Chapitre 116: CH_4.16 (116)

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———

The knock on the door made Kano glance up from the paperwork at Takuma standing at her office door. She motioned him to come in as she ticked some boxes and filled over the dotted lines. One day she would die, and she was sure the damned paperwork would be the reason behind it.

"Is it about the Shirogumi Robberies?" she asked. It was one of the cases Takuma was handling as the second investigator.

"No, ma'am," Takuma placed an open letter envelope and two sheets of paper on the table. "I was going through the anonymous public submissions… and well, I came across this one. I think this one might have some weight behind it."

Every police precinct had these submission boxes and postbox addresses where civilians could send anonymous 'tips' about crimes in their neighborhood or crimes they had witnessed to the Police Force to consider without divulging their identity.

Kano was skeptical. The anonymous tips were mainly baseless accusations by people who didn't like their neighbors, jealous business owners hindering their rivals, people with grudges who wanted others to get into trouble, building owners who didn't appreciate their tenants but couldn't kick 'em out because of the lease agreements. It was stupid people trying to get other into trouble— and they wasted time because it wasted a lot of time and manpower to process those submissions and chase the leads which looked real— which would then not pan out.

Of course, it had been long since Kano had touched the anonymous submissions. It was grunt work. She had long left the part of her career where she was required to do grunt work. Takuma, on the hand, was precisely in that part of his career. Before him it was Arisu who handled the submissions, but the moment Takuma came in, she dumped the chore to him.

"You think so?" Kano picked up the letter. The two pages were printed by a typewriter, giving no indication as to determine what kind of person wrote it through the handwriting. They could send the letter to the Intelligence Division to analyze the linguistics, but that would be an overreach for anonymous submission.

She read the contents of the letter with disinterest, but by the time she was past the first page, she could see why Takuma thought the submission was legitimate. The detail with which the things were laid out was well-thought and written, which made it easy to digest. But the point which made it look legitimate was the subjects mentioned.

One of the state pharmacies is illegally supplying to the Maiko Triad.

The way it was presented made it so that a Police Force member would read and appreciate the points mentioned in writing, making it convincing. The organizations and groups around the Hidden Leaf were made up and supported by shinobi— active or discharged— and were involved in a number of gray or outright illegal activities hidden behind the veil of legal fronts. They did everything from robberies to collecting payments for 'security.' A lot of them were highly territorial and had well-defined areas where they operated and clashed against their neighbors, which was the source of many homicide cases that came to Organized Crime due to the inter-gang conflicts. Shinobi deaths far outnumbered civilian deaths.

Maiko Triad was another one of the territorial groups that ran labor scams, contract frauds, security extortions, and a variety of other offenses in their territory. They were a big organization in the Hidden Leaf with several chunin associated with the organizations at its helm; of course, due to the nature of it all, when asked, everyone would refuse their involvement.

"Looks real, but as usual, nothing of substance we can use," Kano sighed as she dropped the letter on the table. It might have been a better submission than most, but nothing new she hadn't seen before.

The Police Force got hundreds of those submissions, and perhaps a couple of them looked legitimate. It took a hundred potential legitimate tips for them to get one lead that actually turned into something tangible.

"Should I drop it then?" asked Takuma.

"No, don't do that," said Kano. Even if she didn't appreciate the abysmal return on effort, she couldn't ignore it just because she didn't like it. "Forward it to either Yoshiaki or Miwa. Both of them have worked on the Maiko Triad before; they'd be the best to follow up on this."

"Yes, ma'am."

As Takuma exited the room, Arisu walked in with a stack of files in her hand. She opened her mouth to speak, but Kano raised her hand to silence her and silently took the files.

Paperwork would kill her someday.

———

Takuma walked out of Kano's office with the letter in hand and gazed across the Organized Crimes offices. He was satisfied with how the conversation had gone with Kano; he had hoped Kano would take charge, but he knew with Maiko Triad involved, she would forward them to those with experience and not needlessly increase her workload.

"Found something in the tips?" Arisu asked behind him.

"Yeah, just a little something. Hey, who do you think is less busy right now— Yoshiaki or Miwa?" asked Takuma.

Arisu thought for a second before telling Takuma that Miwa had just closed one of their major cases last week and thus would have more space on their docket if Takuma wanted to present them with the submission to follow up on. On the other hand, Yoshiaki was in a critical stage of two of their cases, regularly making that team pull overtime to ensure everything went right.

"Thanks," Takuma smiled and headed towards Chunin Uchiha Miwa's cabin before re-routing himself to the other side of the office where Uchiha Yoshiaki's cabin was situated and knocking on the door.

"Enter."

Yoshiaki was a slender man with broad shoulders. Like all Uchiha, he had black hair and onyx eyes with a mix of a few facial features one could find in the Uchiha Clan. He was older than Kano and had been part of the Police Force since the very start; as such was much more experienced when it came to police work, unlike Kano, who had joined the Police Force after completing her stint under a jonin team lead.

