Chapter 16.2- One Thousand Hands

We snuck into the village this time. Shinobi could make ourselves unseen by regular civilians with nary a thought, and with the Meisagakure jutsu well under our belts, Uzume and I didn’t even have to spend our time darting between shadows at speed to avoid notice. We simply wrapped our feet with chakra to prevent any sound or footprints from marking our movements and giving it away. Even a civilian would be able to notice footprints appearing out of thin air with some amount of ease.

We absently noticed Shika and Toshiro as they moved through the shadows until they got to one woman’s home and began to speak to her. Our target was much less complex and thankfully required little to no interaction with another human. The Mayor’s office was empty this time, and we wasted no time in picking the locks on the cabinet before attempting to pull out the files. I grabbed the drawer and tried dragging it out, but it didn’t give.

Uzume pushed me aside with a muttered curse and began pulling at the cabinet on her own, achieving the same as I had with my own attempts- nothing. “Hold on” I whispered to her. We deactivated our Meisagakure jutsus to avoid wasting even more chakra as I began to examine the cabinet. Just like I’d suspected, there were seals lining the edge of the cabinet. Not a particularly complex matrix, but one that required some finesse to deactivate without risking the destruction of everything within the cabinet. Such an inelegant failsafe, I thought with a click of my tongue as I began to draw my own script underneath theirs. The languages were different, but there was enough of a common thread between our seals that I could sus out most things on my own, and for those I couldn’t- I had the benefit of a byakugan that allowed me to see exactly what was going on with the flow of chakra within the seals.

With those two advantages, it took me only three minutes to completely overpower and negate the existing seal matrix with my own. The cupboards fell open as one as we began to search through as one. With no words, we agreed that I’d start at the top drawers and she’d start at the bottom. The first few files were nothing to write home about. Just bits of administrative work. By the second drawer, I was already beginning to come to a clear picture of the Land of Waves’ economic situation. By the third, I’d found something truly interesting. A single look at it made it clear what it was by its nature, but a single motion from Uzume drew me to her side in seconds as I stashed the file in my seal with a subtle movement.

“So this is what has been going on with the kids” She commented absently, and I nodded at her words. In the folder was a profile of what we assumed was every boy that had been taken. Things like their height, weight, age, chakra potential rating, were listed out in plain view.

“Reminds me of the forms we had to fill to get into the academy” Uzume absently commented as she flicked through and my eyes flicked to hers at the same time as she realised what she’d just said.

“Fuck” I said for the both of us.

“Let’s get the hell out of here” I told her and we wasted no time in body flickering towards the woods. All the while, I pondered how to contact Toshiro and Shika. Flaring my chakra was out of the question. If there were shinobi here, then that would be suicide. We just had to twiddle our thumbs and wait at the rendezvous spot, hoping that Shika and Toshiro didn’t get caught by surprise by the enemy shinobi kidnapping children at Konoha’s borders.

XXXXXXXX- Piandao the Boulder

“So the Killsquad failed” His Kage said with a distant tone. Eyes on the ground, he could say little about his Kage’s mood or appearance, but even a fool would be able to tell that he was displeased.

“Yes, Tsuchikage-sama. The target was there as predicted, but his team proved capable enough to dispatch the entire group of Four Jounin”

“So you are telling me one Jounin of theirs and three genin were sufficient to kill four of my own Jounin”

“The Jounin in question was the Sakumo Hatake, Tsuchikage-sama. He is recognised as one of the Leaf’s special war powers for a reason. And his team was made up of one chunin and two genin at the time.”

“Regardless, the team was fodder. Only Iwabe alone should have been a match for all three of them.” That meant that Sakumo Hatake had been able to kill three of his jounin with relative ease as they could find no signs that the man had sustained any injury in the attack.

“Yes, Tsuchikage-sama. Our intelligence underestimated the strength of the man, my Lord.”

“Then let it never happen again. Upgrade his rating on our bingo book to S. Increase the bounty on him as well. And the Senju boy. What news is there of attempts to get his bounty?”

“No attempt to sneak an assassin into the village has yielded much fruit. Our spies report that any who attempt to get close to the boy with ill intent soon find themselves being picked up by a squad of anbu.”

“A full squad of Anbu for his heir’s protection, ey? How protective of old Tobirama” Piandao did not see any need to reply to what was merely an observation so he waited for the next question to come his way.

“And how is young Azula?”

“She is taking to the sealing well. Her fire release has been increased to unprecedented levels. So far, she has shown no affinity with the Yonbi’s native lava release, but it is expected to come with time. She trains alongside Han now”

An appreciative hum from his Kage was the only reply to that statement.

“That is enough. See to it that the bounties on both Sakumo Hatake and his student are increased by half again”

“Yes Tsuchikage-sama”

“Dismissed.”

A/N; Here ya go. Feel like I might fall sick again pretty soon but let’s hope that doesn’t happen.