It sounded like something Danzo would do. And I didn't want to be that person.
"Someone like that must have done something pretty terrible," Sazanami said cautiously. He leant his elbows on the table. He looked… intrigued.
I supposed that was good.
"Yes," I said. "He's a criminal that even other ninja are scared of. And he works with a group made up of men that are the same or worse."
Sazanami blinked. "You know, I've never really considered the idea that ninja form gangs too. I don't think I should be as surprised as I am."
I smirked. "Yeah. It's not something that the villages like to let happen. So when it does happen, it can be pretty bad." I put my hands on the table, palms flat. "Look, I'm not asking you to doanything about them. I'm really, really not. I just wanted to know if there was a way to get information from bounty offices about them."
Sazanami nodded slowly. "I can keep an eye out. But I can't promise anything."
"Good," I said. "That's really the best…" I swallowed, aware that my palms were sweaty. I resisted the urge to rub them dry on my pants. "The bounty hunter is called Kakuzu. The group is called Akatsuki. And neither of those are things you should name drop. Ever. You should probably pretend I never told you them."
I gave him a quick rundown on them. It wasn't like I had much to share. And even giving him the name was… iffy. I didn't doubt that Jiraiya probably knew it but he hadn't told me. By rights, I shouldn't have even known it. If this worked out, then I could say I learnt it from Sazanami…
This is a terrible, terrible idea.
"Even the littlest piece of information would be helpful at this stage," I said. "Where he was, the bounty he turned in, who he was with… anything. I'm not asking for deep secrets."
"If I do find something," Sazanami said cautiously. "How do I tell you?"
I bit my lip, mind racing. "I'll give you something before we go," I said vaguely, settling on an idea. "But if you can't contact me, send it to Konoha care of the Nara Clan."
I gave us a few more minutes, and cancelled the genjutsu. "We'll come back and visit later!" I said cheerily. "Hopefully everything will be sorted by then."
Even though the conversation was over – and had gone well – my stomach was roiling with nerves. Now was the time for second guessing myself while it was too late to do anything about it.
We'd only known Sazanami for two days. We barely knew him at all. This was a lot of trust to put into someone. This was a dangerous situation to get someone involved in. This could go wrong in so, so many ways.
So. So. Terrible. What are you doing.
I paused just outside the police station, sensing Naruto and Sai on their way back. Gatsu had been waiting inside and had declined to come with us. I didn't quite know what he wanted – maybe he was concerned about knowing the truth about Sazanami. Maybe he just liked police stations.
"Hey, Shikako! We got you some mochi!" Naruto said cheerfully, passing me a tray. There were a few pieces missing. "Well, I got it for Sai but he doesn't like it."
"Thanks," I said dryly, but took it anyway. "Not a fan of sweets, Sai?"
"No," Sai said. He looked a little uncomfortable, but it was hard to tell.
"Fair enough". I shrugged. "What do you like to eat then?" I popped a piece of mochi into my mouth. It was good.
Sai considered the question with more weight than it probably deserved. But then again, I was asking him to declare a preference for something, so it might have been a big deal, after all.
"Tofu," he said, after a long pause. "Momen tofu."
"Bleh, tofu," Naruto said immediately, then backpedalled. "Well, it's okay in ramen. And if you like it, then that's okay too."
I passed him some mochi. "Did you see anything interesting while you were out?"
Naruto laughed awkwardly, holding Sazanami's sword closer to his side. "What makes you say that?"
I chewed, and raised an eyebrow at him. I hadn't meant anything by it, but that absolutely sounded like there was a story.
"I only put it down for a second," he protested. "And we got it back. So it's fine."
I looked at Sai. He said nothing.
Well. The village didn't look like it was on fire. No one was screaming and running around in chaos. He was in possession of Sazanami's sword.
"Okay," I said. "Why don't we go get some lunch then? Mochi is nice, but it's not real food."
It was a festival, so there were lots of vendors out in full force. Despite deciding on 'real food'… we kind of just snacked on things as we went.
"The bell is up here," Naruto said, winding us through the streets. "It's really big. Do you think it was actually used in the war?"
