{Didn't want to but here is an extra. You guys better leave the stones}
After finding the coin, Ren didn't leave imdiately.
Instead, he searched around the room for the other things he had seen during his scan. He tore apart the sliding gate in the room and found so letters addressed to Takeshi. He didn't open them yet and moved to the table he had searched earlier.
This ti, he gripped the corner of the wooden tabletop and ripped it apart, revealing a hidden diary.
Ren frowned, 'How did Takeshi even access these things without tearing them apart like I had to?'
Even so, he had to comnd the man, this was clever. No one would ever think of hiding items inside a tatami mat, within a sliding door, or between two wooden pieces that made up a table.
Once he had collected everything, Ren left the house directly, not bothering to clean up or return things to their original places. With the kind of evidence he had found, Takeshi wouldn't be escaping punishnt, so a wrecked ho hardly mattered.
What Ren didn't know was that he could have demolished the entire house, and Takeshi still wouldn't have noticed, because the man was lying unconscious, wrapped up in sealing tags.
~~~
This ti, Ren brought everything back to the residence directly instead of dropping it at the marked ANBU collection points. They hadn't been given such instructions for this part of the mission, and the findings were ti-sensitive.
When he arrived, he noticed several people leaving the courtyard. At the gate, Homura stood with a few mbers of the delegation.
As Ren flickered directly into the middle of the street, attention imdiately shifted toward him.
Homura motioned him closer and began speaking as Ren approached.
"This is Ren Takahashi, one of Konoha's younger generation," he introduced. Then, turning to Ren, he added, "Ren, this is the White Blade, General Takeshiro Honzen."
Ren looked at the giant of a man standing in front of him. Despite his size, the man carried himself with a composed, refined deanor. Ren bowed slightly.
"General."
The man gave a short hum. "Juichi's son?"
Ren nodded.
Takeshiro studied him for a mont, then turned and walked off. The rest of his entourage followed.
Once they were gone, Homura led Ren inside. The rest of the delegation dispersed.
"He's the one who will preside over the trial," Homura said.
Ren nodded again. "I found evidence that Takeshi, Gendo's assistant, is a mber of General Ryuma's camp. There are also so letters and a journal."
"Good work," Homura said simply and waved his hand.
An ANBU operative appeared.
"Call Utakata, Juichi, and also Yoru if he's not busy."
The ANBU flickered away while Homura and Ren headed to a private room.
As they settled down, Homura asked, "Your teammates?"
Ren replied, "Yugao is tailing Takeshi. Hitoshi is tailing a rat Takeshi used to send a letter."
Homura humd thoughtfully.
Inside the room, Homura gestured for Ren to go through the evidence while they waited.
The first to arrive was Yoru, who quietly moved to stand in the corner. Soon after, Utakata and Juichi entered.
Once everyone had arrived, Homura looked to Ren and gave a nod.
Ren stepped forward and pulled out the pouch, bringing forth the coin with the horse symbol.
"This was hidden inside the tatami mats in his house," he began. "At first glance, it looks like a regular Land of Iron coin, but it's not a governnt-issued one. There's a horse symbol that only appears under chakra enhancent. It may signify allegiance to General Ryuma."
Yoru took the coin and inspected it closely.
"Yes. These are the ones General Ryuma issues to his direct subordinates," he confird. Then asked, "Were there multiple coins? Did any of them explode?"
Ren nodded. "There were several. But none of them exploded."
He pushed the pouch forward as he spoke.
Yoru explained, "The fake ones won't do anything, even with chakra input. But a real one would explode if touched by anyone who isn't authorized."
He handed the pouch to Utakata, who began inspecting the rest of the coins.
anwhile, Ren held up the sealed letters.
"These are written in so kind of poetic code," he said, "but the ssage is simple."
He placed the first letter down.
"This one instructs Takeshi to push a particular explanation to Minister Gendo."
Another letter followed.
"This one tells him to fake certain records in the minister's archives."
Finally, he placed the third.
"This one says, 'Minister Gendo backed out. Proceed with the other plan.'"
Ren finished by pulling out the journal.
"I can't tell anything from this. It's blank. But it was hidden very deeply."
Yoru took the journal from him while Homura began rereading the letters, "It looks like Shunpei, or whoever sent these, originally wanted Gendo to cooperate in sothing. But then Gendo backed out."
Juichi spoke up next. "Could it be that the sender wanted Gendo to work with him to fra Shikeru?" he suggested. "But when Gendo refused, they used forged records to implicate him and threw all the bla on Gendo."
He finished, "That would explain the letter about tampering with the archives. It was a cover move, if Gendo didn't cooperate, he'd be set up as the scapegoat."
Ren looked at his father with surprise, 'I didn't know Dad could use his brain this well.'
At that mont, an ANBU flickered beside Yoru and whispered sothing.
Yoru nodded. "Bring them in."
The ANBU vanished.
Soon, the door opened. Yugao entered, and behind her, another ANBU operative carried in an unconscious figure, Takeshi.
Juichi looked at the man and asked, "Who's this?"
Ren answered, "Takeshi. Gendo's assistant."
He glanced at Yugao, who cleared her throat awkwardly.
Homura asked calmly, "What the hell happened? I thought your orders were to tail him, not apprehend him?"
Yugao coughed. "Um... I was tailing him, like I was supposed to. But then he suddenly vanished and reappeared behind . Before I even processed what was happening, I'd already knocked him out with a kick."
She added, "It was one kick."
She paused. "I used one of the ANBU markers to call for retrieval, and well, now we're here."
Yoru ordered. "Call 4."
The ANBU behind her flickered away leaving Takeshi on the floor.
