Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve

[Fiction]

Sneaking out of Chinatsu's house was easy enough. They snuck out from the balcony in the back, using chakra adhesion until they were out of sight of the two people keeping a lookout. It was their second day on duty, and one would expect them to be alert, but it was late at night and they weren't used to the night schedule, making it the perfect time to sneak out.

The moment they cleared out of the guard's detection, they broke into a full on sprint, taking the shortest possible path to Takuma's safe house. As they neared the location, they threw in the typical tactics for losing tails by roaming around at a quickened pace, snaking through alleys and mixing in altitude changes before finally arriving at Takuma's safehouse.

They heard nothing as they entered the property, but as they neared the building, they heard faint sounds of someone being tortured inside.

"He's doing it this late?" Gaku whispered, expecting Takuma to be resting this late at night.

"Let's go, we need to finish this quickly," Daiki said, urging them. He was leading the trio and was the most tense during this outing. Getting caught meant having their cover blown deep in the enemy territory—that absolutely terrified him. "Let's go inside."

They vaulted over the building and landed in the open courtyard.

"Takuma," Iori called and the place went silent.

The door to one of the rooms opened, but there was no one in the doorway, and they could only see a chained body laying on a bench inclined with wood blocks underneath one side. There was a puddle of water around the prisoner. Takuma stepped out from behind the wall after a full five seconds and looked tense with a kunai in his hand for a few moments until he breathed out and closed the door behind him.

"Prisoner seals?" asked Takuma as he walked toward them. "You better have brought me something good to eat."

"You look horrible," Iori immediately commented on Takuma's bloodshot eyes and dark circles, which had improved since he had come to Yu, but now we're back to being terrible. "Are you fine? Do you want help?"

"I'm fine," said Takuma as he twisted his body to crack his spine. "I can't have them getting comfortable—they're kept under pressure be it day, evening, or night. I'm making progress. I think I'll have them spill information tomorrow."

When Iori didn't say anything and looked at Takuma ridiculously, and he stared back at her, Gaku moved them along.

"Which one do you want us to do first?" asked Gaku.

"Do Aranai first," said Takuma and put his hand forward.

Daiki took out two vials of sleeping agents and needles from his pack and handed them to Takuma, who went back into the room to knock Aranai out so Iori could work on him without resistance.

"So, which Hidden Frost shinobi came to the house?" Takuma talked to Gaku outside Aranai's room as Iori worked inside with Daiki.

The message Anko had sent with the snake only had information about the Hidden Frost's raid.

"A jonin named Ebi," Gaku answered.

Takuma looked at him with wide eyes. "Really? I guess that makes sense. Ryoya tells me that he's the jonin managing everything while others are on vacation. I'm thinking that if we take him down—I mean not us, but someone else from the main forces—but if we take him down, we can crumble the enemy's support structure."

That was the kind of information he wanted from Aranai; the kind of information they were sent to collect.

"Why do you work so hard?" Gaku asked after staring at the tired Takuma lost in his thoughts.

"Hmm?"

"This is not your country, not your people, not your war—and yet you're working like a ghost with a vengeance."

Takuma took a deep breath as he leaned against a pillar.

"I'm not doing this for Yu or the Land of Hot Waters. If things had turned out differently, I wouldn't be here at all. I'm doing this for myself—sure you benefit from my effort—but I'm putting in this effort because it progresses my career... If this goes well, when I return home, my achievements will push me over the edge and get me promoted—at least, I hope so. I hate being here… I'm living in the moment, drowning myself in accomplishing this goal because I know if I think about home, I won't have the energy to get out of the bed in the morning."

Takuma then chuckled.

"What?" asked Gaku.

"I consulted with my teachers before coming here, and they said that wars are where shinobi are made, where legends are coined, where heroes are born, and whatnot—but I don't feel like a legend or hero." Takuma smiled as he pushed himself off the pillar. "But I guess, I am finding out more about what it means to be a shinobi."

———
.

"Is this it?" Ebi asked as he looked at a milling factory owned by a man called Motohiro.

"Yes, our person in the Kumi family says the owner of this factory has been helping the Hidden Leaf shinobi," said Ebi's subordinate.

Yesterday afternoon they had received the information that the Kumi family head was bedridden and unable to lead his family. In his absence, Gyon, the head's son, had taken charge of the family. Gyon was their contact inside the Kumi family, who wanted the Hidden Frost's support in taking over as the family's head. In return, he gave them information about the intruders inside the city who had been creating problems in the shadows.

Ebi had readily accepted. The Hidden Frost had a connection with the Goharu family, the Kumi's rivals—but he didn't care about either of the gangs. They were little pawns hungry for power who would beg for it if he asked. The Goharu family had lost a lot of favour by providing drugs that poisoned his men, so helping their rivals was an appropriate punishment.

"Let's head inside then."

The group of shinobi entered the busy mill. Dozens of workers roamed around their stations, but the moment they noticed the shinobi, all work ceased. Ebi gazed at them for a few silent moments, counting the number of people, and memorising their faces; it was a force of habit from being a shinobi for decades.

"I'm looking for the owner of this mill," he announced.

A beer-bellied, hairy man walked out of a back room. It was Motohiro. He furrowed his brows when he saw the shinobi, apprehension overtook the surprise on his face. Two more men followed after him, who Ebi guessed were his lieutenants.

"Motohiro?" asked Ebi.

"Yes, what do you want?"

"We want Takuma. You know where he is, right?"

Ebi had to give it to Motohiro for holding his composure when asked a blunt question right to his face.

"I don't understand..."

Unfortunately for Motohiro, the others didn't have the same composure as him. Ebi instantly noticed the fear and agitation of one of the men standing beside him. He just got confirmation about the information he had gotten from Gyon—Motohiro ran a small resistance group and they had a connection with Takuma.

"Are you sure you want to go with that?" Ebi asked again.

"I think you're mistaken. I don't know anyone by that name."

"I see..." Ebi nodded. He turned to his subordinates and ordered, "Take them—everyone, even the workers."

His subordinates immediately moved, expecting the order. They began rounding up everyone, ignoring their shouts, complaints, and cries. Half of the people didn't even resist, and just begged not to hurt as they looked scared stiff.

"P-Please don't, I have small children at home," a woman begged a shinobi trying to grab her.

"Hey, you can't do that. I said I don't know anything!" Motohiro yelled.

"And I'm just supposed to believe that?" Ebi turned to the woman. "I understand your plight, miss, but I'm afraid your children have to fend for themselves for a few days." He put pressure on Motohiro, hoping that he would fess-up, but the mill owner stayed silent.

'Hmm.' Ebi turned to the lieutenants he had clocked before. "What's your name?"

"M-Miyauchi."

Ebi smiled. "Miyauchi, let's start with something simple: Do you know who Takuma is?"

Everyone looked at Miyauchi—Motohiro looked at him, the other lieutenant looked at him, the workers looked at him—everyone wanted him to deny that he knew Takuma so that the shinobi would leave everyone alone.

"Y-Yes," said Miyauchi.

Motohiro closed his eyes and his body sagged from disappointment. The tension in the room deflated as well—the workers looked half afraid, half hopeful—afraid that the shinobi would think they were involved, hopeful that now they had someone who knew Takuma, they would leave everyone else alone.

"Does Motohiro know Takuma?"

"...Yes."

"Miyauchi, you traitor!" Motohiro's other lieutenant jumped and knocked Miyauchi to the ground and started to choke him.

"Wada, stop!" Motohiro yelled, but Wada didn't listen, so he tried to separate them to no avail.

Ebi pointed at one of his subordinates to separate the murder attempt on the floor.

He then walked to Motohiro, who looked so much different than he was a minute before—there was a weight bearing on his shoulders, a shadow in his eyes. Ebi put a hand on his shoulder,

"I don't like liars, Motohiro. Now, we're going to have a long lengthy chat about it."

———
.

Takuma and Aranai sat in front of each other in the torture room. He made sure not to clean it after each session so that just staying in the room became a kind of torture on its own. It stank of all manner of bodily fluids, some of which stained the floors and walls.

Takuma sat on his wooden stool and Aranai was on his knees, his hand strung up with chains. "Are you ready to talk?"

"Y...Y-Yes."

Takuma nodded. Finally, after so many days of hard work, he had broken the lock on the man and now it was time to open the door and let all the information fall through into his lap.

"You understand the consequence of lying?"

"Yes..."

Takuma hummed as he stood up, making Aranai flinch. He ignored him, though he was secretly pleased about it, and picked up a large notepad and started a two hour long interrogation where he asked Aranai about the chunin present in Yu. Who they were, a summary of their abilities, their responsibilities in the city, and any details he thought the base could use.

Aranai was a chunin and thus a horde of information—and as a chunin, he was between jonin and genin, which gave him significant information on both parties over and under him. After two hours, Takuma left the room and brought a hot meal, placing it in front of Aranai. Usually, he had fed him one cold, bland meal every other day to keep him hungry but functional. Now that he had submitted, Takuma could put away the metaphorical stick and start using the carrot to coax him into continuing to cooperate.

"Good job. Now eat," said Takuma.

Aranai looked apprehensive, but Takuma took a bite of the food to show there was nothing wrong with the food. Cautiously, Aranai pulled the plate towards him with his nailless fingers, and after the first slow bite, he scarfed down the food as though it could be taken back any second.

Though to be fair, if he wanted to, Takuma could. He said nothing and let him eat in silence. After he was done, Takuma once again began another two hour long interrogation, and after it was done, he moved Aranai to a fresh room that didn't stink and even had a toilet.

For the third reward, he adjusted the chains in a position where Aranai could comfortably lay on the ground, and left him for a full seven hours to allow him a good spell of sleep. For the seventh reward, in addition to a warm meal, Takuma brought Ryoya into the room, and placed both guys in the same room.

At the end of two days of interrogation and rewards, the two Hidden Frost shinobi were spilling secrets as though Takuma was their best friend.

It was afternoon when Takuma exited the room with a full notepad.

He had done it.

He had extracted all the information significant to the Hidden Frost's presence in Yu. There was more information about the Hidden Frost itself he could get from them, but that wasn't the priority, and the information had to get to the base in time for them to make use of it.

Moreover, he no longer had the energy for it. After two days of dishing out rewards, his own was going to be long, undisturbed sleep.

Eight days remained until the main forces arrived at Yu.






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[Fiction]

When Takuma opened his eyes, his body felt more uncomfortable than ever before. He groaned loudly as he forced himself to sit up from the dirty cot that served as his bed with his muscles screaming murder. It was a bizarre experience because not only had he woken up without a sore muscle after continuous days of intense training—but he was a young teenager!

He wasn't supposed to get sores and aches when he hadn't done anything physically taxing.

"Fuck me."

He stood up and stretched his body through the pain and half-limped his way outside of his room and saw his water clone sitting cross-legged in front of Ryoya and Aranai's room. The clone opened his eyes when he heard Takuma approach.

"How long was I out?" asked Takuma—at this point, he didn't even know whether it was day or night.

"Around twenty hours more or less."

"That was long," Takuma said and then gulped down an entire bottle of water.

It was fortunate that clones didn't need further focus after they were created. As long as Takuma didn't run out of chakra or wasn't killed, his clone would continue to exist until it ran out of chakra so he had created one to keep watch over his prisoners while he went to sleep.

He hadn't used clones to interrogate them because he didn't want to miss out anything that could give him an advantage in subsequent sessions. He also didn't completely trust himself(his clone) to perfectly transfer information through words.

"Any words between them?"

"Nothing useful."

"Okay, I'm going out," said the clone. "I'm exhausted."