I eyed it. It was big. And gold. And loud. "Maybe," I said, because maybe someone used it for auditory genjutsu. Though all I really had was the vision of dropping it on someone's head, acme style. Maybe Minato's.
"You haven't heard about it?" Naruto asked, sounding disappointed.
So much faith in me, I thought wryly. "Unfortunately, Konoha's war records tend to go 'and then the Yellow Flash showed up and the fighting was over'. Giant bells not included."
"Why is it important?" Sai asked. "Do you believe it is a weapon?" He was staring at the bell, as though assessing its viability as a weapon of mass destruction. He didn't look particularly impressed.
Says the man that fights with art.
"No, it just sounds awesome," Naruto said.
Well, it wasn't like we had anything else to do all day. It could be fun to do a little bit of sightseeing. "Maybe the shrines will have a history plaque?" I suggested. "We could check them out."
"Great idea!" Naruto enthused. "Let's go!"
There was some interesting things to be learnt from the shrines and temples, and the festive atmosphere kept the whole thing fun, even for Naruto who normally wasn't one for academic outings.
"Eh? What's this?" Naruto asked, staring up at a huge monolith in an isolated temple courtyard. The temple itself was on the outskirts of the village and quiet, even now. I half suspected it was closed, because it appeared fairly derelict, except that there was a monk sitting quietly on the cobblestones.
The monk coughed. "That is a memorial stone for all the shinobi that died defending the border."
"They're all names," I said, eyeing the hundreds of tiny kanji etched into the surface. There were so many.
The grin dropped off Naruto's face, to a look of solemnity. "This place really was a battlefield, wasn't it? Hey, old man. Can we buy some incense?"
We exchanged coins and lit the sticks at the altar. I went through the motions, noticing that Sai was even stiffer and more awkward here. No, I didn't imagine he got much of a chance to visit temples.
It wasn't that I really believed the incense would help the spirits of the dead, but it was a culturally significant action that conveyed respect, so it wasn't something I minded doing.
"I recognise that symbol," the old monk said to us. "You're from the Land of Fire, aren't you? Why light incense for people that your country killed?"
"What land do the dead belong to?" I asked rhetorically. "All people are the same in the end."
"Yeah," Naruto agreed. "I don't know what people were fighting over, back then, or why so many people died but… we're not enemies now. A person that gives his life defending others is someone that should be respected."
"Wisely spoken," the monk said, and bowed. "Welcome to the Saikon temple. This place was a bustling temple many years ago, but it was damaged in the fighting and is now kept as a memorial."
So 'derelict' wasn't too far off. I looked at the damage in a new light. Some of it was caused by time and nature, certainly, but… yes, I could see things that could have come from ninjutsu. There; charring. There; the ground split apart and cracked. There, in the wall…
"It almost looks like Rasengan," Naruto said, running his hand over the damage. The hole in the stone wall went all the way through, growing wider and wider, the edges of it carved like a drill. "Hey! There's like an earth wall outside!" He peered through the opening. "It goes on for ages."
"It's impressive," I agreed. Naruto seemed more excited by the clear signs of battle here, but I found them almost eerie. A decade later, this was still here, even though there was no more fighting. Even though it was likely that all the people who had stood here, who had fought here, were already dead.
We wandered out of the temple to the field, and I couldn't help but run my hand over the wall. It was pock-marked with damage, and there were the handles of rusted knives sticking out of it. It might have been raised to block those, years and years ago. I could almost feel a ghost of chakra, trapped within the metal of one, as though it had been imbued with an attack that had never truly dissipated.
On a whim, I softened the rock, and pulled the handle free.
And blinked.
That's a Hiraishin kunai.
It was one thing, to suspect that he'd been here. Another to see proof that it couldn't have been anyone else. The kunai were distinctive, three bladed, and even now… the wrapping on the handle was aged and dirty, but the seal was still plain to see.
The Flying Thunder God Seal. What was it that Jiraiya had said? He created his own branch of sealing to make it work. This was… the utter pinnacle of sealing ability.
I swallowed, and looked around. Neither of the boys was nearby. I dropped the kunai into my leg pouch, feeling as though it were a hundred times heavier than a normal knife, as if I could feel the weight of its history and importance attached to the metal.
