TFTC, seeing the transformation of takuma into a badass is so satisfying
Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve
CH_7.18 (236)
Fiction
Feel free to ask me questions.
Anko observed a storage warehouse through a pair of binoculars. The sun had long set, and she stood in the open a couple hundred metres from the warehouse. She saw two pairs of guards patrolling the perimeter of the warehouse; they seemed to be civilians, essentially making them non-threats. According to the intel provided by Motohiro's resistance group, the warehouse didn't have any shinobi guards, which made the job so much easier.
She was more than surprised when Takuma returned from the meeting with Motohiro's resistance group to report that he had to reveal his face to them. It was understandable why they would want to know, but she didn't expect that play from a group of civilians. Moreover, they asked the team to do something so they could restart the relationship on stable grounding.
The occupying forces created an artificial shortage of food in Yu. Motohiro had been helping his people and their families with support, but a single man could only feed over a hundred mouths for so long before funds started to run dry.
The solution they came up with was to rob a warehouse with produce set to be exported out of the city and into the Land of Frost. The food that was supposed to feed the region was going out to the enemy country—that food was theirs, and they felt more than justified to take it back. The group could've done it on their own, but the amount of goods to be moved was too large, and they didn't have any means to move it quickly and quietly.
Fortunately, for Anko's team, it wasn't a problem at all; they had a specialist made for the job. She put the binoculars down and turned to her team—Iori, Daiki, Kameko, and Takuma. It was overkill to bring everyone but Rikku; however, Iori was essential to the operation. Daiki wanted to do something else other than following Gaku around; Kameko was going stir-crazy from their visits to Chinatsu's clients as her maid, and as for Takuma, he insisted on being there because the job was for Motohiro's group.
"This is going to be an easy job, so Kameko is going to lead," said Anko.
"Understood," said Kameko and addressed the team. "We're going to knock the guards out so we can work in peace." There was no real benefit to stealth around the guards; they were bound to know about the robbery, and it didn't matter if it was sooner or later. "Upon getting inside, we take inventory of stuff we need, after which Iori packs everything up, and we leave."
Iori had a large scroll strapped to her back, three-quarters of her height. The regular, pocket-sized storage scrolls weren't going to cut it for the amount of produce they were planning to move.
"Takuma, you're going to keep watch just in case."
"Yes, ma'am," said Takuma, putting his mask on.
"Any doubts? Let's go."
The team put on their masks and stealthily proceeded toward the warehouse with Kameko in the lead. Anko and Iori paired up to take care of the first pair of guards, while Daiki and Kameko went after the second pair. Takuma directly headed inside to clean up whoever was inside.
In less than five minutes, the team regrouped inside, with six people knocked out and tied up inside a room.
The warehouse was filled with flour, pulses, rice, salt, and other spices. There were bags upon bags made of jute filled with produce that could keep stomachs full for months.
"What do you need?" Kameko asked Iori.
Iori pulled the strap holding the large scroll from her shoulder. "We have a list of their needs by weight. All of you choose a few things and pile them separately out by the weight listed on this list." She held up a list for everyone to see. "Make sure bags in a pile are in contact with each other—any bag that's even a few centimetres detached from the pile won't be stored. Please ensure you don't go over the listed weights because I've prepared according to this list—go off the list, transfer will fail, and I'll waste chakra—we don't want that."
Due to its complexity and skill, the large custom-made scroll required a fuin-nin to operate. Not even Anko could use it. The large mass and volume required a lot of chakra to be sealed; as such, Iori had to plan everything down to the smallest detail so as not to waste her chakra. According to her, the amount to be sealed was cutting it close with respect to Iori's chakra reserves.
"Any questions?" asked Iori.
Daiki raised his hand. "Yes, uhm... why are the same items mentioned twice with different weights." On the list, every single item was mentioned twice—the first time with a larger weight and the second time with a smaller weight.
"Once sealed, all the items inside will only be released together," she replied. "Fulfil the first, larger entry—if there's not enough to fulfil the smaller entry, it's fine; I'll seal whatever's remaining."
Anko looked at the two entries for each item. The larger entry was the amount asked by Motohiro's group. The second, smaller entry was an extra amount that Takuma had added to be stored separately because it wasn't going to the group. She recalled Takuma's words when they were preparing for the mission.
"—In the current Yu, food is a valuable commodity. Seeing how Motohiro was willing to act like that in front of us tells me that we should also stock up on it. It'd undoubtedly come in use.—"
She agreed with his assessment. They could pay people off in food through a barter system. If someone struggling suddenly found themselves with a lot of money and used it to buy food, someone might notice and question where they came up with the money; however, with food, once it was inside someone's home, no one would know because it wouldn't ever go out of the house.
"Let's do it quickly," said Kameko, splitting the list items among the team.
Iori sat down on the ground with the scroll resting beside her. She closed her eyes and meditated in preparation for the sealing process. Half an hour later, she was roused out of her meditative state. The piles of jute bags had been created according to the list
"I want silence, and I don't want anybody touching me," said Iori.
Iori started from the left side of the warehouse and opened the giant scroll to reveal intricate fuinjutsu inkwork for large storage seals. She approached the first pile and touched it with one hand while the other was on the scroll. The huge pile, almost a storey tall, disappeared in a massive cloud of smoke. The ink on the scroll moved, altering the structure of the seal formulae; the moving ink came to a rest when the pile was securely stored in an artificial pocket of space.
Iori breathed out deeply. She stayed still for a moment before unfurling the scroll further and moving to the next pile. She sealed the massive piles of food into the scrolls one at a time. As she moved to the right, a sheen of sweat built up her skin, and her breathing grew laboured until she was wheezing 90% of the way to completion.
"Iori, please wait," said Daiki, stepping forward, worry on his face and in his voice. "Are you sure you're feeling up for it? I'm worried about chakra exhaustion," he said, looking at Anko.
Everyone on the team was well familiar with the dangers of chakra exhaustion. The worst-case outcome was death, and even if they excluded that, Iori could still end up in need of prolonged bed rest, which wasn't something they could have while they were in hostile territory.
Iori raised her hand to stop Daiki from approaching. She was hunched over with one hand on her knee as her entire torso moved with her laboured breathing. She looked up at him with sharpness in her eyes.
"Silence and... don't touch me," she said between wheezes.
She straightened herself up and threw her head back in silence for a full ten seconds before dragging her feet to the next pile. The sealing process slowed; the ink on the scroll moved sluggishly as Iori became exhausted. Sealing such a vast amount wasn't a job for a single genin fuin-nin.
As Iori approached the last pile, seven small bags of dried chillies, Anko tried to stop her.
"Stop, Iori. I have an empty scroll. We can fit some in the scroll and carry the rest," she said.
Iori ignored her, and her dainty touched a dried chilli bag. A puff of smoke later, the small pile disappeared. Her feet trembled before she tilted to the side. She was about to fall when Takuma appeared beside her to hold her up.
"You should leave this type of over-exertion to me," Takuma said to Iori.
Iori tried to laugh, but her legs ultimately gave out at that moment. Takuma held her up and then swept her into a princess carry.
Anko sighed as she looked at Iori. She knew that Iori was insecure about her position in the team. Unlike Kameko and Rikku, she wasn't a strong combat asset. Daiki had been active as the "muscle," and his stealth experience was also valuable. While she acted as Chinatsu's maid, the courtesan only went out once a week, and the girls were on a rotation on who was going to accompany her and who was going to stay at home. And there was no use comparing herself to Takuma.
The night before the police station bombing, Iori had woken up thrice during the night to check the explosive tags. For this mission as well, she had been checking the custom scroll the entire day—she would be satisfied with the quality of her seals, but then she would return half an hour later with a new wave of worry.
Iori wanted to prove her value by completing the only thing she could on the team: fuinjutsu. Even if it meant pushing herself toward chakra exhaustion, she wouldn't let anyone take it away from her.
"Daiki, pick up the scroll," said Anko. "Good job, let's leave now."
———
.
Motohiro stood in his warehouse, staring at the jute bags filled with produce piled up high in multiple heaps. It had been months since his warehouse had been this occupied, so he didn't mind the few torn bags leaking grains, which he would've immediately tried to gather up because of the food shortage.
"Big brother... i-is this real?" asked Wada, one of his close aides and a leader in the resistance group, with his mouth hanging open.
"They weren't lying; they really did it," said Miyauchi, another one of his aides, gulping at the amount of food in front of him.
Motohiro had no words for them. He turned toward the other side of the warehouse, where Tobi and Gaku had a large scroll with them. He flinched when a large smoke cloud exploded in the warehouse, and the smoke thinned to reveal a huge pile of jute bags full of dry beans.
He had asked them to rob the warehouse six days ago. Two days ago, he received the news that the warehouse had been robbed, but the two shinobi didn't contact them. He started to worry that the shinobi had abandoned them, and his group began to worry, thinking that some trouble would come their way. He regretted asking the shinobi for a moment, but then they contacted him.
"I hope this satisfies you, gentlemen," said Tobi.
"Of course, it does," said Motohiro—he didn't say it, but he didn't expect them to rob the amount he had asked; he had deliberately over-quoted so they would feel pressured to bring more—but he didn't expect to get that over-quoted amount.
Tobi looked at Wada and Miyauchi, who instantly responded positively and responsibly, unlike the last time when they were upset; Wada even had to be held back in case he tried to do something stupid.
"Then I hope you'll do us a favour as well," said Tobi.
"What?"
"We'd like you to introduce us to the Kumi Family."
Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over to Patreón [fictiononlyreader]. Link here and in signature.
Note: All the chapters will eventually be posted on public forums.
She was more than surprised when Takuma returned from the meeting with Motohiro's resistance group to report that he had to reveal his face to them. It was understandable why they would want to know, but she didn't expect that play from a group of civilians. Moreover, they asked the team to do something so they could restart the relationship on stable grounding.
The occupying forces created an artificial shortage of food in Yu. Motohiro had been helping his people and their families with support, but a single man could only feed over a hundred mouths for so long before funds started to run dry.
The solution they came up with was to rob a warehouse with produce set to be exported out of the city and into the Land of Frost. The food that was supposed to feed the region was going out to the enemy country—that food was theirs, and they felt more than justified to take it back. The group could've done it on their own, but the amount of goods to be moved was too large, and they didn't have any means to move it quickly and quietly.
Fortunately, for Anko's team, it wasn't a problem at all; they had a specialist made for the job. She put the binoculars down and turned to her team—Iori, Daiki, Kameko, and Takuma. It was overkill to bring everyone but Rikku; however, Iori was essential to the operation. Daiki wanted to do something else other than following Gaku around; Kameko was going stir-crazy from their visits to Chinatsu's clients as her maid, and as for Takuma, he insisted on being there because the job was for Motohiro's group.
"This is going to be an easy job, so Kameko is going to lead," said Anko.
"Understood," said Kameko and addressed the team. "We're going to knock the guards out so we can work in peace." There was no real benefit to stealth around the guards; they were bound to know about the robbery, and it didn't matter if it was sooner or later. "Upon getting inside, we take inventory of stuff we need, after which Iori packs everything up, and we leave."
Iori had a large scroll strapped to her back, three-quarters of her height. The regular, pocket-sized storage scrolls weren't going to cut it for the amount of produce they were planning to move.
"Takuma, you're going to keep watch just in case."
"Yes, ma'am," said Takuma, putting his mask on.
"Any doubts? Let's go."
The team put on their masks and stealthily proceeded toward the warehouse with Kameko in the lead. Anko and Iori paired up to take care of the first pair of guards, while Daiki and Kameko went after the second pair. Takuma directly headed inside to clean up whoever was inside.
In less than five minutes, the team regrouped inside, with six people knocked out and tied up inside a room.
The warehouse was filled with flour, pulses, rice, salt, and other spices. There were bags upon bags made of jute filled with produce that could keep stomachs full for months.
"What do you need?" Kameko asked Iori.
Iori pulled the strap holding the large scroll from her shoulder. "We have a list of their needs by weight. All of you choose a few things and pile them separately out by the weight listed on this list." She held up a list for everyone to see. "Make sure bags in a pile are in contact with each other—any bag that's even a few centimetres detached from the pile won't be stored. Please ensure you don't go over the listed weights because I've prepared according to this list—go off the list, transfer will fail, and I'll waste chakra—we don't want that."
Due to its complexity and skill, the large custom-made scroll required a fuin-nin to operate. Not even Anko could use it. The large mass and volume required a lot of chakra to be sealed; as such, Iori had to plan everything down to the smallest detail so as not to waste her chakra. According to her, the amount to be sealed was cutting it close with respect to Iori's chakra reserves.
"Any questions?" asked Iori.
Daiki raised his hand. "Yes, uhm... why are the same items mentioned twice with different weights." On the list, every single item was mentioned twice—the first time with a larger weight and the second time with a smaller weight.
"Once sealed, all the items inside will only be released together," she replied. "Fulfil the first, larger entry—if there's not enough to fulfil the smaller entry, it's fine; I'll seal whatever's remaining."
Anko looked at the two entries for each item. The larger entry was the amount asked by Motohiro's group. The second, smaller entry was an extra amount that Takuma had added to be stored separately because it wasn't going to the group. She recalled Takuma's words when they were preparing for the mission.
"—In the current Yu, food is a valuable commodity. Seeing how Motohiro was willing to act like that in front of us tells me that we should also stock up on it. It'd undoubtedly come in use.—"
She agreed with his assessment. They could pay people off in food through a barter system. If someone struggling suddenly found themselves with a lot of money and used it to buy food, someone might notice and question where they came up with the money; however, with food, once it was inside someone's home, no one would know because it wouldn't ever go out of the house.
"Let's do it quickly," said Kameko, splitting the list items among the team.
Iori sat down on the ground with the scroll resting beside her. She closed her eyes and meditated in preparation for the sealing process. Half an hour later, she was roused out of her meditative state. The piles of jute bags had been created according to the list
"I want silence, and I don't want anybody touching me," said Iori.
Iori started from the left side of the warehouse and opened the giant scroll to reveal intricate fuinjutsu inkwork for large storage seals. She approached the first pile and touched it with one hand while the other was on the scroll. The huge pile, almost a storey tall, disappeared in a massive cloud of smoke. The ink on the scroll moved, altering the structure of the seal formulae; the moving ink came to a rest when the pile was securely stored in an artificial pocket of space.
Iori breathed out deeply. She stayed still for a moment before unfurling the scroll further and moving to the next pile. She sealed the massive piles of food into the scrolls one at a time. As she moved to the right, a sheen of sweat built up her skin, and her breathing grew laboured until she was wheezing 90% of the way to completion.
"Iori, please wait," said Daiki, stepping forward, worry on his face and in his voice. "Are you sure you're feeling up for it? I'm worried about chakra exhaustion," he said, looking at Anko.
Everyone on the team was well familiar with the dangers of chakra exhaustion. The worst-case outcome was death, and even if they excluded that, Iori could still end up in need of prolonged bed rest, which wasn't something they could have while they were in hostile territory.
Iori raised her hand to stop Daiki from approaching. She was hunched over with one hand on her knee as her entire torso moved with her laboured breathing. She looked up at him with sharpness in her eyes.
"Silence and... don't touch me," she said between wheezes.
She straightened herself up and threw her head back in silence for a full ten seconds before dragging her feet to the next pile. The sealing process slowed; the ink on the scroll moved sluggishly as Iori became exhausted. Sealing such a vast amount wasn't a job for a single genin fuin-nin.
As Iori approached the last pile, seven small bags of dried chillies, Anko tried to stop her.
"Stop, Iori. I have an empty scroll. We can fit some in the scroll and carry the rest," she said.
Iori ignored her, and her dainty touched a dried chilli bag. A puff of smoke later, the small pile disappeared. Her feet trembled before she tilted to the side. She was about to fall when Takuma appeared beside her to hold her up.
"You should leave this type of over-exertion to me," Takuma said to Iori.
Iori tried to laugh, but her legs ultimately gave out at that moment. Takuma held her up and then swept her into a princess carry.
Anko sighed as she looked at Iori. She knew that Iori was insecure about her position in the team. Unlike Kameko and Rikku, she wasn't a strong combat asset. Daiki had been active as the "muscle," and his stealth experience was also valuable. While she acted as Chinatsu's maid, the courtesan only went out once a week, and the girls were on a rotation on who was going to accompany her and who was going to stay at home. And there was no use comparing herself to Takuma.
The night before the police station bombing, Iori had woken up thrice during the night to check the explosive tags. For this mission as well, she had been checking the custom scroll the entire day—she would be satisfied with the quality of her seals, but then she would return half an hour later with a new wave of worry.
Iori wanted to prove her value by completing the only thing she could on the team: fuinjutsu. Even if it meant pushing herself toward chakra exhaustion, she wouldn't let anyone take it away from her.
"Daiki, pick up the scroll," said Anko. "Good job, let's leave now."
———
.
Motohiro stood in his warehouse, staring at the jute bags filled with produce piled up high in multiple heaps. It had been months since his warehouse had been this occupied, so he didn't mind the few torn bags leaking grains, which he would've immediately tried to gather up because of the food shortage.
"Big brother... i-is this real?" asked Wada, one of his close aides and a leader in the resistance group, with his mouth hanging open.
"They weren't lying; they really did it," said Miyauchi, another one of his aides, gulping at the amount of food in front of him.
Motohiro had no words for them. He turned toward the other side of the warehouse, where Tobi and Gaku had a large scroll with them. He flinched when a large smoke cloud exploded in the warehouse, and the smoke thinned to reveal a huge pile of jute bags full of dry beans.
He had asked them to rob the warehouse six days ago. Two days ago, he received the news that the warehouse had been robbed, but the two shinobi didn't contact them. He started to worry that the shinobi had abandoned them, and his group began to worry, thinking that some trouble would come their way. He regretted asking the shinobi for a moment, but then they contacted him.
"I hope this satisfies you, gentlemen," said Tobi.
"Of course, it does," said Motohiro—he didn't say it, but he didn't expect them to rob the amount he had asked; he had deliberately over-quoted so they would feel pressured to bring more—but he didn't expect to get that over-quoted amount.
Tobi looked at Wada and Miyauchi, who instantly responded positively and responsibly, unlike the last time when they were upset; Wada even had to be held back in case he tried to do something stupid.
"Then I hope you'll do us a favour as well," said Tobi.
"What?"
"We'd like you to introduce us to the Kumi Family."
Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over to Patreón [fictiononlyreader]. Link here and in signature.
Note: All the chapters will eventually be posted on public forums.
CH_7.19 (237)
Fiction
Feel free to ask me questions.
Unlike the Fire Daimyo, the Hokage was a military leader. He didn't need others to handle the military for him. However, one person couldn't manage the tens and thousands of shinobi and the hundred thousand civilians around them who worked as the support structure.
A hierarchy was established to manage the Hidden Leaf shinobi organisation. In that hierarchical structure, Jonin Commanders were one step below the Hokage. They were the leaders and representatives of regular shinobi forces members of the Hidden Leaf council, giving them considerable power in the village.
Nara Shikaku, head of the Nara clan, and a Jonin Commander, was reading mission report summaries in his office. There was a knock on his door, and his secretary stepped in.
"Jonin Uchiha Itachi has arrived for his meeting."
"Send him in."
Itachi soon entered the office; he was dressed in simple dusty black clothes with his forehead protector around his head. Shikaku gazed at the young prodigy, who was recently promoted to the position of ANBU Captain. He thought about what he was doing at Itachi's age and could only recall lazing around at home all day long when he wasn't on missions.
It was hard not to be impressed by the sheer talent before him.
"Sit," he said.
However, he wondered if he should be worried about the look in his eyes.
"May I know why I was summoned? I'd appreciate it if we could hurry if it's not important," asked Itachi.
Shikaku appreciated him skipping all the niceties and formalities—they were such a drag. Even though he was a Jonin Commander, he didn't have the authority to order Itachi as the young Uchiha served under an ANBU Commander—a Jonin Commander in charge of ANBU—but it'd be rude on Itachi's part if he refused a Jonin Commander's summon without proper reason.
Shikaku retrieved a two-flap file folder from his desk drawer and placed it before Itachi.
"I received some information from the Steam-Frost war front that might interest you... ROOT was spotted," he said.
Itachi, reaching for the file, paused before calmly picking it up.
"Is the intel verifiable?"
"A shinobi came across a group of ROOT agents hunting for him. He managed to escape while killing one and stealing his weapons belt. There, he found a knife with a variation of a blacksmith's touchmark associated with ROOT."
Itachi removed the confidentiality seal from the file and opened it for reading.
"How did the shinobi know to look for the touchmark and that it's related to ROOT."
"Because he has had contact with ROOT once before, he recognized the gear. And apparently," Shikaku sighed, "he found the same touchmark on a knife he pulled off the corpse of another ROOT agent."
Shikaku was impressed when he heard the claims in the file forwarded to him by the war commission. To escape alive from ROOT agents once was a rare feat; to escape from them twice was something special. That wasn't even including killing four of them—that was something only very few could claim they had done.
"Genin Takuma of the Police Force... I know him," said Itachi.
"Through your mother, I suppose," said Shikaku. When the ROOT claims were made, it was protocol to run background checks on everyone involved.
Itachi nodded. "My mother's student. If I remember correctly, he's currently participating in the Steam-Frost war and was involved in an assassination attempt before his deployment." He looked up at Shikaku. "Why did you put it that way? That he apparently found the touchmark."
"According to Genin Takuma, he passed on the knife with the touchmark to the case officer handling his assassination case. However, I'm sure I'd heard that ROOT had performed an operation inside the village against one of our own. Seeing that I wasn't aware of it until his report can only mean a few things..."
"Either someone made the evidence disappear, or the Police Force held back information," said Itachi as he flipped through the file. "It's the latter."
"Why do you say that?"
"There was an assassination attempt on one of their own; that's not something they'll let go."
"So, why not share the information with ANBU? That would've been revenge even if it took the case from them," said Shikaku.
The Police Force couldn't claim to be ignorant about ROOT as they were regularly given information because of their position as enforcers. But he already knew the answer to that question. The relationship between the Police Force and ANBU was in a ditch. The reason sat before him even though he didn't know the details. He asked the question to see if Itachi would answer it. Unfortunately, Itachi stayed quiet.
"So he was targeted for raiding one of ROOT's drug farms," Itachi sounded doubtful as he continued, "and they followed him to the Land of Hot Waters?"
"According to his account, it doesn't seem like they recognized him, but he could be wrong."
Danzo and ROOT were marked as rogue shinobi upon their defection, and ANBU were responsible for hunting them down and dismantling their network. It would take years, perhaps even decades, to get rid of ROOT, but it was a top-priority task as they possessed sensitive and confidential information pertaining to national security.
Upon his promotion to ANBU Captain, Itachi was among those responsible for seeing the extermination of ROOT—which was why Shikaku called him when he received the intel regarding a possible ROOT spotting.
"What are you going to do about it?"
"Unfortunately, that's confidential ANBU information," he eventually said.
"Are you going to send anyone there? It might disrupt the mission being conducted in the city, which will affect the invasion to liberate the city from the Hidden Frost's control."
Itachi didn't reply and continued to read the file.
"Do you think Orochimaru's student might be secretly working with ROOT?" Itachi asked.
"Chunin Mitarashi?" Shikaku hummed as he stared at the ceiling. "Taking her track record before and since Orochimaru's defection into consideration, I don't think she's involved with him or ROOT. Of course, it'd be wise to run a background check—if you have the time and resources for it, that is." ANBU would, of course, have the resources for it—they had nearly unlimited resources—the question was if it was wise to spend those resources on something not required.
"Anything else?" asked Itachi.
"Keep us in the loop if you decide to take action from your side. I don't want my shinobi, who are risking their lives, to be blindsided by a clandestine ANBU operation."
Itachi wrapped up the file before standing up from his chair. "I'll take my leave now. Thank you for bringing this to my attention."
Shikaku saw Itachi out before returning to his office. He didn't know ANBU's stance on the matter; ROOT's defection was fairly recent, and ANBU chased after big names associated with ROOT. There was a chance ANBU wouldn't take any direct action if they confirmed the lack of a big name in Yu. However, one thing was for sure. Uchiha Itachi would soon be visiting the Police Force in his position as an ANBU-nin.
It was also convoluted and complex, and Shikaku's mind couldn't help but chase several possibilities and scenarios. It was so tiring that he looked forward to the evening when he could have a drink to escape his own mind by dulling it with alcohol.
He sighed.
He wanted to retire, but then his wife would call him a jobless bum—not to mention his son would surely take the wrong lesson from it.
———
.
"Say it again."
Kon stood up from his patio chair with a wild look in his eyes. His shoulder was held together in a tight cast; it was almost healed, but there was still a strenuous rehabilitation process ahead of him. However, he wasn't concerned about anything but what he had just heard at that moment.
"Genin Takuma was deployed to the Frost-Steam war and is stationed at Camp Banana, which is one of the closer Hidden Leaf bases to the city."
Kon felt his heart swell at his subordinate's report. The kid who had ruined his hard-built reputation in ROOT was participating in the same war as him. Not only could he regain his reputation by completing his mission, he could also get revenge.
"And?" Kon asked. "Is he in the city?"
"Unfortunately, we haven't been able to confirm that. The organisation no longer has a source close to the war commission with a high enough clearance and we don't have permission to use any of the remaining undercover agents present in the village to gain access. The risk has been deemed unacceptable."
Kon felt a wave of displeasure and anger rise, but he pushed it down quickly. He stood up straighter and took deep breaths. It wasn't the time to be angry; he had just received good news after all.
"I don't need the confirmation. I know he's in the city. Augmentations like that are rare, after all, and his deployment status is all the proof I need."
Kon turned around to look at the city centre in the distance. His mortal enemy was somewhere out there, so close that all he wanted to do was set out to find him. It was so unbearable that he wanted time to skip ahead to the day when he had Takuma on his knees before him.
"What next, sir?" asked his subordinate.
"Find me the best sketch artist this city can offer," Kon replied. "I want that little shit's face one very street corner. I want every shinobi in this city to memorise his face. I want a hefty reward on him—taken alive! Whenever anyone in this city steps out of their houses, I want them looking for one face in the crowd. He's a shinobi far from home; I want him to feel every ounce of hostility about where he is."
———
.
Takuma stared at himself in a full-length mirror. He had made a mistake. His communication with Motohiro's group taught him that he could've just used the Transformation Jutsu instead of using a mask to hide his identity. He had mistakenly applied his previous experience to a different situation.
He had used the mask in the Hidden Leaf because the Transformation Jutsu wouldn't cut it due to the dense shinobi population—but Yu didn't had that problem (excluding the enemy shinobi), and he could've freely used the jutsu to disguise himself from civilians who weren't equipped to see through it.
He had even taken Iori disguised as Gaku to deliver the stolen food to Motohiro's group, and not one person had said as much as a peep about noticing something off in Gaku. But it was too late now, and he couldn't go back. He was going to meet the Kumi family, and with Motohiro acting as the introducer, he couldn't disguise himself or put on a mask.
The Kumi Family was the other criminal group based in Yu. Before the Hidden Frost invaded Yu, the Goharu and the Kumi families stood on equal ground and kept each other in check through intense competition. Between the police and the two criminal families, there was an equilibrium maintained in the city—which was shattered the moment the city was invaded. The Goharu Family allied themselves with the shinobi and gained enough power to overthrow both their rival gang and the police force.
The team was aiming to gain the support of the Kumi Family. Like Motohiro's group, what Takuma and the team primarily wanted from the Kumi Family was their sway in the city, which they used to influence the larger populace. They wanted an atmosphere of support against the invading shinobi, and using the vocal and influential groups to gain that support was the way to go. If things went well with the Kumi Family, the team could move on to the next stage of the plan, where they were planning to be much more active in their actions.
Takuma heard footsteps and frowned when he heard multiple sets of footsteps. Only Gaku was supposed to meet him in the base so they could leave together. He turned to see the entire team, including Gaku, walking towards him. Something was wrong because there was always someone with Chinatsu.
"What is wrong?"
"The situation has just changed drastically," said Anko, holding up a poster.
Takuma looked down at it and saw a sketch that looked a little off, but it was, without a doubt, him. That wouldn't have been that much of a surprise, given that he had revealed his face to several people a couple of days back but then looked down at the name below the sketch.
[Takuma]
He blinked his eyes, wondering if he had somehow misread Tobi as Takuma—but there it was—his real name was printed on a wanted poster.
He looked up at his team.
The situation had indeed changed drastically.
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A hierarchy was established to manage the Hidden Leaf shinobi organisation. In that hierarchical structure, Jonin Commanders were one step below the Hokage. They were the leaders and representatives of regular shinobi forces members of the Hidden Leaf council, giving them considerable power in the village.
Nara Shikaku, head of the Nara clan, and a Jonin Commander, was reading mission report summaries in his office. There was a knock on his door, and his secretary stepped in.
"Jonin Uchiha Itachi has arrived for his meeting."
"Send him in."
Itachi soon entered the office; he was dressed in simple dusty black clothes with his forehead protector around his head. Shikaku gazed at the young prodigy, who was recently promoted to the position of ANBU Captain. He thought about what he was doing at Itachi's age and could only recall lazing around at home all day long when he wasn't on missions.
It was hard not to be impressed by the sheer talent before him.
"Sit," he said.
However, he wondered if he should be worried about the look in his eyes.
"May I know why I was summoned? I'd appreciate it if we could hurry if it's not important," asked Itachi.
Shikaku appreciated him skipping all the niceties and formalities—they were such a drag. Even though he was a Jonin Commander, he didn't have the authority to order Itachi as the young Uchiha served under an ANBU Commander—a Jonin Commander in charge of ANBU—but it'd be rude on Itachi's part if he refused a Jonin Commander's summon without proper reason.
Shikaku retrieved a two-flap file folder from his desk drawer and placed it before Itachi.
"I received some information from the Steam-Frost war front that might interest you... ROOT was spotted," he said.
Itachi, reaching for the file, paused before calmly picking it up.
"Is the intel verifiable?"
"A shinobi came across a group of ROOT agents hunting for him. He managed to escape while killing one and stealing his weapons belt. There, he found a knife with a variation of a blacksmith's touchmark associated with ROOT."
Itachi removed the confidentiality seal from the file and opened it for reading.
"How did the shinobi know to look for the touchmark and that it's related to ROOT."
"Because he has had contact with ROOT once before, he recognized the gear. And apparently," Shikaku sighed, "he found the same touchmark on a knife he pulled off the corpse of another ROOT agent."
Shikaku was impressed when he heard the claims in the file forwarded to him by the war commission. To escape alive from ROOT agents once was a rare feat; to escape from them twice was something special. That wasn't even including killing four of them—that was something only very few could claim they had done.
"Genin Takuma of the Police Force... I know him," said Itachi.
"Through your mother, I suppose," said Shikaku. When the ROOT claims were made, it was protocol to run background checks on everyone involved.
Itachi nodded. "My mother's student. If I remember correctly, he's currently participating in the Steam-Frost war and was involved in an assassination attempt before his deployment." He looked up at Shikaku. "Why did you put it that way? That he apparently found the touchmark."
"According to Genin Takuma, he passed on the knife with the touchmark to the case officer handling his assassination case. However, I'm sure I'd heard that ROOT had performed an operation inside the village against one of our own. Seeing that I wasn't aware of it until his report can only mean a few things..."
"Either someone made the evidence disappear, or the Police Force held back information," said Itachi as he flipped through the file. "It's the latter."
"Why do you say that?"
"There was an assassination attempt on one of their own; that's not something they'll let go."
"So, why not share the information with ANBU? That would've been revenge even if it took the case from them," said Shikaku.
The Police Force couldn't claim to be ignorant about ROOT as they were regularly given information because of their position as enforcers. But he already knew the answer to that question. The relationship between the Police Force and ANBU was in a ditch. The reason sat before him even though he didn't know the details. He asked the question to see if Itachi would answer it. Unfortunately, Itachi stayed quiet.
"So he was targeted for raiding one of ROOT's drug farms," Itachi sounded doubtful as he continued, "and they followed him to the Land of Hot Waters?"
"According to his account, it doesn't seem like they recognized him, but he could be wrong."
Danzo and ROOT were marked as rogue shinobi upon their defection, and ANBU were responsible for hunting them down and dismantling their network. It would take years, perhaps even decades, to get rid of ROOT, but it was a top-priority task as they possessed sensitive and confidential information pertaining to national security.
Upon his promotion to ANBU Captain, Itachi was among those responsible for seeing the extermination of ROOT—which was why Shikaku called him when he received the intel regarding a possible ROOT spotting.
"What are you going to do about it?"
"Unfortunately, that's confidential ANBU information," he eventually said.
"Are you going to send anyone there? It might disrupt the mission being conducted in the city, which will affect the invasion to liberate the city from the Hidden Frost's control."
Itachi didn't reply and continued to read the file.
"Do you think Orochimaru's student might be secretly working with ROOT?" Itachi asked.
"Chunin Mitarashi?" Shikaku hummed as he stared at the ceiling. "Taking her track record before and since Orochimaru's defection into consideration, I don't think she's involved with him or ROOT. Of course, it'd be wise to run a background check—if you have the time and resources for it, that is." ANBU would, of course, have the resources for it—they had nearly unlimited resources—the question was if it was wise to spend those resources on something not required.
"Anything else?" asked Itachi.
"Keep us in the loop if you decide to take action from your side. I don't want my shinobi, who are risking their lives, to be blindsided by a clandestine ANBU operation."
Itachi wrapped up the file before standing up from his chair. "I'll take my leave now. Thank you for bringing this to my attention."
Shikaku saw Itachi out before returning to his office. He didn't know ANBU's stance on the matter; ROOT's defection was fairly recent, and ANBU chased after big names associated with ROOT. There was a chance ANBU wouldn't take any direct action if they confirmed the lack of a big name in Yu. However, one thing was for sure. Uchiha Itachi would soon be visiting the Police Force in his position as an ANBU-nin.
It was also convoluted and complex, and Shikaku's mind couldn't help but chase several possibilities and scenarios. It was so tiring that he looked forward to the evening when he could have a drink to escape his own mind by dulling it with alcohol.
He sighed.
He wanted to retire, but then his wife would call him a jobless bum—not to mention his son would surely take the wrong lesson from it.
———
.
"Say it again."
Kon stood up from his patio chair with a wild look in his eyes. His shoulder was held together in a tight cast; it was almost healed, but there was still a strenuous rehabilitation process ahead of him. However, he wasn't concerned about anything but what he had just heard at that moment.
"Genin Takuma was deployed to the Frost-Steam war and is stationed at Camp Banana, which is one of the closer Hidden Leaf bases to the city."
Kon felt his heart swell at his subordinate's report. The kid who had ruined his hard-built reputation in ROOT was participating in the same war as him. Not only could he regain his reputation by completing his mission, he could also get revenge.
"And?" Kon asked. "Is he in the city?"
"Unfortunately, we haven't been able to confirm that. The organisation no longer has a source close to the war commission with a high enough clearance and we don't have permission to use any of the remaining undercover agents present in the village to gain access. The risk has been deemed unacceptable."
