Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve

[Fiction]

A horse-drawn carriage trundled along a wide road towards the enormous defensive walls surrounding the Spring City of Yu. The brick wall was actually an earthen wall erected forty years ago with the help of shinobi adept at using earth-style ninjutsu and afterward covered in baked bricks as another layer of fortification.

The main gates to Yu were indefinitely closed, with only the smaller commercial gates used by merchants and traders still open as access points into the city.

The carriage driver slowed down the horses as they approached the gates and joined the short line with him at the front after five minutes.

"What's your business?"

It was around lunchtime, and the gate was being guarded by the local civilian guards with only one enemy shinobi sitting in the little cabin. There were four guards stationed at the gate. Two of them stayed near the gates, keeping a vigilant eye on the queue of carriages. The other two checked the carriages.

The carriage driver motioned the guard toward the carriage.

Before the guard moved, the carriage opened, and Gaku stepped out. His scruffy stubble was shaved clean, his rough hair with gray strands were cleaned, dyed, and tied in a silky ponytail, and his face looked thoroughly moisturized. On top of that, he was dressed in an exquisite silk robe.

"Good day, gentlemen," he said.

"What's your business?" the guard said, looking Gaku up and down.

Before Gaku could answer, Daiki stepped out of the carriage, towered behind Gaku, and stared down at the guard, who had the expected reaction of nervousness.

Gaku smiled. "The enchanting courtesan Chinatsu is returning to Yu. She and her three maids are inside. The five of us request entrance into the city."

"Oh? I have to verify that," the guard's face brightened up.

He walked past the Gaku and Daiki and looked inside the carriage. The inside was dark, casting a shadow on the passengers. The guard naturally looked at the woman talking to him and was instantly enthralled at the first sight of the bodacious woman. Despite being dressed in a full robe, her sensuality couldn't be hidden. She was the courtesan Chinatsu. Other than her, there were three more women in the carriage dressed simply and had veils covering their faces just like Chinatsu.

The scent of her fragrance tickled the guard's nose, and he was left without words. He gazed into the eyes that seemed to focus on only him and him alone.

"… You're beautiful, my lady. I must check you and the other ladies for illegal contraband."

The guard stepped closer and reached for Chinatsu, but before he could grab her, a hand that could completely cover his whole head grabbed his wrist. The guard looked back and saw Daiki staring down at him, and the guard felt a shudder shoot through his feet. The guard tried to pull his hand out of tight grip but couldn't even move Daiki's arm one centimeter.

"U-Unhand me, you brute!"

"Forgive him; he's just doing his job. I'm afraid the courtesan doesn't like being touched by unclean hands," Gaku said and gave Daiki a nod.

Daiki released the guard's hand but put himself between the carriage and the guard, then closed the carriage door.

"I appreciate all the hard work you do to keep the city safe, and I want to make sure you get awarded plenty for it." Gaku flicked his wrist, and the note bundle slid into his hand. He pressed the thick roll into the guard's hand.

The guard smiled, but when he glanced at his hand, he was surprised by two bundles resting in his grip. He looked up at Gaku, who smiled.

"The second is something extra just for you."

Alerted by the commotion and the guard's loud sound, the second guard came to see what was happening.

"What's happening here?"

The first guard quickly pocketed one of the rolls. "Nothing much, just this," he said, tossing the second roll to the other guard.

"Ah, I see, so it's all good," the second guard smiled. "Well then, let's get moving."

It didn't matter if their home was occupied by the enemy; not everyone felt loyal or patriotic to their country. Their only allegiance was to the ones in current; as long as their lives weren't disturbed, they didn't care who sat in the ivory towers. Greedy people were still enthralled by coin, power-hungry men's appetite for control over others was just as intense, and the self-centered ones who only thought about themselves were still interested in only themselves.

The guard was grinning at getting his bribe, but then he saw Daiki boarding the carriage after Gaku and remembered how Daiki had grabbed his wrist. His happy expression soured as he moved along.

He saw the carriage driver and scoffed.

"Hey, take off your hat."

The carriage driver sighed and raised his hand, but apparently, it was too slow. The guard raised his staff and flicked the straw hat off the driver's head, revealing the face of one tired Takuma.

"Dear god, when was the last time you slept," the guard said, forgetting the humiliation he had felt.

"They wanted to get here quickly. They paid extra, boss," said Takuma.

"Oh, extra? How about your share, kid?"

He used his staff to poke Takuma in the leg, strong enough that it would've hurt a civilian.

Takuma slowly turned his head to the guard. Their eyes met, and the guard froze up as he felt as though a kunai had pierced through his neck. He gripped his staff until his knuckles were white and took a step back. His hand went to his neck like he was scratching an itch, but he was checking his neck.

"W-What? You… got a problem?"

Takuma put his hand into his pocket, which scared the guard, but Takuma took out a few loose, crumpled, dirty notes and held them to the guard, who hesitated but stepped close to snatch the notes out of his hand.

"Good… now move on, you're blocking the line," the guard tried to sound tough.

Takuma softly urged the horses and headed inside the city. As the carriage passed through the gates, he glanced at another carriage inspected by the other guard, who was ripping jute bags full of the merchandise, spilling a considerable amount on the floor. When the merchant begged him to stop, the other guard roughly pushed him to the ground and threatened him to stay there as he continued his 'inspection.'

Takuma then glanced into the guard cabin, where a lone shinobi was leaning in his chair, puffing smoke.

He put his straw hat back and entered the Spring City of Yu.


———
.


The carriage stopped in an alley before a building's back entrance. Takuma stepped down from his seat and looked around to see if someone was peeking from the windows. He opened the door, and Gaku and Daiki stepped out first.

"I thought I was never going to get out of there," said Daiki.

"Why were you the only one outside?" Gaku spat, a cigarette already in his hand.

"Because I'm the only one who knows horses," Takuma said. He had learned how to ride horses because shinobi didn't use horses—they ran everywhere—which was why he learned it because it made for such a great cover. And today, he had gotten the return on his investment.

Gaku went ahead and unlocked the building while Daiki went to the back of the carriage for Chinatsu's belongings, the only luggage not sealed away in storage seals.

Takuma held out his hand to help Chinatsu down the carriage

"Thank you, sweet boy," Chinatsu smiled, winking at Takuma.

He nodded and extended his hand for the next one, only to get it slapped away.

Kameko pulled off her veil and pushed Takuma's straw hat up to see his face.

"Ugh, I couldn't believe they could get worse," said Kaneko, commenting on Takuma's worse than usual bags under the eyes that were ever-present on his face.

"Sure, let's do this in the street," Takuma sighed.

The preparation time was shorter than Takuma anticipated despite the mission being delayed. Between team meetings and his personal preparations, fourteen days passed in the blink of an eye. And because of the stakes involved, he hadn't been able to sleep properly due to being busy and stressed. His usually tired face had gotten worse than usual.

Anko kicked Kameko from within the carriage to move the latter out of the way.

"What—!"

Anko looked at Takuma and Kameko and spoke in a no-nonsense voice. "Shut the fuck up, and move along."

Rikku and Iori stepped outside the carriage and followed the other women into the building through the back entry.

After Daiki unloaded the luggage, Takuma patted the horses and returned to his driver's seat.

"Thank you for your service, fellas… But it's time for us to part."

Now, he had to get rid of the horses and the carriage and familiarize himself with the city and its roads.


———
.


Takuma returned with food for the entire group.

The land and the building was owned by a company Gaku owned under a fake identity. He had made quite a bit of money in his time as a shinobi and had invested a portion into real estate. The building was a two-story residential house with a full basement floor.

"You were great out there, Chinatsu," Gaku said to the woman whom the guard had tried to lay his hands on.

"It was all you, my brave Gaku," Chinatsu smiled flirtatiously.

Chinatsu was the reason why the mission was delayed. Gaku had recommended her as a potential asset to Takuma. Chinatsu was a high-end courtesan with connections in the city's high society and had agreed to help them as a plant that could collect intellect. Takuma agreed to recruit her if only for the cover to get into the city. He wasn't sure how much helpful information she could get for them.

She was the reason the mission was delayed from seven days to fourteen days. Everything from doing a background check on her to contacting Chinatsu to have her to agree and then getting her transported was done extremely quickly, but it took time to coordinate and execute, which delayed the mission.

The group sat in a circle on the dirty floor with the food Takuma had bought for them.

"Rest for today," Anko addressed the group. "We start from tomorrow. Gaku and Chinatsu will spread the word about her return…"

Chinatsu was their cover. Gaku was the pimp, Daiki was the muscle, and Anko, Rikku, Kameko, and Iori were Chinatsu's maids. Chinatsu had returned to the city and would be conducting her business, reconnecting to her past clients/lovers, and the team was actually going to help her do her business.

