Chapitre 306: CH_8.41 (306)
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The link is also in the synopsis
———
.
As far as first impressions were concerned, Takuma wasn't entirely pleased with his assigned partner.
"So how do you want to play this?" asked Three as the duo sat at a two-person table at a tea shop. Both had their masks off and were dressed in civilian clothes; revealing their faces was deemed necessary if they would work together as a show of rudimentary respect and trust, the first step of establishing a working relationship. It was also necessary if they wanted to pick out each other from a crowd.
Knowing each other's names wasn't necessary, so they kept that to themselves.
Three was a young woman with blonde hair tied in a slim ponytail that rested over her shoulder. Her light amber eyes glowed like crystals, and there was a deep intelligence in them that made her bubbly personality feel reliable and worrisome all at the same time.
"What would it take for us to work... harmoniously," Takuma asked, somewhat regretting his wording.
Even though they hadn't had a proper conversation or worked together before, he felt she wouldn't be easy to work with. Of course, he had no proof to back up his feelings—just a hunch.
"I am all about harmony, dear Thirteen," she said, giggling with a mischievous look in her eyes. "Why do you think we won't get along harmoniously?"
Takuma's eyes twitched. He couldn't say that he had a gut feeling.
"Fine," he sighed. "I'm thinking about—"
"I must say, you're younger than I thought any candidate would be. How old are you?" she asked curiously.
Takuma had the same thought. He expected Three to be in her twenties, but from her looks, she was still very much below the two-decade mark. For ANBU to recruit someone as young as her would mean she must be someone impressive.
"I think we should talk about how we will complete the tasks," Takuma said, tapping the three mini-scrolls sitting between them on the table.
Their assignment in the Ember Imperial City consisted of three tasks they had to complete in three days.
The three tasks were:
Task #1: Steal a precious piece of shinobi history from the Warring States Era that was currently sitting in a samurai's residence as part of a collection.
Task #2: Make contact with an ANBU informant, collect intel from them, and then use the intel to complete a mission.
Task #3: Reap a bounty raised on a target's head and submit the proof to the 'bounty office' hidden inside the city.
"Hmm... I would guess fourteen of fifteen. I heard that thirteen is ANBU's age limit. They must've really wanted you to recruit you so early." Three rested her chin on the back of her hand as she gazed at him. "I wonder... what did you do for them to be so interested."
"Three days isn't enough time." Takuma didn't let her control the conversation and continued. "We can do one task daily, but that doesn't leave any margin for things going wrong or anything special ANBU might dump on us. How about we do one task together and then split up to complete one task each?"
He had overcome the fear of delegation during his Police Force days and had learned how to divide responsibility among his teammates—but he did that because he trusted them. He didn't know Three and thus didn't feel as comfortable working with her, but Takuma wanted to take charge of a task and see it to completion.
"Nope, I don't trust you to complete a task alone. If you screw up, I'm doomed because of you," said Three without a shred of tact.
"True, it's the worst when someone else's stupidly ruins your hard work," Takuma nodded with a shrug. "I agree with you. We work together on all tasks. Which tasks call out to you? We tackle the difficult ones first and leave the easier ones for later."
Three looked pensive as she considered the question. "All of them have their complications... We don't know how much security there will be at the samurai's residence and we have no idea what mission is attached to the intel from the informant. The scouting and preparation for the assassination itself could take a whole day if we want to pull it off without setting off alarms."
"Correct," said Takuma and absentmindedly traced the scar on the edge of his lip for a moment. "Here's my suggestion: the intel mission and the bounty have too many moving parts." They didn't know what the intel mission would entail, and the bounty had too many steps before they could complete it. "Stealing the daggers from the samurai's collection, however, only involves a single location. It's essentially an in-and-out operation—not saying that it'll be easy, but it's at least straightforward."
If Takuma had Seven, the Hyuuga, on his team, the heist mission would've been the easiest thing. They would've been utterly invisible, breaking in and leaving without anyone finding that they were there before they noticed the gauntlets were missing.
