Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve-Chapter 9.47 (362)

Amami clocked in for the day and was walking in the corridor of the Ironwood Protection Company with a six-pack of coffee in hand when she heard Jotomi, a staff member, call out to her.

"Good morning, Kestrel. Are you heading back to the office?"

"Uh-huh, why?" she asked in return.

"Can you inform Ratel there's a message for him at the communication desk?" Jotomi said with three stacked boxes in hand that covered his face halfway through his nose.

"Sure, I'll tell him," Amami smiled as she put a cup of coffee atop the boxes. She entered the Campbell Squad's office, turned towards Ratel's cabin, and was about to knock on his door when she saw a pair of feet dangling from the edge of the couch. She stepped in to see him sleeping on the couch.

The clock on the wall said ten in the morning.

It wasn't unusual to see him napping in the office, but that was when he pulled all-nighters, but looking at the state of his office and clothes, it didn't look like he had spent the night. Despite being a fourteen-year-old kid, he usually looked like he worked in a place with exploitative practices, but he looked especially bad recently because of the now-named "Maizuru Assassinations" case.

It had been over a week since he had been waiting for news to come about a lead. In that time, Campbell had sent Ratel home and instructed him to come in half-day every other day because everyone could see how hard he had worked on the case and wanted him to rest.

But from the looks of it, he hadn't been doing much resting. She considered whether to wake him up or let him rest before deciding that it was better to wake him up.

"Wake up, Thirteen."

His eyes snapped open just from her words. He lay there eerily still for a moment before sitting up and looking at her. For a moment, she genuinely thought he didn't recognise her.

"Gosh, your eyes are so red," she commented, handing him a cup of coffee.

"Thank you," he said groggily.

"What are you doing? Just go home and sleep. What are you doing during your rest days?"

"I can't sleep. I literally can't sleep at night, and when I do sleep, I have trouble staying asleep," said Takuma, voiced his frustration as he rubbed his eyes.

"Get that checked out. I know a great doctor, go meet them."

"A clan mate?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Are they going to look inside my head?"

Amami sighed. "That's a last case option. Yamanaka iryō-nin are standard doctors, so they go through the standard procedure before they suggest our jutsu. If you don't want them to look inside, just say no and they won't."

"Okay, give me the contact. I'll think about it."

"You'd better. Oh, right. There's a message for you at the communication desk..."

Like a man possessed, Ratel sprinted out of the room as though he had a hidden stash of energy to be used in cases of emergency.

Amami looked at the untouched coffee cup and picked it up. He was probably drinking a lot of coffee, but given his condition, it would be better if he drank less.

———

.

Two days later, Takuma was in Odama. The local shinobi had finally found the man who called himself Kyuusai—the past week had been agonising because there had been no news about the man. He wanted the case to be perfect, and six high-profile unsolved murders would be a blemish at the very start of his ANBU career, something he refused to accept.

Odama was a city on the bigger side, making it one of the locations with a reasonable shinobi presence. The shinobi population was only a couple hundred short of a thousand, serving the broader region with the city as the center. An excellent majority of them were genin with the chunin numbers lower than the per-genin recommendation because they weren't in demand in the job market.

The leader of the shinobi force itself was a veteran Tokubetsu Jōnin.

This raised the question of why someone behind such a high-profile assassination would be from a city like Odama. It would've been more fitting if he had been from a top city with a stronger economy and political sway.

"Welcome to Odama, ANBU-nin," said the Tokubetsu Jōnin called Sakushige Daireo. He had a round face and chubby-cherry cheeks, thin hair, middle-parted and set down with gel, and thin-rimmed circular glasses with a chain to prevent them from falling. He was dressed in the local garb instead of the standard uniform.

Takuma, who had free time, looked into Daireo. The man was nothing if not a solid manager. While he hadn't had any groundbreaking achievements since coming to Odama, he had done what was expected of him and consistently met targets without any grievous errors or mismanagement—which could be seen as an impressive achievement given the surprising number of screwups everywhere.

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Takuma wanted to apprehend Kyuusai immediately, but he had to follow the correct procedure and meet the leader because he had used their help to find his target. He sat in Daireo's office, dressed in his full ANBU gear.

"I appreciate the work you and your men have done, Tokubetsu Jōnin Daireo. Where did you find him?" he asked.

"Your request not to make it public slowed us down, but we followed your suggestions and asked around the clubs and entertainment district. It took some time, but we found him," Daireo replied, his face, painted with pride in a job well done, made him look merry.

Takuma had the impression that Daireo's subordinates would've warmly smiled at their boss. The intimidating ANBU presence was the only reason they stood around stiffly.

"Is Kyuusai his real name?" he asked

"Here he goes by Hidesine."

"What kind of man is he?"

"He's a middleman for everything. If someone wants something done and doesn't want to bother with the hassle or having difficulty for whatever reason, Hidesine makes it happen in return for a fee. He knows a lot of people and he leverages that position... He's quite well-known among the city's wealthy for his services. We didn't know about him because–well–we don't need his services."

"Is he trained in chakra?"

"Not to our knowledge."

"Any bodyguards?"

"One, but not a problem."

Takuma nodded as doubt whispered in his ear about whether they had the right guy. He wasn't looking down at untrained civilians because money made the world go around and a motivated person could cause significant damage by simply pulling the strings, but he still couldn't help but think Daireo had the wrong person.

