Breakfast in Yasuhiro Ohashi’s home was a deeply strange affair. He was welcoming to the point that it bordered on subservience and the long table in the dining room was piled with a dozen dishes; against the backdrop of the worn house, it looked… out of place. The old man sat stiffly in his chair, taking second and third looks between bites at us to see if we were still there.

I couldn’t blame Yasuhiro for his nerves because there was no sugarcoating what we were here to do. As Team 10, we had been hired as contract killers—us, kids barely a few years older than his grandson. Then again, shinobi didn’t count as human to most civilians so it probably wasn’t our age—was his behaviour out of a general fear towards shinobi?

The cordial atmosphere was awkward because the questions we asked him had no business being spoken over a dining table. He answered them regardless, stopping to banish the shadow of his grandson creeping down the hallway to listen in on our discussion.

The information he knew was certainly helpful and a lot more detailed than the bullet-point notes jotted down on the mission scroll. The Jagged Blades had lost half a dozen men in a recent raid, dropping their numbers down to a little over twenty—but it wasn’t enough. There were too many unknown variables to risk storming their outpost.

Towards the end of the meal, a hawkish old woman strode into the dining room with her hands clasped behind her back and swept her intense gaze across the table. Nodding once in what seemed to be satisfaction, she stood to Yasuhiro’s right at the head of the table.

“This is Chie,” said Yasuhiro, gesturing to the woman. “She is the Head Chef at the Empty Plate, a close friend of mine, and the person responsible for our breakfast today.”

“Don’t overstate your worth to me, Ohashi,” Chie said, snorting. “I had the misfortune of crossing paths with you in this life and nothing more.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle at the accepting nod Yasuhiro gave at her words but that soon proved to be a mistake that drew Chie’s ire.

“Is something funny, you whiskered brat?”

“Are you talking to me?”

Chie rolled her eyes. “No, I’m talking to the wall behind you—of course I’m talking to you, you airhead.”

Her… bluntness was a refreshing change from the thirty minutes of servile reverence and completely shifted the room’s atmosphere.

I tried to stop my laughter but it proved to be a difficult task. She was the walking, talking caricature of a bitter old person. “N-No, there’s nothing funny, ma’am. Nothing at all.”

Hinata made a disapproving noise somewhere in the back of her throat but didn’t say anything. Asuma and Choji, like me, were holding back their laughter, albeit better than I was, which left me to take all of the old woman’s scorn.

“We’re dealing with shinobi, alright,” she said, crossing her arms. “They lie as easily as they breathe, even if Whiskers over here is poor at it.”

“Whiskers?” I breathed out, having finally wrestled control of my laughter.

Chie nodded. “Have you looked in a mirror before?”

I decided not to dignify that with a response.

“That’s Chie for you.” Yasuhiro laughed thinly. “I hope the food was to your liking and if you require anything else, be it lodging or otherwise, feel free to come to me. Let me say this again: I’m truly glad that you are here at last…”

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We rose out of our chairs and bowed.

“That won’t be necessary but the offer is appreciated,” said Asuma.

Since it was still early in the day, we returned to the inn on the far western side of Tenka Village. Our room wasn’t terrible, but after a week of rough sleeping, my sense of judgement wasn’t exactly sound even if the inn’s wooden floor was a few notches better than the uneven cave floors we’d got used to.

“Hinata, you look absolutely shattered,” I said while Asuma took a deep drag from his cigarette less than a metre away from the three of us. “The bed wasn’t that bad, was it?”

“Um…” Her eyes flicked to Asuma momentarily. “...no, it wasn’t the bed. I didn’t sleep much last night.”

“Why? What happened.”

She opened her mouth to speak before a yawn overtook her words.

“Once you and this corpse,” Asuma prodded a snoring Choji awake with his foot, “went to sleep, Hinata and I went to do a little reconnaissance. Well, not me, but her. I went to arrange breakfast with Yasuhiro Ohashi by turning up inside his bedroom.”

I leaned forward, my interest immediately piqued. “How did she manage to get close enough to the Jagged Blades for it to be useful? Isn’t her range about thirty or so metres?”

“That’s just my omnidirectional vision.” For once, Hinata wore a bright confident grin and was just a few degrees shy of puffing out her chest. “I’ve only been able to do it for a few months, but I can focus my sight in one direction and see a lot further. While there weren't any above-average chakra signatures in the village when we came in, I wanted to give everything a thorough look to be sure.”

I noted that down for future reference and brought my focus back to the mission, nodding at Asuma. “Okay, what did you guys discover?”

“It’s all good news! There are fewer bandits than in the mission request. It seems they’re down to twenty-eight bastards instead of the original thirty-two.”

I nodded slowly. “That’s good… really good, actually.”

“But remember, Goro Tanimoto isn’t the only shinobi,” said Asuma. “He has two genin under him of unknown strength—though one of them carries a katana. In terms of chakra, they’ve got more than Choji, at least, so that’ll make our original plan all the more challenging. I’ll only let you three at the chunin if you beat the two genin.”

I grinned. “That’s perfect because it means we don’t have to change the plan much.”

“Slow down there,” said Asuma. “Just because we don’t know their capabilities, doesn’t mean we should just rush in blind.”

“Right,” I said, agreeing with him. “What’s the plan, then?”

“You and Choji are on information-gathering duty today. Try and see what the villagers know about the Jagged Blades that can be useful. Yasuhiro made it clear that they’re using the village for supplies: food, weaponry, and the like, so ask around and see if anything useful comes up.”

“What about Hinata?” I asked. “She looks dead on her feet.”

Asuma nodded. “That’s why I didn’t mention her. She’ll be resting for today. I think she couldn’t sleep last night because of the nerves post-watch.”

“When are we going to make our move?” I asked.

“That depends on how much information you two can gather since I booked this room for four days. I’m not expecting anything big like the jutsu they use. Any habits they fall into, whether they’re all holed up in the outpost or come down to the village, and things like that.”

“Got it.” I clasped Choji’s arm and pulled him up. “You heard the man. Off we go.”

After stretching, he looked at Hinata with obvious concern. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, Choji,” she smiled, “just very tired is all.”

“And here’s another thing,” Asuma interjected. “Split up. Naruto’s still limited to this side of the village in case they have a sensor, so Choji, you’ll have the eastern side.”

“What about food?” Choji asked. “We’re going to be out all day, right?”

“500 ryo should be enough.” He fished through his back and pulled out a handful of coins for the both of us alongside pouches since we didn’t have any pockets. “Any more and it’ll look suspicious.”

I tied the pouch around my belt. “Just to double check, there aren’t any specific questions you want answered, right?”

“Nope. Just general things about the Jagged Blades to help verify Yasuhiro’s information. Besides the two genin-level ninja—which Hinata discovered—we haven't learned about anything we didn’t already know.”

“What makes you think the villagers know anything more?” asked Choji.

“They probably don’t but it can’t hurt to try.” Asuma shrugged before sitting up. “Oh, buy me a bottle of sake on the way back. Alcohol’s cheap here; make up some bullshit about buying it for your parents.”