Takuma nodded and the clone walked away, confusing him, but then he turned around and ran towards him, dispelling himself a moment before they collided. A mass of water drenched Takuma from head to toe and he stood there stunned, not expecting that to happen.It had the intended effect because he was now completely awake. He chuckled and then went for an actual bath, changed his clothes, and prepared three sets of meals, before checking up on his two prisoners. They were chained to opposite sides of the room and their whispered conversation stopped when Takuma entered.

"How are you two today?" he asked as he put the plates in front of them and sat down in the middle of the room with one of his own. There was an awkward silence in the room as the two prisoners stared at Takuma, who was too busy eating to pay attention to them.

"We... We told you everything we know, please let us go," said Ryoya as he cautiously looked at Takuma.

Aranai had been tortured too much to make requests like that and was silently eating his food in small and quick bites, wasting no time in fear that the food would be taken away. Takuma's reward ladder had worked in making them more comfortable, but fear was hard to erase, and he expected for him to be affected for a long time—probably developing some level of PTSD.

"I will let you go in a week," Takuma replied.

"Why in a week?"

Takuma glanced at Ryoya and that was enough to make him shut up and even scuttle back despite the distance between them

"Eat your food," he said. "I will keep my promise; you'll be released from my custody in a week's time."

Even though he had gotten the information out of them and sent it out of the city to the camp, he had one more use for them. They were in the last week of their precursor mission and it was going to be the most active period.

Given that the rest of his team was under surveillance, he had to do most of it all alone.

"Behave and you'll return to your friends."

———
.

After eating and taking care of his prisoners' hygiene, Takuma left the safe house. He couldn't leave a clone in his place to keep guard because a water clone had to be within a certain distance of the caster otherwise it would be dispelled automatically.

He was only planning to be out for an hour or two and was willing to take the risk and separated them into different rooms for safety reasons. Just like his first day in Yu, Takuma wandered around the town without a disguise. He had been in the city for two months, so his hair had gone from a fresh cut to beyond overgrown; he'd grown paler than usual and he had even lost significant weight from his face, giving him sunken cheeks.

With all he'd experienced, he looked nothing like the picture plastered around the town.

He peered into shops, observed hotspots, and avoided three groups of patrolling shinobi. The caution and fear lingered on the roads, which wasn't anything new, but there was an edge to it that he couldn't place.

"So what's new, pops? I've been living under a rock," Takuma asked a tea stall owner as he got himself a couple taiyaki.

"The shinobi have been going through the town with a comb," said the stall owner as he served his order.

"Oh, did they catch someone?"

"Yeah, they arrested an entire milling factory under the suspicion of being traitors and helping rebels. If I remember correctly, the owner's name is Motohiro."

Takuma's hand paused for a moment before he bit into his taiyaki which felt tasteless in his hand.

"That sucks, huh," he said briefly, but his mind was racing.

A mill owner named Motohiro? There was no chance that could be anyone else. How did the Hidden Frost know that Motohiro's rebel group was connected to him? Motohiro's was a small group and that was one of the reasons he and Gaku chose them because they drew less suspicion and Motohiro was more involved in keeping his community safe over resisting the tyranny.

Had someone inside the group betrayed them?

He had to find out more. Takuma finished his snack and went to the one place he knew he would get information. But as he arrived at Hoshiguro's estate, he was stunned to spot Hidden Frost shinobi outside the estate, standing guard. He immediately retreated and got a higher vantage point to see over the high walls, and after waiting for a few minutes, he caught a glimpse of a walking Kumi family member he didn't recognise.

Had the Hidden Frost also found his connection to the Kumi family?

Takuma then noticed one of the Kumi family members exiting the estate and immediately decided to follow him until they were a good distance away from the estate.

The member was a man in his early twenties. He wore a tacky tracksuit, had a buzz cut close to the skin, and hummed a tune as he turned into a back alley to take a piss. He put his hand against the wall and when he turned around he was startled out of his life because Takuma was standing beside him.

"You are—!"

"Why are there shinobi at the estate?"

The man looked like a deer caught in headlights and froze in place for a couple seconds before his fight-or-flight instinct kicked in—and he chose flight and turned to run away. To Takuma, he looked slow as a turtle and he kicked him when he moved his right foot. The man slammed into the wall and curled up into a ball after he fell to the ground.

Takuma waited and watched him groan in pain for a full minute as he struggled to get up only to fail and slip back to the ground.

"Let's try again: why are there shinobi at the estate?"

The man retreated into the alleway not at all aware that one of his hands was drenched in his own urine. He looked up at Takuma in fear, and didn't speak a single word, making him sigh.

He had done enough interrogation in the last week and his patience had worn thin. He was in no mood to be subtle about it so he slipped a kunai into his hand and stepped forward to scare the shit out of the man, which he assumed would be much easier than doing the same to a shinobi.

"Stop! Stop! I will talk, please don't kill me!"

"You'd better because I won't ask again." Takuma stopped advancing and gave him a cold stare. "Why are there shinobi at your estate?"

"They-They were invited by Young Boss Gyon!"

Takuma felt his body go cold. Gyon was the leak who had given out the fake address to the Hidden Frost. He had talked to Hoshiguro, who had promised that he would take care of it—but now there were shinobi at his house. That raised the question: Had Hoshiguro turned his back on him for his son? Or had Gyon done something to his own father.

"What about Hoshiguro?"

"The b-boss is bedridden. The young boss took over and invited the shinobi."

"Why is he bedridden?"

"I-I don't know. I just know that his health took a dive, the young boss took over the next day, and the shinobi came after that."

Takuma closed his eyes and took a deep breath when he felt his anger rise up. They were a week out from the mission ending in success and he didn't want things to go wrong because a piece of shit wanted more power by selling out his own city.

'I should've killed him when I first found out,' thought Takuma.

The only reason he had not killed Gyon was because of Hoshiguro and because he didn't want to lose the Kumi family's support—but now his supporter inside the family was bedridden. WIth the traitor in the head's seat, Takuma knew he had lost the family's support—with Motohiro's group arrested, his team under surveillance and the Kumi family no longer an option—he was truly alone with no real support.

He wasn't going to make that mistake again. The two-time traitor had signed his own death sentence.

He was going to start and christen the last week of his mission at Yu with Gyon's life and blood. If he didn't do that, he would be angry for the rest of the week and he didn't want to spend the most active week of the mission bubbling in anger about a piece of shit who didn't know what was at stake.

Takuma looked down at the Kumi member, who was going to help him make that happen.

"Let's talk. Tell me everything you know, and I will let you go," Takuma lied again.

Seven days remained until the main forces arrived at Yu.





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[Fiction]

The Kumi family estate had changed a lot in the past few days. It was usually a serene place—guests were rare and only those who were trusted were allowed in. That tranquillity had been broken by the outsiders who had all but taken over the estate. There was a discomfort among those who worked there, having to be in the presence of shinobi who were supposed to be enemies of the city.

All of the changes had been brought by the young boss, who had taken over since the boss' health had taken a turn for the worse. The people had tried to question him about the changes, but Gyon refused to give any reasonable justification and only replied that it was for the betterment of the family—but those in the know knew that Gyon had collaborated with the Hidden Frost shinobi to gain control of the family.

Just yesterday, a Hidden Frost jonin by the name of Ebi had visited the estate to have a closed-door meeting with Gyon and no one knew what was discussed—just that Gyon hadn't looked pleased or even normal since the meeting.

"So this Gaku; he's a Hidden Steam shinobi?"

In another closed-door meeting, a Hidden Frost chunin questioned Gyon. They had been going at it for thirty minutes already and Gyon was getting frustrated. He didn't think it would be like this; he thought he would be in full control of the family and his influence over the city would boost with the support of shinobi behind him, but they were treating him like he was lying to them, keeping information from him.

"Yes."

"And he's from Yu?"

"I don't know if he's from here or not, but he had been living in the city for the past five years—but then he left soon after you guys arrived."

"Doesn't look like he left. In fact, he has been helping the Hidden Leaf traitor."

Gyon glared at the chunin. "I already told you, I didn't know he was in the city until he made contact with us. I barely met him twice and both times. I don't know where he's right now or what he's doing now. My father was the one who mainly dealt with them."

"Your father... are you sure he's the only one who knows the real location?"

"Yes," he sighed, "he gave everyone fake addresses."

"Even you, his son?" The chunin chuckled, "I guess it makes sense."

Gyon clenched his fist, digging his fingernails into his skin to control his anger. The shinobi didn't hide his sarcasm, it was dripping in his voice—he was mocking the choice he made of betraying his father and family. Even though he was helping them, he was getting mocked in return.

"Any more questions?" he asked.

The chunin stared at him for a moment. "Not for now." He stood up and looked down at him "We'll be in touch if we do. If your father wakes up or Takuma or Gaku make contact with you, reach out to us as soon as possible."

Gyon felt a pit in his stomach at the thought of his father interrogated by the shinobi. Yesterday when Ebi had visited him, he had shared the method and findings of Motohiro's resistance group's interrogation in graphic detail. The thought of his father going through the same treatment sent a chill down his spine.

He hadn't thought that the shinobi might go after his father and suddenly, he was regretting the choice he had made. He had no idea how to fix his mistake either because he'd taken hold of a hand that he couldn't let go of.

The sliding door opened and without looking up, Gyon said, "Leave. I wish to be alone."

When there was no response, no footsteps, and no sound of sliding door, Gyon looked up to see one of the young members standing by the door. There was no expression on his face and he was looking at him without blinking.

"You... aren't you Miru's underling?" said Gaku, unable to remember his name.

He felt something off, but couldn't put his finger on it, and neither did he think much about it because he wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone. Just when he was about to ask him again, the underling spoke.

"Was it worth it?"

"Excuse me?"

"You got the control of the family... but at what cost? You've lost the respect of all who work under you, and those who agree are just bootlickers—yes-men who would let you fuck their wives if you asked."

"What the hell are you saying? Do you realise what you're doing right now?" Gyon snarled as he got up to confront the lowly underling.

It hit a chord in his mind because somewhere deep down, he knew it was true. Half the Kumi lieutenants had refused to talk to him and had shown the bare-minimum level of support in the midst of a crisis. He had gotten the control of the family, but lost everything else. Even his mother had been cold to him.

"It looks to me like you don't want to be part of the family anymore."

Gyon raised his hand to grab the underling's throat, but he grabbed hold of his forearm when he was halfway through the motion. He didn't think much about it because as long as his opponent wasn't a lieutenant, no one in the family could compete with him with his strength.

When he tried to push, the hand grabbing him didn't budge. He was surprised and this time tugged away, but wasn't able to free his hand much less move it.

"W-What? Who—"

There was a sudden puff of smoke to reveal Takuma standing in front. In an instant, a primal fear rose from the deepest depth of his being as he stared at the cold, rigid black eyes. His heart was pumping and sweat built up on his skin as he felt the grip gradually tighten around his wrist.

There was no question that he was in grave danger, so Gyon followed his first instinct and screamed—but the moment he opened his mouth, Takuma swung a kunai and lodged it in his throat before he could utter a single syllable.

Gyon's forgot about screaming as he went into shock. Takuma pushed him back, de-lodging the kunai. He tried to plug the wound, but nothing he did stopped the blood from flowing.

"You put some really good people, who care deeply for the city, in danger. You even poisoned your own father, you rat bastard," said Takuma as he stared down at him with nary an emotion on his face.

Gyon would've denied the claim; he hadn't done anything to his father, but he had lost his voice box.

"I'm less angry about the fact that you tried to sell me out and feel more pity towards Hoshiguro that he raised a son like you. To face such betrayal by your own blood. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy—which is why I hope your children aren't the first ones to find you like this."

Gyon stopped struggling as those words triggered the revolving lantern as his body became cold. He laid down on the floor and stared at the ceiling as his own blood pooled around him, seeping into his clothes.

