Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve: CH_345

Takuma didn't like abandoned factories because they reminded him of his time in Yu. The dirty factory that served as his "home" represented a miserable time in his life when he was alone in a place that never felt safe. As he stared at the Chibumi copper mines, even though it was an underground mine instead of an open pit, he realised his dislike of mines because he had almost died multiple times the last time he was in one.

The war had been an undeniably terrible time in his life. He shook the thoughts away because he could feel himself becoming depressed as the demons tried to dig themselves free out of the roads.

Before heading inside, he wiped his body clean with a wet towel because travelling with Gai's weighted gear was an equally miserable experience as sparring with it.

He had changed into the full set of ANBU gear he had selected, which consisted of black clothing covering his entire body up to his neck, leaving only his hands bare as he didn't like covering them, a standard grey flak jacket, and a pair of long shinobi boots that reached three-quarters of the way up to his knees. He found he had gone through a growth spurt because his custom-fitted ANBU gear was larger than his standard Leaf gear, which he never noticed. His new ANBU-issue boots also fitted him better, even though he wasn't used to the spikes for travelling into mountainous regions.

His weapon pouches mimicked his usual configuration—but he now also carried a standard-issue sword. The sword strapped to his back felt strange, so he switched it to a waist holder on his side.

He put on the ANBU-issued black travel over his gear and pulled out the white-and-black ANBU-issue mask inspired by a honey badger that complete his ensemble as an ANBU operative. He stared at the mask for a moment before putting it on, and when he looked at the mine pit again, he felt calm as the previous thoughts stayed silent because he was now Ratel.

———
.

The Chibumi copper mines were a mining complex where the ore was mined and processed on-site in a nearby mill facility. The refined material was then transported to wherever it was needed.

Like almost all big mines in the Land of Fire, it ran a prison labour camp which held criminals who were sentenced to hard labour as their sentences. But it was also special because it was among the few who had prisoners who were either Leaf shinobi or were trained in shinobi arts, which required the mine to have stringent boarding and security arrangements as these prisoners were much more dangerous than civilian criminals.

The security for those criminals was handled by Leaf shinobi, who recognised what it meant to see a robed figure with an animal-inspired mask walking toward them.

"H-Hey, look at that," said one of the genin guards stationed at the entrance.

His companion looked up from the book he was reading, annoyed at being interrupted. "What?" he asked with a bite before looking up to see the figure only a few steps away from them. "I-Is that ANBU?"

"I don't know! He looks like one... What should we do?"

"...We stop him to ask. Be careful... and polite."

The figure stopped before them. Although they couldn't see the eyes through the mask, he faced them, so they guessed he was looking at them. Being unable to see his face was unsettling because they couldn't read his expression.

"I would like to meet the warden... He has been informed of the visit," said the figure, his voice inorganically distorted.

The guards exchanged nervous glances. There was a saying that meeting an ANBU-nin was never a good thing.

"We'll have to go ask... You'll have to wait here until then," one of the guards said, his tone inadvertently that of a hesitant request.

The figure nodded.

———
.

For the first time, Takuma felt the power of an ANBU mask. He had seen many responses when people interacted with him, but fear was not one until he had something against them or he was about to kill them.

With the mask on, he could feel fear radiating from them in his presence. They were scared of him, scared of what he could do to them with the authority he had. Of course, he understood they feared the ANBU-nin and not the person. He would lose this newfound ability the moment he removed his mask.

But it was useful, so he wasn't going to complain.

"I was surprised to receive the dispatch. It's not every day I find hosting an ANBU-nin."

He sat before the prison warden of the labour camp in his office. Shimura Bunradao was a Leaf shinobi and a chunin who had been managing the prison for four years. He managed a force of forty shinobi who kept prisoners in check.

Takuma didn't have anything against the man, but he couldn't help but be apprehensive when facing someone from the Shimura clan. Even though the Shimura clan had publicly renounced Shimura Danzo after his crimes came to the surface, he refused to believe they were clean with someone like that at the helm. The culture was decided at the top; bad leadership often bled down to the ground level.

And he knew how prisons were run. They weren't pretty places, and he didn't think Bunradao would be a saint who ran his prison as a place of true rehabilitation, especially a forced labour camp.

"It wasn't mentioned, so may I ask what this visit is about?" asked Bunradao as he offered him some whiskey that Takuma refused

"What do you think it is about?" said Takuma, keeping his voice distorted. It was a choice he made because his voice had been cracking, and he hated every second of it. He couldn't let puberty ruin his first case as an ANBU operative.

"...Is it about Lord Danzo?" Bunradao narrowed his eyes in displeasure before leaning into his leather chair with a tired expression. "How many times must I talk about him? Torture and Interrogation, Intelligence, ANBU—I've already talked to many people about it. I do not have anything different to say at this point. How long must I suffer through this abuse?"

"You can't blame us here, Chunin Bunradao. You still call the traitor Lord Danzo. It's not unreasonable to think his clan might be covering for him. Of course, I'm not pointing fingers, but until his actions have had consequences, your clan is unfortunately paying the price.

Bunradao looked flustered when Takuma pointed out how respectfully he still referred to Danzo. His shoulders sagged, and his voice became much more submissive as he apologised. "I-It's a force of habit... Please go ahead, ask me whatever you want," he sounded defeated.

"We will revisit this some other day. Today, I'm here for other business. I wish to meet one of your prisoners here. Koyamo Sonsei, do you recognise him?" asked Takuma.

