CH_7.36 (254)

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Martial law was declared in the city and people were ordered to stay inside their homes and only leave if it was absolutely essential. Anyone wandering outside were subject to mandatory search and interrogations and even arrests if they were even slightly suspicious.

In Chinatsu's house, the entire team sat together with a sombre atmosphere bearing down on them. Even though the Hidden Frost shinobi were keeping an eye on them, it didn't mean that they were chained to the house. They had to keep up appearances and go about their days as usual—which meant finding new clients, meeting those clients, taking care of their regular needs.

They had found out what had happened last night—or at least, a part of it. There was no official news regarding the explosion that killed dozens upon dozens of people, and their source of information was a varying cluster of rumours floating around the city. They were calling it a terrorist attack that had killed many of the city's well respected and beloved people.

Of course, given the location of the blast—a high-end banquet hall—those people were neither well respected or beloved, but at the same time, there had to be staff that worked in the banquet hall who were also killed.

"He really blew them up?" Daiki gulped nervously.

"Why would he do that?" Kameko asked, her brows locked in a furrow.

The team couldn't be sure that it was Takuma behind it, but they had to assume so. After Motohiro's group had been arrested, the various resistance groups had gone silent in fear that they would be pulled in and were biding time until the heat subsided.

"We can't just assume it was him," said Iori, defending her youngest teammate.

Even though Takuma had been largely operating independently from the rest of the team, Anko was still their leader, and most things were pre-approved by her before they were executed. If Takuma was the one behind the blast; that plan wasn't approved by her. Gyon's murder wasn't approved either, but the team understood why he had done so, and that he needed autonomy when they were under surveillance—but killing so many people... it was hard to come to terms with that.

Killing came with the trade, but most shinobi didn't enjoy it—at least, not at first.

"The bosses won't be happy," Daiki commented.

Yu was a city in the Land of Hot Water, thus it came under the purview of the Hidden Steam, and even though Hidden Leaf was heading the mission, they couldn't just kill such a large amount of civilians even if they were turncoats who were helping the enemy—that duty and right belonged to the country's Daimyo and the Hidden like them weren't supposed to overstep like that and there were real chances that Takuma and the team would get in trouble because of it.

"You're silent in all of this," Anko looked at Gaku sitting beside Chinatsu. "This is your city; don't you have any thoughts?"

Gaku stared at his lit cigarette; he hadn't taken a drag in a minute. He looked up at Anko and chuckled,

"As long as it benefits him when he returns home... he will do anything," recalling Takuma's words when they had gone to renew the prisoner seals.

Everyone was confused and when Anko asked him what he meant, Gaku remained silent and just smoked his cigarette.

"Let's worry about this after we have confirmed that it was him. It's useless to speculate when we don't know if it was him—and if it was him, then I believe there must've been a reason." Rikku walked away from the group and went up to the second floor.

Even though what she said was true, it didn't alleviate their worries one bit.

———

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Rikku went to the room she shared with Kameko. It was small and felt claustrophobic when she was agitated—like she was now. She stood by her words of not judging Takuma before they had all the facts, but she was still nervous if it was true.

She couldn't help but think that the blast might be an act of revenge. Motohiro and his group were Takuma's contact that he developed, and they had been arrested because Gyon from the Kumi family had turned traitor. Rikku wondered if Takuma blamed himself for that. He had obviously punished Gyon, but what if he had taken revenge against the turncoats by blowing them up when they were enjoying their lives as the rest of the city suffered.

There was also the unspoken problem of the banquet hall staff that had died during the blast. She could tell that Anko didn't like that Takuma might have killed so many people, but Rikku didn't care about the traitorous turncoats, but the death of the blameless staff didn't sit well with her. If Takuma was indeed behind the blast, then she was of the opinion that he was in the wrong.

Fwip!

Rikku's instincts sharpened when she heard the familiar sound of a kunai and immediately hugged the wall to get away from the window where she was an open target.

She got ready to jump to the door so she could rush down to inform her team about the attack when she noticed the kunai embedded in her floor. Its handle was wrapped in cloth like they usually were, but she noticed that the cloth had black spots of ink. She considered that for a second and then crawled across the floor to grab the kunai before jumping back to the wall.

Unwrapping the wrap, she noticed that there was writing on the inside of the cloth. It was in code, so it took her a moment to decode and understand, but when she did, she walked down to the living room where the team was still discussing the explosion.

She stopped on the stair steps when she registered what she just read before rushing into the living room.

"He killed a jonin, four chunin, and seven genin," she announced.

The conversation died down and everyone looked at her.

"What?" asked Anko.

Rikku gave her the cloth wrap and Anko's lips parted in surprise as she read the words written by Takuma.

Anko gulped, "H-He killed a jonin? He killed a jonin... He killed—!"

The room went silent before exploding into questions. Kameko got up and snatched the wrap to confirm for herself. They couldn't believe it even after they read it with their own eyes. Their source of information was gossip they had heard from others and in that gossip there was mention of shinobi being part of the dead was nowhere part of the gossip.

