The room gained its usual busy sound as Onizuka and Tachibana continued to speak and talk about various prices for their goods and services.
"No way, three million ryo is too much." Onizuka shook his head rapidly but Tachibana didn't give up. He clearly remembered the price that the Samurai had sold the fifteen children for and yet he only asked for about fifty per cent of the price.
So he spoke in a stern tone.
"Look. I'm only proposing you give me half the price since I'm currently in a hurry to collect a little money. If you want to still cheat me, I'll go to your client directly. I might not know them right now, but trust me I'll find out who they are eventually and then I'll undercut you."
Onizuka frowned at this but then calmed down after the not-so-veiled threat and continued to haggle with Tachibana.
In the background, however, Sasuke was calmly flipping through books and various paper records to figure out where the kidnapped children were being sent or sold off to.
Sasuke calmly flipped through pages since he trusted Tachibana to take as much ever time as it was needed for him to find any information that would give them the appropriate leads.
Sasuke remained calm and collected as he pulled out file after file from around the desk but most of the files were simple ledgers which contained no more information than the amount of money Onizuka was getting paid.
There was no identifying information about his clients or even a hint about where they might be hiding or waiting for his next 'transaction'.
Eventually though, thanks to his keen mind, Sasuke noticed a simple pattern.
'Fifty days…a new batch of children is sold every fifty days to a big client.'
'And the next one is in three days…'
'...a batch from two months ago this client was active...'
'Hmm…'
Sasuke rechecked his estimate by studying through other ledgers and then calmly nodded before replacing everything exactly where they were supposed to be.
Turning to Tachibana, Sasuke nodded, prompting Tachibana to finish the deal as he stood up while speaking calmly.
"Send someone to the Yoru Tenshi Inn after six pm today, I can take your man to the spot where they are kept for you to inspect the 'goods'. You can find me by the name, Nobita."
"I will be there myself to check the quality of the 'goods', of course only as long as you don't mind me bringing along someone to 'help' me a little and keep me safe?"
Tachibana nodded silently and Onizuka took that as acceptance to guide the duo to the exit while Sasuke followed them from behind.
"You'll get all the payment when we perform the transaction.", Onizuka said politely as the trio left the room.
Walking out of the alleyway, the genin trio quickly blended in with the crowd of people walking around as they made their way out of the town once again.
On their way to the exit, Tachibana spoke to Sasuke.
"Learnt anything?"
Sasuke nodded.
"The next transaction between him and his biggest client will happen in three days. They seem to sell kids in batches to this client. So I think this might be who we are after, at least this person has the biggest probability since they purchased kids when you were performing your mission to retrieve kids from that village we went to earlier."
Tachibana nodded since Sasuke's logic wasn't wrong.
"Well, we can just report to Yamat-" Tachibana paused suddenly as someone walked right into him as soon as they turned around a corner.
Something soft and fluffy pressed into Tachibana's face before he was knocked to the ground because the person rudely rushed ahead.
"The hell!!!!" Tachibana shouted from the ground.
"Sorry!! Sorry!!! This is an emergency!! Sorry!!" A black-haired woman apologised to Tachibana before running away herself.
Tachibana's eyes travelled around the crowd before he thought he spotted a blond head looking around for something, but since the person had already run away he didn't know what to do or even who to blame.
Sasuke helped Tachibana up and Sakura laughed at him.
"How did you lose your balance so easily? I thought you were an acrobat?"
Tachibana almost blushed when he heard that question since his concentration was elsewhere when he fell, but he didn't let it cloud his mind.
'That smell though…why was it so familiar?'
"Sometimes people have a bad day." Tachibana said while trying to avoid the question. "Did you catch who it was?"
"No, the person was too fast. I almost thought we were under attack so I was about to make sure all the civilians were safe." Sakura said.
"What about you Sasuke?"
Sasuke looked thoughtful for a second but he just shook his head, "I don't think I saw right."
Tachibana shrugged and then they started moving towards the exit again, but mid-way through, Yamato appeared in front of them and spoke calmly.
"I'll be resting outside the city, near the spot where I made the wooden cart. Naruto will wait with me there, don't worry about it and go to the inn. Come to the spot along with the handler." Yamato said handing over keys to their rooms in the Yoru Tenshi Inn.
Tachibana had a peculiar frown on his face when he heard this since Yamato could've just as easily sent his clone to wait with them at the inn. It was strange that he was leaving the mission entirely up to them without supervision.
Even though they'd pulled off a few crazy things before, this was technically only their third big mission outside the village.
'Well…I can always just divine about it later.'
Tachibana and Sakura kept up pretences and entered the room in the inn while Sasuke entered the room through the window to stay hidden and keep his cover.
Tachibana immediately entered the washroom and quickly performed dream divination.
"Why is Yamato sensei avoiding staying in the walls of Tanzaku Quarters?"
Tachibana repeated the question seven times and used cogitation to put himself into a light sleep before his vision shifted as he got a response.
In Tachibana's vision came a beautiful blond lady. She wore a green haori over a grey kimono-style blouse with no sleeves, held closed by a broad, dark bluish-grey obi that matched her pants.
The woman was sitting at a low table while sipping on some alcohol in a saucer, her posture was loose and she repeatedly kept falling onto another woman who was beside her.
"Shizune~~!!! Why did we win!!!!???"
"Isn't that good Tsunade-sama!?"
"Noooooo~~~~!"
Tsunade was about to fall into Shizune's lap and fall asleep but her eyes suddenly sharpened as her body stiffened before she rushed out towards the balcony of her room.
Not finding what she was looking for, Tsunade quickly jumped out of the balcony and rushed in a particular direction, with Shizune quickly following behind her.
Tachibana looked around in the vision carefully before he spotted the person Tsunade was after, it was Yamato-sensei.
Tsunade then bumped into someone which caused her to lose focus on the person she was chasing and the vision shattered there.
First, Tachibana was loosely shocked about the answer to his question being Tsunade. Secondly, he was shocked by what he inferred.
"So Tsunade can detect other Senju clan members?"
"So Yamato-sensei is avoiding her because he doesn't want things to get awkward about the village? Especially while we are on a mission that involves the culprit responsible for making Yamato into what he is?"
'....well this is exciting…' Tachibana thought as a devious plan started to form in his mind. 'I need to inflict as much damage as possible on my enemy right…?'
'What better way than to use a Sanin...'
'How exciting…'