Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve-Chapter 9.35 (350)

"I should've gone through the trash mail as well. Maybe I'd have a case of my own," Amami said as she sat in Caracar's office, balancing her chair on its hind legs while she tossed a shuriken toward the ceiling just low enough that they wouldn't make contact, only if barely.

Takuma had returned from Chibumi copper mines and stayed for two days before leaving for the Maizuru Quarters, one of the Leaf's largest military installations.

Amami had joined half a month before him and was still mentoring under Caracara, which wouldn't change at least for a couple more months. She had no problem with that and was more than happy to learn, but seeing her peer going off his own

"You shouldn't be envy him," said Caracara, her eyes browsing over an intel report relating to one of her many ongoing cases. "Ratel neither has a lot of freedom nor time. Campbell will close the case if he doesn't find something important—tangible—on this trip."

The problem was that the result from his trip to Chibumi was dubious at best. He had returned with a few words from a dying man, and they didn't hold much weight because they barely said anything and were backed by nothing. Campbell only approved because Takuma had somehow managed to connect those words to the Maizuru Quarters and convinced Campbell to have him go take a look.

"Did you hear what the other squad said about his case?" asked Caracara.

"That was bullshit," Amami replied immediately. "They were just trying to cause trouble for our squad."

Everyone shared a common eating hall in the Ironwood Protection Company office, making the three squads often mingle during tea breaks and meals. Case details were supposed to be kept confidential and secret to prevent leaks. They were regularly shared within the squad to gain advice and insight, but what and who they wanted to share the details with beyond that was in the operative in charge's purview what and who they wanted to share beyond that. Some minor details, when interesting, managed to make their way through the office as gossip.

The trash mail case had quickly become the week's gossip topic, and someone suggested that Takuma had made up the dying words to continue investigating the case so he could find another problem, a real one, because it sounded absurd that a green rookie would find a case in the trash mail when he hadn't even been working for a month.

"Let's hope so because it's not unheard of. It's not the same, but imagine an operative who thinks she has stumbled onto something big and shares it with her boss, who assigns her additional resources. She chases it for a while for it to turn out to be nothing, but things have proceeded to the stage where going to their boss and saying that it was all for nothing is difficult."

"But he's not doing any of that," said Amami. While the time they had spent together wasn't long, and by no means did she claim to know him well, having worked together with him, she was quite confident he wasn't the type to lie like that.

"I know. The problem is that those words created an impact the moment they were uttered. No one will think that about him if he returns with either nothing or something really good—anything in between, however, isn't going to work," said Caracara.

Amami looked out the office, across the hall, at the locked door of Takuma's office.

"You don't have the time to worry about him. We just got an urgent, high-priority mission. Get ready to leave tomorrow early in the morning," said Caracara, making Amami sigh. She didn't mind travel, but this mission would make it the third time this month that she'd left the village.

———

.

The Maizuru Quarters, the Leaf military installation, loomed in the distance, a sprawling complex of fortified walls, watchtowers, and barracks. The area was once a dense forest but had been strategically cleared so that the view from the installation wouldn't be obstructed in case of an attack. The facility was a critical hub for the Leaf's border defence on the Land of Wind's side, as well as housing and training shinobi, while also serving as one of the largest supply stations on this side of the nation.

To Takuma, it was both a fortress and a puzzle—one he needed to solve without raising suspicion, which wouldn't be possible if he rocked in fully dressed in his ANBU gear. Anything remotely out of line would be buried the moment he stepped through the gates.

He needed to go undercover.

The guards at the gate, the two stern-looking shinobi with the Leaf insignia on their forehead protectors, stepped forward to intercept him. The taller guard between them had cauliflower ears; he held his hands to stop him.

"Halt. State your business," the guard said, his voice firm but not hostile, eyeing Takuma, who was also dressed in standard Leaf gear.

Takuma reached into his pouch and produced a scroll with an official seal.

"Chunin Hoshino Araki, here for a routine inspection," he said, his tone calm and authoritative.

Hoshino Araki was a constructed cover identity with an actual footprint in the Hidden Leaf's records to give it legitimacy in case someone looked into Araki. The ANBU created and cultivated it for field usage. It was one of the few younger identities on file because only two operatives in the entire department, across both branches, were as young as Takuma.

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The guard took the scroll, examined the seal, and nodded to his companion. The second guard, a kunoichi woman with sharp eyes, stepped forward and performed a series of hand seals. A faint purple glow emanated from her hand as she patted him down to check if he was using a jutsu to disguise his appearance.

Satisfied, she stepped back. "Clear.".

The man handed the scroll back to Takuma. "Follow me. I will show you to Jōnin Kumaguro."

Takuma nodded and stepped through the gate, his eyes already scanning the compound. The installation buzzed with activity—shinobi training in the courtyards, messengers darting between buildings, and supply carts being unloaded near the storage warehouse. It looked like a model of efficiency and discipline. But he knew that there was something wrong there.

———

.

