Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve: CH_250

Sneaking out of the Chinatsu house was easy enough. They snuck out from the backside from a balcony. They stuck to the walls with their backs using chakra adhesion and shifted until they were out of sight of the two people in the back, keeping a look out. It was their second day on duty, and one would expect them to be alert, but it was late at night and they weren't used to the night schedule, making it the perfect time to sneak out.

The moment they cleared out of the guard's detection, they broke into a full on sprint and leaping over buildings, taking the shortest possible path to Takuma's safe house. But as they neared the location, they threw in the typical tactics for loosing tails by roaming around at a quickened pace, snaking through alleys and mixing in altitude change before finally arriving at Takuma's safehouse.

They heard nothing as they entered the property, but as they neared the building, they heard faint sounds of someone being tortured inside.

"He's doing it this late?" Gaku whispered, expecting for Takuma to be resting this late at night.

"Let's go, we need to finish this quickly," Daiki said, urging them. He was leading the trio and was the most tense during this outing. Getting caught meant having their cover blown deep in the enemy territory—that absolutely terrified him. "Let's go inside."

They vaulted over the building and landed in the open courtyard.

"Takuma," Iori called and the place went silent.

The door to one of the rooms opened, but there was no one in the doorway, and they could only see a chained body laying on a bench inclined with wood blocks underneath one side. There was a puddle of water around the prisoner. Takuma stepped out from behind the walalll after a full five seconds and looked tense with a kunai in his hand for a few moments until his breathed out and closed the door behind him.

"Prisoner seals?" asked Takuma as he walked toward them. "You better have brought me something good to eat."

"You look horrible," Iori immediately commented on Takuma's bloodshot eyes and dark circles which had improved since he had come to Yu, but now were back to being terrible. "Are you fine? Do you want help?"

"I'm fine," said Takuma as he twisted his body to crack his spine. "I can't have them getting comfortable—they're kept under pressure be it day, evening, or night. I'm making progress. I think I'll have them spilling information tomorrow."

When Iori didn't say anything at looked at Takuma ridiculously, and he stared back at her, Gaku moved them along.

"Which one do you want us to do first?" asked River.

"Do Aranai first," said Takuma and put his hand forward.

Daiki took out two vials of sleeping agents and needles from his pack and handed them to Takuma, who went back into the room to knock Aranai out so Iori could work on him without resistance.

"So who came to the house from the Hidden Frost?" Takuma talked to Gaku outside Aranai's room as Iori worked inside with Daiki. The message Anko had sent with the snalke only had information about the Hidden Frost's raid and nothing about what was happening at the Chinatsu house.

"A jonin named Ebi," Gaku answered.

Takuma looked at him with wide eyes. "Really? I guess that makes sense. Ryuya tells me that he's the jonin managing all of it while others having a vacation. I'm thinking that if we take him down—I mean not us, but someone else from the main forces—but if we take them down, we can crumble the enemy's structure." That was the kind of information he wanted from Aranai; the kind of information they were sent to collect.

"Why do you work so hard?" Gaku asked after starting at the tired Takuma lost in his thoughts.

"Hmm?"

"These is not your country, not your people, not your war—and yet you're working like a ghost with a vengeance."

Takuma took a deep breath as he leaned against a pillar.

"I'm not doing this for Yu or the Land of Hot Waters. I'm doing this for myself—sure you from my effort—but I'm putting in this effort because it progresses my career. If this goes well, when I return home, my achievements will push me over the edge and get me promoted—at least, I hope so."

Takuma then chuckled.

"What?" asked Gaku.

"I consulted with my teachers before coming here, and they said that wars are where shinobi are made, where legends are coined, where heroes are born, and whatnot—I don't feel like a legend or hero." Takuma smiled as he pushed himself off the pillar.

"But I guess, I am finding more about what it means to be a shinobi."

———
.

"Is this it?" Ebi asked as he looked at a milling factory owned by a man called Motohiro.

"Yes, our person in the Kumi family says the owner of his this factory has been helping the Hidden Leaf shinobi," said Ebi's subordinate.

Yesterday afternoon they had received the information that the Kumi family head's health had taken nosedive and he was bedridden, unable to lead his family. In his absence, Gyon, the head's son, had taken charge of the family. Gyon was their contact inside the Kumi family, who wanted Hidden Frost's support for taking over as the family's head, and Kumi's continual existence in power, and in return, he gave them information about the intruder inside the city who had been creating problems in shadows.

Ebi had readily accepted. The Hidden Frost had a connection with the Goharu family, Kumi's rivals—but he didn't care about either of the gangs. They were little pawns hungry for power, who would beg for it if he asked for it. The Goharu family had lost a lots of favor by providing drugs that poisoned his men; helping their rivals was an appropriate punishment.

"Let's go in then."

The group of shinobi entered the mill that was busy at work with tens of workers at their stations. They noticed the shinobi and the entire mill came to a halt.

Ebi gazed at them for a few silent moments, counting the number of people, memorising their faces; it was a force of habit from being a shinobi for decades.

"I'm looking for the owner of this mill," he announced.

