CH_8.46 (311)

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A silence hung between Takuma and Three as they sat in their shared inn suite. It was their second inn due to their decision to switch places daily. They sat in comfortable chairs opposite each other around a circular table, but the set of four open scrolls given to them by the informant, along with the separate third task scroll, distracted them away from relaxing after a busy day of planning an assassination.

"Want to split up?" asked Takuma.

"No," Three gave the same reply as before.

"We don't have any time."

"Then we make do with what we got."

"It's not going to be easy."

"I'm not the one complaining."

Takuma sighed as he massaged his temples from the headache that threatened to break out any second. They had kept the sustainable pace of one task per day to complete three tasks before the deadline. Following the pace allowed them to plan their actions to reduce the risk of failure, and it worked as they managed to complete their missions without major complications.

But now they had two tasks to complete in one day.

The third task was a bounty hunt; they had information about the target's whereabouts inside the city, but getting to her was challenging as samurai guarded the location. It was the most difficult task yet, and they had left it to the last because in case something went wrong, it wouldn't have interfered with the other two tasks.

However, the informant's new task revolved around a shipment of explosive tags, which was being delivered at a meeting between the supplier and the buyer, where the tags would be exchanged for payment. The motive behind the task was to disrupt the two parties who had ties to illegal and terror elements in the Land of Fire.

They needed to destroy the explosive tags and impede the payment—which would prevent the tags from reaching the wrong hands and harming both parties as they would be out of money.

"The meeting is at three in the morning," said Three.

"Which means we will need to get there earlier to scout the location before either of the parties get there," said Takuma.

The problem with the informant's new task was that the only information they had was the location and timing of the meeting. They didn't know the two party's identities, where they were based, or anything else that would give them any flexibility in completing the task.

"We'll have to complete the bounty before eleven, or noon at the latest, if we want to make it to the location," Three groaned in irritation.

The bounty target's location and the meeting location were forty minutes apart if nothing went wrong. In reality, they had to mark an hour for travel. It would've been shorter if they could jump over roofs without fear, but they couldn't do that in the Ember Capital City, and they had to be more careful after the arsons by another team, which had samurai turning over the entire city for anything suspicious.

"We need to start early. As that fucking fatso said, no sleep tonight," said Takuma.

"If I had something on me, I would've spiked his drink to just... absolutely ruin his night," Three clicked her tongue. "The fucking bastard."

Takuma nodded in agreement. He had some choice words of his own, but he was too fed up to talk shit. He sat up straighter and picked up the bounty scroll.

The target's name was Kinohei Ukuri, a former Leaf shinobi who had retired from service after completing her ten-year contract as a genin. Like many others who retired, she went to do independent work that required her shinobi skills. However, unlike most of those who were in her position, who only got work as security and thugs for the rich and unsavoury people, Ukuri not only managed to find success but was able to grow her capabilities—which was extremely challenging for those who had left the shinobi service.

Access to resources was fairly limited for those not affiliated with a hidden village. Perhaps she was a late bloomer, but she grew to a point where she and her work caught the Hidden Leaf's attention; they invited her back into service with a possible chunin rank promotion in the near future.

Ukuri refused the offer, preferring to stay independent—which didn't please the Hidden Leaf. To pressure her, they began to offer discounted services to her clients on the condition they dropped her. It worked in the sense that she lost most of her clients, but she didn't buckle like they expected and refused to accept the offer.

Soon after, Ukuri disappeared from the market. For a while, it seemed like she had decided to stop taking shinobi work. Her absence wasn't permanent as she returned—only this time, she started taking jobs against the Hidden Leaf.

Most former shinobi weren't willing to take jobs that involved going against Leaf shinobi for fear of retaliation, but those willing were paid handsomely—and Ukuri quickly became a very popular option due to her willingness to accept jobs and her sky-high success rate.

By the time Leaf decided to brand her as a hostile, she had already become a problem but also had gained some powerful connections in the Daimyo's court and among the samurai by doing some work for them.

