Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve: CH_342

"How's the new kid doing?" Barbary asked Campbell as they gazed out from the roof of Ironwood Protection Company's offices, which was secured shut with a thick metal hatch reinforced with fūinjutsu for security reasons, but that stopped no one from scaling the side of the building in case they wanted to enjoy a smoke break.

Campbell took a drag from his cigarette and waited for a moment before replying, "Ratel's working his way through trash mail."

"Uff, that's a tough start," Barbary took the cigar out from his mouth to chuckle. "But are you sure you want him spending his time on trash mail?"

Campbell didn't agree with Dhole's decision to put their newest addition on trash mail duty. He wanted him to involve Ratel in some of his cases, as Caracara did with Kestrel, to familiarise himself with the work and get him running independently. It was in his authority to order Dhole to have Ratel join him on his cases, but he didn't want to because he very well knew how territorial ANBU operatives were when it came to their cases. He, too, wouldn't like it if someone walked into his case against his will, so he didn't want to cross that line... yet.

"He's paying his dues as the newest."

He couldn't complain about his team in front of his boss as that would only seem like he couldn't run and control them properly.

"That is important," Barbary said as he puffed out smoke.

But Campbell knew some things were left unsaid. There were more important things to Campbell Squad than having Ratel pay his dues because they were falling behind the other squads. There was an assessment coming in a couple of months, and they needed good showings from Kestrel and Ratel as soon as possible to look comparable to other squads if they didn't want their feet to be chopped off by losing resources and case priorities.

He looked at his cigarette after another drag and felt like his usual amount wouldn't cut it anymore.

———
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It didn't take long for Takuma to come to a consensus with others that trash mail absolutely sucked ass.

He had been chipping away at it for over two weeks and hadn't found a single legitimate report. Over half of them were blackmailing attempts or absurd conspiracy theories that should've been run through a shredder, but he had to check them just in case there was something—which, of course, there wasn't. If that wasn't bad, there were a few that seemed viable and gave them a chance of legitimacy, which made him send requests through the intelligence network around the Land of Fire. He had to keep in touch with other shinobi, follow through with them when they didn't reply or he wanted additional information, and juggle a dozen more things which came with collaborating with people far away.

And yet, not a single report turned out to be true.

He understood why others had been lackadaisical with their trash mail checking. Where he submitted multiple requests to the intelligence network for every case to ensure nothing of importance; others had done a single check, and if nothing came back, they moved on.

Takuma was starting to think it was also time to move onto a similar approach.

"Just get this over with and have Dhole give you a real case," said Amami as she sipped on a cup of crappy coffee as she sat behind his desk on his chair while he sat on a second-hand couch and low table he had purchased for his office, working on yet another trash mail.

"Help me out then."

"Eww, no."

Takuma glared at her before returning to finishing the report to shut down the trail mail he was working on.

"I think I remember talking about this one. Caracara was just finishing this when I had just joined," said Amami, suddenly reading a trash mail file. "Someone is claiming there's an unauthorised, off-the-books hit shop running out of the Maizuru Quarters. That's wild, isn't it?"

"I thought you weren't interested," said Takuma.

Maizuru Quarters was a military installation southwest of the Hidden Leaf village. It was built as a strategic base to train, equip, and deploy troops against a possible attack from the Hidden Sand through the Land of Rivers, the nation that sat between the Land of Wind and the Land of Fire. It was one of Leaf's major bases in terms of population and responsibility, as it was in charge of border security along the River-Fire border.

He remembered that certain trash mail. There was an anonymous report that there was someone was taking assassination jobs from within the Maizuru Quarters. The shinobi within the base didn't take commercial jobs, and thus, fulfilling hit contracts was not something that should be happening there.

"I didn't have to do anything with that. Caracara did a good enough job for an anonymous report. She contacted the base commander, and he ran an investigation that didn't turn out anything. There was nothing more I could do there except for an in-person visit, but that would be completely unwarranted after the base commander's investigation unless something new popped up."

Takuma returned his focus to the report on hand, only to frown a few seconds later when he remembered that he had already closed that trash mail case and that the file shouldn't be in his office. Had he forgotten to turn in the file?

"What are you reading from?" he asked.

"This letter isn't anonymous, though," Amami held up a letter he didn't recognise.

"Show that to me."

