00116. Spying on Asgard.

00116. Spying on Asgard.Spoiler

This is 8... We'll see if you get another.

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Heimdall’s gaze focused in, on an area near the edge of Asgard’s landmass. He thought he heard voices from that area which was rarely used. But after he scanned the whole area and the surrounding land closer to the city he found no one. Nor did he find footprints or any type of disturbance in the area. Heimdall frowned slightly as he opened his eyes, he was positive he heard someone speaking... Midgardian? Heimdall closed his eyes again and focused completely on Asgard and its surrounding land, he wanted to make sure no one had come unannounced to the kingdom he swore to protect.

Minato, unaware someone powerful was looking for him and the others, arrived at the outer wall of the city and carefully checked around the area. After half an hour and not finding anything that looked like security. Minato quickly scaled the wall and reached the other side.

He was greeted with a single building, next to an open space that looked like it was used for training. The first thing he did was head towards a small building off to the side and snuck inside it.

Inside he found a large stash of training weapons and not much else. So he quickly left the area and moved towards the city itself.

Minato decided to take it slowly and hid in a few areas with a lot of traffic. His goal was to eavesdrop on as many people as possible and hopefully find out some useful information.

Minato took his time as he spied on the people of Asgard and he ended up disappointed. It was like spying on normal civilians. There were no real secrets to find here, just gossip. Still Minato snuck around the city as he waited for night to fall over Asgard.

He planned to make a move on the palace and the library when the least amount of people would be wandering around. Since he had time to waste, Minato went around and memorized the layout of the city, since it would be useful in the future.

Time passed by as Minato moved throughout the city undetected. He even shadowed a few guard patrols and found where the different guard stations were throughout the city. Useful information if Asgard ever became their enemy.

Overall Minato was disappointed in what he found in the city. The security was lacking everywhere and the guards didn't seem to be doing a proper job. Their patrols were lax and they barely looked around as they casually talked with each other. While the gate guards seemed to be more for decoration than anything else.

Honestly the whole place was a joke to him. He expected more from one of the most feared kingdoms in the universe. But instead they acted like no one would dare to attack them, as if their reputation would ward off attackers. Minato shook his head at how laughable it was, Konohagakure was considered the strongest village in his world and that never stopped people from attacking it. If anything it encouraged people to attack it.

Minato was also confused over why they didn't integrate technology into their gear. He found their lack of technology after he snuck into a guard station and went through their weapon and supply racks which weren't locked or secured in any way at all. They were just out in the open for anyone to grab. He knew Asgard was an advanced race and could travel the universe with ease, but not integrating technology into everything seemed stupid to him.

Sure they had very complex and advanced magic, which was integrated into what they used as far as he could tell. But why not add technology into the mix as well? It was something Tobirama and others were currently working on to help improve the equipment they already used. Even a few of the prototype weapons that were being worked on were more powerful than the spears the guards seemed to carry around.

Minato shook his head to clear it, he didn't need to worry about Asgard and its seemingly abysmal defenses. Or its complete lack of using technology for its own benefit. He would let Theo know about it and from there it was Theo’s problem to deal with.

Once night finally fell over the city. The golden glow of the sun was replaced with what looked like the glow from magical lights and the heat from wood fueled fires. Minato hung out around the city for a while longer before he finally moved towards the palace.

The golden palace was easily the biggest building Minato had ever seen. He might have seen some that were taller, but for overall size. This one easily took first place, plus it seemed to be made completely out of gold. While very impressive to look at, it seemed dumb if Minato was being honest. Gold might be valuable but it was one of the softest metals out there, how was it meant to protect against attacks?

The woman smiled brightly as she said, “Your skills are exceptional Loki. But a son can never truly hide from their mothers gaze.”

Loki nodded slightly as he said, “You did train me after all, so I guess you’d always be able to find me.”

“That’s also true... So why did you come to find me? Do you want to study with me?”

Loki shook his head and said, “I came to get you, it’s almost dinner time.”

Frigga smiled again as she said, “Such a caring child, what did I do to have such a lovely boy as you?”

Loki didn’t reply as Frigga stood up from her chair and moved towards him. When she reached him, she extended her elbow for his arm. After he slipped his arm around her elbow she said, “Please, lead the way.”

After a few minutes the only people in the room were the clones. Minato moved next to the other clones and said, “That was close.”

Tobirama nodded as he said, “I honestly thought she found you for a moment.”

The others nodded in agreement before Sakumo said, “How about I watch over the door while the rest of you search. In case she comes back after dinner.”

The others agreed and Sakumo moved to watch the door as the others moved to search through the library. Luckily no one else came back into the library for the night and they were easily able to find all the information they needed. It did take them most of the night though. While they had a decent idea on how to read the Asgardian language, it took a while.

Once they completed their task, they split up again and moved out of the palace. Since they weren’t exploring the place and it was still dark outside, it only took them twenty minutes to make it back to their extraction point. Once there, Sakumo dispelled himself so Theo could let Tao know they needed a pickup.

They all could have dispelled to save time, but this way they would be able to copy the information down once they were back at Theo’s base. After about twenty minutes a portal opened up and all of the clones moved through it before it snapped closed behind them.

Once back at Theo’s personal base, Minato, Tobirama and Hiruzen worked for hours to copy down all the information they found. Besides history they also collected other information like the location of planets, powerful factions in the universe and anything else that seemed slightly important.

Overall it was a decent amount of intelligence they collected. Now Theo would have to work on the next step, cloning a new body for the leader of the valkyries and seeing if she would want to join his faction with her army...

vvvvv

Heimdall spent a full day and night with his senses completely focused on Asgard and found nothing. But he still sent a report in to have guards check out the area he heard the voices at the night before. Within an hour a squad used for tracking was in the area and searched the whole place, but they also found nothing. Heimdall couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was there last night, but with nothing to go on he had to let the matter drop.