34

Right after Haru went out of the house very secretly, he headed to the edge of the clan. As he got closer, Haru already sensed someone's chakra. He got into sensory mode and paid closer attention before he found the place where the person was hiding.

Haru found the spot and gazed briefly at it, and the man noticed him and emerged. The man appeared to be taller than Haru, but nothing else could be discerned from his appearance. "Are you the new one?" the man said, his voice very raspy.

"They really take anonymity very seriously," Haru thought. The person facing him didn't have anything that could identify him; even his hair was in a very normal style. Having already gained an understanding of their methods, Haru just nodded to the man.

There was silence for a while before Haru heard him say, "You call me One from now on. You will be known as Five." He then continued, "We don't have a schedule. Once we are needed, we will be notified of what we need to do."

Haru noticed that the other person wasn't very talkative, so he decided to be straightforward and ask, "Are there any rules I need to know?" He also changed his voice and tone; the technique of changing one's voice was taught to all ninja in the academy and was considered very important.

The man thought for a while before replying, "When we do our tasks, usually there are no more than three or two people in a team. You shouldn't ask about your teammates or try to know their identities. It's best if you can't be seen at all during a mission, but if you are seen, don't leave any traces behind. Finally, don't ask about or talk about the task after it's completed. Is that clear?"

The man waited for Haru to ask more questions before he vanished. Haru also used the body flicker technique to return to his room. This conversation gave him important information. It seemed that the number of hidden guards was not large, and his code name was five, indicating that their number shouldn't exceed two digits.

"Well, it wasn't that weird," Haru thought. Kazuki had said that their most important job was to protect Mito and the clan. But those two tasks have already been accomplished. With Mito's power and her sensing abilities, no enemy can remain hidden from her. The same applied to the Senju clan residence, which was surrounded by multiple seals. Anyone trying to enter without permission would be completely annihilated if they were not strong enough. Especially with Mito inside and controlling all the seals, if you don't have the power of a Hokage, you should give up.

"Then, for them, the remaining tasks should be the ones mostly done outside the village." Haru chuckled as he thought about the small number and secrecy with which they were operating. It seemed that the relationship between the village and the clans wasn't as peaceful as it appeared.

After this episode, his life went back to normal, as if the meeting had never happened. He didn't express any impatience and resumed his usual routine of working at the hospital, doing so four times a week in different shifts. Unlike Tsunade, who was the head doctor, Haru was at the bottom and had to work different shifts, including days and nights.

This went on for days. Today, as Haru was finishing with his last patient of the day, he sensed a familiar chakra. It was Kazuki. Haru smiled for a split second before continuing with the patient as normal. After he finished, Haru went through his usual routine of picking up his notes for the day and cleaning before leaving the hospital. From the outside, you wouldn't have noticed anything different about him.

Once he was close to the clan, Haru flickered inside his house to change into his work clothes and grab a pouch filled with everything he needed. Then, he went to the place where he had previously met with one. There, he saw him waiting for him.

Before Haru could ask anything, one threw a scroll at him. He caught it and opened it to read the information about the task they needed to do. Haru ingrained it into his memory before he set the scroll on fire. He noticed one's gaze shift to his hand. "Traces," he replied. Haru couldn't see the expression on one's face, but he found joy in imagining it.

One didn't intervene and flickered away. Haru followed right after, keeping a little distance between them. One went to the outskirts of the village and took a desolate path to leave. "There are different blind spots we can use to bypass the security barrier," he continued. "This is one of them. You will be familiar with the rest later."

Haru just hummed in acknowledgment. "I can give you a map if you want," he thought. As Mito's disciple, he knew the protective barrier of Konoha inside out, and all the blind spots were very familiar to him. But he didn't say anything. Not anyone could have that information. If he said it out loud, it could leave traces to his identity.

One started running at a very fast pace and jumping from one tree to another, but even then, his steps were very silent. He didn't look back and didn't communicate with Haru anymore. Haru just kept up with him and remained silent.

The Hidden Guard were just like ANBU; the main difference was that they worked for the clan, not for the Hokage. And, in some capacity, they were far stricter than the ANBU in their recruitment. If someone got inside, that meant their excellent abilities and skills. That's why One had a lukewarm attitude toward Haru from the start; anything that Haru did was to be expected, and he didn't question anything.

The journey wasn't very long at the pace they were going; before midnight, they were already close to the task spot. One stopped and said, "Rest." Haru did what he was told and sat in one of the trees. He took an energy bar and ate it. Even if the journey didn't take a lot of their stamina, being at 100% while doing a task was the smart choice.

After resting for a quarter of an hour, one asked, "Are you a sensor?" Haru nodded his head. It was obvious the first time he spotted One and looked at him very openly. One guessed right then, and Haru didn't hide it. Keeping everything from your teammates wasn't wise. He could show them things that weren't very special and easy to recognize with.

"Then let's go our separate ways. Do you recognize my chakra by now?" Haru nodded again. Before both of them went to the town in separate ways, Haru took a moment to observe their surroundings. The town wasn't very big, but it was bustling with activity. Bright neon signs advertising casinos and hotels filled the streets, drawing in crowds of people. The sound of slot machines and lively chatter filled the air, creating a vibrant atmosphere. As Haru sensed the large number of people from such a distance, their task was in one of the casinos in the town.