In his last moments, he remembered his little twins; he realised that he wouldn't be there as they grew up, that they wouldn't have a father figure. With his father bedridden and him dead, who knew what would happen to the Kumi family. His children wouldn't inherit the Kumi family as one of the lieutenants would take over.

He worried about his mother and wife, wondering how their lives would be—if they would receive proper support in the face of his death. He hadn't impressed upon the family members to win their loyalty, but he hoped that at least his father had earned them some goodwill which would help his children.

He saw Takuma at the edge of his darkening vision. The young shinobi knelt beside him and whispered something he barely caught,

"I wanted to make you suffer. Luckily for you, I don't have the time... but I hope you rot in hell," he said before stabbing him in the heart.

'I'm sorry,'

Gyon said to his family before everything went black.

———
.

Takuma moved away as the blood pool inched towards him. He looked down at Gyon and the kunai in his chest; he was going to leave it there so people could tell exactly who had done the deed but after some brief thought, he used Gyon's blood to write TRAITOR on the wall.

He wiped his bloody hands on Gyon's clothes and opened the door to exit the room only to find a woman who worked at the estate outside.

She was surprised which then turned to shock and fear when she saw the bloodstains on his clothes and hands. And then she looked past him into the room and saw Gyon's corpse and bloody words

"Ssshhh..."

Takuma pulled out another kunai and held it against her neck. He wasn't worried because the Hidden Frost shinobi had already left and no one on the property was a threat to him even if they all teamed together against him.

"Miss, I don't want to harm you, and I won't harm you if you follow my orders. Nod if you understand."

The scared woman nodded rigidly and hastily.

"Good," Takuma smiled, which made him look sinister which boosted the fear in the woman. "Do you see that tree near the boundary?" He pointed at the tree which was planted next to the estate's walls.

The woman nodded again.

"Very good. Now, I want you to walk to that tree and slowly count to a hundred before doing whatever you want. If you move before completing the count, I will know, and you will end up the same as him... Nod if you understand."

"Y-Yes, I will do it, so p-please...."

The woman seemed out of breath and looked faint.

"It's okay, take deep breaths. I don't want to harm you so as long as you follow my instructions, I can guarantee that you won't ever see me again," Takuma said in a calming voice, not sure if it would make any difference. "Now, go and stand there."

The woman moved with shaky steps and kept looking back at him. He stayed there until she was a few steps away before disappearing so when she reached the tree and looked back, he was no longer there.

"1... 2... 3...."

———
.

[TRAITOR]

Ebi looked at the bold words written on the wall. It was his first time seeing words written in blood at a scene in person. He looked down at the dried pool of blood where the body used to be. They had moved the body, and all that remained was the kunai used for murder, which was now in his hand.

"It's him."

Ebi wasn't alone in the room. He looked at Kon who stood next to the bloody wall, observing as though there was a secret locked in the accusing words.

"Uh-huh, the question is if you can find him," Ebi asked.

He had been involved in the interrogations of Motohiro's resistance group—they had rounded up all of the known group members, their family members, friends, and anyone who they thought could give them an answer, but no one seemed to have an answer. Takuma or Tobi—or whatever they called him—no one knew anything about him except for the fact that he was always with Gaku, the Hidden Steam shinobi.

"He's been very careful since I caught him but you seem to have pissed him off this time by arresting his little civilian rebels," said Kon, chuckling as though he found the entire situation amusing. There was a strange look in his eyes as he moved on to look at the pool of blood. "Have you questioned any of the lieutenants? The Kumi were in a state of instability, they might have collaborated with him to take out the traitor."

"They're being rounded up as we speak."

"Look into the Goharu family as well. He might have gone to them for help to take out the enemy's head."

Ebi knew that the Goharu family hadn't been happy since they had been punished for Aranai's poisoned drug operation and now the Hidden Frost, who was their backer, was getting close to their rivals. That was enough motivation to hire a shinobi to plunge the Kumi family into chaos by assassinating Gyon while Hoshiguro was bedridden.

"I'll make the orders," said Ebi.

Kon massaged and rotated his injured right arm and shoulder as he looked at Ebi.

"I don't know why, but you should be prepared."

"For what?" asked Ebi.

Kon shook his head. "I don't know—well I have some idea—but after seeing this... something big is coming," he looked at the bloody message.

Six days remained until the main forces arrived at Yu.





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[Fiction]

The old barber was cleaning and sanitising his tools when he heard the chime above his door ring. He turned to see a young teenager wearing a brown hooded coat enter his barbershop. The simple black shirt and grey track pants he wore underneath it hung on his wiry-thin frame like clothes on a hanger.

He removed his hood to reveal his long greasy black hair that was frayed at ends, tangled in places, looking like it hadn't been combed in ages.

"Take a seat," said the old barber.

The teenager removed his coat and threw it on a couch near the door before sitting down in the barber chair.

"So what are we doing today?"

"Haircut," said Takuma as he stared at himself in the mirror. "Take away as little length as you can, but make it presentable."

He'd kept his hair short his whole life because of the low maintenance, but it had grown a lot over the last six months and was becoming a bother. He would've cut it short again, but the long hair helped conceal his identity without looking suspicious.

The old barber looked and touched his hair before nodding.

"We can do that, but you'll have to pay upfront." Takuma looked up at the barber with a raised brow but it only made the old man shrug. "These are desperate times." Takuma sighed before handing the asked price and then closed his eyes, allowing the barber to cast his magic on his hair. Even though it was a simple haircut and dye, he enjoyed the short half hour of someone taking care of him.

It was a pity that he couldn't completely let his guard down.

The old barber washed his hair and then proceeded to cut and style it. But as the barber was cutting his hair, he noticed the deep scars peeking out of Takuma's shirt and wondered how a young teenager received injuries like that. He looked at his face and was dumbstruck when he recognised it, looking at the wanted poster on the wall behind him through the mirror.

The face was more gaunt and the hair changed his look, but it was the same face—the person sitting in his chair was the criminal wanted by the shinobi.

"Keep cutting, old man."

The barber looked down at Takuma and noticed him looking up at him. The tired eyes from before were sharper than the pair of scissors in his hand.

"P-Please, I... I don't want trouble."

"Neither do I. The moment you're done with the cut, I'll leave. I already paid you for it, so don't make me repeat myself," Takuma said and then closed his eyes, making himself comfortable in the chair.

The barber cut the hair slowly to ensure that his trembling hands didn't make any mistake. It didn't make any difference that Takuma was trying to free the city because he was still a symbol of fear. He didn't mind and let the barber go at his own pace; it gave him more time to relax—he had turned the door sign to CLOSE when he entered without the barber noticing it.

"I'm done."

Takuma opened his eyes and looked at himself in the mirror. His hair was straight, not greasy, and barely swept over his shoulders; he didn't like the look, but that was because he wasn't a fan of long hair.

The barber had done a good job.

"Thank you," Takuma said as he headed to the door, but spoke again when he reached it. "I shouldn't need to say it, but don't tell anyone I was here. I don't mind if you do, but the shinobi will come and when they do, they'll take you away, interrogate you, might even torture you when you don't give them anything—which, let's admit, you won't because there's nothing to tell.

"Take my advice and forget that I was here, or you'll end up like the mill factory workers; if you don't know about them, a lot of them haven't been able to come back to their family," He paused, "well, that's mostly because their families were also taken away... so think about that before you do anything."

He didn't look back to gauge the barber's expression and flipped the door sign to OPEN as he left.

———
.

After getting a haircut, Takuma entered the factory base.

It had been more than a week since he had stepped foot in the abandoned factory. Initially, the plan was to use the factory base as the safe house to hold Aranai and Ryoya captive, but Anko rejected the idea because the majority of their gear was in the factory as well and if the Hidden Frost tracked him down while he was interrogating the two shinobi—they would lose all their gear.

Takuma sat down on the dirty couch for a couple minutes before opening a trunk to retrieve a set of water resistant explosive tags. There weren't many of them—only two dozen—because they were situational and standard explosive tags were already slightly water resistant. However, these tags would work even if they were completely submerged in water for about an hour.

He then retrieved his own personal gear before using makeup from a cosmetic bag to hide his dark circles and make himself look 'healthy'. He smiled and the makeup combined with his fresh cut made him look energetic and presentable. Moreover, he looked less like himself, which was always a plus in his situation.

He didn't stay for long and was out of the base in under an hour after changing into neat, but worn down clothes.

His destination was a banquet hall in the ultra affluent part of the city.

When Aranai told him that the jonin named Ebi handled everything, Takuma wondered what the other jonin were doing during their 'vacation'. So he pulled up the research that he had been doing since he'd arrived in Yu and found a big party held for no apparent reason.

However, the part that interested him was there were shinobi who were going to attend the party—one jonin, four chunin, and seven genin. He eventually reached the large, posh banquet hall and went around the back where he saw workers hurrying around doing their jobs, unloading stuff from carts, carrying carpets, flowers, fake pillars, and a dozen more things.

He scouted the area and spotted a person who was ordering people around and managing the commotion.

Takuma took a deep breath, put on a smile, and walked to that man.

"Excuse me," he said.

The man with salt and pepper hair dressed in a white shirt and black pants turned to look at Takuma. He wasn't in a good mood and looked annoyed to have been interrupted from doing his work.

"What?"

"Do you have a job? I'll do anything."

"No, there isn't. Now go away and don't waste my time."

The man turned away to walk away, but Takuma called out to him with a tone of rising desperation.

"I'll do a job for food." Takuma continued when the man turned to look at him. "You don't have to pay me if you feed me." It was a desperate man's offer who just wanted a place to work and was even willing to work for 'free'—and that was any manager's dream.

"Will you wash dishes?" asked the man.

"You'll be able to see your face in the reflection when I'm done with them," said Takuma.

"Good, then you're hired."

"Thank you," Takuma smiled.

———
.

The evening arrived and the guests began to roll in as the sky darkened. The banquet hall was shining like a jewel, casting its light to the sky above. The front of the banquet hall was filled with glitz and glamour with impeccably dressed men and women trying to outdo each other, holding the deep desire to display their affluence.

Among them were a dozen or so shinobi who were the centre of attention as they held the power among the guests. Most of them were genin, who had been brought by the jonin and chunin, but even then, the genin remained as the centre of attention because there were simply more of them. The affluent natives tried to curry favour with them because it was much easier to do so and the other shinobi could easily diminish their influence if they desired.

Takuma was stowed away in the back of the kitchen, away from the celebrations, and very genuinely washing dishes and cooking utensils, putting his back into scrubbing the grease off of the large woks and pans.

"Yeah, keep at it, you're doing good," said the man who had hired Takuma, who happened to be the manager.

"Thank you, sir!" Takuma grinned and scrubbed vigorously.

He took the rack of clean dishes to the front and observed the waiting staff as they came in with empty glasses and went out with full glasses to keep the guests liquored up. He couldn't see outside in the hall, but he had to confirm that the shinobi were here.

"Hey, are there really shinobi here?" he asked one of the waiters.

"Huh yeah, the last of them arrived a few minutes ago."

Before Takuma could ask more questions, the waiter rushed back outside. The manager saw Takuma and yelled at him to go back to his station. Takuma had more questions, but getting the confirmation about the shinobi's arrival was enough. He returned to his station and continued to wash the dishes for the next hour until the party was at its highest.

"I'm going to replace the clean water," Takuma said to the other dishwashers and dragged the huge water basin outside to the tap.

As the basin filled up, Takuma took out the stack of waterproof explosive tags and dropped them into it one at a time. When the basin was completely filled, Takuma weaved hand seals for the Water Clone Jutsu and the water rose, trapping the tags within the writhing mass as it formed a clone. Unlike Takuma, who was wearing a checkered shirt and pants, the clone wore the waiter's outfit.

