章 9: Explosive Seals.
A little girl with brown eyes and twin-tailed black hair skipped down the street lost in her daydreams. In her hands was a strawberry dip that she was licking and munching on occasionally. Just as she turned a corner-
"BOOO!"
A sudden face appeared in front of her.
The face was weird and scary. It was pale like a sheet of paper and had blood all over it.
"AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!" The girl screamed while crouching and dropping her chocoberry candy while immediately closing her eyes in fear.
'Is this the demon who eats children!?'
'Is it Mieruko's turn!?'
'But Mieruko did nothing wrong!'
'Mieruko only wanted to eat her chocoberry!!'
'Mieruko is scared-'
The little girl's train of thought broke and she flinched when she felt a hand touch her head but soon after when she realised that the hand was only patting her head she gathered the courage to open her eyes.
'Is the monster checking how Mieruko tastes?'
She bravely looked up at the monster patting her head and found that the monster's face was painted white with an exaggerated smile painted on with red lipstick. Its nose was painted red too.
Now that the little girl had looked at the 'monster' properly she found it a bit funny, but then she remembered something and bit the monster's hand which was petting her head.
"Bwad~ monsta~ mwade Mewiruko lwoose chooobelly."
The silent clown didn't appear to be hurt by her retaliation and even looked like it was laughing so Meiruko increased the force of her bite.
But the clown didn't falter and instead pulled out his other hand from behind his back.
Meiruko's eyes widened when she saw the chocoberry in the clown's hand and immediately left his hand for the chocoberry which was tastier than the weird man's hand.
Tachibana's had a smile on his face as he saw the girl taking back her chocoberry and inspecting it from all angles to check if it was damaged in any way.
He'd been out in the village after his training for the day with Maruboshi ended to digest the clown potion by acting as a clown and making children around an orphanage laugh.
He'd seen Meiruko go out with a bit of money to buy some chocolate earlier and decided he'd give her his earnings of the day when she returned after scaring her a little to make her laugh for his final act.
But unexpectedly the girl was too frightened to even open her eyes, it made Tachibana question if she was being beaten or bullied by someone but with no reason to suspect anyone in the orphanage since the kids were all looking fine, he chalked it to the back of his mind.
'Perhaps the little girl was just extra imaginative.'
"Why did you scare me, big brother?" The girl asked with a pout.
"Because you are very cute.", Tachibana said squishing and manhandling the cheeks of the little girl.
Meiruko stuck her tongue out and flubbed it around in response, sending spit his way.
"As compensation for scaring you, I shall give you something good."
"Good!? You'll give Meiruko another chocoberry!?" The girl's eyes shined with stars.
"Sure. Let's go get another stash of chocoberries just for you." Tachibana said with a smile and extended his hand for the little girl to hold.
"Turns out big brother isn't bad.", Meiruko said while grabbing Tachibana's hand and walking with him.
"What will you do with so many chocoberry Meiruko-chan?"
"Ermm…Meiruko-chan will give it to all her friends in the orphanage."
"How many friends does Meiruko-chan have?"
"Soooooooooooooooooo many!"
"Soooooooooo many?"
"Un."
Tachibana just shook his head at the little girl's distracted responses since she was focused on finishing her chocoberry and walked to the store that sold Meiruko her chocoberry.
"Meiruko-chan!! You're back!? What happened? Did you drop your chocoberry stick?"
"This mister almost made me drop it, but I quickly finished it. It was just as good as the other times oba-san!"
The old lady behind the stall smiled and turned her head to Tachibana who was looking silly with the make-up he had on. But irrespective of the impression he gave off, Tachibana spoke to the lady.
"Good afternoon baa-san. How many chocoberry's can I get for this much?" Tachibana asked while giving the shopkeeper all the money he had.
"Hmm….that's five hundred ryo, about fifty?"
"That should do it. Could you please give me those many chocoberry sticks?"
"Is it for the kids in the orphanage?" The lady questioned while counting and packaging the sticks on her open stall.
"Yes. I earned this money from the kids but since I'm not in desperate need thought to give it back to them."
"How kind of you. Are you a shinobi?"
"Not yet. But I'm training to become one. I aim to pass the test that is coming up in a month!"
"Is that so? In which class are you? Maybe my son knows you!"
"I'm sorry baa-san but a private tutor teaches me. So I don't know anyone in the academy."
"Ah~ that's alright. I wish you luck in the upcoming tests shinobi-san."
"Thank you."
With their conversation done, Tachibana walked back to the orphanage to drop off Meiruko, but it seemed like Meiruko was interested in Tachibana's job as a shinobi.
"Are you strong shinobi-san?"
"Of course! My teacher studied directly under the second Hokage!!" Tachibana proudly boasted.
"Then can you teach Meiruko how to become a shinobi!?"
"Oh? Why do you want to learn to become a shinobi Meiruko-chan?"
"Because sometimes bad people come to the orphanage and take away Meiruko's friends!"
Tachibana almost froze when he heard this but he controlled his expressions to maintain a smile as he continued speaking.
"Is that so? Then when this big brother becomes a chunin he'll personally come and teach Meiruko-chan how to become a shinobi! Is that alright!?"
"Un!" Meiruko nodded happily and picked the box of chocoberries that Tachibana handed over to her to go and distribute in the orphanage.
"Goodbye Meiruko-chan! I hope to see you again later!!"
"Bye-bye oni-chan!!"
As the little girl left Tachibana and entered the orphanage the smile on his face vanished, replaced by a neutral expression that contained a soft frown.
'People kidnapping people from the orphanages?'
'Danzo?'
Tachibana left the area without letting the idea inside his head show for now and returned home.
Using his spirit vision to time his escape from the house as the guards were switched out, Tachibana slipped away under the cover of the dark night and moved towards the orphanage.
His spirit vision helped him easily dodge the shinobi patrolling the streets soon reaching the orphanage undetected.
Tachibana climbed up the fence and entered the orphanage building sneakily. He then looked for and found an empty room which he used to perform a simple divination.
Tachibana murmured his divination statement seven times and then used cogitation to enter deep sleep.
"Where did Danzo's men take the orphans from this orphanage?"
With his eyes immersed in darkness, Tachibana allowed his astral body to float away into the spirit world as a scene played out in front of him.
Adults in shinobi gear wearing animal masks appeared in broad daylight in the orphanage. The mataron although bearing an unwilling expression gathered all the children into a single room.
The children were then separated and taken away by other masked adults disregarding their screams before everything returned back to normal.
Tachibana's vision then shifted to the masked men transporting the unconscious children as they moved to the outskirts of the village. They soon left the village and slithering through patrols arrived at an underground base guarded strictly by several shinobi.
'Is this the Root Base?'
The vision shattered in that moment and Tachibana quickly returned to his home and waited for a few hours in the bushes until his 'guards' were changed again and used the opportune moment to reenter his house.
Once inside Tachibana frowned.
'Although Danzo will eventually most likely become a problem for me.'
'I'm not strong enough to take him on right now.'
'But that doesn't mean I can't plan ahead.'
Changing clothes and picking up the book about the basics of seals Tachibana opened a particular page and began sincerely reading.
The page was titled, 'Explosive Seals.'
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