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———
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Takuma sat on a high wall with a sandwich in his hand. His ANBU mask lay on his side, and he had pulled his black balaclava halfway so he could eat while he observed Jeju Hyouma in the distance as the second-in-command went about his day.
The people who passed by the wall on which he was perched avoided his eyes as though he would arrest them just for making eye contact. There was a healthy amount of fear in the air, but that was to be expected. Most people were scared of ANBU and talked about how it was never good luck to come across one. They weren't wrong. Out of the two people he had cornered, he had threatened to uproot the life of one of them.
If one believes the woman's word, Hyouma was involved in smuggling and took bribes to facilitate the passage of illegal goods. It wouldn't be a reach to think that if he could do that, he could also leak the identities of couriers to the bandits targeting them.
However, it just didn't make sense.
Fujita said that this border outpost was the most popular in the Fire-Earth trade. That popularity made smuggling large quantities of goods easier, but the murders were putting that popularity at risk by bringing unwanted attention to the outpost.
Takuma's presence alone was proof.
If he assumed that Hyouma had basic smarts, then he wouldn't risk his illegal dealings that would bring him more money in the long run. Especially, if he was planning to stay, as made evident by his recent land purchase in the township. Not to mention, the murders were risking his future at the outpost.
If things got worse, he would be booted alongside everyone else when the higher-ups ordered a housecleaning.
"Then who is it?" he muttered to himself as he gazed at Hyouma. Even if the man wasn't directly involved, there was a plausible chance that his illegal dealings might have something worthwhile.
———
.
Takuma followed Fujita into the outpost's evidence room used to store some of the more sensitive seized goods, and in this case, the evidence related to the murders.
"The bandits have been careful not to leave much behind that could be tracked to them, but we have managed to gather a collection over the dozen or so incidents," said Fujita as he pulled out a couple of boxes from the shelf and placed them on one of the tables in the middle of the room.
Takuma stepped to the table and began sorting through the boxes. "You should order your people to cooperate," he said.
"Pardon?" asked Fujita.
"All of them are saying the same things. Not a person out of line. Not many can accomplish that through either likability or fear. Saying that, I think I can get out of your hair as soon as possible if you give me access to people. Trying to protect everyone will only lead to harming everyone; you must understand, I hope."
Fujita didn't reply.
Takuma didn't push it for now. He needed Fujita to simmer in those thoughts for at least a day or two more before he could push to loosen his hold.
"There is more than trouble in your house that you'd like to admit," he said before leaving it.
Fujita was right. The bandits had been careful. They hadn't left behind anything except standard equipment, such as kunai, shuriken, ropes, spikes, and burnt pieces of tags, preserved in evidence bags.
Almost everything was some degree of burnt because the bandits always drew attention to the dead couriers by setting their cargo on fire. It was as if they wanted to ensure the bandits wouldn't be missed. That action went against their self-interest, unless they were seeking attention, fame, or infamy.
"Everything's Leaf standard issue." Takuma clicked his tongue. That matched with the Hidden Earth's claim that the Hidden Leaf was behind the murders of the Earth-aligned couriers. But that didn't mean anything because Leaf's standard-issue design was copied and used by literally everyone.
As he looked at more burnt pieces of evidence, he found a twenty-centimetre knife on the bottom. It had a partially melted, black plastic handle and didn't resemble any standard gear. It had a narrow, two-sided blade with a sharp tip, suitable for both stabbing and slashing.
He stared at it. No thoughts came to his head, but for some reason, it felt peculiar to him. His brain automatically went to logic and thought it was important because it was the only non-standard piece of gear, which meant it had to be significant.
But it wasn't logic. There was something else that made the knife peculiar.
"Look at it."
Takuma glanced up to see Grey standing on the other side of the table. He was staring at the knife as well with a solemn expression.
Takuma removed the knife from the evidence bag. The moment he touched it, he knew by instinct what he needed to do. He clenched the handle in his grip until the black plastic snapped, revealing the blade's tang, where a motif of a tree's root was pressed into the metal.
He glanced back at Fujita, who seemed to be in deep thought from their conversation, and silently pocketed the knife, broken handle, and the evidence bag.
The bandits were ROOT agents, or at the very least, they were behind bandits.
He looked across the table to find that Grey had disappeared. The remnant would usually speak his ear off before disappearing, but he had gone away so quickly. He understood it was because of ROOT. Grey had a terrible past with ROOT, something he knew very little about, only learning about it from the flash of memories he thought of visions.
"This changes everything," he said.
"Did you find something?" asked Fujita.
"Nothing, I found nothing. And that's what's most concerning, don't you think, Tokubetsu Jōnin Fujita," Takuma said as he closed evidence boxes. "There's a lot of work to be done."