Kon felt a wave of displeasure and anger rise, but he pushed it down quickly. He stood up straighter and took deep breaths. It wasn't the time to be angry; he had just received good news after all.
"I don't need the confirmation. I know he's in the city. Augmentations like that are rare, after all, and his deployment status is all the proof I need."
Kon turned around to look at the city centre in the distance. His mortal enemy was somewhere out there, so close that all he wanted to do was set out to find him. It was so unbearable that he wanted time to skip ahead to the day when he had Takuma on his knees before him.
"What next, sir?" asked his subordinate.
"Find me the best sketch artist this city can offer," Kon replied. "I want that little shit's face one very street corner. I want every shinobi in this city to memorise his face. I want a hefty reward on him—taken alive! Whenever anyone in this city steps out of their houses, I want them looking for one face in the crowd. He's a shinobi far from home; I want him to feel every ounce of hostility about where he is."
———
.
Takuma stared at himself in a full-length mirror. He had made a mistake. His communication with Motohiro's group taught him that he could've just used the Transformation Jutsu instead of using a mask to hide his identity. He had mistakenly applied his previous experience to a different situation.
He had used the mask in the Hidden Leaf because the Transformation Jutsu wouldn't cut it due to the dense shinobi population—but Yu didn't had that problem (excluding the enemy shinobi), and he could've freely used the jutsu to disguise himself from civilians who weren't equipped to see through it.
He had even taken Iori disguised as Gaku to deliver the stolen food to Motohiro's group, and not one person had said as much as a peep about noticing something off in Gaku. But it was too late now, and he couldn't go back. He was going to meet the Kumi family, and with Motohiro acting as the introducer, he couldn't disguise himself or put on a mask.
The Kumi Family was the other criminal group based in Yu. Before the Hidden Frost invaded Yu, the Goharu and the Kumi families stood on equal ground and kept each other in check through intense competition. Between the police and the two criminal families, there was an equilibrium maintained in the city—which was shattered the moment the city was invaded. The Goharu Family allied themselves with the shinobi and gained enough power to overthrow both their rival gang and the police force.
The team was aiming to gain the support of the Kumi Family. Like Motohiro's group, what Takuma and the team primarily wanted from the Kumi Family was their sway in the city, which they used to influence the larger populace. They wanted an atmosphere of support against the invading shinobi, and using the vocal and influential groups to gain that support was the way to go. If things went well with the Kumi Family, the team could move on to the next stage of the plan, where they were planning to be much more active in their actions.
Takuma heard footsteps and frowned when he heard multiple sets of footsteps. Only Gaku was supposed to meet him in the base so they could leave together. He turned to see the entire team, including Gaku, walking towards him. Something was wrong because there was always someone with Chinatsu.
"What is wrong?"
"The situation has just changed drastically," said Anko, holding up a poster.
Takuma looked down at it and saw a sketch that looked a little off, but it was, without a doubt, him. That wouldn't have been that much of a surprise, given that he had revealed his face to several people a couple of days back but then looked down at the name below the sketch.
[Takuma]
He blinked his eyes, wondering if he had somehow misread Tobi as Takuma—but there it was—his real name was printed on a wanted poster.
He looked up at his team.
The situation had indeed changed drastically.
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Note: All the chapters will eventually be posted on public forums.
CH_7.20 (238)
Fiction
Feel free to ask me questions.
Takuma paced back and forth in the base with the poster in his clenched fist. He always knew that he had put his face at risk when he had shown it to Motohiro's group, but he didn't think it would be leaked so soon. However, more importantly, he didn't think his identity would be leaked at all.
"This isn't Motohiro's group," said Gaku before lighting up a cigarette.
Everyone had settled down in the couches and chairs. There was a visible tension on everyone's face because of the wanted poster that was posted all around the city so no one would miss it. By the end of the day, Takuma's face was sure to become household knowledge. In fact, the team shouldn't have visited him at the base due to the separation they had built between them for safety—but the matter was too big for them not to meet.
"You're defending them?" asked Rikku with a sharp tone.
"He's right," said Kameko. "They know him as Tobi, but it's his real name on the poster... So, at least, they didn't do this alone." She looked at Takuma. "That organisation is behind this. I think someone from the group went to the organisation and told them about you—they must've recognized you and put your real identity out."
"If the group is involved then why wasn't Gaku postered as well?" asked Daiki. "I don't think they're involved."
Anko shook her head with a click of her tongue. "We can't be sure. They could've omitted Gaku to better paint the narrative they printed on the poster."
It wasn't only his name that was compromised; the poster identified Takuma as a Hidden Leaf shinobi and used that point as propaganda claiming that the Land of Hot Waters and Hidden Steam didn't care about the city enough to send their own people and had sent a foreign shinobi to do their dirty work.
Putting out Gaku's wanted poster alongside Takuma would've damaged the story given that he was a retired Hidden Steam shinobi and a city resident.
"What are you thinking, Takuma?" asked Iori when he didn't say anything.
He stopped pacing and faced the team with a deep frown on his face. "I'm thinking that we have a meeting with the Kumi family in thirty minutes and we're running late. We should leave now," he said to Gaku.
The team was surprised at his lack of comment about the situation since he was clearly bothered about it.
"Just meet them some other time or Gaku can go on his own," said Iori.
"No, we—I have to go now. It might only be the last safe time for me to meet the Kumi family," he sighed. "Motohiro is introducing us to them, but they don't know that the guy they're meeting is the same one from the poster. Motohiro knows me as Tobi, and it's safe to assume that he must've seen the poster—so we go find him to see what exactly he says to them, and if he hasn't updated them about the situation, it's safe to meet them.
"Unlike Motohiro's group, the Kumi family is a criminal group. These guys aren't nice people. As far as we're concerned, regardless of it's true or not, they could've jumped at the offer to work with the Hidden Frost shinobi, but lost out in timing to the Goharu family. If I delay the meeting and they find out that they're supposed to be meeting the guy in the poster, they might plan an ambush with the enemy to gain their favour. Right now, there's a chance that I can safely get in a meeting with them and check out their vibe."
Takuma was wearing his full gear with a robe covering all of it, but got to changing his clothes. He switched his full-sleeved shirt and pants with a half-sleeved t-shirt and cargo shorts, and ditched the robe. He removed his arm and shin guards and carried them in his pouches instead. Previously, everything except for his hands and face was covered, but now the scars on his arms and legs were plenty visible.
"This fits, let's go," said Takuma after enduring a light bout of headache; they had gotten worse after the recent incident.
Gaku stared at him for a moment before putting out his cigarette and getting up from the couch. The team tried to ask him to reconsider, but he was set on having this meeting. He couldn't let his problem mess with the mission. If there was a chance the mission could advance, it needed to be done.
There was no running away from danger because just being in the city was dangerous. He no longer wanted to stay in Yu, and the fastest way to leave the city was to move the mission forward to completion.
———
.
Motohiro and his two aides, Wada and Miyauchi, rode their bicycles on their way to the meeting with the Kumi family. As the introducers, they had decided to meet with Gaku and Tobi before proceeding to the meeting with the Kumi family together.
Motohiro was nervous about the meeting because of the parties involved. Even though he was the introducer, he didn't like the Kumi family. They were hoodlums and thugs who increased the violence in the city. One could say that they were necessary because they kept the Goharu family in check, but it was a solution to a problem the criminal families themselves created. He had known many young men pulled into that world when they were looking for a place to belong and the criminal families and gangs had provided that place.
Then there were the shinobi. Every second in their presence was prickly. As friendly as Gaku tried to be, Motohiro couldn't get comfortable around the man because of the faint presence of cold apathy deep in his eyes. He wouldn't have noticed it because it was hidden well, but there was a time when the shinobi had just invaded where Gaku didn't bother to hide it; perhaps that made Motohiro look for it more closely. As for Tobi, he didn't sense any danger from the kid which was a concern in itself because someone who could shatter the floor with a light foot stomp was dangerous.
He, in fact, had no idea how the meeting between the two parties would unfold. He could only pray it was peaceful, but perhaps that was wishful thinking.
They arrived at a lot behind the butcher's market, their designated meeting place.
"Will they come?" asked Wada.
Motohiro didn't have an answer. Even though Tobi was the one to ask for a meeting, the poster in his pocket could very well mean that the meeting was off.
However, they didn't need to wait long to get an answer. Barely two minutes later, Gaku and Tobi were standing behind them.
"Yo," Gaku greeted.
Motohiro's heart pounded because he had no idea when or from where they came from. He turned back and was surprised to see Tobi dressed differently without his robe. He gulped when he saw the concerning amount of scars on his arms and legs. What sort of life had someone so young had lived to accumulate that amount.
He saw Tobi staring at him as though saying if he had something to ask, so he wasted no time and took out the wanted poster that was plastered around the city.
"So, you're Takuma, a shinobi from the Hidden Leaf?"
"Did you do it?" asked Tobi.
"What?"
Tobi took out a kunai, and in the blink of an eye, he was in front of him with the kunai held against his neck. Wada screamed in terror and fell back to the ground while Miyauchi jumped toward Takuma but was held back by Gaku with one hand.
"Did you betray me, Motohiro? I've only shown my face to your group. And today I find it plastered all over the city."
"N-No! I didn't do it!"
Tobi pressed the kunai closer, and Motohiro felt his heart race in fear and horror as he stared in Tobi's dull eyes.
This was a killer, Motohiro thought—and he was going to die.
"Please, it was not me, please!"
"YOU'RE LYING!"
"No, I'm not!"
He thought about his children, wife, and parents. His wife would take care of the business to support his family, but his son was too young to help his mother. He couldn't help but worry about his family who he was leaving behind when the city was in such a fragile state.
"Miyauchi! Wada! Take care of my family!" he yelled with his eyes closed. The thought that they might die with him didn't cross his mind.
He held his breath and waited for the blade to go through his throat but that time never came. He opened his eyes and saw that the light had returned to Tobi's eyes. When Tobi removed the blade from his neck, Motohiro fell to the ground. He was completely drenched in sweat, he was breathing heavily, and his heart was beating to hard that it hurt.
"My name is Takuma," said Tobi.
Motohiro stared at Tobi's outstretched hand for long before deciding that he didn't want to be touched by him. He slowly got up on his own with his feet that refused to stop trembling. He looked at Wada and Miyaychi and they looked just as terrified, if not more.
"I'm sorry for scaring you, but I had to confirm you didn't screw me, and this was the quickest," said Tobi.
"You—!" Motohiro was speechless. He was furious, but couldn't say anything in fear for his life. It took him several deep breaths before he calmed himself down.
"You lied to us," he said.
"You asked me to show my face. I did," said Tobi. "I'm far away from home, fighting in a foreign war. The less anyone knows about me, the better it is for everyone." Motohiro tried to cut-in, but Tobi continued. "It's better for you as well. Knowledge can be a curse, you don't want to know something that might attract trouble to you."
Motohiro pursed his lips. He thought about the number of posters he had seen on his way here. This partnership of theirs could get him in trouble if someone leaked the information to the enemy. He knew he could find himself in an interrogation where he was tortured for information. That had happened to some people who were suspected of the police station bombing.
"Given the current situation, it's important that you answer this carefully. What did you tell the Kumi family about us? Did you think they'll connect him to the poster," Gaku said as he played with his lighter.
Miyauchi answered, "We never said you were shinobi; we told them you were the guys behind the police station arson... but I think with the rumours floating around, I think they'll assume that shinobi were behind it."
Not only the poster blamed Tobi for the two police station arson and bombing and the murder of three well-liked police officers, even before the wanted poster, there was a rumour that the shinobi were involved in it. It wasn't a leap to assume that the Kumi family had joined the dots to reach a conclusion.
"But you didn't say it explicitly, right?" asked Tobi.
"No, we didn't."
"Then, that's it. Let's go meet them."
Motohiro noticed the look Gaku gave Tobi, and how it was ignored. He understood they were worried about the Kumi family screwing them over and putting them in danger. And he had to be honest, even though he didn't trust them one iota and didn't like Tobi at all right now, it did feel good that Tobi was taking the risk. As Tobi had just put it—he was far away from home, fighting in a foreign war.
He didn't need to do it, but he was doing it.
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"This isn't Motohiro's group," said Gaku before lighting up a cigarette.
Everyone had settled down in the couches and chairs. There was a visible tension on everyone's face because of the wanted poster that was posted all around the city so no one would miss it. By the end of the day, Takuma's face was sure to become household knowledge. In fact, the team shouldn't have visited him at the base due to the separation they had built between them for safety—but the matter was too big for them not to meet.
"You're defending them?" asked Rikku with a sharp tone.
"He's right," said Kameko. "They know him as Tobi, but it's his real name on the poster... So, at least, they didn't do this alone." She looked at Takuma. "That organisation is behind this. I think someone from the group went to the organisation and told them about you—they must've recognized you and put your real identity out."
"If the group is involved then why wasn't Gaku postered as well?" asked Daiki. "I don't think they're involved."
Anko shook her head with a click of her tongue. "We can't be sure. They could've omitted Gaku to better paint the narrative they printed on the poster."
It wasn't only his name that was compromised; the poster identified Takuma as a Hidden Leaf shinobi and used that point as propaganda claiming that the Land of Hot Waters and Hidden Steam didn't care about the city enough to send their own people and had sent a foreign shinobi to do their dirty work.
Putting out Gaku's wanted poster alongside Takuma would've damaged the story given that he was a retired Hidden Steam shinobi and a city resident.
"What are you thinking, Takuma?" asked Iori when he didn't say anything.
He stopped pacing and faced the team with a deep frown on his face. "I'm thinking that we have a meeting with the Kumi family in thirty minutes and we're running late. We should leave now," he said to Gaku.
The team was surprised at his lack of comment about the situation since he was clearly bothered about it.
"Just meet them some other time or Gaku can go on his own," said Iori.
"No, we—I have to go now. It might only be the last safe time for me to meet the Kumi family," he sighed. "Motohiro is introducing us to them, but they don't know that the guy they're meeting is the same one from the poster. Motohiro knows me as Tobi, and it's safe to assume that he must've seen the poster—so we go find him to see what exactly he says to them, and if he hasn't updated them about the situation, it's safe to meet them.
"Unlike Motohiro's group, the Kumi family is a criminal group. These guys aren't nice people. As far as we're concerned, regardless of it's true or not, they could've jumped at the offer to work with the Hidden Frost shinobi, but lost out in timing to the Goharu family. If I delay the meeting and they find out that they're supposed to be meeting the guy in the poster, they might plan an ambush with the enemy to gain their favour. Right now, there's a chance that I can safely get in a meeting with them and check out their vibe."
Takuma was wearing his full gear with a robe covering all of it, but got to changing his clothes. He switched his full-sleeved shirt and pants with a half-sleeved t-shirt and cargo shorts, and ditched the robe. He removed his arm and shin guards and carried them in his pouches instead. Previously, everything except for his hands and face was covered, but now the scars on his arms and legs were plenty visible.
"This fits, let's go," said Takuma after enduring a light bout of headache; they had gotten worse after the recent incident.
Gaku stared at him for a moment before putting out his cigarette and getting up from the couch. The team tried to ask him to reconsider, but he was set on having this meeting. He couldn't let his problem mess with the mission. If there was a chance the mission could advance, it needed to be done.
There was no running away from danger because just being in the city was dangerous. He no longer wanted to stay in Yu, and the fastest way to leave the city was to move the mission forward to completion.
———
.
Motohiro and his two aides, Wada and Miyauchi, rode their bicycles on their way to the meeting with the Kumi family. As the introducers, they had decided to meet with Gaku and Tobi before proceeding to the meeting with the Kumi family together.
Motohiro was nervous about the meeting because of the parties involved. Even though he was the introducer, he didn't like the Kumi family. They were hoodlums and thugs who increased the violence in the city. One could say that they were necessary because they kept the Goharu family in check, but it was a solution to a problem the criminal families themselves created. He had known many young men pulled into that world when they were looking for a place to belong and the criminal families and gangs had provided that place.
Then there were the shinobi. Every second in their presence was prickly. As friendly as Gaku tried to be, Motohiro couldn't get comfortable around the man because of the faint presence of cold apathy deep in his eyes. He wouldn't have noticed it because it was hidden well, but there was a time when the shinobi had just invaded where Gaku didn't bother to hide it; perhaps that made Motohiro look for it more closely. As for Tobi, he didn't sense any danger from the kid which was a concern in itself because someone who could shatter the floor with a light foot stomp was dangerous.
He, in fact, had no idea how the meeting between the two parties would unfold. He could only pray it was peaceful, but perhaps that was wishful thinking.
They arrived at a lot behind the butcher's market, their designated meeting place.
"Will they come?" asked Wada.
Motohiro didn't have an answer. Even though Tobi was the one to ask for a meeting, the poster in his pocket could very well mean that the meeting was off.
However, they didn't need to wait long to get an answer. Barely two minutes later, Gaku and Tobi were standing behind them.
"Yo," Gaku greeted.
Motohiro's heart pounded because he had no idea when or from where they came from. He turned back and was surprised to see Tobi dressed differently without his robe. He gulped when he saw the concerning amount of scars on his arms and legs. What sort of life had someone so young had lived to accumulate that amount.
He saw Tobi staring at him as though saying if he had something to ask, so he wasted no time and took out the wanted poster that was plastered around the city.
"So, you're Takuma, a shinobi from the Hidden Leaf?"
"Did you do it?" asked Tobi.
"What?"
Tobi took out a kunai, and in the blink of an eye, he was in front of him with the kunai held against his neck. Wada screamed in terror and fell back to the ground while Miyauchi jumped toward Takuma but was held back by Gaku with one hand.
"Did you betray me, Motohiro? I've only shown my face to your group. And today I find it plastered all over the city."
"N-No! I didn't do it!"
Tobi pressed the kunai closer, and Motohiro felt his heart race in fear and horror as he stared in Tobi's dull eyes.
This was a killer, Motohiro thought—and he was going to die.
"Please, it was not me, please!"
"YOU'RE LYING!"
"No, I'm not!"
He thought about his children, wife, and parents. His wife would take care of the business to support his family, but his son was too young to help his mother. He couldn't help but worry about his family who he was leaving behind when the city was in such a fragile state.
"Miyauchi! Wada! Take care of my family!" he yelled with his eyes closed. The thought that they might die with him didn't cross his mind.
He held his breath and waited for the blade to go through his throat but that time never came. He opened his eyes and saw that the light had returned to Tobi's eyes. When Tobi removed the blade from his neck, Motohiro fell to the ground. He was completely drenched in sweat, he was breathing heavily, and his heart was beating to hard that it hurt.
"My name is Takuma," said Tobi.
Motohiro stared at Tobi's outstretched hand for long before deciding that he didn't want to be touched by him. He slowly got up on his own with his feet that refused to stop trembling. He looked at Wada and Miyaychi and they looked just as terrified, if not more.
"I'm sorry for scaring you, but I had to confirm you didn't screw me, and this was the quickest," said Tobi.
"You—!" Motohiro was speechless. He was furious, but couldn't say anything in fear for his life. It took him several deep breaths before he calmed himself down.
"You lied to us," he said.
"You asked me to show my face. I did," said Tobi. "I'm far away from home, fighting in a foreign war. The less anyone knows about me, the better it is for everyone." Motohiro tried to cut-in, but Tobi continued. "It's better for you as well. Knowledge can be a curse, you don't want to know something that might attract trouble to you."
Motohiro pursed his lips. He thought about the number of posters he had seen on his way here. This partnership of theirs could get him in trouble if someone leaked the information to the enemy. He knew he could find himself in an interrogation where he was tortured for information. That had happened to some people who were suspected of the police station bombing.
"Given the current situation, it's important that you answer this carefully. What did you tell the Kumi family about us? Did you think they'll connect him to the poster," Gaku said as he played with his lighter.
Miyauchi answered, "We never said you were shinobi; we told them you were the guys behind the police station arson... but I think with the rumours floating around, I think they'll assume that shinobi were behind it."
Not only the poster blamed Tobi for the two police station arson and bombing and the murder of three well-liked police officers, even before the wanted poster, there was a rumour that the shinobi were involved in it. It wasn't a leap to assume that the Kumi family had joined the dots to reach a conclusion.
"But you didn't say it explicitly, right?" asked Tobi.
"No, we didn't."
"Then, that's it. Let's go meet them."
Motohiro noticed the look Gaku gave Tobi, and how it was ignored. He understood they were worried about the Kumi family screwing them over and putting them in danger. And he had to be honest, even though he didn't trust them one iota and didn't like Tobi at all right now, it did feel good that Tobi was taking the risk. As Tobi had just put it—he was far away from home, fighting in a foreign war.
He didn't need to do it, but he was doing it.
Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over to Patreón [fictiononlyreader]. Link here and in signature.
Note: All the chapters will eventually be posted on public forums.
TFTC, this situation is getting so complex n messy, also what a fucking coincidence that they ended up n the same city
CH_7.21 (239)
Fiction
Feel free to ask me questions.
The home residence of the Kumi family's head was a lavish walled estate with multiple buildings; rock, sand, and grass gardens; a clear pond with fish; several majestic fruit-bearing trees, and meticulously maintained courtyards. A peaceful serenity permeated throughout the estate which added to the estate's charm.
But the two dozen men dressed in tacky tracksuits lounging around really broke the ambiance.
"It's a beautiful place," Gaku said to the woman escorting the group. Unlike the men she was dressed in a tasteful hakama and had her hair tied up in an elegant bun. She smiled politely, thanked him for his compliment, and provided some historical facts about the estate.
Takuma ignored Gaku's attempt to flirt with the woman and observed the Kumi men. He didn't know if this was normal, but seeing that they were standing around with weapons, it was clear they were waiting for them. He glanced back at Motohiro, Wada, and Miyauchi—they were a couple paces behind him—still fearful from before. He didn't mind it; Motohiro needed time to recover.
As they approached the main building, a young man of less than twenty broke away from one of the groups. He was a skinhead, had his jacket wrapped around his waist, and walked with a strut with his hands in his pockets. Takuma sighed when he saw they were on the same path, set to collide, and realised this was going to be some stupid power play to assert Kumi family's authority over them.
As Takuma expected, the young man shoulder-checked him. The next moment, the young man shot down to the ground with enough force to knock the air out of his lungs, as though he had been slammed by a rampaging bull. Takuma stared down at the young man as he extended his arm to help him up. However, it seemed the young man wasn't pleased as he slapped away the hand and spat curses.
If Arisu was with him, she would've stopped him and managed the situation before it escalated. Unfortunately, she wasn't with him and he responded the best way he thought for the scenario.
"Watch where you're walking! Who the fuck do you—"
He didn't let him complete as he grabbed the young man by his collar and smashed him in the face with a light punch that knocked him cold before he hit the ground.
"You—!" Gaku looked up at Takuma from the young man and back to Takuma in stunned surprise.
Takuma shrugged, "Fuck around and find out."
The aftermath was predictable. The Kumi family men erupted when they saw one of their own go down and charged at the group with their weapons drawn. Motohiro, Wada, and Miyauchi looked absolutely terrified while the Kumi family woman gasped in surprise and quickly stepped away from the group to not get caught up in the brawl about to break out.
"I do not want to do this," Gaku sighed and rubbed his face.
Takuma watched the mob running toward him and considered throwing an explosive tag, but recognised that it would be a bloodbath with limbs coming off, and decided that a good old fashioned beating would be enough.
"ENOUGH!"
However, before anything could start, a loud voice ripped through the estate, stopping all Kumi family members in their tracks. It was so loud that it hurt his ears. Standing just outside the main building was a man in his early thirties, dressed in a simple attire of shirts and pants. He had long hair, dignified features, and an athletic build. The Kumi family men hushed their ruckus and held their weapons down when they saw the man.
Takuma and Gaku exchanged looks.
"He is Gyon, the son of the Kumi's head," Miyauchi whispered to Gaku.
"Let's go," said Takuma and walked forward. The crowd parted to give Takuma the space all the while glaring at him. He ignored them all and kept his attention at Gyon.
"May I know why you attacked one of my men?" Gyon asked, his sombre tone but with his displeasure hidden.
"Do all of your men attack guests first?" Takuma answered with a question.
Gyon's brows furrowed and called out to one of his men. A tracksuit wearing middle-aged man rushed to Gyon's side. Takuma recognised the man
"Did that brat attack them first?" Gyon asked.
The middle-aged man cleared his throat before spouting an explanation of events which, while true, portrayed them in a way that made it seem like Takuma was at fault. However, Gyon saw through that twisted explanation without Takuma needing to interject.
"Knock some sense into him when he wakes up," said Gyon with a stern look casted toward the middle-aged man. He then turned to Takuma. "Youngsters can be impulsive and reckless, you must understand. I hope you won't take offence."
Takuma didn't miss Gyon implying that he saw him as a kid.
"I understand," he smiled. "Of course, I have complete control over my people, but I won't blame you for your inability to keep your men in check. It's not something everyone can do."
A rigid smile crept on Gyon's face; Takuma had hit a nerve. Gyon was already in his thirties and the torch of leadership hadn't been passed on from the older generation—and he was still "son of Kumi's head." And from the looks of it, it bothered Gyon.
"Please, let's head inside. Father is waiting for you."
———
.
They were led to a large tatami room where an old man, the Kumi family's head, Hoshiguro, sat at the head's position with six lieutenants (including Gyon) sat beside him. There were a few bodyguards who stood near the walls and kept a vigilant eye on Takuma and his group.
"Your name is Takuma, isn't it? You looked older in that sketch of yours."
A woman set down sitting cushions for the group, but before Takuma could sit down, Hoshiguro broached the topic he knew would come up. There truly wasn't anyone who hadn't seen the posters. Takuma didn't reply immediately and made himself comfortable.
"It's one of my names, yes," said Takuma, "but I'd appreciate if you address me as Tobi—that's what I'm using currently."
Hoshiguro had a full head of grey hair, wrinkled skin, and eyes that reflected the experience of an old man of his age. Though his kimono hid his body, Takuma could sense that Hoshiguro wasn't frail by any means, and from what he had witnessed outside from Gyon, he suspected he knew the reason behind it.
"I must say I'm surprised to know that the Kumi family has shinobi in their ranks," said Takuma.
When Gyon had commanded the mob to stop, his voice had clear signs of sound amplification using chakra. Takuma was surprised to find another shinobi in Yu who wasn't Gaku or an enemy. He observed the Kumi people in the group; there wasn't any way to identify if someone was a shinobi other than a sensory-nin's chakra senses—but he guessed that there were multiple in the room.
"Oh, we aren't, Takuma. Chakra isn't just restricted to shinobi. I'm assuming you're one," said Hoshiguro, chuckling. He then looked at Gaku. "I know he is one."
Gaku smiled. "And I'm surprised I didn't know there were others."
Hoshiguro only returned a smile in response.
Takuma knew that chakra didn't belong to shinobi; samurai were chakra practitioners. And since there were retired- and ex-shinobi in the world, there were chakra practitioners who weren't associated with the Hidden Villages. They couldn't restrict the spread of chakra as there were plenty of groups who practised it—monks at temples, religious groups, shinobi clans who never joined the Hidden Villages. However, the Hidden Villages did limit the spread of Jutsu—when the biggest shinobi clans formed the villages, they brought along their vast libraries of jutsu—and they put down the restrictions that jutsu beyond D-rank classification couldn't be copied.
They also spread threats that any retired- or ex-shinobi would be hunted down if they taught jutsu they learned during their service—which was why rogue shinobi were hunted down with much fervour.
"You must've bothered quite a bit for them to put your face around the city," said Hoshiguro.
Takuma didn't miss how Hoshiguro called him by his name despite being asked to call him 'Tobi'. Like father, like son.
"I wouldn't be doing my work properly if they weren't bothered."
Hoshiguro nodded in agreement. "So what brings you here? I must admit, I don't know a lot about your group; you've done a good job keeping it a secret. From what Motohiro told me when he was setting this meeting up, your group has a partnership with his group. I only know a little, but I believe I get the gist of it all. You want a similar partnership with the Kumi. Am I correct to believe that?"
"Indeed. The Hidden Steam has sent us to Yu on the orders of the Hot Waters Daimyo. We're working on liberating the city from the enemy occupation, and we need the community's help. The Kumi family, of course, has a lot of influence in the city and we would like to use that to our advantage."
"What are we talking about?" asked Gyon.
"Manpower, connections, information. We would like the Kumi family to be our eyes, ears, and mouthpiece in the city. You can reach into the city and to its people much better than we ever could. We need your help," Takuma answered.
The team was about to make some waves in the city and they needed someone like the Kumi family to ensure that the people didn't misinterpret it. Today, Takuma had been painted as a criminal, villain, an enemy to the city with one poster—he didn't to what extent people would believe it, but the experience told the Kumi family's support could be extremely helpful.
"Let's say we help you, what's in it for us?" asked Hoshiguro.
"You get your city back; isn't that enough?" said Gaku.
"If only, but we need more," said Hoshiguro, smiling. "We are putting ourselves in danger by associating with the rebellion. We need something to make "
Takuma had expected it. The Kumi family weren't nice people; they held their self-interest front and forward before anything. And he didn't blame them; they were indeed putting themselves in danger. Motohiro and his group were quite selfless in their decision to help an unknown group. Fortunately, Takuma had seen this coming and had prepared some benefits for them.
He exchanged a look with Gaku, who returned a nod.
"We can provide the Kumi family with food—grain, rice, spices, flour—a lot of it, enough to feed your men and their families for a good while," said Takuma and saw a wave of interest rise up in the room. Hoshiguro, the lieutenants, and the bodyguards, all looked interested and pleased with the offerings.
Food was valuable and even though the higher-ranking members would have no problem procuring food with their wealth and influence, the same couldn't be said about their lower-level members. That was sure to create some tension and dissatisfaction in the organisation—one moment the Kumi family were kings with mighty influence, but the next moment, they had fallen down and they couldn't even eat properly. Takuma was giving them an opportunity to fix a major problem in their organisation—and the leadership in the room understood it.
And finally, Takuma decided to give them a deal they couldn't refuse.
"When the time comes, we will assassinate the higher-ups from the Goharu family." The moment he said that, the atmosphere in the room changed drastically. "The Kumi family can regain their former place in Yu... and who knows, even surpass it."
To be honest, the Goharu family higher-ups were going to die for their traitorous actions by supporting the enemy. But by claiming that they were doing it for the Kumi family, they had turned that into an offer too valuable for them to refuse. He was offering to take out their competition and free the field so they could rise up again.
"So, how about it?" he asked.
The lieutenants glanced at each each other and they looked like they wanted to jump at the offer while looking they didn't believe what Takuma had just offered. They then looked at their leader. Hoshiguro started unblinkingly at Takuma, who couldn't see through the old man's poker face. Because he wasn't lying, he allowed Hoshiguro to stare all he wanted.
"That's quite something," said Gyon, clearing his throat, trying to hide his surprise from the stacked offer presented to them. "We will consider it and get back—"
"You have the Kumi family's support," said Hoshiguro, still staring at Takuma.
"Father?" Gyon was taken aback—the other lieutenants shared his expression. They were surprised that he had agreed so quickly without even discussing the offer with others.
Hoshiguro ignored them and spoke to Takuma. "If you can fulfil those promises, you'll have the unequivocal support of the Kumi family."
"That's nice to know," Takuma smiled, pleased about Hoshiguro's quick decision. He expected them to haggle for more things like assassinating someone from the Goharu family immediately—so not getting that request raised his impression of Hoshiguro. "I look forward to this—."
"However, I have one condition," said Hoshiguro.
Maybe he was quick to raise his impression, thought Takuma. "And what might that be?"
"I want you to prove that you're capable of doing what you promised."
Takuma held back a sigh. There it was. He was sure that Hoshiguro was about to ask him to assassinate someone from the Goharu family.
However, what came out of Hoshiguro's mouth was completely unexpected.
"I want you to fight my son. If you win, you'll have our full support."
Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over to Patreón [fictiononlyreader]. Link here and in signature.
Note: All the chapters will eventually be posted on public forums.
But the two dozen men dressed in tacky tracksuits lounging around really broke the ambiance.
"It's a beautiful place," Gaku said to the woman escorting the group. Unlike the men she was dressed in a tasteful hakama and had her hair tied up in an elegant bun. She smiled politely, thanked him for his compliment, and provided some historical facts about the estate.
Takuma ignored Gaku's attempt to flirt with the woman and observed the Kumi men. He didn't know if this was normal, but seeing that they were standing around with weapons, it was clear they were waiting for them. He glanced back at Motohiro, Wada, and Miyauchi—they were a couple paces behind him—still fearful from before. He didn't mind it; Motohiro needed time to recover.
As they approached the main building, a young man of less than twenty broke away from one of the groups. He was a skinhead, had his jacket wrapped around his waist, and walked with a strut with his hands in his pockets. Takuma sighed when he saw they were on the same path, set to collide, and realised this was going to be some stupid power play to assert Kumi family's authority over them.
As Takuma expected, the young man shoulder-checked him. The next moment, the young man shot down to the ground with enough force to knock the air out of his lungs, as though he had been slammed by a rampaging bull. Takuma stared down at the young man as he extended his arm to help him up. However, it seemed the young man wasn't pleased as he slapped away the hand and spat curses.
If Arisu was with him, she would've stopped him and managed the situation before it escalated. Unfortunately, she wasn't with him and he responded the best way he thought for the scenario.
"Watch where you're walking! Who the fuck do you—"
He didn't let him complete as he grabbed the young man by his collar and smashed him in the face with a light punch that knocked him cold before he hit the ground.
"You—!" Gaku looked up at Takuma from the young man and back to Takuma in stunned surprise.
Takuma shrugged, "Fuck around and find out."
The aftermath was predictable. The Kumi family men erupted when they saw one of their own go down and charged at the group with their weapons drawn. Motohiro, Wada, and Miyauchi looked absolutely terrified while the Kumi family woman gasped in surprise and quickly stepped away from the group to not get caught up in the brawl about to break out.
"I do not want to do this," Gaku sighed and rubbed his face.
Takuma watched the mob running toward him and considered throwing an explosive tag, but recognised that it would be a bloodbath with limbs coming off, and decided that a good old fashioned beating would be enough.
"ENOUGH!"
However, before anything could start, a loud voice ripped through the estate, stopping all Kumi family members in their tracks. It was so loud that it hurt his ears. Standing just outside the main building was a man in his early thirties, dressed in a simple attire of shirts and pants. He had long hair, dignified features, and an athletic build. The Kumi family men hushed their ruckus and held their weapons down when they saw the man.
Takuma and Gaku exchanged looks.
"He is Gyon, the son of the Kumi's head," Miyauchi whispered to Gaku.
"Let's go," said Takuma and walked forward. The crowd parted to give Takuma the space all the while glaring at him. He ignored them all and kept his attention at Gyon.
"May I know why you attacked one of my men?" Gyon asked, his sombre tone but with his displeasure hidden.
"Do all of your men attack guests first?" Takuma answered with a question.
Gyon's brows furrowed and called out to one of his men. A tracksuit wearing middle-aged man rushed to Gyon's side. Takuma recognised the man
"Did that brat attack them first?" Gyon asked.
