It was a tired and footsore group that arrived at the walls of Ise. They had been traveling for far too long with far too few breaks and everyone was looking forward to sleeping in a bed for the night as opposed to making camp in the woods again.
"Kagome, no way am I letting you into a city full of strangers," Minami said. "You, Hazō, and Mori can drop off the messages in the small villages while Ishihara, Wakahisa, and I go into the city. We'll meet back here tomorrow at noon." She held out the relevant scrolls.
"Yes, ma'am," Hazō said, taking the scrolls with a sigh and firmly sitting on the disappointment of not getting to enjoy civilization for at least one night. Or getting to spend that night with Akane.
Talking! Spend that night talking with Akane! That was absolutely not where he had intended to let his thoughts go and wow wasn't that an interesting thought and...no! Talking! Talking, and taking things slowly as Mari-sensei had said! Yes, absolutely!
"Hey, Minami, can we stay at an inn tonight?" Noburi asked. "Somewhere with baths? I would love a nice hot bath to get all this road dirt off."
"Sounds like a plan," Minami said, smiling. "I wouldn't mind getting some dango, either."
"A hot bath would be most youthful!" said Mean Girlfriend. "Perhaps we could choose an inn with laundry service?" Oh, that was just rubbing it in. His clothes were all gritty and smelly and— "Hazō, Kagome, Keiko, I could take your dirty clothes in with me if you'd like...?" Best Girlfriend, you're back!
Minutes later, the city-bound group was heading for the fleshpots and laundry services of civilization while the rest were setting off on the next stage of their seemingly endless voyage through the Land of Mud Huts. Their only consolation: A promise of clean clothes on the following day. Win!
o-o-o-o
The first of the two villages they were delivering to was a small place on a caravan road a day's civilian travel away from Ise. It didn't take long to get there, drop off their message, and then retreat to the woods before Kagome-sensei had an aneurysm from being surrounded by so many strangers. It was too far to the next stop to make it before sunset, so Hazō pulled up a MEW shelter and they all crawled inside. They could continue on in the morning. For now, it was time to unseal and wolf down food, then arrange blankets and sleeping pads.
"Kagome-sensei," Hazō said once everything was dealt with. "I was thinking...."
"Brace for impact," Kagome-sensei muttered.
Hazō ignored him with the ease of long experience. "Keiko suggested to me that proximity detection was probably the most valuable thing I could be working on. How hard is it? Could we reduce your Lesser Barrier Formation down to one seal and make it trigger based on proximity detection? How about making it so that seals recognize the chakra of particular people and won't trigger near them? How difficult would it be to infuse a seal like that? Can we make seals that activate upon tearing? The idea is like the implosion seals that we've used before. How dangerous would it be to mount Force Barriers on Fuma Shurikens? How much for regular shurikens? What about a set of force barriers, placed to sharpen to an edge or point? I think we could make a better shield if we could get the Air Dome down to one seal. Make it activate with a fixed radius and use it while skywalking. Also, really crazy idea: if we used a bunch of seals to delimit a volume of chakra water very precisely, would it be possible to seal that chakra water? Would we be able to unseal it safely? Could we—"
"Stop!" Kagome-sensei growled. He sighed and rubbed his face. "When we get back to Leaf we could look into some of this whenever Du—Minami isn't keeping me hopping. In the meantime, to answer that verbal mudslide: It's hard. Anything is possible, theoretically. I wouldn't know where to start. No idea. OBVIOUSLY NOT AND THAT'S NOT HOW IMPLOSION SEALS WORK AND HAVE YOU LISTENED TO NOTHING I'VE TOLD YOU?! Force Walls are too big for shuriken of any size, shrinking them is hard, keeping the seals aligned would be hard, and reducing it to one seal is impossible so you'd be designing a new seal from scratch. You can already do that. I don't even know what that means and you can't seal chakra water anyway so I'll just say no. Obviously not, since you weren't able to seal it in the first place. Now, good night." He rolled over and pulled his blankets over himself.
"But, sensei—!"
"Good night!"
Hazō glared at Keiko's amused snort. For some obnoxious reason, she failed to spontaneously catch on fire.
o-o-o-o
"In there?" Noburi asked, trying hard to look casual as he stared at the eye-searing green letters that spelled out MADAME TANAKA'S HOUSE OF WHORES AND CIGARS "So...who's our contact again?"
Minami looked at the briefing papers. "'Beautiful Jade Flower'...says here that she's an expert at massage."