"I know the answer, but I've to ask: are you sure?" the clone asked after he stepped outside of the basin.

"I fucking don't want to do it, but I'm choosing to," said Takuma, looking straight into his clone's eyes. There was no reason to make excuses to himself—he was more aware than anybody what he was about to do, and what would happen if he was successful.

He was a shinobi of the Hidden Leaf and even though he and his team had limited authority to operate in the country as part of the war effort, he was essentially an outsider and didn't have the authority to operate on the same level as a Hidden Steam shinobi. He could kill a couple people here and there who had clearly colluded with the enemy—allowing him to dispose of someone like Gyon—but that was it—he didn't have the power to be the judge, jury, and executioner in a foreign country.

"I guess we will have to live with it," said the clone with a grim look. "What about Anko? She won't support this… she'll be furious," said the clone. "You might lose her trust…"

"I know," he nodded.

He was operating alone from the start and had autonomy, but there was an implied limit to what all he could do. His actions affected all of his team and his autonomy was granted to him by Anko, the team leader, and all of his actions were her responsibility. His wins were hers, but simultaneously, if he did something wrong, she would be held responsible in addition to him.

"Sucks, doesn't it."

"Go now."

"We always can not do it—"

"Go!"

The clone walked into the building and Takuma stood there silently, staring at the little water left in the basin. He was glad he couldn't see his face in the turbulent water's surface... he didn't want to know what he looked like at that moment.

———
.

The clone entered the hall with a plate of food. The guests had all sat down for the ten course meal prepared by the best chef in the city. He had just swiped the plate of food from the counter and had no idea who it belonged to. Roaming along the edges, he kept within the shadows as the guests sat rapt, their attention fixed on a dance performance taking place.

The shinobi sat in the centre, close to the front, and were gathered in a tight cluster of tables alongside the most affluent residents of Yu. They enjoyed exquisite food and expensive drinks as they watched the performance. He spotted the jonin's table and took a moment to gather himself.

Because he was the one doing it, Takuma wouldn't have any memory of what was about to happen—that was both good and bad—and he himself wouldn't have to wait around to find what the consequences would feel like.

As he stepped out of the shadow, the clone stopped and looked at his stomach. It rippled as the edge of an explosive tag peeked out. The original didn't have the practice of creating clones with things floating inside—and even the most skilled water clone user would have difficulty keeping one with multiple foreign objects inside perfectly stable. He had to hurry.

He took the shortest path toward the jonin's table, and at the same time, used the chakra the original had given him to trigger all the explosive tags inside of him. Their detonation period was ten-seconds-long and he could feel the instability climbing as the tags neared detonation

He was two tables away from the jonin's table when the manager who had hired him stepped in front of him. He was dressed in a clean uniform and was frowning at him.

"What are you doing here?"

"Fuck off."

The manager stumbled when the clone pushed him away and desperately controlled himself to not crash into a guest's table.

The clone finally arrived at the jonin's table and stood a few inches away from the jonin, switching out the plate in front of him.

"Thank you," the jonin said as he glanced at him for a split-second and then returned to looking at the performance.

"Are you sure about that?" said the clone.

"Pardon? What was that?"

The jonin looked up at the clone having missed what the clone said but then looked at his glowing torso. He looked up at the clone with wide eyes, the horror only just beginning to dawn on his face. He immediately rose up to get away, but it was too late.

The clone whispered, "Vacation's over."

BOOM!

The two dozen heavy-duty explosive tags inside the clone's body exploded simultaneously and created a blast so intense it blew everything and anything near it across the room. The table, chairs, people, cutlery, food, decorations, floor tiles—everything—was hurled away from the sheer force created by the two dozen tags.

Not a single person in the hall room—the guests, staff, performers—was left unharmed. The people near the epicentre were ripped apart beyond any hope of recovery while those far from the splash zone sustained severe injuries.

When the noise of the explosion died... only screams filled with pain, fear, and horror remained.

———
.

In the same second, Takuma felt his clone die, the banquet hall was hit by severe tremors. All of the staff in the back screamed in fear when they felt the building shake. They would've thought it was a strong earthquake if not for the noise of the blast that scared everyone

He calmly got up and walked out of the building with the rest of the people who rushed as though their lives depended on it, pushing each other to be the first one out. And while they gawked at the building, he continued to walk and broke into a sprint when he was out of sight. He got away as fast as possible, not willing to risk coming into contact with any of the shinobi that would be at the location in a few minutes' time. If he got caught, he would have a fate worse than death.

He eventually stopped behind in a back alley he wasn't familiar with and leaned against a fence-wall. He had just massacred the city's elite to kill one jonin, a few chunin, and half a dozen genin. The enemy shinobi aside, he had killed the turncoats traitors who had betrayed their home and country—they were scum who deserved to die.

However… in doing so, he had sacrificed several innocent people who were simply in that banquet hall to earn a living for themselves and their families. They hadn't done anything wrong. Takuma's chest heaved as the consequences of actions hit him with full force. What had he done? Those people didn't deserve to die. Not even someone from the Hidden Steam would be justified to kill them.

'I killed a jonin.'

He had made the upcoming battle safer for the main forces which would most definitely save lives which would've been lost if that jonin was on the battlefield. A hundred thoughts populated his mind, trying to justify his actions so he could send away the horrendous feeling attacking his mind, body, and soul.

Takuma closed his eyes and suddenly all of the chaotic thoughts parted and a single memory took centrestage.

A tragedy of fire painted the scene as the screams and cried of innocent refugees filled the space. Men, women, elderly, and children, all begged and struggled for their lives as a team of shinobi razed the camp to the ground, massacring everyone without any mercy—all of it done in the name of sowing chaos in the heart of the enemy to gain an advantage.

The smiling face of a sweet little girl with a missing front tooth playing with her doll flashed past Takuma's mind and he felt something inside him break. He felt something coming up and bent down as a thick rush of fluid hurled out and splashed on the wall, twice. A sharp winy stench filled the cool air.

He staggered, nauseous, and squatted in the middle of the street with his face buried in his tucked knees. Breathless sobs echoed in the dark and empty street for a minute before they abruptly ended.

Takuma got up with a blank slate of an expression with dull eyes. His body trembled that he stopped by clenching his fist to wrestle back control of his body from his emotions.

"I… k-killed a jonin," he said to himself.

Even if the shinobi had somehow survived, which he doubted, one thing was for sure, when Yu was liberated, the power balance and social ladder of the city would go through a massive change...

...For he had plunged the city into chaos and from that dark night of chaos a bright future would emerge.

Four days remained until the main forces arrived at Yu.





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[Fiction]

Martial law was declared in the city and people were ordered to stay inside their homes and only leave if it was absolutely essential. Anyone wandering outside were subject to mandatory search and interrogations and even arrests if they were even slightly suspicious.

In Chinatsu's house, the entire team sat together with a sombre atmosphere bearing down on them. Even though the Hidden Frost shinobi were keeping an eye on them, it didn't mean that they were chained to the house. They had to keep up appearances and go about their days as usual—which meant finding new clients, meeting those clients, taking care of their regular needs.

They had found out what had happened last night—or at least, a part of it. There was no official news regarding the explosion that killed dozens upon dozens of people, and their source of information was a varying cluster of rumours floating around the city. They were calling it a terrorist attack that had killed many of the city's well respected and beloved people.

Of course, given the location of the blast—a high-end banquet hall—those people were neither well respected or beloved, but at the same time, there had to be staff that worked in the banquet hall who were also killed.

"He really blew them up?" Daiki gulped nervously.

"Why would he do that?" Kameko asked, her brows locked in a furrow.

The team couldn't be sure that it was Takuma behind it, but they had to assume so. After Motohiro's group had been arrested, the various resistance groups had gone silent in fear that they would be pulled in and were biding time until the heat subsided.

"We can't just assume it was him," said Iori, defending her youngest teammate.

Even though Takuma had been largely operating independently from the rest of the team, Anko was still their leader, and most things were pre-approved by her before they were executed. If Takuma was the one behind the blast; that plan wasn't approved by her. Gyon's murder wasn't approved either, but the team understood why he had done so, and that he needed autonomy when they were under surveillance—but killing so many people... it was hard to come to terms with that.

Killing came with the trade, but most shinobi didn't enjoy it—at least, not at first.

"The bosses won't be happy," Daiki commented.

Yu was a city in the Land of Hot Water, thus it came under the purview of the Hidden Steam, and even though Hidden Leaf was heading the mission, they couldn't just kill such a large amount of civilians even if they were turncoats who were helping the enemy—that duty and right belonged to the country's Daimyo and the Hidden Steam.Outsiders like them weren't supposed to overstep like that and there were real chances that Takuma and the team would get in trouble because of it.

"You're silent in all of this," Anko looked at Gaku sitting beside Chinatsu. "This is your city; don't you have any thoughts?"

Gaku stared at his lit cigarette; he hadn't taken a drag in a minute. He looked up at Anko and chuckled,

"As long as it benefits him when he returns home... he will do anything," recalling Takuma's words when they had gone to renew the prisoner seals.

Everyone was confused and when Anko asked him what he meant, Gaku remained silent and just smoked his cigarette.

"Let's worry about this after we have confirmed that it was him. It's useless to speculate when we don't know if it was him—and if it was him, then I believe there must've been a reason." Rikku walked away from the group and went up to the second floor.

Even though what she said was true, it didn't alleviate their worries one bit.

———
.

Rikku went to the room she shared with Kameko. It was small and felt claustrophobic when she was agitated—like she was now. She stood by her words of not judging Takuma before they had all the facts, but she was still nervous if it was true.

She couldn't help but think that the blast might be an act of revenge. Motohiro and his group were Takuma's contact that he developed, and they had been arrested because Gyon from the Kumi family had turned traitor. Rikku wondered if Takuma blamed himself for that. He had obviously punished Gyon, but what if he had taken revenge against the turncoats by blowing them up when they were enjoying their lives as the rest of the city suffered.

There was also the unspoken problem of the banquet hall staff that had died during the blast. She could tell that Anko didn't like that Takuma might have killed so many people, but Rikku didn't care about the traitorous turncoats, but the death of the blameless staff didn't sit well with her. If Takuma was indeed behind the blast, then she was of the opinion that he was in the wrong.

Fwip!

Rikku's instincts sharpened when she heard the familiar sound of a kunai and immediately hugged the wall to get away from the window where she was an open target.

She got ready to jump to the door so she could rush down to inform her team about the attack when she noticed the kunai embedded in her floor. Its handle was wrapped in cloth like they usually were, but she noticed that the cloth had black spots of ink. She considered that for a second and then crawled across the floor to grab the kunai before jumping back to the wall.

Unwrapping the wrap, she noticed that there was writing on the inside of the cloth. It was in code, so it took her a moment to decode and understand, but when she did, she walked down to the living room where the team was still discussing the explosion.

She stopped on the stair steps when she registered what she just read before rushing into the living room.

"He killed a jonin, four chunin, and seven genin," she announced.

The conversation died down and everyone looked at her.

"What?" asked Anko.

Rikku gave her the cloth wrap and Anko's lips parted in surprise as she read the words written by Takuma.

Anko gulped, "H-He killed a jonin? He killed a jonin.... He killed—!"

The room went silent before exploding into questions. Kameko got up and snatched the wrap to confirm for herself. They couldn't believe it even after they read it with their own eyes. Their source of information was gossip they had heard from others and in that gossip there was mention of shinobi being part of the dead was nowhere part of the gossip.

The death of a jonin changed everything. The team was sent to Yu with some expectations, but killing a jonin was nowhere in those expectations. That one jonin off the board was so big that the four chunin that he had killed weren't noticed.

The impact he made was so huge that if the entire team decided to duck out of the mission right now, it would still be considered a massive success.