The death of a jonin changed everything. The team was sent to Yu with some expectations, but killing a jonin was nowhere in those expectations. That one jonin off the board was so big that the four chunin that he had killed weren't noticed.

The impact he made was so huge that if the entire team decided to duck out of the mission right now, it would still be considered a massive success.

But that wasn't the entire message from Takuma.

"What about his suggestion?" Iori asked.

At the end of his message, Takuma had suggested abandoning their cover and going into hiding because after his blast, the Hidden Frost shinobi would be picking up people who were even remotely suspicious—and the team was more than remotely suspicious. For their safety, it was better for them to go into hiding before they were arrested by the shinobi.

"I think we should go into hiding." Gaku looked at Chinatsu with a sombre look. "Your job is done; I think it's better if both of us go into hiding as soon as possible so I can keep you safe."

"Wait, both of you? You're planning to split up?" Kameko asked with a frown.

The entire team looked at Gaku because of that.

"Like Chinatsu, my job as your native contact is over. I'm going to take Chinatsu with me to hide somewhere safe none of you can find us," Gaku said as if stating the obvious. "We're going to only show up after the main forces invade the city and the dust settles—until then, it's going to be like we don't exist."

The team was taken aback because Yu was Gaku's hometown and he was refusing to fight for its freedom. They thought about their respective hometowns and they would've done anything to protect their home, so they thought that Gaku would be fighting with them.

"Don't give me that look," Gaku sneered at them. "I was pulled out of retirement. I'm not a shinobi anymore for a reason... I'm not going to put my life in danger by participating in a full-on battle."

There was a silence in the room. They couldn't force Gaku to participate and even though it felt morally wrong, he was only brought in as their inside connect and not an active combatant. It was as he said: his job was done.

"Do you need any help?," Anko asked Gaku.

"I'll manage," Gaku smiled lightly.

"Very well," Anko stood up. "We leave in the evening—all of us."

After two months, they were going to shed their covers and return to their lives as shinobi.

———

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Ebi was nursing a drink alone in his office when he heard a knock on the door. He looked up to see Kon at his door. Before he could send him away, Kon stepped into the office and settled down across from him on the table, sighed as he rubbed his shoulder.

"I'm not in the mood, tree hugger. If you value your life, leave this instant," Ebi said as he picked up his glass. He wasn't always sure where Kon was from; he had a few guesses that he shaved down from observing the man, but when he provided detailed information about 'Takuma'—it made him sure that Kon was from the Hidden Leaf.

Kon didn't move and even had the gall to smile. Ebi wanted to punch a hole in his face.

"Were you close to any of those shinobi?" he asked.

They hadn't known each other for long, but Kon hadn't seen Ebi drink once in that time. The jonin was a workaholic with absolutely no vice—or he had done a great job hiding them from him. Seeing him drink meant that he must've been affected to get intoxicated.

Ebi sighed. "The Hidden Frost is a small village. I don't know about the big villages, but for us—if you were a jonin, you knew other jonin because there aren't many of us in the first place. I wasn't his friend, but I knew him; we went on missions when we were chunin and even did a couple missions as jonin. Hell, he even invited me to his wedding... all three of them."

"Well... I can't relate. Don't have much experience with weddings," Kon chuckled.

Ebi put his glass down and his chakra flared. Kon froze up in his chair and clutched the armrests as he faced the jonin's full, blood-stained fury.

It was intense, but nothing he hadn't faced before.

"If you want me to put you out of your misery, just say it," Ebi rose up from his chair.

"I-It was him," Kon said, the killing intent making it difficult.

"Who?"

"Takuma."

"Again, how does that help me?" asked Ebi as he walked around the desk, increasing the bloodlust expressed through chakra, suffocating Kon.

"H-He k-killed a jonin. T-That was his true t-target." The muscles in Kon's neck flexed as he continued, "T-The Hidden Leaf is coming for the c-city, and they are coming soon-n."

That made Ebi stop; he pulled his blood lust back and glared down at Kon.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

Kon took a moment to catch his breath and comfortably slumped in the chair before continuing. "He took out a jonin and four genin—just in a day, your combat ability has taken a significant dive. I think the Hidden Leaf sent him to the city to weaken you from the inside and prepare you for the forces who will take the city back."

"You said: soon. Why do you say that?"

Kon raised his fingers one at a time. "He poisoned your shinobi... Kidnapped two of your shinobi the next day... Murdered one of the city's criminal big shots in his own home... And now he took out the city's most powerful along with some powerful shinobi." A look of begrudging respect appeared on Kon's face. "Not only are the civilians fearful because of the blast and martial law—but your men are restless because one day they were ruling the city and in the next day, they lost a jonin and four chunin.

"They're scared—scared that they'll be abducted like Aranai and Ryoya and disappear, or die in a freak explosion. There's nothing you can do to remedy that. That guy has primed you guys to be an optimal target for an invasion."

"...How soon?"

Ebi had noticed how agitated his men were as they sifted through the debris in search of clues, wondering if the chunk of meat they found belonged to their fellow shinobi. He had to imagine everyone else was feeling the same.

"I'll give you less than a week."

Three days remained until the main forces arrived at Yu.

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The link is in the synopsis!