Chapter 355: Mist Anbu
Ishiro used his Mind's Eye to sense the surroundings. After confirming no one else was present, he began to study the seal before him.
Before long, Ishiro had a judgment about this seal. The Anbu data room likely wasn't usually protected by an isolation seal; the Mist probably assigned Anbu to guard it in rotating shifts, just like in Iwagakure. It was clear that this seal had been set up in a hurry. Although the ninja who placed it had a decent level of skill, it wasn't meticulous, and Ishiro easily found a flaw.
Within a few moments, Ishiro had broken the seal.
Entering the data room, Ishiro gave the internal space a rough survey. The room wasn't large, about the size of a civilian house. Ishiro understood this; Iwagakure's own data room was about the same size. Thanks to the miraculous invention of the storage scroll, specialized personnel in Iwagakure would periodically pack up certain data into scrolls and place them in the historical archives.
Therefore, the largest collection of data in any hidden village was certainly in the historical archives. That place wasn't large, but it held a tremendous amount of material. Of course, the vast majority of that data was long outdated and useless.
Ishiro's target was precisely this data. In his eyes, these things were more useful than everything else in the Mist Anbu headquarters combined.
He quickly walked to a shelf-like object in the deepest part of the data room. With just a glance, Ishiro knew this was what he was looking for, because the items here looked like they hadn't been touched in a long time.
Ishiro packed up all these scrolls and then took out some blank scrolls to put back in their original places. After a moment's thought, Ishiro placed another high-level seal around this shelf.
Having gotten what he wanted, Ishiro was no longer in a hurry. He returned to the entrance and casually opened a few scrolls, giving them a quick scan. Discovering that the information inside was all from over ten days ago, Ishiro didn't look any further.
Putting down the scrolls, he left the data room and then turned around to place an S-rank seal on the door. I am now an elite of the Mist Anbu. What's stored inside is the top-secret data of our Anbu. I cannot allow those with ulterior motives to have an opportunity.
Leaving the data room area, Ishiro searched around again and found the Anbu's ninjutsu room. Unfortunately, it was completely empty. Clearly, the ninja responsible for the security of these jutsu was more responsible than the one guarding the data room and had already taken everything away.
Not giving up, Ishiro strolled over to the logistics department. As he walked, he used his Mind's Eye to sense ahead. From a distance, he spotted two Anbu on duty at the entrance to the logistics department. Ishiro breathed a sigh of relief. Good, the things here are still here.
The two guards at the door were only chunin. Ishiro paid them no mind and walked straight towards them.
Ishiro took the initiative, flashing a series of hand signs at the two that even he didn't know the meaning of.
The two were stunned. The one on the left asked tentatively, "Sir, what do you need?"
Ishiro paused, his aura flickering as if he was ready to strike at any moment. "You don't recognize me? Are you new? Which squad? Weren't you briefed by Captain Ki before you came to guard this post?"
Feeling Ishiro's powerful presence, the two panicked. The one on the left spoke first again. "Sir, please listen to my explanation. The ninja originally in charge of guarding this post were reassigned by Lord Mizukage. We are on duty here voluntarily."
"We are members of Squad Noboru. Our squad leader discussed it with several other squad leaders, and we are taking turns to send people for duty. We are only responsible for registration."
"Our Squad Noboru is not a squad under Captain Ki's command. Our captain is Noboru. We were not personally assigned by Captain Noboru, so we didn't understand your secret sign just now."
Facing this unfathomable expert who casually called out the codename of their direct superior's superior, the two were extremely nervous, afraid they would be killed on the spot as an infiltrator for not knowing some rule.
Ishiro remained silent for a moment. "The squads taking turns on duty are all Noboru's subordinates?"
"Sir, no. Some of us are Anbu squads under Captain Noboru's command, and some are under Captain I's command."
Ishiro thought to himself: Ki, Noboru, I, that's three. I wonder how many Anbu captains the Mist has. I need to find time to carefully look through the Mist Anbu's records, otherwise it'll be too easy to blow my cover. The information in the data room was too vast, and most of it was useless. Ishiro had no time to search through scroll after scroll for the intelligence he needed.
"Sir."
"My codename is Sei!" Ishiro glanced at the cautious Anbu and said flatly.
"Lord Sei," the man was visibly relieved, because Ishiro telling him his name also meant he had dropped his suspicion of them. "Are you here to requisition supplies?"
Ishiro shook his head. "I am not part of the same system as Noboru and the others. I don't have your mutual contact signs."
After saying this, Ishiro made a gesture as if to leave.
"Lord Sei, are you part of the Mizukage's direct Anbu?" The chunin was a little nervous as he said this.
Everyone knew that the root of all the recent chaos in Kirigakure was the Mizukage, Yagura Karatachi. Otherwise, as Anbu, they would not have publicly declared neutrality and refused to obey the Mizukage's orders.