But that wasn't the entire message from Takuma.

"What about his suggestion?" Iori asked.

At the end of his message, Takuma had suggested abandoning their cover and going into hiding because after his blast, the Hidden Frost shinobi would be picking up people who were even remotely suspicious—and the team was more than remotely suspicious. For their safety, it was better for them to go into hiding before they were arrested by the shinobi.

"I think we should go into hiding." Gaku looked at Chinatsu with a sombre look. "Your job is done; I think it's better if both of us go into hiding as soon as possible so I can keep you safe."

"Wait, both of you? You're planning to split up?" Kameko asked with a frown.

The entire team looked at Gaku because of that.

"Like Chinatsu, my job as your native contact is over. I'm going to take Chinatsu with me to hide somewhere safe none of you can find us," Gaku said as if stating the obvious. "We're going to only show up after the main forces invade the city and the dust settles—until then, it's going to be like we don't exist."

The team was taken aback because Yu was Gaku's hometown and he was refusing to fight for its freedom. They thought about their respective hometowns and they would've done anything to protect their home, so they thought that Gaku would be fighting with them.

"Don't give me that look," Gaku sneered at them. "I was pulled out of retirement. I'm not a shinobi anymore for a reason.... I'm not going to put my life in danger by participating in a full-on battle."

There was a silence in the room. They couldn't force Gaku to participate and even though it felt morally wrong, he was only brought in as their inside connect and not an active combatant. It was as he said: his job was done.

"Do you need any help?," Anko asked Gaku.

"I'll manage," Gaku smiled lightly.

"Very well," Anko stood up. "We leave in the evening—all of us."

After two months, they were going to shed their covers and return to their lives as shinobi.

———
.

Ebi was nursing a drink alone in his office when he heard a knock on the door. He looked up to see Kon at his door. Before he could send him away, Kon stepped into the office and settled down across from him on the table, sighed as he rubbed his shoulder.

"I'm not in the mood, tree hugger. If you value your life, leave this instant," Ebi said as he picked up his glass. He wasn't always sure where Kon was from; he had a few guesses that he shaved down from observing the man, but when he provided detailed information about 'Takuma'—it made him sure that Kon was from the Hidden Leaf.

Kon didn't move and even had the gall to smile. Ebi wanted to punch a hole in his face.

"Were you close to any of those shinobi?" he asked.

They hadn't known each other for long, but Kon hadn't seen Ebi drink once in that time. The jonin was a workaholic with absolutely no vice—or he had done a great job hiding them from him. Seeing him drink meant that he must've been affected to get intoxicated.

Ebi sighed. "The Hidden Frost is a small village. I don't know about the big villages, but for us—if you were a jonin, you knew other jonin because there aren't many of us in the first place. I wasn't his friend, but I knew him; we went on missions when we were chunin and even did a couple missions as jonin. Hell, he even invited me to his wedding... all three of them."

"Well... I can't relate. Don't have much experience with weddings," Kon chuckled.

Ebi put his glass down and his chakra flared. Kon froze up in his chair and clutched the armrests as he faced the jonin's full, blood-stained fury.

It was intense, but nothing he hadn't faced before.

"If you want me to put you out of your misery, just say it," Ebi rose up from his chair.

"I-It was him," Kon said, the killing intent making it difficult.

"Who?"

"Takuma."

"Again, how does that help me?" asked Ebi as he walked around the desk, increasing the bloodlust expressed through chakra, suffocating Kon.

"H-He k-killed a jonin. T-That was his true t-target." The muscles in Kon's neck flexed as he continued, "T-The Hidden Leaf is coming for the c-city, and they are coming soon-n."

That made Ebi stop; he pulled his blood lust back and glared down at Kon.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

Kon took a moment to catch his breath and comfortably slumped in the chair before continuing. "He took out a jonin and four genin—just in a day, your combat ability has taken a significant dive. I think the Hidden Leaf sent him to the city to weaken you from the inside and prepare you for the forces who will take the city back."

"You said: soon. Why do you say that?"

Kon raised his fingers one at a time. "He poisoned your shinobi.... Kidnapped two of your shinobi the next day.... Murdered one of the city's criminal big shots in his own home.... And now he took out the city's most powerful along with some powerful shinobi." A look of begrudging respect appeared on Kon's face. "Not only are the civilians fearful because of the blast and martial law—but your men are restless because one day they were ruling the city and in the next day, they lost a jonin and four chunin.

"They're scared—scared that they'll be abducted like Aranai and Ryoya and disappear, or die in a freak explosion. There's nothing you can do to remedy that. That guy has primed you guys to be an optimal target for an invasion."

"...How soon?"

Ebi had noticed how agitated his men were as they sifted through the debris in search of clues, wondering if the chunk of meat they found belonged to their fellow shinobi. He had to imagine everyone else was feeling the same.

"I'll give you less than a week."

Three days remained until the main forces arrived at Yu.





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[Fiction]

Takuma opened the door to Aranai's room, waking up the prisoner laying down on the dusty floor. It had been a few days since the torture and beatings had ended, giving Aranai the time to recover and he would've recovered faster if not for his chakra locked under the prisoner seal.

He was alone in the cell, Takuma having separated him and Ryoya before he left for the banquet hall—Takuma walked towards Aranai, forcibly putting an end to his spiralling thoughts. He nudged him with his foot.

"Wake up, it's time," said Takuma.

Aranai sat up with a groan and looked at him suspiciously.

Takuma took out a syringe loaded with the sleeping agent he had received from Iori when she had come to refresh the prisoner seals.

"What's that for?" asked Aranai.

"Well... I can't have you leaking our location, so we'll be transporting you while you're unconscious." He could've told them the truth now that he had the information, but he chose to continue the ruse about their being out of the city. "I'll leave you in front of the city council building; your people will pick you up from there."

Takuma knelt in front of Aranai and reached out for his arm only for him to struggle violently with a fearful crazed look on his face.

"You're lying, aren't you?"

Takuma didn't meet his eyes and grabbed his arm again, but he once again shook it off. "Let's not do this."

"You are lying... You never planned to let us leave alive," Aranai spoke barely above a whisper before opening his mouth to yell at the top of his lungs. "I-I DON'T WANT TO DIE! YOU'RE GOING TO KILL—!"

Takuma socked him in the face with an augmented punch, knocking him out, but not before his head slammed against the wall behind them, doing even more damage.

As he watched Aranai slump forward, he suddenly felt so incredibly tired, so much so that he didn't move for a couple minutes and stared into space. Eventually, he injected him with the sleeping agent, even as he struggled to push the plunger down.; his hands felt like they had no strength.

He laid down beside Aranai and mindlessly stared at the ceiling not wanting to move or think, finding everything too exhausting. He wanted to close his eyes and take a short nap to energise himself, and even closed them for a few seconds, but knew that if gave in, he wouldn't wake up for at least half a day.

So he got up and forced himself to wrap Aranai's torso in a thick cloth wrap, encasing him in a makeshift straightjacket. He then repeated the process with Ryoya, who had unfortunately heard Aranai's screams and was terrified. Takuma's patience had worn thin and he once again used excessive force to resolve the matter quickly.

He looked down at the two unconscious shinobi.

Aranai was right in thinking that he wasn't planning to let them go alive. It wasn't always going to be like that; there was value in keeping them alive and letting the jonin decide what to do with them.

However, after the events at the banquet hall, his plan was to incite chaos and their death would add to the already swirling pool. If the jonin had any issues with that, then there wasn't much they could do.

Inciting chaos was the reason Team-9 had been sent to Yu anyway.

———
.

Ebi didn't think he had made any big mistakes during his time in Yu.

Perhaps he had not done enough, but he hadn't made any explicit mistakes resulting in the deterioration of the mission. Sure, he assumed responsibility for everything that happened but not before pointing fingers at the other jonin who'd dumped all their responsibilities on his head.

But he had to admit, he had made a mistake by being passive in pursuing leads in Aranai and Ryoya's abduction and now, he had lost four more shinobi. The four genin surveilling Chinatsu, the courtesan, and her group were missing. He stood up on the roof of a house across from Chinatsu's house as the sun broke across the horizon.. The amount of blood on the roof told him that all of his surveillance team was dead. He didn't know when they were attacked, but when the other team arrived to relieve them of their shift duty, they found the blood and the team missing.

"Where are they?" he asked the chunin responsible for securing the area and collecting clues.

"...This is all we found, sir," the chunin said stiffly.

All they found was four sets of uniforms and gear belonging to the team; their bodies were missing.

"Why would they take their bodies? Are they alive? If so, why leave their clothes behind?" Ebi half-said to himself while also questioning the chunin.

"They are absolutely dead."

The one to answer was Kon standing on the other side of the roof.

"What makes you so sure?" Ebi asked as he walked to him.

"Look at this," Kon pointed at the blood stains on the floor. The stain was strange and looked like someone had dragged a body through blood, leaving a trail—but the trail was in a curved pattern.

"What is it?" Ebi asked, confused.

"These are snake trails," said Kon with a furrow between his brows.

"Snake trails?" Ebi looked at the blood trail and felt doubtful because the width of the trails were at least a foot wide and he didn't think there were snakes that big in the region. But then the realisation hit him and his blood went cold. "The snake summoning contract. Are you saying it's him?"

As a jonin, there weren't many people who he genuinely feared in the world. A lot of people thought of jonin as a monster—and they weren't wrong given the difference in power—but Ebi knew that he wasn't a monster.

Not when there were real monsters in the world—and the Snake Sannin was one of those monsters.

"It's not Orochimaru. We would probably already be dead if he was here," said Kon, displeased.

"Then who?"

"There's only one other person with the snake contract—his student, Mitarashi Anko.... She's in Yu, and she fed your shinobi to her snakes."

Ebi knew that Orochimaru had a student, but he wasn't aware of her name or her achievements. But seeing that she was his student, he could only guess that she wouldn't be a slouch.

"Is she a problem?" he asked.

"She holds the rank of chunin. She's strong, vicious, ruthless—everything you'd expect from the snake's student. You can take her in a fight, but that's not the problem," Kon placed a hand on his shoulder as he rolled it. "The problem is your two abducted shinobi. She would've wrung out all the information out of them—and that's a big problem."

"The surveillance reports don't show any suspicious activity," said Ebi.

"She could've deceived them. We can't rule that out."

Ebi tapped his feet. He had to assume Aranai and Ryoya gave up information, meaning they were at an immediate disadvantage. The enemy would come prepared for the personnel they had in the city but also plan for the strategies and operating procedures they had established to combat attacks.

Moreover, they had also lost a jonin and four chunin—and he knew that he wouldn't be getting a jonin replacement despite sending a report back to the Hidden Frost the day before. Even if they sent more chunin and genin, they would barely arrive in time according to Kon's estimate for the impending attack.

The silver lining was that the jonin's death had finally woken up the forces and all the jonin and chunin were finally preparing their teams. Ebi had even given the order to update their strategies to make up for the troops they had lost to the blast—but if the enemy had their plans, he wondered if those updates would be useful. They would have to change everything drastically, but those things took time to not only plan but also implement.

They had no time—and that made it, as Kon said, a big problem.

As Ebi wrapped his head around the situation and thought of short-term solutions, a genin not part of the team handling the scene rushed to the roof.

"Sir!"

"What?" asked Ebi. He could tell that it wasn't good news.

"The bodies of Chunin Aranai and Genin Ryoya were just found hanging in front of the city council building."

———
.

When Takuma entered the factory base, he felt a wave of emotions well up inside of him when he saw the team sitting on the dirty couch and chairs, locked in a serious discussion. It hadn't been that long since he had seen them—he had seen Iori just a few days ago—but seeing them all together brought up a sense of comfort that he desperately needed.

