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The city of Inahara was among the major cities in the Land of Fire. It had a large population and a growing economy, owing to its position as the centre of a thriving region in the country. It had a larger civilian population than the Hidden Leaf Village, generating more business for shinobi who lived there and warranted a jōnin overseeing the operations in the city.
"Are you alright?" asked Krait as he fell back from the front of the group to behind where Takuma was running alone.
"What? Yeah, of course, I'm alright," replied Takuma, snapping out of his thoughts.
They had already left for Inahara, and during that time, Takuma hadn't spoken a single word to anyone. While Krait had provided the assault squad with more details about the mission, he was preoccupied with thoughts about Kakashi's prolonged presence in ANBU and what that meant for the future. It was fortunate that all of them had their masks up, or everyone would clearly see that he was not mentally present.
"You don't have to do this," Krait said. "It hasn't been long since we found the bunker. You were injured quite badly that day. Normally, you wouldn't be sent out so quickly, so it's completely natural for you not to be ready."
"I'm fine," said Takuma, his tone on the border of snapping. He paused to gather himself and continued calmly. "I was just distracted by something on my mind that I shouldn't have been thinking about while on duty. Don't worry about me. It won't happen again."
From a physical standpoint, the bunker fight didn't hold much significance in the long term. During his busiest days, he fought three times a week in the Ring against vicious opponents. He was much more resilient than Krait would expect, but he couldn't communicate that without telling others about his history, something he preferred to keep private.
He didn't know if Krait was convinced or not, due to his mask, but he at the very least didn't pursue the topic.
"What's the status on local support?" Hopper, the assault squad leader, asked after the duo re-joined the squad.
Takuma and Krait exchanged glances before the latter replied.
"We haven't informed the local authority of our presence. This is a time-sensitive mission, and going through the bureaucratic channels would take at least a couple of days, if everyone expedites the process. We don't have that kind of time; it's better to apologise later."
The entire squad was listening. A couple of them glanced back at them and then at Hopper, who replied after a few seconds.
"I would've liked local support to clear out the area and minimise risk to civilians, but we'll do without it. If there's a problem afterwards, it's yours to deal with anyway."
The responsibilities were clearly defined. It was the inquisitor squad's mission; they were supposed to set everything up, including communicating with the local authorities for support. The assault squad was simply the muscle following orders. In this case, if civilian lives were lost, the assault squad would get some flak, but the majority of the blame would lie with the inquisitor squad because they failed to do the needful.
When, not if, the Inahara jōnin came asking questions, it would be the inquisitor squad who would have to face the anger.
It took them half a day to reach Inahara. The city, like all the cities Takuma had seen, was much less green than Hidden Leaf Village, which had a culture of planting greenery in every corner they could, sometimes even to the detriment of roots damaging buildings. The yearly budget included a substantial gardening and landscaping fund to maintain a healthy and clean environment. It was one of the things he loved about the place he lived in.
Before they entered the city, Hopper made them stop and change into civilian garb.
"No cloaks," he said when Takuma tried to put on a cloak so he could keep most of his weapons. "They're a dead giveaway. Except for a couple of things you can hide away under your clothes, seal everything away. We want to blend in completely while we scout."
Takuma felt uncomfortable not having much of his arsenal on hand, but recognised the logic and put everything away.
They had left the Hidden Leaf Village at first light, and by the time they arrived at Inahara, it was already noon. Amami only had access to recent memories and thus could only glean nearby landmarks. In a city as big as Inahara, it took them another hour to finally find their location with the help of locals.
The location was a small-time flour mill located in a lane with other shops. It looked perfectly normal and was a legitimate front that turned grain into flour for commercial businesses, such as restaurants and food manufacturers.
"Let's spread out and start scouting," said Takuma, wanting to take advantage of the hours with street traffic to blend in while they observed their targets. He was interrupted by Hopper,
"We should first perform a sensory-nin check."
"How so?" asked Krait.
"We go near the shop and use a jutsu. If someone comes out to check, we have a sensory-nin."
"What if they get cautious?" Takuma asked.
"There are plenty of shinobi in Inahara. If they have been here for any amount of time, it won't be unusual for them to have gotten used to it. We'll use a D-rank ninjutsu." He turned to look at his squad. "What would have the least impact?"
Takuma replied before they could. "I have an Earth Release ninjutsu that allows me to scan the earth with seismic vibrations. I can check for a basement or a secret tunnel. And I can do it from here." They were a fair distance away from the stop, so as not to seem suspicious while keeping it in their sight."
"That works, but move closer to the shop so they don't ignore it, thinking that it wasn't near enough."
He stopped at two shops before reaching the flour mill. There were no side alleys he could dip into, so he had to do it on the street. He turned his back to the road before pretending to tie his shoes while he weaved hand seals and pressed his hands into the ground. A few shops had basements, including the flour mill, but he didn't sense a tunnel, which meant exiting the actual building was the only way out.
He didn't linger around and walked away without looking back. No one came out of the shop, which gave the team a clear view to scout. The assault squad coordinated their scouting efforts and divided the work, with Krait contributing the most by sending some of his bugs into the shop itself. Takuma stayed away from the shop and instead mapped the surrounding area.
He didn't know the city, so he could only guess where the agents would try to escape if they decided to run. However, he had experience chasing down people in urban environments while working in the Police Force, which he used to identify potential spots and routes.
Half an hour later, the team, bar one, who was keeping an eye on the shop, gathered on top of a tall building's roof to share their findings.
