11 - A Noble Reason For An Unforgivable Crime

In the evening of the same day, at Amegakure Prison

Inara appears in front of the cell of the mercenary prisoner with a token in his hand.

"Looks like your plans didn't work out, huh Katsura?" says Inara and enters the prisoner's cell.

Katsura, the prisoner, looks at Inara out of the corner of his eye, not seeming to mind his presence.

*Bam

Inara closes the cell door with him inside.

"Look... I'm allowed to do whatever I want to you, you tried to kidnap the godson of one of the most legendary ninjas in ninja land."

"HAHAHAHAHAHA", Katsura laughs.

"You've really become a clown with this brainwashing they've done to you," says Katsura.

"Do you really think that Hanzõ is as powerful as you think? If he is, why is this shitty village sinking into poverty? With these sanctions imposed on poor countries that can barely afford to eat, that took part in a war they didn't cause!" Katsura says and stands up.

Inara remains concentrated and listens to Katsura's speech without moving a muscle.

"While my fucking family starves, they splurge on the fucking food my family needs!" Katsura says, his speech changed by anger.

Katsura calms down a bit and says.

"Aff... I just want..." Katsura stops speaking and looks at the ground with regret.

Inara keeps his apathetic but thoughtful look.

"I only want the best for my daughter," Katsura says dejectedly.

Inara observes the situation and suggests the following.

"Hm..." Inara mumbles.

"Look... you'll be arrested, I can't do anything about that, but if you cooperate with me, about these plans of this Fukkatsu organization, I guarantee the protection of your family, how many relatives do you have?" Inara asked.

Katsura watched Inara out of the corner of his eye, but when he heard about the offer to protect his family, he opened up a little.

Still a little hesitant, Katsura said.

"Is... 2 people, my wife and my daughter, we live in an abandoned hut in the south of the village, both he and I have tried to look for work in other villages, but because of the political tensions of this war, no village will even take in an outsider, for fear that they are war criminals or something, the reasons vary a lot".

"And here in the village, as we just went through the biggest economic and military loss in our history, jobs are almost non-existent, man..." Katsura said.

Inara wasn't surprised by Katsura's speech, for a war veteran like him, this story had been told to him many times, and as well as being told, proven, Katsura understood the effects of war and also knew about its effects, but at that moment, out of an act of both kindness and professionalism, Inara listened attentively to what Katsura had to say, both to get his information about this new unknown organization, and to be able to help Katsura.

Inara says.

"Ok Katsura, I understand your reality, I have seen it up close countless times, and look... you are lucky, I can help you and you can help me too, if you cooperate with all the information I need, I will protect your family, ok?" Inara asks.

Katsura looks at Inara a little reluctantly, but without much choice, Katsura agrees.

"All right... but promise me that you'll protect them," Katsura says with a sincere look.

"I promise..." Inara says.

"Hm," Katsura mumbles.

"So... what do you want to know?" Katsura asks.

"Who hired you?" Inara asks.

"Hm..." Katsura mumbles.

"Normally, I don't ask my clients too many questions, but when it came to a government-linked organization that paid much more than usual, many of the guys who worked in the same field as me... were very suspicious of this offer," Katsura says.

"Capturing a 13-year-old boy who was about to become a Gennin for 300,00 Ryos seemed like quite a trick by the Shinobi Force to trap us, you know," Katsura said.

"My partner and I decided to team up to do this job, since it was suspicious, we decided to join forces so that if something went wrong, the two of us would be much more trouble than alone, right?" said Katsura.

"Hm," Inara murmured in agreement.

"We contacted the service and showed our interest, and then they called us to a meeting to go into more detail about... the service..." Katsura said.

"There were three masked men at the meeting place, they told us that the boy we had to kidnap was potentially skilled, so they asked us a few times if we could really do the job... my partner and I were a little scared, but we finally accepted," Katsura said.

"They told us it was very important for the revolution they wanted and that it was a big favor to them... favor my ass, if they hadn't paid me I would never have bothered with it, but well..." Katsura says.

"The three men who talked to us didn't say who they were or give many details about why they kidnapped us, but we accepted it because the service had a certain impact on the people at our work, some information ended up leaking out, those three men who talked to us were Oshiro, Miura and... Umeta, Umera something like that," Katsura said.

Inara's eyes widened as he realized that the three names matched those described by Wakino, the spy Inara had already interrogated.

"They were from that organization you mentioned, this Fukatu, Fukkatsu, and the boys were afraid of this service because they knew that this organization was involved with the village police, we don't really know what these guys are interested in yet, no one from this organization had come into direct contact with disorganized crime yet, so we didn't trust them very much, but that was it, then they gave us the boy's information and told us to meet them in Okari," Katsura said.

Okari was a remote and deserted region of Amegakure, a place that had been pushed back by the war.

Without much comment, Inara thanks Katsura for the information and says he will keep his word.

Inara leaves the cell, locks Katsura back in, now alone, and leaves.

Inara didn't much agree with Katsura's moral principles, for him kidnapping a child was something that went far beyond a crime of necessity, but having made his promise, Inara wouldn't back down.

In Hanzõ's quarters

Inara had arranged an urgent meeting with Hanzõ to tell him of his recent discoveries about the Fukkatsu organization.

"My lord, I have confidential information to discuss with you," Inara says.

Hanzõ turns his chair to face Inara, observes him serious tone, and after a moment's thought, Hanzõ signals for his two guards to leave the room.

Inara keeps his eyes on Hanzõ, although he is suspicious of the two policemen around him. The two policemen leave the room, watching Inara out of the corner of their eyes.

*Boom!

Both guards close the doors.

"Go ahead," Hanzõ says.

"My lord... we have corrupt ninjas in our shinobi guard," Inara says almost as an outburst.

Inara felt under a lot of pressure for withholding so much information, even for a short time. It was too much of a burden for Inara to come up with a plan of resistance on his own.

Inara felt like he was standing in front of a sea of problems that would come his way.

... ...

Inara was not wrong.

//

Author note

10 chapters ahead at p@treon.com/persima