The middle-aged man cleared his throat before spouting an explanation of events which, while true, portrayed them in a way that made it seem like Takuma was at fault. However, Gyon saw through that twisted explanation without Takuma needing to interject.
"Knock some sense into him when he wakes up," said Gyon with a stern look casted toward the middle-aged man. He then turned to Takuma. "Youngsters can be impulsive and reckless, you must understand. I hope you won't take offence."
Takuma didn't miss Gyon implying that he saw him as a kid.
"I understand," he smiled. "Of course, I have complete control over my people, but I won't blame you for your inability to keep your men in check. It's not something everyone can do."
A rigid smile crept on Gyon's face; Takuma had hit a nerve. Gyon was already in his thirties and the torch of leadership hadn't been passed on from the older generation—and he was still "son of Kumi's head." And from the looks of it, it bothered Gyon.
"Please, let's head inside. Father is waiting for you."
———
.
They were led to a large tatami room where an old man, the Kumi family's head, Hoshiguro, sat at the head's position with six lieutenants (including Gyon) sat beside him. There were a few bodyguards who stood near the walls and kept a vigilant eye on Takuma and his group.
"Your name is Takuma, isn't it? You looked older in that sketch of yours."
A woman set down sitting cushions for the group, but before Takuma could sit down, Hoshiguro broached the topic he knew would come up. There truly wasn't anyone who hadn't seen the posters. Takuma didn't reply immediately and made himself comfortable.
"It's one of my names, yes," said Takuma, "but I'd appreciate if you address me as Tobi—that's what I'm using currently."
Hoshiguro had a full head of grey hair, wrinkled skin, and eyes that reflected the experience of an old man of his age. Though his kimono hid his body, Takuma could sense that Hoshiguro wasn't frail by any means, and from what he had witnessed outside from Gyon, he suspected he knew the reason behind it.
"I must say I'm surprised to know that the Kumi family has shinobi in their ranks," said Takuma.
When Gyon had commanded the mob to stop, his voice had clear signs of sound amplification using chakra. Takuma was surprised to find another shinobi in Yu who wasn't Gaku or an enemy. He observed the Kumi people in the group; there wasn't any way to identify if someone was a shinobi other than a sensory-nin's chakra senses—but he guessed that there were multiple in the room.
"Oh, we aren't, Takuma. Chakra isn't just restricted to shinobi. I'm assuming you're one," said Hoshiguro, chuckling. He then looked at Gaku. "I know he is one."
Gaku smiled. "And I'm surprised I didn't know there were others."
Hoshiguro only returned a smile in response.
Takuma knew that chakra didn't belong to shinobi; samurai were chakra practitioners. And since there were retired- and ex-shinobi in the world, there were chakra practitioners who weren't associated with the Hidden Villages. They couldn't restrict the spread of chakra as there were plenty of groups who practised it—monks at temples, religious groups, shinobi clans who never joined the Hidden Villages. However, the Hidden Villages did limit the spread of Jutsu—when the biggest shinobi clans formed the villages, they brought along their vast libraries of jutsu—and they put down the restrictions that jutsu beyond D-rank classification couldn't be copied.
They also spread threats that any retired- or ex-shinobi would be hunted down if they taught jutsu they learned during their service—which was why rogue shinobi were hunted down with much fervour.
"You must've bothered quite a bit for them to put your face around the city," said Hoshiguro.
Takuma didn't miss how Hoshiguro called him by his name despite being asked to call him 'Tobi'. Like father, like son.
"I wouldn't be doing my work properly if they weren't bothered."
Hoshiguro nodded in agreement. "So what brings you here? I must admit, I don't know a lot about your group; you've done a good job keeping it a secret. From what Motohiro told me when he was setting this meeting up, your group has a partnership with his group. I only know a little, but I believe I get the gist of it all. You want a similar partnership with the Kumi. Am I correct to believe that?"
"Indeed. The Hidden Steam has sent us to Yu on the orders of the Hot Waters Daimyo. We're working on liberating the city from the enemy occupation, and we need the community's help. The Kumi family, of course, has a lot of influence in the city and we would like to use that to our advantage."
"What are we talking about?" asked Gyon.
"Manpower, connections, information. We would like the Kumi family to be our eyes, ears, and mouthpiece in the city. You can reach into the city and to its people much better than we ever could. We need your help," Takuma answered.
The team was about to make some waves in the city and they needed someone like the Kumi family to ensure that the people didn't misinterpret it. Today, Takuma had been painted as a criminal, villain, an enemy to the city with one poster—he didn't to what extent people would believe it, but the experience told the Kumi family's support could be extremely helpful.
"Let's say we help you, what's in it for us?" asked Hoshiguro.
"You get your city back; isn't that enough?" said Gaku.
"If only, but we need more," said Hoshiguro, smiling. "We are putting ourselves in danger by associating with the rebellion. We need something to make "
Takuma had expected it. The Kumi family weren't nice people; they held their self-interest front and forward before anything. And he didn't blame them; they were indeed putting themselves in danger. Motohiro and his group were quite selfless in their decision to help an unknown group. Fortunately, Takuma had seen this coming and had prepared some benefits for them.
He exchanged a look with Gaku, who returned a nod.
"We can provide the Kumi family with food—grain, rice, spices, flour—a lot of it, enough to feed your men and their families for a good while," said Takuma and saw a wave of interest rise up in the room. Hoshiguro, the lieutenants, and the bodyguards, all looked interested and pleased with the offerings.
Food was valuable and even though the higher-ranking members would have no problem procuring food with their wealth and influence, the same couldn't be said about their lower-level members. That was sure to create some tension and dissatisfaction in the organisation—one moment the Kumi family were kings with mighty influence, but the next moment, they had fallen down and they couldn't even eat properly. Takuma was giving them an opportunity to fix a major problem in their organisation—and the leadership in the room understood it.
And finally, Takuma decided to give them a deal they couldn't refuse.
"When the time comes, we will assassinate the higher-ups from the Goharu family." The moment he said that, the atmosphere in the room changed drastically. "The Kumi family can regain their former place in Yu... and who knows, even surpass it."
To be honest, the Goharu family higher-ups were going to die for their traitorous actions by supporting the enemy. But by claiming that they were doing it for the Kumi family, they had turned that into an offer too valuable for them to refuse. He was offering to take out their competition and free the field so they could rise up again.
"So, how about it?" he asked.
The lieutenants glanced at each each other and they looked like they wanted to jump at the offer while looking they didn't believe what Takuma had just offered. They then looked at their leader. Hoshiguro started unblinkingly at Takuma, who couldn't see through the old man's poker face. Because he wasn't lying, he allowed Hoshiguro to stare all he wanted.
"That's quite something," said Gyon, clearing his throat, trying to hide his surprise from the stacked offer presented to them. "We will consider it and get back—"
"You have the Kumi family's support," said Hoshiguro, still staring at Takuma.
"Father?" Gyon was taken aback—the other lieutenants shared his expression. They were surprised that he had agreed so quickly without even discussing the offer with others.
Hoshiguro ignored them and spoke to Takuma. "If you can fulfil those promises, you'll have the unequivocal support of the Kumi family."
"That's nice to know," Takuma smiled, pleased about Hoshiguro's quick decision. He expected them to haggle for more things like assassinating someone from the Goharu family immediately—so not getting that request raised his impression of Hoshiguro. "I look forward to this—."
"However, I have one condition," said Hoshiguro.
Maybe he was quick to raise his impression, thought Takuma. "And what might that be?"
"I want you to prove that you're capable of doing what you promised."
Takuma held back a sigh. There it was. He was sure that Hoshiguro was about to ask him to assassinate someone from the Goharu family.
However, what came out of Hoshiguro's mouth was completely unexpected.
"I want you to fight my son. If you win, you'll have our full support."
Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over to Patreón [fictiononlyreader]. Link here and in signature.
Note: All the chapters will eventually be posted on public forums.
CH_7.22 (240)
Fiction
Feel free to ask me questions.
Without fail every single person in the estate gathered around a wide courtyard to watch the bout between the outsider—who everyone was surprised to see was a kid—and Gyon, the head's son and a Kumi top lieutenant. Most didn't know the reason behind the fight, which caused rumours to pop up among the Kumi members and the staff. The biggest rumour was that the outsider was Hoshiguro's illegitimate child who had come to challenge Gyon, the legitimate son, for the position of the next Kumi head.
Gyon looked at the gathered people, irritated about their conversations and whispers about the fight. This wasn't a circus act they could watch casually. He glanced at his father who was sitting on his personal chair that he had brought along everywhere, sipping tea with snacks. He couldn't understand why his father would have him fight the Tobi/Takuma kid.
Was it a test for Takuma or was it for him?
He looked at Takuma standing on the other side of the courtyard, chatting with Gaku. The lack of worry on his face irked Gyon.
The history of the Kumi family extended back to the days of his grandfather. In his youth, he was taken under the wing of an old shinobi, who taught them the mysteries of chakra in exchange for booze. Along with Gyon's grandfather, the old shinobi also taught his friend, who would then go on to find the Goharu family. Once upon a time, the two students were attached by the hip and used their new powers to take over Yu. However, when the old shinobi died, the two friends had a falling out over his belongings—especially, the ninjutsu scrolls in his possession that the old shinobi hadn't allowed them to learn.
In the end, they fought and split the ninjutsu scrolls between them. And from then onwards, the Kumi and Goharu family were found in Yu. The founders learned the ninjutsu they had taken and taught their children how to use chakra and passed along the ninjutsu. However, that changed when Hoshiguro and his Goharu family counterpart taught their most trusted people how to use chakra, but they kept the ninjutsu only for their children. In the Kumi family, all six lieutenants and a dozen more people knew how to use chakra— but only Hoshiguro and Gyon knew ninjutsu.
Gyon was the strongest fighter in Kumi. His father was much more experienced, but he had gotten weaker with age, leaving Gyon as the strongest. In fact, he was stronger than his Goharu family counterpart, who had already become the Goharu family head.
However, he couldn't help but worry about the fight. The poster claimed that Takuma was a Hidden Leaf shinobi. Even though Yu was far from most shinobi involvement and Hidden Steam's move away from traditional shinobi village system, Gyon knew that the Hidden Leaf village was one of the five great shinobi villages. From the stories he had heard, they were extremely dangerous. And the scars on Takuma's arms and legs were worrying.
But he also thought that Takuma was just a kid. Whereas he was in his prime and at his strongest because he had increased his training since the Yu had been invaded so that he could protect his family.
He would win this fight, thought Gyon and saw his wife standing behind his father with their ten-year old twin children. His wife looked worried while the twins looked excited. He directed a smile toward her to relax her. He also caught his father gazing at him; he still couldn't perceive what his father wanted from him, but he knew that he had to perform.
Everyone important in the Kumi family was present to watch the fight and a loss in front of them would be a blow to his reputation as the strongest man in Yu. Perhaps a victory against a Hidden Leaf shinobi would convince his father to pass the seat of leadership to him. Yoshi, the current leader of the Goharu family, had always been his rival since they were little children—and Gyon had always beaten him at everything—and yet, Yoshi was already the Goharu family's leader while he was still serving under his father. Even his father had gotten the control of the Kumi family from grandfather at a younger age than Gyon.
"Are both sides, ready?" Hoshiguro's voice echoed in the courtyard. Gyon and Takuma stepped to the centre of the courtyard, facing each other. Hoshiguro looked at the people around the courtyard. The courtyard was large, but with how shinobi fought, the area could quickly become not big enough for the two fighters.
"This could get out of hand quickly... you might get injured." He warned them, but not one person moved from their place, excited about spectating the fighting. He chuckled in amusement before looking at the two fighters and raised his hand to gesture. "You may start!"
The moment Hoshiguro announced the start, Gyon exploded forth with his sword biting down towards Takuma, who effortlessly side-stepped the strike. Gyon's eyes shrunk when he saw a kunai suddenly appear in Takuma's hand. He barely moved his head to dodge the kunai slicing for his face; he felt the cold metal brush through his hair, chopping a few strands from the side of his head.
He immediately retreated to put some distance between them. Takuma was quicker and kicked him in the knee, destroying his balance. Gyon stumbled back, forced to kneel to regain his balance. He looked up to see Takuma skip forward and swing down his kunai. He raised his sword just in time to block the kunai from shearing his chest open. The impact made a grating sound and beneath it he felt like an iron beam had fallen on his sword.
His face turned red, his arm trembled, and he could barely stop his grip on the sword from failing as his body was forced to shrink under the tremendous force.
How could someone generate so much power?
The moment Takuma raised his kunai for another strike, Gyon got himself up on his feet. As he took a step back, Takuma launched a spinning kick at his hand, knocking the sword out of his grip. The sword went flying off, stabbing the ground near the edge of the courtyard, making the spectators jump in fright.
All of Gyon's instincts screamed at him to go after his sword, but reasoning prevailed and he put as much distance as possible between them. The decision was right because the moment he moved, Takuma took a step toward the sword's direction. If he had chased after the sword, he would've been intercepted and forced to be on the defensive.
Sweat trickled down Gyon's face. He could hear the cheers of his people urging him on to win. He swallowed as he watched Takuma slowly move in between him and the sword. If his heartbeat was to be trusted, it was telling him that Takuma was dangerous. In the short few seconds, he had not only been disarmed, he had also been forced to kneel.
If he wanted a chance to win this battle, he had to use ninjutsu, thought Gyon.
Ninjutsu were special moves used only when it was absolutely necessary—that was something drilled into his mind since the day his father had first taught him ninjutsu. The Hidden Steam shinobi couldn't and didn't stop people from chakra, but they were extremely strict when it came to people learning ninjutsu. There was a real danger that if the news got out that there were people unassociated with the Hidden Steam using ninjutsu, the shinobi would come to get rid of them. Both Goharu and Kumi understood that threat and had unspoken rules to bar the use of ninjutsu.
It was never a problem as only four people from both families knew ninjutsu—and the enhanced physiques provided by chakra was more than enough power anyone needed in Yu.
Gyon glanced at his father, hoping that he would get permission to use ninjutsu. Hoshiguro looked at him and nodded. Gyon felt a wave of exhilaration shoot through him. This had to be a sign that his father wanted to see his all—his best—so he could judge if he was ready—which he absolutely was.
His confidence soared as he stood up straighter. Usually, he only used ninjutsu in training which he had to do in secret away from other's eyes. But he always wanted to use them in actual fights; it was such a waste to have powerful tools and not use them. Now, he had the chance to not only use it in a fight, but also showcase his true power in front of his people.
Kids, watch your father, Gyon thought with bravado as he raised his hand to form hand seals for the ninjutsu called Fire Release: Two. The jutsu made two long fire claws extend out from the knuckle region in both hands with power to cut through metal ropes; they could easily rip and burn through a body like it was nothing. It had taken him half a decade of practice to perfect the jutsu. He remembered how invincible he had felt when he had killed an adult bear; the animal that would rip through ten men with ease had fallen dead at his feet. It was the ninjutsu which made him the strongest man in Yu.
But as he formed the hand seals, Takuma threw his kunai toward him. Gyon, utterly surprised, broke his hand seals as he evaded the kunai by jumping to the side.
"Fuck!" Gyon cursed. Before he could even shift his feet properly, Takuma dashed forth and was already before him. Gyon had never seen anyone or anything move so fast.
He heard Takuma whisper, "So you can use jutsu."
Faster than anything Gyon could react to, Takuma's fist dug into his liver. It knocked all the air out of his lungs and he immediately spat out blood. He didn't think it was possible to feel so much pain. The next moment, a sharp elbow smashed into his shoulder, forcing him to his knees. If Gyon wasn't already more prone, a quick jab to his throat did the trick.
The panic of not being able to breath and the pain spreading through his body clashed against each other. He swayed and his vision blurred.He tried to lock on Takuma but couldn't catch the foot before it smashed into the side of his face.
The last thing Gyon heard as he fell to the ground unconscious was the sound of his twins crying and screaming.
———
.
Takuma breathed out as Gyon's body hit the ground. Before he could even relax, the courtyard erupted as two dozen men charged at him with their weapons. He had angered everyone by thrashing the head's son.
"Aw, geez."
Takuma put his hands up as he saw three men who were faster than everyone else and instantly recognised them to be chakra practitioners, and that they were the Kumi family lieutenants. As he planned how to take down the mob in the most efficient and painless manner, Hoshiguro's loud and piercing, chakra-laden voice ripped through the courtyard.
"STOP!"
Most followed the order but some didn't—one of them was a lieutenants. He looked to be Gyon's age, making Takuma speculate that they were friends and he wanted some sort of revenge. However, the friend was far too sloppy for Takuma's standards. He took a step forward, closing the distance before the friend expected and front kicked him in the stomach.
The friend flew back, crashed into four people, taking them all to the ground.
Takuma looked around for Gaku to find him waving down at him with a smile from the roof. He sighed and then looked at Hoshiguro who had gotten up and walked toward him. But faster than Hoshiguro was a woman who rushed past him and arrived by Gyon's side full of worry, she glared at Takuma and put her body between him and Gyon.
"Your husband will be fine, ma'am," Takuma guessed the woman's identity and tried to comfort her. "He'll be up soon; I didn't break any of his bones, so with a little rest and some ice for the swelling, he'll be good as new." The wife wasn't comforted at all and was about to scream at him but turned away when she saw Hoshiguro arrive and instead ordered two men to carry her husband.
"What purpose did this serve?" Takuma asked Hoshiguro.
Hoshiguro watched Gyon being carried away before answering. "Once in my youth, I fought a real shinobi... My son thinks himself to be strong, but he doesn't realise that he's only a frog in the well... It was the most terrorising experience of my life, but I'm glad I had it. Gyon didn't have that experience, and I simply wanted him to have that experience before this city turns into a battlefield."
He looked at Takuma with a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "When big nations with great shinobi villages like yours wage against each other, smaller nations like mine are unwillingly made into their battlefields. I knew that this city would turn into a battlefield the day it was invaded by shinobi."
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Note: All the chapters will eventually be posted on public forums.
Gyon looked at the gathered people, irritated about their conversations and whispers about the fight. This wasn't a circus act they could watch casually. He glanced at his father who was sitting on his personal chair that he had brought along everywhere, sipping tea with snacks. He couldn't understand why his father would have him fight the Tobi/Takuma kid.
Was it a test for Takuma or was it for him?
He looked at Takuma standing on the other side of the courtyard, chatting with Gaku. The lack of worry on his face irked Gyon.
The history of the Kumi family extended back to the days of his grandfather. In his youth, he was taken under the wing of an old shinobi, who taught them the mysteries of chakra in exchange for booze. Along with Gyon's grandfather, the old shinobi also taught his friend, who would then go on to find the Goharu family. Once upon a time, the two students were attached by the hip and used their new powers to take over Yu. However, when the old shinobi died, the two friends had a falling out over his belongings—especially, the ninjutsu scrolls in his possession that the old shinobi hadn't allowed them to learn.
In the end, they fought and split the ninjutsu scrolls between them. And from then onwards, the Kumi and Goharu family were found in Yu. The founders learned the ninjutsu they had taken and taught their children how to use chakra and passed along the ninjutsu. However, that changed when Hoshiguro and his Goharu family counterpart taught their most trusted people how to use chakra, but they kept the ninjutsu only for their children. In the Kumi family, all six lieutenants and a dozen more people knew how to use chakra— but only Hoshiguro and Gyon knew ninjutsu.
Gyon was the strongest fighter in Kumi. His father was much more experienced, but he had gotten weaker with age, leaving Gyon as the strongest. In fact, he was stronger than his Goharu family counterpart, who had already become the Goharu family head.
However, he couldn't help but worry about the fight. The poster claimed that Takuma was a Hidden Leaf shinobi. Even though Yu was far from most shinobi involvement and Hidden Steam's move away from traditional shinobi village system, Gyon knew that the Hidden Leaf village was one of the five great shinobi villages. From the stories he had heard, they were extremely dangerous. And the scars on Takuma's arms and legs were worrying.
But he also thought that Takuma was just a kid. Whereas he was in his prime and at his strongest because he had increased his training since the Yu had been invaded so that he could protect his family.
He would win this fight, thought Gyon and saw his wife standing behind his father with their ten-year old twin children. His wife looked worried while the twins looked excited. He directed a smile toward her to relax her. He also caught his father gazing at him; he still couldn't perceive what his father wanted from him, but he knew that he had to perform.
Everyone important in the Kumi family was present to watch the fight and a loss in front of them would be a blow to his reputation as the strongest man in Yu. Perhaps a victory against a Hidden Leaf shinobi would convince his father to pass the seat of leadership to him. Yoshi, the current leader of the Goharu family, had always been his rival since they were little children—and Gyon had always beaten him at everything—and yet, Yoshi was already the Goharu family's leader while he was still serving under his father. Even his father had gotten the control of the Kumi family from grandfather at a younger age than Gyon.
"Are both sides, ready?" Hoshiguro's voice echoed in the courtyard. Gyon and Takuma stepped to the centre of the courtyard, facing each other. Hoshiguro looked at the people around the courtyard. The courtyard was large, but with how shinobi fought, the area could quickly become not big enough for the two fighters.
"This could get out of hand quickly... you might get injured." He warned them, but not one person moved from their place, excited about spectating the fighting. He chuckled in amusement before looking at the two fighters and raised his hand to gesture. "You may start!"
The moment Hoshiguro announced the start, Gyon exploded forth with his sword biting down towards Takuma, who effortlessly side-stepped the strike. Gyon's eyes shrunk when he saw a kunai suddenly appear in Takuma's hand. He barely moved his head to dodge the kunai slicing for his face; he felt the cold metal brush through his hair, chopping a few strands from the side of his head.
He immediately retreated to put some distance between them. Takuma was quicker and kicked him in the knee, destroying his balance. Gyon stumbled back, forced to kneel to regain his balance. He looked up to see Takuma skip forward and swing down his kunai. He raised his sword just in time to block the kunai from shearing his chest open. The impact made a grating sound and beneath it he felt like an iron beam had fallen on his sword.
His face turned red, his arm trembled, and he could barely stop his grip on the sword from failing as his body was forced to shrink under the tremendous force.
How could someone generate so much power?
The moment Takuma raised his kunai for another strike, Gyon got himself up on his feet. As he took a step back, Takuma launched a spinning kick at his hand, knocking the sword out of his grip. The sword went flying off, stabbing the ground near the edge of the courtyard, making the spectators jump in fright.
All of Gyon's instincts screamed at him to go after his sword, but reasoning prevailed and he put as much distance as possible between them. The decision was right because the moment he moved, Takuma took a step toward the sword's direction. If he had chased after the sword, he would've been intercepted and forced to be on the defensive.
Sweat trickled down Gyon's face. He could hear the cheers of his people urging him on to win. He swallowed as he watched Takuma slowly move in between him and the sword. If his heartbeat was to be trusted, it was telling him that Takuma was dangerous. In the short few seconds, he had not only been disarmed, he had also been forced to kneel.
If he wanted a chance to win this battle, he had to use ninjutsu, thought Gyon.
Ninjutsu were special moves used only when it was absolutely necessary—that was something drilled into his mind since the day his father had first taught him ninjutsu. The Hidden Steam shinobi couldn't and didn't stop people from chakra, but they were extremely strict when it came to people learning ninjutsu. There was a real danger that if the news got out that there were people unassociated with the Hidden Steam using ninjutsu, the shinobi would come to get rid of them. Both Goharu and Kumi understood that threat and had unspoken rules to bar the use of ninjutsu.
It was never a problem as only four people from both families knew ninjutsu—and the enhanced physiques provided by chakra was more than enough power anyone needed in Yu.
Gyon glanced at his father, hoping that he would get permission to use ninjutsu. Hoshiguro looked at him and nodded. Gyon felt a wave of exhilaration shoot through him. This had to be a sign that his father wanted to see his all—his best—so he could judge if he was ready—which he absolutely was.
His confidence soared as he stood up straighter. Usually, he only used ninjutsu in training which he had to do in secret away from other's eyes. But he always wanted to use them in actual fights; it was such a waste to have powerful tools and not use them. Now, he had the chance to not only use it in a fight, but also showcase his true power in front of his people.
Kids, watch your father, Gyon thought with bravado as he raised his hand to form hand seals for the ninjutsu called Fire Release: Two. The jutsu made two long fire claws extend out from the knuckle region in both hands with power to cut through metal ropes; they could easily rip and burn through a body like it was nothing. It had taken him half a decade of practice to perfect the jutsu. He remembered how invincible he had felt when he had killed an adult bear; the animal that would rip through ten men with ease had fallen dead at his feet. It was the ninjutsu which made him the strongest man in Yu.
But as he formed the hand seals, Takuma threw his kunai toward him. Gyon, utterly surprised, broke his hand seals as he evaded the kunai by jumping to the side.
"Fuck!" Gyon cursed. Before he could even shift his feet properly, Takuma dashed forth and was already before him. Gyon had never seen anyone or anything move so fast.
He heard Takuma whisper, "So you can use jutsu."
Faster than anything Gyon could react to, Takuma's fist dug into his liver. It knocked all the air out of his lungs and he immediately spat out blood. He didn't think it was possible to feel so much pain. The next moment, a sharp elbow smashed into his shoulder, forcing him to his knees. If Gyon wasn't already more prone, a quick jab to his throat did the trick.
The panic of not being able to breath and the pain spreading through his body clashed against each other. He swayed and his vision blurred.He tried to lock on Takuma but couldn't catch the foot before it smashed into the side of his face.
The last thing Gyon heard as he fell to the ground unconscious was the sound of his twins crying and screaming.
———
.
Takuma breathed out as Gyon's body hit the ground. Before he could even relax, the courtyard erupted as two dozen men charged at him with their weapons. He had angered everyone by thrashing the head's son.
"Aw, geez."
Takuma put his hands up as he saw three men who were faster than everyone else and instantly recognised them to be chakra practitioners, and that they were the Kumi family lieutenants. As he planned how to take down the mob in the most efficient and painless manner, Hoshiguro's loud and piercing, chakra-laden voice ripped through the courtyard.
"STOP!"
Most followed the order but some didn't—one of them was a lieutenants. He looked to be Gyon's age, making Takuma speculate that they were friends and he wanted some sort of revenge. However, the friend was far too sloppy for Takuma's standards. He took a step forward, closing the distance before the friend expected and front kicked him in the stomach.
The friend flew back, crashed into four people, taking them all to the ground.
Takuma looked around for Gaku to find him waving down at him with a smile from the roof. He sighed and then looked at Hoshiguro who had gotten up and walked toward him. But faster than Hoshiguro was a woman who rushed past him and arrived by Gyon's side full of worry, she glared at Takuma and put her body between him and Gyon.
"Your husband will be fine, ma'am," Takuma guessed the woman's identity and tried to comfort her. "He'll be up soon; I didn't break any of his bones, so with a little rest and some ice for the swelling, he'll be good as new." The wife wasn't comforted at all and was about to scream at him but turned away when she saw Hoshiguro arrive and instead ordered two men to carry her husband.
"What purpose did this serve?" Takuma asked Hoshiguro.
Hoshiguro watched Gyon being carried away before answering. "Once in my youth, I fought a real shinobi... My son thinks himself to be strong, but he doesn't realise that he's only a frog in the well... It was the most terrorising experience of my life, but I'm glad I had it. Gyon didn't have that experience, and I simply wanted him to have that experience before this city turns into a battlefield."
He looked at Takuma with a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "When big nations with great shinobi villages like yours wage against each other, smaller nations like mine are unwillingly made into their battlefields. I knew that this city would turn into a battlefield the day it was invaded by shinobi."
Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over to Patreón [fictiononlyreader]. Link here and in signature.
Note: All the chapters will eventually be posted on public forums.
CH_7.23 (241)
Fiction
Feel free to ask me questions.
A group of workers busied themselves in the Goharu family's drug house, packaging the crushed brown crystal powder of heroin into bricks and small packets. The packets were tagged with an umbrella insignia and the workers wore leather gloves and had long scarves wrapped around their faces to reduce their contact with the drugs.
The number of workers had doubled recently from the increase in business from the Hidden Frost shinobi army occupying the city. Not only were they selling their product to the army, it was also being sent into the Land of Frost to be packaged and sold in neighbouring nations.
Among the workers was a bald man with a stick-like figure in his late thirties. Yamada was one of the new hires. He was previously a carriage driver, but since the city's invasion, he had lost his source of income, and had been unemployed for months before he was hired by the Goharu family to work in the drug house. He had never worked with people like the Goharu family and knew the danger associated with those sort of people brought.However, he had a wife, two children, and his elderly parents depending on him as the sole breadwinner of the family—and in tough times, he was willing to work anywhere, and the Goharu family was among the few offering work. At the end of his shift, Yamada stepped out of the preparation area. He removed his gloves and scarf before walking to the office in the back, joining the queue in the front of the office to receive his daily pay.
The boss in charge of the drug house was Waichi, the brother-in-law of the Goharu family's head. He had a mean reputation which Yamada had found to be true from his experience working in the drug house. Waichi had a tendency to yell at workers when they made even the smallest mistakes and cruelly dock pay for each mistake. He ran the drug house with fear and Yamada always felt like he was walking on a tight-rope when the man was around.
The line moved up and Yamada could hear Waichi tearing into others for their mistakes, lack of packing speed, too much talking, and every little thing possible. He clutched the hem of his shirt and prayed for a light to talk to. His turn came and unexpectedly, Waichi directly handed him the pay without any nasty words.
"Good job, today," said Waichi.
Even though it was the bare minimum decorum that should be expected in a place of work, but the words of simple praise made Yamada's heart swell with pride and happiness. He bowed deeply to Waichi, who hummed in approval.
"Keep working like today and I might raise your wage."
"T-Thank you, sir!"
After leaving the factory, Yamada went straight to the butcher and bought some meat for dinner even though he couldn't afford it, but he knew that that his family would be happy—and as long as he continued to work to the best of his ability, his wage would increase, improving the life of his family. He decided to apply for a double-shift twice a week to show initiative.
"I'm home!" Yamada called with a smile. "Dear, I bought meat from the butcher! Have you started dinner preparation?"
The house opened up to a living room where Yamada expected to see his father reading a book, but the room was empty, so he went to the kitchen beside the living room to put down the meat to find it empty.
"Where's everyone?" he whispered to himself.
Not thinking about it too much, he quickly headed straight to the bigger washroom to take a bath as he did every day since he started working at the drug house. He didn't want to interact with his children with any traces of harmful drugs on him. Upon entering the washroom, he was surprised to see not only was the bath unprepared, the change of clothes his wife prepared every day wasn't present.
That's when he realised that the house was too quiet, and when he focused, he heard the faint sound of sobbing from inside his and his wife's bedroom. He instantly recognised his daughter's voice and a chill went down his spine as a hundred bad thoughts exploded in his mind.
"Maiko!"
He sprinted into the bedroom and had just caught the sight of his parents on the bed holding his children close to them and a figure dressed in black robe with a white robe standing near the bed when another similarly dressed figure tackled him into the wall.
"Papa!"
Ignoring the pain from being slammed into the wall and the arm pressing against his neck, Yamada looked at his family. They looked utterly exhausted and scared, but didn't seem to have any injuries on them. He noticed that his wife was missing from the room.
"Where is Hiromi?" he asked in panic as he was dragged out of the bedroom and thrown onto the living room floor. "W-Who are you!? Why are you in my house? Where's my wife? What have you done with her? I swear if one hair on my head is harmed, I will—!"
There were two people dressed in complete black wearing white porcelain masks. Other than their height, their only distinguishing features were their hair, and the patterns on their mask—snake and eagle—and the person standing beside his family had a badger pattern on their mask.
"Quiet down, Yamada," said Snake—she had a woman's voice. "Your family is unharmed."
"My wife—" He tried to get up but Snake kicked him down and kept her foot down on her chest. No matter how much he tried, he could barely shift.
"If you don't stop yelling, your wife won't be fine," she said. The sheer casualness with how Snake threatened him sent a spike of fear down his body, bringing his struggling to an end. He shut his mouth and gulped deeply as the weight of the foot on his chest made breathing difficult. "Good. Now that you're listening, let me make something very clear. The safety of your family is firmly in your hands. Follow what we say, and we won't be forced to make them suffer."
Snake removed her foot from his chest and took a step back. Yamada immediately pushed himself away from Snake, but could only move a few paces back before Eagle kicked him in the back.
"W-Where is my wife?" he asked from the floor, looking up at intruders. His eyes fluttered to the bedroom, his entire being wanting to go console his crying children.
"She's not here. Rest assured, she's completely safe," said Eagle.
"Please b-bring her back; don't hurt her," he begged. His imagination went back to the worst scenarios; the fear of never getting to see her again was too overwhelming.
"As we said, the safety of your family is firmly in your hands... We want you to do something only you can do for us," said Snake and threw a sachet filled with brown crystal powder on the ground.
One look at the umbrella insignia was enough for him to recognise the Goharu family's mark. He knew it by heart as it was put on all packaged products that went out of the drug house.
"T-This is..."
———
.
Two days ago in the factory base, Takuma sat down with Anko, Kameko, and Rikku for a discussion about poisoning the Hidden Frost shinobi through the drugs they had seized from the Renge gang during the police station bombing.
"The drug house is small and well-protected. Sneaking inside to switch the drugs going to the enemy is technically feasible, but I don't have the confidence to pull it off flawlessly," said Anko.
Daiki and her had done reconnaissance on the drug house. The guards at the drug house weren't chakra practitioners. which made them non-threats, but the team couldn't knock them out or get rid of them as that would raise alarms later, potentially sabotaging the plan. The building was small and open enough that completing the mission with total stealth was extremely risky. They also didn't know the drug house's interior and which drugs would go to the shinobi, making the switch unreliable.
She had asked Takuma for two more days to see if she could figure it out, but unfortunately, she still deemed the mission completion without outside help unfeasible without great risk.
"Did you find someone?" asked Kameko.
Takuma, sitting across from them on a sheet metal table, nodded. "We need someone who has access to the drug house and thus has the required knowledge to know which drugs will go to the enemy," he said. "Our new partnership with the Kumi family has already bore fruit. They confirmed that none of the guards are chakra practitioners, and they've given us the information about all the regular workers in the drug house."
If the team couldn't do it, they needed someone else to do it—and who better than a worker inside the drug house.
He pushed the files he had made on the workers and tapped one of them.
"I like him the most," he said.
Rikku opened the file and read. "Yamada... wife, two children, both parents alive. Has been working in the drug house for nearly three months. He's new," she said looking up at him. "Previously worked as a carriage driver. No previous association to the Goharu family or any shady organisations..."
"He has a reputation as a family man. We can use him to sneak in the tainted drugs and have him switch them out," said Takuma.
"Family man, huh," Anko said, taking the file from RIkku. "I can work with that."
———
.
Anko threw down the drug sachet with umbrella insignia on the floor in front of Yamada.
"T-This..."
"Can you tell the difference," she asked him. The Kumi family had procured a sample of the Goharu family's product—sachets with the umbrella stamp— but they had to confirm if they were doing something else with the drugs going to the enemy to avoid raising suspicion. As a worker, Yamada
Yamada nodded.
