CH_7.29 (247)

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Late in the morning, a knock on the door sent everyone in the Chinatsu house on the highest alert. Everyone looked at each other, making sure they were ready. Anko raised her hand and gestured for the team along with Chinatsu and Gaku to take positions before she headed toward the door.

She engaged the chain latch before opening the door, and immediately a foot jammed in the gap to stop the door from closing. Anko put on a scared expression when she saw a shinobi in Hidden Frost colours; she tried to look beyond the him, but the man's broad body blocked her view.

"Are you Miss Chinatsu?" he asked.

"N-No, what is it that you want with my lady?"

"We want to ask her about one of her clients, Aranai. He hasn't been home since he left to meet her. Please let us in to question her... I don't want to be forceful," the man looked down at her with a stone cold look that said she didn't want to refuse in the situation.

"I will open the door," she said after shooting an alarmed look.

The man pulled his foot back and Anko opened the door wide, revealing two more shinobi. Shestilled for a second when she saw the middle-aged shinobi, the oldest among the trio; all her instincts were screaming danger at her, warning not to engage in a fight with him. Their eyes met and Anko averted her eyes, playing the role of the scared woman facing a dangerous shinobi.

'A jonin,' she thought.

"What is this commotion so early in the morning?" Chinatsu descended from the second floor, dressed in a scanty, thin nightgown that left very little to the imagination. She rubbed small circles into her eyes as though she had just woken up. All according to plan as all three shinobi stared at Chinatsu, their eyes roaming over her body. Iori followed after Chinatsu from the second floor, handing her a proper robe to put on, but Chinatsu wore it in a way that gave the shinobi a distracting view.

"My lady, we have guests," said Anko politely.

"Oh, shinobi?" said Gaku entered the living room from the kitchen with a cup of tea. "You must know Aranai. Have you seen him? He owes me my money."

Daiki was the next to enter the room. He stationed himself near Chinatsu as her bodyguard. He looked appropriately nervous for a civilian bodyguard with three shinobi who could rip him apart before he knew it.

Anko bowed to Gaku. "They're looking for him, Mister Jimii. He is missing..."

"He didn't show up yesterday, but he still has to pay—tell him that when you find him," said Gaku, perfectly playing the role of a money-minded pimp.

The jonin looked around the living room and at the people talking and sat down at the couch which brought all eyes on him. "Please have a seat Lady Chinatsu and Mister Jimii," he said in a calm tone. He looked at Anko and smiled, "May I get some warm water? If there are other people in the house, please call them down."

The shinobi in the room could sense the threat the jonin posed—they knew that one bad move was all it would take for him to end them before they so much as leave the house—but even without that, there was power and confidence in his voice. He ordered them around in their own home, fully-expecting and knowing that his orders would be fulfilled.

Chinatsu called Kameko and Rikku down and they stood in a corner with Iori in nervous silence as everyone watched the jonin drink the cup of warm water.

"Thank you," he said to Anko before addressing everyone in the room. "My name is Ebi. I'm a shinobi from the Frost. Aranai and Ryoya are my subordinates. I'm told that Aranai regularly availed your services, Lady Chinatsu, and that he met with you last night. He also brought Ryoya along with him yesterday."

"He didn't come yesterday," said Chinatsu with a little heat in her voice as though offended. "It's not very gentlemanly to be absent after promising a meeting with a lady. Don't you think so, Mister Ebi?" she asked, directing her charm at Ebi.

"...Of course, Lady Chinatsu," said Ebi, smiling. "So you're saying that Mister Aranai never arrived for his meeting with you. What about Ryoya; did he come?"

"Both of them were a no show," Gaku scoffed. He was in the most danger among the people in the room; his face was known to the enemy and here he was sitting right in front of them with a layer of make-up and a fake identity between them and him. "We rent a townhouse. It's expensive, so it's a loss when the client doesn't show up."

"I understand your concern, Mister Jimii," said Ebi, his eyes scanning everyone in the room.

Everyone in the team remembered Takuma's words.

"—You're not shinobi, so don't stand like you're ready to jump into a battle at the moment's notice. All of you're Chinatsu's handmaids, training to eventually get into the business, be 'lady-like', be feminine, pay attention to your looks. Live the lifestyle, the more you inhabit your cover, the easier it will be deceive others—"

The girls had taken his disguise advice to heart and had started to follow the lifestyle of their cover identities. They were helped by Chinatsu who gave them tips and Gaku who was experienced with disguises. After nearly two months in Yu, they were no longer Hidden Leaf shinobi, but Chinatsu's handmaids. As for Daiki, his size itself was a disguise—the moment they saw his muscular frame, they tagged him as the bodyguard and stopped looking.

"I must say, your reputation precedes you, Lady Chinatsu," Ebi said to her. "I heard that you arrived in Yu from the Hot Waters capital less than two months ago... May ask why you chose to relocate from the bustling capital to a border city... This move seems to be contrary from a business standpoint."

