Dawn arrived, a pale, cool light filtering through the trees surrounding Konoha. Kenji met Sora and Riku at the Academy gates. The air felt different than it had the day before – the post-exam euphoria replaced by the quiet gravity of their first official mission. Sora wore a new backpack and looked determined, though a slight tremor ran through her hands as she adjusted her glasses. Riku's gear was minimal and practical, his posture relaxed yet alert. Kenji had packed basic supplies, including a small, carefully chosen piece of chalk hidden in his pocket. His runic sight hummed quietly, already filtering the pre-dawn light into patterns.
Yumi-sensei arrived right on time, looking as composed and observant as ever. She carried a plain scroll and several small bags. "Good, you're punctual," she stated simply, her gaze sweeping over their readiness. "Remember today's objective: teamwork and gathering. There are five specific herbs in the forest perimeter." She unrolled the scroll, which had rough sketches of five different plants. Kenji could immediately perceive the subtle runic distinctions between each drawing – the 'healing' frequency of one, the 'calming' flow of another, the sharp 'irritant' edge of a third. Each had a distinct energetic signature.
She then held up the sample rock from yesterday's test, along with four other rocks. Kenji saw faint, identifying marker runes pulsing within each. "Each of these contains the sample scent of one of the target herbs," she explained, setting them down. "Yesterday was about finding one hidden object. Today is about systematically identifying and locating multiple distinct targets across a wider area. Coordinate. Communicate. Utilize each other's strengths." She handed one of the scented rocks, corresponding to the sample herb from yesterday, to Riku. Another to Sora. Kenji received one as well, and Yumi-sensei kept the remaining two in one of her pouches. "You each have a scent marker. There is one instance of each of the five target herbs marked within the forest boundary. Your task is to locate and collect all five types within two hours."
"Sensei," Sora spoke up hesitantly, pushing her glasses up. "These sketches are pretty basic… is there anything else?"
Yumi-sensei raised an eyebrow slightly. "That's part of the challenge, Ito. Gathering accurate information isn't always easy. Rely on your senses, and supplement them. Work together." She looked at Kenji. "Kenji, your… sensory-adjacent experiment from yesterday might be useful. Perhaps a collaborative approach would yield more reliable results than solo application?"
Kenji internally grimaced at the term 'sensory-adjacent,' but nodded, projecting humble eagerness. "Yes, Sensei. I can try, if Riku and Sora are willing to humor my weird methods."
Riku met his gaze with steady practicality. "Whatever helps find the herbs efficiently," he said simply. Sora offered a nervous, but accepting, nod.
"Good. You have two hours. Start now." Yumi-sensei didn't accompany them into the forest; she perched on a rock just inside the boundary line, observing.
Entering the trees, the damp, earthy scent of the forest floor replaced the urban air. Kenji felt his runic sight automatically analyze the vegetation around them, filtering the constant hum of life into distinct patterns. Locating the specific target herbs wasn't easy even with his sight; every plant had complex runes. He had to find the ones whose base structures most closely matched the simplified concepts (healing, calming, etc.) he perceived in the sketch on the scroll, or hopefully, amplified by the scent markers the others carried.
"Okay," Kenji began, taking charge tentatively, remembering Yumi-sensei's emphasis on teamwork. "We each have a sample scent. The forest boundary isn't huge. Riku, maybe you and I scan inwards from the boundary using the scent, while Sora works the central area? We should establish checkpoints where we report in every twenty minutes?" It was a standard, safe search plan.
Riku nodded. "Sounds efficient." He lifted his scented rock, carefully inhaling the faint aroma, focusing his attention. Kenji saw Riku's aura expand subtly, layering 'sensory' runes onto his 'focus' ones, trying to project his awareness outwards based on the scent. Impressive, for basic scent tracking.
Sora inhaled the scent from her rock. "Got it," she murmured. "I'll check near streams, some herbs prefer damp soil…" Her observation runes were already active, correlating the basic sketches with ecological knowledge she'd likely gleaned from textbooks.