He clenched his fist and dug his nails into his palm to control himself from tearing up and then took a few deep and long breaths before stepping out of the shadow.

"Where are Chinatsu and Gaku?" he asked as he announced his presence.

"Oh thank god, you're safe," Iori jumped from the chair and enveloped him in a hug.

Takuma leaned into the hug and embraced her back.

"...It's great to see you as well," he said and wanted to smile but couldn't muster one. "All of you as well," he nodded to everyone else. "So what about the other two?"

"They bounced and will stay hidden until everything is over," said Anko. She had been dressing in clothes suitable for a handmaiden, but now with that over, she quickly reverted back to her normal hairstyle and now only wore a sports bra and short pants as she sat with her feet up on a table. Everyone else too had changed into their comfort clothing

"Of course he did," said Takuma with a groan, slumping into the couch beside Rikku and half-leaning against her small frame. "He's a piece of hot garbage."

"What about Aranai and Ryoya?" asked Kameko.

"I killed them," said Takuma flatly. "Hanged them up in front of the city council building, and then slit their throats." To be quick and safe, he had created two water clones to do the job, using a significant amount of chakra; he was more exhausted than ever, he had a fever, and his muscles felt like lead.

"We killed the shinobi keeping an eye on us."

"Anko fed them to her snakes," said Rikku.

"That's great. Six shinobi found dead in two different spots, that's a massive blow." Takuma then looked at Anko. "Gnarly. That must've helped with making up for the snakes."

"It did. I just might be able to summon a big one to help me in the battle."

"That's good..."

A quietness snuck into the base as the team stared at Takuma, who was blinking down at the floor until he noticed everyone had gone silent. He looked up and was surprised to see everyone looking at him.

"What?"

"Do you want to talk about the blast?" Daiki asked.

Takuma stiffened and leaned away from Rikku as he felt the eyes on him. He then noticed that he was simply curious and realised that he was overthinking it.

"What do you want to know?"

"How did you do it?" asked Kameko.

"Got myself a dishwashing job at the banquet hall. Inserted the waterproof explosive tag into a water clone, dressed him as a waiter, and then sent him right next to the jonin to blow himself up. The people there were rich and powerful, and none of them saw a lowly waiter as a threat."

He noticed that they wanted to talk more about what he had done but didn't want to talk and was about to switch the topic to their experience when Anko interrupted,

Takuma, I want to talk to you alone.

He got up and followed her to the other side of the factory base. "Is this about the blast?" he asked. Seeing that she had taken him away from the team, he guessed that she wasn't happy with him and didn't want to scold him in front of the team.

"Of course, it's about that!" Anko's voice was sharp, her expression stern. She had a deep frown on her face. "Do you realise what you did?"

"I killed a jonin," said Takuma stiffly as though repeating a mantra to fortify his mind.

"You blew up dozens of civilians! That's what you did," Anko raised her voice. "Do you know much of a mess this might lead to? The Hidden Steam will make a huge stink out of this. This could reach the Hokage and Fire Daimyo, and all of us will be screwed if the tiles fall on the wrong side."

"They were traitors; they deserved to die," Takuma said in his defence.

"Really? You want to justify it like that?" Anko stared down at him with a hard look. "What about the staff? Did they deserve to die? Was simply working in that hall to put food for their families made them traitors?"

The screams of terror echoed in his head. Takuma grabbed the bridge of his nose and turned his head away slightly as he said, "They were unfortunate collateral damage. There was no better place to take out a jonin than that banquet hall. Most of the staff was in the back of the house; they were safe."

"That was not your choice to make!" said Anko, the look of anger worsening. He hadn't seen her this angry ever, not even when she was mistreated by Toridasu. "We are not Hidden Steam shinobi. This is not our country. We are outsiders with limited operational freedom. A few people here and there are understood and thus covered—but blowing up a banquet hall and sacrificing civilians is not something you can do! It's not something any of us—even me—can do!"

She began to pace around with her hands in her hair. He could hear her taking deep breaths out of anger to calm down. She continued, "Yes, I gave you the autonomy to operate; you are allowed plenty of freedom. But you should've known better, Takuma."

"I have saved lives," Takuma said in his defence but couldn't meet her eyes. "It was our mission to weaken the enemy; I just did my mission. I have made the attack on the city safer for the main forces by taking out the jonin and the four chunin. I have made sure that after the city is freed, the good people of Yu will be in control of their homes instead of those turncoat traitors!" His volume rose, and his tone became harsher as he defended himself. He had to justify his actions because he didn't want to accept any other scenario where he hadn't done good.

When Anko didn't reply, he looked up to see that the anger had disappeared, replaced with a muted look of disappointment, which somehow hit much deeper. He clenched his fist as his heart thumped louder.

Don't look at me like that, he thought. Go back to being angry.

"We are shinobi of the Hidden Leaf from the Land of Fire," she said, her voice much calmer—no flatter—than before. "The rules of engagement between civilians and shinobi have long been established. Not to mention this is the Land of Hot Waters; we are outsiders—we can't make judgments like the one you made. The people of this country deserve to deal with the people you call traitors on their own; that's their right—you took it away from them. If someone else did what you did in the Land of Fire, the Hidden Leaf would've considered it an insult to the entire nation, even if it was one of our allies."

Takuma knew that. He knew all of that. He had simply chosen to ignore all of it so that he could hurt the enemy in the worst way possible. Taking away a jonin was the way to send fear into the hearts of the enemy who were abusing the lives of the people in the city.

"I'll be honest; I don't think you'll be punished," said Anko with a sigh. "I don't really care about the turncoats; they're dead—that's it. I care about the staff, but I don't think the people up the chain will care because you killed a jonin, and unlike us, they aren't here in this city to see what it's like for the people. As you said, you did your mission and made it safer for the main forces... I just don't like the way you did. The fault also lies with me because it only happened because I gave you the autonomy... If things do go wrong for us, don't worry, I'll take my share of the responsibility."

Anko shook her head and then turned to walk away, leaving Takuma alone to deal with what he had been thinking all along and was now thrown more bluntly than he had expected.

Two days remained until the main forces arrived at Yu.





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[Fiction]

Halfway between Camp Banana and the Spring City of Yu, there was a temporary base with more than a couple hundred shinobi where Camp Banana's troops had stopped on their journey to recapture Yu.

It had been a day since the troops at Camp Banana had left. They had only received information from the precursor team that had infiltrated the city a week ago but the quality and quantity of intelligence was impressive and made up for how long it had taken to be delivered.

Inside a tent built in the middle of the base, Jonin Shirakumo of the Hidden Leaf stood in front of a large, circular table where a map of Yu and the surrounding area was spread out and pinned down.

"The walls of the city were constructed with specialised Earth nature ninjutsu, making them incredibly durable." He traced a wooden pointer on the thick dark walls highlighted on the map. "The plan was to create two openings in the wall and breach the city with a two-pronged approach. However, it seems that won't be possible anymore," he said looking at the three Hidden Steam shinobi around the table.

Camp Banana didn't have enough manpower to take back the city. According to the reports, there were five jonin in Yu, while they only had two. The Hidden Steam had allotted their own shinobi to supplement their numbers, bringing them up to a matching five jonin along with an appropriate number of chunin and genin.

The Hidden Steam were heavily invested in liberating Yu because the three jonin they were sending wasn't a number to scoff at for a small village like the Hidden Steam. It made sense from an economical standpoint. There were three cities including Yu that were captured by the enemy and all of those cities fell in an area that produced a considerable amount of food for the country, and those captured cities allowed the enemy to have a chokehold on that region.

"Obviously not," one of the Hidden Steam jonin replied. "Those walls have protected the city for decades and it would take millions to fix them if you blew two massive holes into them.."

"You don't have to. I'm more than happy to do it on my own," said Jonin Toridasu of the Hidden Leaf. He was the only one sitting down, fanning himself leisurely.

Before the Hidden Steam jonin could say anything in response—or Toridasu could make things worse with a quip—Shirakumo snapped the chain of conversation. "We understand, which is why we're going to breach the city through the front gates—destroying the gates instead. Jonin Toridasu will lead and create that opening."

"That much is fine," said the Hidden Steam jonin while giving Toridasu a partially hidden displeased look.

"With pleasure," said Toridasu with a simple smile to the Hidden Steam jonin.

The only reason there wasn't a bigger commotion was because of Toridasu's age. He was the most senior among them, and while age didn't connote ability and competency, an old man still being around in a young man's game meant that he had survived more than everyone else, and was something to be respected.

Shirakumo moved the conversation along swiftly,

"We're going to push forth into the city aggressively. Our main priority is to drive the enemy out. I can't stress this enough but we have to be fast and heavy-handed. There's no telling what the enemy might do when they realise that they're not going to win—they might burn the city down just so that there's nothing to recover—we want to put so much pressure that they have no time to do anything besides run away."

He continued, "Our next focus will be to occupy and save key strategic points inside the city." There were points in the city map that were highlighted. "The major streets, the city centre, the grain stockpiles, the electric plant, the water treatment system. We want to occupy all of these essentials to ensure that after everything is over, the city is able to function normally."

They had been planning the recapture before they had received the information from the team inside Yu. Each chunin team was given specific assignments that had gone through modifications after receiving the updated information so the level of preparation was on another level to the Gojiro Gold Mines operation.

"Please convey the information to your men. We cannot afford to make mistakes," said Shirakumo after a forty minute long discussion where he communicated everything with the Hidden Steam side.

When the Hidden Steam side left the tent, he dismissed the chunin, leaving himself alone with Toridasu.

"Why can't you be professional for once?" he asked. "There was no need to rile him up."

"You can learn a lot from how a man responds with annoyances and challenges to his authority," said Toridasu, smiling.

"So you do admit that you were being annoying?" Shirakumo wanted to sigh deeply, but he had been working with Toridasu long enough to get used to his behaviour. "You recognise the tension between our two parties, so why were you fanning the flames?"

From the day they had met, Camp Banana's Hidden Leaf troops and the Hidden Steam had been at odds with each other; there was a muted strain between the two parties that hadn't been resolved.

The Hidden Leaf considered the Hidden Steam shinobi to inferior because of the saying that the Great Five villages produced shinobi at a level higher than the others—while the Hidden Steam side thought that the Hidden Leaf shinobi weren't as invested and serious about liberating and saving the citizens of Yu and were only doing it because they were being paid.

A few fights disguised as spars had broken out in the time they had been together and despite his best attempts, Shirakumo hadn't been able to resolve the tension. Toridasu had been of no help and while the Hidden Steam jonin tried to smoothen things out, they didn't seem to be as supportive as he had expected them to be.

"You're giving this too much importance. When the time comes, all of them will fall into line," said Toridasu as he stood up. There was a deep intelligence behind his eyes as he studied the map. "All trivial matters crumble under the face of danger. Until then, this will serve as motivation. I can't make everyone on our side care about a foreign city and its people—so it's better to attack their egos and have them work hard to show that they're the best in the world. There's not enough time to have the Hidden Steam shinobi change their views and fix their inferiority complex—

"There you go again," Shirakumo sighed.

"—so it's better to light a fire under them to prove that they're not second rate." Toridasu looked up at Shirakumo and smiled, "And once they fight together, face a common enemy together, shed blood together—all of this animosity will be replaced by mutual respect. So let the tension brew, stir the pot I say."

Shirakumo would never have motivated his troops that way but he couldn't also stop Toridasu .

"Do you think Mitarashi's team caused some real damage since they handed in the report?" asked Toridasu as he stepped around Shirakumo to the other side of the table to get a better look of the map. "Or do you think they went into hiding?"

The report was mostly intelligence about the enemy, but the precursor team had briefly included information about their intelligence source and knew that the enemy forces were looking for the shinobi the team had kidnapped. While they had made some waves in the city, the enemy forces were more or less intact.