The entire team except for Takuma. He didn't have a cover and thus wasn't connected to Chinatsu's group. If he got in trouble, it wouldn't connect back to him; if he got into trouble, it wouldn't get tracked back to Chinatsu.

Anko continued. "While they do that, Iori and Daiki will get the stuff for the house. Kameko and I will do the cleaning. Takuma will set up the other place. We start the initial recon after everything is set up."

The plan was to put a distance between Chinatsu's house and the place where the team was planning to make their base of operations. They had brought a lot of stuff that would feel very out of place in a courtesan's place of residence.

"Remember to stick to your roles, everyone," Anko said. She turned to Takuma, "And get some sleep; your look like a ghoul."

"I will," Takuma sighed.

It was their first day behind enemy lines, but Takuma felt that it was his chance to get some decent sleep because once he started doing recon, his head would be filled with information, goals, and plans that would keep sleep away from him.





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[ptbptb]

Kameko pulled off her veil and pushed Takuma's straw hat up to see his face.

"Ugh, I couldn't believe they could get worse," said Kaneko,

Click to shrink...

One of your Kameko's turned into Kaneko.

 

[Captain Usoland]

Thanks for the chapter!

Chinatsu? Well that's definitely one way to get in!
Almost thought it was Anko in disguise.

Is she a reference to something? Almost thought she was one of Uzui's Wives from Demon Slayer. The name remined me of "Hinatsuru", who also pretended to be a Courtesan.

Did Takuma explain what happened to Daiki yet and apologize?

 

[Ziel]

Once again, Takuma's odd skills pay off. So far he's used... Horses, radio, I think lock picking... Cartography?
Definitely earned their money's worth, and I like that there was story payoff for him devoting time to them.

Honestly, thought it was about to be a "the whole team is disguised as geishas" type thing for a minute there.

 

[The Radiance]

TFTC. Looks like things have gone to plan. For now that is.

 

[Fiction]

Takuma wandered the streets of Yu alone, observing the city on foot.

He had completed his task of setting up the base in the abandoned factory handpicked by Gaku. The cleaning took the majority of time as he wanted a thorough job because, unlike the others, he was living in the base. The furnishings of the base were pre-prepared and brought from the outside, sealed in scrolls; setting them up was a quick couple hour job.

The others were still busy with their jobs, and Takuma decided to explore the city independently.

He put on civilian clothes that would allow him to carry a concealed weapon pouch and took off to roam the central part of the city. He didn't have any specific objective and simply wanted to take in the city's atmosphere.

The city was still very much functional, with people continuing on with their lives, but as he looked around, he could see the weight of the enemy's presence bearing down on the town. The streets were emptier than what Takuma would expect from a city of Yu's size. As he passed through a bazaar, many shopkeepers weren't calling out to the customers like one would expect from a bustling center of commerce. He passed a mother who had dressed herself and her two children in plain clothes that covered them from head to toe and was keeping them close as though in fear that they could be stolen from her at any moment.

He even hid in the shadows and watched two young men harassing a woman in the middle of a noticeably busy street, but not one passerby stopped to help the woman who had been pushed to tears.

Takuma guessed that the reason why the fruit shop owner, with hate in his eyes, wasn't already swinging the machete in his hand was because of the red armbands on the two young men. He had seen them on the gate guards and others while driving through the city.

According to Gaku, the city police wore armbands. Since the enemy had occupied the city, they had put the people who turned to support the new powers into the police to keep the population in check. They were using the people of the city against themselves. It was a classic tactic to maintain control.

"Hey, what are you two doing?!"

A middle-aged man with salt-and-pepper hair, wearing the same armband, came running, and the young men immediately stopped and stepped away from the woman. Unlike the young men wearing casual clothes, the new middle-aged man wore a proper uniform.

He tried to help the woman pick up the bag she had dropped but got his hand slapped away. The woman bowed to him despite looking thoroughly livid and ran away. The man stared at the woman, looking depressed, before immediately ripping into the two men with harsh words. They looked displeased but stood there in silence, listening to the scolding, though it looked like they weren't really listening to the older man.

Takuma moved on and continued roaming the city when he noticed red posters plastered on the walls. Looking closer at one, the notices were propaganda about how the occupying shinobi forces weren't enemies but liberators who were rescuing them and giving them an opportunity to live a better life.

He looked around, ripped one of the posters, and folded it into his pocket.

Takuma then saw a roadside stall manned by an old man selling shaved ice.

"The pink one," said Takuma, paying upfront.

"Coming up," said the old man with a balding head. As he shaved the block of ice, he asked, "So where are you from, young boy?"

Takuma titled his head. "Down west. How did you know I wasn't from here?"

"You passed by one of those traitors and had no reaction. No hate, joy, fear, you didn't look away to avoid their eyes. Everyone in this city would have a reaction, but all you had was indifference," the old man laughed.

"Huh," Takuma was impressed. "Tell me, boss. What's it like living here?"

"It is what it is." The old man looked around. "This city is the grain storage for all the farming villages in the region. Every season, the farmers sell their hard-grown crops in the city. That hasn't changed. The farmer doesn't care if we're occupied by the enemy; they have mouths to feed, and city folk need food. Ever since those shinobi arrived, suddenly there's no food, and the price of everything shot up."

Yu was the hub for the farming villages selling their produce in the big city. The city had built infrastructure to store grains, and mills to grind them, among other things that the smaller farm villages lacked, and having a central hub made more logistical sense. Many farmers sold their entire harvest to the city itself, who would sell it to whoever needed it. Everyone from big businesses to small vendors bought from the city.

"You mean they're holding back the food?" said Takuma.

"Of course, what else could it be? They have been forcing the farmers to only sell to the city. They're forcing anyone who needs food to buy it from the city because there's no other choice." The old man then whispered, "I asked one of the farmers who came here after harvest season—he said that this year's harvest was abundant."

Takuma glanced at the shuttered restaurant behind the old man's stall on wheels. He looked around and didn't see any other stalls. The old man himself was selling shaved ice flavored with bottled syrups.

"Here you go," the old man handed him a shaved ice on a stick.

"Thank you, old man," Takuma gave him a smile and continued his walk.

Gaku was in Yu during the enemy invasion. He continued to stay in the city for months before he was contacted by the Hidden Steam to come out to help with a mission. According to him, the shinobi lived in an affluent part of the city. And as Takuma walked toward that part of the city, he noticed how empty the city got. He didn't see anyone for a good few minutes; it seemed the population was staying away from the shinobi.

Then he saw a group of shinobi laughing as they came down the street. Takuma jumped into tall grass and lay there watching them as they passed by. They passed him by quickly, but Takuma continued to lay in the tall grass for a few more minutes before getting up and walking away, deciding that he had done enough exploring for the day and that the next time he wanted to explore the area, he would do it at night with darkness as his ally.


———
.


When Takuma returned to the base, some of the team members were waiting for him. He noticed that Gaku, Daiki, and Iori weren't present in the group.

"Where were you?" Anko had her arms crossed.

"Out, I left a note," said Takuma. He pointed at the small note which said: 'Out, will be back in the evening.'

"You weren't supposed to be out… So, what did you find?"

"Where are the others?"

"Iori and Daiki are at the house. Gaku is out spreading the word," said Rikku.

"Are we sure he's doing that?" asked Takuma, pulling out a MRE (Meal, Ready-To-Eat) from the stock of rationed pre-prepared meals they had brought from the outside. He was hungry after his walk and hadn't eaten since morning. He sighed as he looked at the MRE—with the food prices in Yu, he wouldn't be eating fresh food a lot.

"You really don't trust him, do you?" said Kameko.

Takuma shrugged. He had tried to apologize to Gaku and start anew with a positive attitude, but Gaku wasn't receptive, and unlike the duty clone, Takuma couldn't see anything good about the guy. The sound of Gaku's voice and his stupid face was irritating. They had done satisfactory work during the preparation period, but Takuma did not trust Gaku.

"They have done a good job at maintaining control over the city," he said, telling the team what he had seen. "I think I have the first course of action… I found these plastered around the city." He pulled out a few different red propaganda posters he had ripped off the wall and put it on the sheet metal table for the team to see. "They're controlling the amount of food the city has access to, artificially raising the prices. They blame the Land of Hot Waters for forbidding the villages to sell their harvest to the city because it has been occupied—trying to spread the impression that their nation has abandoned them.

"But I heard something interesting," he said.

The team looked up from the posters to Takuma.