Kenji held his own scented rock, letting the aroma reach him. It layered atop the runic perception he already had of the plant it represented. Now, finding that frequency in the noise of the forest became slightly easier. He quickly reached into his pocket, palming the chalk stub. When Sora and Riku began moving into the trees in different directions, Kenji deliberately lagged a step, pretending to tighten a strap on his sandale. He swiftly rubbed the chalk stub on his thumb pad, smudged a near-invisible 'direction' or 'resonance' rune onto his wrist guard, and infused it with a thread of chakra. He linked it not just to the scent on his rock, but directly to the target plant's full runic signature he perceived – its living blueprint.
Thrum. The familiar pulse. In his runic sight, an ephemeral thread of light shot from his wrist, extending deeper into the forest. It wasn't a solid line, but a pulsing vector. Kenji used this subtle pointer as his guide, feigning to inhale his scent stone again as he began his 'search,' allowing the hidden rune to subtly tug him towards the location of his specific target herb.
"Anything?" Riku's voice, amplified by a standard forest call, echoed from his direction fifteen minutes later.
"Nothing yet, scanning near the west boundary," Kenji called back, consulting his wrist-rune discretely. The vector had shifted slightly – his target herb was located further north than he'd first anticipated, but still generally in his quadrant. "Heading north-west now."
"Okay, central area quiet so far," Sora's softer call replied. Kenji noted her occasional use of basic body flicker to traverse small ravines, a clean, economical application. Her observation runes were active, cataloging plant types and terrain.
He followed his internal guide, maintaining a pace that felt like plausible searching, stopping occasionally to examine the ground, confirming his route with visual landmarks. Finally, the runic pointer seemed to reach its destination. He saw a small cluster of plants, and one pulsed faintly with the distinct signature amplified by his rune. His target herb.
"Found one!" Kenji called out, raising a hand.
Riku and Sora converged towards his location, guided by his call. "Which one is it?" Sora asked eagerly, examining the sketch on the scroll and then the plants Kenji indicated.
"Based on the sketch… I think it's the Calming Herb," Kenji said, referring to his runic perception of the plant's frequency, correlating it to the sketch description. He compared it visibly to the sample rock he'd received – yes, the scents seemed to match upon closer sniff. He plucked one carefully, placing it in an empty herb bag.
"How did you find it so fast?" Sora asked, adjusting her glasses.
Kenji felt Sora's curiosity and analysis runes directed intently at him. Time to deploy the 'experiment' cover. "Like I said yesterday," he mumbled, pretending to wipe dirt off his hand near his chalk mark. "That seal on my wrist… it feels like when I get close to the herb whose scent I focused on, the pattern resonates or gets stronger. It's vague, but it points me in the right direction, or confirms I'm close. Still really weird."
Sora studied his wrist, but the dust smudge was invisible. "Resonates…?" she repeated, clearly fascinated. "Is it related to chakra signatures, maybe?"
Kenji shrugged, feigning uncertainty. "I don't know. It's just an experiment. I only just tried combining a few seal concepts I saw." Nailed it. She was filing it under 'unique sensory interaction based on experimental Fuinjutsu,' not 'impossible sight.'
Riku knelt, inspecting the plants Kenji had found. His runic signature pulsed with acceptance – it was indeed the Calming Herb, validating Kenji's 'find'. He looked at Kenji with that same steady gaze as yesterday, but there was something new there – a subtle hint of impressed pragmatism. "Useful improvisation, Kenji," Riku commented. "Saves a lot of random searching if you can narrow down the area."
Collaboration opportunity. Kenji seized it. "Okay, I found the Calming Herb. Which scents did you two get? And did either of you manage to set up a similar pointer, or find anything using standard methods?"
Sora pulled out her rock. "This one… the sketch suggests it's the one that helps heal bruises. I think I can pick up its scent vaguely if I concentrate, but no luck finding the actual plant yet." Kenji felt her aura, it matched the 'healing' frequency he associated with one of the other herbs on the sketch.
Riku held up his. "Mine is the Irritant one. Sharp, acrid smell. I've been sweeping my zone, haven't found it. This area mostly seems to be…" he pointed to some low-growing vines, "…just normal forest stuff." Kenji read Riku's scent-rock – it was the sharp, irritating rune-signature he recognized.