"Look at it carefully. Is this identical to what's sent to the shinobi? Pick it up and look at it," she said, urging.
Yamada with trembling hands picked up the sachet and observed it after wiping the tears out of his eye. After a few seconds, he once again nodded.
"Do you want your wife back, Yamada?" she asked.
"Y-Yes," Yamada nodded rapidly. He grovelled at feet, trying to grab her leg while wailing. "Please, l-let my wife go."
Anko kicked him back the moment he touched her.
"Good, because we don't want to hold your wife," she said.
To ensure that Yamada would do what they wanted, they had taken his wife hostage. Daiki was with them when they broke into the house and he had taken her away in a carriage provided by the Kumi family to a safe house also provided by the Kumi family.
"Here's what we want you to do: we will give you a bag full of sachets, and you have to replace them with the sachets that will be going out to the shinobi. Refusing to do it or lying to us in any way will result in your children never seeing their mother ever again."
Yamada looked utterly shocked for a moment, but he hastily nodded after. "I'll do it—I will do it. Whatever you want, I will do it—p-please don't hurt my wife. She has done nothing wrong. I will switch the drugs, so please return her," he was once again crying by the end of it.
"Switch the drugs and your wife will be back by the time you come back home," said Anko.
"Please return her now. I will still—"
"This is not a negotiation, Yamada." Anko looked at Kameko in the eagle mask. "Take one of the kids as well, that way the mother won't be lonely."
"NO! I will do it! I will do it! Don't take my children away," Yamada yelled.
"Great," Anko smiled behind mask. "The next delivery is the day after tomorrow, right?"
"Y-Yes."
"We will be staying with your family until then—"
"What?"
"—I promise we will be good guests. Now go take a shower, you're filthy."
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The number of workers had doubled recently from the increase in business from the Hidden Frost shinobi army occupying the city. Not only were they selling their product to the army, it was also being sent into the Land of Frost to be packaged and sold in neighbouring nations.
Among the workers was a bald man with a stick-like figure in his late thirties. Yamada was one of the new hires. He was previously a carriage driver, but since the city's invasion, he had lost his source of income, and had been unemployed for months before he was hired by the Goharu family to work in the drug house. He had never worked with people like the Goharu family and knew the danger associated with those sort of people brought.However, he had a wife, two children, and his elderly parents depending on him as the sole breadwinner of the family—and in tough times, he was willing to work anywhere, and the Goharu family was among the few offering work. At the end of his shift, Yamada stepped out of the preparation area. He removed his gloves and scarf before walking to the office in the back, joining the queue in the front of the office to receive his daily pay.
The boss in charge of the drug house was Waichi, the brother-in-law of the Goharu family's head. He had a mean reputation which Yamada had found to be true from his experience working in the drug house. Waichi had a tendency to yell at workers when they made even the smallest mistakes and cruelly dock pay for each mistake. He ran the drug house with fear and Yamada always felt like he was walking on a tight-rope when the man was around.
The line moved up and Yamada could hear Waichi tearing into others for their mistakes, lack of packing speed, too much talking, and every little thing possible. He clutched the hem of his shirt and prayed for a light to talk to. His turn came and unexpectedly, Waichi directly handed him the pay without any nasty words.
"Good job, today," said Waichi.
Even though it was the bare minimum decorum that should be expected in a place of work, but the words of simple praise made Yamada's heart swell with pride and happiness. He bowed deeply to Waichi, who hummed in approval.
"Keep working like today and I might raise your wage."
"T-Thank you, sir!"
After leaving the factory, Yamada went straight to the butcher and bought some meat for dinner even though he couldn't afford it, but he knew that that his family would be happy—and as long as he continued to work to the best of his ability, his wage would increase, improving the life of his family. He decided to apply for a double-shift twice a week to show initiative.
"I'm home!" Yamada called with a smile. "Dear, I bought meat from the butcher! Have you started dinner preparation?"
The house opened up to a living room where Yamada expected to see his father reading a book, but the room was empty, so he went to the kitchen beside the living room to put down the meat to find it empty.
"Where's everyone?" he whispered to himself.
Not thinking about it too much, he quickly headed straight to the bigger washroom to take a bath as he did every day since he started working at the drug house. He didn't want to interact with his children with any traces of harmful drugs on him. Upon entering the washroom, he was surprised to see not only was the bath unprepared, the change of clothes his wife prepared every day wasn't present.
That's when he realised that the house was too quiet, and when he focused, he heard the faint sound of sobbing from inside his and his wife's bedroom. He instantly recognised his daughter's voice and a chill went down his spine as a hundred bad thoughts exploded in his mind.
"Maiko!"
He sprinted into the bedroom and had just caught the sight of his parents on the bed holding his children close to them and a figure dressed in black robe with a white robe standing near the bed when another similarly dressed figure tackled him into the wall.
"Papa!"
Ignoring the pain from being slammed into the wall and the arm pressing against his neck, Yamada looked at his family. They looked utterly exhausted and scared, but didn't seem to have any injuries on them. He noticed that his wife was missing from the room.
"Where is Hiromi?" he asked in panic as he was dragged out of the bedroom and thrown onto the living room floor. "W-Who are you!? Why are you in my house? Where's my wife? What have you done with her? I swear if one hair on my head is harmed, I will—!"
There were two people dressed in complete black wearing white porcelain masks. Other than their height, their only distinguishing features were their hair, and the patterns on their mask—snake and eagle—and the person standing beside his family had a badger pattern on their mask.
"Quiet down, Yamada," said Snake—she had a woman's voice. "Your family is unharmed."
"My wife—" He tried to get up but Snake kicked him down and kept her foot down on her chest. No matter how much he tried, he could barely shift.
"If you don't stop yelling, your wife won't be fine," she said. The sheer casualness with how Snake threatened him sent a spike of fear down his body, bringing his struggling to an end. He shut his mouth and gulped deeply as the weight of the foot on his chest made breathing difficult. "Good. Now that you're listening, let me make something very clear. The safety of your family is firmly in your hands. Follow what we say, and we won't be forced to make them suffer."
Snake removed her foot from his chest and took a step back. Yamada immediately pushed himself away from Snake, but could only move a few paces back before Eagle kicked him in the back.
"W-Where is my wife?" he asked from the floor, looking up at intruders. His eyes fluttered to the bedroom, his entire being wanting to go console his crying children.
"She's not here. Rest assured, she's completely safe," said Eagle.
"Please b-bring her back; don't hurt her," he begged. His imagination went back to the worst scenarios; the fear of never getting to see her again was too overwhelming.
"As we said, the safety of your family is firmly in your hands... We want you to do something only you can do for us," said Snake and threw a sachet filled with brown crystal powder on the ground.
One look at the umbrella insignia was enough for him to recognise the Goharu family's mark. He knew it by heart as it was put on all packaged products that went out of the drug house.
"T-This is..."
———
.
Two days ago in the factory base, Takuma sat down with Anko, Kameko, and Rikku for a discussion about poisoning the Hidden Frost shinobi through the drugs they had seized from the Renge gang during the police station bombing.
"The drug house is small and well-protected. Sneaking inside to switch the drugs going to the enemy is technically feasible, but I don't have the confidence to pull it off flawlessly," said Anko.
Daiki and her had done reconnaissance on the drug house. The guards at the drug house weren't chakra practitioners. which made them non-threats, but the team couldn't knock them out or get rid of them as that would raise alarms later, potentially sabotaging the plan. The building was small and open enough that completing the mission with total stealth was extremely risky. They also didn't know the drug house's interior and which drugs would go to the shinobi, making the switch unreliable.
She had asked Takuma for two more days to see if she could figure it out, but unfortunately, she still deemed the mission completion without outside help unfeasible without great risk.
"Did you find someone?" asked Kameko.
Takuma, sitting across from them on a sheet metal table, nodded. "We need someone who has access to the drug house and thus has the required knowledge to know which drugs will go to the enemy," he said. "Our new partnership with the Kumi family has already bore fruit. They confirmed that none of the guards are chakra practitioners, and they've given us the information about all the regular workers in the drug house."
If the team couldn't do it, they needed someone else to do it—and who better than a worker inside the drug house.
He pushed the files he had made on the workers and tapped one of them.
"I like him the most," he said.
Rikku opened the file and read. "Yamada... wife, two children, both parents alive. Has been working in the drug house for nearly three months. He's new," she said looking up at him. "Previously worked as a carriage driver. No previous association to the Goharu family or any shady organisations..."
"He has a reputation as a family man. We can use him to sneak in the tainted drugs and have him switch them out," said Takuma.
"Family man, huh," Anko said, taking the file from RIkku. "I can work with that."
———
.
Anko threw down the drug sachet with umbrella insignia on the floor in front of Yamada.
"T-This..."
"Can you tell the difference," she asked him. The Kumi family had procured a sample of the Goharu family's product—sachets with the umbrella stamp— but they had to confirm if they were doing something else with the drugs going to the enemy to avoid raising suspicion. As a worker, Yamada
Yamada nodded.
"Look at it carefully. Is this identical to what's sent to the shinobi? Pick it up and look at it," she said, urging.
Yamada with trembling hands picked up the sachet and observed it after wiping the tears out of his eye. After a few seconds, he once again nodded.
"Do you want your wife back, Yamada?" she asked.
"Y-Yes," Yamada nodded rapidly. He grovelled at feet, trying to grab her leg while wailing. "Please, l-let my wife go."
Anko kicked him back the moment he touched her.
"Good, because we don't want to hold your wife," she said.
To ensure that Yamada would do what they wanted, they had taken his wife hostage. Daiki was with them when they broke into the house and he had taken her away in a carriage provided by the Kumi family to a safe house also provided by the Kumi family.
"Here's what we want you to do: we will give you a bag full of sachets, and you have to replace them with the sachets that will be going out to the shinobi. Refusing to do it or lying to us in any way will result in your children never seeing their mother ever again."
Yamada looked utterly shocked for a moment, but he hastily nodded after. "I'll do it—I will do it. Whatever you want, I will do it—p-please don't hurt my wife. She has done nothing wrong. I will switch the drugs, so please return her," he was once again crying by the end of it.
"Switch the drugs and your wife will be back by the time you come back home," said Anko.
"Please return her now. I will still—"
"This is not a negotiation, Yamada." Anko looked at Kameko in the eagle mask. "Take one of the kids as well, that way the mother won't be lonely."
"NO! I will do it! I will do it! Don't take my children away," Yamada yelled.
"Great," Anko smiled behind mask. "The next delivery is the day after tomorrow, right?"
"Y-Yes."
"We will be staying with your family until then—"
"What?"
"—I promise we will be good guests. Now go take a shower, you're filthy."
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CH_7.24 (242)
Fiction
Feel free to ask me questions.
Yamada stood at the street corner looking at the drug house in the middle of the street. The intimidating guards he had gotten used to once again looked frightening. He clutched the old, scuffed shoulder bag close to his body; it carried the drugs he was supposed to insert into the delivery going out to the Hidden Frost shinobi.
He wasn't able to sleep as he protected his family from the kidnappers in his home. It had been the worst time of his life—comforting his children asking for their mother was the most difficult and heartbreaking thing he had to do. It hurt to wonder how his wife was being treated and whether she was safe.
He took a deep breath and walked toward the drug house, each step heavier than the last. He had to remind himself to keep breathing as he neared the building.
"—Make proper eye contact, loosen your body, and hands off the bag—"
He recalled Snake's words and realised that he was doing everything wrong. A wave of panic shot through him, but he quickly gathered himself when he thought about his family and stopped for a moment in the middle of the street to follow the instructions before proceeding. His heart was trying to beat out of his chest as he climbed the steps of the building. He stopped in front of the guards and slipped the bag off his shoulder, showing them the contents.
"Different bag and no lunchbox today?" the guard asked.
"N-No, my wife fell ill, and my boy tore my bag while playing," said Yamada, doing his best to keep the shake out of his voice.
"And why the clothes?"
There was a set of clothes in the bag which usually wasn't there.
"I'm meeting a friend afterward. I'm going to change here before meeting him."
The guard reached into the bag and Yamada felt his heart come up to his throat. The guard pressed the clothes to check if there was anything underneath and motioned him to go inside when he was satisfied with his search. As Yamada walked past the guards, the tension drained from him and he had to clutch the bag to stop his hands from shaking. The bag was given to him by the kidnappers. It had a false bottom to hide the drugs with a tiny zip to open the hidden compartment with the drugs. The bag was big enough to carry a significant amount of drug sachets, but it didn't catch the guard's attention because his usual bag was just as big as he often used it to carry groceries he purchased after work.
Entering the building, he went straight to his seat on the rows of tables and put the bag below his chair. He waited until everyone on the factory line was seated and ready before work started.
For the next few hours, Yamada shut down his mind and did his work of stamping the umbrella emblem on the sachet. The worry about his family continued to weigh down but the mindless work helped alleviate some of the pressure. Though as he worked, he was acutely aware of the bomb sitting beneath his chair that could kill him and endanger his family if discovered. His heart stopped every time one of the "supervisors" passed by behind him.
Eventually, lunch break was announced and everyone headed out to the tea stalls outside with their lunch boxes.
"You're not eating, Yamada?" asked one of his fellow workers.
"N-No, not today," he smiled at them pitifully.
Almost immediately, they understood what Yamada was trying to say. With how expensive food was, there were times the workers would often forgo food. That wasn't the case for him, but today, he wanted to be in the building during the lunch break for the switch.
"Oh well, take care."
The workers shuffled out of the stuffy building for lunch. Even the supervisors went out, leaving the building empty for a short time.
Yamada knew that he had perhaps ten to fifteen minutes before people started coming back in. He had to move quickly. Very casually, he went to a cupboard in the corner of the room to retrieve one of the duffle bags that were used to deliver the drugs. The readied sachets were piled up in a tray and Yamada transferred them into the bag. This wasn't his duty, but he also knew that no one would mind if he did it.
He looked around to confirm no one was in the room before taking out his bag, opening the hidden compartment, and dumping the sachets given to him by the kidnappers into the duffle bag. He knew how many drugs went out to the shinobi every week, and the quantity given to him by the kidnappers made up nearly three-quarters of it. Yamada didn't know what they had done to the drugs, and he didn't want to know, but he could guess they had done something harmful to them.
By the time he was done, he was breathing heavily and the tiny zip of the compartment slipped from his hand multiple times as he closed it. When he was done, he quickly returned to his chair, put his bag underneath the seat, and took deep breaths to calm himself.
I've done it, thought Yamada as he wiped his sweat from the end of his scarf.
"Oh, you prepared the bag, Yamada?" One of the supervisors asked when he returned from lunch.
"Yes, I... I had nothing better to do," Yamada replied with a smile.
The supervisor stopped and gazed at him before smiling widely. "Boss praised you yesterday, didn't he? I'll tell him you're doing good work when he comes in tomorrow to collect the delivery. You'll definitely be getting that promotion."
"T-Thank you," Yamada said, trying his best to put on a grateful smile.
Yesterday, he would've been elated; but today, all he wanted to do was to return home and get his wife back.
———
.
Yamada all but ran back home after his work was done. Everything hurt by the time he arrived but. without caring what his neighbours thought about him, he burst into his home to see Snake sitting in the living room.
"I did it! Where's my wife?" he yelled with wide-eyes, ready to fight if they refused to return her.
Behind him, Racoon entered from the front and closed the door behind her. "No one followed him," she said.
Yamada felt a chill go down his spine. He hadn't thought they would have someone follow him, but then he saw a snake slip out of Racoon's sleeve.
"A s-snake," he exclaimed, darting out of its way.
The small serpent slithered to Snake, who picked it up and held it near her ear as though she was listening to the snake. Yamada had a bad feeling that the masked kidnappers were mad—and mad people were already difficult enough to deal with without them being shinobi.
"He made the switch properly," said Snake before asking him for the bag.
Yamada threw the bag at her. "When will my wife get home?" He looked back at Racoon to find her staring at him.
Snake ignored him and took out four random sachets from the bag and dropped some unknown transparent liquid into them. The liquid turned blue the moment it touched the drugs. He didn't know what that meant.
"He made the switch," she nodded to Racoon.
Racoon went out of the house from the back entrance and returned a minute later with Yamada's wife in tow. Racoon removed the black cloth bag from her head and untied the rope tying her hands behind her back.
"Hanako!" said Yamada as he walked toward her.
"Dear!" Hanako eyes were red and puffy. Her face was pale and she looked utterly exhausted; in one night, she had aged several years.
The husband and wife hugged before facing the kidnappers in fear.
"I have done everything you asked for. P-Please leave now," said Yamada.
"Of course," said Snake. "But before we leave, I shouldn't need to say it, but no one can know about any of this. Tell your children and parents that your family will be in trouble if this gets out." Yamada nodded fervently. "Also, don't quit your job at the drug house, or you'll attract unwanted attention that might get you in trouble with the Goharu family."
Yamada felt a pit in his stomach as he understood the implication. The kidnappers were unknown, which was dangerous on its own, but the Goharu family was a known danger—he knew what they were capable of, and what they would do to his family if they found he had betrayed them.
"For your troubles," said Snake, pointing to three jute bags brought in by Racoon.
"We don't need it, please take it away," said Yamada—whatever it was, it was from shinobi.
Snake laughed merrily. "Throw it away if you want, but I think you won't."
The kidnappers left the home promptly, and for a couple days, Yamada felt like they would return at any moment, though they never did. As for the jute bags, Snake was right, he didn't throw them out. The bags were filled with food that his family desperately needed, and even though he felt uncomfortable, he kept it.
———
.
For the first time since the team infiltrated the city, Takuma arrived at Chinatsu's house. In the month and a half they had been in Yu, the place had changed so much that it was unrecognisable. Either Chinatsu earned too much money or Anko had blown their mission budget on furniture. Takuma was envious because he had been sleeping in camping bags on top of an old and depressed couch.
He sat down on the comfy couch and kicked his legs up on the centre table. The team sat around the living room, together for the first time since they had arrived in the city.
"Are we ready?" Takuma asked Chinatsu and Gaku across from him.
"We are set to meet tomorrow," Gaku replied with a smile.
Takuma looked at Chinatsu, the team's star. "And what about you?"
"It's just a day's work for me," she said nonchalantly.
Chinatsu had been sleeping with a Hidden Frost chunin for the past three weeks. And as it turned out, the chunin had been dealing the Goharu family drugs to the enemy shinobi army. It was a surprise that the shinobi Takuma was tracking and the shinobi Gaku had procured as clients were one-in-the-same—but it made sense because a man who could afford to hire Chinatsu twice a week would be loaded and drug dealing was definitely enough to support his expensive hobby.
"And what about you?" Takuma asked Anko.
"I'll just follow her lead," Anko sighed, looking at Chinatsu.
For the last month and a half, the team had been mostly passive while they prepared, but as they drew closer to the two month mark, it was time to start making their move. They had to create chaos in the city to find an advantage the main force could exploit. The main force was set to arrive at the end of the second month, giving them a little over a fortnight to gain the advantage.
The first step of that chaos creating process was to poison a portion of the enemy army using the tainted drugs and then frame the dealers as the culprits. It would seem like the dealer had betrayed the Hidden Frost side by intentionally distributing poisoned drugs—and the Hidden Frost shinobi would then go after the Goharu family for their role as the suppliers. Not only a portion of the shinobi would be sick, the rest of the shinobi would stop doing drugs due to fear which, damaging the relationship between the shinobi and the Goharu family and loosening their control over their city.
To accomplish that, they needed to abduct the shinobi dealing the drugs—which they were planning to do while he was with Chinatsu—and to fortify the impression of betrayal, they were going to abduct one of the dealer's helpers as well, a genin. For that to happen, Anko, who had been disguising herself as Chinatsu's handmaid, would debut as an escort.
Under Gaku's instructions, Chinatsu had managed to convince the shinobi dealer to bring one of his helpers as Anko's "first customer."
While the two shinobi had their guards down, the team would attack and abduct them.
"What if they don't come?" asked Kameko. "What if, when people start to get sick, he cancels on you to deal with the problem?"
"That's a possibility, but I bet they'll still come," said Takuma. "I don't think someone in his position would forgo a chance to blow off some steam and get his mind off the whole fiasco. And under stress, he would instinctually bring his favourite with him—helping our narrative."
He cracked his knuckles,
"Let's light a fire under their asses."
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He wasn't able to sleep as he protected his family from the kidnappers in his home. It had been the worst time of his life—comforting his children asking for their mother was the most difficult and heartbreaking thing he had to do. It hurt to wonder how his wife was being treated and whether she was safe.
He took a deep breath and walked toward the drug house, each step heavier than the last. He had to remind himself to keep breathing as he neared the building.
"—Make proper eye contact, loosen your body, and hands off the bag—"
He recalled Snake's words and realised that he was doing everything wrong. A wave of panic shot through him, but he quickly gathered himself when he thought about his family and stopped for a moment in the middle of the street to follow the instructions before proceeding. His heart was trying to beat out of his chest as he climbed the steps of the building. He stopped in front of the guards and slipped the bag off his shoulder, showing them the contents.
"Different bag and no lunchbox today?" the guard asked.
"N-No, my wife fell ill, and my boy tore my bag while playing," said Yamada, doing his best to keep the shake out of his voice.
"And why the clothes?"
There was a set of clothes in the bag which usually wasn't there.
"I'm meeting a friend afterward. I'm going to change here before meeting him."
The guard reached into the bag and Yamada felt his heart come up to his throat. The guard pressed the clothes to check if there was anything underneath and motioned him to go inside when he was satisfied with his search. As Yamada walked past the guards, the tension drained from him and he had to clutch the bag to stop his hands from shaking. The bag was given to him by the kidnappers. It had a false bottom to hide the drugs with a tiny zip to open the hidden compartment with the drugs. The bag was big enough to carry a significant amount of drug sachets, but it didn't catch the guard's attention because his usual bag was just as big as he often used it to carry groceries he purchased after work.
Entering the building, he went straight to his seat on the rows of tables and put the bag below his chair. He waited until everyone on the factory line was seated and ready before work started.
For the next few hours, Yamada shut down his mind and did his work of stamping the umbrella emblem on the sachet. The worry about his family continued to weigh down but the mindless work helped alleviate some of the pressure. Though as he worked, he was acutely aware of the bomb sitting beneath his chair that could kill him and endanger his family if discovered. His heart stopped every time one of the "supervisors" passed by behind him.
Eventually, lunch break was announced and everyone headed out to the tea stalls outside with their lunch boxes.
"You're not eating, Yamada?" asked one of his fellow workers.
"N-No, not today," he smiled at them pitifully.
Almost immediately, they understood what Yamada was trying to say. With how expensive food was, there were times the workers would often forgo food. That wasn't the case for him, but today, he wanted to be in the building during the lunch break for the switch.
"Oh well, take care."
The workers shuffled out of the stuffy building for lunch. Even the supervisors went out, leaving the building empty for a short time.
Yamada knew that he had perhaps ten to fifteen minutes before people started coming back in. He had to move quickly. Very casually, he went to a cupboard in the corner of the room to retrieve one of the duffle bags that were used to deliver the drugs. The readied sachets were piled up in a tray and Yamada transferred them into the bag. This wasn't his duty, but he also knew that no one would mind if he did it.
He looked around to confirm no one was in the room before taking out his bag, opening the hidden compartment, and dumping the sachets given to him by the kidnappers into the duffle bag. He knew how many drugs went out to the shinobi every week, and the quantity given to him by the kidnappers made up nearly three-quarters of it. Yamada didn't know what they had done to the drugs, and he didn't want to know, but he could guess they had done something harmful to them.
By the time he was done, he was breathing heavily and the tiny zip of the compartment slipped from his hand multiple times as he closed it. When he was done, he quickly returned to his chair, put his bag underneath the seat, and took deep breaths to calm himself.
I've done it, thought Yamada as he wiped his sweat from the end of his scarf.
"Oh, you prepared the bag, Yamada?" One of the supervisors asked when he returned from lunch.
"Yes, I... I had nothing better to do," Yamada replied with a smile.
The supervisor stopped and gazed at him before smiling widely. "Boss praised you yesterday, didn't he? I'll tell him you're doing good work when he comes in tomorrow to collect the delivery. You'll definitely be getting that promotion."
"T-Thank you," Yamada said, trying his best to put on a grateful smile.
Yesterday, he would've been elated; but today, all he wanted to do was to return home and get his wife back.
———
.
Yamada all but ran back home after his work was done. Everything hurt by the time he arrived but. without caring what his neighbours thought about him, he burst into his home to see Snake sitting in the living room.
"I did it! Where's my wife?" he yelled with wide-eyes, ready to fight if they refused to return her.
Behind him, Racoon entered from the front and closed the door behind her. "No one followed him," she said.
Yamada felt a chill go down his spine. He hadn't thought they would have someone follow him, but then he saw a snake slip out of Racoon's sleeve.
"A s-snake," he exclaimed, darting out of its way.
The small serpent slithered to Snake, who picked it up and held it near her ear as though she was listening to the snake. Yamada had a bad feeling that the masked kidnappers were mad—and mad people were already difficult enough to deal with without them being shinobi.
"He made the switch properly," said Snake before asking him for the bag.
Yamada threw the bag at her. "When will my wife get home?" He looked back at Racoon to find her staring at him.
Snake ignored him and took out four random sachets from the bag and dropped some unknown transparent liquid into them. The liquid turned blue the moment it touched the drugs. He didn't know what that meant.
"He made the switch," she nodded to Racoon.
Racoon went out of the house from the back entrance and returned a minute later with Yamada's wife in tow. Racoon removed the black cloth bag from her head and untied the rope tying her hands behind her back.
"Hanako!" said Yamada as he walked toward her.
"Dear!" Hanako eyes were red and puffy. Her face was pale and she looked utterly exhausted; in one night, she had aged several years.
The husband and wife hugged before facing the kidnappers in fear.
"I have done everything you asked for. P-Please leave now," said Yamada.
"Of course," said Snake. "But before we leave, I shouldn't need to say it, but no one can know about any of this. Tell your children and parents that your family will be in trouble if this gets out." Yamada nodded fervently. "Also, don't quit your job at the drug house, or you'll attract unwanted attention that might get you in trouble with the Goharu family."
Yamada felt a pit in his stomach as he understood the implication. The kidnappers were unknown, which was dangerous on its own, but the Goharu family was a known danger—he knew what they were capable of, and what they would do to his family if they found he had betrayed them.
"For your troubles," said Snake, pointing to three jute bags brought in by Racoon.
"We don't need it, please take it away," said Yamada—whatever it was, it was from shinobi.
Snake laughed merrily. "Throw it away if you want, but I think you won't."
The kidnappers left the home promptly, and for a couple days, Yamada felt like they would return at any moment, though they never did. As for the jute bags, Snake was right, he didn't throw them out. The bags were filled with food that his family desperately needed, and even though he felt uncomfortable, he kept it.
———
.
For the first time since the team infiltrated the city, Takuma arrived at Chinatsu's house. In the month and a half they had been in Yu, the place had changed so much that it was unrecognisable. Either Chinatsu earned too much money or Anko had blown their mission budget on furniture. Takuma was envious because he had been sleeping in camping bags on top of an old and depressed couch.
He sat down on the comfy couch and kicked his legs up on the centre table. The team sat around the living room, together for the first time since they had arrived in the city.
"Are we ready?" Takuma asked Chinatsu and Gaku across from him.
"We are set to meet tomorrow," Gaku replied with a smile.
Takuma looked at Chinatsu, the team's star. "And what about you?"
"It's just a day's work for me," she said nonchalantly.
Chinatsu had been sleeping with a Hidden Frost chunin for the past three weeks. And as it turned out, the chunin had been dealing the Goharu family drugs to the enemy shinobi army. It was a surprise that the shinobi Takuma was tracking and the shinobi Gaku had procured as clients were one-in-the-same—but it made sense because a man who could afford to hire Chinatsu twice a week would be loaded and drug dealing was definitely enough to support his expensive hobby.
"And what about you?" Takuma asked Anko.
"I'll just follow her lead," Anko sighed, looking at Chinatsu.
For the last month and a half, the team had been mostly passive while they prepared, but as they drew closer to the two month mark, it was time to start making their move. They had to create chaos in the city to find an advantage the main force could exploit. The main force was set to arrive at the end of the second month, giving them a little over a fortnight to gain the advantage.
The first step of that chaos creating process was to poison a portion of the enemy army using the tainted drugs and then frame the dealers as the culprits. It would seem like the dealer had betrayed the Hidden Frost side by intentionally distributing poisoned drugs—and the Hidden Frost shinobi would then go after the Goharu family for their role as the suppliers. Not only a portion of the shinobi would be sick, the rest of the shinobi would stop doing drugs due to fear which, damaging the relationship between the shinobi and the Goharu family and loosening their control over their city.
To accomplish that, they needed to abduct the shinobi dealing the drugs—which they were planning to do while he was with Chinatsu—and to fortify the impression of betrayal, they were going to abduct one of the dealer's helpers as well, a genin. For that to happen, Anko, who had been disguising herself as Chinatsu's handmaid, would debut as an escort.
Under Gaku's instructions, Chinatsu had managed to convince the shinobi dealer to bring one of his helpers as Anko's "first customer."
While the two shinobi had their guards down, the team would attack and abduct them.
"What if they don't come?" asked Kameko. "What if, when people start to get sick, he cancels on you to deal with the problem?"
"That's a possibility, but I bet they'll still come," said Takuma. "I don't think someone in his position would forgo a chance to blow off some steam and get his mind off the whole fiasco. And under stress, he would instinctually bring his favourite with him—helping our narrative."
He cracked his knuckles,
"Let's light a fire under their asses."
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Note: All the chapters will eventually be posted on public forums.
CH_7.25 (243)
Fiction
Feel free to ask me questions.
Aranai was a Hidden Frost chunin who had made a great situation for himself in the city he was occupying as part of a war against the Land of Hot Water. He was making money hand over fist by not only selling drugs to his peers, but also exporting drugs to his home country along with all the food and produce they were diverting from the Land of Hot Water.
He had made more money in the past couple months than he had made in the last several years as a shinobi. Money aside, his reputation among his peers had improved considerably as he had become an important source of relaxation and recreation. Most people didn't want to be in a foreign country away from their home and the drugs helped calm them down and take their minds off the inevitable loneliness. However as he looked at the dozen shinobi lying down on the infirmary beds, and their extremely sick occupants, he had a feeling those good times were about to end. He recognised every single one of them as his regular customers. The iryo-nin had confirmed that none of them were going to die, but they would be sick for at least a week and weak for even longer.
"There's the star of the day. Come, Aranai. Let's have a chat."
He flinched and looked at Ebi, his jonin in command, standing at the end of the hallway. He glanced into the infirmary one final time before following him. They didn't exchange words until they were in his office, but that only had the effect of worsening his nervousness.
"I don't have a problem with you selling drugs," said Ebi after they sat down. "In fact, it helps me that you're keeping people in their rooms and away from the city. Their being there always creates trouble with Yu's citizens, which is always annoying to deal with. However, you must admit, putting people in the infirmary is overdoing it—sure they won't create any trouble because they can't get out of bed—but we're still in enemy territory, or have you forgotten that, Mr Businessman?"
Aranai sat straight in his chair with his hands clenched tightly in his lap. Ebi was generally a laid back man with no micromanagement in his leadership style. He trusted his men to act like adults, but when they screwed up, he became scary. Just last month a genin had beaten a civilian to death in a drunken stupor; Ebi, a jonin, had forced that genin to fight him for two hours every day for a week and had disallowed the iryo-nin from healing the genin.
"I apologise, sir... I didn't know the drugs were faulty." He was lucky he hadn't done any from the current batch. "I will rip those bastards at the Goharu family a new one."
"Typical," Ebi sighed, making Aranai's heat leap into his chest. "Diverting the blame; taking no responsibility."
"I... I-I am—"
"I—I—I. You don't have a stutter. Speak properly."
Aranai felt resentful but he chose to keep quiet with his head bowed. It wasn't his fault that those men had fallen sick. He hadn't told them to buy drugs. And he wasn't the one making the drugs; he was getting from the city's civilians, and they had delivered good products until now. How was he supposed to know that they would deliver a faulty batch?
"You'll be punished for this, of course," said Ebi with a flat tone, "but that's a minor affair. You should be more concerned about the drugs you're sending back to the country. I know Honjo is helping you send drugs back home... If those drugs are faulty, that'll be a much bigger problem. After all, Honjo's a social climber who'll do anything to save his skin—he's gunning for Jonin Commander, after all."
He looked up at Ebi with an ample amount of fear and surprise, making the jonin scoff. Recently, he had been sending larger amounts of the Goharu family's drugs into the Land of Frost. Jonin Honjo was helping him with the delivery, taking a cut in return. He was happy because his earnings had gone through the roof and he'd also grown closer to a jonin through mutually beneficial business.
But Ebi was right—if things went wrong, Honjo would throw him under the bus without a moment's hesitation. The consequences of such a situation made him feel incredibly lightheaded and he blinked half a dozen times to no avail.
"It goes without saying that I'll be banning the drugs moving forward," said Ebi.
Aranai wanted to argue against such a thing. It was only one batch and so long as he confirmed that the next batch was good, they wouldn't have any problems—but seeing the look in Ebi's eyes made him think that doing so would be a very bad idea.
"By your order, sir," he said.
Ebi excused Aranai after verbally beating him some more, putting the fear of retaliation and punishment into his heart. At the end of it, Aranai wanted to do nothing more than barge into the house of that bastard Waichi and rip him several new ones. He wanted to savour the fear in the Goharu family head's eyes as he told him how royally fucked he was.
But that would come tomorrow.
Today, he was meeting with the whore and he really wanted to blow off some steam. She had told him to bring along one of his subordinates because one of her handmaids wanted to get into the business but Aranai was of the mind to go alone and enjoy two women worshipping and serving him. Eventually, he decided to take one of the leeching bastards—it'd be wise to build some additional trust... in case he needed a scapegoat to put the blame on.
———
.
Takuma gazed at the two-storey townhouse in an affluent part of the city. Chinatsu didn't like bringing business home, especially since the team was residing with her, so Gaku rented out the townhouse for Chinatsu to host her clients.
He entered the building and saw that the team was busy setting up the place. They seemed used to it from prior experience. Iori, Rikku, and Kameko were preparing everything from the rooms to the drinks and food, Gaku was talking to Chinatsu about being careful, and Daiki was conversing with Anko, who seemed to be completely ready for her role.
Takuma was at a loss about who to speak to about setting up his things. The objective was to capture two shinobi—one of them was a chunin with unknown combat ability—and they had to do it stealthily without leaving any trace of combat, something that required a degree of finesse.
"Come with me," Kameko snapped her fingers and gestured to him to follow.
Takuma followed her to one of the bedrooms. It had a huge canopy bed, the floor completely covered with an extremely soft rug, there was a full-size mirror facing the bed, and a two person dining table with a red table cover and padded chairs alongside an assortment of cutlery and scented candles.