Haru infiltrated the town secretly until he came to his target's location. It was a bustling casino filled with people of all age groups. The place was full of voices and laughter from drunk customers. Haru didn't pay them any mind and searched for their target. Soon, he found him; a man in his thirties wearing expensive clothes with a lot of guards around him.

Once he got him under his vision, Haru merged into the shadows and paid close attention to him. Their task wasn't an assassination, well, kinda. The man was a small noble from the Land of Fire, and he was causing some trouble in the casinos and brothels here. All those places belonged to their customers. Their main task was to stop the man if he got too far and scare him out. Their secondary task was to figure out if he was the one who was behind the disappearance of some of the prostitutes here.

Haru paid close attention to the second task; it was the most important one that their customer wanted an answer to. Having a noble causing trouble was not enough to get them involved, but meddling in the business was something different. If the girls were killed or, worse, set free, that would be much worse news for the owner.

"Pimp, huh," Haru thought. Prostitution and gambling were profitable businesses in any world, including the ninja world, but working for them was a new thing. Haru chuckled. The Senju weren't as innocent as he had thought. Having a private relationship with such a person was interesting. His amusement grew even more. This job really was fun.

The rest of the night, Haru was the one following the noble around, from casinos to brothels to izakayas. He was like his shadow. Haru sensed One multiple times, but it seemed that he left to collect information midway. Haru didn't bother. There were three possibilities: either the noble being here was a complete accident and had nothing to do with the disappearing girls, or he was the one behind it, and lastly, someone was using him as a shield to have him take all the attention and have an easier time doing what they wanted.

Around 2 in the morning, Haru noticed the noble going to the toilet very drunk. Haru followed him and got inside very secretly. The guards didn't notice anything, and the noble was out in no time and went back to having his fun with the girls.

This continued until late at night when the noble finally fell asleep. Finally, at this time, the town was quiet.

Under the cover of night, a man in dark clothing was running away, carrying a girl with him. Both Haru and One were watching calmly from afar. Suddenly, One said, "That's one of the guards of the nobleman," and Haru just nodded, then said, "It's his own choice."

One maintained eye contact with Haru until he heard him utter the word "genjutsu." Previously, Haru had cast a simple genjutsu on the nobleman, taking advantage of his guards' inattentiveness, to confirm that he was not responsible for the incident.

Haru just stood there and waited before he said, "Should we capture him or just give the information?" One thought for a while before he replied, "How strong is he?" Haru sensed for a while before he said, "Chunin." One added, "He should be a rogue ninja. They can't defeat a chunin. Let's get him," he said.

Haru chuckled and said in amusement, "Is this considered overtime?" before both flickered away to chase the man.

From one body language, Haru knew that the task would fall into his hands. He sighed slightly before picking up his pace and attacking. Suddenly, the guard ducked the punch that was thrown at his head. He wanted to evade and keep a distance, especially since he was with a woman, but his opponent didn't give him any chance to breathe. He noticed the strange appearance, and his face grew paler. Anyone wearing such clothes was someone he couldn't play with.

Before he could say anything, he was bombarded with attacks from different angles. Suddenly, two hands emerged from underground and grabbed his ankles. He felt a hit on his neck and fell into darkness. It wasn't even a fight with the burden of the woman; he didn't have any chance against Haru.

Haru caught the guard and gave him a pill that would make him sleep for a while. Ninjas, with their chakra and vitality, are stronger than normal people, so even though he was currently unconscious, he would wake up very quickly - but not with this pill.

Haru looked at the woman for a moment before saying, "She's just unconscious." They both took a person each before heading back. One stopped in the forest, and Haru noticed, so he stopped too. He looked around at the place they were in, then at One, and asked, "Do you want to interrogate him?" One simply nodded. Haru continued, "Well then, you do it. I'm not interested in him."

While Haru kept the woman unconscious, One took on the task of interrogating the man. Surprisingly, it didn't take much time - the man spilled everything he knew easily, and One didn't even need to torture him.

It was like a story from a fairy tale - a wandering ninja falling in love with a prostitute and doing anything to get her out of that business. He worked his way up until he became a bodyguard of one of the nobles known to visit such places, and then it became easy. With the noble and his troubles as cover, he kidnapped many women before setting them free outside. His reasoning for kidnapping multiple women was to distribute attention to multiple targets, hoping that his beloved would be less noticeable.

"Stupid," Haru thought, after they put the man inside the casino manager's office with a note explaining everything. What that man did was indeed foolish from Haru's point of view. He had been messing around with the town's business for multiple days. What he cost them was far more than any prostitutes could earn in a year. This is reality, not a story. With those kinds of people, he can't be a knight or a savior. If all he wanted was that one girl, he would have had a better chance if he worked for the casino owner instead.

Having a chunin work for you, especially if you know their weak point, the owner would have given him ten girls instead of one. But maybe that's why he didn't go that way. Giving your weak point away, especially for a rogue ninja who is used to working alone, wouldn't be easy. "People are really stupid," Haru mused silently as they got close to the village.