"Oh, good." Noburi looked halfway between relieved and disappointed; Akane chuckled.
"Huh," said Minami. "There's a note here. Says 'have her stroke her hair from your kneecaps to your nipples; it's amazing.'"
Noburi goggled. "What? No. It doesn't really say that, does it?"
"Says it right here," Minami said innocently, waving the briefing sheet at him. "You'll have to be the contact, Wakahisa. Apparently she doesn't service female clients."
"Uuuuhhhh...."
"Here," Minami said, handing him a money pouch and a piece of folded-up paper. "Tell her you want the 'around the world' and give her the pouch. She'll take you to one of the back rooms, and once you're there you can deliver the message. Be careful not to blow her cover by coming out too soon, though. Just let her perform the service so that everything looks right."
"But...I...."
"Ohhhh, right." Minami nodded in sudden realization. "You're henged as your own age, aren't you? Okay, it's probably better if you do come out right away. Nobody will think twice about a teenage boy who finishes his 'massage' quickly. That'll be good, actually. Save us a lot of time."
Noburi gaped at her like a fish, his brain so locked up that he almost didn't manage to get out of the way of the latest group of sailors pushing past them and into the doors of the shop. The three ninja were standing to the side and speaking quietly but the streets were busy and most of the clientele of Madame Tanaka's were in a hurry.
"I...I can't, but, um...."
Minami gave him a bright smile and a comradely punch in the shoulder. "That's the ticket, Wakahisa! I appreciate how willing you are to take one for the team!"
"Gaaaahhhhhhhh—!"
"Minami," Akane said reprovingly, although struggling to contain her laughter. "Stop teasing him. Just because he's forgotten the details of the contact doesn't mean you get to break him." She turned to Noburi. "Noburi, we're seeing the bouncer, Tanaka Iwao. Relax."
Minami laughed. "Spoilsport. Okay, come on." She pushed herself off the wall she'd been leaning on and marched up the steps to the door of Madame Tanaka's, the two genin trailing along behind her.
The man on the door was roughly the size of a barn and as polite as one could ask for. He accepted their entrance fee and eyed them up and down for a moment, although Noburi wasn't sure what he was looking for. Their henges were simple—Akane and Noburi were both their same age, gender, and build but had changed hair color and features enough to be unrecognizable. Minami's henge was the only one that required significant acting skills: she looked ten years older and fifty pounds heavier than her true self. Regardless, the door guard gave them a polite smile and bowed them inside with a polished grace that would have amazed Noburi if he'd had the brain left to be aware of it. As it was, the young ninja was far too busy to be paying attention to social cues; he was almost physically holding his head still so that it didn't spin around to gawp at all the lovely flesh that was so beautifully displayed in the lavish parlor that was the downstairs front room of Madame Tanaka's. He just kept chanting silently to himself, be cool, Noburi, be cool, don't look like a dork, be cool.
Minami strode straight to the bar and hopped up on a seat at the end. "Three house sakes, please," she said to the beautiful and lightly-clad woman behind the counter. "Also, I'd like a Daimyo Nakanishi Gold, please. Cherrywood light."
"Of course, ma'am," the bartender said, her smile a work of art as beautiful as the diaphanous layers of green and blue silk scarves that made up her 'clothing'. The drinks seemed to materialize in front of the team, each in a delicate glass cup. Moments later she set a miniature sword stand in front of Minami. The stand was the size of a woman's hand, carefully lacquered in crimson and gold, with an elegant simplicity that screamed of wealth. A sleek black cigar with a gold-foil band around the center occupied the top rack of the stand, while the bottom held a polished sliver of cherrywood. Minami admired the display for a moment until the bartender returned with a fingerbowl of water and a tiny hibachi containing a single red-hot coal.
"Thank you," Minami said. She picked up the cherrywood stick, held it against the coal and blew softly until the wood ignited, then used the flame to light the cigar. Noburi stared in fascination at the tiny glowing line that swept up the carefully-layered black paper of the cigar. Once it was going properly, Minami extinguished the stick in the fingerbowl and turned to survey the room, the ridiculously expensive tube of burning weeds dangling absently from her left hand.
Noburi coughed as some of the cigar smoke drifted his way. Minami waved her free hand to shoo the smoke away from him. "Drink," she hissed. "We're here to have a good time, remember?"
"Right!" Noburi said, hoisting his glass a little too fervently. "Happy birthday, mom! May the next forty be as good as the first forty!"
