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At this moment, Haori's inner thoughts were practically screaming, "Kushina-sensei, where do I even begin to complain?"
First of all, what kind of teacher encourages her student to steal?
Second, I know this place! Even with my basic knowledge of the Naruto world, I know what that mystical scroll is all about!
Third, sensei, you might be able to just walk in there, and you might even be allowed to handle that scroll. But me? If I go, there's a good chance I'll be killed on the spot! And if they don't just kill me, they might even drag my body away for further study!
But can he… or rather, does he dare to complain freely? Not a chance. Respecting one's teacher is essential, after all.
Honestly, though, he's definitely not keen on provoking the Red Hot Habanero.
So, with a pleading look, Haoori looked at Kushina and said, "Sensei, can I not go? My first impression of that place is that it's... really not good."
"I may be young, but I'm quite superstitious. And first impressions mean a lot to me..."
Kushina listened to Haori's concerns and then slammed the table with her hand—though not as hard as the last time.
*Heh. Got hurt, didn't you?*
With a bold tone, she continued, "This is to help you steal… take jutsu. How can you not go? Stea… taking a thing, what are you scared about?"
"Whoa, sensei! You definitely just said 'steal,' didn't you? And you even said it twice!"
"What's there to worry about? If something happens, I'll old lady will full responsibility!"
"Did I hear that right?"
Haori could have sworn he heard the young Kushina referring to herself as "an old hand"
"It's settled, then! We'll start the operation tonight!"
*Shiraishi Haori, utterly defeated.
*Shiraishi Haori, on the ground.
*Shiraishi Haori, unable to recover.
*Shiraishi Haori, officially done for.
Kushina stood up and pulled out a blank sheet of paper, grabbing a pen and starting to map out a plan to infiltrate the Hokage's office.
"What are you waiting for? Clear the table!"
"Huh? Oh, right!" Haori snapped back to reality and quickly cleared away the dishes from the table.
Once Kushina had the large sheet of paper laid out, she began sketching the floor plan of the Hokage's office building.
She started by drawing a turtle, which obviously represented the Third Hokage, Hiruzen.
Then she added a smaller circle outside of the turtle to represent the top floor where the Hokage's office was located.
Outside that, she drew two larger circles for the lower levels of the office building, adding stick figures in these circles to represent the ninja stationed there. As for her drawing style... well, let's just say you shouldn't expect great artistry from every ninja.
"There are twenty-four shinobi guarding the first floor, all of them at least Special Jonin level or higher," she explained.
"The second floor has about sixteen shinobi, all of Jonin rank."
"And hiding inside the office are four elite Anbu captains. Infiltrating the Hokage's office and retrieving the scroll of sealing without alerting anyone is practically impossible."
Knowing the security details of the Hokage's office building wasn't surprising for Kushina. What was surprising, though, was that she was actually putting serious thought into whether this plan was even feasible!
"Maybe we could create a distraction outside and slip in while the others are busy… No, that won't work. Those four ninja in the office are specifically assigned to guard classified documents, and they're too disciplined to abandon their posts."
"Or maybe we could just destroy the entire Hokage building?"
Kushina quickly shook her head. "No, that's out of the question. It would create way too much noise…"
'It's only about the noise? Sensei, your focus is… questionable.'
"Besides, if the building is in ruins, finding the scroll would be even harder."
(ShixT9: She got priorities)
Of course, Kushina was just joking about destroying the Hokage's office; she would never actually do something that extreme. But her ideas were definitely getting more creative.
And so, at that moment…
*Ping!* Your friend, Haori the Reluctant Accomplice, is now online.
As the saying goes, "Life is like that, and if you can't avoid it… you might as well enjoy it."
Since he couldn't avoid it, Haori decided to actively participate in the planning, hoping to keep Kushina from going *too* far overboard.
He'd resigned himself to this—better to face it head-on and get it over with. After all, he was just the accomplice here; Kushina was the mastermind.
"Kushina-sensei, I think there's no need for us to clash with those ninja directly." Haori immediately offered his suggestion.
"What do you mean?" Kushina asked, surprised. Could they really infiltrate the building peacefully?
Yes, they totally could.
Or rather, it wouldn't even be an infiltration.
"With your status, Kushina-sensei, we could just walk right in. The shinobi on the lower levels wouldn't suspect a thing. Our only challenge would be dealing with those four elite shinobi in the office itself."
"We'll need to take them out quietly, before they can make any noise."
Kushina considered his words, realizing that he was right. With her status, entering the Hokage building wasn't an issue at all; she went there all the time without anyone questioning it. Why was she suddenly acting so cautious about it now?
What she didn't realize was that this hesitation came from a guilty conscience.
"Go on," she said, mulling over his idea's feasibility while encouraging him to continue.
"To avoid drawing too much suspicion, our timing has to be just right—neither too early nor too late. If we go too early, the Hokage himself might still be there…"
"And we can't remove the scroll of sealing from the office, so we'll just have to copy down whatever we can while we're there." Stealing a few jutsu is far less incriminating than stealing the entire scroll. This was Haori's way of leaving a fallback option.
The difficulty wasn't in the infiltration itself but in *when* to go in, meaning they'd need to time their entry precisely for when the Hokage was out of his office. Although this was challenging, it wasn't impossible, since the Hokage had a regular routine as the village leader.
The second challenge was how to neutralize the four elite shinobi without making a sound. Haori knew he couldn't handle that on his own.
It would be ideal if Minato were here; with his Flying Thunder God Technique, sneaking in and out would be a breeze. If he were there, he could easily dispatch the four shinobi in a flash. But if Minato were here, he'd probably focus on stopping the two of them from pulling this off altogether.
In the end, dealing with the Anbu would fall to Kushina.
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