Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve: CH_249

Hoshiguro's family ate dinner together every day. Him, his wife, their son, their daughter-in-law, and the twin grandchildren. It was a family tradition and no one was allowed to skip the meal under any circumstance with every few exceptions.

Just like every day, the family was together at a table. Gyon's wife was helping their twins eat who seemed to want nothing more to run around. Hoshiguro's wife ate as she watched the twins with an imperceptible smile. Hoshiguro and Gyon sat opposite to each other and ate their meals in silence.

Hoshiguro glanced at his son and noticed that he had barely touched his food.

"Not hungry, son?"

Gyon looked like he snapped out of some deep thoughts and looked up at his father before looking down at his food. Everyone on the table looked at him as well, and he felt their gazes.

"I don't seem to have an appetite today," said Gyon and quickly added when he saw a look of worry over his mother's face. "I'm alright, I just don't feel like eating today."

"Any stress?" Hoshiguro asked.

"... I'm just worried about the shinobi's movements for the past two days," said Gyon, putting his chopsticks down. "They have been aggressively patrolling the city—all of them—they haven't done that since their first couple months in the city. They have already picked up four of our guys and returned two of them all bruised up. Their two missing shinobi has set them on an edge."

"That is indeed worrying." Hoshiguro commented as he ate, "That's must be why you tried to fix things."

Gyon looked confused. "Father?"

"They did it quietly, so the news didn't spread, but did you really think I wouldn't know," Hoshiguro looked up at his son.

The tone and the look from his father was enough for Gyon to understand what Hoshiguro meant. His face chilled and body stiffened before he pulled his composure back up and tried to look like he didn't understand.

"Father, I don't understand—"

"I gave everyone different addresses," Hoshiguro didn't beat around the bush, "and the address I gave you—and only you—was raided today. They didn't find anyone there, so no harm was done, but... harm was done, wasn't it, son."

Gyon first looked dumbfounded, but with every word, he started to more and more horrified.

"I don't really care that you put him in danger, but to think you'd break my trust and put the Kumi in danger? Is that how I raised you?" Hoshiguro's voice became grave, deeper, and his face was flushed with blood as his breathing became heavier from sheer anger.

"Father, I—"

"SHUT UP!"

The entire room went silent. Even the young twins, who loved to run around and create a ruckus, stuck to their mother looking between their father and grandfather with their lips zipped. The grandmother motioned for the servants to leave the room to give the family some room and privacy.

"Please settle down," she tried to calm her husband, worried about his health

"What was it?" Hoshiguro ignored his wife. "Did you feel you were less of a man because you lost to a child? That child is a shinobi, you idiot!" His mouth twitched into a mean as he said the following words. "Or did you do it because you wanted to be the head? Did they promise you the control of the Kumi family if you became their lackey and puppet? Who do you think I built all of this for? Did you think this would go to anyone else? THIS IS ALL FOR YOU" he yelled. "...But you got greedy, and sold your own father's trust!"

The room went silent from the outburst and the realisation that Gyon had helped out the Hidden Frost. It was a shock for the adults to say the least. They looked at Gyon, hoping he would put down the accusations by defending himself.

A dark look appeared on Gyon's face as he said, "This is all your fault. If you had just..." His voice mummed as he looked at Hoshiguro who swayed from side-to-side before collapsing on to his back.

"Dear!" Hoshiguro's voice immediately crawled to her collapsed husband and called out to the servants and guards who rushed into the room to attend to their leader and head.

On the other side of the table, Gyon stared at the figure of his father without moving. He looked absolutely shell-shocked and didn't respond as his wife called out to him.

———
.

At the true address only known to Hoshiguro and Takuma, the later sat on the floor in front of Ryuya, who looked deathly pale, had deep dark circle under his eyes, sweat stuck to his skin—all in all, he didn't seem to be feel very good in captivity. Anko and Takuma were partially to blame because of their interrogation; however, he hadn't been touched recently as Anko was absent and Takuma was focusing on Aranai. His condition was partially a result of the stress due to captivity.

"So, Jonin Ebi is the one in charge?" asked Takuma.

"He's officially in charge; though the other jonin don't seem to think so," Ryuya responded in a feeble voice. He was slumped against the wall and was staring outside the barred window with a faraway look. "But, he's the one who's actively managing the chunin and the genin. He handles the defence of city walls, the export and import of the city with the Land of Frost, the majority of communication with natives who took our side when we took over the city—he was the one to first meet and talk to them..."

Takuma noted the name on a pocket notepad.

Ryuya had been quite forthcoming with him. He was a mentally weak person who had collapsed fairly easily. And Takuma had found something that interested. There was a Jonin Ebi, who was the only jonin who seemed to be doing his job leading the troops while the other jonin were treating their time in Yu as a vacation, consorting with the city's rich and elite, and having the time of their life.

'It would be a very significant blow to the enemy if we are somehow able to take down Ebi,' thought Takuma as he circled Ebi's name multiple times.

"Is there anything you can tell me about Kon's group?" asked Takuma.

