CH_6.17 (188)

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For some reason, Takuma always thought that a gold mine would be a deep cave that was being excavated for its precious natural resource. The reason was his ignorance. What lay in front of him was a ginormous pit that spanned wide and deep with dozens upon dozens of mines with a complex system of rails connecting them.

"How many years did it take to dig this pit?" he uttered in astonishment.

"Not long, I presume. Shinobi use chakra and explosives to break the ground," Iori answered from the side. "And well, dynamite is a powerful thing."

'Ah, that's right. Should've taken Earth-style ninjutsu into consideration,' he thought.

Even though he stood at a far distance, he could see people walking in and out of the little caves with rail trolleys filled with dirt. They were the criminals of the Land of Hot Waters punished to work in the mines as forced labor. However, right now, they were working for the Land of Frost instead of their country. Even in a war, their lives remained the same—what an irony.

"Where's the hideout?" Kameko asked.

Anko pointed far away in the distance. "They've set up their base on the Land of Frost size to keep an eye on who and what goes in and out of the pit," she said. "We won't be going to their hideout; it's too dangerous—we could be spotted, and more importantly, we could ruin the scout's operation. They will come meet us at a designated spot."

She looked at Takuma. "Take out the radio; we need to tell them that we have arrived."

As Takuma set up the radio, Anko took out a palm-sized notebook from her person and flipped through the pages.

"This is the frequency," Anko showed Takuma the page that had instructions on what frequency to use depending upon the day. "And this is the code to use. We will be sending through tones, no speech communication."

"Understood," Takuma nodded.

He took the pre-crafted phrase that would tell the scouts they were the real deal, translated it through the code Anko selected, and began transmitting it to the frequency. For ten minutes, Takuma sent the tones of dot and line beeps of the phrase on a loop. They waited for a while before a message came back in tones.

Takuma translated it. "Make your way to the rendezvous location," he said.

"Daiki and I will go to the spot. You three stay here and keep yourself hidden. Don't take any unnecessary actions. Understood?"

""Understood.""

"If we don't return in an hour, go to the next location on the map and send a message to the camp through the carrier bird. One hour on the dot, don't wait, don't try to look for us. Understood?"

""Understood.""

The second reply was much more somber than the first one.

"Good, we will meet you here in an hour."

After saying that, Daiki and Anko stealthily moved away and disappeared into the landscape after a few moments.

The reason Anko only took Daiki with her was because he was the only one among the genin who knew how to mask his chakra signature. Every shinobi had an elevated chakra signature, and sensory-nin could pick up those signatures and locate the shinobi. It would be unwise to assume that Hidden Frost hadn't stationed at least one sensory-nin at the gold mine.

There was a way to mask the chakra signature and suppress their presence to evade the senses of a sensory-nin. Daiki had learned how to mask himself as part of his scouting and tracking skillset, and Anko knew it as well.

Takuma had the skill on his to-learn list, but he hadn't gotten to it yet.

"Imagine how much money you would have if you could own a gold mine," Iori whispered, gold shining in her eyes.

Takuma explained, "In the Land of Fire, upon discovering a mineral deposit, the owner is forced to sell their land to the Daimyo for a great profit. Entire towns are relocated if they're built upon a deposit. After that, the Daimyo's palace either handles the mining on their own, but more often than not, the Daimyo grants the mining rights to another party and takes a portion of the profit from the sales."

"How do you know that?" asked Rikku.

"The Uchiha Clan holds various mining rights. They're currently trying to get the mining rights for a gold deposit from the Daimyo," Takuma said as he gazed at the pit. "Shinobi clans don't earn their wealth by being shinobi—the huge majority of their wealth comes from other sources. Mining, oil, manufacturing, farming, pharmaceuticals, or wherever the money is— training and developing shinobi gives them strength, which allows them to continue their ventures without fear.

"Power and wealth—that's a shinobi clan."

That had been the truth long before the formation of the Hidden Villages. The shinobi clans had been amassing their wealth in the Warring Eras, competing with each other for resources and power in entire regions.

"Clans must be filthy rich," she said.

"Stupidly rich," said Takuma.

He took out a pair of binoculars from his backpack and observed the pit while he (and the others) lay on their stomachs. He had visited the quartermaster and had issued out binoculars for reconnaissance. As long as the chunin lead approved, a genin on their team could check out any equipment they needed for a mission.

