Chunin Uchiha Kano sat in her office, reading the morning newspaper. Stamped on the front page as the main headline was Leaf Military Police Force's most recent round-up of one of the prominent ecstasy gangs operating in and out of Hidden Leaf. It was a glowing article praising Organized Crime's work isolating the network of people involved with a mid-size drug cartel.

She had gotten used to seeing such articles once a month since the Narcotics Team's inception (now a fully-funded task force) nine months ago. The team of genin had all but launched a crusade against drug organizations in the village. Almost every week, without fail, they had made important arrests— their momentum had only risen from the day he had made their first big arrest.

Kano searched for a particular name in the article, but just like always, it didn't have a single mention in the article. The source of the article was simply stated as an 'officer in Organized Crime' along with official comments from the Office of Jonin Uchiha Sayuri, the Head of the Organized Crime Department.

But she knew the source was Takuma, the supervising officer of the Narcotics Task Force.

After Takuma had taken his new position as the leader of the new team, his supervising officer changed from Kano to Yakumi, her boss. As such, Takuma no longer worked directly under Kano. She was still at a higher rank than him as a Senior Officer, but the chain of command had changed.

The Department of Organized Crime did have a role in what went out to the media, but as far as Kano knew, the Narcotics Task Force personally handled their own media communication with a simple external review process before anything went out. It was Takuma's decision to keep his name out of the newspapers— he deliberately directed attention away from him by putting a prominent jonin in the spotlight.

And no one except for Setsuna had complained about it, who was in charge of the new recruitments and wished to use Takuma's recent success as the poster boy for the second batch of recruits, but Takuma had ensured his name stayed out.

From what Yakumi had told her, Takuma had established exclusive relationships with a few journalists in the Hidden Leaf. Every newspaper, radio, magazine would get some information from the Narcotics Task Force about their latest accomplishments, but Takuma would share a little bit extra with his 'journalist friends' and, in return, those journalists would put the achievements front-and-center and paint them in gold. By no means was it a new practice, but Takuma had been quick to utilize it from day one when usually people like him, in charge of new initiatives, would try to put their name out extensively on every success.

Kano didn't know why he did it, but Takuma had been particular about what went out to the media. If she had to guess, it was because he didn't want to attract the envy of the people in the Police Force.

Even though he wasn't attracting attention, the results had definitely been noticed. The Narcotics Taskforce's recent request for an increase in the budget had been approved without much resistance, even though there wasn't a single senior officer or even a chunin on the team. Even Yakumi, who was associated with the Narcotics Task Force, wasn't actively involved in the day-to-day operations.

With the popularity and results of the task force, many senior officers in Organized Crime had tried to get themselves placed as the leader-in-charge of the task force to get credit for the work and set themselves up in a favorable situation, but shockingly, they had been unsuccessful.

"It's because of him. All of it is directly tied to him— all the information and contacts. Everything comes from him."

Yakumi had told her when they had gone drinking after work. Takuma was the only one connected to his 'confidential informants,' who were the source of all information. Without Takuma, the task force would need to go through an overhaul and would need to figure out an alternate method of operation. That would require a lot of work, and anyone who was in charge would be under pressure to bring things back up to speed and be blamed when they failed.

Takuma, seemingly aware of the fact, had leveraged it to keep his position as the one in charge.

It was a risky move that would have offended many— which it had— and would've caused him to feel a lot of heat, but Takuma had been able to retain his position.

Jonin Sayuri had herself stopped entertaining any talks about a chunin or jonin to be put in charge of the Narcotics Task Force— and there was even gossip that the orders had come from the very top from Chief Fugaku, who, according to the internal office chatter, was helping Takuma because he was his wife's student.

But as far as she knew, they were only rumors because that situation was supposedly about to change.

According to the "gossip" floating around, the Narcotics Task Force was growing too quickly. It was on the verge of becoming too big for a genin to lead— it was becoming too big for an outsider to lead. It was inevitable that the higher-ups wouldn't let that happen.

Kano sighed as she closed the newspaper. She had no desire to get involved with the Narcotics Task Force; she was happy with her current position— the perfect balance between active fieldwork and managerial duties, just what she preferred.

But, she was sure somewhere behind closed doors, people were engaged in talks— especially right now, as Takuma was out of the village on a very important mission that could be disastrous for Takuma if it failed.

It didn't help that the clan leadership's sudden change to the goal had sent a shock throughout the clan. The Uchiha clan, which just a few months ago was planning and working towards overthrowing the village's leadership, had now abandoned that goal. A lot of the clan was internally relieved about the decision as it meant the potential for a war against the village went away. The reason behind the sudden change had been attributed to the village's recent willingness to work with the clan and the better treatment that had come with it.

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But that didn't mean everything had changed. If a little bit of better treatment had solved the problem, the Uchiha would've never thought of overthrowing the current regime. Only the final goal had been changed; the clan had continued with its preparation and planned to amass power, diversify its presence in the village, build more political allies, and solidify its position as one of the most powerful clans in the Hidden Leaf, so that they wouldn't ever again fall to a place where they had in the past few years.

In many ways, nothing had changed at all. The clan had simply calmed down a little because they were no longer working towards a radical goal.