"Look here." Kameko walked to one the walls with a cabinet lining the wall and pointed at something Takuma initially missed, but at a closer look he noticed a cigar-sized hole in the wall, partially covered by the cabinet. "Is this enough?"
Takuma leaned down to look at the hole in the wall that connected the bedroom to the tiny storage closet next door. "I'd like it to be bigger. I know there's not much time but can you do it now?" he asked.
"No," she said. "I'm sorry."
Takuma sighed before shrugging. "It's fine. We'll make it work."
He looked around the room. In less than an hour, the Hidden Frost chunin would be in here with Chinatsu. He was going to incapacitate the shinobi using genjutsu after which Iori would use prisoner fuinjutsu seals to restrict the chunin's chakra and body. In the other room, Anko would deal with the genin. Ideally, given that they didn't know the chunin's combat ability, they would want both Gaku and Anko to deal with chunin in case anything went wrong—but they didn't have a choice. Neither Rikku or Kameko could pull it off, and they needed Iori on the chunin for the fuinjutsu. Anko was not only stronger and could easily deal with a chunin, she was a much better actor, and was comfortable with the role.
"Are you confident?" asked Kameko.
"I think so," said Takuma, placing the fragrant incense sticks on the table in front of the hole.
"You think so?"
He looked up at her and shrugged. "I've done all the preparation I can do, so I'm not nervous. As long as the guy's not experienced with genjutsu—or has bullshit powers—I think I'll be able to ensnare him."
"Bullshit, how so?"
"As in genjutsu doesn't work on him."
"He doesn't have Sharingan."
"The Sharingan doesn't make you immune to genjutsu, it just makes things more difficult," Takuma sighed with a chuckle. He had tried to put genjutsu over Mikoto hundreds of times as part of their lessons and had failed every single time.
She always kept her sharingan active during those practice sessions; she didn't need to, she was a jonin with a mastery in genjutsu anyway, but she activated her eyes to raise a challenge he was never able to meet.
"Plus," he continued, "genjutsu doesn't work on me and I don't have the sharingan. I'm not discounting the option that the chunin will be the same. It's in the realm of possibility."
"What?" asked Kameko. "What do you mean genjutsu doesn't work on you?"
"It literally doesn't. Well, it does work, but I don't have to do anything to slip out of it. It just happens and then I know I'm in a genjutsu, and breaking it is easy enough after that."
Kameko looked like she didn't believe it.
"I'm not lying."
"How is that possible? Are you lying?"
"Absolutely no idea. It just doesn't work. If you know a genjutsu, you could try it."
Kameko looked thoughtful for a moment before saying. "If you're not fucking with me, it could be a new bloodline limit."
Bloodline limits were genetic mutations that granted unique chakra abilities. Dojutsu like the Sharingan and the Byakugan were bloodline limits, and so were the advanced nature transformations.
"It could be," said Takuma. "My teacher and I did discuss the possibility."
When Mikoto wasn't able to find any previous cases of automatic genjutsu breaking, they considered the possibility that Takuma was the progenitor of a genetic mutation which gave him a genjutsu related bloodline limit. The field of genetic testing wasn't advanced enough to reliably detect genetic mutations, so testing for them wasn't an option.
Mikoto, as an Uchiha with the Sharigan, wasn't a big fan of genetic testing. Moreover, Takuma was extremely busy with work and it didn't really matter if it was a bloodline limit because it didn't change anything.
"Maybe if Orochimaru hadn't defected, he would've been able to tell. He was big into genetic testing," Takuma laughed like he had told the funniest joke—he wasn't going to let Orochimaru anywhere near him; he didn't to get bit and cursed with a juinjutsu.
"How do you know that?"
"He's one of the Sannin. Of course, I read up on him," he said matter of factly. According to Maruboshi, history had important lessons and answers to problems, so Takuma had read a lot about the shinobi history, and the Sannin were quite prominently recorded in the Hidden Leaf's history.
Orochimaru was at the forefront of genetics. And with what Takuma knew about him from his meta-knowledge, he assumed that Orochimaru was ahead of the contributions to the field he had publicly available. While Tsunade was looked at as the greatest iryo-nin to ever live, Orochimaru wasn't a slouch in the medical and scientific field. His image had been tainted in recent years due to his actions, but his works were still very prominent.
"Hey," said Kameko. She looked hesitant for a moment. "Try to keep her safe, okay?"
"Chinatsu?"
Kameko nodded. "She... she's obsessed with revenge. That bastard's rough with her; she says it's not a problem, but I know she's hurt. He's a shinobi, he's much stronger than her, and you said it yourself that he'd be pissed because of the poisoned drugs. I'm worried he might overdo it... so hurry if possible."
Takuma looked at her. While he didn't have any personal connection with Chinatsu, the knowledge left a bad taste in his mouth. But he didn't live with her; the others did, so it wasn't strange to form some connection with the asset.
He nodded. "I'll do my best."
"Thank you," Kameko said earnestly and then left the room.
Takuma followed her with his eyes. He'd agreed, but he wasn't going to hurry to the detriment of the genjutsu. A lot depended on the shinobi's capture. Not only would it kickstart doubt and chaos in the enemy camp—but Takuma had a more personal stake in its success.
He wanted his questions about the assassination organisation, their identity, their role in Yu, and the overall war, to be answered so he couldn't afford for it to go wrong.
Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over to Patreón [fictiononlyreader]. Link here and in signature.
Note: All the chapters will eventually be posted on public forums.
He had made more money in the past couple months than he had made in the last several years as a shinobi. Money aside, his reputation among his peers had improved considerably as he had become an important source of relaxation and recreation. Most people didn't want to be in a foreign country away from their home and the drugs helped calm them down and take their minds off the inevitable loneliness. However as he looked at the dozen shinobi lying down on the infirmary beds, and their extremely sick occupants, he had a feeling those good times were about to end. He recognised every single one of them as his regular customers. The iryo-nin had confirmed that none of them were going to die, but they would be sick for at least a week and weak for even longer.
"There's the star of the day. Come, Aranai. Let's have a chat."
He flinched and looked at Ebi, his jonin in command, standing at the end of the hallway. He glanced into the infirmary one final time before following him. They didn't exchange words until they were in his office, but that only had the effect of worsening his nervousness.
"I don't have a problem with you selling drugs," said Ebi after they sat down. "In fact, it helps me that you're keeping people in their rooms and away from the city. Their being there always creates trouble with Yu's citizens, which is always annoying to deal with. However, you must admit, putting people in the infirmary is overdoing it—sure they won't create any trouble because they can't get out of bed—but we're still in enemy territory, or have you forgotten that, Mr Businessman?"
Aranai sat straight in his chair with his hands clenched tightly in his lap. Ebi was generally a laid back man with no micromanagement in his leadership style. He trusted his men to act like adults, but when they screwed up, he became scary. Just last month a genin had beaten a civilian to death in a drunken stupor; Ebi, a jonin, had forced that genin to fight him for two hours every day for a week and had disallowed the iryo-nin from healing the genin.
"I apologise, sir... I didn't know the drugs were faulty." He was lucky he hadn't done any from the current batch. "I will rip those bastards at the Goharu family a new one."
"Typical," Ebi sighed, making Aranai's heat leap into his chest. "Diverting the blame; taking no responsibility."
"I... I-I am—"
"I—I—I. You don't have a stutter. Speak properly."
Aranai felt resentful but he chose to keep quiet with his head bowed. It wasn't his fault that those men had fallen sick. He hadn't told them to buy drugs. And he wasn't the one making the drugs; he was getting from the city's civilians, and they had delivered good products until now. How was he supposed to know that they would deliver a faulty batch?
"You'll be punished for this, of course," said Ebi with a flat tone, "but that's a minor affair. You should be more concerned about the drugs you're sending back to the country. I know Honjo is helping you send drugs back home... If those drugs are faulty, that'll be a much bigger problem. After all, Honjo's a social climber who'll do anything to save his skin—he's gunning for Jonin Commander, after all."
He looked up at Ebi with an ample amount of fear and surprise, making the jonin scoff. Recently, he had been sending larger amounts of the Goharu family's drugs into the Land of Frost. Jonin Honjo was helping him with the delivery, taking a cut in return. He was happy because his earnings had gone through the roof and he'd also grown closer to a jonin through mutually beneficial business.
But Ebi was right—if things went wrong, Honjo would throw him under the bus without a moment's hesitation. The consequences of such a situation made him feel incredibly lightheaded and he blinked half a dozen times to no avail.
"It goes without saying that I'll be banning the drugs moving forward," said Ebi.
Aranai wanted to argue against such a thing. It was only one batch and so long as he confirmed that the next batch was good, they wouldn't have any problems—but seeing the look in Ebi's eyes made him think that doing so would be a very bad idea.
"By your order, sir," he said.
Ebi excused Aranai after verbally beating him some more, putting the fear of retaliation and punishment into his heart. At the end of it, Aranai wanted to do nothing more than barge into the house of that bastard Waichi and rip him several new ones. He wanted to savour the fear in the Goharu family head's eyes as he told him how royally fucked he was.
But that would come tomorrow.
Today, he was meeting with the whore and he really wanted to blow off some steam. She had told him to bring along one of his subordinates because one of her handmaids wanted to get into the business but Aranai was of the mind to go alone and enjoy two women worshipping and serving him. Eventually, he decided to take one of the leeching bastards—it'd be wise to build some additional trust... in case he needed a scapegoat to put the blame on.
———
.
Takuma gazed at the two-storey townhouse in an affluent part of the city. Chinatsu didn't like bringing business home, especially since the team was residing with her, so Gaku rented out the townhouse for Chinatsu to host her clients.
He entered the building and saw that the team was busy setting up the place. They seemed used to it from prior experience. Iori, Rikku, and Kameko were preparing everything from the rooms to the drinks and food, Gaku was talking to Chinatsu about being careful, and Daiki was conversing with Anko, who seemed to be completely ready for her role.
Takuma was at a loss about who to speak to about setting up his things. The objective was to capture two shinobi—one of them was a chunin with unknown combat ability—and they had to do it stealthily without leaving any trace of combat, something that required a degree of finesse.
"Come with me," Kameko snapped her fingers and gestured to him to follow.
Takuma followed her to one of the bedrooms. It had a huge canopy bed, the floor completely covered with an extremely soft rug, there was a full-size mirror facing the bed, and a two person dining table with a red table cover and padded chairs alongside an assortment of cutlery and scented candles.
"Look here." Kameko walked to one the walls with a cabinet lining the wall and pointed at something Takuma initially missed, but at a closer look he noticed a cigar-sized hole in the wall, partially covered by the cabinet. "Is this enough?"
Takuma leaned down to look at the hole in the wall that connected the bedroom to the tiny storage closet next door. "I'd like it to be bigger. I know there's not much time but can you do it now?" he asked.
"No," she said. "I'm sorry."
Takuma sighed before shrugging. "It's fine. We'll make it work."
He looked around the room. In less than an hour, the Hidden Frost chunin would be in here with Chinatsu. He was going to incapacitate the shinobi using genjutsu after which Iori would use prisoner fuinjutsu seals to restrict the chunin's chakra and body. In the other room, Anko would deal with the genin. Ideally, given that they didn't know the chunin's combat ability, they would want both Gaku and Anko to deal with chunin in case anything went wrong—but they didn't have a choice. Neither Rikku or Kameko could pull it off, and they needed Iori on the chunin for the fuinjutsu. Anko was not only stronger and could easily deal with a chunin, she was a much better actor, and was comfortable with the role.
"Are you confident?" asked Kameko.
"I think so," said Takuma, placing the fragrant incense sticks on the table in front of the hole.
"You think so?"
He looked up at her and shrugged. "I've done all the preparation I can do, so I'm not nervous. As long as the guy's not experienced with genjutsu—or has bullshit powers—I think I'll be able to ensnare him."
"Bullshit, how so?"
"As in genjutsu doesn't work on him."
"He doesn't have Sharingan."
"The Sharingan doesn't make you immune to genjutsu, it just makes things more difficult," Takuma sighed with a chuckle. He had tried to put genjutsu over Mikoto hundreds of times as part of their lessons and had failed every single time.
She always kept her sharingan active during those practice sessions; she didn't need to, she was a jonin with a mastery in genjutsu anyway, but she activated her eyes to raise a challenge he was never able to meet.
"Plus," he continued, "genjutsu doesn't work on me and I don't have the sharingan. I'm not discounting the option that the chunin will be the same. It's in the realm of possibility."
"What?" asked Kameko. "What do you mean genjutsu doesn't work on you?"
"It literally doesn't. Well, it does work, but I don't have to do anything to slip out of it. It just happens and then I know I'm in a genjutsu, and breaking it is easy enough after that."
Kameko looked like she didn't believe it.
"I'm not lying."
"How is that possible? Are you lying?"
"Absolutely no idea. It just doesn't work. If you know a genjutsu, you could try it."
Kameko looked thoughtful for a moment before saying. "If you're not fucking with me, it could be a new bloodline limit."
Bloodline limits were genetic mutations that granted unique chakra abilities. Dojutsu like the Sharingan and the Byakugan were bloodline limits, and so were the advanced nature transformations.
"It could be," said Takuma. "My teacher and I did discuss the possibility."
When Mikoto wasn't able to find any previous cases of automatic genjutsu breaking, they considered the possibility that Takuma was the progenitor of a genetic mutation which gave him a genjutsu related bloodline limit. The field of genetic testing wasn't advanced enough to reliably detect genetic mutations, so testing for them wasn't an option.
Mikoto, as an Uchiha with the Sharigan, wasn't a big fan of genetic testing. Moreover, Takuma was extremely busy with work and it didn't really matter if it was a bloodline limit because it didn't change anything.
"Maybe if Orochimaru hadn't defected, he would've been able to tell. He was big into genetic testing," Takuma laughed like he had told the funniest joke—he wasn't going to let Orochimaru anywhere near him; he didn't to get bit and cursed with a juinjutsu.
"How do you know that?"
"He's one of the Sannin. Of course, I read up on him," he said matter of factly. According to Maruboshi, history had important lessons and answers to problems, so Takuma had read a lot about the shinobi history, and the Sannin were quite prominently recorded in the Hidden Leaf's history.
Orochimaru was at the forefront of genetics. And with what Takuma knew about him from his meta-knowledge, he assumed that Orochimaru was ahead of the contributions to the field he had publicly available. While Tsunade was looked at as the greatest iryo-nin to ever live, Orochimaru wasn't a slouch in the medical and scientific field. His image had been tainted in recent years due to his actions, but his works were still very prominent.
"Hey," said Kameko. She looked hesitant for a moment. "Try to keep her safe, okay?"
"Chinatsu?"
Kameko nodded. "She... she's obsessed with revenge. That bastard's rough with her; she says it's not a problem, but I know she's hurt. He's a shinobi, he's much stronger than her, and you said it yourself that he'd be pissed because of the poisoned drugs. I'm worried he might overdo it... so hurry if possible."
Takuma looked at her. While he didn't have any personal connection with Chinatsu, the knowledge left a bad taste in his mouth. But he didn't live with her; the others did, so it wasn't strange to form some connection with the asset.
He nodded. "I'll do my best."
"Thank you," Kameko said earnestly and then left the room.
Takuma followed her with his eyes. He'd agreed, but he wasn't going to hurry to the detriment of the genjutsu. A lot depended on the shinobi's capture. Not only would it kickstart doubt and chaos in the enemy camp—but Takuma had a more personal stake in its success.
He wanted his questions about the assassination organisation, their identity, their role in Yu, and the overall war, to be answered so he couldn't afford for it to go wrong.
Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over to Patreón [fictiononlyreader]. Link here and in signature.
Note: All the chapters will eventually be posted on public forums.
CH_7.26 (244)
Fiction
Feel free to ask me questions.
"Make sure to enjoy yourself, okay?" Aranai said to Ryoya, his genin subordinate. He had been lucky to get a team of three genin to help him sell drugs; there were people with sticks up their asses who didn't appreciate the spirit of entrepreneurship or ever have fun.
"Yes, sir," said Ryoya. He looked slightly uncomfortable due to the timing and the people who had gotten sick from their drugs, but Aranai could see that he was excited about getting laid after hearing all about Chinatsu from him.
"Remember, the chick you'll be sleeping with is new, so if you play it right, she'll do everything you ask for," Aranai put his arm around Ryoya's neck as they entered the townhouse. "We're here!" he announced the moment he was through the door.
Like always, Jimii was sitting in the living room, waiting to welcome them. There was something about the pimp which always bothered Aranai—he didn't know what it was, but he creeped him out. During their first meeting, Jimii had barged into their room in the club without permission. And everytime he was done with Chinatsu, the pimp had a strange look on his face which he could never place. It wasn't jealousy or anger, but he could never place it.
Jimii got up from his couch with two glasses of whiskey and passed them over.
"Welcome gentlemen, everything's ready for your pleasure."
"This is Ryoya, he's a trusted confidant," said Aranai and noticed Ryoya perked up. Good, he thought—he wanted Ryoya to think he trusted him.
Aranai took out a stack of cash and handed it to Jimii, who promptly counted it on the spot like always
"After so many times you still don't trust me?" asked Aranai, cursing the money-grubber in his mind.
"Trust has nothing to do with it, Master Aranai." Jimii pocketed the money and clapped his hands for two of Chinatsu's handmaidens to walk into the room. He looked at Ryoya. "Master Ryoya, please follow her. She'll take you to Lady Boa... please enjoy your time."
Ryoya looked shy until Aranai slapped him on his back and a lecherous smile sprouted on his face.
Aranai laughed, "Go enjoy yourself."
He himself followed the other girl and checked her out. He smiled as he reached for her ass and grabbed the soft buns. She immediately slapped his hand and glared at him, but that only made him snicker.
He raised the whiskey glass, smelled it to check if it was safe, before downing it one swig.
It was time to blow off some steam.
———
.
Takuma sat in the dark closet room focusing his mind for the genjutsu he had to cast when he heard the door open and Iori lead Aranai into the room. He opened his eyes and focused his hearing into the room. Chinatsu welcomed Aranai in and dismissed Iori.
"Go have a shower, I'll join you soon," Chinatsu said, giggling.
He took in a breath and smelled the incense Chinatsu burned for the ambiance.
"You better make this work," she whispered.
Takuma put a finger into the hole in the wall and started spreading out his chakra into the room next door, attaching him to scent particles of the incense stick.
Genjutsu was the practice of altering a target's perception of reality by controlling their senses through chakra. It worked by influencing their chakra to do the majority of the legwork because it reached every part of the body through the chakra pathway system. The objective was to aim for one sensory organ and stimulate it through foreign chakra so the nearby chakra in the target's tenketsu points would react. The influenced chakra would then travel throughout the body and eventually reach the spine and brain, giving the user the freedom to control all five senses—thus controlling the target's reality.
Carefully,deliberately, methodically, he spread out his chakra with the help of the incense in the air. It took ten minutes for Aranai and Chinatsu to come out of the shower. He heard Chinatsu laughing at Aranai's dirty talk, the sound of the bed creaking under their weight, the rustle of clothes being removed, her moans, his grunts—all the while continuing to fill the room with his chakra.
He could've done so much quicker, but he did it slowly to drown Aranai without any chance of him swimming back to the surface. For normal shinobi without a sensory-nin's abilities, chakra could only be detected when used in high quantities, but when foreign chakra was literally stimulating the sensory organs, it could be detected fairly easily. The only reason it usually went undetected was because combat environments were always saturated with chakra and the demanding mental load of battle only made it all the easier.
The situation in the bedroom was similar: Aranai's attention was focused on Chinatsu and his desire to have sex overshadowed his alertness. Adding to Takuma's gradual approach ensured that he was a frog swimming in a pot that he couldn't tell was gradually being brought to a boil.
"Take it deeper!"
Aranai's demands between his grunts and the voice of Chinatsu gagging clearly reached Takuma's ears, but he focused himself on his work. He could sense his chakra reaching Aranai's nose. He slowly formed hand seals to order his chakra to stimulate it and grab control of the passively mixed chakra.
The pair moved on to having sex. Between the sound of sex, he could also hear the sound of painful yelps that would be stifled immediately—they weren't playful yelps, but sounds of true pain coming from Chinatsu. Takuma remembered Kameko's words to him about Aranai liking it rough, but he also remembered that Kameko described Chinatsu as obsessed. He found it to be true because not once did she complain or ask him to be gentler, she took it all.
She wanted the mission to go well and he respected it. In an ideal world, his first genjutsu would've been something else entirely, but he catered his first custom-made genjutsu to serve the mission—to capture a shinobi. The Bell Sound Clone jutsu was an auditory genjutsu that used the sound of a bell to not only paralyse the target, but show clones of the user surrounding them as the sounds of a bell grew uncomfortably louder.
Takuma isolated the paralysis part and made it the genjutsu's sole focus. Given that it was his first foray into creating a genjutsu, he wanted it to do one thing, but do that thing well. The next consideration was the connection component—which sensory organ was he going to target to influence the target's chakra? Seeing that he couldn't be in the room with the target sight(visual), touch(tactile), and taste(gustatory) weren't options—which left the target's sense of smell(olfactory) and hearing(auditory).
He had drastically more experience with auditory connection components because of his use of the Bell Sound Clone. Chinatsu didn't play music while she was serving her clients, but was open to having a radio for mood music if it helped the mission—and for a while he was going to use sound as the connection component. In the end he went with a smell. The nose was unique among the sensory organs as it was directly connected to the brain and memories had a strong connection to smells.
The result was Takuma's first jutsu— Olfactory Genjutsu: Complete Paralysis. It wasn't unique or special. Nenro had a genjutsu called Genjutsu: Binding which accomplished a similar effect of having the target feel they were bound in unbreakable ropes. A target under Complete Paralysis would feel like they were under actual paralysis, losing all control over their body.
Then came the final problem: Takuma's inexperience with genjutsu creation. He knew enough to create functional genjutsu, but he didn't understand all the little nuances involved in jutsu creation. Complete Paralysis was extremely weak. During testing, his teammates broke the genjutsu quickly and while it worked, the paralysis wasn't strong enough to stop their movements—they could still move, though impeded.
However, there wasn't anything he could do about it. He didn't have a genjutsu expert to guide him and if he wanted to improve, he needed time to experiment with genjutsu creation, which he didn't have. There was only one solution: a long application time to increase the genjutsu's strength. Even a weak genjutsu would be stronger if a large amount of the target's chakra was influenced, which of course took a long time.
Thirty minutes after Aranai entered the room, Takuma was ready.
He raised his hands and weaved the hand seals for his first custom-made genjutsu.
"Ack!"
He heard Aranai's voice from the other room and waited for Chinatsu's next word.
"You're heavy, master," she said with a strained laugh. "Are you tired?"
'Tired' was the codeword.
The moment she said that word, Takuma heard the bedroom room slam open with footsteps rushing. Iori was going to put prisoner seals on Aranai under the watchful eyes of Gaku and Kameko, who were ready to cut him down if he made any suspicious moves.
Half a minute later, the genjutsu broke because prisoner seals restricted Aranai's chakra.
"It's done," Iori's voice made Takuma's shoulder sag in relief. They had captured an enemy chunin. This was quite possibly the biggest breakthrough they had since their arrival in the city.
But he became focused just as quickly as he had relaxed. He walked out of the closet and headed towards Anko's room to see if they had captured the genin. The mission wasn't over until they had both shinobi captured and transported out of the townhouse to the site they planned to imprison them. The door to her room was open, and Daiki and Rikku weren't in the corridor. He sneaked in a glance and saw the trio standing around the bed with the Hidden Frost genin knocked out on the bed.
"It's done, I guess," Takuma said, entering the room.
"You too?" asked Anko.
He nodded.
"Let's get them out of here then."
After Iori put the prisoner seal on the genin, Daiki and Rikku took him away as planned. Takuma picked up the chunin in a body bag over his shoulder and looked at the rest of the team who were going to clean up the house and stay for a while before leaving. They knew that people would come asking about the two missing shinobi and their plan was to tell a story where they waited for the duo to arrive, and returned home when they never did.
"Take care," said Anko.
Takuma nodded and was about to leave when he noticed Chinatsu standing on the second floor corridor from the living room on the ground floor. She had dark finger marks around her neck and arms. He knew how much stronger a shinobi was than a civilian, and could only imagine what it was like to have someone overwhelmingly more powerful in control—especially if that someone liked it rough.
"You did a great job," he said to her. "We wouldn't have been able to accomplish this without you."
Despite the bruises and marks over her body, she smirked. "I know."
Takuma gave her a smile before walking out of the townhouse and disappearing into the shadows.
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"Yes, sir," said Ryoya. He looked slightly uncomfortable due to the timing and the people who had gotten sick from their drugs, but Aranai could see that he was excited about getting laid after hearing all about Chinatsu from him.
"Remember, the chick you'll be sleeping with is new, so if you play it right, she'll do everything you ask for," Aranai put his arm around Ryoya's neck as they entered the townhouse. "We're here!" he announced the moment he was through the door.
Like always, Jimii was sitting in the living room, waiting to welcome them. There was something about the pimp which always bothered Aranai—he didn't know what it was, but he creeped him out. During their first meeting, Jimii had barged into their room in the club without permission. And everytime he was done with Chinatsu, the pimp had a strange look on his face which he could never place. It wasn't jealousy or anger, but he could never place it.
Jimii got up from his couch with two glasses of whiskey and passed them over.
"Welcome gentlemen, everything's ready for your pleasure."
"This is Ryoya, he's a trusted confidant," said Aranai and noticed Ryoya perked up. Good, he thought—he wanted Ryoya to think he trusted him.
Aranai took out a stack of cash and handed it to Jimii, who promptly counted it on the spot like always
"After so many times you still don't trust me?" asked Aranai, cursing the money-grubber in his mind.
"Trust has nothing to do with it, Master Aranai." Jimii pocketed the money and clapped his hands for two of Chinatsu's handmaidens to walk into the room. He looked at Ryoya. "Master Ryoya, please follow her. She'll take you to Lady Boa... please enjoy your time."
Ryoya looked shy until Aranai slapped him on his back and a lecherous smile sprouted on his face.
Aranai laughed, "Go enjoy yourself."
He himself followed the other girl and checked her out. He smiled as he reached for her ass and grabbed the soft buns. She immediately slapped his hand and glared at him, but that only made him snicker.
He raised the whiskey glass, smelled it to check if it was safe, before downing it one swig.
It was time to blow off some steam.
———
.
Takuma sat in the dark closet room focusing his mind for the genjutsu he had to cast when he heard the door open and Iori lead Aranai into the room. He opened his eyes and focused his hearing into the room. Chinatsu welcomed Aranai in and dismissed Iori.
"Go have a shower, I'll join you soon," Chinatsu said, giggling.
He took in a breath and smelled the incense Chinatsu burned for the ambiance.
"You better make this work," she whispered.
Takuma put a finger into the hole in the wall and started spreading out his chakra into the room next door, attaching him to scent particles of the incense stick.
Genjutsu was the practice of altering a target's perception of reality by controlling their senses through chakra. It worked by influencing their chakra to do the majority of the legwork because it reached every part of the body through the chakra pathway system. The objective was to aim for one sensory organ and stimulate it through foreign chakra so the nearby chakra in the target's tenketsu points would react. The influenced chakra would then travel throughout the body and eventually reach the spine and brain, giving the user the freedom to control all five senses—thus controlling the target's reality.
Carefully,deliberately, methodically, he spread out his chakra with the help of the incense in the air. It took ten minutes for Aranai and Chinatsu to come out of the shower. He heard Chinatsu laughing at Aranai's dirty talk, the sound of the bed creaking under their weight, the rustle of clothes being removed, her moans, his grunts—all the while continuing to fill the room with his chakra.
He could've done so much quicker, but he did it slowly to drown Aranai without any chance of him swimming back to the surface. For normal shinobi without a sensory-nin's abilities, chakra could only be detected when used in high quantities, but when foreign chakra was literally stimulating the sensory organs, it could be detected fairly easily. The only reason it usually went undetected was because combat environments were always saturated with chakra and the demanding mental load of battle only made it all the easier.
The situation in the bedroom was similar: Aranai's attention was focused on Chinatsu and his desire to have sex overshadowed his alertness. Adding to Takuma's gradual approach ensured that he was a frog swimming in a pot that he couldn't tell was gradually being brought to a boil.
"Take it deeper!"
Aranai's demands between his grunts and the voice of Chinatsu gagging clearly reached Takuma's ears, but he focused himself on his work. He could sense his chakra reaching Aranai's nose. He slowly formed hand seals to order his chakra to stimulate it and grab control of the passively mixed chakra.
The pair moved on to having sex. Between the sound of sex, he could also hear the sound of painful yelps that would be stifled immediately—they weren't playful yelps, but sounds of true pain coming from Chinatsu. Takuma remembered Kameko's words to him about Aranai liking it rough, but he also remembered that Kameko described Chinatsu as obsessed. He found it to be true because not once did she complain or ask him to be gentler, she took it all.
She wanted the mission to go well and he respected it. In an ideal world, his first genjutsu would've been something else entirely, but he catered his first custom-made genjutsu to serve the mission—to capture a shinobi. The Bell Sound Clone jutsu was an auditory genjutsu that used the sound of a bell to not only paralyse the target, but show clones of the user surrounding them as the sounds of a bell grew uncomfortably louder.
Takuma isolated the paralysis part and made it the genjutsu's sole focus. Given that it was his first foray into creating a genjutsu, he wanted it to do one thing, but do that thing well. The next consideration was the connection component—which sensory organ was he going to target to influence the target's chakra? Seeing that he couldn't be in the room with the target sight(visual), touch(tactile), and taste(gustatory) weren't options—which left the target's sense of smell(olfactory) and hearing(auditory).
He had drastically more experience with auditory connection components because of his use of the Bell Sound Clone. Chinatsu didn't play music while she was serving her clients, but was open to having a radio for mood music if it helped the mission—and for a while he was going to use sound as the connection component. In the end he went with a smell. The nose was unique among the sensory organs as it was directly connected to the brain and memories had a strong connection to smells.
The result was Takuma's first jutsu— Olfactory Genjutsu: Complete Paralysis. It wasn't unique or special. Nenro had a genjutsu called Genjutsu: Binding which accomplished a similar effect of having the target feel they were bound in unbreakable ropes. A target under Complete Paralysis would feel like they were under actual paralysis, losing all control over their body.
Then came the final problem: Takuma's inexperience with genjutsu creation. He knew enough to create functional genjutsu, but he didn't understand all the little nuances involved in jutsu creation. Complete Paralysis was extremely weak. During testing, his teammates broke the genjutsu quickly and while it worked, the paralysis wasn't strong enough to stop their movements—they could still move, though impeded.
However, there wasn't anything he could do about it. He didn't have a genjutsu expert to guide him and if he wanted to improve, he needed time to experiment with genjutsu creation, which he didn't have. There was only one solution: a long application time to increase the genjutsu's strength. Even a weak genjutsu would be stronger if a large amount of the target's chakra was influenced, which of course took a long time.
Thirty minutes after Aranai entered the room, Takuma was ready.
He raised his hands and weaved the hand seals for his first custom-made genjutsu.
"Ack!"
He heard Aranai's voice from the other room and waited for Chinatsu's next word.
"You're heavy, master," she said with a strained laugh. "Are you tired?"
'Tired' was the codeword.
The moment she said that word, Takuma heard the bedroom room slam open with footsteps rushing. Iori was going to put prisoner seals on Aranai under the watchful eyes of Gaku and Kameko, who were ready to cut him down if he made any suspicious moves.
Half a minute later, the genjutsu broke because prisoner seals restricted Aranai's chakra.
"It's done," Iori's voice made Takuma's shoulder sag in relief. They had captured an enemy chunin. This was quite possibly the biggest breakthrough they had since their arrival in the city.
But he became focused just as quickly as he had relaxed. He walked out of the closet and headed towards Anko's room to see if they had captured the genin. The mission wasn't over until they had both shinobi captured and transported out of the townhouse to the site they planned to imprison them. The door to her room was open, and Daiki and Rikku weren't in the corridor. He sneaked in a glance and saw the trio standing around the bed with the Hidden Frost genin knocked out on the bed.
"It's done, I guess," Takuma said, entering the room.
"You too?" asked Anko.
He nodded.
"Let's get them out of here then."
After Iori put the prisoner seal on the genin, Daiki and Rikku took him away as planned. Takuma picked up the chunin in a body bag over his shoulder and looked at the rest of the team who were going to clean up the house and stay for a while before leaving. They knew that people would come asking about the two missing shinobi and their plan was to tell a story where they waited for the duo to arrive, and returned home when they never did.
"Take care," said Anko.
Takuma nodded and was about to leave when he noticed Chinatsu standing on the second floor corridor from the living room on the ground floor. She had dark finger marks around her neck and arms. He knew how much stronger a shinobi was than a civilian, and could only imagine what it was like to have someone overwhelmingly more powerful in control—especially if that someone liked it rough.
"You did a great job," he said to her. "We wouldn't have been able to accomplish this without you."
Despite the bruises and marks over her body, she smirked. "I know."
Takuma gave her a smile before walking out of the townhouse and disappearing into the shadows.
Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over to Patreón [fictiononlyreader]. Link here and in signature.
Note: All the chapters will eventually be posted on public forums.
- Location
- Madness realms
That was some proper ninja take down shit, prep, hidden surveillance, person in the next room incapacitating the enemy.
Felt really in the scene these chapters.
Felt really in the scene these chapters.
CH_7.27 (245)
Fiction
Feel free to ask me questions.
The Hidden Frost army had taken over one of the tourist districts of Yu, forcing the big inns and hotels to accommodate the shinobi as guests for months on end. Most places had shut down and the staff had abandoned their buildings, but some places housing the chunin and jonin were still operating while being paid by wealthy turncoats supporting the shinobi.
Yuriko was part of the housekeeping staff at one of those hotels.
It was dinner time and everyone was either out, or eating at the hotel's restaurant. She arrived in front of a room and looked around the hallway before using the staff key to enter it after confirming that the occupant of the room wasn't in the hotel.
She moved quickly, remembering the instructions she had gotten two days back.
———
.
Yuriko gulped as she stared at the bags of flour, pulses, and spices sitting in her living room. She looked across the table at the kid sitting alongside Motohiro. She recognised him from the posters around the city.
"You're... Takuma, right?" she asked.
"Yes, ma'am," Takuma replied with a smile. "Has your husband discussed our intentions?"
She looked at Wada, her husband, who worked under Motohiro, the owner of a milling business.
"Yes."
"And what do you think?"
At the start of the week, Wada had brought Motohiro home and they had talked about a job she could do for the resistance. She worked at a hotel with shinobi guests and without saying, she understood that the job was related to it. At first, she was hesitant. She spared no love for the shinobi as life had gotten harder since they had arrived—but her job was important—and not even her husband's displeasure about the job could make her stop working.
They had three children to raise and it took two people's income to do it. Though neither she nor her husband had lost their job, Wada's pay had decreased because of the current hard times as, in an attempt to keep everyone employed, Motohiro reduced everyone's salary so that no one was left behind.
