Interlude: Wilting Flowers
I'm supposed to be studying but I read a few lines and there was Ino dating. That takes precedence. Let's go!
Hazō took a moment to take in the various flowers. The art of crafting a bouquet was something beyond him, but Mari had insisted that he learn the bare basics of Leaf flower language, since clan heads would often use flowers to subtly communicate the mood without being crass. Walking into a meeting without whether they'd left out a vase of edelweiss or anemone could be disastrous.
That, and also if your girlfriend gives you a bouquet, you look at the bouquet.
"The blessings of fortune, longing for the object of your dreams, and… congratulations for my new child!?"
What, you didn't know? :O
"You got there. It's cute watching you figure things out. Was it hard?"
If it's cute, then mission accomplished! Scoring points by way of dorkiness is the best
"More headaches?" Ino asked sympathetically.
More aches than heads even
"I'm worried about that, Hazō. There are parts of the mind that are dangerous, and certain thoughts that can hurt you, but they're not supposed to hurt you physically.
Boooo, hiding the really exciting infohazards from us
Forcing yourself to relive old traumas sounds bad enough, but having those memories somehow contain… some new information that's still useful to you, and also some quality that gives you a lasting, physical headache for days? That sounds dangerous. Like, really dangerous."
On a scale of "inviting Jashin into my mind" to "physically editing my brain to make it more like Orochimaru's" just how literally dangerous are we talking?
"It's fine. I know how to handle it. I can keep myself from slipping in too deep, and then it's not dangerous."
Yeah, she's probably heard that one before to disastrous effect hasn't she
"Sure. I trust your judgment. Still, if you turn yourself into a vegetable because you wanted to finish a sealing project just a little bit faster… I'll be very sad. So don't do that."
The fact that her mind went there makes me add one strike to the "the Nara have a bloodline that works a bit like the Mori's and you can go too deep" HC likeliness tally. I don't think she's close enough to Keiko to know the specifics, and that's really the kind of expectation you'd have if you'd been fighting alongside a Frozen Skein user.
"So, Ino, what's been on your mind?"
More like, in whose mind has she been? Eh? Eh?
So if they needed information, where are the fucking informants, Hazō?
... Wait. Who reported the higher chakra beast numbers and caused the mission? Couldn't you do that entirely externally? I don't know if chakra beast extermination is directly scanned for and funded by the state or, what I think is more likely, if local leaders and merchants pay for their hottest roads to be cleaned up regularly, but like. wouldn't it be so easy to make a false flag for chakra beast activity far from Leaf (or drive chakra beasts into Fire) and ambush the team that gets sent, because you can expect that a chakra beast extermination team that goes far would be relatively valuable and overall capable, but not overly dangerous?
"So what could it have been? Did Rock sneak a bloodline ninja close enough to the Tower to get intel on our mission deployments? The Hyūga are supposed to catch that. Did they invent some new undetectable spying seal, or spying jutsu? We're crazy screwed if so. Or did they somehow slip an informant past us?"
They have a precognitive bloodline aiiieeeeee
"This is what I'm supposed to be good at," Ino said. "I'm supposed to be able to talk with people and ferret out their secrets. Instead, there's nothing I can do here. It's depressing."
We'll get 'em, don't worry.
"Sometimes," Hazō said eventually, "there's nothing to find. That doesn't mean there was nothing there. It might just mean that whoever you're playing against covered it up perfectly."
"That's the thing, Hazō. There's no such thing as a perfect cover-up.
"Shinobi are beings of shadow," Keiko explained slowly, as if to a small child. "A perfect assassination is when the target appears to have died of natural causes. A perfect theft is when the target is convinced that they misplaced the item themselves. A perfect seduction is when the target believes that they were the seducer. Do you perceive the trend?"
Hmmmm. Ino, what do you know, and how do you know it?
but I think my Goo Bombs have to be pretty close to his. What do you need them for?"
"After you reminded me about them, I thought back to how you used them during the Chūnin Exams. I think they could help keep Yamanaka genin alive.
Yay progress!
Oh, and don't worry about the Tower trying to buy out the whole supply without giving us any. I'll convince Asuma-sensei to let you trade with me without those bureaucrats playing middleman."
Iiiinnnteresting
the chakra beast attacks have also been much worse than average…
That's concerning. Especially if something or someone causes that. Wait... is Kakuzu taxing them more now that they have more money because taxes went down to, uuuuh, that was 85% right?
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