Of course, not everyone was convinced. There was a group who was dissatisfied with the change and had raised their voices against the change, but with the entire leadership united— which was rare as even though there were always arguments and conflict even if they were working towards the same goal— there was nothing the dissatisfied minority could do.

Kano could sense a wave of change coming for the Uchiha clan; she just didn't know how the Leaf Military Police Force would factor into it now that they had opened their doors to the rest of the village.

———

.

"How are you feeling?"

Takuma was doing one last check on his gear after the final briefing when he heard the familiar voice. He glanced back to see Arisu staring at him.

When the proposal for the one-month trial for the temporary Narcotics Team had been approved, Arisu was the person he had approached for recruitment. She was the second largest contributor in the Maiko Triad case and his closest connection in the Police Force back then.

He wanted her on the team. Initially, she was hesitant. She had a nice position under Kano, and what Takuma was proposing was brand new and thus came with a huge risk of failure. He had convinced her by saying that it was only one month and that someone with her family connections wouldn't suffer if she did something new this early in her career. Luckily, Arisu's parents thought the same, encouraging her to try it out.

With Arisu on board for at least during the trial period, Takuma was able to get most of the people on the Maiko Triad team and some more who became interested after the success of the Maiko Triad. The criteria had been the same as before— only include people who were overlooked for one reason or another. And with office politics prevalent, there were plenty of people to choose from when Takuma was allowed to select from outside Organized Crime.

It had been eight months since the trial period ended, and Arisu was now the second-in-command of the Narcotics Task Force. There was a risk in staying on, but Takuma believed they had done enough in the eight months to justify that risk with plentiful returns.

"Well, trying to focus on the current mission," said Takuma. He scoffed, "Being away from the village has certainly helped to take my mind off things."

Takuma and Arisu had grown closer during their time in the Narcotics Task Force. He had come to trust her as his second-in-command and as a friend. So, Arisu was aware of Takuma's thoughts regarding the current situation in regard to the Narcotics Task Force and Takuma's leadership over it.

"You're overthinking it; they might not take it away from you," Arisu said.

He laughed as he turned to her. "Let's not kid ourselves here. That's an option."

Takuma was well aware of the fact that they had grown beyond what an outsider genin like him could be allowed to lead and that very soon, the Uchiha would take control of the Narcotics Task Force away from him and give it to a chunin who had the most political pull/connections. And that he would be "demoted" but would still be forced to do the same work he was doing now for the Narcotics Task Force while all the credit went to the new leadership.

No matter how much he loathed that, Takuma wasn't surprised that this seemed to be inevitable.

In the nine months, Takuma had been running the task force, all of his attention had gone towards making it as successful as he possibly could.

Enomoto had given him the information, connections, and dirt on the people he wanted to be targeted, and Takuma had been the most effective bloodhound for him. He had been more aggressive with his decisions, taken risks, and utilized tactics that would've gotten him in deep trouble if they failed— but because they were successful, he had not only made Enomoto happy, but he had also increased his reputation inside the Police Force.

Takuma had gotten a big raise and bigger bonuses, which, when included with his Ring's payout, which was considerably larger than before now that he only fought 2v1 and ninjutsu fights, had pushed him into a financial situation that Takuma no longer needed to deal drugs. It was a welcome situation as Ryuu, his supplier, had been prickly after the Maiko Triad incident, which would've landed him in big trouble if not for Enomoto; plus, the task force's war against drugs had made Ryuu even more paranoid about who he worked with, so getting out had saved Takuma from a headache.

Most importantly, he had gained connections and a voice. After the success, his higher-ups in the Police Force were much more willing to listen to him because they had seen the wins he had gotten them, and he could get away with some stuff and had even been able to demand more money for the taskforce, which was rare for an initiative as young as they were. Additionally, because Arisu was his second-in-command, he was even "unofficially" backed by the Fuma Clan, the Uchiha's closest allies. While not a big shot, Takuma was no longer a nobody in the Police Force.

On the other side, due to Enomoto, Takuma had gained a lot of connections in the underworld. "Tobi" now ran with Enomoto's group, which had made Takuma familiar with a lot of dynamics and relationships among the several groups in the underworld.

Moreover, "Junior Officer" Takuma himself had gained a lot of confidential informants who reported to him in exchange for not arresting them for their crimes.

Takuma understood that without Enomoto's information and connections, he wouldn't be able to produce the results that he had, but he also understood the importance of making his own network of people. He not only needed supplied informants known to the entire Narcotics Task Force because keeping his team in complete darkness was not a good idea— but he also needed another source of information just in case Enomoto was trying to screw with him.

While they had been wildly successful, Takuma could feel the dynamic change between him and Enomoto. For one, Enomoto did not like the fact that he was so close with the Uchiha royalty through Mikoto being his genjutsu teacher. And Takuma's success in the Police Force had put a pressure on Enomoto that his blackmail on Takuma wouldn't work if the Police Force decided to save their own.

So, while Takuma was happy that he was no longer completely subordinate to Enomoto, he had to be careful because Enomoto was a dangerous person.

Takuma sighed. He missed when he was a simple junior officer in the Police Force moonlighting as a low-level drug dealer— those times were simpler times; things had become too complicated nowadays.

"I don't want to talk about it now," Takuma said to Arisu. "Let's focus on this mission. I want this to go well."

His experience with B-rank missions wasn't positive; he wanted this one to go well to even the scales out.