———
.
Two hours after Takuma discovered the ROOT involvement, he stood listening in the private bathroom of Fujita's office with the door ajar.
"Whether you like it or not, we're here to investigate your misdoings," said a young man in his mid-twenties with slicked-back hair set in place with product. "You have had three months to get this under control, but it has only gotten worse."
The five-man band had shown up at the border outpost, claiming to be the official investigation on the courier murders.
Takuma looked at the paperwork in his hand. It all seemed legit. To be entirely sure, he would need to send it back to the Hidden Leaf for confirmation, but in his professional opinion, the documents were completely legit.
"More than fifty couriers and merchants had died while you sat in that chair doing jack shit." The slicked hair man sounded almost eager with anticipation and glee, as if he knew something only he did. He smugly gazed at Fujita, who rubbed his hands on his lap, hidden behind his table.
"I will admit that all of this has happened under my command, and I'll take responsibility for all of it, but to say this is the fault of my negligence, I wholeheartedly disagree. I've done everything by the book to prevent the lives lost. I took all the necessary precautions to the best of my ability, but these bandits still bested me—that I will admit," said Fujita.
Takuma looked up from the paperwork when he heard the defeat in Fujita's voice. Until two hours ago, he was still firm in his belief, but now the man seemed almost defeated.
He had an idea where that change had come from.
But the main question was who these men were. It wasn't uncommon for two parties to be investigating the same case due to shared jurisdiction, or assigned to two parties by mistake, and sometimes even intentionally. However, he was an ANBU member, and that was all that mattered. Once the case was assigned to him, no one else was allowed to touch it unless they were also an ANBU member. The group of five were by no means ANBU.
Even if he had assumed they were already on the case, they still arrived a couple of days after him, and that was enough time for them to be informed that ANBU was involved.
However, the biggest problem of all was that Takuma knew there was no one else on the case. When Itachi had handed him the case, he had given him the files, and there was no mention of any other person, team, or department in there.
"That's where I have a problem, Tokubetsu Jōnin Fujita." The smugness in the man's face was almost tangible. "We have proof that you didn't do everything by the book. An honest staff member at this outpost, whose identity will remain anonymous, saw your carelessness and decided to do the right thing. They sent out patrol records that show that you were grossly negligent by not making proper engagements. You're the reason why this situation has gotten this bad."
"Bullshit," Fujita scoffed.
The man threw a file on the table. "Not according to this."
Fujita opened the file and flipped through copies of the patrol records. It didn't take five seconds for Fujita's brows to come together in a frown as he flipped through the records. "I'm sorry, but whoever gave these to you gave you fakes. These aren't the real records."
He stood up from his chair and walked to the file cabinet for his copy of the patrol records.
"These are the true records. As you can see—"
He hadn't taken two steps away from the file cabinet when he stopped with a look of incredulity etched on his face that had also clutched his body to a stop.
Takuma looked at the man with the help of a small mirror, and he knew that the patrol records weren't the ones he was expecting. Takuma had read those records; they were indeed done by the book; nothing if not perfect.
Someone had switched out those records—someone in the outpost who knew that an investigative party was coming.
Takuma tried to ponder what Fujita was feeling at that moment. He first had a problem with his hand that he couldn't fix. Takuma had been doubtful of his competency before, but with ROOT involved, he didn't blame the man for not being able to defeat the masters of spy craft. Then an ANBU-nin appeared at his door with the task of finding a solution to end the problem, but more importantly, to determine who was at fault.
It was strange if a big part of his mind felt that if no good result were achieved, he would be used as a scapegoat. And then, another investigative party showed up, claiming that he was responsible for nearly fifty deaths, and they had proof.
Takuma didn't blame the man if he thought he was being framed as a scapegoat.
Which was precisely why it was vital for him to ensure that he had Fujita's trust.
"This is... This isn't real," Fujita tried to catch up with what was happening. Everyone in the room could see him fight through the confusion.
"Please don't bother with your feeble attempts as an excuse. We have indisputable proof that you are behind—"
Takuma cut off the smug man and revealed himself by walking out of the washroom. "I wouldn't be so sure about that indisputable proof because I definitely saw records showing that Tokubetsu Jōnin Fujita followed protocol..."
He stared down the five-man band, who were more than startled when they saw him. Their reactions weren't fake. That was good, he thought—they weren't expecting him to be there, which meant they didn't know he was on the case.
He had the upper hand.
"Because I definitely saw those records and they were perfect. I wonder what that means, gentlemen?"
He didn't think they were agents because they hadn't noticed his look-around-mirror trick, which even a ROOT trainee wouldn't miss, much less a full-fledged agent.
But they were related to ROOT, and now that they had come to him, they weren't going anywhere.
.
———
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