Strongest Shinobi

Jiraiya and Izana arrived at the place of meeting within the week with two days to spare. The village they were at was called Karna village. Not that it could be called a village as it was barely a town. There were around two hundred people living here and was only made up of civilians. The village didn't have any Shinobi, only a few from Ame as the village was just over the border.

The weather had also worsened as soon as they arrived here. The sun they had enjoyed was turned into a heavy downpour. From what he heard of the villagers it would rain most of the time. It was more rare to see the sun than when it rained.

Jiraiya booked a room and went to collect information. That didn't stop him from borrowing some money from Izana, but he didn't really care about it as he had gotten used to it the last couple of years. He just had to hold the most in safekeeping instead of giving it to his sensei.

While Jiraiya went towards the bar, Izana went towards the places he had pointed at on the map near the meet up point. One was near a cliff. The other was in a rocky terrain with a lot of hidden caves and hills.

Going towards the cliff first, Izana moved forward while hiding his presence. He had adopted the disguise of one of the villagers who was currently at work. It would draw less attention if it was one of the villagers going there instead of a stranger. He made sure that it was one of the villagers who frequently left the village to move about.

Izana inspected the area intently, searching for any trace of traps. If a trap had been placed there would be a few traces from where there had been messed with the terrain. So far, Izana didn't find any trace, but it was still the first day, so they might not have arrived yet or they didn't know he was here.

Moving on towards the forest, Izana kept himself high in the trees to find any presences of people. If there weren't he would start to search for traces of them having been here. Summoning some of the panthers, Izana traced the ground in a straight line, the panthers looking for scents or traces that might lead to them.

Near the edge of the forest Izana could hear suppressed mutters. Motioning to be silent, Izana and the panthers crept forward to hear the conversation.

As they came closer, the voices became clearer, yet it also showed the severety of the situation. In front of him there were six shinobi. From what he felt from them they should consist of five Jonin and one Chunin. They sounded excited as their voice became louder at some point before the said person was scolded in a hushed voice.

"Are you sure they are coming?"

"I am sure. Our informant told me they departed a week ago and should arrive soon."

"What about the informant? Is he still coming?"

"Yes he is. It shouldn't be long now."

"Alright. You all known what to do. Regroup at dusk at the usual redevous point. Disperse."

The enemy shinobi dispersed as soon as the words were said. Izana hid himself as best as he could as two of them came his way.

The panthers lowered their bodies, ready to pounce on them when they showed any sign of being discovered.

Motioning for them to keep low, Izana tried to lower his presence as best as he could.

The shinobi came closer and closer, not even being three meters away from him. Holding his breath, Izana followed the movements of the enemy closely, ready to strike any time.

The distance closed in even further.

Two and a half meters.

Two meters.

One meter.

They were so close Izana could touch them. They wore masks, but Izana could tell they were from Ame. Like his own village, these shinobi wore masks of which some were animals, but most were simplistic with straight designs of stripes. Eyes were stripes and there was no other feature of the head, no mouth or nose.

Izana lowered his hand to his weapon belt to grab a kana as soon as he could. The Ame nin moved fast and before he knew it the Ame nin passed by him. They didn't show any signs of seeing him.

When they were out of sight Izana released his breath, but kept his guard up as they might still be close by.

"Inform Jiraiya that we have a mole in Konoha, we have been compromised. Tell him to rendezvous at the safehouse in an hour."

The panther nodded and dissapeared in the shadow.

'Now I need to get out of here without being noticed.'

Keeping his guard up, Izana made his way back to the safe house.

Once back, Izana was greeted by Jiraiya.

"How bad is it?"

Jiraiya said, coming straight to business.

"They knew about when we left. They know about the mission. Only up side is that the informant should arrive here any time now."

Jiraiya frowned as it meant the mole was from pretty high up.

"What about the enemy?"

"Five jonin and one Chūnin. Most likely Anbu from Ame."

Jiraiya nodded as he began to think about their next plan of action.

"We should continue the mission, it is imperative that we find out who the mole is. We take him out no matter what. If possible get as much information as we can. He won't be returning to Konoha, he or she is to dangerous. Who knows what the higher ups might do if he is of high rank."

Izana nodded. It was better to take care of this as fast and clean as possible.

"What about the Ame nin? We are outnumbered."

"We remove them without trace. It shouldn't be traced back to the village. We need to prevent a war from happening."

"Alright. Then we should find the Ame nin tonight. They are regrouping at dusk. The informant might already arive by then. Better track them than lose sight of them."

"Agreed." Jiraiya said as they both left, each searching for the possible hide out of the Ame nin and the traitor.