Inside the Hokage Office,

Izuna and his team listen to the details of their latest mission as Minato and Hiruzen explains to them, ​​

"Konoha has received a backup request from Takigakure. According to the intel, The Hidden Waterfall Village is under attack from a group of unknown shinobis. In this crisis, the Village Head Hisen of Takigakure sent a request mission to Konoha.

Since this mission involves conflict between nations after the Third Shinobi War, we can't deploy normal shinobi teams to handle the situation. It may cause unrest if they discover the involvement of Konoha. So, I am assigning this task to your team. Help Hidden Waterfall deal with the crisis."

Hiruzen passes an intel scroll to our Team Leader. All of us flicker out of the Hokage Office, but Hiruzen stops the Captain.

"I have a task for you. Hidden Waterfall Village has a specialized liquid called 'Hero Water'. It is produced once every Hundred years and has some special properties. Try to negotiate with the Village Head for this water when you ask for compensation."

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All of us gather at the outskirts of Konoha as we march towards Takigakure. Takigakure is a hidden village in the Land of Waterfalls. It borders with the Land of Stone and Land of Fire as major Nations.

Takigakure isn't a major hidden village, since it doesn't have an official Kage. But it survived previous wars and is still standing after three wars.

The most notable shinobi of Takigakure is Kakuzu, a missing-nin who was ordered by the higher-ups of the Village to assassinate First Hokage, Hashirama Senju. He failed to complete his mission and returned to the Village only to face the harsh stigma and punishment on the failure of his insurmountable mission.

Kakuzu came to hold a violent hatred Takigakure and escaped from his imprisonment. Before he escaped, he violently massacred the Elders of the Village and plucked out their hearts. He fled the village, not before stealing one of the most prized 'Kinjutsu' of the village.

After the first war, Takigakure signed a peace treaty with Konoha, and since then it has been in a non-aggression pact with Konoha.

I skimmed through the intel provided by our captain on Takigakure. Not much detailed information is available regarding Takigakure, as my clearance level is not enough.

The flourishment of Takigakure is credited to its high number of Jounins. It has never been successfully invaded despite being surrounded by four other countries, a feat they are very proud of.

I can't seem to recall much of the information of Takigakure from anime. I only know about Kakuzu, since that guy was popular.

Our journey lasts for an entire day as we reach the borders of Takigakure. We reached near a very large tree, which easily dwarfs nearby trees. A large waterfall flows near the tree. We have reached the meeting spot assigned by Takigakure as we wait for our guide.

I sense a gaze on our team.

'Probably, they are monitoring us to confirm our hostility.'

The Captain walks up to the tree; he takes out a whistle from his pocket and blows it. The whistle produces some inaudible sound. This is the signal given by Takigakure to prove us as a friendly force. After waiting for a while, a team of Takigakure Jounins walks out from behind the tree.

'They have probably used a secret passageway to reach here.'

One of the Jounin walks to over Captain and stretches his hand. The captain passes a scroll to the Takigakure Jounin and waits for his response. The Takigakure jounins read through the scroll and used some sort of seal to check its authenticity.

After a while, he nods to us and leads us to the waterfall. The Jounin makes some hand signs and touches the waterfall. The water screen shifts a little, and a large stone with some seals appears in front of us. The jounin makes some more hand signs and slaps his hand in the center of the seal.

The boulder shakes as it moves from its position to reveal a passageway. One of the Jounin walks inside the passage and the other signals us to move inside.

Our team follows them inside, but all of us were on high alert for any suspicious activity. Some Jounins stay behind as they make some hand signs and the boulder covers the entrance once again.

"It is for safety measures. We don't want any invaders to infiltrate our village." The Jounin reassures us as we closely follow him.

The entire passage is an underground cave system with many passages and dead ends just like a maze. If not for the Takigakure Jounin leading us, our team might get lost in the maze. Using Ninjutsu to blow this place won't be a good idea, as the entire passage will collapse on top of us.

After walking for a while, we reached near a large water reservoir which has a barrier to isolate the water. We entered inside the barrier and swam toward the surface. After swimming for a while, we reached in the middle of a large lake.

We stood atop the water and followed the Jounin. The lake is in the center of the Village. There is a gazebo in the center of the lake. The jounin leads us to it. We could spot a man sitting in the center of the gazebo.

"Welcome friends from Konoha. I am pleased to see you here, I hope Hokage-sama is doing fine."

"There is no need for such pleasantries, Village Head Hisen-sama. Hokage-sama received your message, and he immediately deployed us to help you. Since it is a secret mission, we can't reveal our identities. Here is a message from Hokage-sama." The Captain passes a scroll to the Village Chief.

I scrutinize the Village Chief of Takigakure.

He had short smooth brown hair that greys on outside with only top maintain the brown color. He wore a black Takigakure forehead protector around his forehead and his hairs hang over the left and right side of it and he also had brown sideburns. He had small black-colored eyes and a small brown-colored goatee.

I could sense an enormous amount of Chakra from him, but if I were to rate him in strength, then he can be considered slightly weaker to Sannins.

'I think that's part of the reason why Takigakure doesn't have a Kage yet. Their strongest shinobi is quite weaker compared to other Kages.'

I assumed him to be the strongest shinobi of Takigakure. Well, you need strength to be accepted as Village Head by all shinobis of the Village.

After exchanging pleasantries with Captain, he directs the conversation to the main issue,

"Recently, just after the end of the Third Ninja War; a group of unknown shinobis starts to attack Shinobis from our village. Whenever they spot a team of Shinobis on a mission, they would attack and slaughter them.

We sent a team to deal with them, but they were strong enough to repel our efforts. The situation escalated when they forced one of our genins to reveal the location of the village. Since then, they would frequently assault our village in the wake of night and would kill lots of innocent civilians.

We haven't been able to figure out their motive. Our village stayed away from the previous two Ninja wars and we have maintained a friendly relation with other Nation after the First Hokage Incident."

The Village Chief Hisen sighs as he explains the details of attacks to us.

"I have requested Iwagakure and Konohagakure for the aid, but Iwagakure denied our request because of lack of personnel on their sides because of the war. Thankfully, your people from Konoha arrived to help us."

He points to a nearby jounin as he continues,

"Suien will help you with your lodgings, we will need your help during our night patrol. From the recent attack pattern of enemies, they are most likely to strike us today."

Suien had long spiky hair, small dark eyes, and a goatee. He wore a dark blue jacket, grey pants, black shinobi sandals. He wore his forehead protector like a bandanna on his forehead.

'This guy has the aura of a villain.' Somehow, this Suien guy gives me the vibes of a villain of some small arc. I ignore this feeling as I follow him to our lodgings.

The Village Head has reserved quite a luxurious inn for us near a large waterfall. After we are settled in the inn, I explored the Hidden Waterfall Village and I ask Captain for permission.

"As long as you don't break the protocol, you are free to do anything. However, keep your guard up in the village."

I change my appearance using Transformation Jutsu and walks out of the inn to tour the village.

The village had Southeast Asian Aesthetics to it. I sightsee various places in the village as I enjoyed the local cuisines.

'It seems more like a holiday, then a top-secret mission to me.'