"Given that they're under suspicion, I believe they won't have much choice than to stay hidden and safe, but knowing Chunin Mitarashi, I believe she'd try something," Shirakumo garnered a guess. "If they kill their hostages and the surveillance team, they'd have done some damage. Genin Takuma himself is not under surveillance and I believe he's capable of taking out a few genin without putting himself in danger."

"As long as they can get rid of another chunin or two, I'll say they did a great job."

———
.

Back in Yu, Ebi had ordered everyone to adjust their plans and strategies to make up for the missing jonin. He had officially sounded an emergency alert and communicated to all the other jonin to prepare for an attack on the city.

All the shinobi had started working hard to shed the haze of drugs and alcohol, burn the weight they had put on during their leisure time, and work themselves back into top shape. Of course, it was too late to start, but at least they were alert now, and that was all Ebi could ask for.

"We are going to strengthen the walls on the southern side in anticipation of the attack," Ebi addressed the other jonin in the war room, "leaving the northern side minimally occupied.... My team has worked on a revised set of strategic locations and all teams are going to adjust accordingly. We are going to front load the density toward the south."

As Ebi was explaining the adjustments, one of the Hidden Cloud jonin interrupted quite rudely,

"I've been meaning to ask, but why are you in charge?"

Ebi leaned against the table with his hand and hung his head for a moment before looking at the Hidden Cloud jonin with almost unbridled anger.

"I'm in charge because your sorry ass was having the time of your life while my men were getting kidnapped and killed. I'm in charge because I'm the reason why we're still exporting produce out of the city. If I wasn't in charge, this city would've been ruined long ago!" Ebi yelled with a vein popping on his forehead. "So shut the fuck up and do as you're told!"

"Or what? What are you going to do?" The Hidden Cloud jonin bit back, ready to start a fight, but was immediately pulled aside by the other Hidden Cloud jonin who noticed the tension in the room and how the Frost and Cloud shinobi were looking at each other.

"Alright. We'll follow your lead. Please continue," said the other Hidden Cloud jonin, understanding the severity of the situation if a fight broke out.

Ebi glared at the Hidden Cloud side for an extended moment before taking a deep breath to calm himself.

"...As I was saying, I want to front load the troops in the city near the southern walls because in the very likely case that the enemy gets past the walls, I want to trap them between those manning the wall and the troops on the ground. That way, they won't penetrate too deeply into the city."

There was a knock on the door that made everyone turn in. A sweating, nerve struck Hidden Frost genin stepped into the room under the gaze of four jonin and stood there in an uncomfortable rigid attention.

"What is it?" asked Ebi, doing his best to keep his voice welcoming enough.

He was familiar with the genin and knew he wouldn't disturb an important meeting without reason.

"S-Sir, we received a report from our advanced scouts." The genin gulped, "There's an... an army advancing in our direction."

While Ebi was taken aback, the other jonin looked reassured as they now knew they wouldn't be taken by surprise and could start preparing for a defence. Ebi, who was deeply involved, knew something was wrong. Just two days ago, Kon had told him that he probably had a week until the city was attacked—which was already too limited.

But Ebi had read previous reports from the advanced scouts so he knew their rough positions.

"How long.... How long until they're here?" he asked.

The genin bowed his head as though what he was about to say was his fault. "A little under a day, sir."

The reassurance the jonin had felt immediately shattered as they realised that they had no time before they were going to defend against an attack.

Less than a day remained until the main forces arrived at Yu.






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[Fiction]

I was asked to make a separate post with all the fan art I've received, and forgot about it for months.
I'm sorry about that.
Here is it:




INCRAZE​

KODAH











OZLYK
​

JIM.EL​

 

[Fiction]

When Kon arrived at Ebi's office, he walked in on the man having a late dinner.

"Any clues about the intruders?" Ebi asked immediately, dismissing all formalities and talking through a mouthful of food. With the news that an entire shinobi army was marching towards the city, he wasn't in the mood for anything but the direct.

"Unfortunately no," Kon replied as he sat opposite to Ebi on a long table. One of the servants proceeded to set a plate for him but Ebi stopped them. Kon pursed his lips but didn't comment. "No one has come forward with any information and they've done a great job of keeping themselves independent. We caught both of their connections in Yu and neither of them knew anything about the intruders. That Gaku really must've had some pull for everyone to be involved with an outsider they knew absolutely nothing about."

For people to trust each other, both sides needed to have skin in the game, so that if one side decided to screw the other side, they couldn't just get away with it scot free. That kind of thing kept both sides honest.

"So you are completely and utterly useless," said Ebi.

That stung where Kon didn't want to admit. He had been looking for Takuma ever since their meeting, but he hadn't been able to get any clue about it. Just like Ebi, he regretted not going after the courtesan, but he had looked into them separately and nothing strange popped out.

"Unfortunately, they have played it smar—"

"You weren't able to find people inside a city we control."

The servants tried to lighten their presence as Ebi didn't mince his words while casually eating his meal. Kon stared silently at Ebi, hiding the coldness in his eyes that still came across as displeased. Ebi looked up at him as he slowly chewed his meat and looked like he was inviting Kon to say something.

"...There are only ten hours until the guests arrive. I wish you the best of luck for tomorrow," said Kon with a plastic smile.

Kon and his team weren't part of the forces and were technically only 'consultants' and weren't responsible for protecting the city against the attack.

Ebi hummed. But when Kon stood up to leave, he spoke again,

"You better not leave the city, Kon. You're still on the job. After we defend the city, you're going to go right back to doing what you've been doing until now."

Kon turned to look back at Ebi. He smiled, "Of course, that goes without saying."

That was the only acceptable response Kon could've given. If he tried to leave the city, or even hinted at it, that would send the message that he thought that they would lose the city in the upcoming battle. Kon could see Ebi's mood worsening by the minute and felt that his life would certainly be in danger if he said anything else.

Seeing how direct Ebi was with his words, Kon was sure that he and his team were being watched and that Ebi would immediately crack down on him if he tried to leave the city. Unfortunately for Ebi, he was indeed going to leave the city and there was nothing Ebi could do about it because he and his team would be leaving the moment the city was attacked when everyone would be too busy to stop him.

The truth was, he didn't believe that Ebi would be able to defend the city and seeing that Takuma was in the city, and that his face was plastered on every street, Kon was sure that the Hidden Leaf would know about his presence.

And if they knew, the ANBU might be accompanying the forces coming for the city. Not getting caught by ANBU had a higher priority than the mission, even if it meant abandoning said mission.

———
.

The factory base was abuzz with a quiet energy as the team prepared for upcoming combat. Everyone performed maintenance on gear that they hadn't used much in the past two months, double-checking every minute aspect to ensure nothing would malfunction. The inventory they had come up with and had largely remained packed was opened up and divided according to their needs.

Iori, the busiest of them all, had been churning out tags since she stepped into the base. Daiki busied himself by putting together smoke bombs. Rikku spent her time walking around the building, keeping to herself, while Kameko hadn't moved from the couch as she hugged her sword close to her.

They had spent two months in close quarters, having no independent time to themselves, and now that had ended, they elected to spend their time alone—and if not for Anko going around talking to each of them, they wouldn't have said a word to each other.

Takuma, however, spent most of his time sleeping. His gear was long ready as it had been used regularly and he had kept it in top condition. There was tension among the group and the source of it was Takuma's bombing. Daiki and Iori didn't think he was in the wrong as he had killed a jonin and a few chunin and most people who died were turncoats. Whereas, Rikku, Kameko, and Anko thought he had overstepped his bounds despite the positive results.

The team, however, didn't argue or even discuss it. They understood that they were about to engage in dangerous combat and it would be bad for the team to be split for any reason. They put the topic on pause and moved on, focusing on what truly mattered in the moment.

"Gather up!" Anko announced.

The team who were in their own corners gathered around the sheet-metal table in the centre.

"I think it's safe to say that we have completed our original mission," Anko addressed the team. "We managed to send intelligence back to the camp and spread some chaos by weakening the enemy." Everyone glanced at Takuma who stared down at the table. "However, our mission isn't complete yet.... We have to take care of the people who targeted Takuma."

The team had been made aware of ROOT's existence and were given an additional responsibility to capture them if possible. The orders from the village were to make ROOT the team's highest priority; whereas, Toridasu and Shirakumo had told them to only engage with the additional responsibility if it didn't interfere with their mission.

Anko had elected to go with Camp Banana's version of order as that aligned with their original mission and that's what they prepared for.

"Seeing that ANBU hasn't shown up already, or if they have, they haven't made contact with us, I'm going to assume that they aren't in the city. I've decided that we're going to attempt to capture the ROOT team."

The haze of sleep lifted from Takuma's eyes and his body straightened as he paid full attention to the topic at hand. ROOT was a personal matter for him—more personal than the team knew as while they knew about what had happened while he was in the Police Force, he didn't know the other thing.

"We know their location, we know their numbers, but we don't have much information other than that," she continued. "That makes the situation uncertain, so we'll have to approach this situation differently. As we don't know what we might be going into, I propose that instead of trying to capture all of them, we aim to abduct one or two targets in a quick in-and-out attack."

Despite being aware of their existence, not much was known about the ROOT team. Takuma had stayed away from the part of the city where the shinobi resided and the ROOT's base was laid in that area. He had fought against them, and even managed to kill one, but it was risky to assess their combat capabilities off of that.

"We target them when the main forces knock on the door. It'll be chaos and the enemy forces will be occupied, creating a prime space of window for us to attack without worrying about getting outnumbered and surrounded. We operate aggressively and capture ideally two people alive. That would satisfy ANBU," said Anko.

"We should aim for Kon, the leader. He was confident to strut about without a mask, so he must be someone important. He'd have the most information," said Takuma.

The team looked at Takuma, internally wondering if those words were emotionally motivated as Kon had tried to kill Takuma. However, it was the truth that the leader of the group would be the prime target. But the team didn't have a handle on their target's strength, which made targeting the leader the highest risk proposition.

Anko gave Takuma a look. She said, "We take whatever we get our hands on. The moment we successfully catch two, we immediately leave. We will directly go to the main force's base outside the city. Now, because we are going to do it at the time of the city attack, one of us is going to not participate so that they can inform the main forces about the dead jonin so they don't waste their time and be more aggressive with their attack.

"Iori you'll be that person," said Anko.

It didn't need to be said, but Iori was the weakest among the group. And seeing that they weren't sure about their situation, she'd be the safest if she wasn't participating.

"Understood," Iori nodded.

"We leave in a few hours," Anko continued. "We'll be on their tail until it's time to strike. They're ROOT, so they might not participate in the defence. If they try to leave the city, we nab them before they get a chance to do so. Let's get this done and end this mission."






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[Fiction]

The team stalked their way into a manor that was confirmed as the residence of the ROOT team in the dead of night. Despite their timing, getting into the mansion was a struggle because of the city-wide lockdown. There were hyper-vigilant shinobi stationed at every street corner and building in preparation for the upcoming invasion.

Some parts of the city were practically abandoned because the civilians had been evacuated out of their homes and forced to move to the far side of the village—as far away from the side which would be attacked—to keep them safe from getting caught in the crossfire. With the number of shinobi involved, there would be considerable property damage regardless of both side's desire to minimise damage.

The lights in hallways had been on since before the sun completely set and had remained lit even after midnight.

"There is someone keeping an eye on the mansion," Daiki whispered into the wireless comms.

He noticed two shinobi hiding in the shadows, stalking the mansion just like they were doing. They were far apart from each other, covering different vantage points. He spotted them when he had taken a round of the property to get a better feel for their surroundings.

"Only two?" Anko asked through the comms.

"I only noticed two."

"Should we get rid of them?" asked Kameko.