Ryuya shook his head. "I just know where they live, nothing else. They don't mingle with us."

Takuma pursed his lips. He hadn't been able to find anything of significance about the ROOT squad that would give any useful insight into the group.

"Will you let me go?" asked Ryuya.

Takuma looked up at Ryuya and didn't answer immediately.

"If you don't try to escape and be honest with me, I'll eventually trade you to the Land of Frost. You have more value alive than dead," said Takuma—but in truth, he didn't have the authority for his claims. Once Camp Banana invaded Yu and the jonin arrived, they would decide what to do with a prisoner of war.

"Can I trust you?"

Takuma smiled. "Would me saying yes change your mind."

Ryuya stared at Takuma with dead eyes before letting his head go limp as he cried loudly. Takuma knew it was his time to leave him alone for a while and wait for him to calm down before he could extract more information.

He left him in a locked room to tire himself out from crying and then entered Aranai's room who was in a much worse condition than Ryuya, but had yet to say a word since Takuma had started torturing him.

Aranai was chained to the wall and looked up at him with defiant eyes.

It was the 4th day since the abduction operation went into the active state. Day-1 was the abduction; Day-2 was the initial interrogation; Day-3 was when the Hidden Frost visited the Chinatsu house; Day-4 was the raid at the fake address.

Takuma knew that Aranai thought he would be found by now, which would've been true if he hadn't put the safety measure place with Kumi family through Hoshiguro.

Takuma grinned and chuckled as he pulled up a chair in front of him,

"In a couple hours, you'll be with me for three days," said Takuma. The moment he said that, the defiant look wavered and Aranai's body shrunk. "You shouldn't keep up hope. They aren't coming to get you... I mean, how would they find you when we aren't in Yu."

Not once during the entire torture and investigation had Takuma once mentioned their location. Aranai had to assume that they were in the city because that was his only hope for getting rescued. The view out of the window didn't have any markers that would give their location away.

When Aranai looked up at him, Takuma put on a devilish smile as though he had just revealed the biggest secret—and it worked because something cracked inside the mentally and a physically exhausted Aranai and a split second of horror appeared on his face before he cut all emotion on his face.

"You're lying," he said.

Seeing him respond was good for Takuma. He had kept him speaking, even though it was curses and abuses, but he had managed to keep the communication open.

"You can take comfort in that thought," Takuma smiled, "but I wonder what you'll think when they don't come tomorrow... the day after that... and after that, and after that, after that—and after that." He then stood and stroked Aranai's hair. "Perhaps if you pray enough, it would become and true and your men will come bursting through the door tomorrow."

He stressed the word tomorrow to plant it inside Aranai's mind so he would think about it, hope for it, and pray for it—but when that thing didn't happen, all that hope and expectations would shatter and it would break him from the inside. Takuma expected after that happened, he would finally open up and let the information flow.

"See you in a few hours for our next session."

———
.

In the Chinatsu house, the team gathered together in the living room after dinner to have a discussion.

"I have spotted four people," said Daiki as he sat beside the small Rikku. "They have twelve hour shifts and the guard switches at around nine in the morning." As the resident ranger, he had sneaked around to see the team that was observing them. "Whenever we go out, they place two people on our tail while the remaining two remain to observe those at the house."

He looked at Anko and she nodded.

"My snakes also confirmed four people," she sighed.

She had used her snake contract too much in her time in Yu and the costs were piling up. Every summoning contract had different terms and the snake contract had to be paid in flesh and blood—a lots of it. Depending upon who she summoned, the length of the summon, and the task, she had to pay up the summoned snakes with animal meat of their choice. Given that she was in Yu, she had to defer her payments due to her cover—but a lot of snakes didn't care about any of it and wanted the payment quickly, which limited her options, and even then, two months (the length of their mission in Yu) was too long for the snakes who were willing to take payment later. She was very acutely aware that soon, the snakes would stop responding to her calls.

"My suggestion is that we sneak Iori out two hours before the shift change because that's when the guards be at their lowest and would be looking forward to the shift change," said Daiki.

"I agree," Gaku chimed in. "That's the time frame where the possibility of a surprise is the least. As long as we get her back thirty minutes before the shift change, we are golden."

The reason for all that talk was because of their two Hidden Frost prisoner and the prisoner seals. They needed to be refreshed regularly and that time had come. Iori, the fuin-nin, was the only one capable of drawing prisoner seals and thus needed to visit the location. Those prisoner seals were the ONLY reason why the team was so comfortable with leaving Takuma alone with the prisoners.

"So, who's going on the outing?" asked Gaku.

Everyone turned to Anko for the answer, who took a moment before giving her answer.

"Gaku and Daiki will take Iori."

She breathed a deep sigh. They were in the final stage of their mission. Camp Banana along with additional forces were set to arrive at a pre-scheduled time regardless of how their mission. They had yet to send any solid information to the base which they could use to a significant advantage.

Takuma needed to get the information in the next three days so she could send a report in enough time for the base to actually make some use it.

"Let's give him all the help he needs."

Ten days until the main forces arrived at Yu.