"I think we should go to the informant first," Three replied as she picked up the scroll associated with the intel mission.
"May I ask why?" Takuma frowned. He had just explained his reasoning, which he considered sound.
"Before we decide which task to do first, don't you think we should know the tasks first?" Three unfurled the scroll and set it on the table before him. "The task doesn't ask us to contact him before a specific time, which indicates that there's no time constraint on it—we can go today, tomorrow, or the day after, and it won't change a thing. Do you get it?"
Takuma's eyes widened momentarily at those words, and he glanced down at the task's test. It was true. Besides the three-day deadline, none of the tasks had any time constraints. If they had the capability, they could rush through all the tasks on the first day or sightsee for two days before completing the task on the third day.
"... You're suggesting that we talk to the contact now, but we don't have to do the mission until later on until we decide. That way, we'll have more information to make a decision."
"Pretty much," Three smiled.
Takuma sighed. "That's a better course of action. Let's do that.".
She smiled. "Of course it's better. I came up with it."
Takuma noticed her gazing at him silently and asked, "What?"
"Nothing, just thinking that you're not a complete disappointment. I would've been sad if you had argued in the face of super reasoning with useless pride."
"As I said before, I simply want to complete these tasks in a professional manner," he replied.
"I, too, want nothing more than that."
Takuma had a difficult time believing that.
———
The duo tracked down the informant with the help of information the ANBU had provided them.
"Excuse me," Three opened the conversation.
A man in his thirties with hair everywhere on his body, but his head was brushing one of the two horses tied to a cargo carriage. He turned with a frown that seemed to be a regular part of his expression. Not only did he tower over them, but he was also as wide as the two of them combined.
Despite being a civilian, he gave an impression of strength greater than the two shinobi before him.
"Who are you? What the fuck do you want?" said the informant.
He was a courier who worked for a delivery business employed by businesses to transport their goods around the city. In this position, the informant got to visit intel-rich places like administrative offices and the residences of high-ranking places. The informant had befriended the staff employed at those places he frequented, who told him many things they heard during their work.
By not being directly connected to those places, he gained a layer of separation, which kept him safe from scrutiny, thus reducing the risk of getting caught.
"Activation code—travelling mountain," Three repeated the secret code to signal the informant that they were from ANBU.
The informant's face went blank momentarily before the frown returned twice as creased.
"You want to go straight and take the second left," he replied, pretending they were people looking for directions. "It's far from here, so ask someone else for further directions after you take the left. Follow me, and don't come until I stop someplace private," he said the last part in a whisper.
"Thank you, sir," Three smiled sweetly, acting the role. She pulled Takuma along, and they soon dipped into an alleyway.
"No, don't go up," Takuma stopped Three as she walked up a building.
"Why?" she asked, standing horizontally against the wall.
"Because this isn't the Hidden Leaf," said Takuma as he gazed out of the alley to see if anyone was looking at them. "We have been here the entire morning, and I haven't seen a single person on a rooftop. We will attract too many eyes if we carelessly jump across roofs."
From what he knew, samurai could use chakra adhesion, but travelling on rooftops was a shinobi cultural trait. There weren't many shinobi in the Ember Imperial City, and travelling openly would needlessly attract eyes. He had spent two months wandering around Yu, which presented similar constraints. He was caught using the rooftops once and had to fight for his life. Ember Imperial City was denser than Yu, which made rooftop travel easier, but it also had a higher population, meaning more eyes.
"We will take roads and back alleys," said Takuma.
Running would also attract attention, but it was much more socially acceptable than jumping across rooftops. Moreover, they could break up their presence by weaving in and out of alleyways and reducing their footprint.
Three jumped down from the wall and wordlessly followed Takuma as they trailed behind the informant on the road. They walked, jogged, and sprinted across the roads and alleys. People looked at them but were out of sight in a few seconds.
The informant led them to a fairly isolated place with few people. He got off the carriage and pulled up his loose pants, gazing at them with a clear look of doubt and caution, making it clear he didn't trust them.
"I wasn't expecting you to come so early," said the informant. He glanced at Takuma and narrowed his eyes, "And they sent a kid..."