A bear-bellied, hairy man walked out of a back room. It was Motohiro. He had furrowed brows and when he saw the shinobi, he looked surprised before apprehension overtook his expression. Two more men followed after him, who Ebi guessed were his lieutenants.

"Motohiro?" asked Ebi.

"Yes, what do you want?"

"We want Takuma. You know where he is, right?"

Ebi had to give it to Motohiro for holding his composure when asked a blunt question right to his face.

"I don't understand..."

Unfortunately for Motohiro, others didn't have the same composure as him. Ebi instantly noticed the fear and agitation on one of the men standing beside him. He just got the confirmation about the information he had gotten from Gyon—Motohiro ran a small resistance group and they had a connection with Takuma.

"Are you sure you want to go with that?" Ebi asked again.

"I think you're mistaken. I don't know anyone by that name."

"I see..." Ebi nodded. He turned to his subordinates and ordered, "Take them—everyone, even the workers."

His subordinates immediately moved, expecting the order. They began rounding up everyone, ignoring their shouts, complains, and cries. Half of the people didn't even resist, and just begged not to hurt as they looked scared stiff.

"P-Please don't, I have small children at home," a woman begged to a shinobi trying to grab her.

"Hey, you can't do that. I said, I don't know!" Motohiro yelled.

"And I'm just supposed to believe that?" Ebi turned to the woman. "I understand your plight, but I'm afraid your children have to fend for themselves for a few days." He put pressure on Motohiro, hoping that he would fess-up, but the mill owner stayed silent.

'Hmm.' Ebi turned to the lieutenants he had clocked before. "What's your name?"

"M-Miyauchi."

Ebi smiled. "Then Miyauchi, let's start simple: Do you know who Takuma is?"

Everyone looked at Miyauchi—Motohiro looked at him, the other lieutenant looked at him, the workers looked at him—everyone wanted him to deny that he knew Takuma so that the shinobi would leave everyone alone.

"Y-Yes," said Miyauchi.

Motohiro closed his eyes and his body sagged from disappointment. The tension in the room deflated as well—the workers looked half afraid, half hopeful—afraid that the shinobi would think they were invovled, hopeful that now they had someone who knew Takuma, they would leave everyone else alone.

"Does Motohiro know Takuma?"

"...Yes."

"Miyauchi, you traitor!" Motohiro's other lieutenant jumped and knocked Miyauchi to the ground and started to choke him.

"Wada, stop!" Motohiro yelled, but Wada didn't listen, so he tried to seperate them to no avail.

Ebi pointed at one of his subordinates to separate the murder attempt on the floor.

He then walked to Motohiro, who looked so much different than he was a minute before—there was a weight bearing on his shoulders, a shadow in his eyes. Ebi put a hand on his shoulder,

"I don't like liars, Motohiro. Now we're going to have a long lengthy chat about it."

———
.

In the room which stink of sweat, blood, piss, and shit, Takuma and Aranai sat in front of each other. Takuma sat on his wooden stool and Aranai was on his knees, his hand strung up with chains.

"Are you ready to talk?"

"Y...Y-Yes."

Takuma nodded. Finally, after so many days of hard work, he had broken the lock on the man and now it was to open the door and let all the information to fall through into his lap.

"You understand the consequence of lying?"

"Yes..."

Takuma hummed as he stood up, making Aranai flinch. He ignored him, though was pleased about it, and picked up a large notepad from the corner and started a two hour long interrogation where he asked Aranai about the chunin present in Yu. Who they were, a summary of their abilities, their responsibilities in the city, and details he thought the base could use. Aranai was a chunin and thus a horde of information—and as a chunin, he was between jonin and genin, which gave him significant information on both parties over and under him.

After two hours, Takuma left the room and brought a hot meal and placed it in front of Aranai. He had fed him one cold, bland meal every other day to keep him hungry and walk.

"Good job. Now eat," said Takuma.

Giving him a hot meal was a reward for his cooperation.

Aranai looked apprehensive, but Takuma took a bite of the food to show there was nothing wrong with the food. Cautiously, Aranai pulled the plate towards him with his nail-less fingers, and after the first slow bite, he scarfed down the food as though it could be taken back any second.

Takuma said nothing and let him eat in silence. After he was done, Takuma once again began another two hour long interrogation, and after it was done, he moved Aranai to fresh room that didn't stink and had a toilet pan.

For the third reward, he adjusted the chains in a position where Aranai could comfortably lay on the ground, and left him for a full seven hours to allow him a good spell of sleep.

For the seventh reward, in addition to warm meal, Takuma brought in Ryuya into the room, and placed both the guys in the same room.

At the end of two days of interrogations and rewards, the two Hidden Frost shinobi were spilling secrets as though Takuma was their best friend with a vow of silence, who would never say anything.

———
.

It was afternoon when Takuma exited the room with a full notepad.

He had done it.

He practically had extracted all the information significant to Hidden Frost's presence in Yu. There was more information about the Hidden Frost itself he could get from them, but that wasn't the priority, and the information had to get to the base in time for them to make use of it.

Moreover, he no longer had the energy for it.

His reward was going to be a long, deep sleep.

Eight days until the main forces arrived at Yu.

———

.

AN: Sorry for being slow, it's going to be faster now.