Chapter 123   - Ch123. Getting SS-rank 2

"What are we even doing here?" Mei asked, watching a force of five thousand Kumo mercenaries and ninjas slowly sailing towards the border of the Land of Earth through the Aisu Bay as she alongside Konan stood on the tallest hill on the shore.

"You know it's a job." Konan impassively stated in a tone that clearly made Mei aware the woman would roll her eyes if she didn't wear her cold professional facade.

Mei scowled and crossed her arms. "You know well that's not what I am asking about. I want to know why you took me and not Ringo. Why here? Why Iwagakure? They tried to kill you and Rei! If anything, we should be helping Kumo forces by making their path towards Iwagakure clear..." She grumbled, narrowing her eyes at the approaching sh.i.p.s.

"You are here because Ringo is not ready y-." Konan said, making Mei snort gleefully.

"Ha! I can't wait to say this to the sword-waving bitch's face!" Mei mockingly exclaimed, interrupting and irritating Konan. Her relationship with Ringo was actually very good, contrary to the meaning of her words. They were, for a lack of a better term, competitors who liked to snark at each other every so often but never escalated to physical fight... well, other than some spars.

But what Konan said was the truth. Ringo was not yet ready for facing down an army. Six months of training but the woman would need at least another year to reach Mei's prowess. But...

"I wouldn't be so loud about that." Konan resisted the urge to smack Mei. "As I was saying before you interrupted me... Ringo is not ready yet but she has more experience. Some of which you still clearly lack if you have to ask why we are here."

That shut Mei up somewhat fiercely and instantly.

Konan continued only when she saw Mei switched to the lecture-listening mode and would not interrupt her anymore. "It's all about balance. Rei is attacking Iwa outposts, letting Suna get through their borders and attack. If Kumo succeeded in attacking too, Iwa would be quickly overwhelmed since they have to keep Konoha forces at bay in the Land of Grass. That..." Konan sniffed. "we don't want to happen. As much as I don't like the village for trying to kill us, I must admit its existence brings certain benefits."

"Such as?" Mei slowly asked, not really getting it.

"If you can't come up with anything, then you just show you are not really all that good at scheming part of being a ninja. Power is good, power is necessary but without a great mind able to plan ahead and reasonable foresight you will not get far." Konan explained.

Mei just nodded, committing the words to her mind as she thought about the apparent benefit of Iwagakure's existence. Honestly, she definitely could see one or two but her own stubbornness and want for revenge for the attempt at the life of her two mentors was really making it hard to persuade herself about the usefulness of the Iwagakure's continuous existence.

"I think it's time." Konan's voice pulled Mei from her contemplation, making her eyes shone with excitement.

"Soooo, how are we doing this?" She asked expectantly a mischievous smirk on her face.

Konan slowly turned to Mei with an amusedly raised eyebrow. "We? Oh, no, Mei. We are not doing anything. I am. You will just stay here, keep the forth so to speak. After all, it's I who need to earn my SS-rank. You are here more to learn more about large-scale combat. Last time you fought it, this time you will see and analyze it while having my back if anything too unexpected happened."

"What!? But that's not fair!" Mei whined only for Konan to lean forward and, much to Mei's annoyance, ruffled the auburn hair of the shorter girl with an indulging smile.

"Get used to it, brat. That's life." She said in a mock rueful tone with a dreamy sigh at the end.

"Stop it, or I will melt you..." Mei growled but Konan only flicked her nose in a playful way before turning around and jumping off the hill, flying into the air as her lower body changed fully to paper. Mei knew she lost that argument and will probably suffer during one of their training sessions for it too but she was just so irritated!

Konan literally threw her out of her warm bed, took away her Rei plushie, told her to get ready and meet her in twenty minutes. Heck, she didn't even have the time to properly eat breakfast before they teleported to a clearing near Iwagakure, the same Rei and Konan were hiding when preparing the Hokage monkey prank, and then Mei was forced to make the track towards the northeastern coast of the Land of Rock. Not the most enjoyable of her mornings for sure. Konan could at least let her kill something!

Konan was already quite high above the hill when a bit in front of her, slices of paper started hovering before their color started to change into brown as she supported her chakra in order to harden them the most she could.

Konan then pulled out something she very rarely used in battle. Her fan unfolded, prepared to rain destruction on her enemies as chakra started to build up, before Konan brutally swung in without mercy, sending raging winds in the direction of the Kumogakure forces as she willed her Earth-hardened slices of paper to fly towards them at their fastest speed.

The more experienced Kumo ninjas managed to pull out the Water Wall, Lightning Jutsu capable of shielding, or any other technique they deemed capable of stopping the ungodly hard projectiles. Unfortunately for them, the ferocious winds that blew above the ocean due to Konan didn't only rip the sails while leaving nasty cut marks all over the sh.i.p.s with some occasional buggers being cut in half. Their primary function was to speed up the hardened projectiles and the Kumo forces certainly felt that.

The defensive Jutsu's of Kumo ninjas were ripped right through by the rapid hard projectiles, riddling the ninjas, boats, sails, and water with holes alike. It was certainly chaos. People burst into blood, being plummeted by the projectiles. Broken bones, ruptured organs, missing appendages... and when one thought himself lucky enough to survive all that, the hard truth reared its ugly head. The boats became almost unusable due to the holes that went right through the hull, ending all the way in the water under the ship. The sh.i.p.s quickly started filling with water, sinking.

Mei could only watch with her mouth agape at the clean display of wholesale slaughter her mentor just showed her. It was not some showy battle. Nor was it a showdown of guts and sweat. Nope. This was a show of gore and blood caused by 2 Jutsu her mentor could perform rather easily. The entire point of it was that Konan cast the Jutsu at a good angle, aiming them downwards so the gravity did a very good job and by the time her projectiles impacted the Kumo fleet, it was as if small meteorites were raining on it.

"We are finished here. There is no one who could give me a challenge. The strongest dude of the lot is most likely mid-A rank ninja." Konan's impassive voice once again pulled Mei from her reverie as she watched the fumbling and screaming Kumo soldiers. She didn't even notice when Konan managed to descend from the air and it certainly made her aware of the ever-present power rift between Konan and her.

"But... they are still alive!" Mei pointed at the small percentage of the previous fleet that was still kicking and... screaming. Loudly.

"Of course they are," Konan actually broke her facade momentarily and rolled her eyes at Mei. "who would spread the news if they were not, in fact, alive? Rei surely does the same things and let some of his targets actually walk away completely fine to spread what happened in order to speed up our SS-rank Bingo Book promotion. There are also Iwagakure's ninjas hidden all around, keeping a distance from us. Even your new meager skill at nature sensing should pick them up... if you actually bothered to check." She said reproachingly.

Mei flushed a deep red, trying to stammer a few words only to find herself utterly speechless.

"They are here to 'collect' my bounty if they found me weak enough to risk it after my fight with the fleet. This is exactly what I wanted to show you today, Mei. The way you won your first one versus an army situation was stupid and very risky. You didn't account for someone popping up after the battle is over to engage you again. I let you bathe in your glory long enough but it's time to start your learning again so from now on, you and Ringo are in Clone Army Challenge training."

Mei pouted but nodded a bit in a subdued manner. A bit fearful of having tens of thousands of Clones of different variety flung at her by both Rei and Konan. Alas, fair or not... such is life.