"What's the intel?" asked Three, cutting through all the small talk.
"There's a thug, a low-level samurai, who has been harassing a geisha for some time. He has been trying to sleep with her for some time now, but she doesn't want to. However, saying no isn't an option, and things have gone beyond tense," the informant sighed as his frown deepened. "She fears for her life, so you mission is simple: assassinate the man before he does something terrible to the geisha."
"That's it?" asked Three, surprised and underwhelmed.
"What do you mean?"
"Don't get me wrong; I'm more than happy to exterminate scum, but I thought we would be doing... more."
The informant scoffed in their faces. "You are not ANBU-nin; you are mere candidates. They aren't going to give you something of top-level importance just for you to screw it up up. Know your place and do what you're being asked to do."
Three didn't look pleased at being talked to like that, but the informant had spoken the truth. It would be strange for ANBU to give recruitment candidates the same missions as real agents.
The informant fished into his carriage and took out two identical scrolls. "All the information I know about the target is in these. If you need anything else, you will have to gather it yourself. When you are done, you must find me to report back." He boarded the carriage and left, but not before some parting words. "This is in the scroll, but he's going to visit the geisha tomorrow; do whatever you plan to do before that... just in case something happens."
"You are a civilian. You did your job; know your place and fuck off," said Three with the sweetest smile.
The informant scowled as he left in his carriage.
"So childish," Takuma whispered.
"What did you say?" Three narrowed her eyes.
He smothered a sigh. "Nothing."
The duo found a building with a flat roof and a covered patio to read the scrolls. They sat before each other in silence for half an hour as they poured over information.
"What do you think?" asked Takuma after reading the scroll.
"Isn't it obvious?" said Three as she set her scroll down.
They then spoke at the same time:
"We should do this first and get rid of him today." "Let's kill him when he's visiting the geisha."
The two looked at each other with surprise and disagreement.
"What?! That's stupid." "What?! That doesn't make sense."
.
———
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The link is in the synopsis!
Chapitre 307: CH_8.42 (307)
Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over to Patreón @
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The link is also in the synopsis
———
.
The target's name was Sune Jakusho, a low-level samurai who was connected to a local yakuza-style gang involved in extorting "protection fees" from businesses, duping elderly people with no relatives into signing over their wealth, and running a predatory loan shark business with absurd interests and a violent collection process.
Jakusho was a mid-level member involved with the "protection fees" side of the business and went around his allocated region to extort money from businesses and shop owners. It allowed him to act like a tyrant, and the behaviour was bolstered by the fact that the local gang had connections to some samurai higher-ups, which allowed the gang to operate without the fear of law obstructing their activities.
The other person of interest in the mission was a geisha named Yuri. Like many geisha, her parents had sold her to a geisha house at a young age, where she was trained in the standard geisha arts—flower arrangement, the tea ceremony, calligraphy, music, dance, and historical and contemporary knowledge for conversational acumen.
Then, she was introduced into society under a new name, Yuri.
Yuri, being a beautiful young woman, was a sought-after geisha and commanded large sums of money from her wealthy patrons. She had long since repaid her parents' debts and past upkeep and had even paid the sum for her freedom from the geisha house, but she continued to work as a geisha because it was all she knew.
That, and being a geisha paid well. She, however, didn't maintain a sexual relationship with her clients and patrons, and her services solely revolved around keeping them company. So, when Jakusho began to push her in that direction, Yuki inevitably felt cornered enough by his behaviour to request an assassination.
"Didn't you hear the informant? The target will meet the geisha tomorrow; we should eliminate him before he causes a problem," said Takuma with a furrow between his brows.
"You see a problem, I see an opportunity," said Three, relaxed and confident.
The duo was arguing about how they would execute the mission based on the scrolls the informant had given them.
"I see a problem because there is a problem. We should keep the target far away from the geisha. If we kill him today, he won't reach her tomorrow," said Takuma. "And if we deal with him when he's visiting her, it will cast suspicion on her, which will get her into trouble—and yes, our mission is assassination and not caring about her well-being, but I'm sure it's perfectly understandable why we should keep the geisha at a safe distance."