Her presence as a competition made the Leaf look bad, so they decided to eliminate her. They forged a job that would be very attractive to Ukuri, and as expected, she accepted it. They planned to assassinate her during the job, but they underestimated her, and she escaped after killing most of the team that had gone after her.

Since then, she had been hiding in the Ember Capital City and used her connections to get protection from the samurai—which blocked the Leaf from going after her openly as she was considered a guest of one of the nobles close to the Daimyo.

Three months ago, a bounty was raised on Kinohei Ukuri's head. The sponsor who posted the bounty kept their identity anonymous, but it was clear that the Hidden Leaf was the sponsor as they had just tried to kill her. The Hidden Leaf denied their involvement with the bounty and refuted ever sending their shinobi to assassinate Ukuri.

"I think we should strike somewhere around dawn so we don't have a time conflict with the informant's task," said Takuma with a sigh, "but it will be tough to scout the place in darkness."

"But it will be easier to attack during dawn when people are still sleeping," Three said as she fully rested in her chair. "And well, the graveyard squad tends to be B-teams—they'll be easier to handle than whatever they have during the day."

"On the other hand, the response team will be faster," said Takuma.

Ukuri's current location was one of the noble's properties. It was a mansion and two secondary buildings built on a sizable fenced property with around-the-clock samurai protection. In case something went wrong, anyone inside the property could send a call out for help, and because there's less overall activity during the dawn when roads are empty, external help would arrive faster.

"The benefits outweigh the limitations and disadvantages," said Three.

"Agreed then?" he asked.

"Agreed. What about the meeting?"

"We rush across the city, scout the place, and well... rain down on them during the meeting."

"Wow, that's crude," Three scoffed.

Takuma shrugged. "There's no use to think about complicated details when we don't know the composition of the two groups or the meeting location. It's better to leave it all to the future you and I—it's their problem, not ours," he said as he got up with a yawn. "Let's check our gear and head out."

He was getting anxious from only thinking about plans and wanted to get out in the field where he wouldn't have time for that.

———

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"Now that I think about it, we never discussed the bounty office," said Three as they took a break from scouting the target property.

It was pitch dark; the city sky, layered with pollution, was overcast as well, which meant it was particularly dark. The low visibility slowed down their scouting process as they had to observe locations which weren't near light sources closely.

Takuma lowered a water canteen from his mouth and wiped his lips on his sleeve. "To be honest, I don't know what's the best time to go." The bounty task didn't end with killing the target. They would have to go to the bounty office in the city and confirm the kill. "The moment we kill the target, the samurai will realise that it's us because of her bounty and will head straight for the bounty offices in the city."

All bounty offices across the Elemental Nations were run by the same organisation and were independent of shinobi, samurai, and any other military organisation. They were treated as neutral territory and were allowed to exist even in places like hidden villages and nation capitals as shinobi, samurai, and others in the mercenary business used them as they were a great bridge between them and civilians.

Bounty offices were known to be fair and reliable to the point that it was a great shock when one of them made a mistake. Moreover, the bounty offices were too big of an entity for any one shinobi nation to take control of it. They also realised that an independent entity managing the bounty office was to their benefit as there was too much friction between the nations for them to take over their territory's offices and maintain communication.

"They won't interfere with business while we're in the office, but the moment we leave the premises, we will be arrested," Takuma sighed. "Our best bet is to head to the bounty office right after we are done here—but even then, I think there'll be too much risk. I wonder how the others will handle the problem—any ideas?"

If it was any other time, they could've just skipped town and gone to another bounty office, but they didn't have time to do that.

"Maybe," said Three with a flat look, "it's too vague now. I'll need time to think about it before we can discuss it."

Takuma gazed at her; he could tell that she was hiding something. Three gazed back; she knew he wanted to know what she was hiding. However, there was no way for him to force her into revealing her secrets.

"Be quick about it," said Takuma. It wasn't also the right time to get information out of her.

She smiled. "Sure will."

Even though he didn't like it, as long as she worked toward their mutual benefit, he didn't mind letting her keep her secrets.

After all, he had a few of those himself.

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