Chapter 16.3- One Thousand Hands

When they returned, it was with a visible bunco in their steps. They’d found something. Something big if they way toshiroc held his shoulders was any indication. It was clear then that there was something he’d found that he was sure would be better than whatever the two of us had found.

When they crossed into the clearing, they found Uzume and I seated on branches at opposite corners of the empty space. “Debrief” Shika said, almost sounding absentminded if not for the sharpness in her eyes when she looked up at each of us in turn. I jumped down and walked to the huddle at a leisurely pace while Uzume closed the distance in two bounds. Both of us were careful to keep chakra utilisation to the minimum considering we didn’t know who was watching or out there trying to sense us.

“Want to do this, or should I?” I asked Uzume, and she just nodded at me to give me the go-ahead.

“The Mayor knows more about this than he lets on. We found files in the cabinet that basically were like induction files into the Shinobi Academy. Our best guess is that these kids are being taken by some ninja village nearby to add to their military. Probably a small village” I said.

“Well, we can do you one better. The parents all had the same story. The Mayor goes out with a kid, comes back without them.”

“Why haven’t they done something about him then?” I asked, wondering how the hell they managed to stay civil in a town that had a man capable of doing something so evil to the children of his own town. The children of people who trusted him for protection and care and guidance. It was a betrayal of the kind I could not even fathom or game out in my head. Its went against everything I’d been thought it my twelve years here and that made my very being recoil at the concept. Like goosebumps spreading across my arms. Like I was being electrocuted from a power source that went up one ampere at a time, dealing it up from 1 until fucking infinity. It was insane, I knew it.

“Because anyone who so much as considers betraying him disappears in the night. They think shinobi are involved, and after Toshiro and I were able to convince them that we weren’t the ones helping him take their kids and promise their protection from the other big bad shinobi, they were more than willing to roll over on him”

“So what do we know for sure?” I asked, trying to get a letdown of everything all together.

“Well, it’s simple isn’t it? Mayor is taking the kids. He’s giving them to a Hidden Village. The Hidden Village then adds the kids to the Academy, hence the forms. In return, they keep the Mayor in power, and protect him from the backlash”

“I agree with you, Toshiro. But there’s one small issue. Why would the Mayor have the forms if adding them in the academy happened after taking them? I think the Hidden Village has someone right here watching the kids. They find ones with the potential to be shinobi. They fill out the forms and then hand the forms over to the Mayor who procures the kids. In return, they protect him from the backlash of the villagers. That’s why they manage to react to threats to the Mayor’s position so quickly. They’re here. And they’re watching”

 I felt a jolt run through my back at that. They were here.

“How astute” A voice said suddenly. The way it pushed itself out of the shadows. Uzume turned her gaze to me first, and I almost facepalmed as I noticed I’d turned off my byakugan the second I’d seen Toshiro and Shika on their face. When our eyes bolted to the intruder, we found him standing atop a tree with a sharp smile on his face. Around his neck was a headband. The insignia, three diagonal lines, tickled my head as I tried to place it.

I didn’t get much time to think about it as everyone bolted into action.

A/N; Waiting, waiting, waiting