Yoshiaki was an admired figure not only in Organized Crime but also throughout the Police Force.

"Sir," said Takuma.

Yoshiaki didn't attempt to hide the sourness that overcame his face when he looked at Takuma. The man looked like his day had been ruined by Takuma breathing the same air as him.

No man was perfect. And unfortunately for Takuma, one of Yoshiaki's flaws was his prejudice against civilian-born shinobi. It wasn't to the level where he despised them, but when Takuma was put in Organized Crime, that had apparently crossed a line in Yoshiaki's mind. He was one of many in Organized Crime who were against the special recruits training program and their subsequent transfer to major departments. Ever since day one, the man had shown no pretense and had put forth his displeasure for everyone to see.

"What?" said Yoshiaki snipingly.

"An anonymous submission that seems promising." Takuma tried to put the letter on the table, but Yoshiaki cut him off before he could even take a step forward from the office's threshold.

"Why are you giving me those? Chunin Kano is your commanding officer."

"Sir, it might involve the Maiko Triad," replied Takuma. "I thought—"

"I don't care what you think, genin," Yoshiaki's eyes narrowed. "Give it to me."

Takuma didn't mind the unfair behavior and handed the letter as he was going to do before being needlessly berated.

Saying Yoshiaki reading the letter would be an over-exaggeration; he barely skimmed the pages before dropping them on the table. If he had Sharingan activated, Takuma would've given him credit, but he could see the disinterested onyx gaze cruising over the lines.

"This is a hoax," Yoshiaki dropped the letter on the table. "Maiko Triad won't do this; they have no reason to buy medical provisions. Take this away and get out."

'Well, they did buy up medical provisions. I was the one who delivered it to them,' Takuma thought— but he couldn't argue with Yoshiaki. He picked up the letter and turned to walk out of the office. Yoshiaki had refused him, but he still had Chunin Miwa he could pitch the anonymous letter.

"Wait," said Yoshiaki. Takuma turned back, a flickering hope in his chest. "I changed my mind. Let's pursue that." He smiled, "And you know what? We are a little busy right now. How about you try it out? I'm sure you haven't had an investigation where you were the first investigator. This can be your first stint as a lead. How about it? It'll be a good experience."

Takuma held back the smile that threatened to break on his face.

"Yes, sir."

"Excellent. I'll talk to Kano and have you report to me for this follow-through. We will see this through," said Yoshiaki.

"Thank you, sir. I won't disappoint you," said Takuma.

Yoshiaki smiled. "You better not."

Takuma walked out of the room, and his smile drained, but inside he felt phenomenally great.

He wrote the anonymous letter to get a starting point for a potential investigation. He had read enough anonymous submissions to know how to craft one that would gain some traction with the chunin heads. He typed it out with a typewriter to ensure no one could trace it back to him. All he needed to do then was to present it to Kano, who he knew would see some weight behind it, but due to her lack of involvement with Maiko Triad, he would have to pass it over to one of the teams who did have it.

From there, Takuma knew that Chunin Miwa and Chunin Yoshiaki were the two options Kano would send him to— those were the two names that came up the most in the police records when he was researching the Maiko Triad.

Both were viable options. Uchiha Miwa and her team were strictly professional with Takuma, while Uchiha Yoshiaki's team mirrored their chunin's opinion.

The reason why he had chosen to approach Yoshiaki first was because of that conflicting attitude.

Due to Takuma's position as the newest member and the culture of Organized Crime, if anyone wanted some grunt work done, they could have Takuma do it even though he was part of Kano's team. On multiple occasions, Yoshiaki and his team had dropped troublesome and even senseless work on Takuma, which they were supposed to do— Takuma couldn't complain— and no one saw any fault because that's how things were done in Organized Crime. The rookie had to earn the chops. All of them had done so at some point in their career.

Takuma knew that if he presented something to Yoshiaki, it would surely get rejected. But he also knew that there existed a possibility that Yoshiaki would try to burden him just because he could do it.

The letter was written in a way that convinced Kano, but it wasn't enough that chunin like Yoshiaki and Miwa, who had experience with the Maiko Triad, would see it as a 100% deal. If it was too convincing, they would take the follow through on their own— which Takuma didn't want.

He wanted a case of his own.

If he went to Miwa, there was a strong possibility that she would use one of her own to pursue the matter. That possibility only strengthened as they had just offloaded a big case recently, allowing them to take on more work. If Yoshiaki had rejected him, Takuma would have gone to Miwa, showed it to her, and would've tried to get involved in the name of experience. If she, too, had rejected him, he would have volunteered to follow through and say that he had a hunch that this might be something. Unlike Yoshiaki, Miwa could have given him a chance.

That was the second option.