A hidden nervousness bubbled up in their room. The timing of the team's arrival in Yu was one of those

Chinatsu's eyes narrowed before she smiled behind her hand. "Past lovers, when they're powerful men, can be troublesome for business... You underestimate Yu; so many shinobi away from their homes make for excellent business." She leaned slightly forward to highlight her cleavage. "I'm very interested in you, Mister Ebi... Are you interested in me?"

Ebi's eyes lingered on Chinatsu's body for a moment before he looked up. He smiled, "Your beauty is brilliant and charming as the moonlight, Lady Chinatsu. Perhaps we shall dilly-dally some day. Today, however, I'm looking for my subordinates. Are you sure you didn't see them yesterday?" he directed the question to everyone.

"He didn't show up," said Gaku with a harrumph.

Ebi hummed and sat silent for a moment before turning to his shinobi subordinates behind him.

"Check the house."

The moment he said that Chinatsu and Gaku tried to argue and protest, but the two shinobi ignored them and started to go through everything in the house, upturning everything, breaking things in the process.

"You can't do this!" said Chinatsu, indignantly.

"This is not a request, Lady Chinatsu. If you don't sit down and let us search your house, you'll get hurt and no one wants that to happen, so sit down. This won't take too long," Ebi said nonchalantly, which made it all the more impactful.

Anko glanced at the men searching the home. They wouldn't find anything shinobi-related because there was nothing to be found as they were living their cover's life. The house was kept clean. All their weapons and gear were stashed in another place—it was inconvenient at times like when Iori wanted to make seals, but it was a necessary practice to maintain their protection.

"Sir, we found these." One of the men placed several identical sheathed daggers on the table in front Ebi, who looked up at Chinatsu.

"A woman must know to protect herself," she shrugged.

Being too clean was a thing. Having no weapons in the house would seem suspicious so they purchased daggers in Yu for all the women in the house in the name of personal protection.

Ebi observed one of the daggers in his hand, checking them with bored eyes.

"Anything else?" he asked.

The man shook his head.

"Very well." Ebi stood up. "It was a pleasure meeting you, Lady Chinatsu. If either of my missing men contact you, please reach out to us. Now if you'll excuse us, we must take our leave. Thank you for your hospitality."

The Hidden Frost shinobi left the house, leaving behind a mess, but the group all sighed in relief because the house aside, everything had gone well, which was as close to the best case scenario they could've hoped for.

———

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"Put a lookout to keep an eye on them," said Ebi as they walked away from the Chinatsu house.

"Did you find something amiss, sir?" asked one of his men.

"Not at all," Ebi said as he fiddled with a cigarette pack. "It's just that I felt like their reaction was lacking. They weren't scared enough. One of them could be tough—maybe even two or three—but all of them looked too composed for my taste despite being suspected of being involved with two shinobi's disappearance."

"Maybe that was Aranai's plan. He had a reason to leave without raising suspicion and used it to disappear."

"That could be it," Ebi agreed, "but why not just disappear? There was no need to involve the courtesan. We would've interrogated her regardless because of their meetings."

"Perhaps it was a distraction so we would waste our time with them. They're currently our prime suspects."

Ebi looked at his man. "You presume I'm wasting our time by putting a lookout on them."

"N-No, of course, not, sir! I apologise, I, by no means, wanted to imply that."

Ebi gave him a hard stare before looking away.

"The courtesan's arrival into Yu is also suspicious. Less than two months... their arrival matches with the trouble that has been brewing in the city. Keeping an eye on them would be wise. Station some men to record their movements; I want regular reports."

Ebi put a cigarette to his lips and was about to light it when he said, "Any news from our informants?"

———

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Takuma ate his cold lunch on a stool as he watched a bloody Aranai hanging from the ceiling. He was fully expecting it, but Aranai didn't break easily. He had screamed, cried, begged, but hadn't given a single word of information since the start of the advanced interrogation.

"You're slightly tough, I'll give you that," Takuma said as he chewed on the cold meat, "the Hidden Frost must've a good interrogation program to turn a wimp like you into someone who can take a decent beating... but you sure do moan like a bitch."

Aranai twitched.

Takuma noticed it, but pretended to ignore it and dug into his lunch.

"And you bruise like a peach. It's hilarious, actually; half-way through, I was trying to see if I could draw on you."

Even though they had only met yesterday and Aranai had been on guard against him, Takuma knew a few things about him through Chinatsu. She had his guard lowered when they were together and even though he didn't give any sensitive information to her, he hadn't hidden his personality and quirks from her.

The man had no patience for jokes made at his expense.

"You know, Chinatsu said you were one of her easier customers because she didn't need to do much to please you. You're hard before she touches and you get done quickly— all she had to do was make some easy fake sounds for her to get paid."

Aranai had shut down since he started to torture him but he needed him to open up and for that to happen, he had to get him talking. He had worn him down by beating him up, and if he could get him angry, he would spout stuff he wouldn't if he was calm. Takuma wanted to keep him irritated, and then needle him for information by constantly undermining him.

However, he needed to know about things Aranai was insecure about because what Chinatsu had given him was fairly limited.

Fortunately, Takuma had a rich source of information about Aranai ready to spill in the next room.

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