I didn't expect that.
Surely over the years, people would have come here, would have looked? But then, who cared for knives stuck in a wall of rock? Kunai weren't that expensive, and these were probably damaged beyond use anyway. Anyone who could easily remove them probably didn't care enough to try. If there had been loose Hiraishin kunai on the field, they'd probably been taken shortly after the battle – by either side.
Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous. What even is this? What are the chances that I would find that here?
"This is pretty cool, right?" Naruto said, beaming down at me from on top of the wall.
I swallowed. "Amazing," I agreed.
"What do you think, Sai?" Naruto called out, turning to look down the other side of the wall. With a shrug, I jumped up to stand beside him.
"There are a minimum of twelve different patterns of ninjutsu damage," Sai said. "That excludes those ninja who fought with genjutsu or taijutsu, or did not leave lasting damage to the environment as a result of their battle. More than one ninja may have used the same jutsu, and a single ninja may have used more than one type of jutsu. After so long, it is impossible to gain more accurate information regarding the battle here."
Naruto blinked. Then grinned "That's so cool, Sai! You can tell all that just by looking at this place?" He jumped down, landing lightly on the grass.
"If you would inform me of what you were looking for, I could be of more use," Sai said blandly, in a way that was completely unsubtle and yet flew miles over Naruto's head because he wasn't looking for anything at all.
"Fun," Naruto said. "We're looking for fun." He laughed.
I dropped to sit, legs dangling over the edge, and watched them with a smile.
Then, glad they were occupied, I pulled out my notebook and started to work. I had something to make, and not a lot of time to do it.
.
.
"Hey, Sazanami!" Naruto shouted. "You're outside. Do you want your sword back?"
Sazanami took it back solemnly. "Thank you," he said. "For your help. All of it."
Naruto chuckled awkwardly and rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, it was our mission to catch that guy, and it was no problem to help you at the same time. Besides, you're a cool guy, and you helped us out first!"
"I don't think that really compares," Sazanami said, tipping his hat. "But I thank you kindly all the same."
"Are they really letting you go already?" I asked, mildly surprised. "That was quick."
"I'm on bail," he said. "Gatsu has agreed to ensure that I don't try and run." His lips quirked in a way that said he didn't intend to, but if he had, then that might not have been enough to stop him.
Gatsu crossed his arms. "Hmph. It's appalling to think that so much time and effort has been wasted on false accusations. These things should be properly investigated before a bounty is ever issued."
"I'm glad you feel that way, friend," Sazanami said. "It makes my life easier."
"Then we should return to Konoha," Sai said. "Our mission is complete, correct?"
"Yeah," I answered. "I have the information we needed. And the police know that Fire Country or Tea Country might want to extradite him, just in case." I shrugged. "There isn't much else we need to do."
Naruto nodded. "It was nice to meet you guys! I hope we'll see each other again sometime."
We turned to go, and I paused, as though I had just remembered something.
"Oh, Sazanami!" I scrambled in my pocket, withdrawing a small packet with a decorative coin and a slip of paper that was usually a fortune reading. "I brought you a good luck charm from the shrine. Stay out of trouble!"
The coin had been what sealed the idea, in the end. Once upon a time, I'd been a huge fan of the Harry Potter series. And when they had needed to communicate a location to each other in secret, they had used a set of charmed coins to transmit that information unnoticeably. The sort of item you could be expected to carry, and that no one would look too closely at.
This wasn't the first time I had tried to make that seal work. Linking two objects together wasn't so difficult in the end, but it was detectable, which was a problem for ninja. The burst of chakra that activating it made counteracted the benefits of having a secret transmission method in the first place. And the more information you tried to transmit, the more the connection degraded, the more chakra it took, and the more likely it would collapse and fail. Hence, having a letter that would instantly transcribe itself on a duplicate sheet of paper was impossible.
All this was currently completely irrelevant anyway, because Sazanami didn't use chakra. Having something that required him to activate with chakra just wouldn't have worked.