There existed a chance that Yoshiaki would once again try to push useless work on him as he had done before. Takuma had been in the office long enough to have observed a good number of people and studied them to ensure he didn't say or act in a way to make them suspicious of him. He knew what kind of person Yoshiaki was. He knew that if presented with a chance, Yoshiaki would try to make Takuma's life difficult.

And that guess had paid off.

Yoshiaki had told him to lead the follow through, and if it turned out something, he would get the lead as the first investigator.

It was time for him to get some traction running in the Leaf Military Police Force.

———

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Chapitre 117: CH_4.17 (117)

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———

Kano wasn't happy with Takuma taking work from someone other than her, and it took some convincing and a promise not to let it affect his ongoing and future cases. However, Takuma wasn't worried— he considered time management to be one of his strong points. He did more things on a daily basis than most people to know how to distribute his time to get things done.

Getting the anonymous submission accepted by a chunin was the hardest part, but with that out of the way, Takuma could start with the plan he had plotted.

The Maiko Triad was still a dim room for Takuma. What he knew came from the existing reports in the archives, which did give an in-depth look into the organization, but he lacked the ground-level awareness that one would have if one were actively involved in investigating the Maiko Triad. Unlike Yoshiaki and Miwa's teams, he didn't have any contacts with informants and snitches who he could go for up-to-date information— but that didn't mean he didn't have any leads.

His point of contact with the Maiko Triad was through Ryuu's crew. The people involved on the day of delivery were well known to Takuma through his run-in with them when he visited Ryuu's place to restock his supplies. He knew their names, the company they kept, and what circles they frequented.

All he needed to do was tail and observe them until they made contact with someone in the Maiko Triad. Takuma was aiming to build a relationship chain, gather evidence, connect the Maiko Triad to the state pharmacy, and discover the reason behind the medical supply purchase.

But his plan wasn't without problems. Takuma was only one man without access to the broader Organized Crime's departmental resources. He was given the permission and responsibility to follow up on an anonymous lead— it wasn't considered a "full" case. Until he had something substantial, he was on his own.

He couldn't spend all of his time on the job doing stakeouts.

Takuma was forced to come up with a solution.

"Shen! Wassup, my man," smiled Takuma as he dapped up the man in an alley near the redlight district. He was under the guise of the Transformation Jutsu as one of the dealer personas he used to interact with his clients.

"H-Hey, Jin," said Shen, looking uncomfortable, his eyes darting around.

Takuma smiled. His usual policy was to meet clients at a place considered a middle-ground for both parties— somewhere clients would feel safe and comfortable and a location where Takuma could get quickly without wasting too much time.

Unfortunately, Shen was no longer a client, and Takuma wanted to set a vibe to keep Shen on his toes. The young man used to be one of his regulars, but it seemed that Shen had run into financial troubles by getting fired from his job. Since then, he could no longer afford luxuries like weed. Takuma cut him clean off and told Shen to only contact him when he had money, which Shen could only do a few times— nowhere close to when he was a regular.

"So, what do you got for me?" asked Takuma.

"I did what you said and listened to them," Jin said in a hushed voice. "They were talking about a delivery… and how they're looking into buying more…."

It all started when Takuma reviewed the information Sango had given him. According to her, the samples he had given to her could've come from a few state pharmacies that were known for producing the type of samples Takuma had given her. While Sango had reduced potential origin by quite a bit, the number of pharmacies she had shortlisted were still a few too many.

Takuma had to cut it further. As such, he began looking into Ryuu's crew, and there it was. Ryuu's crew was a mix of active and retired shinobi, leaning heavily towards the latter. Takuma discovered that among the few active shinobi, one of them worked in a state pharmacy as a guard. It was a permanent assignment. He didn't even need to think for a second. He knew which pharmacy was supplying the medical supplies to Ryuu, who was selling them to the Maiko Triad.

Takuma targeted the guard and began following him. He mapped out what a day looked like for the guard and found that he frequented a bar— as did many of Ryuu's men. It didn't take long before Takuma saw Ryuu's men meet with someone who he recognized to be part of the Maiko Triad.

He had found their meeting place.

Alas, Takuma couldn't do anything from that point onward. The bar was a small establishment, the type that had a few but die-hard regulars who frequented it enough for it to make enough money to stay alive. Takuma could enter one day and go unsuspected, but if he did it during a day when Ryuu's crew was meeting, he ran the risk of scaring them off— or he might have been denied at the door altogether.

That's when fortune favored Takuma in all its glory. The old barman had hired a helper to work with him to serve his customers— and that helper turned out to be Shen.

His old client, Shen, whose new job didn't pay enough to buy weed…

It was easy from there on. Takuma called up Shen, told him that he wanted some eyes and ears inside the bar, and in return, he would supply the weed. Shen was initially hesitant, but when Takuma gave him a sample of a strain of a quality much higher than Shen had ever experienced, he agreed almost too quickly.