"An old man told me that most farmers continue to sell their produce directly to the city. And he gave me the impression that the farmers sold without much resistance, which tells us that the enemy bought at a fair market price—but that means they spent money—where is that money coming from? I doubt they're using military funds; it's a lot of produce…"

Kameko's eyes lit up. "They're selling the produce somewhere else?"

Takuma snapped his fingers and nodded. "Yes, they're exporting the food to the Land of Frost… I read in a report that Yu has stopped all exports to other cities, but they're continuing to buy produce, and seeing that they're keeping the city hungry, they must have a lot of inventory—"

"It would be a waste to let it all go to waste," Anko completed his sentence.

"Right. They're keeping the population hungry to control them while also using it to spread misinformation. But most importantly, they're making it so that the farmers don't need to look elsewhere to sell their crops. By simply maintaining the existing relationship, the enemy got control over the entire region. They targeted Yu for this very reason."

It would be bad for the Land of Frost if the farmers selling their produce to Yu suddenly took their business elsewhere. They needed to keep the population fed, and if the farmers turned away, they would have to import food into Yu from the Land of Frost, meaning that another area in the Land of Frost would have less food.

The war wasn't just about land and territory; it was also about the people. By keeping it all the same as before, the farmers were kept happy, and the Land of Frost also got an additional food supply that they could sell into their territory. And that was likely to continue as long as Yu was under the Land of Frost's control.

"I think we need to shake this propaganda they're trying to spread before it's too late," said Takuma.

"Too late?" asked Rikku, confused

"I believe it's only time before they start ramping up the food available in the city, returning to normal. It will create the impression that while the Land of Hot Waters has abandoned them, the Land of Frost has embraced them as their own. We must disrupt the plan by revealing the truth before the entire city switches sides."

"And how do you say we do that?" asked Anko.

Takuma held up one of the red posters. "We copy the enemy," he said. "We make similar posters debunking the propaganda they're trying to push and plaster our posters around the city for the people to read."

"Okay," said Kameko with hum. "When Gaku returns, we have him find a printer to make prints."

"No, that won't work," Anko shook her head.

"Yeah, I thought of that first, but that's not suitable. When the enemy sees our posters, they will visit every printer in the city to find who printed them. We will be burning a civilian," Takuma sighed, but he had an alternative. "I know how to use woodblock printing. We carve a piece of wood as a template, dip it in ink, and stamp it on paper like a… stamp. The quality won't be as good, but I think it'll work."

He could carve wood, and they had a fuin-nin on the team to handle ink.

"No, we don't need that," said Anko, staring at the posters. "We can have the posters brought in from outside."

"How?" asked Takuma, furrowing his brow.

"Like we brought everything in here," Anko said, pointing to everything in the base.

"In a sealed scroll? But who will send the message and bring them in?"

"My babies, of course," Anko smiled.





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[Golden Eyed King]

I could see the enemy figuring out that someone was bringing I'm the anti-propaganda after no printer in the city was found to be working for them then tracking entrances and exits of the city. With snakes slithering in and out though they are once again nigh impossible to find.

Summon animals have their own flaws but no ninja can operate under the assumption every animal they see is a summon or potentially working for the enemy.

 

[Fiction]

Hajime, a sensory-nin of the Hidden Leaf stationed at Camp Banana, strolled across the makeshift earthen perimeter wall that covered the village center. In his case, the stigma surrounding sensory-nin— that they were only good at their sensory capabilities—was somewhat true. After all, they were hired solely for their special capabilities and nothing else, working extremely long hours that left them very little time to develop their other skills.

Hajime embodied the stereotype to the highest degree. He was only useful because of his sensory capabilities, but he didn't mind because he was outstanding at it, even compared to other sensory-nin. He was content with being a hyper specialist as that's what got him good jobs and he didn't see that changing anytime soon.

Putting all his time and effort into his sensing capabilities allowed Hajime to clock the chakra signature, moving rapidly toward Camp Banana. He turned to the thick woods bordering the camp, where he sensed the chakra. He judged it to be a high Grade-1 on the sensory-nin scale, but it took him by surprise because the chakra felt was nothing like he was used to feeling from most Grade-1 threats.

Despite that, he rang the alarms and notified the entire base about a potential intruder and incursion.

He felt people in the base flare up their chakra, which overwhelmed his senses for a moment. In the handful of seconds it took to steady himself, he lost track of the chakra signature. He sharpened his focus and quickly re-confirmed his senses on the signature, only to realize it was next to him.

Hajime looked around, but he didn't find anything.

"Be careful; the target might be a master of stealth," Hajime warned the others on guard duty.

As he continued to look around with a kunai in his hand, he heard a hissing sound. Hajime looked at the wall around his feet and froze up when he saw the slitted, sickly-yellow eyes of a forest green snake as thick as his arm and as tall as he was.

Before he could move or scream, the snake lunged at him, completely trapping and immobilizing Hajime in its coiling, serpentine body.

"You have sharp senses, human," the snake hissed, its head a few centimeters away from Hajime's face, "but those senses are a big problem for a predator like myself… maybe I should make you into a meal."

Hajime was beyond terrified and couldn't produce a peep from his mouth. He could only stare at the snake with his quaking wide eyes. The other guards couldn't move as the snake had Hajime in its grasp as a hostage.

The snake's forked tongue touched Hajime's cheek, making his entire body flinch and break out in cold sweat. Just as he thought he was about to become its dinner, the snake laughed loudly, and Hajime found his legs free as the snake coiled its entire body around his torso, arms, and neck.

"Unfortunately, I'm not here for a meal," the snake said. "Mitarashi Anko has sent me. Walk me to the humans named Shirakumo and Toridasu. I bring them news from her."

Hajime, of course, knew Anko and also knew that she was infamous for her snake summons. Hearing Anko was the one to send the snake, he calmed down from utter terror to stiffness from fear.

"I-It's okay, Chunin Mitarashi has sent the snake," Hajime announced loudly as he awkwardly turned his body to face the other guards because the snake was still coiled around his neck, and he didn't want to make any movements. He spoke respectfully to the snake, "Can you please let me go? I'll happily lead you to the jonin."

"No, you take me," said the snake, and Hajime could sense that the snake wasn't going to take a no for an answer.

"O-Okay," Hajime gulped. He announced: "I'm talking the snake to see the jonin. Clear a path."

Hajime jumped down the wall, and by then, the shinobi in the base had already gathered near the wall, fully decked in combat gear. They cleared a path for Hajime, who didn't need to walk much as Shirakumo stood in the middle of the road.

"Release my shinobi," Shirakumo said, sounding dead serious.

"Not with all these human shinobi around me, ready to hunt me down," the snake hissed. "My time with Orochimaru hasn't left a great impression of you humans. I like my Anko, but I can't say the same for all of you… Most of the time when she calls me, I end up killing and eating your species." The snake's yellow eyes scanned the entire area, and the weak-willed in the crowd looked nervous or looked away when their gaze met the snake's.

Shirakumo frowned with displeasure at the mention of Orochimaru. The shinobi gathered around and looked nervous and scared at the mention of the Snake Sannin.

"You're the one called Shirakumo, correct?" asked the snake. "Give me your word that I won't be harmed, and I will release this human."

"Does that mean my words mean nothing in Anko's eyes," said Toridasu.

The slits in the snake's eyes narrowed as he turned his head back to see Toridasu standing behind Hajime. The snake moved around Hajime in agitation, coiling a bit tighter, making Hajime grunt in pain; the fact that he couldn't sense someone as dangerous as Toridasu standing so close to him wasn't something the snake welcomed.

"What… scared?" asked Toridasu, tilting his head.

Shirakumo felt a growing tension between the snake and Toridasu and interjected before it became a problem.

"I give you my word that you won't be harmed. I assume you have word from Anko; let's talk about it inside," said Shirakumo.

The snake's eyes remained affixed on Toridasu for a moment before he opened his maw and sank his fangs into Hajime's shoulder.


———
.


"Rest assured; I will give him the anti-venom when we're done. As you humans put it, it's insurance," said Mara, the snake.

Mara sat with Shirakumo and Toridasu in the war room. Neither of the Hidden Leaf jonin looked very pleased with Mara injecting Hajime with his snake venom. Their sensory-nin was in a fatal condition after getting injured inside the base while the two jonin stoody by and watched.

"What does Anko want?" asked Shirakumo.

Mara sat coiled on the large table, taking nearly half of the tabletop. He opened his maw for a scroll tube to emerge from his body and drop down on a table covered in spittle. Mara flicked the scroll tube across the table with his take.

The scroll tube stopped in front of Toridasu, who used a handkerchief to pick it up and opened the tube to retrieve a scroll from inside. Toridasu read the scroll and then handed it to Shirakumo.