Takuma gazed at the pit, and now that he could better see the movement of the people, he tried to locate the shinobi. It wasn't difficult to distinguish the shinobi from the criminals because of their attire.

"How many shinobi do you think are guarding the pit?" he asked.

"That'll be in the scout report," Iori answered. "Why?"

"I was wondering if Camp Banana would be enough to take it back."

"We have two jonin," she hummed. "I don't think Hidden Frost would station more than two jonin here. A takeback is not implausible; it would depend on—"

Kameko interrupted her. "Hidden Frost might not, but what about Hidden Cloud? They might have stationed more jonin here. This is a gold mine, after all."

Takuma had to agree with Kameko. A gold mine was enough potential motivation for Hidden Cloud to protect it as long as they got a portion of the gold output. If they maintained control of the mine long enough, Hidden Cloud could cover a considerable cost of funding the Hidden Frost in their invasion.

"Maybe that's why they aren't taking our help," Takuma put down his binoculars and turned to his teammates. "Are they scared that if we help them retake the mine, we would demand that they share the gold output? Or maybe someone higher-up has already set up that demand, but that's why the Hidden Steam hasn't agreed…"

"That's pure speculation," Kameko said in counter.

"That it is," Takuma went back to gazing at the pit.

"It's going to be difficult to take it over with all the workers," said Iori.

"Do you think they will care if those people die?" asked Takuma.

"…Are you really suggesting that?" Iori sounded horrified.

"They aren't caring now. They might not care afterward."

He got no reply, not even from Kameko. Takuma continued to gaze through his binoculars. Due to the potential value that the gold mine held, retaking it wasn't enough, they would need to defend it from the enemy's retaking attempts. The gold mine would require the constant presence of the military as the Land of Hot Waters would want to continue mining—the nation was at war, which wasn't cheap, and gold would very much help.

In Takuma's view, the gold mine was as much of a liability as it was an asset.

"I think it's a mistake for them not to do anything while the enemy mines precious gold. They're essentially bankrolling their enemy," Takuma said as he continued to study the pit.

The weather wasn't with them as soon the rain started to pour heavily, and the lack of vegetation around them made it difficult for them to find any natural shelter, forcing them to endure the cold rain in their rain gear as they waited for Anko and Daiki.

"How long has it been?!" Rikku shouted over the rain.

Takuma looked at his small timepiece. It had been three-quarters of an hour since Anko and Daiki had left. He and the rest of the team were hiding underneath the rain for half an hour. From all the hideouts they had visited yesterday, none had taken them longer than fifteen to twenty minutes to complete. Anko should've already been back, even if it was a high-priority area.

Had something gone wrong?

"They're here!" Kameko pulled on his backpack and pointed.

Takuma looked to see Anko and Daiki running towards them. Anko pointed away from the pit, and without a word, the team ran in that direction.

"Later!" Anko shouted as they dashed away from the pit.

None in the team were in the mood to talk because of the rain. They were dripping and cold and wanted nothing more than to find shelter from the rain. Takuma noticed from Anko and Daiki's grave expressions that whatever they had learned from the scouts wasn't good news.

They eventually found shelter.

"What happened?" asked Iori.

"Five jonin!" Anko said, her tone serious. "They have five jonin and thirty-odd chunin guarding that mine. The scouts haven't even been able to count the genin properly, but they're probably a hundred of them scurrying around in the mines."

Takuma was taken aback. For comparison, Camp Banana, with its two jonin and twenty chunin, was responsible for a much vast area, while it was safe to assume that the shinobi in the pit were there only to guard the mines. That amount of troops was far overkill.

"Are they Hidden Cloud jonin?" asked Kameko.

"Three of the five are potentially from Hidden Cloud. The scouts can't be a hundred percent sure," Anko rubbed her forehead.

Kameko was right. The Hidden Cloud had an invested interest in ensuring that the mine remained under their control.

"The scouts think that the enemy is using the gold mine as an excuse to build their troops to further penetrate the territory. I think I agree with them," said Anko. "There might be a big battle in our future."

Takuma looked at the sky and the falling rain.

It might be the time for him to take out a ninjutsu scroll or two and bring them to a field-usable state before he might need to share a battlefield with jonin.

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