CH_7.24 (242)

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Yamada stood at the street corner looking at the drug house in the middle of the street. The intimidating guards he had gotten used to once again looked frightening. He clutched the old, scuffed shoulder bag close to his body; it carried the drugs he was supposed to insert into the delivery going out to the Hidden Frost shinobi.

He wasn't able to sleep as he protected his family from the kidnappers in his home. It had been the worst time of his life—comforting his children asking for their mother was the most difficult and heartbreaking thing he had to do. It hurt to wonder how his wife was being treated and whether she was safe.

He took a deep breath and walked toward the drug house, each step heavier than the last. He had to remind himself to keep breathing as he neared the building.

"—Make proper eye contact, loosen your body, and hands off the bag—"

He recalled Snake's words and realised that he was doing everything wrong. A wave of panic shot through him, but he quickly gathered himself when he thought about his family and stopped for a moment in the middle of the street to follow the instructions before proceeding. His heart was trying to beat out of his chest as he climbed the steps of the building. He stopped in front of the guards and slipped the bag off his shoulder, showing them the contents.

"Different bag and no lunchbox today?" the guard asked.

"N-No, my wife fell ill, and my boy tore my bag while playing," said Yamada, doing his best to keep the shake out of his voice.

"And why the clothes?"

There was a set of clothes in the bag which usually wasn't there.

"I'm meeting a friend afterward. I'm going to change here before meeting him."

The guard reached into the bag and Yamada felt his heart come up to his throat. The guard pressed the clothes to check if there was anything underneath and motioned him to go inside when he was satisfied with his search. As Yamada walked past the guards, the tension drained from him and he had to clutch the bag to stop his hands from shaking. The bag was given to him by the kidnappers. It had a false bottom to hide the drugs with a tiny zip to open the hidden compartment with the drugs. The bag was big enough to carry a significant amount of drug sachets, but it didn't catch the guard's attention because his usual bag was just as big as he often used it to carry groceries he purchased after work.

Entering the building, he went straight to his seat on the rows of tables and put the bag below his chair. He waited until everyone on the factory line was seated and ready before work started.

For the next few hours, Yamada shut down his mind and did his work of stamping the umbrella emblem on the sachet. The worry about his family continued to weigh down but the mindless work helped alleviate some of the pressure. Though as he worked, he was acutely aware of the bomb sitting beneath his chair that could kill him and endanger his family if discovered. His heart stopped every time one of the "supervisors" passed by behind him.

Eventually, lunch break was announced and everyone headed out to the tea stalls outside with their lunch boxes.

"You're not eating, Yamada?" asked one of his fellow workers.

"N-No, not today," he smiled at them pitifully.

Almost immediately, they understood what Yamada was trying to say. With how expensive food was, there were times the workers would often forgo food. That wasn't the case for him, but today, he wanted to be in the building during the lunch break for the switch.

"Oh well, take care."

The workers shuffled out of the stuffy building for lunch. Even the supervisors went out, leaving the building empty for a short time.

Yamada knew that he had perhaps ten to fifteen minutes before people started coming back in. He had to move quickly. Very casually, he went to a cupboard in the corner of the room to retrieve one of the duffle bags that were used to deliver the drugs. The readied sachets were piled up in a tray and Yamada transferred them into the bag. This wasn't his duty, but he also knew that no one would mind if he did it.

He looked around to confirm no one was in the room before taking out his bag, opening the hidden compartment, and dumping the sachets given to him by the kidnappers into the duffle bag. He knew how many drugs went out to the shinobi every week, and the quantity given to him by the kidnappers made up nearly three-quarters of it. Yamada didn't know what they had done to the drugs, and he didn't want to know, but he could guess they had done something harmful to them.

By the time he was done, he was breathing heavily and the tiny zip of the compartment slipped from his hand multiple times as he closed it. When he was done, he quickly returned to his chair, put his bag underneath the seat, and took deep breaths to calm himself.

I've done it, thought Yamada as he wiped his sweat from the end of his scarf.

"Oh, you prepared the bag, Yamada?" One of the supervisors asked when he returned from lunch.

"Yes, I... I had nothing better to do," Yamada replied with a smile.

The supervisor stopped and gazed at him before smiling widely. "Boss praised you yesterday, didn't he? I'll tell him you're doing good work when he comes in tomorrow to collect the delivery. You'll definitely be getting that promotion."

"T-Thank you," Yamada said, trying his best to put on a grateful smile.

Yesterday, he would've been elated; but today, all he wanted to do was to return home and get his wife back.

———

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Yamada all but ran back home after his work was done. Everything hurt by the time he arrived but. without caring what his neighbours thought about him, he burst into his home to see Snake sitting in the living room.

"I did it! Where's my wife?" he yelled with wide-eyes, ready to fight if they refused to return her.

Behind him, Racoon entered from the front and closed the door behind her. "No one followed him," she said.

Yamada felt a chill go down his spine. He hadn't thought they would have someone follow him, but then he saw a snake slip out of Racoon's sleeve.