The conversation about Danzo wasn't initially part of the plan, but it came up, so he decided to use it to his advantage. Bunradao was clearly stressed about it, and by bringing it up first, he made him anxious, so when he found out that the visit was not about Danzo, he would feel relieved and would be much more perceptive to his demands.

"I do," said Bunradao, colour returning to his face. "Why do you want to meet him?"

"He claims to have information ANBU might be interested in."

"Okay, I will arrange a meeting; you can meet after he's done with his shift," Bunradao nodded. "But before that, you must go meet with the Daimyo's emissary. He'll be very cross with me if I allow you to meet with the prisoner without having you meet him."

"A samurai?"

Bunradao nodded.

In the Land of Fire, all mines were owned by the Fire Daimyo. His government and ministry operated some of them, and others he contracted out. Those with the ability could win the rights to operate a mine, set up the infrastructure and operations using their own money, and give a cut of their revenue back to the Fire Daimyo. Many mines, small and big, were operated by powerful and wealthy civilians, and shinobi and samurai clans.

However, because the Fire Daimyo owned the mines, he always sent a samurai emissary to oversee the mines, keep an eye on operations production to prevent corruption and profiteering,

The Chibumi copper mines were owned and operated directly by the Fire Daimyo, which made the samurai emissary the boss of the entire operation. Bunradao was only the prison warden and reported to the emissary. If the samurai wanted, he could deny Takuma his meeting as he had authority in the Chibumi mines.

"How many shinobi serve under you here, warden?" Takuma asked as they travelled to the samurai's residence.

The Chibumi mines consisted of thirteen underground nodes. The seventh node was the labour camp with shinobi prisoners, which came under Bunradao's purview. There were two more labour camps with civilian prisoners managed by civilians. The rest of them employed normal men working in mines for a living. The emissary's residence was located at the first and the oldest node, along with the main headquarters.

"I have thirty shinobi working under me."

"And how many prisoners?"

"Eighty prisoners."

Takuma frowned when he heard the numbers. The prisoners in the seventh node were all shinobi, and even though they had their chakra sealed with fūinjutsu, they still had access to some of it because the bigwigs upstairs wanted to exploit the enhanced physical capabilities of shinobi in a labour-intensive activity like mining—and that made them much more dangerous. Thirty shinobi was not safe enough to handle eighty prisoners.

"And you handle the mine's security as well?" asked Takuma.

"No, my men only handle the prisoners. The overall security is someone else's responsibility."

"I must say, you don't have enough men."

"Don't I know that," Bunradao scoffed. "I want more men, but the samurai don't like it when there are too many shinobi. They don't want us increasing influence here; they think they will steal control of the mines if we are involved too much in a single mine. I have twenty civilians working under me because they wouldn't let me hire more shinobi..."

Bunradao was one of the two chunin among the prison guards. According to him, when he failed to add numbers, he tried to get stronger shinobi, but even that was rejected, and he was limited to two chunin because someone argued that they didn't have more chunin because all the prisoners were genin.

"That's why they don't allow labour camps like ours in mines operated by shinobi clans. They fear that if shinobi-operated mines produce more, we will be able to influence the Daimyo to gain more rights. Shinobi labour camps are only allowed at mines like this one, where the bigwig is a samurai who can limit and control."

Takuma had done his research before coming but didn't know much about the power struggle. It made sense because mining mineral ores was big business, and those who controlled them possessed much power and money. While Daimyo was the de-facto leader of the nation and his retainer samurai clans his soldiers, shinobi possessed significantly more power. He could see the other side doing everything possible to limit the shinobi dominance to only military power.

"What is the emissary like?"

"He'll push you around if he thinks he can get away with it. He can't block you from meeting the prisoners because they're officially under Leaf's custody, but he can and will try to make it difficult for you if you give him the opportunity just to satisfy his ego."

Takuma sighed internally.

"Before I meet him, I would like to talk to one of your guards who knows Koyamo Sonsei. Please arrange that as well," he said as they arrived at the Daimyo's residence at the first mining node.

He wondered how his newfound ability as an ANBU-nin would work on a samurai.

———
.

"Everything ready?"

"Y-Yes, I have done what you asked for. A-Are you sure you want to do this? I heard they k-killed the last time someone tried to break out."

Deep within the earth, former shinobi who had committed crimes mined mineral-rich ore as part of their punishment. Their status as criminals could be identified by the black fūinjutsu seals all over their skin, including their faces; these seals didn't disappear and remained visible like permanent tattoos.

Over in a corner, next to a wall, two men whispered to each other. The larger, bald man with menacing features that only became more intimidating because of the thick seal tattoos thundered when he heard the smaller man next to him question him.

The large man grabbed the other man by his neck and lifted him while his thick fingers wrapped around his neck. The smaller man immediately tried to free himself by attacking with the skill suitable for a shinobi but was slammed into the wall with enough force to crumble a large portion of raw ore and dirt.

It made noise, but no one batted an eye inside a mine.

"If you fuck me, I will kill you myself before they can get their hands on you!" the larger man hissed.

"I-I-I..." the smaller man's face turned red as the pressure around his neck tightened.

The large man released the grip and let the other man fall. He clicked his tongue, "Just do your fucking job, and we will have our freedom soon. You can pretend to be not part of it and stay here, but it's too late to quit."

They heard footsteps echo, and the smaller man coughing on the ground immediately got up, picked up his pick-axe, returned to work and began mining the ore out of the walls.

"Hey, what is happening here!" said one of the prison guards.

"He inhaled some dust," said the large man calmly, completely opposite to his previous demeanour.

The prison guard stared at them with suspicion for a moment before giving them a warning and walking away.