"It's legit," said Toridasu. The scroll had Anko's handwriting and a secret code to validate the legitimacy of all communication between the Yu team and the base. "She wants us to print posters for them."

"They moved quick," said Shirakumo. He looked to Mara. "We give you the posters, and she summons you into the city."

"That's the plan," Mara said, hissing.

"Summons sure are convenient," Shirakumo said with a deep exhale.

In the shinobi world, summons were in high demand due to their sheer usefulness, but contracting a summon species was an extremely rare opportunity that only a few were lucky to have. And even those who had signed summon contracts had to pay a prize in return for having intelligent animals capable of using chakra at call.

There was a rumor revolving around Orochimaru that the bigger, more powerful snake summons required human sacrifice every time they were summoned, and Orochimaru very happily sacrificed a large amount of people every time he needed help from the behemothian serpents that struck fear in the hearts of his enemies.

"You have three days; I will come to collect the posters sealed in a scroll that fits in that tube around this time of day in three days," said Mara, pointing at the scroll tube covered in snake spittle.

"Oh, you're leaving. What a pity," said Toridasu, his words dripping in sarcasm.

"I'll be in the nearby forest. Warn your humans to be careful if they visit; I might mistake them for prey," Mara laughed and then slithered off the table, heading towards the door.

"The anti-venom," Shirakumo stood up, looking ready to stop and grab Mara on a moment's notice. Mara might be a big snake, but he wasn't a jonin.

Mara laughed again, louder this time. "Don't worry. He doesn't need it. I'm not a venomous snake." The snake's hilarious laughter was audible from outside the war room for several seconds before they couldn't hear it.

Toridasu and Shirakumo looked at each other in silence. A snake had made up a fool out of both of them.

There was a knock on the door, and the chunin iryo-nin, who was looking after Hajime, stepped inside.

"Sir… uhm, Hajime—"

Toridasu cut him off. "Hajime is fine, we know."

"…Yes, sir," the chunin iryo-nin got the message and immediately stepped out of the room, leaving the two jonin alone

"This is why I don't like that girl," Toridasu said to Shirakumo. "Damnable snakes."


———
.


Because of her duties as Chinatsu's handmaid, Rikku hadn't had the opportunity to visit the base of operation in the abandoned factory.

She was happy to be out of the handmaid's attire and back into her usual clothes. Unexpectedly, the handmaid's uniform was comfortable and easy to move around in, which made sense to her after she worked in them as the job required moving around doing a lot of tasks from preparing Chinatsu and maintaining the house— but she was simply more comfortable in her vest and pants that she had been wearing since she became a shinobi.

As she entered the building, she saw Takuma on the other end of the long floor. The base was situated in the most isolated part of the building—in the corner with other abandoned buildings adjacent to it. The factory Gaku had chosen was abandoned because a few years back, a dangerous chemical leaked into it killing six people, which led to the factory's closure. The team wasn't a fan of the location despite Gaku assuring the location's safety. The other option was a haunted warehouse, but Anko rejected it because she was worried that children might use the warehouse for 'tests of courage'—thus leading them to choose the factory.

Takuma was staring at a huge plan wall he had made. Because he was the only one not tied to Chinatsu for cover, he had the most amount of time to gather information and intelligence via observation and exploration.

Rikku didn't want to disturb the thoroughly engrossed boy and moved silently, but when she was close enough, Takuma turned, and his eyes snapped toward her as though she was a threat. The sudden movement from him gave her a pause, but since she didn't have to worry about disturbing him, she greeted him.

"Hey," Takuma returned her greeting.

"You should make it more readable," said Rikku as she stopped beside Takuma and gazed over the surprisingly large plans on the wall.

"It's not readable?" Takuma looked at her, his brows furrowed.

"Maybe to you; it doesn't make much sense to me." Rikku tried to look closer, but it all seemed like a huge, chaotic mess of information thrown on a wall. "What is all of this?"

"I'm trying to make sense of the city in my mind," said Takuma, pointing at a rudimentary city map in the middle of everything "I want to know what's where so I'm more comfortable with operating here. Not knowing how this city works is scary. The more I know, the more comfortable I am."

"Makes sense," said Rikku, nodding. As she looked at the plan-wall, she couldn't see the connections between the many clusters of notes that he had made, but she could roughly see that Takuma was focusing on areas and people in those areas.

And as she thought of people, a question rose in her mind.

"I didn't think sticking posters would be the first big thing we would do in the city," she said.

"Oh, what did you think we'd be doing?" he asked, his eyes stuck to the plan-wall as though he was obsessed with the clustered mess he had created.

"Honestly… I thought we would be killing one of the enemy shinobi," Rikku shrugged. She knew her answer was blockheaded, but that's what she thought was the entire objective. Weaken the enemy from the inside before the main force came knocking from the outside.

"You're not wrong; there'll be plenty of time for that," Takuma chuckled.

"So… we're doing this because we want the residents to help us, right?" asked Rikku. "Wouldn't we accomplish the same if we killed a couple of enemy shinobi? Wouldn't they be happy that someone was finally doing something?"

Takuma removed his eyes from the wall to look at Rikku.

"Yes, we're doing this so that we would have the resident's support, but that's just an outcome of something else we're trying to prevent. The city of Yu still considers the Land of Frost as the enemy, but if we allow what's happening, that would change, and the city would start looking at them favorably."

"I don't get it," Rikku shook her head. "Why would they look at invaders favorably?"

"Because we as a species aren't logical beings. After months of limited food and disrupted lives, if they returned to abundant food and their lives back on track, and the enemy claims that they did solve the problem Land of Hot Water created, the people would side with the side who 'solved the problem.'

Takuma paused for a moment as he mulled on something.

"For example, there's a helpless old man who's running away from a goon who's trying to kill him. And you have the option to let the old man escape. Would you help?"

"Yeah, I would help," said Rikku.

"But what if I told you that the helpless old man raped the goon's sister who took then took her life. The goon was just trying to exact revenge for his sister. Would you have still helped?"

"Of course not!"

"But you just said you would."

"Because I didn't know—" Rikku realized what Takuma was trying to explain. "The city people don't know that the old man is the real scum and will instead think of the goon as the scummy one."

"Yes," he nodded. "Imagine if our main forces come to free the city, but the city people who have been deceived get in the way. They try to help their 'liberators' and get in between a conflict between two shinobi forces. Do you think we will mow the civilians down to get to the enemy?"

Rikku shook her head.

Takuma continued. "Let's say we somehow got rid of the enemy without causing a civilian massacre. What now? We leave— but the Land of Hot Water is left with a city near the border full of Land of Frost sympathizers and supporters. Do you think the Hot Water Daimyo and the Hidden Steam would be able to see Yu as anything but a potential security threat? They would be left with a timebomb waiting to explode.

"So yes, I'm hoping by revealing the truth, the people will help us when we need their help, but mostly, it's because we're trying to rescue the city, and I don't want them to be doomed at the end of it all."

Rikku looked at the plan-wall, and unsurprisingly, nothing had changed, and it still seemed like a chaotic mess to her.

"I… don't think I'll be much help here. I would've killed the goon," she said.

"You don't need to help with this. You just need to be there ready when it's time to kill the scummy old man," said Takuma. "I think you'll be a very good handmaid who does some killing on the side."

Rikku smiled.





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[The Radiance]

TFTC. Snake best boy/girl. They are so cute so I don't understand all the hatred.

If Takuma pulls this one off successfully. He will be legendary. Naruto's world ninja are known for not doing much in terms of stealth and subterfuge. Heck, he will probably write the 'book' on how to do that stuff.

 

[Ziel]

I always enjoy watching Takuma work. He approaches everything like they're about to carry out a heist, and it really hammers home the difference in mindset of what a chunin needs to be versus a genin.

Seconded on praise best snek.

I know it's not likely since this story is prewritten, but I am curious as to what the April fools for this would have looked like.

 

[CHOSEDEATH]

TFTC

 

[Fiction]

In the base, Anko weaved through hand seals for the Summoning Jutsu and slapped her palm on the ground, which spurred the jutsu formula (shiki) using her blood as a component. A writhing snake emerged within the hazy cloud of smoke.

Both Gaku and Kameko were standing behind sheet metal tables, looking combat-ready when they spotted the thick forest-green snake despite it being Anko's summon. Takuma stood beside Anko, ready to spring into action like the other two.

"You guys are being rude; Mara is a friend. He won't harm you," said Anko. She was disappointed seeing them acting like they were.

"I wouldn't take her word for it," said Mara, his yellow-slitted eyes scanning the three. "A snake's got to eat, after all."

Gaku had crossed his arms as he kept his eyes on Mara and Kameko gripped the hilt of her sword tightly.