"A s-snake," he exclaimed, darting out of its way.

The small serpent slithered to Snake, who picked it up and held it near her ear as though she was listening to the snake. Yamada had a bad feeling that the masked kidnappers were mad—and mad people were already difficult enough to deal with without them being shinobi.

"He made the switch properly," said Snake before asking him for the bag.

Yamada threw the bag at her. "When will my wife get home?" He looked back at Racoon to find her staring at him.

Snake ignored him and took out four random sachets from the bag and dropped some unknown transparent liquid into them. The liquid turned blue the moment it touched the drugs. He didn't know what that meant.

"He made the switch," she nodded to Racoon.

Racoon went out of the house from the back entrance and returned a minute later with Yamada's wife in tow. Racoon removed the black cloth bag from her head and untied the rope tying her hands behind her back.

"Hanako!" said Yamada as he walked toward her.

"Dear!" Hanako eyes were red and puffy. Her face was pale and she looked utterly exhausted; in one night, she had aged several years.

The husband and wife hugged before facing the kidnappers in fear.

"I have done everything you asked for. P-Please leave now," said Yamada.

"Of course," said Snake. "But before we leave, I shouldn't need to say it, but no one can know about any of this. Tell your children and parents that your family will be in trouble if this gets out." Yamada nodded fervently. "Also, don't quit your job at the drug house, or you'll attract unwanted attention that might get you in trouble with the Goharu family."

Yamada felt a pit in his stomach as he understood the implication. The kidnappers were unknown, which was dangerous on its own, but the Goharu family was a known danger—he knew what they were capable of, and what they would do to his family if they found he had betrayed them.

"For your troubles," said Snake, pointing to three jute bags brought in by Racoon.

"We don't need it, please take it away," said Yamada—whatever it was, it was from shinobi.

Snake laughed merrily. "Throw it away if you want, but I think you won't."

The kidnappers left the home promptly, and for a couple days, Yamada felt like they would return at any moment, though they never did. As for the jute bags, Snake was right, he didn't throw them out. The bags were filled with food that his family desperately needed, and even though he felt uncomfortable, he kept it.

———

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For the first time since the team infiltrated the city, Takuma arrived at Chinatsu's house. In the month and a half they had been in Yu, the place had changed so much that it was unrecognisable. Either Chinatsu earned too much money or Anko had blown their mission budget on furniture. Takuma was envious because he had been sleeping in camping bags on top of an old and depressed couch.

He sat down on the comfy couch and kicked his legs up on the centre table. The team sat around the living room, together for the first time since they had arrived in the city.

"Are we ready?" Takuma asked Chinatsu and Gaku across from him.

"We are set to meet tomorrow," Gaku replied with a smile.

Takuma looked at Chinatsu, the team's star. "And what about you?"

"It's just a day's work for me," she said nonchalantly.

Chinatsu had been sleeping with a Hidden Frost chunin for the past three weeks. And as it turned out, the chunin had been dealing the Goharu family drugs to the enemy shinobi army. It was a surprise that the shinobi Takuma was tracking and the shinobi Gaku had procured as clients were one-in-the-same—but it made sense because a man who could afford to hire Chinatsu twice a week would be loaded and drug dealing was definitely enough to support his expensive hobby.

"And what about you?" Takuma asked Anko.

"I'll just follow her lead," Anko sighed, looking at Chinatsu.

For the last month and a half, the team had been mostly passive while they prepared, but as they drew closer to the two month mark, it was time to start making their move. They had to create chaos in the city to find an advantage the main force could exploit. The main force was set to arrive at the end of the second month, giving them a little over a fortnight to gain the advantage.

The first step of that chaos creating process was to poison a portion of the enemy army using the tainted drugs and then frame the dealers as the culprits. It would seem like the dealer had betrayed the Hidden Frost side by intentionally distributing poisoned drugs—and the Hidden Frost shinobi would then go after the Goharu family for their role as the suppliers. Not only a portion of the shinobi would be sick, the rest of the shinobi would stop doing drugs due to fear which, damaging the relationship between the shinobi and the Goharu family and loosening their control over their city.

To accomplish that, they needed to abduct the shinobi dealing the drugs—which they were planning to do while he was with Chinatsu—and to fortify the impression of betrayal, they were going to abduct one of the dealer's helpers as well, a genin. For that to happen, Anko, who had been disguising herself as Chinatsu's handmaid, would debut as an escort.

Under Gaku's instructions, Chinatsu had managed to convince the shinobi dealer to bring one of his helpers as Anko's "first customer."

While the two shinobi had their guards down, the team would attack and abduct them.

"What if they don't come?" asked Kameko. "What if, when people start to get sick, he cancels on you to deal with the problem?"

"That's a possibility, but I bet they'll still come," said Takuma. "I don't think someone in his position would forgo a chance to blow off some steam and get his mind off the whole fiasco. And under stress, he would instinctually bring his favourite with him—helping our narrative."

He cracked his knuckles,

"Let's light a fire under their asses."

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