Instead, I'd made the connection 'open', and instructed him to inscribe the coordinates onto the side of the coin with blood, which would complete the seal and make it close. Hopefully. The open connection was more of a background hum than the spike of chakra that anyone would think to look for. Hopefully.
And if anyone with skill was paying him that much attention, he was probably in trouble anyway.
I liked to think it was a good solution to the 'how do I contact you' problem, even if it still had minor flaws. We didn't have to arrange a meeting time or location now, we could do it when he had some information.
"That was a good mission," Naruto said, tucking his hands behind his head. "But I can't wait to go home and visit Ichiraku."
I laughed. "Well, let's get moving then."
.
.
"Are you the team from Konoha?" the woman behind the counter of the diner asked in relief. "Thank goodness you're here!"
Naruto and I traded looks. We'd stopped at the little crossroads inn for an early lunch before making our way through the Kubisaki pass, and hadn't expect that sort of greeting at all.
"Uhm," I said awkwardly. "We are a team from Konoha. But we weren't sent here. Did you hire a team?" Something was niggling at me. Something was … off.
"Yes," the woman replied. "Lady Kayo from the Land of Honey was supposed to be travelling through here with her retinue. But she never arrived, and we had no word that the trip had been cancelled. Something must have happened to her."
The woman in front of us was middle-aged, dressed appropriately for an owner of a small, family run alongside a pass that was infrequently used but not totally abandoned. It wasn't a major shipping route, but it was direct and not overtly difficult to cross. There was the chakra of a handful of civilians scattered upstairs – guests, presumably – and another two in the kitchen behind the counter.
No. One was a civilian. The other had ninja training.
"This is not our mission," Sai said to Naruto.
"That's awful," Naruto said, ignoring him completely. "And no one has come looking for her yet?"
"No," the woman said, a little fretfully. "We sent the message bird days ago. Someone should have been sent by now."
"You keep a message bird here?" I asked, curiously. That was actually starting to make more sense. The lady had recognised us as ninja, no question, which didn't seem strange until you contrasted it to the attitudes we had just had to deal with in Land of Stone. She'd known how to hire ninja right away.
"Oh yes," she said. "Well. Maybe you should talk to-" She turned to call out into the kitchen. "Ami, dear! The ninja are here!"
The chakra in the kitchen moved. The face that came out was familiar. It was surprising, yet not.
Ami. The girl who had clashed so frequently with Ino, Sakura and I at Konoha Academy. She had passed the graduation exam, but if only our three teams had made it into the General Forces… well. It had never occurred to me to wonder what she was doing now.
"Oh," she said, lukewarm. "Shikako. Naruto." Her eyes flickered over Naruto's Chunin vest.
"Ami," I said, politely. "So you're working here now?"
"Yes," she said, without elaboration. It was probably for the best – I could fill in myself why a Genin was posted somewhere like this with a message bird. Lost princesses notwithstanding. It probably wasn't a bad assignment for a first year Genin Corps, it did imply a certain degree of skill, trust and autonomy, even if it wasn't terribly exciting, but it likely didn't make her too happy to see us.
We left our orders for food, and Ami slipped out to sit at the table with us and fill us in on what had happened. Her report was pretty good, clear and concise, even if there weren't that many more details in general.
"The team is probably checking the route to see where she was last seen and following it from there," I said, studying the map. I could see a couple of hazards that could cause problems to a travelling group. "It makes more sense than coming out here and working backwards."
"There have been a couple of rumours about strange things happening at the old Kubisaki Castle," Ami confessed. "Nothing concrete. Just 'my brother had a friend who once saw' kind of stuff."
"What kind of things?" Naruto asked.
Ami shrugged. "Strange noises. Lights on inside the castle. People getting lost."
"People vanishing?" I asked, quirking an eyebrow.
"Nothing concrete," Ami repeated. "But a lot of people travel through without anyone knowing they're coming, so how can you tell if they never arrive?"
Naruto shivered. "Creepy. I hope it's not ghosts."
"Well," I said, meaningfully. "We're going that way anyway."
"We're going to help them, aren't we?" Sai said, sounding resigned.
He learnt so quickly.
Naruto nodded firmly. "Great idea, Sai. That's exactly what we're going to do."