CH_7.18 (236)

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Anko observed a storage warehouse through a pair of binoculars. The sun had long set, and she stood in the open a couple hundred metres from the warehouse. She saw two pairs of guards patrolling the perimeter of the warehouse; they seemed to be civilians, essentially making them non-threats. According to the intel provided by Motohiro's resistance group, the warehouse didn't have any shinobi guards, which made the job so much easier.

She was more than surprised when Takuma returned from the meeting with Motohiro's resistance group to report that he had to reveal his face to them. It was understandable why they would want to know, but she didn't expect that play from a group of civilians. Moreover, they asked the team to do something so they could restart the relationship on stable grounding.

The occupying forces created an artificial shortage of food in Yu. Motohiro had been helping his people and their families with support, but a single man could only feed over a hundred mouths for so long before funds started to run dry.

The solution they came up with was to rob a warehouse with produce set to be exported out of the city and into the Land of Frost. The food that was supposed to feed the region was going out to the enemy country—that food was theirs, and they felt more than justified to take it back. The group could've done it on their own, but the amount of goods to be moved was too large, and they didn't have any means to move it quickly and quietly.

Fortunately, for Anko's team, it wasn't a problem at all; they had a specialist made for the job. She put the binoculars down and turned to her team—Iori, Daiki, Kameko, and Takuma. It was overkill to bring everyone but Rikku; however, Iori was essential to the operation. Daiki wanted to do something else other than following Gaku around; Kameko was going stir-crazy from their visits to Chinatsu's clients as her maid, and as for Takuma, he insisted on being there because the job was for Motohiro's group.

"This is going to be an easy job, so Kameko is going to lead," said Anko.

"Understood," said Kameko and addressed the team. "We're going to knock the guards out so we can work in peace." There was no real benefit to stealth around the guards; they were bound to know about the robbery, and it didn't matter if it was sooner or later. "Upon getting inside, we take inventory of stuff we need, after which Iori packs everything up, and we leave."

Iori had a large scroll strapped to her back, three-quarters of her height. The regular, pocket-sized storage scrolls weren't going to cut it for the amount of produce they were planning to move.

"Takuma, you're going to keep watch just in case."

"Yes, ma'am," said Takuma, putting his mask on.

"Any doubts? Let's go."

The team put on their masks and stealthily proceeded toward the warehouse with Kameko in the lead. Anko and Iori paired up to take care of the first pair of guards, while Daiki and Kameko went after the second pair. Takuma directly headed inside to clean up whoever was inside.

In less than five minutes, the team regrouped inside, with six people knocked out and tied up inside a room.

The warehouse was filled with flour, pulses, rice, salt, and other spices. There were bags upon bags made of jute filled with produce that could keep stomachs full for months.

"What do you need?" Kameko asked Iori.

Iori pulled the strap holding the large scroll from her shoulder. "We have a list of their needs by weight. All of you choose a few things and pile them separately out by the weight listed on this list." She held up a list for everyone to see. "Make sure bags in a pile are in contact with each other—any bag that's even a few centimetres detached from the pile won't be stored. Please ensure you don't go over the listed weights because I've prepared according to this list—go off the list, transfer will fail, and I'll waste chakra—we don't want that."

Due to its complexity and skill, the large custom-made scroll required a fuin-nin to operate. Not even Anko could use it. The large mass and volume required a lot of chakra to be sealed; as such, Iori had to plan everything down to the smallest detail so as not to waste her chakra. According to her, the amount to be sealed was cutting it close with respect to Iori's chakra reserves.

"Any questions?" asked Iori.

Daiki raised his hand. "Yes, uhm... why are the same items mentioned twice with different weights." On the list, every single item was mentioned twice—the first time with a larger weight and the second time with a smaller weight.

"Once sealed, all the items inside will only be released together," she replied. "Fulfil the first, larger entry—if there's not enough to fulfil the smaller entry, it's fine; I'll seal whatever's remaining."

Anko looked at the two entries for each item. The larger entry was the amount asked by Motohiro's group. The second, smaller entry was an extra amount that Takuma had added to be stored separately because it wasn't going to the group. She recalled Takuma's words when they were preparing for the mission.

"—In the current Yu, food is a valuable commodity. Seeing how Motohiro was willing to act like that in front of us tells me that we should also stock up on it. It'd undoubtedly come in use.—"

She agreed with his assessment. They could pay people off in food through a barter system. If someone struggling suddenly found themselves with a lot of money and used it to buy food, someone might notice and question where they came up with the money; however, with food, once it was inside someone's home, no one would know because it wouldn't ever go out of the house.

"Let's do it quickly," said Kameko, splitting the list items among the team.