"I don't deny any of that," said Three, raising her hands, "and I'm not saying that we strike when he's in her company."
Yuri's geisha house served nobles and samurai. Attacking Jakusho there would mean having at least a couple of samurai in the vicinity who could either serve as obstacles to killing him or, the more likely option, obstacles to them escaping after killing him. They hadn't scouted the geisha house, it was sure to have several people present inside, which would make killing Jakusho in stealth infeasible without extensive planning or help from an insider.
They had neither, which was why Takuma asked, "Then when do we do it?"
"We hit him en route to the geisha house," Three replied.
"How's that any different from killing him today?"
"Listen, I'm just taking your advice," she said, surprising him.
"Pardon; my advice?"
"Yeah, your advice from back at the teashop. You said stealing from the samurai's house was straightforward because it only involved one location. I'm just applying the same concept here; the informant gave us the target's frequent locations and rough timings, but we haven't followed him day-in-and-day-out to know his schedule or where he will be exactly one hour from now, and even if we did, it's not enough time to know what kind of secondary obstacles might be present at those locations—but we do know where he's going to be tomorrow evening."
To meet Yuri, her clients had to reserve time slots, and Jakusho had kept the same day and time slot for the past two months. His meeting with her was one part of the routine that was proven to be set in stone.
Three continued, "Hitting the target en route to his appointment simplifies the problem by removing the moving parts. His appointment in the evening gives us the whole day to plan. Let's say we choose a road or intersection close to the geisha house—scout every corner of the place, create a plan—and hit him with precision and surety. One target, one location, straightforward—and thus reliable... What do you think?" she asked.
Takuma was silent momentarily as he thought about a logical fallacy in her words, but after considering her words from a couple of different angles, he didn't see any apparent problems. The more he considered it, the more it made sense to follow Three's plan.
"My advice makes sense, doesn't it?" he said.
She took the clue and smiled, "It absolutely does."
"It's decided then. We kill the target tomorrow."
———
With the informant task locked in for the second day, the duo decided to handle the heist task on the first day. Unlike Jakusho, the samurai who owned the historical twin daggers was a high-ranking samurai. His house was in an affluent part of the city where the roads were broad; the properties were bigger because of large yards and gardens, and each residence had ample space between them—making the entire residential area emptier as opposed to a denser part of the city where adjacent buildings touched with only narrow alleyways between them if any.
It was easier to blend in with busy crowds, which the affluent residential area lacked, thus making wandering around a property, at the very least, suspicious.
Most houses in the area were single-storey structures with an attic level serving as additional storage, but each property had high walls that made viewing from the surface level impossible. Nearly all properties had trees near the property line or walls, which partially blocked the view from both sides, but the foliage wasn't thick enough for the duo to hide inside and spy.
"Any ideas?" asked Three as they stood under a tree's shade three houses away from the samurai's house.
"We go in from the back, ask politely, pick up the daggers, and leave," Takuma said with a shrug.
"Should we also have tea if they offer it?"
"I don't think the samurai is at home."
"I didn't see him, but that doesn't mean he isn't in there."
She had peeked into the house he stood as a lookout, but they hadn't enough time to ensure the samurai wasn't home.
"There weren't any horses in the stable," he said, thinking back to a brief look he had gotten himself. "You are a shinobi, so it's not a part of your culture, but you must've noticed samurai on horseback today. Unlike us, samurai use horses; seeing that the house had a stable and it was empty, there's a high chance that the samurai is out."
"You're also a shinobi."
"I'm a cultured individual."
She rolled her eyes. "What about the other samurai in the house?"
The information scroll for the heist task was brief at best. They were given a description of the historical twin daggers, their addresses, and some information about the samurai. They didn't want to face the samurai because he was classified as a jonin-level combatant in shinobi terms.
Neither of them could survive against that, even if they fought with perfect teamwork.
"He's much weaker, I think we can deal with him," said Takuma.
