It took Hinata fifteen seconds of staring at Kumogakure to find the village's secret detention facility, all the while Ino was admiring Ren's handiwork from his previous visit. Namely, the now turd-shaped mountain proudly looming over the village for all to see.
Ren was a bit surprised that they had not discovered the seal responsible for the visual illusion, but then again, they had no idea what to look for in the first place. Thinking about it from that angle, it was understandable.
After Hinata found the facility, her eyebrows furrowed, "It isn't even properly hidden." She said with a baffled tone, "They certainly did not put too much effort into concealing it."
For some reason that even she couldn't name, this made her upset. She already detested what these kidnapping and raping pieces of shitstains were doing, but to see them do it so blatantly with a devil-may-care attitude?
It fiercely rubbed Hinata the wrong way.
Ren only gave her an understanding smile in return. He didn't have the heart to tell her that Konoha did the same. He didn't know the exact location, but as far as he knew, the 'brothel' with captured and restrained kunoichi and ninjas for breeding purposes was smag-dab in the middle of Konoha's red-light district.
The village did not advertise it, and they put in the token effort into keeping its existence under wraps, but any chunin and above who wanted to find it would be able to.
The difference between Konoha and Kumo, other villages, and Kumo, really, was the scale of these operations. Kumo was infamous for them because they performed so many kidnapping attempts that the few that failed were numerous enough to make what they were doing obvious.
"Eh, it's not like Konoha puts much effort into concealing their breeding facility." Ino shrugged, and Ren inwardly winced as Hinata's head whipped toward her with a big, displeased, 'Excuse me!?' look.
Clearly, unlike Ren, the Yamanaka girl had no issue throwing this into Hinata's face.
"Don't look at me like that, Hina." Ino helplessly said, "I don't like it any more than you do, but it is just one of these things that simply happens. There is no point closing my eyes and pretending not to see it. I work at T&I. Where do you think the prisoners with bloodlines end up after interrogation? Hell! Some of my coworkers tend to banter about 'visiting' this or that prisoner they found attractive after they hand them over." A trace of disgust crept into Ino's still carefree tone.
Hinata opened her mouth to argue, but she thought better of it, and with a disgruntled snort, she turned her head away from Ino, glaring into the empty air. The topic was not over, not by a long shot, but for now, the mission was more important.
"Okay, girls." Ren clapped his hands in an attempt to guide their attention away from the topic. "We have the location, so let's go before some unfortunately fortunate idiot stumbles upon us through his sheer dumb luck and gets a kunai through the neck for his troubles. Ino, use the light-bending wind release to conceal us visually. Hinata, lead the way through the cracks in their security. I will follow you and watch your backs-" He slightly paused and smirked, "and backsides."
Hinata gave him an exasperated look at that, but she now sported a small smile, while Ino punched his shoulder and huffed. They shared one last companionable chuckle before the jovial mood gave way to seriousness as they entered the proper mindset for work.
Ino and Ren's blond hair faded into dull brown color, while Hinata's bluish black turned into a faded red color. Their pale skin tones slightly shifted as tan appeared on them, and their eyes became unforgettably green, meant to attract attention and stick in the mind of anybody who had seen them for a long time.
Looking at Ino and Hinata, Ren inwardly nodded to himself. Even he would have a problem recognizing them with their new coloring. As far as disguises went, this one was great.
Silent and unseen, the trio descended from the remote mountain peak, slipping into the village with ease, only someone aware of all patrols could provide as Hinata's eyes paved their way in. Soon enough, they slipped through the streets, using crowds of civilians to blend in, until they reached the restricted areas where only the military personnel of the village could enter.
The patrols were much more intense the closer they got, and pretending to be just civilians became harder and harder as the crowds thinned. But thanks to Ino's flawless Wind Release, the light bent around their frames, turning them invisible as they suppressed their chakra, while Ren's seals concealed their scent and heat signatures.
Waltzing right in front of the guarding chunin, Ino gave him a rude salute with a cheeky smile as they slipped past him while his eyes stared past them. For a moment, the man's face scrunched, and he blinked several times, but as he looked around and found nothing out of the ordinary, he shook his head and returned to his mind-numbingly boring guard duty.
By then, Ino, Ren, and Hinata were long gone, already in front of the mountain peak that housed several facilities, one of which was their target.