Just entertaining the thought about doing something against shinobi would risk her job—something they couldn't afford. But now as she looked at the food sitting in the corner of her house, the prospect was too attractive to refuse.
"W-What will I have to do?" she asked.
"Nothing too different from your usual responsibilities," said Takuma. "We want you to take out some trash."
———
.
Yuriko quickly entered the bedroom and looked for a "go-bag", which according to Takuma was something every self-respecting shinobi worth his salt had always prepared in case they needed to leave their residence with no time to pack a bag.
She carefully went through the bedroom and tried to find anything that looked like a bag of emergency supplies, but couldn't find it. For a moment, she panicked, but took a few deep breaths and moved on to Plan-B, put in place in case she wasn't able to find the go-bag.
The aim of the mission was to make it look like the room's resident left quickly.
Yuriko went through the suite and took all the essentials from a couple sets of clothes to toiletries and put them in her cleaning cart. Given that the occupant was a shinobi, she took the weapons as well, handling them carefully to not injure herself.
And finally, she looked around the room for money made from drug dealing she was told would be hidden in the room.
If it was any place else, she would struggle to find it, but she had been cleaning the same rooms for six years. She knew the hotel rooms better than her own house and quickly found a big stash of hidden money with a stash of drugs. She ignored the drugs and took more than half of the money —Takuma promised her that she would be able to keep a portion of it, so she took more than she was instructed.
After ensuring she hadn't missed, she left, leaving no signs of her presence.
She took a deep breath, feeling confident. If she did this one more time, her family would have the promised food and money, giving them time to relax.
———
.
Aranai woke up feeling like a steam engine had crashed into him at full speed. He raised his hand to massage his throbbing forehead but couldn't reach because of the shackles tying his arms, legs, and torso to the wall behind him. Memories and realisation slammed into him like steam engine and he recalled loosing all sensation in his body as he was fucking Chinatsu before someone hit him on his head.
"That bitch!"
He looked around the barren room with jute bags piled up in the corner and saw sunlight streaming through a window with steel bars. He tried to get up but the chain length didn't even let him do that. He tried to force the chains off the wall, but he had no strength. He couldn't even bring his hands together to form hand seals, but that wasn't the biggest problem—he couldn't mix chakra. Which was when he noticed the fuinjutsu seals running all around his body.
Prisoner seals, he thought—he felt a chill go down his spine.
Captured in an unknown place, his movement restrained, and without access to his chakra—he was in the worst position possible. He didn't know how long he had been out, or if he was in Yu, or who had captured him. From the sunlight outside, it had been at least one night, but as all the unknowns kept piling up, the fear only grew.
He heard the faint sound of footsteps and looked at the heavy double doors with a panicked look and closed his eyes, pretending to be unconscious.
The door opened and Anko entered the room with a bucket; she walked to the tap in the corner of the room and started to fill it up. The screech of metal against the floor stabbed the ears as Takuma dragged a metal table along with an assortment of stuff into the room.
She walked toward Aranai with the bucket with water sloshing out of the rim, falling to the floor. "Pretending to be asleep, are we now?" she chuckled as she raised the bucket and threw the water in his face.
Even though he guessed it by the sounds, he had his eyes closed and the cold water hitting his face startled him enough to stop his breath for a moment. His eyes snapped open as he jerked the chains loudly. He opened his eyes to see one of Chinatsu's handmaids before him, smirking down at him.
"You! Do you know what you have done!? I'm a chunin from the Hidden Frost! They'll be looking for me by now!" he yelled at her, hoping to intimidate her. "You're finished! You doomed everyone you involved in this shit! They'll hang your corpse for everyone to see!"
Takuma came forward holding a folding chair. Aranai, seeing him for the first time, froze up, remembering the posters that had been put up around the city. The entire army was mandated to memorise the details on the poster.
"Y-You're Takuma," he said.
"I am," Takuma said as he placed the chair behind Anko. "Let's be real here for a second. Do you think the Hidden Leaf will ever be scared of the Hidden Frost?"
Aranai glared at him, but couldn't deny the words. He didn't know where the information came from, but the jonin confirmed that Takuma was from the Hidden Leaf. Even though they weren't in the Land of Frost, their home ground, they had complete control over Yu—but as he stared at Takuma, he was reminded of the Hidden Leaf, the stories he had heard, and the shinobi he had come across.
Maybe he wouldn't be rescued after all.
"Now we can do the easy way or the hard way," said Anko, making him scoff. She paused to smile before continuing. "Here's how the situation is looking for you on the outside. The drugs you sold to your comrades were poisoned—"
"Faulty," he barked.
Her smile broadened. "Poisoned, my dear. If your iryo-nin are any good, they'll find the cause, which will definitely be poison." Aranai felt something in his stomach sink. She continued, "Once they know that, they'll look at the suppliers—you and the Goharu Family. The Goharu Family will be there, but they'll find you missing, and I don't need to tell you how that looks."
Aranai stared into her eyes, trying to see if she was lying. If the pleased and amused look was any indication, she wasn't lying, which set heart beating faster. He had already sent bricks of drugs back home and if they were poisoned, and the blame was falling on him, then he was as good as dead, doomed beyond any chance of help.
"Not to mention, when they search your room. They're going to find a lot of things missing... as if you had packed up a bag and ran away," said Takuma. "We've also taken that stash of money... the one behind the wardrobe? I think we'll buy some drinks with it, so thanks."
That was the breaking point. "You s-set me up," he said, unable to hide the crack in his voice. If his own people turned against him, then no one was looking for him—no that was wrong, they would still be looking for him, so they could punish him for his crimes. Even if he managed to escape on his own, there was no guarantee they would believe him unless he brought them the concrete truth.
"Here's the proposition," said Anko. "Cooperate with us, answer our questions, and you'll find your time with us peaceful and comfortable."
"...You're never going to let me leave... you can't," said Aranai. Letting him leave had no incentive for them; he grasped that the group was operating in Yu undercover and the moment they let him go, they'd be revealing their true identities to the enemy.
"Ah, you misunderstood my words, Aranai," said Anko, leaning close enough that he could feel her breath on his face. "I'm not promising freedom... I'm promising you the absence of pain. Cooperate and we won't touch you. You'll get ample food and water, and creature comforts will increase the more information you provide us with. It's a simple contract of give-and-take."
Torture, thought Aranai, fearfully. He wasn't surprised given that he was captured for information, but facing the prospect of it so directly was an entirely different experience. He didn't know what they would do to him except that it would bring him a whole load of pain.
"Your subordinate, Ryoya, refused to take our offer, so we gave him a taste of our treatment," Takuma said as he rubbed his knuckles. "We spent the night spilling blood, sweat, and tears together—though the blood and tears were all from him. We gave him a rest by coming here so I think he'll be interested in our proposition once we get back to him.
"What about you? Do you want to experience what you'll be missing out on if you accept our proposition or would you like to skip it?"
Aranai's heart was pounding but he was starting to calm down, and with it, his reasoning. Ryoya's capture meant when their comrades started searching for them, they would go to Chinatsu because it wasn't a secret that he was meeting her and his other two subordinates knew that he was taking Ryoya along with him.
"...I will cooperate," he said.
Chinatsu and her handmaidens, who he suspected were all shinobi, would be interrogated. Given that they were the last point of contact, they would be interrogated heavily, and there was a real chance of some sort of slip-up that aroused suspicion.
He was counting on that.
Next was the poisoned drugs. He had betrayed his allies so his motives would be questioned—why did he poison the drugs? To answer that question, the resistance groups in the city would be targeted to find a link. He refused to believe that his captors had managed to keep their presence limited to themselves and only themselves; it was foolish to do so—the local support was essential for optimum effectiveness. He expected for someone to screw up or willingly open their mouths. Once that happened, the search radius would become narrower, and his chances of being rescued would increase.
Aranai looked up at them, hiding his thoughts.
"I will tell you everything I know."
According to his estimates, he just needed to stall for two to three days. Yu was completely closed-off and they had enough manpower to comb through the city for clues. Aranai had enough non-critical material to stall for that amount of time.
If help didn't come by then... Well, he would cross that bridge when the time came.
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Note: All the chapters will eventually be posted on public forums.
Yuriko was part of the housekeeping staff at one of those hotels.
It was dinner time and everyone was either out, or eating at the hotel's restaurant. She arrived in front of a room and looked around the hallway before using the staff key to enter it after confirming that the occupant of the room wasn't in the hotel.
She moved quickly, remembering the instructions she had gotten two days back.
———
.
Yuriko gulped as she stared at the bags of flour, pulses, and spices sitting in her living room. She looked across the table at the kid sitting alongside Motohiro. She recognised him from the posters around the city.
"You're... Takuma, right?" she asked.
"Yes, ma'am," Takuma replied with a smile. "Has your husband discussed our intentions?"
She looked at Wada, her husband, who worked under Motohiro, the owner of a milling business.
"Yes."
"And what do you think?"
At the start of the week, Wada had brought Motohiro home and they had talked about a job she could do for the resistance. She worked at a hotel with shinobi guests and without saying, she understood that the job was related to it. At first, she was hesitant. She spared no love for the shinobi as life had gotten harder since they had arrived—but her job was important—and not even her husband's displeasure about the job could make her stop working.
They had three children to raise and it took two people's income to do it. Though neither she nor her husband had lost their job, Wada's pay had decreased because of the current hard times as, in an attempt to keep everyone employed, Motohiro reduced everyone's salary so that no one was left behind.
Just entertaining the thought about doing something against shinobi would risk her job—something they couldn't afford. But now as she looked at the food sitting in the corner of her house, the prospect was too attractive to refuse.
"W-What will I have to do?" she asked.
"Nothing too different from your usual responsibilities," said Takuma. "We want you to take out some trash."
———
.
Yuriko quickly entered the bedroom and looked for a "go-bag", which according to Takuma was something every self-respecting shinobi worth his salt had always prepared in case they needed to leave their residence with no time to pack a bag.
She carefully went through the bedroom and tried to find anything that looked like a bag of emergency supplies, but couldn't find it. For a moment, she panicked, but took a few deep breaths and moved on to Plan-B, put in place in case she wasn't able to find the go-bag.
The aim of the mission was to make it look like the room's resident left quickly.
Yuriko went through the suite and took all the essentials from a couple sets of clothes to toiletries and put them in her cleaning cart. Given that the occupant was a shinobi, she took the weapons as well, handling them carefully to not injure herself.
And finally, she looked around the room for money made from drug dealing she was told would be hidden in the room.
If it was any place else, she would struggle to find it, but she had been cleaning the same rooms for six years. She knew the hotel rooms better than her own house and quickly found a big stash of hidden money with a stash of drugs. She ignored the drugs and took more than half of the money —Takuma promised her that she would be able to keep a portion of it, so she took more than she was instructed.
After ensuring she hadn't missed, she left, leaving no signs of her presence.
She took a deep breath, feeling confident. If she did this one more time, her family would have the promised food and money, giving them time to relax.
———
.
Aranai woke up feeling like a steam engine had crashed into him at full speed. He raised his hand to massage his throbbing forehead but couldn't reach because of the shackles tying his arms, legs, and torso to the wall behind him. Memories and realisation slammed into him like steam engine and he recalled loosing all sensation in his body as he was fucking Chinatsu before someone hit him on his head.
"That bitch!"
He looked around the barren room with jute bags piled up in the corner and saw sunlight streaming through a window with steel bars. He tried to get up but the chain length didn't even let him do that. He tried to force the chains off the wall, but he had no strength. He couldn't even bring his hands together to form hand seals, but that wasn't the biggest problem—he couldn't mix chakra. Which was when he noticed the fuinjutsu seals running all around his body.
Prisoner seals, he thought—he felt a chill go down his spine.
Captured in an unknown place, his movement restrained, and without access to his chakra—he was in the worst position possible. He didn't know how long he had been out, or if he was in Yu, or who had captured him. From the sunlight outside, it had been at least one night, but as all the unknowns kept piling up, the fear only grew.
He heard the faint sound of footsteps and looked at the heavy double doors with a panicked look and closed his eyes, pretending to be unconscious.
The door opened and Anko entered the room with a bucket; she walked to the tap in the corner of the room and started to fill it up. The screech of metal against the floor stabbed the ears as Takuma dragged a metal table along with an assortment of stuff into the room.
She walked toward Aranai with the bucket with water sloshing out of the rim, falling to the floor. "Pretending to be asleep, are we now?" she chuckled as she raised the bucket and threw the water in his face.
Even though he guessed it by the sounds, he had his eyes closed and the cold water hitting his face startled him enough to stop his breath for a moment. His eyes snapped open as he jerked the chains loudly. He opened his eyes to see one of Chinatsu's handmaids before him, smirking down at him.
"You! Do you know what you have done!? I'm a chunin from the Hidden Frost! They'll be looking for me by now!" he yelled at her, hoping to intimidate her. "You're finished! You doomed everyone you involved in this shit! They'll hang your corpse for everyone to see!"
Takuma came forward holding a folding chair. Aranai, seeing him for the first time, froze up, remembering the posters that had been put up around the city. The entire army was mandated to memorise the details on the poster.
"Y-You're Takuma," he said.
"I am," Takuma said as he placed the chair behind Anko. "Let's be real here for a second. Do you think the Hidden Leaf will ever be scared of the Hidden Frost?"
Aranai glared at him, but couldn't deny the words. He didn't know where the information came from, but the jonin confirmed that Takuma was from the Hidden Leaf. Even though they weren't in the Land of Frost, their home ground, they had complete control over Yu—but as he stared at Takuma, he was reminded of the Hidden Leaf, the stories he had heard, and the shinobi he had come across.
Maybe he wouldn't be rescued after all.
"Now we can do the easy way or the hard way," said Anko, making him scoff. She paused to smile before continuing. "Here's how the situation is looking for you on the outside. The drugs you sold to your comrades were poisoned—"
"Faulty," he barked.
Her smile broadened. "Poisoned, my dear. If your iryo-nin are any good, they'll find the cause, which will definitely be poison." Aranai felt something in his stomach sink. She continued, "Once they know that, they'll look at the suppliers—you and the Goharu Family. The Goharu Family will be there, but they'll find you missing, and I don't need to tell you how that looks."
Aranai stared into her eyes, trying to see if she was lying. If the pleased and amused look was any indication, she wasn't lying, which set heart beating faster. He had already sent bricks of drugs back home and if they were poisoned, and the blame was falling on him, then he was as good as dead, doomed beyond any chance of help.
"Not to mention, when they search your room. They're going to find a lot of things missing... as if you had packed up a bag and ran away," said Takuma. "We've also taken that stash of money... the one behind the wardrobe? I think we'll buy some drinks with it, so thanks."
That was the breaking point. "You s-set me up," he said, unable to hide the crack in his voice. If his own people turned against him, then no one was looking for him—no that was wrong, they would still be looking for him, so they could punish him for his crimes. Even if he managed to escape on his own, there was no guarantee they would believe him unless he brought them the concrete truth.
"Here's the proposition," said Anko. "Cooperate with us, answer our questions, and you'll find your time with us peaceful and comfortable."
"...You're never going to let me leave... you can't," said Aranai. Letting him leave had no incentive for them; he grasped that the group was operating in Yu undercover and the moment they let him go, they'd be revealing their true identities to the enemy.
"Ah, you misunderstood my words, Aranai," said Anko, leaning close enough that he could feel her breath on his face. "I'm not promising freedom... I'm promising you the absence of pain. Cooperate and we won't touch you. You'll get ample food and water, and creature comforts will increase the more information you provide us with. It's a simple contract of give-and-take."
Torture, thought Aranai, fearfully. He wasn't surprised given that he was captured for information, but facing the prospect of it so directly was an entirely different experience. He didn't know what they would do to him except that it would bring him a whole load of pain.
"Your subordinate, Ryoya, refused to take our offer, so we gave him a taste of our treatment," Takuma said as he rubbed his knuckles. "We spent the night spilling blood, sweat, and tears together—though the blood and tears were all from him. We gave him a rest by coming here so I think he'll be interested in our proposition once we get back to him.
"What about you? Do you want to experience what you'll be missing out on if you accept our proposition or would you like to skip it?"
Aranai's heart was pounding but he was starting to calm down, and with it, his reasoning. Ryoya's capture meant when their comrades started searching for them, they would go to Chinatsu because it wasn't a secret that he was meeting her and his other two subordinates knew that he was taking Ryoya along with him.
"...I will cooperate," he said.
Chinatsu and her handmaidens, who he suspected were all shinobi, would be interrogated. Given that they were the last point of contact, they would be interrogated heavily, and there was a real chance of some sort of slip-up that aroused suspicion.
He was counting on that.
Next was the poisoned drugs. He had betrayed his allies so his motives would be questioned—why did he poison the drugs? To answer that question, the resistance groups in the city would be targeted to find a link. He refused to believe that his captors had managed to keep their presence limited to themselves and only themselves; it was foolish to do so—the local support was essential for optimum effectiveness. He expected for someone to screw up or willingly open their mouths. Once that happened, the search radius would become narrower, and his chances of being rescued would increase.
Aranai looked up at them, hiding his thoughts.
"I will tell you everything I know."
According to his estimates, he just needed to stall for two to three days. Yu was completely closed-off and they had enough manpower to comb through the city for clues. Aranai had enough non-critical material to stall for that amount of time.
If help didn't come by then... Well, he would cross that bridge when the time came.
Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over to Patreón [fictiononlyreader]. Link here and in signature.
Note: All the chapters will eventually be posted on public forums.
CH_7.28 (246)
Fiction
Feel free to ask me questions.
It had been seventeen hours since the team had abducted the two Hidden Frost shinobi. Takuma sat in an empty room of an unoccupied Kumi family property. There he sat, alone, having a sad pre-packaged lunch. Anko had returned to Chinatsu's house to prepare for when the Hidden Frost shinobi came looking for their two missing comrades.
He would be alone with the two prisoners for the next few days with no contact with the team or anyone from the outside. They had to act to keep their cover in case they were being watched, which was highly likely since the Aranai and Ryoya's last known location was with Chinatsu.
The abduction had succeeded without a hitch. The two shinobi were abducted stealthily, and had set them up to make it look like they had run away after poisoning their own allies. By painting them in a negative light, Aranai's character would be questioned. He had been selling drugs to his comrades, and even though the jonin were turning their eyes away, it was still an illegal act. Takuma was sure some questions would arise stemming from his drug dealing. Had Aranai gotten greedy and accepted an offer to poison his comrades in exchange for money? If so, then who had paid him off?
Was it the weak resistance groups in Yu? Were they able to pay Aranai enough to betray his village? Or was it the Hidden Steam who had managed to turn Aranai traitor? Seeing that Takuma's face was plastered around the city, he would be the one of the prime suspects as Aranai's accomplice.
The moment they entertained that possibility, the Hidden Leaf would enter the picture. They would have to speculate on the Hidden Leaf or the Hidden Steam's presence in Yu. They would have to think if Aranai and Ryoya were alone, or were there more among their ranks. The coefficient of trust in the Hidden Frost army in Yu would plummet as anyone remotely suspicious would be looked at critically. Anyone who'd ever been punished would be within the pool of suspects.
This was the first step of spreading chaos in the Yu.
Next, was re-establishing order. The Kumi family's forces had been whispering the truth of the situation and negative speech against the Hidden Frost to the city folk. They were taking full advantage of small groups meetings and word of mouth to spread the message. It didn't have any visible effects as civilians couldn't do much against shinobi, but it was vital as they needed people on their side when the time to seize power came.
And having the support of locals like Wada's wife to frame the two shinobi had proved that local support was beneficial.
'This is just the start. There's so much more to do,' thought Takuma as he heated up the mixed curry and rice—but he was snapped out of his musings when he heard footsteps. He silently got up and snuck out of the room with a kunai in his hand. No one—no one—was supposed to be at the location other than him and the two captive shinobi. He silently climbed up the building to get a higher vantage point for a stealth kill to end the intruder in one strike.
"It's just me, you don't have to go all killer."
Takuma flinched and turned to look at Anko standing a few metres away from him on the roof. She had a smirk on her face which suited her but he didn't like it in serious situations. He observed her intently for any signs of the Transformation Jutsu.
"Why're you here?" he asked, putting his kunai down after confirming it was truly her.
"Let's go down. I've got a message from the camp," she said with a sombre look coming over her face. Once they were in the room where he was having his lunch, she continued. "I don't know how to say this so I'll be direct... The base sent the report regarding the organisation you recognised back home and they identified it. The blacksmith's touch mark you found belongs to ROOT."
Takuma doubted his ears for a moment. "I'm sorry... did you just say ROOT? Hidden Leaf's ROOT?"
"Oh, you know them?" said Anko, sounding surprised. "You know that name..."
"... Yes, I know them," said Takuma, realising his mistake.
ROOT was a top-secret department, completely unknown to the public; only people in the right circles or possessed the required clearance level knew of their existence. After Shimura Danzo was declared a rogue shinobi and a criminal, information about ROOT was released to the Leaf's general shinobi forces.
When the clans had joined together to demand actions against Danzo, ROOT wasn't mentioned once as everyone understood it wouldn't be wise to reveal state secrets for the world to see. However, when Danzo was officially declared a criminal, information about ROOT had been released. They weren't named as such and were only identified as an ANBU "team" under Danzo's command—the truth was much worse.
Despite that, even if Takuma had received the news from the village, he shouldn't have known ROOT by their name as it was never declassified.
Anko probably knew about ROOT from Orochimaru.
"I can't tell you who told me," Takuma said when he saw the look on her face.
"Okay... I guess it saves me an explanation," she shrugged, but the look of doubtful intrigue lingered for a moment. "The confirmation comes directly from ANBU and we have additional orders. They want us to capture the ROOT agents for information, but in case that's not possible, we have kill orders."
Takuma wanted to capture the people from the organisation to get some answers as well, but now that he knew they were ROOT, he wasn't entirely sure he wanted to get into that mess.
"They're not going to send someone in?" he asked, assuming that ANBU would like to handle ROOT matters.
"Doesn't look like it."
"Then things are going to be tough..."
Anko nodded before standing up. "Let's discuss this later. I'm not prioritising the new orders so our original ones still stand; if we figure out something, we'll try it out, but the focus remains on the main mission. I'm only here because I wanted you to know this, so I'll head back before the Hidden Frost comes knocking."
Takuma nodded and saw Anko off before returning to his lunch. He slowly ate his half-hearted curry rice as the new revelations filled his thoughts. He had been targeted by ROOT—by Danzo. He'd always assumed that some drug lord was trying to kill him for his work in the Narcotics Taskforce, which could still be true—but what kind of drug lord hired ROOT to assassinate somebody?
Even though he knew ROOT existed, he didn't exactly know what they did. They were similar to ANBU and handled national security on the external front. Danzo was always pulling strings in the shadows to ensure Hidden Leaf dominance—but how did he, a mere genin, fit into the scenario.
Had he somehow reveal something he shouldn't have? Not once had the higher-ups at the Police Force given him any pushback about the cases he was handling or the people he was targeting. If he was touching someone or something he wasn't supposed to, there would've been some kind of warning from his higher-ups first; straight-up assassination was a big jump.
He brought the spoon to his mouth but stopped halfway through as the memories flooded in. Memories of the night he was ambushed in his own home and then the narrow escape from the second ambush at the police station arson. He tried to shake the thoughts as he ate, but the silence was unbearable and made the food hard to chew.
Not to mention the curry was bland, becoming more unappetising with each bite. The table started to shake from how hard he was tapping his foot against the ground. He stopped and stared at his shaking thighs for a moment before leaving the room, his lunch barely touched.
Takuma entered Aranai's room, startling the man. He said nothing and paced near the door for fifteen seconds. The memories of his time in the hospital—relearning how to stand and walk—overwhelmed him. His body had been wrecked by the attempted assassination; it robbed his sense of security and safety and he had lost a job he had worked so hard at—a job he had loved.
Worst of all, he was forced to join a war to advance his career—and there was only one party responsible for all that misery.
He pulled up a folding chair and sat right in front of Aranai, eerily calm despite the terror that reigned over him minutes prior.
"W-What?" asked Aranai,
"Who's helping the Hidden Frost in Yu?" asked Takuma.
Aranai relaxed and let his body slump against the wall. "The Goharu family and a group of city elites who promised support in return for being spared. It worked well for us because we wanted to convert the city and them helping only made our goals that much easier. We're also buying the produce from farmers outside the city—"
"I'm talking about the shinobi support."
Aranai furrowed his brow. "Are you asking about the Hidden Cloud? They're helping us like you're helping the Hidden Steam; that shouldn't be a surprise."
"Anyone else?" asked Takuma.
Whatever Aranai thought he was pulling off, Takuma was well-aware that the man was trying to buy time through semi-cooperation until the Hidden Frost shinobi found him. He knew it because he had seen such behaviour before in interrogations all the time during his time in the Police Force. People tried to share information which would barely satisfy the interrogators in an attempt to not give out anything critical.
Takuma wanted to go hard from the start, but as his superior, Anko wanted to get the non-critical level information and allow Aranai to feel safe before extracting the critical information through advanced interrogation techniques.
"There's no one else," said Aranai.
'Lie,' thought Takuma. "Who orchestrated the police station arson?" he asked. The police force arson trying to impersonate the team had claimed lives of three police officers who were well-liked in the city even after the police force went through changes after the invasion..
The Kumi family had to discredit the dead police officers, dragging their reputation through the mud to ensure that the resistance wasn't looked on negatively. It was necessary, but left a bad taste in his mouth. Takuma had done many things people from his previous life would call evil, but nothing as callous as what happened to those officers.
"It was us."
"Who specifically planned it? Give me a name."
"Eh? Ah... I don't have a name. I wasn't involved with it, so I don't have the information."
That was bullshit. People talked and news naturally spread. The smaller the group, the freer the flow of information. For a group like the Hidden Frost army stationed in Yu, any and all information would spread like wildfire. Moreover, Aranai was a chunin—and a notable one because of his drug dealing—there was no way he didn't know the masterminds behind the police station arson.
"I think you're hiding things from me, Aranai," said Takuma with a flat smile. "Who gave you the information about me on the poster?"
"...I-It was someone from the Hidden Cloud."
"Four shinobi ambushed me at the police station. Were they from the Hidden Cloud?"
"Yes."
"Their names."
Aranai went silent for a moment. His face genuinely looked like he was trying to recall the names, but his body betrayed him. He sat up straighter, his arms moved closer to his body as his body language shrunk. Still, he gave a few names which Takuma noted down so without saying a word, Takuma got up and walked out of the room.
"H-Hey, can I get some water," Aranai said but got ignored.
Takuma walked to the other side of the house and entered the room where Ryoya was being held. They had offered the same offer of cooperation to him, but he had outright refused it, choosing to keep his mouth shut. Unfortunately, that made him the subject of Anko's torture techniques. He had managed to keep his mouth shut, but after receiving her tender mercies, Takuma was sure that wouldn't be the case.
"P-Please, no more. P-Please, I can't take anymore," Ryoya cried the moment he saw Takuma enter the room. He was chained to the wall, was bruised all over, and his entire body looked pale and was shaking. Takuma sat in front of him and tipped an uncapped water canteen to let the water flow. Ryoya floundered and pulled his entire boy forward to put his mouth below the canteen.
Takuma allowed him to drink ample before pulling the canteen back. "Do you want to talk now?"
Ryoya stared at Takuma with overwhelming fear in his eyes.
"Who was behind the police station arson?"
"S-Someone named Kon and his group."
"This Kon isn't from the Hidden Frost or the Hidden Cloud is he."
"N-No, how do you know that?"
"Were they also the one who provided the information about me?"
"Did Aranai tell you about that?"
Takuma smiled. "He accepted our proposition the moment we offered it... and we didn't have to touch a hair on his head."
Anger flashed through Ryoya's tired eyes. Takuma smiled internally when he saw the look; it was the sign of a breakthrough, and they achieved it in less than a day.
"I... I don't know who they are... no one knows who they are!" Ryoya quickly added. "They're a five man group including their leader, Kon—four after one of them was killed. They've been with us since before we invaded Yu. I don't know much but no one likes them because they don't participate in any of the regular duties."
'Kon...'
He didn't care whether it was real or an alias; he finally had a name.
Takuma considered Ryoya's words. It didn't look like he was lying, but to be completely sure, he had to confirm it somehow. Seeing that they had two hostages, confirming the information from one with the words of the other was the standard way of doing things but since Aranai wasn't going to surrender information willingly, he could only force it out of him.
"Where do they live?" Takuma continued to ask him more questions about the ROOT group. Ryoya didn't seem to be aware that the group was ROOT, but he was only a genin. Aranai could potentially would have more information—information that Takuma wanted at all cost.
He fed the rest of the canteen to Ryoya, who was just as eager as before to lap it up.
"Continue to cooperate with me and I'll bring you food later. Who knows, maybe the torture will stop," said Takuma with a smile before locking Ryoya in the room. He picked up a thick rag and a bucket and headed to Aranai's room.
"Hey, can I get some water," Aranai said upon Takuma.
Takuma filled up a canteen, followed by the bucket, and soaked the rag in the water. He then went and unlocked Aranai's shackle, freeing him from the wall. Aranai shuffled forward, frowning at him from across the room. Takuma smiled and kicked him so hard in the face that a tooth flew out of his mouth.
"Wait! W-What are you—"
He followed up with a sucker punch that knocked Aranai to the floor. The room had been prepared for interrogation. There was a hook for chains in the ceiling. Takuma looped chains through the hook in the ceiling to hang Aranai from it, who tried to make a run for the door, but Takuma tripped him and then kicked him in the back with an augmented kick, ending all resistance.
As long as Aranai had a prisoner seal on him, he was no match for Takuma, so hanging him upside from the ceiling was child's play.
"W-Why are you doing this?" Aranai eked out.
"Because I think you're lying," said Takuma calmly.
"No, I'm not!"
"Ryoya refuses to open his mouth," Takuma lied, "but you did tell me a lot which means you'll only say more if I apply a little pressure. I want to know everything about the group that tried to kill me, Aranai. This is personal and we'll be alone for a good few days.... What I'm trying to say is that if you don't answer me truthfully, I might just end up killing you. Obviously, you don't want that, so let's be honest with each other."
Takuma stepped away and weaved hand seals for Eight Tentacles Jutsu. The water from the bucket rose up and collected behind him before spreading out into tentacles.
"No, wait, please stop!" Aranai screamed as he hung from the ceiling.
"Let's get started. Tell me about the people who provided the information about me."
The water tentacles moved and enveloped Aranai's head, completely surrounding his nose and mouth with water, simulating the experience of drowning. Aranai held his breath and stared at Takuma with hatred and fear. Takuma returned a smile before forcing the water into Aranai's nose until he really was drowning, and held it there for a few seconds as Aranai's hanging body shook and his eyes begged for release. Only then did he pull the tentacles away and let Aranai cough away the water in his lungs.
"Tell me about the people who provided the information about me."
"I said I don't know!"
"Lie. You said it was someone from the Hidden Cloud."
Takuma ordered his tentacles to once again drown Aranai, who held his breath. Takuma laughed and punched him in the gut as hard as possible without using augmentations, which made him swallow water and start drowning once again.
"Let's try this again," said Takuma, pulling the tentacles away. "Who gave your people the information about me?"
Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over to Patreón [fictiononlyreader]. Link here and in signature.
Note: All the chapters will eventually be posted on public forums.
He would be alone with the two prisoners for the next few days with no contact with the team or anyone from the outside. They had to act to keep their cover in case they were being watched, which was highly likely since the Aranai and Ryoya's last known location was with Chinatsu.
The abduction had succeeded without a hitch. The two shinobi were abducted stealthily, and had set them up to make it look like they had run away after poisoning their own allies. By painting them in a negative light, Aranai's character would be questioned. He had been selling drugs to his comrades, and even though the jonin were turning their eyes away, it was still an illegal act. Takuma was sure some questions would arise stemming from his drug dealing. Had Aranai gotten greedy and accepted an offer to poison his comrades in exchange for money? If so, then who had paid him off?
Was it the weak resistance groups in Yu? Were they able to pay Aranai enough to betray his village? Or was it the Hidden Steam who had managed to turn Aranai traitor? Seeing that Takuma's face was plastered around the city, he would be the one of the prime suspects as Aranai's accomplice.
The moment they entertained that possibility, the Hidden Leaf would enter the picture. They would have to speculate on the Hidden Leaf or the Hidden Steam's presence in Yu. They would have to think if Aranai and Ryoya were alone, or were there more among their ranks. The coefficient of trust in the Hidden Frost army in Yu would plummet as anyone remotely suspicious would be looked at critically. Anyone who'd ever been punished would be within the pool of suspects.
This was the first step of spreading chaos in the Yu.
Next, was re-establishing order. The Kumi family's forces had been whispering the truth of the situation and negative speech against the Hidden Frost to the city folk. They were taking full advantage of small groups meetings and word of mouth to spread the message. It didn't have any visible effects as civilians couldn't do much against shinobi, but it was vital as they needed people on their side when the time to seize power came.
And having the support of locals like Wada's wife to frame the two shinobi had proved that local support was beneficial.
'This is just the start. There's so much more to do,' thought Takuma as he heated up the mixed curry and rice—but he was snapped out of his musings when he heard footsteps. He silently got up and snuck out of the room with a kunai in his hand. No one—no one—was supposed to be at the location other than him and the two captive shinobi. He silently climbed up the building to get a higher vantage point for a stealth kill to end the intruder in one strike.
"It's just me, you don't have to go all killer."
Takuma flinched and turned to look at Anko standing a few metres away from him on the roof. She had a smirk on her face which suited her but he didn't like it in serious situations. He observed her intently for any signs of the Transformation Jutsu.
"Why're you here?" he asked, putting his kunai down after confirming it was truly her.
"Let's go down. I've got a message from the camp," she said with a sombre look coming over her face. Once they were in the room where he was having his lunch, she continued. "I don't know how to say this so I'll be direct... The base sent the report regarding the organisation you recognised back home and they identified it. The blacksmith's touch mark you found belongs to ROOT."
Takuma doubted his ears for a moment. "I'm sorry... did you just say ROOT? Hidden Leaf's ROOT?"
"Oh, you know them?" said Anko, sounding surprised. "You know that name..."
"... Yes, I know them," said Takuma, realising his mistake.
ROOT was a top-secret department, completely unknown to the public; only people in the right circles or possessed the required clearance level knew of their existence. After Shimura Danzo was declared a rogue shinobi and a criminal, information about ROOT was released to the Leaf's general shinobi forces.
When the clans had joined together to demand actions against Danzo, ROOT wasn't mentioned once as everyone understood it wouldn't be wise to reveal state secrets for the world to see. However, when Danzo was officially declared a criminal, information about ROOT had been released. They weren't named as such and were only identified as an ANBU "team" under Danzo's command—the truth was much worse.
Despite that, even if Takuma had received the news from the village, he shouldn't have known ROOT by their name as it was never declassified.
Anko probably knew about ROOT from Orochimaru.
"I can't tell you who told me," Takuma said when he saw the look on her face.