"Mara, stop it!" Anko raised her voice, but the shallow smile on her face told another story.

The snake looked up at Takuma, who was staring down at him. He uncoiled and raised his body until her head was at Takuma's chest. The distance between them wasn't more than a few feet, practically nothing for a snake of Mara's enhanced physique.

"You look easy to swallow," said Mara.

"And you have hundreds of more bones than a human I could break," Takuma replied.

Mara moved his head closer to Takuma, who didn't move much less flinch. They stared at each other for a long, silent moment. Anko, standing beside Takuma, shook her head; she was used to Mara's antics when meeting strangers.

"I like him," Mara said to Anko after backing away.

"Do you have the posters?" asked Anko.

"I have a scroll, but I don't know what's inside," said Mara. He opened his mouth and spat out a scroll tube right toward Anko, who was forced to catch it with her bare hands. She groaned in disgust at the long strands of saliva dangling from her finger and uncorked the tube. She glanced up at Mara with a fed-up sigh and dumped the scroll within the tube into Takuma's hands. Unexpectedly, a loose rolled-up paper fell out along with the scroll.

"What is it?" asked Anko, holding her dirty hands before her.

"Looks like a letter," said Takuma as he read the contents

"I'm tired; I'm leaving," said Mara.

"Oh, thanks!" Anko knew that Mara had been living away from his natural habitat for several days and didn't want to hold him back for any longer.

Mara released the jutsu and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Ah… the snake fucked around with the jonin." Takuma raised the letter and put it on the table with a snort. "Took a hostage at the camp—you can read about it later—it's pretty funny."

Speechless, Anko opened and closed her mouth wordlessly. She glanced at the empty spot where Mara stood a few moments later in irritation. Just when she thought she and Toridasu were over the hill too.

Takuma laid the storage seal scroll on the floor and released multiple stacks of A3-sized posters. The ones put up by the enemy were red-themed, so the team decided to switch the colour and go with blue-themed posters. The mental association would help them, after all.

"Good, these are good," said Takuma.

Takuma wasn't the greatest writer. The only writing he had done recently was writing bland case reports in the Police Force, which showed in his poster drafts. Daiki, who read them, commented that Takuma's writing was too complex and long-winded. If Takuma wanted the message to spread, they needed the posters to be easily understandable because the posters were only the first step.

The moment the enemy was made aware of the posters, they would try to take them down—and the real goal was to spread the message around the city through word-of-mouth. For that to happen, the wording on the poster needed to be concise and easy to understand and memorise.

Daiki, being unsurprisingly well-read, turned Takuma's writing into points that could be picked up quickly after a short read. Iori contributed with rough artwork depicting the occupying enemy in a bad light to attract the eyes of the populace.

Takuma looked up at Gaku. "When are we meeting the locals?"

The team wasn't equipped to distribute the posters properly across the city. They weren't familiar with the hotspots where most people would see the posters. Even if Gaku were to circle out locations on the city map for the team to follow, they wouldn't know the specific areas in those locations where the posters would get the most eyes—something locals would be perfectly aware of.

"We leave in an hour," said Gaku. "I have set up a meeting."

"Are you sure your identity is safe?" Anko asked him.

Gaku nodded. "It's safe, don't worry."

Gaku was a well-known figure in Yu. As a retired shinobi, he was well-connected with the resistance elements in the city, enough that he was on the enemy's watchlist. They were constantly on the lookout for him—which meant that he couldn't be seen in the city without being hunted down by the enemy.

This was why he operated in the open as Jimii— Chinatsu's pimp from the Land of Hot Water's capital who had followed her back to Yu. He was shockingly adept at disguises and masquerading skills. After a few light cosmetic prosthetics, body language changes, and some voice modulation, Gaku was unrecognisable, allowing Jimii to operate in broad daylight.

It helped that Gaku and Jimii ran in different social circles.

Takuma stared at the posters as a nervousness bubbled up within him. The plan's success level would dictate how the future would go for him. He needed it to succeed to inspire confidence in the team and Anko, allowing him to operate with greater freedom. Not to mention, his failure could mean Gaku trying to butt in and try to take control of the operation.

No matter their current situation, he was still a shinobi from an entirely different village to Team-9. This had to go great—no, perfectly—but his part in it was done.

All Takuma could do was leave the rest up to the team.


———
.


A single street light hung over a shopping centre loading zone, used by businesses to move merchandise and inventories. A group of five men looked tense as they huddled under the street light.

"Are you sure he's coming?" The skinhead youngster who asked the question handed a hand-rolled cigarette to the middle-aged man leaning against the light pole.

Motohiro was a middle-aged man with a wide frame, big arms, and a bear belly. He owned a milling business in Yu and had a considerable number of people under him. He was rich, not enough to be counted among the city's elite, but comfortable enough that he had no financial burdens.

Ever since the enemy had invaded and occupied the city, he had become a community leader who people looked up to. Motohiro had taken that responsibility very seriously and had been involved in the resistance efforts.

He scratched his full beard before taking a long drag from the cigarette. It did nothing to calm him down.

"He said he'll be here," said Motohiro. "Don't worry."

"Can we trust him? Didn't he run away?"

"Why would he return to the city if he had already run away?" Motohiro took another drag before passing the cigarette back to the younger man. "There's no harm in listening to him. If we don't like it, we can always walk."

"But he's a shinobi… they're dangerous."

The rest of the group looked uneasy at the mention of shinobi. Even though they were part of the resistance group trying to oppose the enemy occupation, there wasn't much they could do when the enemy was an army of shinobi with a stranglehold on the entire city. One shinobi could wipe out the five men gathered under the streetlight and they would be dead before they knew it.

"They'll be dangerous regardless of what we decide," said Motohiro.

To be honest, Motohiro didn't think anything worthwhile would come from meeting with Gaku. Even before he had lost any connection to him, the shinobi wasn't very social or involved with the resistance effort. He kept to himself and had only shown up randomly at gatherings whenever he felt like it, and even then, holed himself in a corner without contributing unless prompted.

Motohiro was surprised that Gaku had even contacted him. He thought he'd died and was buried in ditch somewhere, truth be told. But given that he was a shinobi, Motohiro gave the meeting a chance rather than outright ignoring the man who had been missing for longer than a month and hadn't been of any help before.

Shinobi were not regular people, after all.

The faint sound of approaching footsteps that set the group on the edge. As the sound grew closer, Gaku's figure stepped into the faint light. He was dressed in loose black and grey clothes and walked like he was on a late-night stroll.

"I hope you've more people than these kids," Gaku said as he looked at the four youngsters.

"Maybe," Motohiro replied. "Why do you need my men?"

"Your men, huh," Gaku smiled as he reached into his clothes, which made people shift. He took a big piece of folded paper and flicked it towards the group. The folded paper flew in a curve but landed precisely into Motohiro's hands.

He unfolded the paper to reveal the red pro-occupation posters everywhere around the city.

"What about it?" asked Motohiro.

"We want to respond to this false propaganda." Gaku put a proper cigarette into his mouth and lit it with a zippo lighter.

"We? Who's we?" asked Motohiro.

At that moment, a silent figure appeared beside Gaku, which freaked the group out. Some of the younger guys cursed and stumbled. Motohiro was only able to hide his gasp because of them. They had only heard one set of footsteps before and weren't expecting someone else to be there with them. The figure was dressed in a dark robe and had a blank white mask with long eye slits covering his face. The figure had been standing in the shadow, standing just one step away from the light, hiding from them.

"W-Who are you?" asked Motohiro.

"I'm someone who shares an interest with you, Mr. Motohiro," said the figure. It was a male voice, but the sound was gravelly with a hint of underlying warping. "I'm interested in ridding this city of unwanted intruders so it and its people can return to their lives before this… situation."

"You didn't answer my question." Motohiro stared at the figure. Other than his below-average height, the figure didn't give anything away. There was this person before him that Motohiro knew nothing about it—and that scared him, stopping him from believing anything he said.

"My name's… Tobi," the figure introduced himself with a slight bow. "I'm not from Yu, but I've been sent here to help the city."

"…Who sent you?"

"Who do you think?"

"T-The Daimyo?" one of the youngsters replied from behind Motohiro.

There were whispers among the youngsters with hints of hope. Even Motohiro felt something swell up in his heart. Had their nation finally sent help to free them from the misery they faced under enemy rule?

"Your country needs your help," said Tobi. "I can help, but the people of the city are the only ones who can truly save it…. Mr. Motohiro, you're in a unique position to start something revolutionary that will change the tide. You're a strong voice among the people, and you have done a great job to keep them together—now's the time to reveal the truth to them."

