a block of steel on it. His eyes rolled back into his skull, as he and his sword both dropped. Sora managed to read two notifications before passing out from the exhaustion of the battle.
[Sharingan unlocked!]
[Quest Complete!]
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A/N: I'm back from the dead. After almost a good two weeks and something of not posting a proper chapter I'm back. Aaanddd since I came back I've decided to give Sora some more powerups. Yay. In case some of you were wondering, The middle aged man who is fighting Akashi is a jounin and the guy who was fighting Sora is a special Jonin, his forté being Kenjutsu. Also Yes. Ive decided to give him a devil fruit.. why? I don't know I felt like it. The devil fruit has yet to be determined though, if you would like, give me suggestions on what it should be. Anyways, hope you enjoyed.