Minami looked at him in shock. "What?"
"Genta!" Akane said, unable to conceal the smile. "Be discreet!"
"I am not forty!" Minami said. "And I'm not—"
"Right!" Noburi said, looking abashed. "Sorry, mom, I forgot. May the next 'thirty-two''"—he made the air quotes with his fingers—"be as good as the first 'thirty-two'."
"Happy birthday, ma'am!" the bartender said, reappearing with a brilliant smile. "Are your children taking you out for your birthday? That's so thoughtful!" She lowered her voice. "Is this truly your thirty-second birthday? Would you please be so kind as to share your secret? You don't look more than twenty-five!"
Minami glared daggers at Noburi. "I am twenty-five," she said. "My little brother is teasing me."
Noburi rolled his eyes. "Yes, 'big sister'." He made the air quotes again, then leaned over and whispered to Akane, "Mom really needs to get over it, doesn't she?"
"Genta!" Akane hissed, the attempt at reproof completely ruined by barely suppressed laughter, "Be nice!"
Noburi gave a long-suffering sigh. "Here, miss," he said to the bartender, holding out the pouch of money that Minami had given him outside. "If you would be kind enough to start a tab for my m—my sister, that would be great."
The bartender's smile became dazzling. "Such a young gentleman! Absolutely, sir. Please, let me know if you would like anything." She bowed herself off to the nearest thirsty sailor.
"What was that?!" Minami hissed.
Noburi smugged at her. "A mom and her two kids at a birthday party?" he whispered. "Great idea for a cover! I appreciate how willing you are to take one for the team!"
Minami glared at him while Akane choked back laughter.
o-o-o-o
Ten minutes later, a large man in the clothes of a moderately wealthy civilian slid onto the seat next to Minami and waved for a drink. He waited until it had been poured and the bartender had swirled away to other duties, then turned to Minami. "You have excellent tastes in cigars, ma'am," he said with a smile. "Although, I prefer ash lights. I find the cherrywood overwhelms the subtler flavors."
"We shall agree to disagree, good sir," Minami said, finishing the sign/countersign. She glanced around to check that no one was close enough to overhear, then continued. "We have a message from the top for you. We are to collect anything you need to send on, and if you need any short-term muscle we might be able to help. We're only in town for a day, though."
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He laughed for public consumption, the courteous and restrained laughter of a middle-aged man sharing a moment of humor with an attractive woman in public. "Not here," he whispered. "Blow me off, then sit and have a good time for thirty minutes in case anyone is watching. Then meet me at this address." He took her hand in his and bent forward, lips brushing lightly across her knuckles.
Minami pulled her hand back with a look of surprise. "You seem charming, sir, but I'm afraid that this is a family evening. I'm sure you understand."
He shook his head sadly. "Of course. My apologies for inserting myself into your celebration." He bowed shallowly and left.
o-o-o-o
It was true, as Minami had stated earlier, that the team were not infiltrators, yet they managed to sit and behave like celebrating civilians for half an hour. At no point during that time did Minami glance at the card Tanaka Iwao had slipped into her palm when he kissed her hand. Indeed, she waited five minutes before casually slipping it into a pocket.
It was nearly an hour before the group finished their playacting, moved around the city enough to be sure they weren't being tailed, then changed their henges and stealthed up to the address they'd been given.
The place was actually on the same block as Madame Tanaka's, on the opposite side from the brothel's main entrance. It was a small and unassuming garden-level grey door, positioned under an overhang that left the door and its threshold in shadow most of the day.
Tanaka must have been waiting for them, because the door opened seconds after Minami knocked. "May I help you?" he asked politely, glancing calmly between the three faces that looked nothing like the ones he'd spoken to earlier. He had changed clothes at some point; now he wore the simple brown linens common to manual laborers on the job and bachelors at home.
Minami held up the card he'd given her. "I prefer ash lights. I find the cherrywood overwhelms the subtler flavors."
He nodded and ushered them through the door into a dingy room with a small table, four chairs, and a sidebar with various cheap alcohols and a half-dozen glasses. The below-ground windows were curtained over, so the dim light of the oil lamp threw shadows that failed to disguise the water stains in the walls.
"Please, be seated," he said, waving to the chairs. "Your timing is excellent; I have several things to go out and one of them is urgent. The next scheduled pickup isn't for three days and that would have been too late."
"Great! Glad to be of service," Minami said. She slid a scroll across the table to him. "So, first off, here's the message we're supposed to give you. What have you got?"