Tobir took another folded piece of paper—blue, rather than the red of the enemy's propaganda—and unfolded it as he walked towards Motohiro with silent footsteps. Motohiro couldn't believe the man was walking to him—there wasn;t even a sound. Shuddering, he realised that Tobi was a shinobi, or at least someone very dangerous.

"You call this city your home and it wants you to save it." Tobi stopped before Motohiro and held up the poster under the streetlamp's light. "With my help, you can save it."






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[KarmaA]

Good updates. I wouldn't have expected them to make something that looked so different the occupiers could spot it from far away. Maybe they include a symbol or something so when they make subtler ones that stay up for a long time. If it's not distinct then civilians won't notice it and once they've got civilians looking for it they can then riff off that. Maybe a water mark or formatting the text in a certain shape, only people on the lookout would notice and then bother to read it.

Typos/ambiguity below.

The entire team except for Takuma. He didn't have a cover and thus wasn't connected to Chinatsu's group. If he got in trouble, it wouldn't connect back to him; if he got into trouble, it wouldn't get tracked back to Chinatsu.

Click to shrink...

That last sentence is very confusing, looks a bit like everything before the semicolon needs to be deleted.

goon's sister who took then took her life

Click to shrink...

first took needs to be deleted

You're a strong voice among the people, and you have done a great job to keep them together

Click to shrink...

you have done a great job (of/by) keeping them together
"to" there doesn't quite flow right

 

[resusplus]

yeah takuma is going full political manipulation route danso will feel like he as a rival

 

[The Radiance]

Propaganda vs Propaganda. May the best propagandist win.

 

[Fiction]

Fukiko woke up early in the morning, still feeling exhausted from the last day's work, having slept for barely six hours. She was a single mother of pre-teen twins and the sole care provider for her elderly father, who couldn't do anything other than barely walk himself around the house.

She hurried through a brief cold shower, which was always not enough and rushed to make a meal for her kids after they returned from school. The family didn't always have the money for a breakfast meal, which was why Fukiko was glad that the school provided a meal during the day. With the food shortages, she was worried that the school would stop providing meals, but luckily, the city had pulled together enough to ensure that the school continued to provide the regular mid-day meal.

"Kids! Get up quickly!" Fukiko yelled from the kitchen. "Hurry up, or we'll be late!"

She stopped moving and listened closely. A few moments of silence later, she heard the sound of quarrelling between the twins. Fukiko nodded and resumed her work.

"Fukiko…"

As she set up the table, Fukiko's aged father walked into the small open kitchen. He had more wrinkles on his face than a witch and a crooked back that had bothered him more than usual.

"Dad, did you sleep properly? I heard you shift a lot last night," said Fukiko as they put down two glasses of milk on the table. She turned away and yelled for the twins. "Come to the table before I have to come to you!"

"It was a bit cold, dear," said Fukiko's dad.

"Oh, should I take out the thicker blankets?" Fukiko put on a pot to boil some water for her father, but the stove lighter suddenly stopped working. She tried twice, but there was no spark to light the gas.

Fukiko's dad hummed as he nodded. He looked up at his only daughter. "Fukiko, what do you think about Miyamoto's offer?"

"Not now, Dad!" said Fukiko as she tried the lighter, but there was no flame on the hob.

Her father had been trying to set her up with Miyamoto, who owned an electrical company with three employees working for him. He had a large house and a good, steady income, but Fukiko didn't want to marry a man who was twenty years older than her.

"He's a good man, dear. He'll take good care of you and the kids."

"No, he won't," she whispered, so only she heard the words.

In truth, it wasn't his age that made Fukiko wary of him. Miyamoto was once married and even had children that lived with his ex-wife at her childhood home when he kicked them out. She had asked around, and the man wanted nothing to do with his children, cutting all ties with them.

Fukiko understood that her father was trying to look out for her, but she didn't have the time and energy for matchmaking. Certainly not with a man who might leave her like he did his ex-wife. With the way life was in Yu, she couldn't take that risk.

"You should at least meet him."

Fukiko's hand twitched as she felt an intense irritation overcome her.

"I don't want to marry him! Why do you keep bringing it up!?" she raised her voice and smacked the stove lighter on the countertop.

At the last moment, she heard footsteps and turned to see her twins standing at the kitchen door. They looked at the lighter in her hand with alarm. Fukiko took a deep breath and hurriedly turned her back to them, not wanting them to see her like that.

"Eat quickly, both of you," she said.

She took a deep breath, pressed the clicker on the lighter for it to finally produce a spark, and lit the fire in the stove hob.

As the water boiled, she took the trash out for collection. On her walk to the collection corner, she saw new blue posters much like the red ones. She didn't have any time to read whatever the shinobi had decided to put up for them and walked past them with a sigh.

She didn't care about what they had to say. Ever since those shinobi had come into the city, her and her family's life had become miserable. Even if she did, she had no time.


———
.


"Listen to your teachers, and don't create any problems. Especially you, Arata—no fighting. Things are hard enough without me being forced to come in because of your temper."

"It's not just me, you know." Her son heaved a sigh and turned his moxy-filled glare at the looming building behind him. "But I'll try."

"That's all I'm asking," she replied.

Kyo, the more level-headed of the two, rolled her eyes when he wasn't looking.

Fukiko kissed her twins and nudged them into the school building. The first bell was still three-quarters of an hour away, and there were barely any people in the school except for the cleaning staff.

She stood there waving until the twins were in the building before breaking into a cycle of running, jogging, and brisk walking. She couldn't bring the twins to school on time because she'd be late for work. Thankfully, the school gates opened half an hour before the actual required time.

Half an hour was just long enough for her to barely make it on time.

By the time she reached her place of work—a milling factory—she was out of breath and sweating from her pits. She checked the clock by the staff entrance and saw that she was a minute late, and groaned with her eyes closed.

Her supervisor was an old miser who took any opportunity possible to pay them less than their work deserved. So much that if any worker was late, by even a minute, their pay for half the day was cut. Fukiko couldn't afford to lose a single ryo of her pay—they were struggling as is on her regular salary. She closed her eyes, sure that any minute now, she would hear his horrible, scratchy yelling—but it didn't happen, she looked up in shock.

Almost hesitantly, she shuffled into the factory, where everyone was standing around in a circle.

Fukiko hoped they had gotten the fortunate news that their supervisor was dead, but when she sneaked over to the group, pretending she'd always been there, she saw the old bastard hale and healthy in the middle of the circle.

It made her question what was so disturbing that even their supervisor stopped being such an asshole.

"What's going on?" she whispered to one of the older ladies.

"There's a new poster."

"Oh," Fukiko's curiosity drained out of her. She couldn't care less. "What does it say this time? Calling the Daimyo an illegitimate ruler?"

The posters always blamed the Hot Water Daimyo and the Hidden Steam for the city's miserable condition. Fukiko didn't know if it was true or not, but one thing was for sure: the posters had brought a lot of hate toward the Daimyo and the Hidden Steam shinobi in the people.

There was a government building in the centre of the city built in honour of their Daimyo. It was the most beautiful, clean, and respected building in the city, treated as if it were the Daimyo himself.But last month, that same building had been defaced with profanity and all manner of curses towards their ruler.

Nobody had bothered to clean it up.

"The poster says that the Hidden Frost shinobi and the rich folk are buying food from the farmers and diverting it to the Land of Frost instead of us… They weren't around yesterday and now these posters are everywhere."

Fukiko was surprised and wasn't at the same time. She was surprised that the posters weren't put up by the Hidden Frost shinobi, but the contents of said poster didn't surprise her.

"I'm not really surprised," said Fukiko, shrugging. "This place never looks like it has a shortage of business. Maybe Mr. Bessho is part of the group who's selling the flour to the Land of Frost." She didn't want to sound ungrateful, so she didn't say it out loud, but the Bessho Mill hadn't fired a single worker no matter what they did.

It being war-time and all, they couldn't afford to look for new workers right now.

"Shut up!" The fat supervisor twisted his meaty neck towards Fukiko with a look of warning in his beady eyes. "Think before you speak! Mr. Bessho wouldn't be part of anything like this… We aren't even sure if this is true…." But as the supervisor spoke, his confidence sank, and by the end, he didn't seem to be very sure about his words.

According to what the red posters said, a majority of farmers had turned their business away from Yu, and only a fraction still sold to the city. There were rumours that the claims weren't true, but with the continuous food shortage, people believed their country had cut them out. However, for people like Fukiko, who saw the milling business thriving as usual, the claims made by these new blue posters allowed her doubts to click into place and she felt an overwhelming anger bubble up inside her.