"Okay... I guess it saves me an explanation," she shrugged, but the look of doubtful intrigue lingered for a moment. "The confirmation comes directly from ANBU and we have additional orders. They want us to capture the ROOT agents for information, but in case that's not possible, we have kill orders."
Takuma wanted to capture the people from the organisation to get some answers as well, but now that he knew they were ROOT, he wasn't entirely sure he wanted to get into that mess.
"They're not going to send someone in?" he asked, assuming that ANBU would like to handle ROOT matters.
"Doesn't look like it."
"Then things are going to be tough..."
Anko nodded before standing up. "Let's discuss this later. I'm not prioritising the new orders so our original ones still stand; if we figure out something, we'll try it out, but the focus remains on the main mission. I'm only here because I wanted you to know this, so I'll head back before the Hidden Frost comes knocking."
Takuma nodded and saw Anko off before returning to his lunch. He slowly ate his half-hearted curry rice as the new revelations filled his thoughts. He had been targeted by ROOT—by Danzo. He'd always assumed that some drug lord was trying to kill him for his work in the Narcotics Taskforce, which could still be true—but what kind of drug lord hired ROOT to assassinate somebody?
Even though he knew ROOT existed, he didn't exactly know what they did. They were similar to ANBU and handled national security on the external front. Danzo was always pulling strings in the shadows to ensure Hidden Leaf dominance—but how did he, a mere genin, fit into the scenario.
Had he somehow reveal something he shouldn't have? Not once had the higher-ups at the Police Force given him any pushback about the cases he was handling or the people he was targeting. If he was touching someone or something he wasn't supposed to, there would've been some kind of warning from his higher-ups first; straight-up assassination was a big jump.
He brought the spoon to his mouth but stopped halfway through as the memories flooded in. Memories of the night he was ambushed in his own home and then the narrow escape from the second ambush at the police station arson. He tried to shake the thoughts as he ate, but the silence was unbearable and made the food hard to chew.
Not to mention the curry was bland, becoming more unappetising with each bite. The table started to shake from how hard he was tapping his foot against the ground. He stopped and stared at his shaking thighs for a moment before leaving the room, his lunch barely touched.
Takuma entered Aranai's room, startling the man. He said nothing and paced near the door for fifteen seconds. The memories of his time in the hospital—relearning how to stand and walk—overwhelmed him. His body had been wrecked by the attempted assassination; it robbed his sense of security and safety and he had lost a job he had worked so hard at—a job he had loved.
Worst of all, he was forced to join a war to advance his career—and there was only one party responsible for all that misery.
He pulled up a folding chair and sat right in front of Aranai, eerily calm despite the terror that reigned over him minutes prior.
"W-What?" asked Aranai,
"Who's helping the Hidden Frost in Yu?" asked Takuma.
Aranai relaxed and let his body slump against the wall. "The Goharu family and a group of city elites who promised support in return for being spared. It worked well for us because we wanted to convert the city and them helping only made our goals that much easier. We're also buying the produce from farmers outside the city—"
"I'm talking about the shinobi support."
Aranai furrowed his brow. "Are you asking about the Hidden Cloud? They're helping us like you're helping the Hidden Steam; that shouldn't be a surprise."
"Anyone else?" asked Takuma.
Whatever Aranai thought he was pulling off, Takuma was well-aware that the man was trying to buy time through semi-cooperation until the Hidden Frost shinobi found him. He knew it because he had seen such behaviour before in interrogations all the time during his time in the Police Force. People tried to share information which would barely satisfy the interrogators in an attempt to not give out anything critical.
Takuma wanted to go hard from the start, but as his superior, Anko wanted to get the non-critical level information and allow Aranai to feel safe before extracting the critical information through advanced interrogation techniques.
"There's no one else," said Aranai.
'Lie,' thought Takuma. "Who orchestrated the police station arson?" he asked. The police force arson trying to impersonate the team had claimed lives of three police officers who were well-liked in the city even after the police force went through changes after the invasion..
The Kumi family had to discredit the dead police officers, dragging their reputation through the mud to ensure that the resistance wasn't looked on negatively. It was necessary, but left a bad taste in his mouth. Takuma had done many things people from his previous life would call evil, but nothing as callous as what happened to those officers.
"It was us."
"Who specifically planned it? Give me a name."
"Eh? Ah... I don't have a name. I wasn't involved with it, so I don't have the information."
That was bullshit. People talked and news naturally spread. The smaller the group, the freer the flow of information. For a group like the Hidden Frost army stationed in Yu, any and all information would spread like wildfire. Moreover, Aranai was a chunin—and a notable one because of his drug dealing—there was no way he didn't know the masterminds behind the police station arson.
"I think you're hiding things from me, Aranai," said Takuma with a flat smile. "Who gave you the information about me on the poster?"
"...I-It was someone from the Hidden Cloud."
"Four shinobi ambushed me at the police station. Were they from the Hidden Cloud?"
"Yes."
"Their names."
Aranai went silent for a moment. His face genuinely looked like he was trying to recall the names, but his body betrayed him. He sat up straighter, his arms moved closer to his body as his body language shrunk. Still, he gave a few names which Takuma noted down so without saying a word, Takuma got up and walked out of the room.
"H-Hey, can I get some water," Aranai said but got ignored.
Takuma walked to the other side of the house and entered the room where Ryoya was being held. They had offered the same offer of cooperation to him, but he had outright refused it, choosing to keep his mouth shut. Unfortunately, that made him the subject of Anko's torture techniques. He had managed to keep his mouth shut, but after receiving her tender mercies, Takuma was sure that wouldn't be the case.
"P-Please, no more. P-Please, I can't take anymore," Ryoya cried the moment he saw Takuma enter the room. He was chained to the wall, was bruised all over, and his entire body looked pale and was shaking. Takuma sat in front of him and tipped an uncapped water canteen to let the water flow. Ryoya floundered and pulled his entire boy forward to put his mouth below the canteen.
Takuma allowed him to drink ample before pulling the canteen back. "Do you want to talk now?"
Ryoya stared at Takuma with overwhelming fear in his eyes.
"Who was behind the police station arson?"
"S-Someone named Kon and his group."
"This Kon isn't from the Hidden Frost or the Hidden Cloud is he."
"N-No, how do you know that?"
"Were they also the one who provided the information about me?"
"Did Aranai tell you about that?"
Takuma smiled. "He accepted our proposition the moment we offered it... and we didn't have to touch a hair on his head."
Anger flashed through Ryoya's tired eyes. Takuma smiled internally when he saw the look; it was the sign of a breakthrough, and they achieved it in less than a day.
"I... I don't know who they are... no one knows who they are!" Ryoya quickly added. "They're a five man group including their leader, Kon—four after one of them was killed. They've been with us since before we invaded Yu. I don't know much but no one likes them because they don't participate in any of the regular duties."
'Kon...'
He didn't care whether it was real or an alias; he finally had a name.
Takuma considered Ryoya's words. It didn't look like he was lying, but to be completely sure, he had to confirm it somehow. Seeing that they had two hostages, confirming the information from one with the words of the other was the standard way of doing things but since Aranai wasn't going to surrender information willingly, he could only force it out of him.
"Where do they live?" Takuma continued to ask him more questions about the ROOT group. Ryoya didn't seem to be aware that the group was ROOT, but he was only a genin. Aranai could potentially would have more information—information that Takuma wanted at all cost.
He fed the rest of the canteen to Ryoya, who was just as eager as before to lap it up.
"Continue to cooperate with me and I'll bring you food later. Who knows, maybe the torture will stop," said Takuma with a smile before locking Ryoya in the room. He picked up a thick rag and a bucket and headed to Aranai's room.
"Hey, can I get some water," Aranai said upon Takuma.
Takuma filled up a canteen, followed by the bucket, and soaked the rag in the water. He then went and unlocked Aranai's shackle, freeing him from the wall. Aranai shuffled forward, frowning at him from across the room. Takuma smiled and kicked him so hard in the face that a tooth flew out of his mouth.
"Wait! W-What are you—"
He followed up with a sucker punch that knocked Aranai to the floor. The room had been prepared for interrogation. There was a hook for chains in the ceiling. Takuma looped chains through the hook in the ceiling to hang Aranai from it, who tried to make a run for the door, but Takuma tripped him and then kicked him in the back with an augmented kick, ending all resistance.
As long as Aranai had a prisoner seal on him, he was no match for Takuma, so hanging him upside from the ceiling was child's play.
"W-Why are you doing this?" Aranai eked out.
"Because I think you're lying," said Takuma calmly.
"No, I'm not!"
"Ryoya refuses to open his mouth," Takuma lied, "but you did tell me a lot which means you'll only say more if I apply a little pressure. I want to know everything about the group that tried to kill me, Aranai. This is personal and we'll be alone for a good few days.... What I'm trying to say is that if you don't answer me truthfully, I might just end up killing you. Obviously, you don't want that, so let's be honest with each other."
Takuma stepped away and weaved hand seals for Eight Tentacles Jutsu. The water from the bucket rose up and collected behind him before spreading out into tentacles.
"No, wait, please stop!" Aranai screamed as he hung from the ceiling.
"Let's get started. Tell me about the people who provided the information about me."
The water tentacles moved and enveloped Aranai's head, completely surrounding his nose and mouth with water, simulating the experience of drowning. Aranai held his breath and stared at Takuma with hatred and fear. Takuma returned a smile before forcing the water into Aranai's nose until he really was drowning, and held it there for a few seconds as Aranai's hanging body shook and his eyes begged for release. Only then did he pull the tentacles away and let Aranai cough away the water in his lungs.
"Tell me about the people who provided the information about me."
"I said I don't know!"
"Lie. You said it was someone from the Hidden Cloud."
Takuma ordered his tentacles to once again drown Aranai, who held his breath. Takuma laughed and punched him in the gut as hard as possible without using augmentations, which made him swallow water and start drowning once again.
"Let's try this again," said Takuma, pulling the tentacles away. "Who gave your people the information about me?"
Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over to Patreón [fictiononlyreader]. Link here and in signature.
Note: All the chapters will eventually be posted on public forums.
CH_7.29 (247)
Fiction
Feel free to ask me questions.
Late in the morning, a knock on the door sent everyone in the Chinatsu house on the highest alert. Everyone looked at each other, making sure they were ready. Anko raised her hand and gestured for the team along with Chinatsu and Gaku to take positions before she headed toward the door.
She engaged the chain latch before opening the door, and immediately a foot jammed in the gap to stop the door from closing. Anko put on a scared expression when she saw a shinobi in Hidden Frost colours; she tried to look beyond the him, but the man's broad body blocked her view.
"Are you Miss Chinatsu?" he asked.
"N-No, what is it that you want with my lady?"
"We want to ask her about one of her clients, Aranai. He hasn't been home since he left to meet her. Please let us in to question her... I don't want to be forceful," the man looked down at her with a stone cold look that said she didn't want to refuse in the situation.
"I will open the door," she said after shooting an alarmed look.
The man pulled his foot back and Anko opened the door wide, revealing two more shinobi. Shestilled for a second when she saw the middle-aged shinobi, the oldest among the trio; all her instincts were screaming danger at her, warning not to engage in a fight with him. Their eyes met and Anko averted her eyes, playing the role of the scared woman facing a dangerous shinobi.
'A jonin,' she thought.
"What is this commotion so early in the morning?" Chinatsu descended from the second floor, dressed in a scanty, thin nightgown that left very little to the imagination. She rubbed small circles into her eyes as though she had just woken up. All according to plan as all three shinobi stared at Chinatsu, their eyes roaming over her body. Iori followed after Chinatsu from the second floor, handing her a proper robe to put on, but Chinatsu wore it in a way that gave the shinobi a distracting view.
"My lady, we have guests," said Anko politely.
"Oh, shinobi?" said Gaku entered the living room from the kitchen with a cup of tea. "You must know Aranai. Have you seen him? He owes me my money."
Daiki was the next to enter the room. He stationed himself near Chinatsu as her bodyguard. He looked appropriately nervous for a civilian bodyguard with three shinobi who could rip him apart before he knew it.
Anko bowed to Gaku. "They're looking for him, Mister Jimii. He is missing..."
"He didn't show up yesterday, but he still has to pay—tell him that when you find him," said Gaku, perfectly playing the role of a money-minded pimp.
The jonin looked around the living room and at the people talking and sat down at the couch which brought all eyes on him. "Please have a seat Lady Chinatsu and Mister Jimii," he said in a calm tone. He looked at Anko and smiled, "May I get some warm water? If there are other people in the house, please call them down."
The shinobi in the room could sense the threat the jonin posed—they knew that one bad move was all it would take for him to end them before they so much as leave the house—but even without that, there was power and confidence in his voice. He ordered them around in their own home, fully-expecting and knowing that his orders would be fulfilled.
Chinatsu called Kameko and Rikku down and they stood in a corner with Iori in nervous silence as everyone watched the jonin drink the cup of warm water.
"Thank you," he said to Anko before addressing everyone in the room. "My name is Ebi. I'm a shinobi from the Frost. Aranai and Ryoya are my subordinates. I'm told that Aranai regularly availed your services, Lady Chinatsu, and that he met with you last night. He also brought Ryoya along with him yesterday."
"He didn't come yesterday," said Chinatsu with a little heat in her voice as though offended. "It's not very gentlemanly to be absent after promising a meeting with a lady. Don't you think so, Mister Ebi?" she asked, directing her charm at Ebi.
"...Of course, Lady Chinatsu," said Ebi, smiling. "So you're saying that Mister Aranai never arrived for his meeting with you. What about Ryoya; did he come?"
"Both of them were a no show," Gaku scoffed. He was in the most danger among the people in the room; his face was known to the enemy and here he was sitting right in front of them with a layer of make-up and a fake identity between them and him. "We rent a townhouse. It's expensive, so it's a loss when the client doesn't show up."
"I understand your concern, Mister Jimii," said Ebi, his eyes scanning everyone in the room.
Everyone in the team remembered Takuma's words.
"—You're not shinobi, so don't stand like you're ready to jump into a battle at the moment's notice. All of you're Chinatsu's handmaids, training to eventually get into the business, be 'lady-like', be feminine, pay attention to your looks. Live the lifestyle, the more you inhabit your cover, the easier it will be deceive others—"
The girls had taken his disguise advice to heart and had started to follow the lifestyle of their cover identities. They were helped by Chinatsu who gave them tips and Gaku who was experienced with disguises. After nearly two months in Yu, they were no longer Hidden Leaf shinobi, but Chinatsu's handmaids. As for Daiki, his size itself was a disguise—the moment they saw his muscular frame, they tagged him as the bodyguard and stopped looking.
"I must say, your reputation precedes you, Lady Chinatsu," Ebi said to her. "I heard that you arrived in Yu from the Hot Waters capital less than two months ago... May ask why you chose to relocate from the bustling capital to a border city... This move seems to be contrary from a business standpoint."
A hidden nervousness bubbled up in their room. The timing of the team's arrival in Yu was one of those
Chinatsu's eyes narrowed before she smiled behind her hand. "Past lovers, when they're powerful men, can be troublesome for business... You underestimate Yu; so many shinobi away from their homes make for excellent business." She leaned slightly forward to highlight her cleavage. "I'm very interested in you, Mister Ebi... Are you interested in me?"
Ebi's eyes lingered on Chinatsu's body for a moment before he looked up. He smiled, "Your beauty is brilliant and charming as the moonlight, Lady Chinatsu. Perhaps we shall dilly-dally some day. Today, however, I'm looking for my subordinates. Are you sure you didn't see them yesterday?" he directed the question to everyone.
"He didn't show up," said Gaku with a harrumph.
Ebi hummed and sat silent for a moment before turning to his shinobi subordinates behind him.
"Check the house."
The moment he said that Chinatsu and Gaku tried to argue and protest, but the two shinobi ignored them and started to go through everything in the house, upturning everything, breaking things in the process.
"You can't do this!" said Chinatsu, indignantly.
"This is not a request, Lady Chinatsu. If you don't sit down and let us search your house, you'll get hurt and no one wants that to happen, so sit down. This won't take too long," Ebi said nonchalantly, which made it all the more impactful.
Anko glanced at the men searching the home. They wouldn't find anything shinobi-related because there was nothing to be found as they were living their cover's life. The house was kept clean. All their weapons and gear were stashed in another place—it was inconvenient at times like when Iori wanted to make seals, but it was a necessary practice to maintain their protection.
"Sir, we found these." One of the men placed several identical sheathed daggers on the table in front Ebi, who looked up at Chinatsu.
"A woman must know to protect herself," she shrugged.
Being too clean was a thing. Having no weapons in the house would seem suspicious so they purchased daggers in Yu for all the women in the house in the name of personal protection.
Ebi observed one of the daggers in his hand, checking them with bored eyes.
"Anything else?" he asked.
The man shook his head.
"Very well." Ebi stood up. "It was a pleasure meeting you, Lady Chinatsu. If either of my missing men contact you, please reach out to us. Now if you'll excuse us, we must take our leave. Thank you for your hospitality."
The Hidden Frost shinobi left the house, leaving behind a mess, but the group all sighed in relief because the house aside, everything had gone well, which was as close to the best case scenario they could've hoped for.
———
.
"Put a lookout to keep an eye on them," said Ebi as they walked away from the Chinatsu house.
"Did you find something amiss, sir?" asked one of his men.
"Not at all," Ebi said as he fiddled with a cigarette pack. "It's just that I felt like their reaction was lacking. They weren't scared enough. One of them could be tough—maybe even two or three—but all of them looked too composed for my taste despite being suspected of being involved with two shinobi's disappearance."
"Maybe that was Aranai's plan. He had a reason to leave without raising suspicion and used it to disappear."
"That could be it," Ebi agreed, "but why not just disappear? There was no need to involve the courtesan. We would've interrogated her regardless because of their meetings."
"Perhaps it was a distraction so we would waste our time with them. They're currently our prime suspects."
Ebi looked at his man. "You presume I'm wasting our time by putting a lookout on them."
"N-No, of course, not, sir! I apologise, I, by no means, wanted to imply that."
Ebi gave him a hard stare before looking away.
"The courtesan's arrival into Yu is also suspicious. Less than two months... their arrival matches with the trouble that has been brewing in the city. Keeping an eye on them would be wise. Station some men to record their movements; I want regular reports."
Ebi put a cigarette to his lips and was about to light it when he said, "Any news from our informants?"
———
.
Takuma ate his cold lunch on a stool as he watched a bloody Aranai hanging from the ceiling. He was fully expecting it, but Aranai didn't break easily. He had screamed, cried, begged, but hadn't given a single word of information since the start of the advanced interrogation.
"You're slightly tough, I'll give you that," Takuma said as he chewed on the cold meat, "the Hidden Frost must've a good interrogation program to turn a wimp like you into someone who can take a decent beating... but you sure do moan like a bitch."
Aranai twitched.
Takuma noticed it, but pretended to ignore it and dug into his lunch.
"And you bruise like a peach. It's hilarious, actually; half-way through, I was trying to see if I could draw on you."
Even though they had only met yesterday and Aranai had been on guard against him, Takuma knew a few things about him through Chinatsu. She had his guard lowered when they were together and even though he didn't give any sensitive information to her, he hadn't hidden his personality and quirks from her.
The man had no patience for jokes made at his expense.
"You know, Chinatsu said you were one of her easier customers because she didn't need to do much to please you. You're hard before she touches and you get done quickly— all she had to do was make some easy fake sounds for her to get paid."
Aranai had shut down since he started to torture him but he needed him to open up and for that to happen, he had to get him talking. He had worn him down by beating him up, and if he could get him angry, he would spout stuff he wouldn't if he was calm. Takuma wanted to keep him irritated, and then needle him for information by constantly undermining him.
However, he needed to know about things Aranai was insecure about because what Chinatsu had given him was fairly limited.
Fortunately, Takuma had a rich source of information about Aranai ready to spill in the next room.
Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over to Patreón [fictiononlyreader]. Link here and in signature.
Note: All the chapters will eventually be posted on public forums.
She engaged the chain latch before opening the door, and immediately a foot jammed in the gap to stop the door from closing. Anko put on a scared expression when she saw a shinobi in Hidden Frost colours; she tried to look beyond the him, but the man's broad body blocked her view.
"Are you Miss Chinatsu?" he asked.
"N-No, what is it that you want with my lady?"
"We want to ask her about one of her clients, Aranai. He hasn't been home since he left to meet her. Please let us in to question her... I don't want to be forceful," the man looked down at her with a stone cold look that said she didn't want to refuse in the situation.
"I will open the door," she said after shooting an alarmed look.
The man pulled his foot back and Anko opened the door wide, revealing two more shinobi. Shestilled for a second when she saw the middle-aged shinobi, the oldest among the trio; all her instincts were screaming danger at her, warning not to engage in a fight with him. Their eyes met and Anko averted her eyes, playing the role of the scared woman facing a dangerous shinobi.
'A jonin,' she thought.
"What is this commotion so early in the morning?" Chinatsu descended from the second floor, dressed in a scanty, thin nightgown that left very little to the imagination. She rubbed small circles into her eyes as though she had just woken up. All according to plan as all three shinobi stared at Chinatsu, their eyes roaming over her body. Iori followed after Chinatsu from the second floor, handing her a proper robe to put on, but Chinatsu wore it in a way that gave the shinobi a distracting view.
"My lady, we have guests," said Anko politely.
"Oh, shinobi?" said Gaku entered the living room from the kitchen with a cup of tea. "You must know Aranai. Have you seen him? He owes me my money."
Daiki was the next to enter the room. He stationed himself near Chinatsu as her bodyguard. He looked appropriately nervous for a civilian bodyguard with three shinobi who could rip him apart before he knew it.
Anko bowed to Gaku. "They're looking for him, Mister Jimii. He is missing..."
"He didn't show up yesterday, but he still has to pay—tell him that when you find him," said Gaku, perfectly playing the role of a money-minded pimp.
The jonin looked around the living room and at the people talking and sat down at the couch which brought all eyes on him. "Please have a seat Lady Chinatsu and Mister Jimii," he said in a calm tone. He looked at Anko and smiled, "May I get some warm water? If there are other people in the house, please call them down."
The shinobi in the room could sense the threat the jonin posed—they knew that one bad move was all it would take for him to end them before they so much as leave the house—but even without that, there was power and confidence in his voice. He ordered them around in their own home, fully-expecting and knowing that his orders would be fulfilled.
Chinatsu called Kameko and Rikku down and they stood in a corner with Iori in nervous silence as everyone watched the jonin drink the cup of warm water.
"Thank you," he said to Anko before addressing everyone in the room. "My name is Ebi. I'm a shinobi from the Frost. Aranai and Ryoya are my subordinates. I'm told that Aranai regularly availed your services, Lady Chinatsu, and that he met with you last night. He also brought Ryoya along with him yesterday."
"He didn't come yesterday," said Chinatsu with a little heat in her voice as though offended. "It's not very gentlemanly to be absent after promising a meeting with a lady. Don't you think so, Mister Ebi?" she asked, directing her charm at Ebi.
"...Of course, Lady Chinatsu," said Ebi, smiling. "So you're saying that Mister Aranai never arrived for his meeting with you. What about Ryoya; did he come?"
"Both of them were a no show," Gaku scoffed. He was in the most danger among the people in the room; his face was known to the enemy and here he was sitting right in front of them with a layer of make-up and a fake identity between them and him. "We rent a townhouse. It's expensive, so it's a loss when the client doesn't show up."
"I understand your concern, Mister Jimii," said Ebi, his eyes scanning everyone in the room.
Everyone in the team remembered Takuma's words.
"—You're not shinobi, so don't stand like you're ready to jump into a battle at the moment's notice. All of you're Chinatsu's handmaids, training to eventually get into the business, be 'lady-like', be feminine, pay attention to your looks. Live the lifestyle, the more you inhabit your cover, the easier it will be deceive others—"
The girls had taken his disguise advice to heart and had started to follow the lifestyle of their cover identities. They were helped by Chinatsu who gave them tips and Gaku who was experienced with disguises. After nearly two months in Yu, they were no longer Hidden Leaf shinobi, but Chinatsu's handmaids. As for Daiki, his size itself was a disguise—the moment they saw his muscular frame, they tagged him as the bodyguard and stopped looking.
"I must say, your reputation precedes you, Lady Chinatsu," Ebi said to her. "I heard that you arrived in Yu from the Hot Waters capital less than two months ago... May ask why you chose to relocate from the bustling capital to a border city... This move seems to be contrary from a business standpoint."
A hidden nervousness bubbled up in their room. The timing of the team's arrival in Yu was one of those
Chinatsu's eyes narrowed before she smiled behind her hand. "Past lovers, when they're powerful men, can be troublesome for business... You underestimate Yu; so many shinobi away from their homes make for excellent business." She leaned slightly forward to highlight her cleavage. "I'm very interested in you, Mister Ebi... Are you interested in me?"
Ebi's eyes lingered on Chinatsu's body for a moment before he looked up. He smiled, "Your beauty is brilliant and charming as the moonlight, Lady Chinatsu. Perhaps we shall dilly-dally some day. Today, however, I'm looking for my subordinates. Are you sure you didn't see them yesterday?" he directed the question to everyone.
"He didn't show up," said Gaku with a harrumph.
Ebi hummed and sat silent for a moment before turning to his shinobi subordinates behind him.
"Check the house."
The moment he said that Chinatsu and Gaku tried to argue and protest, but the two shinobi ignored them and started to go through everything in the house, upturning everything, breaking things in the process.
"You can't do this!" said Chinatsu, indignantly.
"This is not a request, Lady Chinatsu. If you don't sit down and let us search your house, you'll get hurt and no one wants that to happen, so sit down. This won't take too long," Ebi said nonchalantly, which made it all the more impactful.
Anko glanced at the men searching the home. They wouldn't find anything shinobi-related because there was nothing to be found as they were living their cover's life. The house was kept clean. All their weapons and gear were stashed in another place—it was inconvenient at times like when Iori wanted to make seals, but it was a necessary practice to maintain their protection.
"Sir, we found these." One of the men placed several identical sheathed daggers on the table in front Ebi, who looked up at Chinatsu.
"A woman must know to protect herself," she shrugged.
Being too clean was a thing. Having no weapons in the house would seem suspicious so they purchased daggers in Yu for all the women in the house in the name of personal protection.
Ebi observed one of the daggers in his hand, checking them with bored eyes.
"Anything else?" he asked.
The man shook his head.
"Very well." Ebi stood up. "It was a pleasure meeting you, Lady Chinatsu. If either of my missing men contact you, please reach out to us. Now if you'll excuse us, we must take our leave. Thank you for your hospitality."
The Hidden Frost shinobi left the house, leaving behind a mess, but the group all sighed in relief because the house aside, everything had gone well, which was as close to the best case scenario they could've hoped for.
———
.
"Put a lookout to keep an eye on them," said Ebi as they walked away from the Chinatsu house.
"Did you find something amiss, sir?" asked one of his men.
"Not at all," Ebi said as he fiddled with a cigarette pack. "It's just that I felt like their reaction was lacking. They weren't scared enough. One of them could be tough—maybe even two or three—but all of them looked too composed for my taste despite being suspected of being involved with two shinobi's disappearance."
"Maybe that was Aranai's plan. He had a reason to leave without raising suspicion and used it to disappear."
"That could be it," Ebi agreed, "but why not just disappear? There was no need to involve the courtesan. We would've interrogated her regardless because of their meetings."
"Perhaps it was a distraction so we would waste our time with them. They're currently our prime suspects."
Ebi looked at his man. "You presume I'm wasting our time by putting a lookout on them."
"N-No, of course, not, sir! I apologise, I, by no means, wanted to imply that."
Ebi gave him a hard stare before looking away.
"The courtesan's arrival into Yu is also suspicious. Less than two months... their arrival matches with the trouble that has been brewing in the city. Keeping an eye on them would be wise. Station some men to record their movements; I want regular reports."
Ebi put a cigarette to his lips and was about to light it when he said, "Any news from our informants?"
———
.
Takuma ate his cold lunch on a stool as he watched a bloody Aranai hanging from the ceiling. He was fully expecting it, but Aranai didn't break easily. He had screamed, cried, begged, but hadn't given a single word of information since the start of the advanced interrogation.
"You're slightly tough, I'll give you that," Takuma said as he chewed on the cold meat, "the Hidden Frost must've a good interrogation program to turn a wimp like you into someone who can take a decent beating... but you sure do moan like a bitch."
Aranai twitched.
Takuma noticed it, but pretended to ignore it and dug into his lunch.
"And you bruise like a peach. It's hilarious, actually; half-way through, I was trying to see if I could draw on you."
Even though they had only met yesterday and Aranai had been on guard against him, Takuma knew a few things about him through Chinatsu. She had his guard lowered when they were together and even though he didn't give any sensitive information to her, he hadn't hidden his personality and quirks from her.
The man had no patience for jokes made at his expense.
"You know, Chinatsu said you were one of her easier customers because she didn't need to do much to please you. You're hard before she touches and you get done quickly— all she had to do was make some easy fake sounds for her to get paid."
Aranai had shut down since he started to torture him but he needed him to open up and for that to happen, he had to get him talking. He had worn him down by beating him up, and if he could get him angry, he would spout stuff he wouldn't if he was calm. Takuma wanted to keep him irritated, and then needle him for information by constantly undermining him.
However, he needed to know about things Aranai was insecure about because what Chinatsu had given him was fairly limited.
Fortunately, Takuma had a rich source of information about Aranai ready to spill in the next room.
Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over to Patreón [fictiononlyreader]. Link here and in signature.
Note: All the chapters will eventually be posted on public forums.
I'm loving the interrogation scene right now.
Hope that Takuma stay being a real ninja and the Naruto power creep doesn't enter into the story after Takuma becomes a Jonin
Hope that Takuma stay being a real ninja and the Naruto power creep doesn't enter into the story after Takuma becomes a Jonin
- Location
- Madness realms
If there is one Bloodline limit power I am certain Takuma has it is the ability to shittalk like a madman. I'm certain he played online games in his last life and knows every button and all the lines, watch him button mash like he is me playing a fighting game and cross lines like a drunk driver.
CH_7.30 (248)
Fiction
Feel free to ask me questions.
A Hidden Frost genin entered the backyard of a house and stopped when he saw Ebi standing in the middle of the backyard. He couldn't put the feeling in words, but he stood silent and still even though he had an urgent report to give to the jonin.
Ebi was in a basic stance with his arms up in guard. The backyard had a healthy growth of grass in need of trimming, but the spot where Ebi stood was bare with the dirt beneath clearly visible. There were multiple lines of missing grass outside the circle, making something like a sun pattern as though someone had uprooted all the grass to make the pattern.
The genin almost missed it when Ebi kicked the air, creating a vicious sound of his foot cutting through the air. He also noticed that the gust created from the kick pushed against the grass, ripping a few blades, thus answering the question of the strange grass pattern on the floor.
"What is it?"
"Huh? Y-Yes, our informant came through with information, sir. We have a location for Chunin Aranai and Genin Ryoya."
Ebi relaxed his stance and walked to a table in the corner to wipe his sweat with a towel.
"Which informant?"
"The one inside the Kumi Family."
"Did he confirm the other thing?"
"No, sir. He only provided an address."
Ebi hummed.
"Tell the squad to be ready and do the preliminary recon—we hit the location in two hours. I'll be personally leading the team."
———
.
Two hours later, a squad of Hidden Frost shinobi had surrounded the abandoned house. They had been observing the place since their arrival and hadn't hadn't revealed their presence by doing their reconnaissance under stealth so they could ambush the abductors.
The street in front of the house was empty and quiet but two streets away the shinobi prepared for the rescue mission. The squad was of three chunin-led teams of three genin, who all worked directly under Ebi.
"Sir!"
A chunin stood in attention as Ebi arrived decked in full combat gear for the operation.
"Are the preparations complete?"
"We have set a perimeter and blocked entry into the area. The residents have been warned to stay in the area. The squad is ready to breach at your command!"
"Any movement to and from the property?"
"No, sir. No one has entered or exited the property. The windows are boarded, blocking any view from the inside," said the chunin.
The entire squad gathered around a rough exterior map of the property built through reconnaissance.
"Two teams will lead the breach," said one of the chunin as he drew lines on the map. "Team A will approach from the front. Team B will go in from the back. Team C will stay out and surround the property to intercept the abductors in case they manage to slip past us."
"Sounds good," said Ebi, "but I'll be the first one in through the door. Team A will follow after me."
No one objected. They had no problems with the plan; with a jonin in lead, they practically weren't needed and all but had their safety secured.
Ten minutes later, the squad was in front of the property, hiding behind the walled-fence.
Ebi casually walked into the property and stepped up to the door. He touched the old lock on the old door and frowned at the amount of dust sticking to everything. He pushed the door lightly—light for a jonin—and snapped the door in half after it came off the hinges. He waited for a moment to see if anything would pop up like explosive seals or an attack coming from his throat, but there was not a squeak in response other than the gust of hot wind that hit him in the face.
He clicked his tongue.
He looked back at the squad. Team A was behind him while Team B proceeded behind the house.
"What is it, sir?" the Team A chunin whispered.
"There's probably no one in the house," he sighed, "there never was..."
There were no clean patterns on the door knob, no shoe prints in front, no preventative measures, and the rush of hot air meant that the house hadn't been ventilated for a while.
Regardless, Ebi walked into the house to do his due diligence, and as expected, there was no one and nothing inside the house. Team B breached in from the back and Team A from the front. Both teams converged to the middle as they checked the house, findingd nothing—not even lizards or rats scurrying around.
———
.
A short and thin snake slithered through streets, keeping himself to the corners to stay under the shadows. He was careful not to be spotted by the humans who spelled trouble, and cautiously made his way to his destination. He relied on his innate sense of smell to follow the unique scent his mistress had laid on the path there.
He raised his head to look at the abandoned house that was the source of the scent—it was the scent of blood. It made him reluctant to enter despite his mistress' request, but after mulling over it for a moment, he entered the property. He approached a barred window and coiled his body to jump to one of the bars.
Inside, he saw a completely naked bloody human male hanging from the ceiling.
"Fuck you!" yelled the male with the swollen eyes and face.
"Don't blame me for your incompetence. If I wanted to, I could've killed more than a dozen of your shinobi because you got greedy. Man, I could've killed you when you were buck naked on the bed because you couldn't keep your small dick in check. You're definitely the stupid type who dies quickly."
He looked at the second human male sitting on a stool, who was laughing as he taunted the first male. The second male turned to look at the window, gazing right into his eyes. He was startled and tensed up, but got himself ready for either fight or flight. The second male didn't say anything and pointed with his chin to the door before exiting the room.
He jumped down from the window and slithered to find the second male coming out from another room with a small pot of water that he set down in front of him.
"Drink if you're thirsty," said the human. "Anko sent a message?"
He looked at the pot of water with suspicion before looking up at the human and spitting out a battery sized capsule from his body.
"That's as gnarly as always," the human chuckled as he retrieved the roll of paper from the capsule.
As he drank water from the pot, he looked up at the human whose smile slipped off his face as he read whatever his mistress had written to him.
"Are you going to take a message back?"
