CH_7.39 (257)

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When Kon arrived at Ebi's office, he walked in on the man having a late dinner.

"Any clues about the intruders?" Ebi asked immediately, dismissing all formalities and talking through a mouthful of food. With the news that an entire shinobi army was marching towards the city, he wasn't in the mood for anything but the direct.

"Unfortunately no," Kon replied as he sat opposite to Ebi on a long table. One of the servants proceeded to set a plate for him but Ebi stopped them. Kon pursed his lips but didn't comment. "No one has come forward with any information and they've done a great job of keeping themselves independent. We caught both of their connections in Yu and neither of them knew anything about the intruders. That Gaku really must've had some pull for everyone to be involved with an outsider they knew absolutely nothing about."

For people to trust each other, both sides needed to have skin in the game, so that if one side decided to screw the other side, they couldn't just get away with it scot free. That kind of thing kept both sides honest.

"So you are completely and utterly useless," said Ebi.

That stung where Kon didn't want to admit. He had been looking for Takuma ever since their meeting, but he hadn't been able to get any clue about it. Just like Ebi, he regretted not going after the courtesan, but he had looked into them separately and nothing strange popped out.

"Unfortunately, they have played it smar—"

"You weren't able to find people inside a city we control."

The servants tried to lighten their presence as Ebi didn't mince his words while casually eating his meal. Kon stared silently at Ebi, hiding the coldness in his eyes that still came across as displeased. Ebi looked up at him as he slowly chewed his meat and looked like he was inviting Kon to say something.

"...There are only ten hours until the guests arrive. I wish you the best of luck for tomorrow," said Kon with a plastic smile.

Kon and his team weren't part of the forces and were technically only 'consultants' and weren't responsible for protecting the city against the attack.

Ebi hummed. But when Kon stood up to leave, he spoke again,

"You better not leave the city, Kon. You're still on the job. After we defend the city, you're going to go right back to doing what you've been doing until now."

Kon turned to look back at Ebi. He smiled, "Of course, that goes without saying."

That was the only acceptable response Kon could've given. If he tried to leave the city, or even hinted at it, that would send the message that he thought that they would lose the city in the upcoming battle. Kon could see Ebi's mood worsening by the minute and felt that his life would certainly be in danger if he said anything else.

Seeing how direct Ebi was with his words, Kon was sure that he and his team were being watched and that Ebi would immediately crack down on him if he tried to leave the city. Unfortunately for Ebi, he was indeed going to leave the city and there was nothing Ebi could do about it because he and his team would be leaving the moment the city was attacked when everyone would be too busy to stop him.

The truth was, he didn't believe that Ebi would be able to defend the city and seeing that Takuma was in the city, and that his face was plastered on every street, Kon was sure that the Hidden Leaf would know about his presence.

And if they knew, the ANBU might be accompanying the forces coming for the city. Not getting caught by ANBU had a higher priority than the mission, even if it meant abandoning said mission.

———

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The factory base was abuzz with a quiet energy as the team prepared for upcoming combat. Everyone performed maintenance on gear that they hadn't used much in the past two months, double-checking every minute aspect to ensure nothing would malfunction. The inventory they had come up with and had largely remained packed was opened up and divided according to their needs.

Iori, the busiest of them all, had been churning out tags since she stepped into the base. Daiki busied himself by putting together smoke bombs. Rikku spent her time walking around the building, keeping to herself, while Kameko hadn't moved from the couch as she hugged her sword close to her.

They had spent two months in close quarters, having no independent time to themselves, and now that had ended, they elected to spend their time alone—and if not for Anko going around talking to each of them, they wouldn't have said a word to each other.

Takuma, however, spent most of his time sleeping. His gear was long ready as it had been used regularly and he had kept it in top condition. There was tension among the group and the source of it was Takuma's bombing. Daiki and Iori didn't think he was in the wrong as he had killed a jonin and a few chunin and most people who died were turncoats. Whereas, Rikku, Kameko, and Anko thought he had overstepped his bounds despite the positive results.

The team, however, didn't argue or even discuss it. They understood that they were about to engage in dangerous combat and it would be bad for the team to be split for any reason. They put the topic on pause and moved on, focusing on what truly mattered in the moment.

"Gather up!" Anko announced.

The team who were in their own corners gathered around the sheet-metal table in the centre.

"I think it's safe to say that we have completed our original mission," Anko addressed the team. "We managed to send intelligence back to the camp and spread some chaos by weakening the enemy." Everyone glanced at Takuma who stared down at the table. "However, our mission isn't complete yet... We have to take care of the people who targeted Takuma."

The team had been made aware of ROOT's existence and were given an additional responsibility to capture them if possible. The orders from the village were to make ROOT the team's highest priority; whereas, Toridasu and Shirakumo had told them to only engage with the additional responsibility if it didn't interfere with their mission.

Anko had elected to go with Camp Banana's version of order as that aligned with their original mission and that's what they prepared for.

"Seeing that ANBU hasn't shown up already, or if they have, they haven't made contact with us, I'm going to assume that they aren't in the city. I've decided that we're going to attempt to capture the ROOT team."

The haze of sleep lifted from Takuma's eyes and his body straightened as he paid full attention to the topic at hand. ROOT was a personal matter for him—more personal than the team knew as while they knew about what had happened while he was in the Police Force, he didn't know the other thing.

"We know their location, we know their numbers, but we don't have much information other than that," she continued. "That makes the situation uncertain, so we'll have to approach this situation differently. As we don't know what we might be going into, I propose that instead of trying to capture all of them, we aim to abduct one or two targets in a quick in-and-out attack."

Despite being aware of their existence, not much was known about the ROOT team. Takuma had stayed away from the part of the city where the shinobi resided and the ROOT's base was laid in that area. He had fought against them, and even managed to kill one, but it was risky to assess their combat capabilities off of that.

"We target them when the main forces knock on the door. It'll be chaos and the enemy forces will be occupied, creating a prime space of window for us to attack without worrying about getting outnumbered and surrounded. We operate aggressively and capture ideally two people alive. That would satisfy ANBU," said Anko.

"We should aim for Kon, the leader. He was confident to strut about without a mask, so he must be someone important. He'd have the most information," said Takuma.

The team looked at Takuma, internally wondering if those words were emotionally motivated as Kon had tried to kill Takuma. However, it was the truth that the leader of the group would be the prime target. But the team didn't have a handle on their target's strength, which made targeting the leader the highest risk proposition.

Anko gave Takuma a look. She said, "We take whatever we get our hands on. The moment we successfully catch two, we immediately leave. We will directly go to the main force's base outside the city. Now, because we are going to do it at the time of the city attack, one of us is going to not participate so that they can inform the main forces about the dead jonin so they don't waste their time and be more aggressive with their attack.

"Iori you'll be that person," said Anko.

It didn't need to be said, but Iori was the weakest among the group. And seeing that they weren't sure about their situation, she'd be the safest if she wasn't participating.

"Understood," Iori nodded.

"We leave in a few hours," Anko continued. "We'll be on their tail until it's time to strike. They're ROOT, so they might not participate in the defence. If they try to leave the city, we nab them before they get a chance to do so. Let's get this done and end this mission."

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