"Alright," Kenji said, switching from individual finder to team coordinator. "My 'resonator' thing, if it's actually working, should be able to find any target with a scent marker, not just mine. Sora, give me your scent-rock. I'll link my 'sensor' to that frequency and try covering a new area. Riku, keep sweeping your zone methodically. If either of us gets a hit or finds anything else, we signal. Sora, since you're good at observation and theory, keep checking ecological cues from the sketch, look for habitat matches – damp soil, rocky outcrops, etc. And review the sketches again to confirm our finds."
This was a balance. He was using his sight via the cover, but directing their efforts using conventional logic (scent + habitat + zones) and leveraging their observable strengths (Riku's method, Sora's knowledge). He was disguising the method (runic resonance amplified by a chalk rune) while being transparent about the goal (finding specific targets faster using a "sensory trick") and coordinating conventionally.
Sora looked hesitant for a moment, but Riku immediately nodded. "Logical. Central and West boundaries are covered if you take South-East. Gives us defined zones." He handed his Irritant scent rock to Sora for identification confirmation.
Sora handed Kenji her Healing Herb scent-rock. Kenji held it briefly, layering the 'healing' runic frequency from the sample over the structure of the tiny chalk-rune on his wrist guard, focusing the improvised seal's detection capacity on that pattern now. The spectral arrow in his runic sight pulsed once, shifted, and pointed clearly towards a rocky slope some distance away.
"Okay, Sensei," Kenji called out, projecting towards the edge of the forest. "Adjusting plan based on observed findings and experimental sensing. Riku maintains current zone. Sora coordinates reference materials and double-checks identifications. I will attempt to search a new quadrant based on perceived… resonance… from a different scent sample." He sounded professional, structured, exactly what Yumi-sensei had seemed to want more of.
"Approved. Proceed," Yumi-sensei's voice carried faintly through the trees. Kenji sensed her approval, her runic analysis acknowledging a shift towards collaborative logic, even if the specific 'sensing' mechanism remained noted as an anomaly.
Kenji took off into the South-East quadrant, following the subtle guidance of his renewed wrist-rune. It led him towards the rocky slope. His heart rate was steady now, focusing on the subtle guidance. He searched visibly as he moved, looking under ferns and between stones. After about ten minutes, the invisible arrow reached its point. Nestled among moss-covered rocks was the target: a plant whose signature pulsed clearly with the 'healing' frequency, corresponding to Sora's sample.
"Second one!" Kenji called, holding it up. Sora and Riku eventually joined him. Sora compared it against the sketch and her sample rock, her eyes widening slightly in recognition. "It is! The one for bruises."
"My resonance idea… it seems to work," Kenji murmured, playing the slightly amazed inventor again. He exchanged his Healing Herb find for Riku's Irritant scent-rock. He would try to find that one next.
They continued this cycle. Kenji, using his re-focused rune, would follow the invisible pointer towards a new target herb location. He'd "discover" it plausibly, confirm with the sketch and scent, and pass the corresponding scent-rock to Sora for validation/identification against their samples and knowledge. Riku maintained broad coverage of his own zone and acted as a second pair of eyes, finding normal plants but reinforcing their structured search.
They located the Irritant Herb, then another (identified by Sora's sketch-ecology analysis as one used for boosting endurance, confirming Kenji's runic 'vitality' feel). With just over half an hour left, they had found four of the five target herbs. One remained: the rock Yumi-sensei still held, whose runes indicated a complex, high-frequency 'antidote' signature. They knew where the samples were initially located at the gate, but hadn't seen where this specific rock was taken after Yumi-sensei retrieved the first one.
Kenji looked at his dust-rune wrist guard; it was mostly faded now. He subtly brushed against the faint mark, channelling another tiny pulse of chakra to refresh it, re-imposing the 'direction/resonance' concept. This was becoming more draining than direct application; maintaining this improvised, unstable Fuinjutsu filter took effort.
He focused on the concept of an 'antidote,' on the high-frequency cleansing rune, directing his 'sensor' rune to look for that signature in the forest's energetic hum. Nothing. The pointer remained directionless.
"Something's different," Kenji muttered, focusing harder. The faint pull towards the last herb wasn't appearing. Had he misunderstood its signature? Was the target's runic pattern changing? Or was it… mobile?
"The last scent is the one Sensei kept at the gate, remember?" Sora noted, thinking aloud. "Did she put the sample with the plant she wants us to find? Or just keep it?"