There was only one to check.

"Well, let's go get the bastard, shall we?"

———

.

Takuma stood up on a rooftop across Hidesine's location, gazing down at the high-class apartment building across the street. Hidesine lived in one of the apartments. The local shinobi would go in to apprehend him while he would be on stand-by in case something went wrong.

"Are you sure you need to be here, Tokubetsu Jōnin Daireo? You must be busy with your responsibilities."

"Oh, it's fine. Please don't worry about it." Daireo chuckled like an older gentleman. "There's no way I'm missing this rare, exciting thing happening in my city."

"We are arresting an untrained civilian."

"Your presence makes it exciting, ANBU-nin," the man said, sounding like he was about to watch a thriller.

Takuma sighed before returning to the apartment building, where a team of five genin choked the stairs, another team scaled the walls, and a third team surrounded the building to prevent an escape. Although this was overdoing it, he appreciated it nonetheless, as it decreased the chances of failure.

A kunoichi with a clipboard prop knocked on the door of Hidesine's house, which was visible from the open corridor. The rest of her team stayed out of the view to have an advantage of surprise. The door opened and Hidesine's bodyguard appeared on the threshold. The kunoichi confirmed if Hidesine was at home before pushing past him. He tried to stop her, but three of her teammates jumped on him and restrained him from interfering.

The following minute was one of the longest minutes of Takuma's life as he couldn't see what was happening inside. Eventually, the kunoichi emerged with Hidesine in cuffs behind his back. The man looked angry, cursed, and struggled incessantly, but it probably felt like a baby fussing to the much stronger kunoichi who casually pushed him along.

"It's him," Takuma said under his breath.

Hidesine matched nine points with Kyuusai's sketch.

———

.

As Takuma sat before Hidesine, the man seemed to recognise his status as an ANBU-nin. He acted as though he wasn't scared, but Takuma could smell the fear from him. Putting on a brave face was admirable, but Takuma wasn't concerned. The man who was cursing at the kunoichi, threatening her with his connections in 'high places' was nowhere to be seen, and that was to show that he was rattled.

Every moment of silence in the cramped interrogation room with a creaky chair and sticky table increased the tension. Takuma maintained it a little longer by silently placing the photographs of the six deceased targets on the table in a line one at a time.

Hidesine had a good poker face, but when faced with the photographs he had handed to Okahachi, who had 'just in case' decided to keep a copy, it was much more jarring than getting a bad or good hand of cards. His eyes trembled and the creaky chair betrayed everything he felt.

"Who are these people?" he asked, pretending not to recognise his victims.

Takuma only had a word in response. "Kyuusai."

Hidesine flinched.

"I think there's been a misunderstanding, sir. I don't know any of these men."

Takuma got up and leisurely walked behind Hidesine's chair, making him shrink and minimise his body and posture. He didn't look back, making it so he couldn't see Takuma's face which was nevertheless covered in a mask, but not being able to see him at all was only more nerve-racking.

"Okahachi told me a lot about you, and I've learned much more since I came to this city. You have been busy sending people to the afterlife left and right—important ones to boot. Unfortunately, you got caught, and now, you'll die from all that hard work. But you can be proud, you accomplished something rarely seen."

"I didn't do any of that!" Hidesine shouted.

"Now, now, there's no need to be embarrassed by your accomplishments. Like I said, you should be proud. You did something so rarely seen."

"Do you have any proof?" Hidesine's breathing harshened.

"I've been working on this case for a while and frankly, I'm tired of it. I have Okahachi in custody and he'll say anything I want as long as I prevent a death penalty. If that's not enough, there's the stunning Miss Yuki, who you had fun with during your visits, and she'll gladly place you at Kanaoka. And right about now, I assume your bodyguard is spilling your secrets, and I'll pile one thing over another on your head until your neck snaps under the weight." Takuma placed his hand on the base of his neck and finished.

He continued, "You killed shinobi, samurai, the wealthy, and people from the noble court. It's a mess that literally everyone wants to end—and end fast—so you're a dead man walking. Of course, I'll have to find out why you did it, so remember this feeling; it's called the absence of pain because you aren't going to feel like this for a very long time... unless you can give me something else."

Takuma didn't bother being subtle. He couldn't see him being the mastermind behind the assassinations unless he found something suspicious about the man upon digging into his background that Daireo's men hadn't already found. Hidesine was a middleman who made things happen for others.

It made him wonder if this was the same...

"...I-I ordered the assassinations, but I was hired to do that by someone else," Hidesine whispered.

"Who?"

"I don't want the death penalty."

Takuma stared down the man for a moment. "If you help me catch them, I will advise and request the judiciary to be lenient, but if you're lying and there's no one behind you, you won't go peacefully."

"What if you lie—renege l-later," Hidesine stuttered. "I want some form of guarantee."

"You're misunderstanding something," Takuma applied some pressure on the base of Hidesine's neck. "I don't have to guarantee anything. I can get the information forcefully without giving anything; I'm being kind here. You just need to do as I say and hope I'm a man of my word."

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Takuma pushed chakra out of his body and laced it with bloodlust. It was nowhere as potent as Jōnin Kumagoro, but it did the trick as Hidesine went pale and his body shook as he hurriedly nodded.