Chapitre 236: CH_7.18 (236)

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———

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."

———

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Chapitre 237: CH_7.19 (237)

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———

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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