Takuma was escorted to the command center, a large building at the heart of the installation. The name plaques on the office doors were chunin or above from notable shinobi clans from the Hidden Leaf and around the Land of Fire. It felt like he was in Hidden Leaf but outside the village. On the top floor of the building, there was an office with huge double doors, which belonged to the jōnin commander in charge of the Maizuru Quarter.

Before coming, he had researched the Maizuru Quarter and knew about Jōnin Onikuma Kumagaro. However, his photo on file was clearly outdated and needed to be updated. Kumagaro was a man in his late forties, dressed in a simple tank top, with a professional wrestler's build that bore the marks of countless battles. His demeanour was relaxed, and he gave off the impression that he expected others to move at his pace and knew they would do so.

He read the scroll Takuma had brought with him for five minutes before setting it aside.

"You're young for an inspector, Chunin Araki. How old did you say you were?" Kumagoro looked at him with his one good eye. His other eye was a blueish-grey glass eye that stood out against his normal black iris as though he wanted everyone to know he had a glass eye.

"I didn't say," Takuma replied politely, but he stood his ground to show that Kumagoro couldn't push him around because he was younger or of a lower rank. It was essential for him to

Onikuma, he thought. In his mind, the clan name was attached to a particular memory. On his first visit to the Land of Frost for his first outstation C-rank mission, one of his teammates was an Onikuma girl. She had died, and he still thought about her and others from time to time when he didn't have other things on his mind.

The Onikuma clan was a minor clan with a hiden jutsu described as a "possession type" Summoning Jutsu that allowed them to mutate their bodies into beast-like forms, which granted them enhanced physiques. The jutsu came with its downside as it could prove to be mentally unstable at times as it could cause the user to assume a more bestial form, which affected emotions and intelligence, resulting in losing control of the jutsu.

Kumagoro raised a brow but didn't continue the line of questioning. "I wasn't made aware that you'd be arriving."

"We want a candid look at the operations here. We often find that when we arrive after informing, we aren't able to get a complete view," Takuma replied with the prepared answer.

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"Very well," he said after a moment. "I'll have my adjutant show you around. Is there anything specific you'll be inspecting?"

"Just the usual," Takuma replied, keeping his tone neutral. "Personal records, supply logs, expenditure accounts, training schedule. Nothing out of the ordinary."

Kumagoro nodded, betraying no sign of what he was thinking. But Takuma could sense that he wasn't happy by his presence, which wasn't a surprise because no one liked outside inspectors. He didn't like them when he was running the Narcotics Taskforce because they hindered his work and lowered productivity—and well, he had ample things he wanted to hide.

"Understood. I'll ensure you have full access to whatever you need."

———

.

Takuma toured the installation with Kumagoro's adjutant, a young and overly eager chunin named Shen. Like his first impression, the installation seemed to be well-managed. It was clean and beautifully maintained, the people were happy and morale seemed high, and the warehouses with supplies were properly maintained. Of course, he would need to look into it if he wanted to be sure.

"How many shinobi are stationed here?"

"Anywhere between 2500 to 3000 shinobi at any time. We are in charge of much more, but they're stationed at key locations along the border," answered Shen as he smiled and waved at shinobi in the distance.

The shinobi at Maizuru Quarters weren't enough to defend the Fire-Wind border alone. No nation protected the entire length of their border because it was infeasible to defend it all. Even the Five Great Nations, with their vast resources, only built garrisons in sensitive border regions and were there first and foremost to deter invasions rather than to keep individuals from slipping back and forth across the border.

Entering a nation was extremely easy for an individual or small group of shinobi who could cross harsh terrain—border security was more focused on stopping larger groups like raiders or armies.

"And no civilians, right?"

"None. Everything in Maizuru is handled by shinobi."

"How do you like working here, Chunin Shen?" Takuma asked as they walked to the space he would be working from.

"Oh, it's great! Maizuru is a fabulous place to work under Jōnin Kumagoro's leadership!" She sang praises from the bottom of his heart.

"What do you not like about working here?" said Takuma, starting to probe something.

"Uhmm, I don't think there is any," said Shen, slightly uncomfortable at the question.

"Oh, come on. Every place has something. Don't worry, I won't talk about it."

Shen looked hesitant for a moment, but he seemed to be the type who needed to talk even when uncomfortable. "Not being able to go home, I guess?" he said tentatively. "Leaves are tough to come by when you are stationed here. You need to apply far in advance to have a chance at going home."

"Well, it's like that everywhere," said Takuma, disappointed.

After touring, they returned to the command center. The records room was a cramped, dimly lit space tucked away in the corner of the command center. Shelves lined the walls, stacked high with scrolls, ledgers, and personnel files. The light bulbs weren't efficiently placed, and the shelves placed in the grid on the room's floor cast shadows across the room, giving it an almost eerie atmosphere.

He stepped inside, followed closely by Shen.

"This is where we keep all of our personnel records and mission logs," Shen said, gesturing to the shelves. "For other records, we will need to go to other archives—all of them are in the command center here. Your office is just across the hall from this one... Where do you want to start?"

"I will start here."

"Great! If you need anything, just let me know."

Takuma scanned the room and knew he would be spending a lot of time among these records for the next week, by which time he would need to find something substantial unless he wanted to be recalled home and have this case shut.