Tanaka took the scroll and shoved it into his satchel, pulling out a trio of other scrolls in the process. Each had been tagged with a distinctly-colored chop; he selected the red one and held it out. "This one is for Lord Jiraiya, urgent priority. The others are for two of my counterparts, one in Keishi and one in a small town in Hot Springs."
Noburi and Akane traded looks.
"I see," Minami said carefully. She picked up the scrolls and tucked them into her pack. "Okay, well, we have a lot of stops to make so we aren't going to make it to Keishi or Hot Springs soon. We can get the message to Jiraiya faster than you might expect, though. Now, was there anything you wanted physical help with?"
"Yes!" He sat forward, hands folded tensely together and an excited glint in his eyes. "That was the subject of my message to Lord Jiraiya—I have reliable intel that would allow you to capture Goda Haruto!"
He watched as the expected excitement completely failed to appear on the faces of his audience.
"Goda Haruto is a Yakuza money man," he said dejectedly. "He's a roving troubleshooter; he goes from territory to territory checking their books and making sure the local bosses are sending on the proper share. He travels with a group of enforcers. They rolled into town a couple weeks ago on the Sunset Racer, a sloop down on Dock Three. They leave tomorrow for Water Country. I'm not sure how long they'll be there, but probably two weeks if it's like this one. Still, it's Water Country."
Noburi struggled not to flinch. He was sure he hadn't given anything away, but Minami glancing at him sharply didn't help. Good job with the OPSEC there, team leader.
"How do you know it's Goda?" Noburi asked, trying to cover for Minami's lapse.
"The House is popular with merchants and sailors," Tanaka began. "We get a lot of repeat traffic, so we hear a lot about who and what is moving around. We give a discount to Yakuza because we're not stupid, and in return we get protection and information. Well, about two weeks ago Boss Okimoto comes in for a private party and tells Madam that his guest is an honored associate and to please extend him every courtesy. I wasn't working that night but the girls told me all about it; they were pissed because the guy brought some outside talent."
"Outside talent?"
"Yeah, you know, girls or boys who don't work for the House. Anyway, Boss Okimoto is hosting the party. He's brought his son, his two main underbosses, and his three favorite enforcers. The guest is a shrimpy little guy with dead eyes. He's got an escort of five goons and a pair of flash girls—"
"Sorry, 'flash girls'?" Noburi asked.
"Arm candy? Hot girls who hang on your arm to make you look like a bigshot but they don't actually provide services. Sometimes they're willing to put up with a little kissing and maybe some—"
"Right, got it! Thanks!" Noburi could feel his skin trying to ignite and burn his henge away.
Tanaka chuckled. "Anyway, they come in and Boss Okimoto introduces them to Madam as his honored associates—not guests, which could be anyone he's trying to butter up, 'associates'. He asks her to start an unlimited tab for this guy, for the duration of his stay. Let me tell you, that's not a thing that Boss Okimoto does.
"Anyway, that's two weeks ago. Since then, the little shrimpy guy—he calls himself Oki—has been in every three or four days. He's always got those flash girls with him and he's always got an escort of five guys, but he's picking from a pool of ten or fifteen goons because there's clearly some rotation going on.
"Night before last, Eguchi is in. He's one of the underbosses that Boss Okimoto brought that night. Real up-and-comer, ambitious. Two weeks ago he's got all his fingers, now he's missing a pinky. He's at the bar, looking about ready to spit, and everyone's walking soft around him because he likes to hit when he gets drunk and there's only so much you can do with a guy like him. Anyway, Oki and his crew roll in; Eguchi sees them come through the door and he practically dumps his moneypouch on the bar he's in such a hurry to get out. Oki steps in his way and I'm praying to every kami I've ever heard of that Eguchi keeps his cool because I'm on duty and I really do not want to have to wade into the mess that's about to happen. I'm hovering around, trying not to be noticed but staying close enough that I can hopefully distract Eguchi if he starts something.
"Blessings to the Sage, he doesn't. Oki asks him if the cargo has been assembled yet, Eguchi politely answers that the last of it is being located and will be at the dock by morning. Oki gives him a nod and says not to worry, that he's going to be here an extra day and the ship's captain has agreed to delay. Soft-spoken guy, but I couldn't decide if he's polite or just doesn't care about anyone more than he cares about a bug so it's not worth getting angry."
