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 very few exceptions.

As usual, the family was together around the table. Gyon's wife was trying to feed her twins, who seemed to want nothing more than to run around. Hoshiguro's wife ate as she watched the twins with an imperceptible smile and her husband and son 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 thought 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 when he saw a look of worry over his mother's face, he added, "I'm alright, I just don't feel like eating today."

"Any stress?" Hoshiguro asked.

"...I'm just worried about the shinobi's movements these last few days," said Gyon, putting his chopsticks down. "They’ve been aggressively patrolling the city—all of them, something they haven't done since their first couple months in the city. Four of our guys have been busted but they only returned two of them all bruised up. Their two missing shinobi have set them on an edge."

"That is indeed worrying," Hoshiguro commented as he ate, "That must’ve be why you tried to fix things with them."

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 look from his father was enough for Gyon to understand what Hoshiguro meant. His face stiffened before he regained his composure 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 get 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 turned grave, deeper, and his face went from red to a deep purple.

"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 in worried silence.

Hoshiguro’s wife 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! Or did you do it because you wanted to be the head? Did they promise you control of the Kumi family if you became their lackey? Who do you think I built all of this for? Did you think this would go to anyone else?”

Gyon tried to interject, fearing for his health, “F-Father, I—”

“THIS IS ALL FOR YOU" he yelled. "...But you got greedy, and sold your own father's trust!"

He stopped to take a breath and everyone turned to Gyon as the realisation that he had helped out the Hidden Frost dawned on everyone. 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..." He trailed off when Hoshiguro, who was previously vibrating with rage, swayed from side-to-side before collapsing.

"Dear!" Hoshiguro's wife immediately rushed to her collapsed husband and called out to the servants and guards.

On the other side of the table, Gyon stared at the figure of his father without moving. For all he knew, he had killed his father with his betrayal and the mere thought left him feeling utterly shell-shocked.

———

.

Takuma sat on the floor in front of Ryoya, who looked deathly pale, had a deep dark circle under his eyes, sweat stuck to his skin—all in all, he didn't seem to be feeling 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 current condition was more because of stress than any torture they’d inflicted on him.

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

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"He's officially in charge; though the other jonin don't seem to think so," Ryoya 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. Ryoya had been quite forthcoming with him because he was a mentally weak person who had crumbled fairly easily.

At long last, Takuma had found something that interested him. Jonin Ebi seemed to be the only jonin 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 lives.

'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.

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

Takuma pursed his lips. The location Ryoya knew was most likely a red herring. 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 Ryoya.

Takuma 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 to me alive than dead," said Takuma.

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, not him.

"Can I trust you?"

Takuma smiled wryly. "Would it really matter if I said yes?"

Ryoya stared at Takuma with dead eyes before letting his head go limp. Takuma knew it was his time to leave him alone when he started sobbing. 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 Ryoya.

Unlike his subordinate, he 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 had been four days since they’d started the abduction operation. Day-1 was the abduction; Day-2 was the initial interrogation; Day-3 was when the Hidden Frost visited the Chinatsu house; and 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 in place with the Kumi family through Hoshiguro.

He grinned as he pulled up a chair in front of him."In a couple hours, you'll be with me for three days." The moment he said that, the defiant look in Aranai’s eyes wavered. "You shouldn't keep up hope, you know. They aren't coming to get you—I mean, how would they find you when we aren't even in Yu?"

Not once during the entire torture and investigation had Takuma mentioned their location. Aranai had to assume that they were in the city because that was his only hope of 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—and it worked because something cracked inside the mentally and physically exhausted Aranai. It was only for a split second, but the horror on the prisoner’s face was unmistakable, even when he cut all the emotion off from reaching his face immediately after.

"You're lying," he said.

Seeing him respond was good for Takuma. He had kept him speaking, even though it was curses and abuse up until now, but he had finally managed to find a chink in that armour.

"You can take solace 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’ll come true and your people will burst 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 this thing didn't happen, all that hope and expectation would shatter and it would break him from the inside. After that happened, he would finally open up and let the information flow.

Being rescued was the only thing that kept Aranai quiet. He withstood the torture that he and Anko had put him through because he believed that his people would find him in no time. Without it, he had nothing left; no reason to continue to sit through the agonising torture.

"Until then, you’re stuck with me, I’m afraid… I’ll see you in a few hours for our next session."

———

.

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

"I’ve spotted four people," said Daiki as he sat beside the small Rikku. "They have twelve hour shifts and the guard detail 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 observe whoever’s left in 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 during her time in Yu and the costs were beginning to pile up. Every summoning contract had different terms and the snake contract had to be paid in flesh and blood—and lots of it.

Depending on 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—humans-included. 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.

Even then, the mission’s two month period was too long for the snakes who were willing to take payment later. Soon, the snakes would stop responding to the call of her chakra. If she tried to push it, there was a chance that she would lose her contract all together.

"My suggestion is that we sneak Iori out two hours before the shift change," said Daiki.

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

The reason for all of this back and forth was because of their two Hidden Frost prisoners—more specifically, 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, so she needed to get to the location to do so.

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 went and Team-9 was yet to send any solid information to the base. Camp Banana would arrive in ten days no matter what, but Takuma needed to acquire the information within the next three days so she could send a report that they actually made some use of it.

With only three days left until the deadline, Anko was beginning to grow nervous.

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

Ten days remained until the main forces arrived at Yu.