Iori sat down on the ground with the scroll resting beside her. She closed her eyes and meditated in preparation for the sealing process. Half an hour later, she was roused out of her meditative state. The piles of jute bags had been created according to the list

"I want silence, and I don't want anybody touching me," said Iori.

Iori started from the left side of the warehouse and opened the giant scroll to reveal intricate fuinjutsu inkwork for large storage seals. She approached the first pile and touched it with one hand while the other was on the scroll. The huge pile, almost a storey tall, disappeared in a massive cloud of smoke. The ink on the scroll moved, altering the structure of the seal formulae; the moving ink came to a rest when the pile was securely stored in an artificial pocket of space.

Iori breathed out deeply. She stayed still for a moment before unfurling the scroll further and moving to the next pile. She sealed the massive piles of food into the scrolls one at a time. As she moved to the right, a sheen of sweat built up her skin, and her breathing grew laboured until she was wheezing 90% of the way to completion.

"Iori, please wait," said Daiki, stepping forward, worry on his face and in his voice. "Are you sure you're feeling up for it? I'm worried about chakra exhaustion," he said, looking at Anko.

Everyone on the team was well familiar with the dangers of chakra exhaustion. The worst-case outcome was death, and even if they excluded that, Iori could still end up in need of prolonged bed rest, which wasn't something they could have while they were in hostile territory.

Iori raised her hand to stop Daiki from approaching. She was hunched over with one hand on her knee as her entire torso moved with her laboured breathing. She looked up at him with sharpness in her eyes.

"Silence and... don't touch me," she said between wheezes.

She straightened herself up and threw her head back in silence for a full ten seconds before dragging her feet to the next pile. The sealing process slowed; the ink on the scroll moved sluggishly as Iori became exhausted. Sealing such a vast amount wasn't a job for a single genin fuin-nin.

As Iori approached the last pile, seven small bags of dried chillies, Anko tried to stop her.

"Stop, Iori. I have an empty scroll. We can fit some in the scroll and carry the rest," she said.

Iori ignored her, and her dainty touched a dried chilli bag. A puff of smoke later, the small pile disappeared. Her feet trembled before she tilted to the side. She was about to fall when Takuma appeared beside her to hold her up.

"You should leave this type of over-exertion to me," Takuma said to Iori.

Iori tried to laugh, but her legs ultimately gave out at that moment. Takuma held her up and then swept her into a princess carry.

Anko sighed as she looked at Iori. She knew that Iori was insecure about her position in the team. Unlike Kameko and Rikku, she wasn't a strong combat asset. Daiki had been active as the "muscle," and his stealth experience was also valuable. While she acted as Chinatsu's maid, the courtesan only went out once a week, and the girls were on a rotation on who was going to accompany her and who was going to stay at home. And there was no use comparing herself to Takuma.

The night before the police station bombing, Iori had woken up thrice during the night to check the explosive tags. For this mission as well, she had been checking the custom scroll the entire day—she would be satisfied with the quality of her seals, but then she would return half an hour later with a new wave of worry.

Iori wanted to prove her value by completing the only thing she could on the team: fuinjutsu. Even if it meant pushing herself toward chakra exhaustion, she wouldn't let anyone take it away from her.

"Daiki, pick up the scroll," said Anko. "Good job, let's leave now."

———

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Motohiro stood in his warehouse, staring at the jute bags filled with produce piled up high in multiple heaps. It had been months since his warehouse had been this occupied, so he didn't mind the few torn bags leaking grains, which he would've immediately tried to gather up because of the food shortage.

"Big brother... i-is this real?" asked Wada, one of his close aides and a leader in the resistance group, with his mouth hanging open.

"They weren't lying; they really did it," said Miyauchi, another one of his aides, gulping at the amount of food in front of him.

Motohiro had no words for them. He turned toward the other side of the warehouse, where Tobi and Gaku had a large scroll with them. He flinched when a large smoke cloud exploded in the warehouse, and the smoke thinned to reveal a huge pile of jute bags full of dry beans.

He had asked them to rob the warehouse six days ago. Two days ago, he received the news that the warehouse had been robbed, but the two shinobi didn't contact them. He started to worry that the shinobi had abandoned them, and his group began to worry, thinking that some trouble would come their way. He regretted asking the shinobi for a moment, but then they contacted him.

"I hope this satisfies you, gentlemen," said Tobi.

"Of course, it does," said Motohiro—he didn't say it, but he didn't expect them to rob the amount he had asked; he had deliberately over-quoted so they would feel pressured to bring more—but he didn't expect to get that over-quoted amount.

Tobi looked at Wada and Miyauchi, who instantly responded positively and responsibly, unlike the last time when they were upset; Wada even had to be held back in case he tried to do something stupid.

"Then I hope you'll do us a favour as well," said Tobi.

"What?"

"We'd like you to introduce us to the Kumi Family."

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