Ishiro knew what he was worried about, but he was curious about the term "direct Anbu." As the Tsuchikage, Ishiro didn't have a direct Anbu unit, though he could form a Kage Guard that only took orders from him. He wondered if this Mist Village Mizukage's direct Anbu was the same thing, or if it was an institution that Yagura had created himself.
"Let's probe a little further," Ishiro thought. In any case, they were just two chunin. If he made a mistake and exposed himself, it wouldn't be much trouble to silence them.
"I am indeed the Mizukage's direct Anbu, but not the Fourth's direct Anbu." As Ishiro said this, he was already prepared. If the two showed even a hint of a wrong expression, he would strike immediately. If this institution didn't exist before Yagura, then Ishiro would have exposed himself.
Fortunately, what Ishiro was worried about didn't happen. The two men just breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing his words. The one on the right said, "So Lord Sei is from the Third's direct Anbu."
So, this is a permanent institution in Kirigakure. The Third Mizukage also had a direct Anbu unit. Perhaps I've found a cover identity I can hide behind.
After weighing his options, Ishiro said, "I have just returned from a mission outside the village and am investigating the truth of the incident from six days ago. Since you know my identity, you will cooperate with my investigation."
"Yes, Lord Sei," the two men hurriedly agreed.
"Give me a copy of the records of everyone who has taken supplies from the Anbu in the last ten days, and then tell me what intelligence you know," Ishiro commanded.
"Yes," the two agreed. One of them went into the room to get the records, while the other began to recount all the information he knew.
"Lord Sei, the battle six nights ago was more intense than the previous few days, but our squad did not go to investigate. As far as I know, the first person to discover a ninja had died was a chunin named Satoi."
"The ninja who was killed was a subordinate of Lord Mizukage. The one who killed him is said to have used the Ice Release of the Minazuki clan, but we have not seen the body."
The man spoke in great detail, telling Ishiro everything he had heard through the grapevine. By the time he finished, the other man had returned with a copied record.
Ishiro took the record and memorized the codenames of the Anbu squad leaders mentioned on it. Then he asked, "Where is that Satoi now? And where is the dead ninja's body?" Ishiro acted the part of a serious investigator.
After getting Satoi's place of residence, Ishiro had no more questions.
Next, Ishiro did something that left everyone dumbfounded.
"You two, take a batch of materials for setting up seals and follow me," Ishiro commanded the two.
The two were somewhat puzzled. "Lord Sei, what are you going to do?"
Ishiro said, "The Anbu headquarters is a top-secret location for the village. Since there aren't many people left on guard, I'm going to seal it up. We can open it again after this storm has passed."
The two looked at each other and didn't dare to defy Ishiro's wishes. In any case, being able to get away from the current Anbu headquarters wasn't a bad thing for them.
Then, Ishiro began to seal off one important area of the Anbu headquarters after another. The locker rooms, training grounds, mission dispatch office, data room, and ninjutsu acquisition room were all sealed. Although Ishiro had already placed a seal on the data room before, he did it again in front of the two men.
"Next are the various secret passages. I'll go to the one at Kentarō's Izakaya. You two take the materials to the other passage entrances first and wait for me to finish sealing this one," Ishiro said to the dozen or so Anbu in front of him. Because Ishiro's clearing of the area had left them with nothing to do, the dozen or so ninja who had been on duty in the Anbu headquarters were all drafted by Ishiro.
After speaking, without waiting for their reply, Ishiro went directly to the passage at Kentarō's Izakaya.
After Ishiro finished sealing this passage, he scanned the Anbu headquarters with his sensory ninjutsu. Sure enough, the dozen or so men had already taken the materials to the other passage entrances.
"One, two, three... there are six more. That's quite a few," Ishiro smiled faintly.
After memorizing these six locations, Ishiro deactivated his sensory ninjutsu and then went to seal these six passage entrances one by one.
When he was done, Ishiro said, "You all take the materials to the main gate first. I'll come and meet you after I've sealed the other passages."
The dozen men heard this and figured there must be other passages in the headquarters that were beyond their clearance level. They responded with a "yes" and immediately left.
Of course, Ishiro didn't know if the Anbu headquarters had any other passages. He quietly followed the men to the vicinity of the main gate, then used his Mind's Eye and sensory ninjutsu to observe their steps as they exited the passage. The Anbu entrance was surely full of traps, and Ishiro didn't dare to rush in recklessly.
Fortunately, the barrier at the Anbu main entrance only blocked external probes and did not hinder Ishiro from within. Soon, from the path the dozen men took as they left, Ishiro learned the correct way to exit.
After waiting a while longer, Ishiro also walked out of the main gate.
Arriving at the entrance, Ishiro took the materials from the hands of the dozen men and altered the barrier that was originally there, changing the purely sensory barrier into a defensive one.
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