"There are five people inside the shop," Krait said with a bug sitting on his knuckle. "We can't be sure if all of them are agents, but it'd be safe to operate with that assumption."
"There are three points of entry. The front entrance, the window beside it, and a back door." Hopper squatted on the ground and drew on the floor with a thick piece of chalk he apparently carried around.
The assault squad wanted to use smoke bombs and flash tags to flood the front and force the agents to take the back exit to escape. The front street was open and wide, with a lot of civilians who could be taken hostage, something everyone wanted to avoid because they weren't clearing out civilians. The back alley, on the other hand, was narrow and used only as a service lane for garbage collection and disposal, and thus could be used to pick off the targets.
It was a well-planned approach that aimed to minimise their risk.
"What if one of them is a civilian?" asked Krait, raising his previous point.
"We aren't using any explosives. And the moment they escape, we'll know who's who," said Yazo. Shinobi were much faster than civilians, which was very apparent when they were moving during stressful situations, such as a sudden attack they were about to conduct.
Takuma remember that Yazo used to hunt rogue-nin near a border region. His previous experience perfectly complemented his current job. They quickly divided their responsibilities, and Takuma volunteered to be at the back. As they were changing back into their gear, Takuma noticed how heavily armed the assault squad were. Their armour jackets were thicker; they carried more weapon pouches and packs, and all of them had a big dagger on their back.
He hadn't noticed it during their journey because everyone was covered in cloaks. Three of them carried swords, one of whom had two swords. The other two, who didn't have swords, had backpacks.
"What's in there?" he asked Yazo, who wore one of the backpacks.
"More weapons," Yazo replied with a toothy grin and opened a side flap to reveal a dozen mini-scrolls. "If there's anyone who doesn't want to run out of weapons, it's us—and we don't like to run out of weapons."
Takuma gulped when he thought about how much firepower they were carrying in that backpack. There was probably a small armoury worth of weapons in those scrolls. He looked at Yazo and was reminded that he was running a mission with an assault squad. All they did was fight and cause destruction.
"That as well?" Takuma looked at the member with the other backpack, thinking that two backpacks' worth of scrolls was overdoing it.
"No, that'd be absurd even for us," Yazo chuckled. "Koyal is our iryō-nin. He's carrying our medical supplies. All our units are mandated to have one iryō-nin. It makes it harder for us to be killed. There was a big problem with a lot of turnover in assault units, worse than it currently is,"—which was still the worst in the entire department—"until iryō-nin became mandatory for squad configurations and the number dipped quite a bit."
Koyal, the iryō-nin, heard them talk and gave them a stern frown. "I'll be there to heal you, but don't treat my presence as a sign to be reckless. Always, and I mean always, assume that there's no iryō-nin because I might die or there might be two critically injured, and in that case, I'll make the choice to concentrate on the one I think has more chances of survival. You very well might be the unlucky one."
"That's harsh, Koyal," said Yazo, but didn't say anything to Takuma, which meant he more or less agreed with the iryō-nin.
"No, it makes sense," said Takuma. He hadn't had an iryō-nin on his team ever, so as long as he conducted himself the way he usually did, he would be fine.
Hopper asked them to gather around. Although the inquisitor squad was in charge of the mission, the assault squad was leading this ground operation. Takuma and Krait would have to follow Hopper's instructions.
"We're going to do a 3-4 split. Four in the front and three in the back."
Takuma, Yazo, and Hopper were going to take the back while the rest of them were assigned to the front. The heavier split was given to the front in case the ROOT agents tried to flee from the front. They had to be there to minimise any potential damage to civilians.
"Remember, the aim is to capture the targets, not kill them. I know people here have a problem with holding back in combat," Hopper said, fixing his team with a stern expression.
At the same time, Takuma felt Krait glance at him. He immediately thought of Arisu and how she would be talking his ear off about holding back when they went out on arrests and raids.
"Protect yourself, but also remember that the more we capture, the more information we will have. Our targets are undercover and will most definitely choose to flee the moment they realise that their cover is blown. The thing you need to be most concerned about is losing sight of them. Confrontations do them no good, they'll be fully focused on losing us."
Takuma straightened his back when bad memories of fleeing from ROOT assassins aiming for his life resurfaced to the top of his mind. He could still remember the chill in the air, the wetness on his skin from the pouring rain, clothes heavy from being soaked, weakness from continuously losing blood while he fought, the feeling of being the prey with his life on the line—everything felt fresh as though it had happened yesterday.
He still had nightmares about that night from time to time. This time, he was the hunter, but that didn't make him feel any better because the hunters from that day were all dead, and he would meet the same fate if he wasn't careful.
"They'll try to split up to make us split up the first chance they get. Don't go after a target alone if you can help it." Yazo shared his knowledge with the inquisitor duo. "It's really difficult, but try to block off paths to prevent them from going separate ways so we can remain together." A shinobi with their increased physical prowess could traverse almost any landscape with ease, and trying to stop one was an annoying challenge
The duo nodded.
"Finally, stay alive because there won't be anything to take back home if you kick the bucket," Hopper said while touching the death-seal on his right shoulder that would burn an ANBU operative's body, and everything they wore, to ash.
Takuma felt a phantom heat on his left upper arm where his death-seal sat.
Thinking about death was never pretty, but looking at the people around him who would suffer the same fate as him if they died did brought the twisted sense of warmth that came from not being alone.
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The link is in the synopsis!