Just like that, he had ears on any conversation Ryuu's crew and Maiko Triad might have in the bar. There was a real chance that they didn't talk about anything of importance in the bar— but they did.

Takuma grinned. "That's what I'm talking about, Shen! I knew you could do it!" he enacted the most frat boy he could. "Spill it all, my man. What else did they talk about?"

"A-About the thing you promised," Shen looked at Takuma hesitantly.

It was Shen's awkwardness that made him seem so harmless, which he was for the most part— but there wasn't a single person who walked the earth who was completely harmless— people only needed the right motivation to do harm. Takuma had provided Shen with the motivation to do harm to people who didn't know they were being harmed.

"Of course, brother, I have it right here," Takuma took out a plastic bag from his person filled with some of his higher quality products. Shen reached for it, but Takuma pulled it back and placed his palm on his chest. "We have known each other for a while now, haven't we? You know how this works— payment always comes first."

Shen stared down at the palm on his chest and nodded as he stepped back. The awkwardness came back, and he once again looked nervous, all while his eyes darted to the bag.

"Now, let's talk at length," said Takuma.

———

Takuma ducked into the Police Force headquarters to finally escape the pouring rain that had left him soaking wet from head to toe. He groaned to himself; when the rain started to pour, he wanted to go straight home but had documents he needed to file before he could mark his work day as over— thankfully, his pouch was water-proof.

He stood in the front reception area to allow the excess water to drip down before he headed inside. Unlike half the precincts around the village, the main headquarters closed down at night. Many people headed home, and a lot of them had umbrellas and raincoats ready as they headed out.

'Should've read the weather report,' thought Takuma.

He looked at the road outside, watching the raindrops hitting the ground. He liked the rain. Even the most roaring rain slowed the city down, bringing it to a halt— a nice change of pace. Takuma liked the feeling of walking the empty roads while the rain weighed him down. But it was only nice when he could afford to slow down along with the town— something he didn't have often these days.

"Takuma, if I remember correctly…"

As Takuma watched the rain absentmindedly, he heard someone call out to him. He turned back, and all thoughts of rain slowing things down shattered as a high-speed train crashed through as he looked at Uchiha Itachi standing behind him.

"Ah… Itachi," Takuma replied. Even though he was taken by surprise, unlike the last time, he was much more composed. He had grown up a little since their first meeting. "It's really pouring down today, isn't it."

"It is," said Itachi.

"The potholes in front of my place are going to puddle," Takuma sighed. The roads were bad where he lived; fortunately, he could travel by rooftops. "But it's good— rain's good. Replenish the underground reserves— good for the atmosphere, good for the plants, and good for us— great for everyone."

He turned to the taller person standing beside Itachi. "My name's Takuma," he said, extending his hand for a handshake.

The man had short, unkempt, dark-colored hair, black eyes and a relatively broad nose, and well-defined eyelashes that were turned upwards at each end— obviously, an Uchiha.

"Uchiha Shisui," said the man as he shook Takuma's hand.

He might have grown, but there were only so many surprises Takuma could take at a time. It took some effort not to let his hand stiffen mid-shake.

"Oh my, Shisui of the Body Flicker. I've heard much about you, sir," Takuma didn't forget that he was talking to a jonin. He called Itachi by his name due to how they were introduced, but he couldn't do that with Shisui.

"I do not deserve that moniker," said Shisui. "There are plenty of people who are much better than me at the jutsu."

'So humble,' thought Takuma.

Itachi then introduced them to each other. "Takuma is from Izumi's batch. He won the Genin Corp's basic training tournament," his eyes went to Takuma's arm where the Police Force insignia was stitched, "and from the looks of it, he has joined the Police Force."

"That I have," said Takuma with a smile. "Junior Office Takuma, Department of Organized Crime, at your service."

"Izumi's batchmate, you say… which means you're the same age as Itachi, and you're already in Organized Crime? Now that's impressive," Shisui commented.

"Please, you flatter me, sir. I haven't accomplished anything compared to our friend here," Takuma pointed to Itachi.

Shisui shook his head. "Everyone has their own journey. Comparing those who are on a different path than yours does more harm than good. Be confident in what you've achieved, Takuma."

"Being in Organized Crime when you're not an Uchiha is indeed impressive," Itachi nodded. "More impressive when you consider he isn't from an allied clan."

An understanding seemed to dawn over Shisui. He asked, "So, you are part of the new initiative? If you don't mind, I have some questions regarding your experience here."

Takuma was surprised, but he didn't have any reason to refuse, so he agreed. There was no reason for either party to harm the other— and Takuma guessed it would be good to make a connection, no matter how slight it was.

It was a pity though, Takuma thought. It was a first impression, but he liked Shisui enough.

It was a true pity that he was going to die so soon.

———

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