"Let's wait and observe for now." Anko paused for a moment. "It seems like the Hidden Frost doesn't trust them and are having them monitored. They might be a problem when we go in; we will have to take care of them. Team A will take the one on the right; Team B takes the other one."

The team had split themselves into two parties. Anko and Daiki were on Team A. Takuma, Rikku, and Kameko were on Team B. Iori was near the front gates of the city so she could quickly rush to deliver the information.

———
.

Inside the manor, Kon and his team were getting to leave. Their house staff had been sent away to evacuate with the rest of the civilian population. His team had been going through the building with a fine-toothed comb to erase all and every trace of their existence. It was standard procedure when an ANBU team needed to disappear from a location they had been residing in.

"Sir, we've detected a few individuals on the property."

Kon was packing up his belongings when his subordinate came in with the information that he was expecting.

"How many?" he asked.

"Five individuals. Two of them are alone on either side of the building and there's a group of three."

"Five? That's more than a lot."

With an invading force nearly on their doors, Ebi would need every man to mount a proper defence. Putting five men to monitor him was wasting his resources, and Kon didn't consider Ebi to be a man of emotion who would make such a decision just because he didn't like him. And yet he couldn't deny that there were five men on the property.

"Well, putting any men on us was foolish to begin with. It's not like they can stop us," said Kon as he looked at the large property out of the window.

He had brought six people with him to Yu. One of them had died during their ambush of Takuma, which left five people. Two of them could easily contest against a combat-focused chunin while the other three were more than any average genin handle. Even if Ebi had put five men on him, there was no way they could match his team's firepower. The moment the Hidden Leaf hit the city, he and his team would be free to leave.

"Should we take care of them, sir?"

"Leave them be, there's no benefit in getting rid of them. But if they overstep their bounds...."

Kon gave his subordinate a look who nodded before leaving.

———
.

Yumi was a Hidden Frost genin stationed at the corridors on city walls. She clutched her bo-staff nervously as she looked out towards the landscape outside the city in front of her. Everyone had been told that the city would be attacked today and given that she was at the wall, she was part of the first line of defence.

She had ground experience with shinobi combat, but this was going to be unlike anything she had ever faced. An entire army of shinobi would be attacking the city and she was at the forefront. Even if she was ordered to fallback for any reason or wanted to desert, she was at the furthest point and would need to travel a long distance rife with danger if she wanted to escape.

She touched the thick walls that protected the city; it was made by shinobi and provided her with some sense of security—and she was above ground, which put some distance between her and the invaders.. Moreover, two of four jonin were also stationed on the wall, which was the biggest protection she could ask for.

"H-Hey, I s-see something."

Someone fifteen metres away shouted as he looked out with a fearful expression on her face.

The landscape outside Yu was flat greenland. There were trees, but they weren't dense enough to cover the entire land, leaving no way to hide while approaching the city. Yumi widened her eyes as she leaned against the ledge and squinted. That's when she saw a huge crowd of shinobi dressed in Hidden Steam red running towards the city.

"T-They're here," she stuttered and then shouted, "Sound the alarms!"

A few seconds later, loud and harsh bells were ringing to announce the arrival of the enemy.

———
.

Outside Yu, the shinobi of Camp Banana and the Hidden Steam's forces laid their eyes on tall walls that protected the city. They were all dressed in Hidden Steam colours and were moving in formation towards the city. After six hours, they had finally arrived at their destination and the tension was palpable.

The chunin had begun their final go-throughs with their teams. Shirakumo was in the front of the forces and was preparing internally to give a speech to motivate the forces when one of the genin manning a radio ran up to him.

"Sir, we have a message."

The genin held up the speaker of his radio pack on his back and a familiar voice crackled,

"This is Genin Iori serving under Chunin Anko as part of the precursor mission. Reply if you're picking up this frequency. Over!"

Shirakumo recalled the fuin-nin part of Anko's team and gave a nod to the genin to reply.

"We can hear you, Genin Iori. Please proceed. Over."

Iori's urgent voice sounded out from the speaker."Thank god! I thought I was doing something wrong. I have critical information regarding the enemy—"

Shirakumo thought something had gone wrong and they would need to make some urgent last-minute adjustment when Iori dropped a bomb he wasn't expecting.

"—In the time since we sent our final report, we managed to assassinate a jonin and four chunin. The enemy has been unable to replace them, and are thus weaker. Please make suitable adjustments as the enemy is now weaker than what we previously reported. Over."

There were quite a few people around Shirakumo who could hear Iori's words, and they all looked at each other in shock. The precursor team had managed to kill... a jonin? It was utterly unbelievable as even if the entire team banded together, they wouldn't stand a chance against a jonin.

Shirakumo took the radio receiver from the genin and paused for a moment to gather his thoughts before speaking, "This is Jonin Shirakumo. Can you confirm that you just said that you killed one of the jonin... Over."

Iori's response came almost immediately, "Yes, sir! The jonin was killed in an explosion at a gathering. The death was confirmed! Over."

"... Understood. Good job, Genin Iori. Over," said Shirakumo. He looked at the genin as he handed the receiver back. "Contact Jonin Toridasu—Forget it, I'll go to him directly."

Shirakumo leapt across dozens of people and landed right in front of Toridasu who had a sheen of sweat on him.

"Did you hear?" Shirakumo asked.

"Yes," Toridasu nodded as he practised cyclic breathing. "Do you need my help?"

They had five jonin against their four jonin. They were evenly matched before, but now Toridasu's assignment was dead, leaving him free to help other jonin in their fights. It was such a massive game-changer that it more than covered up for the enemy's advantage of being behind walls and having a better strategic position.

"No, don't help any of us. Instead support our troops."

Toridasu looked at Shirakumo for the first time and raised his eyebrow.

Shirakumo continued, "Clear out the enemy chunin and genin. Kill as many as possible, as quickly as possible. Even if their jonin are somehow able to push us back, they won't be able to hold the city because they won't have the foot soldiers necessary."

Killing the enemy jonin would also mean freeing the city, but Shirakumo was thinking about the safety of his own people. If they had Toridasu supporting them, not only would the casualties on their side be much lower, it would pressure the enemy jonin to flee as without their troops, they wouldn't be able to control the city even if they somehow were able to push them out.

Jonin were much more durable and were hard to kill—their fights lasted longer— and as long as the jonin were fighting, the genin and chunin would continue to fight as there was always a chance as long as the jonin were alive. But as the troops held hope for that, casualties from both sides would continue to rise.

Shirakumo did not want that to happen; he would rather protect his troops than take out enemy jonin.

Moreover, the mission wasn't to kill the jonin and weaken the enemy; it was to take back the city.

"You are soft," said Toridasu, making Shirakumo frown, "but... this is not the Land of Fire, and I'll take care of my men when they're far away from their home."

Shirakumo breathed a sigh of relief. Toridasu could've rejected his idea and imposed his own will, but he was relieved that Toridasu was cooperating.

"I'm ready," Toridasu said as he removed his haori and threw it to a nearby genin. "Time to invade a city."

———
.

Takuma had been sitting cross-legged behind a hedge with his eyes closed for the better part of an hour when the sound of sonorous bells reached his ear. He opened his eyes and looked in the direction of city gates.

"It's started, they're here," Takuma said in the comms.

"What?" said Kameko, who was ten metres away from him.

Kameko and Rikku were positioned on either side of him, ten metres away from him. He removed his earphones and pointed to the sky, asking them to hear the faint bells—but before either one of them could follow up his instructions, Anko spoke up through the comms.

"We're going to be active in sixty seconds. Kill the Hidden Frost shinobi on your side as quietly as possible before proceeding towards the manor. Over."

All of them did a quick equipment check and got ready to fight. Before they packed away their comms as they would get in the way, Takuma announced to Rikku and Kameko, "I'll take care of the Hidden Frost shinobi. Just follow me."

Both of them looked at him for a moment and made a quick decision as the seconds ran down.

"Okay," said Kameko.

As Anko started the ten second countdown, Takuma put the Hidden Frost shinobi in his sights. He imagined a mask over his face and the phantom feel of his warm breath against his skin—it was comforting and blocked out unnecessary thoughts and allowed him to focus on what was in front of him. He could see the shinobi's back, who had no idea that he was behind him. It was a common phenomenon—people who watched a place lost sight of their own surroundings as they were focused on their target.

"3...2...1... Go! Go! Go!"

Takuma ducked out from the bush hedge and ran towards the shinobi to close the distance between them as Rikku and Kameko followed behind him.

He raised his hands and weaved hand seals.

Earth Release: Hiding in the Rock Jutsu

Rikku and Kameko were surprised when he disappeared into the ground without a warning.

He was gone for a full four seconds, but then he emerged a couple steps behind the Hidden Frost shinobi, who heard him appear behind and turned back—but it was too late as Takuma pulled the shinobi's head towards his chest while covering the mouth with the hand and then slit the throat with a kunai before quickly following up with a stab at the heart.

It was all so quick that by the time Rikku and Kameko arrived, the shinobi was long dead.

"Let's keep moving."

———
.

Inside the manor, everything was packed up and the ROOT team was ready to leave when the bells announcing the arrival of the enemy forces went off. Kon and three of his men were sitting in a room while the other two were keeping an eye on the two Hidden Frost shinobi who were monitoring the manor.

"Should we move out, sir?" asked one of Kon's subordinates.

"Yes, we should," Kon replied, sighing.

Objectively speaking, the mission to convert Yu to the Land of Frost's side couldn't be seen as success. He and his team had done a great job at the start to develop feelings of displeasure and abandonment towards the Land of Hot Water, all the while slowly making them comfortable towards the idea of joining the Land of Frost. It was tough when the shinobi supporting the Goharu Family were acting like tyrants, but he had managed to work with what he was given.

Things only went south when the damned Takuma entered the situation.

Kon clicked his tongue.

Even though the cockroach hadn't shown up much during his time in the city, his impact had been huge. He had spread too much chaos, disrupting the lives of civilians, and causing them to feel less secure under the new rule. The amount of damage he had done in the short amount of time had rolled back a significant amount of his progress.

It had taken a long time to build that positive image. Takuma's arrival and meddling destroyed the vast majority of that work. However Kon wasn't worried that this mission would reflect harshly on him. With the Hidden Leaf forces invading the city to take it back for the Hidden Frost, it didn't matter how he did. He could spin the narrative in his support—that he did his work properly at high competence, but the Hidden Frost forces weren't able to defend the city, making his contribution moot.

Did he think that Ebi would be able to defend the city? No. The moment the jonin was killed in the blast, they had lost. The most Ebi could accomplish was to punish the other side by killing their shinobi, but keeping Yu was a pipe dream.

"Sir, the shinobi monitoring us just killed one of their own. Over."

The radio comms on the table crackled as one of Kon's subordinates keeping an eye on the shinobi reported in.

"What?" Kon uttered, confused.

Then the second subordinate outside tuned in.

"Sir, two new unknowns just spotted. They killed the shinobi monitoring us. Over"

The ROOT agents in the room all stood up. Clearly something was wrong when two people who were monitoring them were just killed within ten seconds of each other.

"It's him..."

They all looked at Kon who spoke barely above a whisper.

Kon knew that the Hidden Leaf would know about ROOT's presence in Yu, and that ANBU might accompany the invading forces. Because they were in hiding, on the run, he had excluded the possibility that the Hidden Leaf team already inside the company would after him. But just like Ebi suspected him of leaving the city, they had also suspected him of leaving and were now targeting him before he had the chance to leave.

"It's Takuma... He is coming for me."

Kon wasn't scared. Not at all. In fact, he was excited. He wanted to kill the thorn in his side, and he wasn't going to miss this chance when it was being served up right in front of him.

He started to laugh and continued laughing while his subordinates stared at him in silence.





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