Sneaking out of Chinatsu’s house was easy enough. They snuck out from the balcony in the back, using chakra adhesion until they were out of sight of the two people keeping a lookout. 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, taking the shortest possible path to Takuma's safe house. As they neared the location, they threw in the typical tactics for losing tails by roaming around at a quickened pace, snaking through alleys and mixing in altitude changes 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 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 wall after a full five seconds and looked tense with a kunai in his hand for a few moments until he 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 we're 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 spill information tomorrow."

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

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

"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, which Hidden Frost shinobi came to the house?" Takuma talked to Gaku outside Aranai's room as Iori worked inside with Daiki.

The message Anko had sent with the snake only had information about the Hidden Frost's raid.

"A jonin named Ebi," Gaku answered.

Takuma looked at him with wide eyes. "Really? I guess that makes sense. Ryoya tells me that he's the jonin managing everything while others are on 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 him down, we can crumble the enemy's support 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 staring at the tired Takuma lost in his thoughts.

"Hmm?"

"This 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. If things had turned out differently, I wouldn’t be here at all. I'm doing this for myself—sure you benefit 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. I hate being here… I’m living in the moment, drowning myself in accomplishing this goal because I know if I think about home, I won’t have the energy to get out of the bed in the morning."

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—but I don't feel like a legend or hero." Takuma smiled as he pushed himself off the pillar. "But I guess, I am finding out 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.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

"Yes, our person in the Kumi family says the owner of 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 was bedridden and 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 the Hidden Frost's support in taking over as the family's head. In return, he gave them information about the intruders inside the city who had been creating problems in the shadows.

Ebi had readily accepted. The Hidden Frost had a connection with the Goharu family, the 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. The Goharu family had lost a lot of favour by providing drugs that poisoned his men, so helping their rivals was an appropriate punishment.

"Let's head inside then."

The group of shinobi entered the busy mill. Dozens of workers roamed around their stations, but the moment they noticed the shinobi, all work ceased. Ebi gazed at them for a few silent moments, counting the number of people, and 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 beer-bellied, hairy man walked out of a back room. It was Motohiro. He furrowed his brows when he saw the shinobi, apprehension overtook the surprise on his face. 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, the others didn't have the same composure as him. Ebi instantly noticed the fear and agitation of one of the men standing beside him. He just got 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, complaints, 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 a shinobi trying to grab her.

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

"And I'm just supposed to believe that?" Ebi turned to the woman. "I understand your plight, miss, 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. "Miyauchi, let's start with something 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 involved, 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 separate 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."

———

.

Takuma and Aranai sat in front of each other in the torture room. He made sure not to clean it after each session so that just staying in the room became a kind of torture on its own. It stank of all manner of bodily fluids, some of which stained the floors and walls.

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 time to open the door and let all the information 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 he was secretly pleased about it, and picked up a large notepad 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 any 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, placing it in front of Aranai. Usually, he had fed him one cold, bland meal every other day to keep him hungry but functional. Now that he had submitted, Takuma could put away the metaphorical stick and start using the carrot to coax him into continuing to cooperate.

"Good job. Now eat," said Takuma.

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 nailless fingers, and after the first slow bite, he scarfed down the food as though it could be taken back any second.

Though to be fair, if he wanted to, Takuma could. He 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 a fresh room that didn't stink and even had a toilet.

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 a warm meal, Takuma brought Ryoya into the room, and placed both guys in the same room.

At the end of two days of interrogation and rewards, the two Hidden Frost shinobi were spilling secrets as though Takuma was their best friend.

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

He had done it.

He had extracted all the information significant to the 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. After two days of dishing out rewards, his own was going to be long, undisturbed sleep.

Eight days remained until the main forces arrived at Yu.