Chapitre 249: CH_7.31 (249)
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The link is also in the synopsis
———
.
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.
.
———
Chat with me and the rest of the community on our DISCORD server.
The link is in the synopsis!
Chapitre 250: CH_7.32 (250)
Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over to Patreón @
[ https://www̧̧.patreón.com/fictiononlyreader ]
The link is also in the synopsis
———
.
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.
.
———
Chat with me and the rest of the community on our DISCORD server.
The link is in the synopsis!
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
200+ Classement
Power Stone 
109 Power
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