He shook his head. His mistress had only asked him to make a one-way trip and then return back home.
"Alright... have your fill before leaving," the human said as he walked away.
The human had a grave severe expression on his face. It seemed that his mistress' message hadn't been a good one.
———
.
Hoshiguro sat in his private office in the Kumi family's main residence, looking over the ledger of salaries paid out to his men. The family's business had slowed down by half since the shinobi had taken over. They had been able to pay their people, but with the decreased business, that was becoming difficult without actively reaching into their emergency funds—which Hoshiguro did not want to do.
'Perhaps it's time to start holding back the salaries,' he thought.
The sliding door to his office opened and someone stepped in, but Hoshiguro didn't look up from his work.
"What is it?" he asked—but then he recognised the footsteps and looked up to see Takuma standing before him. "You..." He was surprised, but calmed himself down, and thought why would Takuma be in his office like this. "You managed to sneak in unnoticed. Impressive."
"It wasn't difficult."
"Sit down."
"No thank you," Takuma shook his head. "The Hidden Frost raided one of the properties today."
"What?" Hoshiguro's stomach dropped and he almost leapt out of his chair. "Which one?"
It was a secret within the family only known by a few people, but the Kumi family had helped Takuma abduct two Hidden Frost shinobi, who were being held at a property procured through the Kumi family connection.
However, Takuma had requested something very specific from Hoshiguro: he wanted to keep the location a secret by giving people fake addresses—everyone who knew was given a unique address and strictly asked to not discuss it with anyone else.
The intention was quite clear: to identify a leak in the Kumi family if one existed.
It was highly offensive to suggest that his family had a traitor in it, but Takuma convinced Hoshiguro to go on with the plan despite his reservations. It was purely a preventative measure and he didn't think anyone from his family would betray their own.
"Who?" asked Hoshiguro.
"Your son," said Takuma, bluntly. "It looks like dear Gyon holds a grudge for the beating you had me give him."
Hoshiguro couldn't believe it—he didn't want to believe it. His own son had leaked information to the enemy who had taken their home hostage. He didn't know what exactly had Gyon leaked, but depending on what was said, the Kumi family was at a great risk. When he had made Takuma fight Gyon, he wanted his son to understand how low they stood on the ladder and if they offended the wrong people, it could spell their end.
It was supposed to be a humbling experience, but Gyon had learned all the wrong lessons.
"What are you going to do?" Hoshiguro asked Takuma.
Gyon had made a mistake, but he was still his son—he would do anything to save his son from the dangerous shinobi who he clearly knew wouldn't hesitate to kill him if he became a problem. Hoshiguro couldn't allow that to happen even if it meant putting his life on the line because it was a father's duty to protect his family.
"Your face betrays your thoughts," said Takuma impassively. "You've been of great help, and I don't want to damage this working relationship we have—so I'm not going to do what I want to do, and suggest that you lock him up and find out what he blabbed to the Frost shinobi. That said, I don't want him leaving the house so he can create more troubles for us; have him spend time with his family and children to understand what's really important... because if I find out that he did something else, it'll end badly for not just him, but you as well."
Hoshiguro studied Takuma's face and eyes to peer at some of his thoughts, but the young shinobi didn't give anything away—yet one thing was clear: if the Kumi family betrayed him again, he would get them back one way or another. Hoshiguro knew Takuma had allies he had kept away from them. Even if they managed to somehow sink Takuma, those shinobi would seek revenge, and there would be no stopping them.
"I will make sure he doesn't cause any more trouble."
"Good."
Takuma turned around to leave but stopped to say one last thing, "The Hidden Frost shinobi might come after you. It might be wise to go into hiding or make some preparations..."
Hoshiguro nodded. "Thank you."
If the Hidden Frost shinobi heard whispers about the Kumi family's involvement, they would stop at nothing to find their missing men. He put himself in their shoes, and if he had that much power, he would go after every possible party who was even slightly suspicious.
If Gyon really had told them that the Kumi family was involved, then the shinobi would come looking for them—he would do the same and he had done the same.
Takuma opened the door and exited.
Hoshiguro waited to see if someone spotted him, but ten minutes later, no one came to him with the news of a break in. But if one shinobi could reach him so easily, he had no idea what preparations he could make to stop an army of shinobi.
Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over to Patreón [fictiononlyreader]. Link here and in signature.
Note: All the chapters will eventually be posted on public forums.
Ebi was in a basic stance with his arms up in guard. The backyard had a healthy growth of grass in need of trimming, but the spot where Ebi stood was bare with the dirt beneath clearly visible. There were multiple lines of missing grass outside the circle, making something like a sun pattern as though someone had uprooted all the grass to make the pattern.
The genin almost missed it when Ebi kicked the air, creating a vicious sound of his foot cutting through the air. He also noticed that the gust created from the kick pushed against the grass, ripping a few blades, thus answering the question of the strange grass pattern on the floor.
"What is it?"
"Huh? Y-Yes, our informant came through with information, sir. We have a location for Chunin Aranai and Genin Ryoya."
Ebi relaxed his stance and walked to a table in the corner to wipe his sweat with a towel.
"Which informant?"
"The one inside the Kumi Family."
"Did he confirm the other thing?"
"No, sir. He only provided an address."
Ebi hummed.
"Tell the squad to be ready and do the preliminary recon—we hit the location in two hours. I'll be personally leading the team."
———
.
Two hours later, a squad of Hidden Frost shinobi had surrounded the abandoned house. They had been observing the place since their arrival and hadn't hadn't revealed their presence by doing their reconnaissance under stealth so they could ambush the abductors.
The street in front of the house was empty and quiet but two streets away the shinobi prepared for the rescue mission. The squad was of three chunin-led teams of three genin, who all worked directly under Ebi.
"Sir!"
A chunin stood in attention as Ebi arrived decked in full combat gear for the operation.
"Are the preparations complete?"
"We have set a perimeter and blocked entry into the area. The residents have been warned to stay in the area. The squad is ready to breach at your command!"
"Any movement to and from the property?"
"No, sir. No one has entered or exited the property. The windows are boarded, blocking any view from the inside," said the chunin.
The entire squad gathered around a rough exterior map of the property built through reconnaissance.
"Two teams will lead the breach," said one of the chunin as he drew lines on the map. "Team A will approach from the front. Team B will go in from the back. Team C will stay out and surround the property to intercept the abductors in case they manage to slip past us."
"Sounds good," said Ebi, "but I'll be the first one in through the door. Team A will follow after me."
No one objected. They had no problems with the plan; with a jonin in lead, they practically weren't needed and all but had their safety secured.
Ten minutes later, the squad was in front of the property, hiding behind the walled-fence.
Ebi casually walked into the property and stepped up to the door. He touched the old lock on the old door and frowned at the amount of dust sticking to everything. He pushed the door lightly—light for a jonin—and snapped the door in half after it came off the hinges. He waited for a moment to see if anything would pop up like explosive seals or an attack coming from his throat, but there was not a squeak in response other than the gust of hot wind that hit him in the face.
He clicked his tongue.
He looked back at the squad. Team A was behind him while Team B proceeded behind the house.
"What is it, sir?" the Team A chunin whispered.
"There's probably no one in the house," he sighed, "there never was..."
There were no clean patterns on the door knob, no shoe prints in front, no preventative measures, and the rush of hot air meant that the house hadn't been ventilated for a while.
Regardless, Ebi walked into the house to do his due diligence, and as expected, there was no one and nothing inside the house. Team B breached in from the back and Team A from the front. Both teams converged to the middle as they checked the house, findingd nothing—not even lizards or rats scurrying around.
———
.
A short and thin snake slithered through streets, keeping himself to the corners to stay under the shadows. He was careful not to be spotted by the humans who spelled trouble, and cautiously made his way to his destination. He relied on his innate sense of smell to follow the unique scent his mistress had laid on the path there.
He raised his head to look at the abandoned house that was the source of the scent—it was the scent of blood. It made him reluctant to enter despite his mistress' request, but after mulling over it for a moment, he entered the property. He approached a barred window and coiled his body to jump to one of the bars.
Inside, he saw a completely naked bloody human male hanging from the ceiling.
"Fuck you!" yelled the male with the swollen eyes and face.
"Don't blame me for your incompetence. If I wanted to, I could've killed more than a dozen of your shinobi because you got greedy. Man, I could've killed you when you were buck naked on the bed because you couldn't keep your small dick in check. You're definitely the stupid type who dies quickly."
He looked at the second human male sitting on a stool, who was laughing as he taunted the first male. The second male turned to look at the window, gazing right into his eyes. He was startled and tensed up, but got himself ready for either fight or flight. The second male didn't say anything and pointed with his chin to the door before exiting the room.
He jumped down from the window and slithered to find the second male coming out from another room with a small pot of water that he set down in front of him.
"Drink if you're thirsty," said the human. "Anko sent a message?"
He looked at the pot of water with suspicion before looking up at the human and spitting out a battery sized capsule from his body.
"That's as gnarly as always," the human chuckled as he retrieved the roll of paper from the capsule.
As he drank water from the pot, he looked up at the human whose smile slipped off his face as he read whatever his mistress had written to him.
"Are you going to take a message back?"
He shook his head. His mistress had only asked him to make a one-way trip and then return back home.
"Alright... have your fill before leaving," the human said as he walked away.
The human had a grave severe expression on his face. It seemed that his mistress' message hadn't been a good one.
———
.
Hoshiguro sat in his private office in the Kumi family's main residence, looking over the ledger of salaries paid out to his men. The family's business had slowed down by half since the shinobi had taken over. They had been able to pay their people, but with the decreased business, that was becoming difficult without actively reaching into their emergency funds—which Hoshiguro did not want to do.
'Perhaps it's time to start holding back the salaries,' he thought.
The sliding door to his office opened and someone stepped in, but Hoshiguro didn't look up from his work.
"What is it?" he asked—but then he recognised the footsteps and looked up to see Takuma standing before him. "You..." He was surprised, but calmed himself down, and thought why would Takuma be in his office like this. "You managed to sneak in unnoticed. Impressive."
"It wasn't difficult."
"Sit down."
"No thank you," Takuma shook his head. "The Hidden Frost raided one of the properties today."
"What?" Hoshiguro's stomach dropped and he almost leapt out of his chair. "Which one?"
It was a secret within the family only known by a few people, but the Kumi family had helped Takuma abduct two Hidden Frost shinobi, who were being held at a property procured through the Kumi family connection.
However, Takuma had requested something very specific from Hoshiguro: he wanted to keep the location a secret by giving people fake addresses—everyone who knew was given a unique address and strictly asked to not discuss it with anyone else.
The intention was quite clear: to identify a leak in the Kumi family if one existed.
It was highly offensive to suggest that his family had a traitor in it, but Takuma convinced Hoshiguro to go on with the plan despite his reservations. It was purely a preventative measure and he didn't think anyone from his family would betray their own.
"Who?" asked Hoshiguro.
"Your son," said Takuma, bluntly. "It looks like dear Gyon holds a grudge for the beating you had me give him."
Hoshiguro couldn't believe it—he didn't want to believe it. His own son had leaked information to the enemy who had taken their home hostage. He didn't know what exactly had Gyon leaked, but depending on what was said, the Kumi family was at a great risk. When he had made Takuma fight Gyon, he wanted his son to understand how low they stood on the ladder and if they offended the wrong people, it could spell their end.
It was supposed to be a humbling experience, but Gyon had learned all the wrong lessons.
"What are you going to do?" Hoshiguro asked Takuma.
Gyon had made a mistake, but he was still his son—he would do anything to save his son from the dangerous shinobi who he clearly knew wouldn't hesitate to kill him if he became a problem. Hoshiguro couldn't allow that to happen even if it meant putting his life on the line because it was a father's duty to protect his family.
"Your face betrays your thoughts," said Takuma impassively. "You've been of great help, and I don't want to damage this working relationship we have—so I'm not going to do what I want to do, and suggest that you lock him up and find out what he blabbed to the Frost shinobi. That said, I don't want him leaving the house so he can create more troubles for us; have him spend time with his family and children to understand what's really important... because if I find out that he did something else, it'll end badly for not just him, but you as well."
Hoshiguro studied Takuma's face and eyes to peer at some of his thoughts, but the young shinobi didn't give anything away—yet one thing was clear: if the Kumi family betrayed him again, he would get them back one way or another. Hoshiguro knew Takuma had allies he had kept away from them. Even if they managed to somehow sink Takuma, those shinobi would seek revenge, and there would be no stopping them.
"I will make sure he doesn't cause any more trouble."
"Good."
Takuma turned around to leave but stopped to say one last thing, "The Hidden Frost shinobi might come after you. It might be wise to go into hiding or make some preparations..."
Hoshiguro nodded. "Thank you."
If the Hidden Frost shinobi heard whispers about the Kumi family's involvement, they would stop at nothing to find their missing men. He put himself in their shoes, and if he had that much power, he would go after every possible party who was even slightly suspicious.
If Gyon really had told them that the Kumi family was involved, then the shinobi would come looking for them—he would do the same and he had done the same.
Takuma opened the door and exited.
Hoshiguro waited to see if someone spotted him, but ten minutes later, no one came to him with the news of a break in. But if one shinobi could reach him so easily, he had no idea what preparations he could make to stop an army of shinobi.
Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over to Patreón [fictiononlyreader]. Link here and in signature.
Note: All the chapters will eventually be posted on public forums.
CH_7.31 (249)
Fiction
Feel free to ask me questions.
Hoshiguro's family ate dinner together every day. Him, his wife, their son, their daughter-in-law, and the twin grandchildren. It was a family tradition and no one was allowed to skip the meal under any circumstance with very few exceptions.
As usual, the family was together around the table table. Gyon's wife was trying to feed her twins, who seemed to want nothing more than to run around. Hoshiguro's wife ate as she watched the twins with an imperceptible smile and her husband and son sat opposite to each other and ate their meals in silence.
Hoshiguro glanced at his son and noticed that he had barely touched his food.
"Not hungry, son?"
Gyon looked like he snapped out of some deep thought and looked up at his father before looking down at his food. Everyone on the table looked at him as well, and he felt their gazes.
"I don't seem to have an appetite today," said Gyon and when he saw a look of worry over his mother's face, he added, "I'm alright, I just don't feel like eating today."
"Any stress?" Hoshiguro asked.
"...I'm just worried about the shinobi's movements these last few days," said Gyon, putting his chopsticks down. "They've been aggressively patrolling the city—all of them, something they haven't done since their first couple months in the city. Four of our guys have been busted but they only returned two of them all bruised up. Their two missing shinobi have set them on an edge."
"That is indeed worrying," Hoshiguro commented as he ate, "That must've be why you tried to fix things with them."
Gyon looked confused. "Father?"
"They did it quietly, so the news didn't spread, but did you really think I wouldn't know?" Hoshiguro looked up at his son.
The look from his father was enough for Gyon to understand what Hoshiguro meant. His face stiffened before he regained his composure and tried to look like he didn't understand.
"Father, I don't understand—"
"I gave everyone different addresses," Hoshiguro didn't beat around the bush, "and the address I gave you—and only you—was raided today. They didn't find anyone there, so no harm was done, but... harm was done, wasn't it, son."
Gyon first looked dumbfounded, but with every word, he started to get more and more horrified.
"I don't really care that you put him in danger, but to think you'd break my trust and put the Kumi in danger? Is that how I raised you?" Hoshiguro's voice turned grave, deeper, and his face went from red to a deep purple.
"Father, I—"
"SHUT UP!"
The entire room went silent. Even the young twins, who loved to run around and create a ruckus, stuck to their mother, looking between their father and grandfather in worried silence.
Hoshiguro's wife motioned for the servants to leave the room to give the family some room and privacy. "Please settle down," she tried to calm her husband, worried about his health
"What was it?" Hoshiguro ignored his wife. "Did you feel you were less of a man because you lost to a child? That child is a shinobi, you idiot! Or did you do it because you wanted to be the head? Did they promise you control of the Kumi family if you became their lackey? Who do you think I built all of this for? Did you think this would go to anyone else?"
Gyon tried to interject, fearing for his health, "F-Father, I—"
"THIS IS ALL FOR YOU" he yelled. "...But you got greedy, and sold your own father's trust!"
He stopped to take a breath and everyone turned to Gyon as the realisation that he had helped out the Hidden Frost dawned on everyone. It was a shock for the adults to say the least. They looked at Gyon, hoping he would put down the accusations by defending himself.
A dark look appeared on Gyon's face as he said, "This is all your fault. If you had just..." He trailed off when Hoshiguro, who was previously vibrating with rage, swayed from side-to-side before collapsing.
"Dear!" Hoshiguro's wife immediately rushed to her collapsed husband and called out to the servants and guards.
On the other side of the table, Gyon stared at the figure of his father without moving. For all he knew, he had killed his father with his betrayal and the mere thought left him feeling utterly shell-shocked.
———
.
Takuma sat on the floor in front of Ryoya, who looked deathly pale, had a deep dark circle under his eyes, sweat stuck to his skin—all in all, he didn't seem to be feeling very good in captivity. Anko and Takuma were partially to blame because of their interrogation; however, he hadn't been touched recently as Anko was absent and Takuma was focusing on Aranai.
His current condition was more because of stress than any torture they'd inflicted on him.
"So, Jonin Ebi's the one in charge?" asked Takuma.
"He's officially in charge; though the other jonin don't seem to think so," Ryoya responded in a feeble voice. He was slumped against the wall and was staring outside the barred window with a faraway look. "But he's the one who's actively managing the chunin and the genin. He handles the defence of city walls, the export and import of the city with the Land of Frost, the majority of communication with natives who took our side when we took over the city—he was the one to first meet and talk to them..."
Takuma noted the name on a pocket notepad. Ryoya had been quite forthcoming with him because he was a mentally weak person who had crumbled fairly easily.
At long last, Takuma had found something that interested him. Jonin Ebi seemed to be the only jonin doing his job leading the troops while the other jonin were treating their time in Yu as a vacation, consorting with the city's rich and elite, and having the time of their lives.
'It would be a very significant blow to the enemy if we are somehow able to take down Ebi,' thought Takuma as he circled Ebi's name multiple times.
"Is there anything you can tell me about Kon's group?" asked Takuma.
Ryoya shook his head. "I just know where they live, nothing else. They don't mingle with us."
Takuma pursed his lips. The location Ryoya knew was most likely a red herring. He hadn't been able to find anything of significance about the ROOT squad that would give any useful insight into the group.
"Will you let me go?" asked Ryoya.
Takuma didn't answer immediately. "...If you don't try to escape and be honest with me, I'll eventually trade you to the Land of Frost. You have more value to me alive than dead," said Takuma.
In truth, he didn't have the authority for his claims. Once Camp Banana invaded Yu and the jonin arrived, they would decide what to do with a prisoner of war, not him.
"Can I trust you?"
Takuma smiled wryly. "Would it really matter if I said yes?"
Ryoya stared at Takuma with dead eyes before letting his head go limp. Takuma knew it was his time to leave him alone when he started sobbing. He left him in a locked room to tire himself out from crying and then entered Aranai's room, who was in a much worse condition than Ryoya.
Unlike his subordinate, he had yet to say a word since Takuma had started torturing him. Aranai was chained to the wall and looked up at him with defiant eyes; it had been four days since they'd started the abduction operation. Day-1 was the abduction; Day-2 was the initial interrogation; Day-3 was when the Hidden Frost visited the Chinatsu house; and Day-4 was the raid at the fake address.
Takuma knew that Aranai thought he would be found by now, which would've been true if he hadn't put the safety measure in place with the Kumi family through Hoshiguro.
He grinned as he pulled up a chair in front of him."In a couple hours, you'll be with me for three days." The moment he said that, the defiant look in Aranai's eyes wavered. "You shouldn't keep up hope, you know. They aren't coming to get you—I mean, how would they find you when we aren't even in Yu?"
Not once during the entire torture and investigation had Takuma mentioned their location. Aranai had to assume that they were in the city because that was his only hope of getting rescued. The view out of the window didn't have any markers that would give their location away.
When Aranai looked up at him, Takuma put on a devilish smile—and it worked because something cracked inside the mentally and physically exhausted Aranai. It was only for a split second, but the horror on the prisoner's face was unmistakable, even when he cut all the emotion off from reaching his face immediately after.
"You're lying," he said.
Seeing him respond was good for Takuma. He had kept him speaking, even though it was curses and abuse up until now, but he had finally managed to find a chink in that armour.
"You can take solace in that thought," Takuma smiled, "but I wonder what you'll think when they don't come tomorrow... the day after that... and after that, and after that, after that—and after that." He then stood and stroked Aranai's hair. "Perhaps if you pray enough, it'll come true and your people will burst through the door tomorrow."
He stressed the word tomorrow to plant it inside Aranai's mind so he would think about it, hope for it, and pray for it—but when this thing didn't happen, all that hope and expectation would shatter and it would break him from the inside. After that happened, he would finally open up and let the information flow.
Being rescued was the only thing that kept Aranai quiet. He withstood the torture that he and Anko had put him through because he believed that his people would find him in no time. Without it, he had nothing left; no reason to continue to sit through the agonising torture.
"Until then, you're stuck with me, I'm afraid… I'll see you in a few hours for our next session."
———
.
Inside Chinatsu house, the team gathered together in the living room after dinner to have a discussion.
"I've spotted four people," said Daiki as he sat beside the small Rikku. "They have twelve hour shifts and the guard detail switches at around nine in the morning." As the resident ranger, he had sneaked around to see the team that was observing them. "Whenever we go out, they place two people on our tail while the remaining two observe whoever's left in the house."
He looked at Anko and she nodded.
"My snakes also confirmed four people," she sighed.
She had used her snake contract too much during her time in Yu and the costs were beginning to pile up. Every summoning contract had different terms and the snake contract had to be paid in flesh and blood—and lots of it.
Depending on who she summoned, the length of the summon, and the task, she had to pay up the summoned snakes with animal meat of their choice—humans-included. Given that she was in Yu, she had to defer her payments due to her cover—but a lot of snakes didn't care about any of it and wanted the payment quickly, which limited her options.
Even then, the mission's two month period was too long for the snakes who were willing to take payment later. Soon, the snakes would stop responding to the call of her chakra. If she tried to push it, there was a chance that she would lose her contract all together.
"My suggestion is that we sneak Iori out two hours before the shift change," said Daiki.
"I agree," Gaku chimed in. "That's the time frame where the possibility of a surprise is the lowest. As long as we get her back thirty minutes before the shift changes, we're golden."
The reason for all of this back and forth was because of their two Hidden Frost prisoners—more specifically, the prisoner seals. They needed to be refreshed regularly and that time had come. Iori, the fuin-nin, was the only one capable of drawing prisoner seals, so she needed to get to the location to do so.
Those prisoner seals were the ONLY reason why the team was so comfortable with leaving Takuma alone with the prisoners.
"So, who's going on the outing?" asked Gaku.
Everyone turned to Anko for the answer, who took a moment before giving her answer.
"Gaku and Daiki will take Iori."
She breathed a deep sigh.
They were in the final stage of their mission. Camp Banana, along with additional forces, were set to arrive at a pre-scheduled time regardless of how their mission went and Team-9 was yet to send any solid information to the base. Camp Banana would arrive in ten days no matter what, but Takuma needed to acquire the information within the next three days so she could send a report that they actually made some use of it.
With only three days left until the deadline, Anko was beginning to grow nervous.
"Let's give him all the help he needs."
Ten days remained until the main forces arrived at Yu.
Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over to Patreón [fictiononlyreader]. Link here and in signature.
Note: All the chapters will eventually be posted on public forums.
As usual, the family was together around the table table. Gyon's wife was trying to feed her twins, who seemed to want nothing more than to run around. Hoshiguro's wife ate as she watched the twins with an imperceptible smile and her husband and son sat opposite to each other and ate their meals in silence.
Hoshiguro glanced at his son and noticed that he had barely touched his food.
"Not hungry, son?"
Gyon looked like he snapped out of some deep thought and looked up at his father before looking down at his food. Everyone on the table looked at him as well, and he felt their gazes.
"I don't seem to have an appetite today," said Gyon and when he saw a look of worry over his mother's face, he added, "I'm alright, I just don't feel like eating today."
"Any stress?" Hoshiguro asked.
"...I'm just worried about the shinobi's movements these last few days," said Gyon, putting his chopsticks down. "They've been aggressively patrolling the city—all of them, something they haven't done since their first couple months in the city. Four of our guys have been busted but they only returned two of them all bruised up. Their two missing shinobi have set them on an edge."
"That is indeed worrying," Hoshiguro commented as he ate, "That must've be why you tried to fix things with them."
Gyon looked confused. "Father?"
"They did it quietly, so the news didn't spread, but did you really think I wouldn't know?" Hoshiguro looked up at his son.
The look from his father was enough for Gyon to understand what Hoshiguro meant. His face stiffened before he regained his composure and tried to look like he didn't understand.
"Father, I don't understand—"
"I gave everyone different addresses," Hoshiguro didn't beat around the bush, "and the address I gave you—and only you—was raided today. They didn't find anyone there, so no harm was done, but... harm was done, wasn't it, son."
Gyon first looked dumbfounded, but with every word, he started to get more and more horrified.
"I don't really care that you put him in danger, but to think you'd break my trust and put the Kumi in danger? Is that how I raised you?" Hoshiguro's voice turned grave, deeper, and his face went from red to a deep purple.
"Father, I—"
"SHUT UP!"
The entire room went silent. Even the young twins, who loved to run around and create a ruckus, stuck to their mother, looking between their father and grandfather in worried silence.
Hoshiguro's wife motioned for the servants to leave the room to give the family some room and privacy. "Please settle down," she tried to calm her husband, worried about his health
"What was it?" Hoshiguro ignored his wife. "Did you feel you were less of a man because you lost to a child? That child is a shinobi, you idiot! Or did you do it because you wanted to be the head? Did they promise you control of the Kumi family if you became their lackey? Who do you think I built all of this for? Did you think this would go to anyone else?"
Gyon tried to interject, fearing for his health, "F-Father, I—"
"THIS IS ALL FOR YOU" he yelled. "...But you got greedy, and sold your own father's trust!"
He stopped to take a breath and everyone turned to Gyon as the realisation that he had helped out the Hidden Frost dawned on everyone. It was a shock for the adults to say the least. They looked at Gyon, hoping he would put down the accusations by defending himself.
A dark look appeared on Gyon's face as he said, "This is all your fault. If you had just..." He trailed off when Hoshiguro, who was previously vibrating with rage, swayed from side-to-side before collapsing.
"Dear!" Hoshiguro's wife immediately rushed to her collapsed husband and called out to the servants and guards.
On the other side of the table, Gyon stared at the figure of his father without moving. For all he knew, he had killed his father with his betrayal and the mere thought left him feeling utterly shell-shocked.
———
.
Takuma sat on the floor in front of Ryoya, who looked deathly pale, had a deep dark circle under his eyes, sweat stuck to his skin—all in all, he didn't seem to be feeling very good in captivity. Anko and Takuma were partially to blame because of their interrogation; however, he hadn't been touched recently as Anko was absent and Takuma was focusing on Aranai.
His current condition was more because of stress than any torture they'd inflicted on him.
"So, Jonin Ebi's the one in charge?" asked Takuma.
"He's officially in charge; though the other jonin don't seem to think so," Ryoya responded in a feeble voice. He was slumped against the wall and was staring outside the barred window with a faraway look. "But he's the one who's actively managing the chunin and the genin. He handles the defence of city walls, the export and import of the city with the Land of Frost, the majority of communication with natives who took our side when we took over the city—he was the one to first meet and talk to them..."
Takuma noted the name on a pocket notepad. Ryoya had been quite forthcoming with him because he was a mentally weak person who had crumbled fairly easily.
At long last, Takuma had found something that interested him. Jonin Ebi seemed to be the only jonin doing his job leading the troops while the other jonin were treating their time in Yu as a vacation, consorting with the city's rich and elite, and having the time of their lives.
'It would be a very significant blow to the enemy if we are somehow able to take down Ebi,' thought Takuma as he circled Ebi's name multiple times.
"Is there anything you can tell me about Kon's group?" asked Takuma.
Ryoya shook his head. "I just know where they live, nothing else. They don't mingle with us."
Takuma pursed his lips. The location Ryoya knew was most likely a red herring. He hadn't been able to find anything of significance about the ROOT squad that would give any useful insight into the group.
"Will you let me go?" asked Ryoya.
Takuma didn't answer immediately. "...If you don't try to escape and be honest with me, I'll eventually trade you to the Land of Frost. You have more value to me alive than dead," said Takuma.
In truth, he didn't have the authority for his claims. Once Camp Banana invaded Yu and the jonin arrived, they would decide what to do with a prisoner of war, not him.
"Can I trust you?"
Takuma smiled wryly. "Would it really matter if I said yes?"
Ryoya stared at Takuma with dead eyes before letting his head go limp. Takuma knew it was his time to leave him alone when he started sobbing. He left him in a locked room to tire himself out from crying and then entered Aranai's room, who was in a much worse condition than Ryoya.
Unlike his subordinate, he had yet to say a word since Takuma had started torturing him. Aranai was chained to the wall and looked up at him with defiant eyes; it had been four days since they'd started the abduction operation. Day-1 was the abduction; Day-2 was the initial interrogation; Day-3 was when the Hidden Frost visited the Chinatsu house; and Day-4 was the raid at the fake address.
Takuma knew that Aranai thought he would be found by now, which would've been true if he hadn't put the safety measure in place with the Kumi family through Hoshiguro.
He grinned as he pulled up a chair in front of him."In a couple hours, you'll be with me for three days." The moment he said that, the defiant look in Aranai's eyes wavered. "You shouldn't keep up hope, you know. They aren't coming to get you—I mean, how would they find you when we aren't even in Yu?"
Not once during the entire torture and investigation had Takuma mentioned their location. Aranai had to assume that they were in the city because that was his only hope of getting rescued. The view out of the window didn't have any markers that would give their location away.
When Aranai looked up at him, Takuma put on a devilish smile—and it worked because something cracked inside the mentally and physically exhausted Aranai. It was only for a split second, but the horror on the prisoner's face was unmistakable, even when he cut all the emotion off from reaching his face immediately after.
"You're lying," he said.
Seeing him respond was good for Takuma. He had kept him speaking, even though it was curses and abuse up until now, but he had finally managed to find a chink in that armour.
"You can take solace in that thought," Takuma smiled, "but I wonder what you'll think when they don't come tomorrow... the day after that... and after that, and after that, after that—and after that." He then stood and stroked Aranai's hair. "Perhaps if you pray enough, it'll come true and your people will burst through the door tomorrow."
He stressed the word tomorrow to plant it inside Aranai's mind so he would think about it, hope for it, and pray for it—but when this thing didn't happen, all that hope and expectation would shatter and it would break him from the inside. After that happened, he would finally open up and let the information flow.
Being rescued was the only thing that kept Aranai quiet. He withstood the torture that he and Anko had put him through because he believed that his people would find him in no time. Without it, he had nothing left; no reason to continue to sit through the agonising torture.
"Until then, you're stuck with me, I'm afraid… I'll see you in a few hours for our next session."
———
.
Inside Chinatsu house, the team gathered together in the living room after dinner to have a discussion.
"I've spotted four people," said Daiki as he sat beside the small Rikku. "They have twelve hour shifts and the guard detail switches at around nine in the morning." As the resident ranger, he had sneaked around to see the team that was observing them. "Whenever we go out, they place two people on our tail while the remaining two observe whoever's left in the house."
He looked at Anko and she nodded.
"My snakes also confirmed four people," she sighed.
She had used her snake contract too much during her time in Yu and the costs were beginning to pile up. Every summoning contract had different terms and the snake contract had to be paid in flesh and blood—and lots of it.
Depending on who she summoned, the length of the summon, and the task, she had to pay up the summoned snakes with animal meat of their choice—humans-included. Given that she was in Yu, she had to defer her payments due to her cover—but a lot of snakes didn't care about any of it and wanted the payment quickly, which limited her options.
Even then, the mission's two month period was too long for the snakes who were willing to take payment later. Soon, the snakes would stop responding to the call of her chakra. If she tried to push it, there was a chance that she would lose her contract all together.
"My suggestion is that we sneak Iori out two hours before the shift change," said Daiki.
"I agree," Gaku chimed in. "That's the time frame where the possibility of a surprise is the lowest. As long as we get her back thirty minutes before the shift changes, we're golden."
The reason for all of this back and forth was because of their two Hidden Frost prisoners—more specifically, the prisoner seals. They needed to be refreshed regularly and that time had come. Iori, the fuin-nin, was the only one capable of drawing prisoner seals, so she needed to get to the location to do so.
Those prisoner seals were the ONLY reason why the team was so comfortable with leaving Takuma alone with the prisoners.
"So, who's going on the outing?" asked Gaku.
Everyone turned to Anko for the answer, who took a moment before giving her answer.
"Gaku and Daiki will take Iori."
She breathed a deep sigh.
They were in the final stage of their mission. Camp Banana, along with additional forces, were set to arrive at a pre-scheduled time regardless of how their mission went and Team-9 was yet to send any solid information to the base. Camp Banana would arrive in ten days no matter what, but Takuma needed to acquire the information within the next three days so she could send a report that they actually made some use of it.
With only three days left until the deadline, Anko was beginning to grow nervous.
"Let's give him all the help he needs."
Ten days remained until the main forces arrived at Yu.
Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over to Patreón [fictiononlyreader]. Link here and in signature.
Note: All the chapters will eventually be posted on public forums.
CH_7.32 (250)
Fiction
Feel free to ask me questions.
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.
Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over to Patreón [fictiononlyreader]. Link here and in signature.
Note: All the chapters will eventually be posted on public forums.
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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- Location
- Madness realms
Man its stories like these that make me think the Uzumaki would have been a nightmare to fight against.
Imagine a Shinobi who went missing or got captured and you rescue him but the second day he explodes like 10kgs of C4 in the middle of your camp.
Or the Uzumaki used him to track your FOB and then used some space-time seals to lock off the area your base exists in away from the rest of the world.
You can't get out, there is only so much oxygen, food, and water and if by some chance you do have a summoner with a good enough relationship with ther summons to escape by reverse summoning and making their way back to HQ from there all that happens is that reports circulate that 2 dozen nin slowly died with no way to fight back.
Seals seem terrifying.
Imagine a Shinobi who went missing or got captured and you rescue him but the second day he explodes like 10kgs of C4 in the middle of your camp.
Or the Uzumaki used him to track your FOB and then used some space-time seals to lock off the area your base exists in away from the rest of the world.
You can't get out, there is only so much oxygen, food, and water and if by some chance you do have a summoner with a good enough relationship with ther summons to escape by reverse summoning and making their way back to HQ from there all that happens is that reports circulate that 2 dozen nin slowly died with no way to fight back.
Seals seem terrifying.
Nitramy
Love! Snow! Really Magic
- Location
- Home of Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage
Now you understand why three villages ganged up on Whirpool. They couldn't afford to have a village that dangerous stick around.
Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if they considered Whirpool the bigger existential danger to the world than the Tailed Beasts.