"Maybe it's not a single location," Riku suggested, observing the time. "Maybe we have to do something else?"
Suddenly, Kenji saw a flicker – a subtle runic disturbance near the boundary where Yumi-sensei had been sitting, faint and quickly fading, but bearing the 'antidote' signature. Not of a plant, but of something that had moved there recently.
"Back near the boundary!" Kenji said quickly, urgency rising. "I felt something just flicker near where Sensei was sitting! It had… that feeling," he focused, trying to describe the runic texture without the language, "like the Antidote sketch feels. Faint, moving."
Riku and Sora immediately changed direction, heading back towards the boundary. As they approached the spot Yumi-sensei had occupied, the flicker dissipated entirely in Kenji's sight.
"Nothing here," Riku confirmed, scanning the undergrowth, no unusual scents. Sora looked around, puzzled.
Kenji crouched, focusing on the area with pure runic sight, not relying on his fading wrist rune. He saw faint, disturbed energy trails – boot prints that briefly glowed with residual chakra, air molecules still rippling from displacement, faint lingering runic structures confirming a presence had stood here recently. And woven amongst them, a distinct trail of 'antidote' runes, like tiny glowing breadcrumbs, leading away from the rock Yumi-sensei had sat on, back deeper into the forest, curving towards… a rocky ridge.
"The trails lead this way!" Kenji exclaimed, pointing quickly towards the ridge, his hand blurring as he covertly revitalized the chalk-rune on his wrist guard one last time. The runic arrow instantly pulsed and aligned perfectly with the faint trail, confirming his read.
"Trails?" Sora blinked. "What trails? I don't see anything."
Kenji bit back the easy answer (runic sight). He needed something plausible, linked to his Fuinjutsu/sensing cover. "My… resonance thing, it seems to also pick up residual patterns," he fabricated quickly, "like traces left behind if the target moved recently? The trail is really weak, already fading. It leads… towards that ridge!" He pointed decisively, hoping his feigned confidence outweighed the absurdity of sensing invisible 'residual patterns.'
Riku hesitated for a moment, then, trusting Kenji's earlier success, nodded. "A residual signature trace… plausible for certain specialized seals. Risky, though. Let's move." He immediately began following Kenji, his usual methodical approach quickened by purpose. Sora followed close behind, peering intently at the ground as if she could somehow force herself to see the invisible traces Kenji described.
They moved fast towards the ridge. The runic trail remained consistent in Kenji's sight, his subtle wrist-rune confirming its path. It didn't lead to a plant; it led to a carefully chosen vantage point on the ridge, overlooking a small ravine.
And there, sitting on another rock, patiently holding the fifth herb sample in her lap, was Yumi-sensei. She looked up as they arrived, well before the two-hour deadline, looking neither surprised nor particularly impressed, merely observant.
"Found the last target location?" she asked calmly.
Kenji nodded, slightly breathless. "Yes, Sensei. It moved. We tracked its… residual signature… back here."
Yumi-sensei studied him, her analysis runes flaring intensely. This time, there was less analysis and more assessment. She had moved the last target, a tactical adjustment, testing their ability to adapt, their communication, and perhaps Kenji's unusual tracking claim.
"Retrieval complete," she said simply, holding out the last herb sample. "You tracked a moving target and coordinated effectively to converge on the location. Good." She smiled, a brief, genuine expression that transformed her face. "Come. We will discuss lessons learned over lunch."
As they walked back towards the Academy, Sora was buzzing, asking Kenji more questions about his 'resonance sensor', fascinated by the theoretical application. Riku was quieter, but his steady gaze held undeniable acceptance. He might not understand Kenji's 'methods,' but he understood results and effective teamwork.
Kenji, meanwhile, felt a different kind of weariness – the exhaustion of constantly performing, of carefully shaping reality for his teammates and sensei. He had used his secret power not just to find things, but to facilitate collaboration and prove himself a valuable, if unconventional, asset to Team 4. It was a success. His cover story had bent but not broken under observation. He hadn't revealed the golden blueprint. But every subtle redirection, every feigned uncertainty, every quick, disguised rune tracing… chipped away at him. He had chosen the difficult path of the calculated risk, bridging his secret world and theirs. And the bridge felt very, very long.
--- End of Chapter 16 ---