Yugao moved to stand beside Ren, not saying anything.
Ren whispered, "How did you knock him out with one kick?"
Takeshi was level 31. Yugao was level 36. It wasn't impossible, but it was still surprising.
"I kicked him in the groin," she whispered back.
"...With weights on."
She buried her face in her hands.
Ren stared for a mont, then had a very, very wrong thought.
'Is she trying to be Ball Breaker 2.0?'
Soon, another ANBU flickered into the room.
Unlike the others, his mask was different, it had four small stars engraved on it, rather than the standard animal design. Just like the female ANBU with three stars who had explained their mission earlier, this one clearly held higher rank.
Yoru, still reading through the journal, didn't look up.
"Check the body," he ordered.
The ANBU gave a silent nod and moved toward Takeshi. He perford basic dical checks, ones Ren imdiately recognized from his training.
Then, placing one hand on Takeshi's forehead, the ANBU ford hand seals with his other hand.
Ren's eyes narrowed slightly, 'Yamanaka mind reading jutsu.'
He had once asked his system whether a Yamanaka could read his mories.
The system had explained that they could, but only mories from his current life. Any mories of his past life or anything connected to the system would be automatically concealed, with slight alterations made to cover the system's existence.
That reassurance had always put Ren at ease.
Even though he would never allow anyone to read his mind if he could avoid it, it was comforting to know that his most important secrets were protected, even in worst-case scenarios.
The four-star ANBU remained silent for a while, focusing as the technique worked.
Finally, he pulled his hand away from Takeshi's head and looked toward Yoru.
"Commander."
Yoru gave a small nod, giving permission to report.
The ANBU began, "He was working for Minister Shunpei, and that diary should contain records of their relationship."
He glanced toward the table, then continued, "Minister Gendo had originally accepted Minster Shunpei's idea to work together. However Gendo didn't know that it was fra up, he was led to believe that Shikeru was indeed a traitor. When he later found out that it was a fra up he abandoned his role."
He was about to continue but Yoru motioned for him to skip, so 4 obliged, "However, this man was also secretly working for General Ryuma, keeping watch on both Minister Gendo and Minister Shunpei."
Everyone in the room stilled slightly at the new layer of complexity.
The ANBU went on, "The last ssage he sent was to Minister Shunpei. However, he suspected soone might be tailing the rat, so he sealed a bit of his chakra with a hidden ssage inside the rat itself."
He turned to Ren and Yugao. "Did your teammate contact you?"
Both shook their heads.
The ANBU's tone remained calm, as he said, "Although it isn't confird we should assu that he has been taken."
With that, he flickered away, off to continue his orders, leaving the matter of Takeshi behind.
Yugao's expression shifted into visible worry. She clenched her fists slightly, her calm deanor faltering.
Ren placed a hand on her shoulder in an attempt to calm her down.
Across the room, Utakata, who had been quietly inspecting the coins, suddenly frowned.
He stopped and carefully set the pouch down.
Raising his hand, he released a single insect from his sleeve. He channeled chakra into his fingertip, guiding the insect. It paused briefly before flying off into the air.
A little while later, the insect returned, but this ti, it wasn't alone.
Dozens of tiny, mosquito-like insects followed behind.
The group hovered in the air, then began to settle on the tatami mat in the room. Moving as if with one mind, they slowly arranged themselves into a recognizable shape.
A kanji.
Ren instantly recognized it.
"Mont," he muttered.
It was the sa kanji he had found in one of Shikeru's hidden letters.
"So Shunpei is indeed the one who took him..."
The insect that had flown out earlier returned to Utakata's forearm, crawling back under his sleeve and circling once around his skin.
When it stopped moving, Utakata spoke.
"He's alive. But locked up."
Yugao let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding, visibly relieved.
Yoru gave a wave of his hand.
"Extract him out."
No one moved. But Ren knew that sowhere, ANBU were already in motion.
Yoru, still reading through the diary, frowned as he flipped through its empty pages one after another.
Sothing wasn't right.
Suddenly, he stopped and focused his attention on the spine of the diary. He narrowed his eyes, then silently ran his finger along the inner edge.
With a swift motion, he cut it open.
For a brief mont, nothing happened.
Then, as the cover shifted slightly, a seal pattern began to glow faintly along the inside of the spine, subtle and refined, nearly invisible without deliberate activation.
Yoru stared at it for a second before speaking.
"It's an ink absorption seal. Anything written in the diary would be automatically absorbed into the seal within seconds of being written."
The room went still.
Utakata stepped forward, reaching out to take the journal and inspect the seal himself.
But Yoru shook his head.
"It wouldn't work that way," he said simply.
Then he raised his finger again.
Ren watched as Yoru released a pulse of chakra, not normal chakra, not even elental. The energy had a strange presence. Ren's senses, sharpened through training and instinct, imdiately picked up on it.
He stiffened slightly.
'That's... space chakra?'
But the feeling shifted, there was sothing off about it. Familiar, but different.
'No... not space. It's close, but it's... ti?'
His eyes narrowed slightly as he tried to decipher the feeling. Whatever it was, it wasn't sothing Ren had experienced before, not even when using his own [Space Scan: Absolute Observation Jutsu].
anwhile, Yoru pressed his finger directly into the seal.
He closed his eyes and began to work silently, manipulating the embedded chakra patterns with delicate precision. His control was absolute, focused, like a surgeon working at the molecular level.
Seconds passed.
Then Yoru opened his eyes and said quietly, "It's done."
~~~~~
{2114 Words}
{A little hint on Yoru's abilities, but worry not it wouldn't be broken. Not at all.}
{Trust bro}
{Well, you know what to do}
{STONES!!!!}
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