Chapter 24:

Ichigo's POV

Deep within the halls of Soragakure's royal palace, a meeting took place inside a fancy room lined with white marble walls and gold murals swirling and twisting to form a mesmerizing shapes.

In the middle stood a sturdy rectangular mahogany table. At the head sat a very arrogant looking fellow, his eyes viewd all those present as inferior and he didn't even seem too interested in staying in the meeting.

Even though he was openly disrespectful towards all the various branch heads and military comanders, nobody dared to oppose such behavior.

They were simply cowards led by an even more arrogant coward into a war that would probably decide they're life or deaths. Yet here they were having a stupid and unnecessary meeting to try and one up each other and increase their wealth.

If lord Ryu didn't explicitly tell me to wait on Ichinose's signal I would've lost it by now. I can understand why Ichinose wanted to rebel against such a leader. Even after declaring war, he was so laid back and uncaring of the preparations, likely thinking the beast hidden deep within this floating island would win them the war. The people here also overestimated their flight machines. Although they would hold the high ground and probably move large numbers of men swiftly I don't believe that this was enough to win against the five elemental villages. Not after watching clips of the exploits of those people. Soragakure's best wouldn't even be able to put up a head on clash and come out victorious. Even the strategies they employed were much more brutal and efficient, showing clearly that they were meant to cripple their foes at the very least.

I felt a little bad for Soragakure, but I was already told that we didn't have to fight to win. Only to earn Ichinose's trust. At the end of the day I personally believe believe that taking over the village once it has fallen would be much easier. I believe Ichinose also knew this. I don't exactly know why she's adment on preserve the village, but if I recall one of the topics I had downloaded into my brain, it was likely that she felt some sort of attachment to the village, and didn't want to see it fall, it didn't make any sense from a logical standpoint,but she was being driven by emotions not logic.

So under the guise of her being her new body guards, we stuck with her during the day and investigated at night. Our efforts so far have given us vital information and evidence.

Firstly, somebody has already infiltrated the village and placed paper bombs all over the village and powerful ones at that. They blended in with their surroundings and were untraceable, the only reason we found them was because we used scans that picked out the slight difference in depth and texture of the Earth. Even though they were camouflaged it wasn't perfect since adding too many seals on one parchment would cause it to become unstable.

We managed to pick up one seal and sent it towards our hq for study, lord Ryu didn't divulge all the information about why he wanted the seal. He just stated his desire to have it even if that meant risking an explosion. I wasn't one to disobey his order either not now or ever.

From there I focused on flushing out the intruders, Asahi was delegated with investigating all the nightly activities in the village. Himari and Yua were mostly looking for anyone suspicious in the outer parameter of the village.

Haru always stayed with Ichinose while I infiltrated the base to find the 0 tails and send back photo evidence of the creature.

If it was before I doubt I could've even gotten closer without being caught. But the wonders of my new enhanced talents made my job easy, add in an armor that could reflect the light rays around me and make me invisible for 10 minutes a day and nobody could catch me. So far I always came back with no luck, but one particular place had stuck out from the rest. It was guarded tightly and I could sense a very ominous presence behind the doors and walls of the facility, but I hadn't made a move yet, I needed to prepare thoroughly.

...

Sorry for the lack.of updates, everything is so hectic right now. I might start writing shorter chapters since I'm experiencing a writers block, but I'll make they are good.