That included a few guardsmen they had seen stationed around the house.
They could stake out the house and wait for someone to come out, abduct them, and get some information, but they had no idea when someone would step out or when the samurai might return home. Time was of the essence, and they currently had a window of opportunity before them.
They could abduct someone, keep them overnight and then go in the next day—but what if the person they abducted was expected back within the hour, and their missing presence created uncontrollable complications?
"So, I say we pop in, get the daggers, and then disappear," he said.
Thieves got caught for various reasons. They could get caught during the act, get implicated from some evidence they left behind, get the authorities alerted when they try to sell their stolen goods, even simply blabbing or bragging to someone about the job could come back to bite them.
However, they weren't trying to sell the daggers; they hadn't talked about the heist with anyone—so as long as they didn't get caught during the act, they could get away without a hitch. Even if they left some evidence behind, they weren't from the city, making it difficult and time-consuming for the authorities to tie it back to two complete ghosts with no local presence.
"Alright, let's go see how special these daggers are," said Three.
———
The people in the samurai's house were having a calm day. Regardless of whether they were staff or family, it was a privilege and boon to be connected to a high-ranking samurai, especially one who had a position in the Ember Imperial City.
Aifumi was an elegant woman in her mid-forties. She was the wife of a samurai, making her the mistress of the house. While her husband performed his duties to the Daimyo as a samurai, upholding their family name, she was responsible and trusted to maintain the household and social affairs of being a samurai with influence in the Daimyo's court.
She was having a slow day, having just finished hosting a gathering at their house for a handful of her husband's peers last weekend. Of course, starting tomorrow, she was going to review the household budgeting, which would take her a few days to get all sorted as their estate employed quite a handful of people and provided a few services to manage their home.
When she was done with that, she was planning to guide her daughter-in-law so she could take over the responsibilities in a few years when her elder son was expected to follow his father and officially enter the Daimyo's court.
It was all part of her responsibilities as the mistress of the house and her duty to support her husband, but today, she was going to take it easy.
Her attendant served her tea, and she gazed out the room and into the garden outside. She closed her eyes as she listened to the water dribbling from the pond fountain and the tunes from the wind chime and found the hectic pace of her life slowing down.
As she had her eyes closed, Aifumi heard some footsteps. They were uniform, light yet stable, and yet had a heavy feel to them. She thought herself familiar with everyone in the estate to recognise them by their footsteps, or at least recognise if they were a guard or attendant. But the sound of these footsteps were different than anything she heard.
She opened her eyes just in time to see a masked man enter her view outside the door.
As the wife of a high-ranking samurai, she had both seen and hosted shinobi a handful of times at their house, so she recognised the man as a shinobi from his gear. The style differed from what she had seen on the Hidden Leaf shinobi, and the green-and-grey colour scheme was foreign to her—but the man was undoubtedly a shinobi.
A couple of seconds passed as the man looked at her and the attendant in the room. The light from outside cast a shadow over the man, making him seem darker.
Her sense of danger flared. She knew this man could not have come with good intentions and went to shout to alert the guards, but her body suddenly seized. She could no longer speak or even move her pinky. It felt like she had turned into a statue and could only stare at the man because that's where her gaze was when she lost control of her body.
She couldn't see her attendant, but hearing no words from her meant she was also similarly frozen. Her heart thumped, and fear crept in when she couldn't move or scream, no matter how much she tried. She had never felt anything like this before but knew it could only be shinobi's ninjutsu.
The man stepped aside, and a similarly dressed woman stepped out from behind the door. Unlike the man, who wore a green mask with a leaf design, the woman wore a teal mask with a blue splash design.
"Breath through your nose," said the woman in a soothing voice.
Aifumi was confused, and the panic in her heart only rose when she realised the man wasn't alone. How many people had invaded their homes?
"Listen to my voice, " the woman continued to speak. "Focus on your breathing. In and out. In and out. Follow my words. Breathe in and breathe out. Just like that. Repeat with me."
The woman asked them to breathe, and Aifumi followed the calm voice. Even though her heart was still hammering away, her breathing was in control.
