Lost Children Arc (16) : Info Gathering.

Tachibana walked to a stand in the underground market along with Naruto who was disguised like him into random adults using the transformation jutsu.

The stand they were at had a short like and forced them to wait for a few minutes before it was their turn.

"Information or Tasks?" The dealer behind the counter asked as he looked at Tachibana calmly since he looked more composed than Naruto.

"Information.", Tachibana said slapping a few stacks of cash that they had earned from selling Naruto to Onizuka onto the table.

The man looked at the cash and counted them patiently and then looked back up at Tachibana.

"What do you want to know?"

Tachibana looked at the man straight in the eyes while speaking, "People with seals on their tongues that die before you can ask them anything."

The man behind the desk frowned at the description.

"Any problem?"

"...that will cost you a lot more than this." the dealer said flicking through the stacks of cash that Tachibana had already provided him.

"How much?" Tachibana asked with a similar frown.

"That information will cost you a million ryo alone, but you'll also have to either pay double that amount to get the information easily without any checking or verifications or you'll have to bring in someone trusted so that we can give you the information and expect you to do us no harm."

Tachibana's frown only deepened since a million or two million ryo wasn't something he could just wantingly give out of his bag.

He thought about it for a while, but in the end, he just shook his head and collected the money from the dealer before leaving the counter with Naruto.

Before leaving, however, Tachibana asked the dealer a question that came from a sharp idea, "Would you happen to know anyone that uses or fights using ink monsters?"

The man's eyes widened slightly but he nodded.

"That I can get you for the amount you gave me."

Tachibana nodded and gave the man the stacks of money back before waiting to listen to his response, especially Naruto who was standing beside him with a saddened heart.

The shock that his own village was behind such a thing hadn't left yet.

"We don't know the name of the person with the ink creatures but the market calls him 'Artist Shinobi'. He's been seen only in and around the Land of Fire but never in other faraway regions.-"

"-he has a typical routine and comes out for a mission every two to three weeks and was most recently spotted working with a few shinobi from Sunagakure, escorting them from the borders all the way to the capital."

Tachibana nodded in thanks before leaving the underground market with Naruto who was keeping his hands clenched tight.

"The shinobi we're after could be from other smaller villages in the Land of Fire. They could also just be spies for other nations." Tachiaban said in an attempt to console Naruto's broken heart but the boy was lost in his own world.

They moved around in different areas of the underground market and tried various other dealers to gain information about the Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal but none of them agreed to reprice their information at Tachibana's or Naruto's request. 

By the end of the day, Tachibana and Co. reconvened with Yamato to bring their findings to the table, literally, since they had gathered around a table in their room at the inn.

"We couldn't find much about the people using the seal in the black market." Sakura shook her head while giving her report.

"After a lot of digging, all we learnt was that the black market is also after knowledge about the organisation's location since they are responsible for several sabotages and attacks against other ronin during missions."

'Damn…I should've used divination to sell them this information. I would've gotten good money.' Tachibana thought 'Well, I can just sneak out at night while pretending to go on a walk to give them information about Danzo's location.'

Yamato nodded at Sakura's report after making sure that Sasuke had nothing more to add.

'I expected as much since the ROOT meddles in the affairs of other shinobi nations and is kept strictly under wraps.'

Yamato then turned towards Tachibana and Naruto.

Surprisingly, Tachibana remained silent this time, allowing Naruto to be the one to give their report.

Naruto's eyes were sharp and filled with anger, and there was also a hint or a trace of redness in his sky-blue pupils.

Yamato noticed the change but didn't do anything about it yet.

"Tachibana-kun and I figured out that the organisation is part of the village, or at least it is part of a shinobi village in the Fire Nation."

Naruto didn't say it, but his words indicated the same thing. It confirmed their suspicions regarding the Aburame shinobi who was found dead after he killed himself when he was caught.

Sakura *gasped* audibly while Sasuke's eyes narrowed sharply.

They all then looked at Yamato, trying to understand what they would do next. There was a sense of hope in their eyes that Yamato didn't miss but simultaneously he put a pause to their expectations.

"A mission that involves spying on shinobi from our own village is a delicate one to handle. But since Hokage-sama trusts us to uncover the truth we must remain vigilant and perform this mission to the best of our abilities."

Naruto calmed down a little because he realised that Yamato wouldn't stop them from discovering more about the mission and searching for the missing kids.

His eyes returned back to their pristine blue as he looked at Yamato and spoke before anyone else.

"How will we identify them sensei?"

That was when Yamato looked at Tachibana.

"What are you looking at me for?" Tachibana asked indignantly.

But now everyone was looking at him.

"Fine~! Fine~! I have a plan alright. But I don't know if this will succeed or fail."

Suddenly all of them began to look at Tahcibana with glowing eyes while Yamato just laughed casually in his mind.

'I knew that Tachibana was good at forming strategies given his sharp mind, but I hadn't expected him to figure out the plan I had in mind. I was just testing him.'

Giving Yamato a soft *glare' before speaking calmly,

"We can simply set up a stall in or near the underground black market while pretending to have information about the organisation we're chasing. Then they'll come to us instead of running away from us."

"And how will we find them after that?" Yamato asked but Sasuke answered, "We can just tail them by revealing to them only two of our team members while the other two stay hidden."

Yamato was about to nod, but Loki interrupted.

"Don't worry about all that. We just need to plant one of my explosive tags on them and I can track them."

"Hmm…?" Yamato's brows raised. "I thought you could only feel them from up to thirty meters away?"

"Yes. I can still only feel them from thirty meters away." Tachibana nodded.

"But then….?" Everyone was confused as to what Tachibana was indicating.

"I can simply divine the location of my explosive tag and figure out their location for all of us. We just need to wait for our enemies to return to their nest and then we can learn everything about them."

Yamato's eyes widened and everyone else got a little excited too.

Suddenly, Tachibana's unorthodox plan based on his unorthodox abilities as a seer made them feel better about what was happening.

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A/N : Thank you for reading!