The cost of living had shot up in the city. Her milling job used to be just enough for their family—even if they didn't live extravagantly, they lived comfortably. She spent enough time with her twins, she was able to look after her ageing father appropriately, and even though she didn't get much time to herself, she was content with how their lives were—but that all changed—with the prices of everything going up, she had to pick more hours at the factory which cut into her time with her family.

Her twins had to get up an hour earlier so that she could drop them off at school. She couldn't pick them up in the evenings and had to rely on a neighbour who would bring them back home. She could no longer help them with homework. Her father had started to hide his growing health problems from her to not make her worry. Even when she confronted him, he stubbornly refused to admit it.

And even after all that, the increased hours didn't do anything. They were barely getting by week after week and she had already dug into half of her hard-earned savings. In a few more months, they would truly be living paycheck to paycheck.

"And why are we making such a big deal of this?" asked Fukiko. "It doesn't matter about who's doing the screwing, our lives are still miserable. I don't see this poster changing anything."

"Not according to this."

Fukiko followed her finger and at the very bottom,, after everything else, was a single line printed in bold.

[Good days are near]

And below that was a symbol of two hands snapping a chain link in half.

Fukiko stared at the words, fighting against the smothered hope fighting its way to life within her.


———
.


A middle-aged man dressed in a bedroom robe over his underwear sipped a glass of freshly squeezed pineapple juice on ice. He sat on the luxurious balcony of his lavish estate. Two maids stood out of sight in the distance, waiting to complete his every request.

In the city of Yu, where the common populace was struggling for food, the man had no want for food and drink, reaching out for the opulent breakfast on the table beside him.

The only thing out of place from the affluent picture was the sheathed sword in a worn-down scabbard leaning against the man's outdoor lounge chair.

"What is it?" said the man.

A breeze ruffled the man's brown locks. The maids flinched in surprise when a man dressed in a black robe and a porcelain fox mask appeared before the man.

"Lord Kon," the masked figure greeted.

"Any problems?" asked Kon.

"The city police force found these this morning." The masked fox handed the blue poster to Kon.

Kon lazily glanced at the poster in the man's hand without taking it from him. But the next second, Kon sat up straight with sharp focus and took the poster in his own hands to read it thoroughly.

"This morning, you say?" asked Kon.

"Yes, sir. According to the police, the posters are everywhere. In the residential districts, the busiest commercial blocks, near diners, shopping centres, and even plastered over the posters we've put up."

Kon stood up from his chair and walked to the railings at the balcony's edge. He wasn't surprised to see resistance to the various plans and designs they had in motion around the city to turn Yu against the Land of Hot Waters.

"All around the city?"

"Affirmative, sir."

"Get these posters down, find the printer who made them, and arrest some of the resistance members to find the source of these posters. There's been resistance, but never like this." Kon turned to the masked fox. "I want some answers by the end of the day."

The masked fox bowed before disappearing into thin air and Kon stared out at the estate.

Kon was a ROOT shinobi. Someone in high-up in the Hidden Frost hired ROOT as war consultants to help them in the ongoing Frost-Steam war, and Kon was among the team leaders sent to the Hidden Frost.

His assignment was to help the Hidden Frost takeover the City of Yu, and then convert the city over to the Land of Frost's side. His secondary objective, like everyone from ROOT involved in the Frost-Steam war, was to collect information about the alliance between the Hidden Frost and the Hidden Cloud.

Their leader, Danzo believed that the Hidden Cloud was supporting the Hidden Frost to push the Hot Waters - Frost border closer to the Land of Fire—and then using their new alliance with the Hidden Frost to move the Hidden Cloud's influence more closer to the Land of Fire than it had even been. ROOT's objective was to get the information about the Cloud-Frost alliance so they could prepare against a threat to the Hidden Lead future.

Kon didn't want to be in Yu. He had a great position back home, handling ROOT's drug trade that funded many of ROOT's initiatives. He was in charge of the money—and that gave him power in the organisation.

However, when one of their farms was raided by the Leaf Military Police Force, and he retaliated by ordering an assassination of the person responsible for the raid, it all went wrong—the assassination failed and all he ended up costing ROOT four trainees who were an year away from becoming official agents—it was a significant blow to the organisation given that the trainees were lost in a failed assassination of a lowly genin.

He was punished and re-assigned to the Frost-Steam war. He wasn't even sent to the Hidden Frost, the real information trove, and was stuck on the frontlines.

Kon hated the person responsible for his downfall. Genin Takuma of the Narcotics Taskforce under the Department of Organized Crime of the Leaf Military Police Force. That child had ruined his life. He swore that if one day he got the opportunity, he would have his revenge.

But then the situation changed, the Hidden Leaf betrayed and turned on ROOT. The organisation was forced to go underground in hiding. The Hokage himself hunted their leader, Danzo, who had worked his entire life for the betterment of the village. It was a great disaster for ROOT. The organisation had lost the support of the Hidden Leaf—their home and funding. They had to relocate and reorganise quickly while the Hidden Leaf's ANBU were on the hunt for them.

However, there was a silver lining—at least for Kon. Fortunately, he wasn't in the Land of Fire while all of that happened. He was in Yu, working on his assignment—which was suddenly extremely important as helping the Hidden Frost win the war became a high priority as ROOT was now an independent mercenary organisation, and they needed a win to start their new chapter.

Kon was now in an enviable position.

Truth be told, he was happy the posters were put up. The resistance effort so far had been petulant and nothing overt. This time, he could use whoever put up the posters as an example.

He didn't even need to find the true culprits, which was why he ordered Fox to arrest known resistance members. He would punish them—regardless of their actual guilt—and reward the city folk who had fallen in line with the Hidden Frost—it would show the common populace what they needed to do to gain rewards.

Kon smiled. If enough complied, perhaps he'd lower the food prices. His pet dog curled against his right leg and he ran a finger along its head with a small smile.

He enjoyed training dogs, but controlling human lives was so much more fun.





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Note: All the chapters will eventually be posted on public forums.

 

[Silver719]

Wow. I knew he was a bastard, but what a complete, unapologetic psycho. Congrats, you've made a believable villain who I absolutely loathe.

 

[MrRobot]

Well well well, someone that defitely we would enjoy being teared down will show up.

 

[Bête Noire]

Man, ROOT is just the worst.

 

[SpaceWarper]

Hidden Lead future

Click to shrink...

Typo - should be "Hidden Leaf"

Did I miss the bit about ROOT getting attacked by the Hokage, or is this the first mention?

 

[MrRobot]

Typo - should be "Hidden Leaf"

Did I miss the bit about ROOT getting attacked by the Hokage, or is this the first mention?

Click to shrink...

You completely miss the chapters. It happens before the war bur after the assassination attempt.

 

[CHOSEDEATH]

The hype is so real, always crazy how evil people think harsher punishments won't just push the people more

 

[resusplus]

wait if i understand right that mean that ROOT is now basicaly a missing nin organisation like the akatsuki?

 

[MrRobot]

wait if i understand right that mean that ROOT is now basicaly a missing nin organisation like the akatsuki?

Click to shrink...

More like the sound village I think.

 

[Fiction]

"Sueo! Get me a drink!" said a tall and burly man who sat down behind his dirty and cluttered desk with his feet on the tabletop.

"Coming right up, boss!"

Bunji joined his fingers behind his head and looked around the police station run by his underlings. Several months ago, he would've felt disgusted stepping into the place, but now he ran it like it was his house. The dogs who loved to meddle in his business, trying to put him behind bars for simply doing 'legitimate' business, were no longer part of the police force. The Renge Gang replaced them in the Bentetsu Street police station. It felt like a dream, but it was reality, and he absolutely loved it. He couldn't be happier with where his life was. No more living in the dark, constantly looking over his shoulder in case the police busted him.

Now, he ran the territory like he owned it—in fact, he did.

He wasn't sure about the shinobi when they invaded the city and took over, but when the masked men offered power and influence, Bunji was more than happy to comply with the new powers-that-be. It wasn't his choice; his gang was under the command of the much larger Goharu Family. When the Goharu Family was given power, the Renge Gang got a slice of it as well.

"Here you go, boss." Sueo handed the glass of neat whiskey to Bunji.

Bunji smiled as he took the first sip of whiskey at eleven in the morning at a police station. It was as thrilling as it could be. As long as the Goharu Family continued to provide drugs to the shinobi and enforce their new laws, the Goharu Family and the Renge Family under them were part of the new court in the city.

If there was something he was dissatisfied with, it was that the Bentetsu Street police station no longer had any dogs—no one for them to make fun of or make their lives hell at the jobs they so much loved.

"Alright, boys!" Bunji addressed his people around the station. "It's time for the weekly collection from our very willing citizens who need our protection from threats. I want the money on my desk before lunch!"

