Bab 306: CH_8.41 (306)
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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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———
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