Tachibana occasionally used spirit vision to keep himself aware of all living things in the surroundings since he didn't trust any mission related to Danzo or Orochimaru to go smoothly.
And to his misfortune or luck, Tachibana did spot a team of three people following him. He did his best to not be too obvious about those that were following him. His pace was steady and he followed Yamato closely.
'Are they jonin? Or just chunin?'
Tachibana didn't want to alert them just yet, but it seemed like Yamato had also noticed the three people following them since he started taking routes that would put more distance between them.
'So he does know that Danzo and his men will be involved in this thing…'
'Does he also want everyone in Team Seven to develop a bad view of Danzo and the Root?'
Speeding through the forests, after taking occasional breaks to refill their stamina, Team Seven arrived at the entrance of Tanzaku quarters, but they remained hidden in the forest for a little bit.
Yamato stopped and looked at the genin causing them to feel confused for a second before Tachibana realised what he expected of them and took the lead.
"Naruto you better transform into the child we will be selling and stay in a cart that Yamato-sensei can prepare for us using his wood release cart-making jutsu-"
'There is no such Jutsu!' Yamato wanted to say but Tachibana didn't give him the time to interrupt.
"-Sasuke you follow us by keeping a fixed distance from us so that you can latch onto the dealer and follow him back to his hideout when we find out more about him. Sakura and I will be entering the black market to find out where our dealer operates from.-"
"-It's better if you all change your appearances too."
Everyone looked at Tachibana and nodded.
Yamato saw this and smiled before following Tachibana's orders and making a wooden cart with a wooden prison in it for Naruto to be trapped inside.
Once Naruto was trapped, Sasuke, Sakura and Tachibana all began to enter Tanzaku quarters after having disguised themselves as older people. Sasuke transformed into a roadside tramp, while Tachibana transformed into a middle-aged man whose body looked robust and well taken care of.
Sakura was diligent in her transformation too as she transformed into a random kunoichi that looked like Tachibana's guard to an untrained eye while experienced people would see her as an apprentice that Tachibana was training.
With all their preparations done, Team Seven set out based on Yamato's orders about where and how one could go to access the Blackmarket.
Yamato sent a wooden clone to follow along with them just to keep an eye on the team, but he didn't let any of them know about it. Tachibana was the only one who realised since he turned on his spirit vision to keep an eye out for Root operatives just in case.
Tanzaku town was a haven for enthusiasts of actions shinobi considered vices. As such it was mostly avoided by shinobi, at least on the surface since according to Yamato there existed an underground market in the town, literally underground.
Each building towards the centre of Tanzaku quarters had underground offices which were connected to each other. The buildings acted as access points to these underground offices with guards being set up at the entrances to filter people and stop random people from wasting the time of their bosses.
Altogether it was a flourishing black market that worked tirelessly to accept and distribute missions to and from rouge shinobi.
The missions themselves were rather dangerous and involved unverifiable sources of information that could be planted as a trap to capture an unsuspecting shinobi. They could range from simple assassination requests or more complex ones like helping steal 'high-level' jutsu scrolls from smaller shinobi villages.
As Tachibana and Sakura walked side by side they soon reached the narrow alleyway. Beggars sat down along the entrance to the alleyway keeping watch over the people walking in and out of the alley.
Tachibana and Sakura ignored them and walked deeper into the Alleyway which was slightly dark due to the tall gambling houses on both sides.
Walking up to a door on the side of one of the buildings Tachibana took the initiative to *knock* on the door softly.
A piece of the door shifted sideways to reveal a peeping window from which a pair of eyeballs looked at Tachibana.
"What do you need? The entrance is on the front side, this way is only for the staff."
Already having been warned of the question by Yamato, Tachibana spoke smoothly, "We're here to meet Onizuka." Onizuka was the name of the handler who was technically part of the 'staff' of the underground office.
But since they didn't know which building Onizuka's office was connected to Tachibana had used a little trick for them to be able to find it on the first try.
He used divination to direct which street would lead them to the underground office.
The eyeball at the peeping window looked at Tachibana and Sakura for a few seconds before it was shut. They heard soft *clicks* and a few *clacks* as the heavy iron door slowly opened to reveal the entrance to the underground chamber.
An old man was standing behind the door but Tachibana and Sakura paid no attention to him and continued walking deeper into the chamber.
Unknown to the old man who was standing guard beside the door to make sure no one else would enter, Sasuke easily slipped through by putting everyone around the street under Genjutsu. Since they weren't formal shinobi, Sasuke barely had to do anything to appear invisible to them.
With Sasuke inside the old man closed the door, disconnecting the world inside from the outside.
Team Seven walked downstairs slowly until they reached a simple underground office that was furnished with wooden beams and posts. A single lantern hung from one of the pillars, giving a dim yellow glow to the room.
Tachibana and Sakura spotted a man sitting behind a desk in the room and walked to the seats opposite him and sat down but did not disturb the man since he was asleep.
Sasuke walked into the room and first put the man into a genjutsu to become invisible to him before Sakura lightly tapped the table to wake the man up.
The man woke up with a sudden jerk as if he'd just suddenly realised he was asleep during work. It took him a few seconds to adjust, but the man soon realised that he had clients, except there was a frown on his face.
"You are?" Onizuka asked after sending a stray glance Sakura's way before looking at Tachibana.
Tachibana frowned as if Onizuka was disrespectful when talking to him and didn't respond to stay in character. Sakura was the one who handled the conversation as she interrupted with an explanation.
"We heard you're the guy to go to for getting rid of some 'goods'."
"Oh? Why didn't you start with that? How many are we talking about? I don't do small works like one or two, I work in wholesale, so only five or more will be good for me. If you're just here to sell yours, you should probably go elsewhere. Unless it has something special about it? Perhaps from one of those rare clans in Kirigakure? I have clients who will give you a high price for them."
Sakura almost frowned after seeing just how casually Onizuka was talking about selling children but she kept up appearances and spoke calmly.
"We have fifteen, when can you check and confirm the goods so that we can move to shipping and getting paid?"
"Fifteen!? What did you guys do? Rob an orphanage or something? Well whatever it is, it's not my business. I can send someone to your location by tomorrow morning at the earliest, just mark it on this map, since I don't personally check on the goods myself, who knows what sick fantasies you might have."
Sakura nodded and picked up the wooden quill and dipped it in some ink before marking out the spot they'd set up for Naruto to be taken but Tachibana stopped her and looked at Onizuka.
"How much will you pay us?"
Onizuka giggled to himself for a bit before looking at Tachibana and smiling as he spoke-
"Damn, I thought I had the girl, why did you have to interfere old man? The best thing to learn from is experience! You should've just allowed her to finish the deal wtihout asking me the price! Then I could've sent the guards after her to make her fulfil the deal."