"Excellent," said the masked woman. "We do not wish you harm in any way. I understand it might be hard to believe, but it's the truth. As long as you follow our requests, we will be out of your sight, out of your home, never to return." She turned to look at Aifumi. "I'm assuming you're the lady of the house, madam. Please respond through a simple nod or shake of your head."
Aifumi wanted to complain that she couldn't move her body, and this was just a ploy for them to harm them when she suddenly felt that she could move her neck. In fact, everything above her shoulders except her voice was free. She could open her mouth, move her tongue, but couldn't produce any sound.
She glanced at her attendant, who sat a few steps away from her near the wall and looked uncomfortable as her body was frozen into a statue-like state. She then looked back at the pair of invaders and nodded.
"Thank you for cooperating. Our goal is simple. We require a set of old twin daggers that we know to be in this house."
Aifumi didn't have to think; she knew what they were talking about. There was a set of old shinobi daggers framed and hanging in her husband's office. He had acquired them three years ago, beating a shinobi in an auction.
"...I see you recognise what I'm talking about."
Aifumi scolded herself for showing her recognition on her face. It had been frozen just a moment ago..
"Lead us to the daggers. We will leave afterwards. Please nod if you understand."
She nodded.
"Nod if you agree to cooperate."
She nodded again. If the cost of getting these intruders out of her house were a set of old daggers, then she would gladly pay it.
"Very good. Thank you for cooperating. Please stand up."
Just as the words ended, Aifumi realised she could move her entire body again. Her voice was still not in her control. She stood up and glanced at her attendant before looking at the woman, who understood her intention and said,
"She will be freed as soon as we leave. No one will be harmed."
Aifumi hesitated for a moment before nodding. As she led them through the house, the woman spoke in a whisper, which sent shivers down her back. "We know there are guards in the house. Understand that if you are leading us to them, I will not keep my promise of not harming anyone. The easier you make it for us, the easier it will get for you. Do you understand?"
Aifumi hurriedly nodded repeatedly. She thought of her granddaughter, who had just started walking; her daughter-in-law, who was supposed to succeed her; the people who worked at their house—while her husband was out, it was her duty to protect them all.
"Very good. Thank you for your cooperation."
She did her best to follow a route that wouldn't be visible to the guards and prayed no one would come across them. Unfortunately, her prayers weren't answered. They heard footsteps from across the corner, and Aifumi recognised them as a guard from their heaviness.
The man walking ahead of them raised his hand in a fist. The woman grabbed Aifumi's shoulder and pulled her to a stop. The man stepped ahead to the edge of the corner before rushing across. Aifumi squinted her eyes closed when she heard the guard struggle, muffling out half a syllable before silence punctuated the sound of a body sliding against a wall down to the ground.
The woman gently pushed her, and Aifumi walked around the corner in fear to see the guard slumped against the wall. She couldn't see any blood, but it didn't relieve her fears.
"He's unconscious, please keep moving," said the woman while pushing her.
Aifumi bowed her head as she moved along. She had not led them to a guard, but now it could only seem like she had done so. The fear for her family's safety spiked in her heart, and she silently prayed for her husband to return home and save them.
They finally arrived at her husband's office, and the woman asked her to go inside and retrieve the daggers.
She came out with the daggers encased in a frame, and the man took it off her hands.
"I know that you didn't lead us to the guard. Rest assured, we will keep the promise and leave without harming anyone. Head inside the office and sit there for ten minutes before coming out. Your voice will return soon," said the woman.
Aifumi nodded, and the next moment, the masked duo disappeared with a gust of wind that blew the loose strands of her hair back.
She followed the instructions and sat inside her husband's office. Her voice returned in three minutes, but she remained in her office. She heard a commotion, and within a minute, another guard entered the office with an attendant and began checking on her injuries.
When the ten minutes ended, she immediately went to her granddaughter and daughter-in-law's side to ensure their safety and didn't leave them until her husband and sons returned home.
.
———
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The link is in the synopsis!
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
200+ Classement
Power Stone 
109 Power
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