He walked to the desk and took the letter. He didn't recognise the letter because he hadn't read it. He looked at the file on his desk, an unmarked file used for unprocessed trash mail.

"I guess something did pop up, huh," said Amami.

———
.

Campbell looked at the letter and didn't know what to think. A few days ago, he thought Ratel's going through trash mail was a waste of time, and now he sat across from the kid who said he had found something in the same trash mail. He couldn't even remember the last time trash mail had become anything other than a waste of time.

"The first letter was anonymous and came directly from Maizuru Quarters," said Takuma, pointing at the letter, which was sent in an envelope made from stationary marked with the base's insignia, "but this second letter came from a prison labour camp far away from the Maizuru Quarters—both of these letters make the same claim that there's an unauthorised hit shop running out the military base."

Campbell couldn't deny the existence of the second letter, making the same claim and raising some questions, but it wasn't enough. He asked about the second sender.

"Uyegita Gekin, a former Leaf genin. He was sentenced to ten years of labour in the Chibumi copper mines two years ago. I checked his records; he was stationed at the Maizuru Quarters for three years. He has the background to make the claim," said Ratel.

"What did he do?"

"He raped and killed a kunoichi," said Ratel, grimace and disgust flashing past his features as the words left his mouth. He saw the expression on Campbell's face along with the silence that accompanied it. "We shouldn't dismiss his claims because of what he did."

"But it also doesn't make his claims credible."

"Which is why I'd like to go visit him in person. I can confirm if he's telling the truth, and if so, then he clearly knows more things that he hasn't mentioned in the letter."

Campbell looked past Ratel at Dhole, who was sitting on the couch, staring at the ceiling fan as though completely zoned out of the conversation, but Campbell knew that he was always paying attention.

"What do you think?" he asked.

"... It's going to be risky if we are rash," Dhole spoke without removing his eyes from the fan. "The base commander conducted an internal investigation which concluded that no such illegal operation was running in his base... If we re-open this now after that investigation, and it turns out to be nothing, he will definitely make a big ruckus, and that might get us into trouble, which would be really bad for us, especially now..."

Even though they were an ANBU unit and were granted a considerable amount of power, enough to arrest and interrogate almost all Leaf shinobi without a warrant, Maizuru Quarters' base commander was a jōnin. A jōnin was not someone even ANBU could treat recklessly because of their rank and the authority and status that came with it. Re-opening the case after the base commander's investigation had declared the base clear would be considered an act of undermining him and damaging his reputation. There wouldn't be a problem if they did find the existence of a hit shop—but if they found nothing, there would be repercussions against them, especially once it was revealed that the source was trash mail.

"... But the two letters raise a question," Dhole continued, finally looking at Campbell. "It would be irresponsible not to look into it, and there's no harm in interrogating the man to see if he can back his claim."

Campbell sighed because Dhole was right. The fact that they had received two letters from two different places wasn't something they could ignore. And if the claim was true, the case was right down the Inquisitor Unit's line of work.

"Okay, Dhole, you should—"

"Sorry, can't do, boss. I'm too busy," said Dhole, cutting Campbell off. "I don't have the time to make this visit, and I'm not saying this because I don't want to travel. I genuinely don't have the time. I have too much on my plate."

Campbell frowned. He knew both Caracara and Kestrel weren't available because they were about to leave for their own travel for case purposes, and if Dhole was occupied as well, it meant there was only one option because Krait was away from the office.

"Just let the kid do it. He found it by slogging through the trash mail. And it's not like he doesn't know what he's doing with his Police Force background," said Dhole.

Campbell looked at Ratel, who looked eager and willing to take on the responsibility. He didn't want Ratel to start out alone and wanted him to spend some time under Dhole's guidance, but that was just wishful thinking based on what he had seen for the past two weeks. Caracara had her hands filled with Kestrel, and he couldn't put another one in her hands. Krait was unavailable. Campbell, himself, didn't have the time to go.

There was no other choice, and as Dhole said, the Police Force background made Ratel competent with this kind of work.

"Alright, you go talk to this guy, Ratel. But this doesn't mean I'm greenlighting this case. Report back with what the guy tells you; then we will see if we want to proceed."

"Yes, sir!"

———

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AN: So, a question about how I wrote this.

In Campbell's internal thoughts, I used Ratel for Takuma—but do you think I should use "Takuma"? This type of thing has always been confusing for me.