Bunji picked up his glass to bring it to his lips when he saw four figures dressed in white masks and full-length black hooded jackets enter the police station. They were covered from top to bottom, but from the overall shape of their bodies, he could tell there were three women and one man.

He reached for his sword and was about to get up when he saw the group drag two of his men into the building and dumped them on the floor. They were stationed at the front entrance as guards.

"Hey, who the fuck—"

Before Bunji could complete his sentence, the man—who was at least two meters tall—walked to the nearest pillar, punched through the concrete, and ripped out the reinforced steel wire from the structure.

"Shut the fuck up and listen to what we say! A step out of the line and this will be your body" —he pointed to the broken pillar— "and this your bones" —he helped up the reinforced steel wire!" The man threw his fistful of wire toward Sueo, who stumbled while getting back into the room.

The wire bunch hit Sueo in the head, and he went down.

In mere seconds, the group of four had put the members of the Renge Gang on edge. They were still silent, but every muscle in their body was on the verge of a fight or flight response. The demonstration of power was enough for everyone to understand they were dealing with shinobi, and so none of them moved.

"Where's your boss?" asked one of the women.

A few eyes went to Bunji, who cursed under his breath.

She nodded to the taller man and the second woman who had started moving around, sticking what looked like paper tags on the walls and pillars around the building. The giant of a man who had punched through the pillar walked around the bullpen, staring everyone down like a hound ready to bite anyone who dared to move.

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

The masked woman pushed the junk off the table, sat down, and stared down at Bunji, who had his sheathed sword still in his grip; the woman, who looked to be the leader, didn't seem to mind the weapon in his hands.

"The city isn't very happy with your recent actions and choices, Bunji," the woman said smoothly. "The citizens in this police station's jurisdiction certainly aren't happy with Renge Gang's protection fund.. They feel like they shouldn't have to pay for you to do your jobs—especially with the current economic situation—don't you think it's tough?"

"L-Listen, lady. You don't want to do this. We are backed by the Goha—"

The leader slapped Bunji across the face, knocking the words from his mouth. He spun out of his chair and crashed into the metal cabinet in the corner. She jumped off the table, pulled Bunji up his hair, and dumped him into his chair.

Before he could gather his wits, or even get over the pain, she splashed his glass of whiskey in his face..

Bunji was shocked into silence. He didn't even see the slap coming, and before he realized it, he was on the ground, and his head had made a dent in the cabinet.

"I know who's backing you, but they aren't here right now." The leader grabbed Bunji's hair and softly moved his head around. "Let's not start trying to intimidate using names. We're the only ones who can do that here. You see that guy? He will punch through your chest if I tell him to," she pointed to the giant who was still roaming the area aggressively as though he were waiting for someone to step out of line.

Bunji felt a phantom pressure in his chest and gulped when he saw the masked man staring right at him.

"So, this is how it's going to play out. The Renge Gang will stop collecting money from the citizens in the name of protection. I don't care if you don't do your job as proper police because even I know that's expecting too much—but if I hear that you're going door to door collecting money, there'll be no one in this city who can protect you from me.

"Nod if you understand," she said.

Bunji stared at the woman. He was scared and knew he had no choice, but he couldn't just fold so easily in front of his men. Even though his eyes were focused on the woman, he could feel their gaze. A surrounding pressure on the edges of his vision. He didn't nod… at least, not immediately.

The woman sighed deeply.

She placed her gloved palm on his chest, and Benji flinched when he felt a pressure grow on his chest every passing moment. The dainty palm grew heavier by the second, and Bunji felt like someone had placed a metal block on his chest. His breathing grew labored, and his chest moved up and down. His panicked eyes jumped from the hand to the woman's face.

"I said nod if you understand."

Bunji took a deep breath and forced himself not to nod quickly like a pigeon.

"That's nice," the leader said. She then turned to face her team, who had regrouped in the bullpen.

"It's done," said the man.

"Alright, gentlemen! We're going to exit the building now, so form a line. Let's hurry on this and not be stupid, or you'll die. Come on, let's get it moving!" the woman spoke.

Bunji's men looked at him for direction. He nodded to them, got up, and walked to the middle of the bullpen. Some men immediately fell into line behind him, others hesitated out of fear, but seeing the masked group staring at them, they too quickly joined the queue.

"Boss, what's happening?"
"Shut up! Just do what they say, or do you want to die here?" Bunji whisper-yelled at the man behind him.

In less than thirty seconds, fifteen men of the Renge Gang had formed a line like a bunch of elementary school kids.

"We're going to give all of you a little makeover, so stand still and close your eyes!" the leader announced.

The masked group took out spray canisters and started to spray down the gang members in a metallic blue color. In less than a minute, everyone was fully covered in blue paint, and were left coughing because of the smell and fumes from the colors and canisters.

"We don't have much time, so move out."

The Bentetsu Street police station was built on a spacious lot a little distance off the main road. There weren't any other buildings next to the road—but there was an empty lot behind it and a short road between the station and the main road. The masked group led the gang outside the police station onto the short road that joined to the main road and made them lay down on their stomachs with their arms flat by their sides. All of them except Bunji.

He was in front of his man and watched as the masked men stuck the paper tags; he had seen them sticking around the building onto everyone's napes.

"W-What is that?" he asked as the leader stuck one on his neck.

They were also putting blue posters on their backs, but they slipped out of his mind because of the words he heard next.

The leader grabbed his collar and pulled him down to whisper in his ear: "These are bombs." Bunji flinched, and his heart started to race once again. "I can detonate them at any moment, and if you don't want it to happen, you will do as I say? Nod if you understand."

Bunji promptly nodded.

"I want you to keep standing here and your men to continue lying down there. If any of you moves, or tries to escape, these bombs will go off and your necks will explode… Boom," she huffed out sharply, making Bunji's knees buckle. "So, it's in your best interest to follow my orders. Nod if you understand."

Bunji nodded again. While he managed to hold back his tears, he couldn't stop his body from trembling. It didn't matter if his men could see him anymore. He didn't know if the woman spoke the truth, but he had no choice but to believe her.

A slip of paper in the hand of a shinobi could be a bomb.

"Before we bid you farewell, I have one more thing to tell you," the leader said to Bunji.

The next words she said were an address that Bunji recognized instantly. His eyes turned into saucers as he stared at the woman. It was the address of a shop he owned in an area very far away from the nearest main road. The shop itself wasn't that important, but the things inside were very important to him and the Renge Gang.

"We also don't like your main business, so we'll go and clean up your inventory."

"N-No, you can't do that. Please don't do that," Bunji begged.

He was lucky to hit it off with a group of shinobi to whom he had once sold drugs to. They had found him again in a few days and bought more than the last time, and then it turned into a weekly affair. It seemed that the group of shinobi had become drug providers to their entire shinobi army, and in turn, the Renge Gang had turned into their suppliers.

There were lots of drugs and loose cash in that shop, and even though there were seven people protecting and working in that shop, it wouldn't matter against one shinobi let alone four.

The Renge Gang couldn't afford to lose their inventory and cash.

If he lost his inventory, he would be unable to fulfill his client's demands, and they would turn to someone else, which would shatter his business. He also wouldn't be able to buy more because he had already taken a line of credit from the Goharu Family, which they would put pressure on him to pay back.

He was fucked.

"I suggest going into hiding," she whispered into his ear. "Now, keep standing here and watch what will happen if your gang goes against anything I said today… You can leave when you get the signal; don't worry about not getting it; you'll know what it is."

Bunji wanted to beg them to leave his inventory and money alone, but the masked group left him alone with his men, who called to him, asking if they could get up. He stared at them, wondering what he should say to them.

"… Keep lying down," he said.

He had to run. He had some money at his home; he could bribe the guards and get out of the city. As long as he got out of the city, the Goharu Family wouldn't be able to get to him because of the city's lockdown imposed by the shinobi.

"Just keep lying—"

BOOM!

The ground rumbled as the sound of explosions ripped through the air. The force hit Bunji's back, pushing him forward. It wasn't enough to make him fall, but he still did because he felt weak after what he had heard. His men were trembling on the ground in fetal positions as explosions continued to happen. They yelled and screamed in fear.

BOOM!

He turned back to see an explosion rip through the police station, and a jet of fire roared into the sky. Smoke rose from the building as more and more explosions tore the building apart brick by brick. It quickly started to crumble on itself and he flinched when a large piece of debris flew into the air. For a moment, he thought it would reach them, but the group was far enough that they were out of the splash zone

He sat there numbly and watched the remains of the destroyed building as a massive smoke could blot out the sky.

The same tags that made short work of the building were attached to his neck.

It terrified him so much he stopped thinking about running away.

BOOM!






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Note: All the chapters will eventually be posted on public forums.