Minami raised an eyebrow thoughtfully. "So, an out of town Yakuza with a signficant bodyguard comes to town and the locals roll out the red carpet. Suddenly, one of the ambitious underbosses shows up having just made apologies for a serious but not fatal mistake. Could be a coincidence."
"Could be, but it hangs together pretty well," Noburi said thoughtfully. "How do you know they're on the Sunset Racer?"
Tanaka shrugged. "Most sailors go through the House at some point when they're in port. Might not get every member of the crew on every stop, might not always get the captain or the purser, but we get enough that unless something is really hush-hush we generally know who is traveling on which hull and at least something about their cargo and their next destination. When you get a big group of heavily-armed hard cases with Yakuza tattoos packed onto a sloop the size of the Racer, we definitely hear about that."
"So what do you want from us?" Minami asked.
"I figure this has to be worth something to the boss, right?" Tanaka said. "I mean, Goda is a big fish. If I gave you what you needed to catch him, that might be enough to get me and my sister set up in Leaf, yeah?"
Minami blinked. "You want a place in Leaf?"
"Well, yeah. An apartment—doesn't have to be big or fancy, just safe. Get Miku into school; I want her to learn her letters and numbers, maybe get a job as a clerk in a few years. You don't have to worry about me—I'll find a job somewhere. Leaf has bars and whorehouses, right? They need bouncers? And janitors, and big guys who can carry stuff?"
"Ah...yeah. Yeah, we have bouncers. And janitors, and jobs where you need to carry stuff."
He let out a sigh of relief. "Good. Okay, I should be able to find a job, then. We won't cost you much—give us an escort to Leaf and a month's grace on the rent and the school. I'll support us from there on."
The three ninja exchanged uncomfortable looks. "Tanaka, I can't promise anything," Minami said. "I'm a courier, I don't have authority to negotiate anything like this."
Tanaka gave a fatalistic shrug. "Not like I could do anything to stop you if you wanted to welch on the deal. Leaf has mostly played fair with us in the past, I'm hoping you will this time too. That's why I didn't try to negotiate up front. I figure I'm better off helping as much as I can. You Leaf types are supposed to care about loyalty and taking care of kids, so I'm hoping that if I live up to this...'Will of Fire', I think it was? Anyway, if I live up to it maybe you will too."
Minami stared at him, clearly having no idea what to say. All too familiar with covering for brain-locked teammates, Noburi hurried to jump in. "Do you know when Goda leaves?"
"Morning tide," Tanaka said. "That's assuming his schedule doesn't change again."
"Right," Minami said. "Okay. Well, fine. We'll send the message to Jiraiya, and we'll figure out what we can do about Goda. Anything else for us?"
"No," Tanaka said. "Please...please put in a good word with Lord Jiraiya, all right?"
"Absolutely," Minami said, standing up and bowing to Tanaka. "Thank you, Tanaka. I hope Jiraiya is able to give you what you want. I wish you all the best."
Akane and Noburi echoed her thanks and moments later the three ninja were back on the street. The minute their feet hit pavement, Noburi turned and strode off towards the city gate.
"Minami, we need to get out of here," he hissed. "We need to catch up to the others before Keiko checks in with the pangolins at sunset. Jiraiya needs to hear this right now."
"What? Why?" Minami followed along beside him, too surprised by her subordinate's assurance to object to his taking command. "The others are on their way to the surrounding villages. We probably can't catch them before sundown. And slow down, you're attracting attention."
Noburi bit his lip. The relevant information was classified and the first rule of classified information was to not talk about classified information. The second rule of classified information was to not talk around classified information. Which left him in a bit of a bind.
"This is that classified thing that the Hokage said we weren't allowed to talk about," he said at last. "Let me put it this way: if the Hokage thinks that this news isn't flash-priority urgent, I'll do all the camp chores single-handed for the rest of this trip."
Minami digested that for a moment and then sighed. "I hope you're right. Come on, we aren't going to catch them if we maintain cover." She turned and raced up the side of the nearest building before making a beeline for the edge of the city closest to where Hazō's team had been going. Noburi and Akane were stepping on her shadow the whole way and all three of them steadfastly ignored all the shouting and pointing from the streets below as the civilians reacted to the unexpected sight of ninja roof-running in broad daylight.
Noburi restrained himself from snorting because it wasted breath, but he couldn't help being amused by the thought: They were currently engaged in a violation of OPSEC severe enough to make even Mr. Mew proud, and he would honestly be able to say 'it seemed like a good idea at the time.'