Hinata suddenly stopped and motioned upward to the right. Looking that way, Ren saw a balcony etched into the side of a cliff. Grasping one of Hinata and Ino's arms, the world swirled in their perspective for a second, and then, they stood on said balcony with three other Kumo ninjas who failed to notice them.
Ino's chakra spread out, subtly wrapping the three ninjas in its insidious grasp, and their eyes slightly dulled as the trio slipped past them.
Ren glanced at Ino's back, replaying the actions of other ninjas they had passed a few moments ago, while he inwardly wondered if these three were her first victims today. He had only noticed her actions because he was staring at their eyes as they lost their focus.
The girl could not use her Yamanaka techniques because this was a black operation, and giving Kumo any inclination to believe Konoha is responsible for their upcoming trouble would be beyond bad. But she did not have only her Yamanaka techniques. Outside of them, she was exceptionally good at genjutsu. It was oftentimes overlooked, even by Ren, because she simply did not use it all that often.
But...
A small chill went up Ren's spine. They passed hundreds of Kumo ninjas today. And Ino's genjutsu was subtle enough that even he had a hard time noticing it affecting people around him when he was on his guard and paying attention.
Feeling his eyes on her back, Ino turned her head toward Ren as they walked through a hall, and his eyes instantly slid down toward her backside. He appreciatively stared at it for a few seconds before he raised his gaze and met her eyes, giving her a composed smile that concealed his previous thoughts.
Hearing a smug mental giggle coming through the telepathy seal, Ren ignored it as they reached their target area. All the smug satisfaction he felt through their mental connection instantly evaporated as they entered the entrance hall of the Kumo's bloodline breeding facility and stopped in a corner to observe the comings and goings for a few minutes.
'Well, we are here. Any plan?' Hinata mentally asked. 'I suggest just slaughtering them all.'
'Hinata~!' Ino's exasperatedly whiny voice resounded through their mental link, and Hinata grumbled.
'Just saying. It's not as if this scum doesn't deserve it.'
'Being vicious like that is my job. Don't steal my thunder, thunder-girl.' Ino teased, but her chakra was already ceaselessly working at seeping into everybody that passed through the entrance hall.
'How big is this place, Hinata?' Ren asked with unexpected intensity.
He was starting to have a very bad feeling about this place. The entire facility seemed to be far bigger than Ren initially expected. The one in Konoha held at most thirty 'inmates' at a time. But from the traffic through the entrance hall during the few minutes of their stakeout in the corner, this one seemed to be...
'Four hundred seventy-three prisoners. Fifty-three guards. One hundred and seventeen visitors are enjoying the prisoners right now, while eleven are in various stages of arriving or leaving the place currently.' Hinata mentally narrated the numbers while coldly staring at the people coming and going with murder in her gaze.
Ren noticed an extremely controlled, subtle shift in her chakra, and his lips pursed. Paying her a bit more attention, he noticed that Hinata was doing something, and Ino was deliberately concealing it.
'Hinata.' Ren sighed, and Hinata slightly stiffened as she noticed something was wrong from his tone.
"... Yes?' She almost timidly answered, Ren inwardly smiling as he felt her urge to look away from him like a scolded child that was caught with her hand in a cookie jar through their mental link.
'Are you poisoning them?' He plainly asked.
'... Maybe?'
'And they won't drop dead in the next few hours?'
'No?'
'Good. I'd like to round up the prisoners here before anybody notices that something is wrong, and having many ninjas die in the middle of the street would raise a few unneeded alarms.'
Maybe he should have worried more about Hinata causing a plague outbreak in Kumo or something similarly destructive, but he was so way past caring at this point it wasn't even funny. A few fewer Kumo ninjas for the frontlines during the upcoming war could only be a good thing for their side anyway.
Besides, Hinata was not that vicious. Ino... yeah, Ren could see her do something like that. But Hinata, despite her occasional tough behavior, was still just the same big softy as previously. She just hid it better.
Hearing Hinata's moody 'Alright', Ren turned his attention back to the task in front of them, and couldn't help but feel a bit overwhelmed. He expected a few dozen prisoners. Not... four hundred.
'This is going to be a pain in the ass, isn't it?' Mentally grumbling, he started lowkey despairing about the whole logistics of this sudden operation.
This was going to be trickier than he initially thought.
---
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