Chapter 18.3- One Thousand Hands

For the third time, the lot of them made their way to the Mayor’s office, and this time, they found the door to the building wide open. That was already something unusual. Unusual often meant dangerous in their line of business so they were all instantly on edge. A situation that was heightened when they found the dead body of the secretary slumped against her table. The blood pooling around hr head made it clear what had caused the injury, and the amount of it meant that if she wasn’t dead, she would be getting there soon. The world spun in harsh clarity as he activated his byakugan now, no longer averse to risking being caught out by the chakra usage.

With it, he could make out the soft beating of the Secretary’s heart and the fact that she did not have long left to live. That only drew his attention for a few seconds, as he instead turned it to the Mayor’s office, where the man was presently making conciliatory gestures to a duo. Shinobi. Their headbands marked them as Mist Ninja, and the fact that one of them wielded a blade that shone with chakra to his eyes that ws easily as tall as she was, while the other had a pair of blades crossed across his back in an X symbol. Considering this blade was also shining with chakra, it was easy enough to figure out who they were and what they carried. The fact that the twin blades on the man’s back gave off a distinctly electric feeling to their presence. The Executioner’s blade, and the thunderswords. Two of the even Swrodsmen of the Mist. Looking around his own team, he was almost instantly certain that they were outmatched, but that was only if they were enemies. Considering the Mayor’s posture, these people were nothing close to his friends.

He signed his observations to his teammates while having to use his hands to describe the varying blades. It was a frustrating game of charades between them as they tried to figure out which blades in particular he was talking about, but it was an essential one. He could not allow them to go in blind when he had the essential intel that could mean the difference between life and death for them, and he also could not allow their conversations to be loud enough that they ran their risk of either the Mist nin being warned of their presence before they were ready to confront them.

After the sword conversation ended, Shika moved to asking even more questions. Chakra reserves? At least at the same level as Sakumo-sensei’s. Ranks? Jounin from the vests they wore, but that was a bit of a guess as well. His eyes couldn’t see colour when he was using them like he currently was. Bearing? Agressive towards the mayor, but relatively calm as regards the other. That meant they weren’t allies with the Mayor, at the very least. It also meant that they had some amount of time to figure out how they wanted to approach things.