CH_5.11 (154)

CH_5.11 (154)

From the day they left the village to the day they returned. The mission took a whopping ten days to wrap up. They had to process the entire farm— search the whole place for information, take samples of the crop and equipment, and then torch the remaining crop down to shut the site down permanently. Moreover, they had to stay on the farm for a couple of days to recover from their injuries, and their return journey was made slower as they had prisoners along with them.

The Hidden Frost incident had been the last time since Takuma had been out of the village for such a long time. The most time outside the village he did was on his regular hunts and overnight stays in the wilderness. But those only went for two days at tops ever since he had taken up his position in the Narcotics Task Force.

He wanted to go on hunts more often, but he didn’t have the time these days. And because the mission had taken so long, Takuma could only take a two-day break before he was back in the Police Force Headquarters for work.

“An unexpected element during a B-rank mission that your plan didn’t account for. You and the other genin were lucky that you survived the ordeal,” said Jonin Uchiha Sayuri, the Head of Organized Crime.

“As the saying goes, ma’am: No plan survives first contact with the enemy,” Takuma replied. They sat in her office while Takuma gave the big boss a debrief of the mission.

“I have not heard of that saying, Genin Takuma... but those are some wise words,” said Sayuri, impressed. “I shall remember them.”

Takuma smiled and nodded. He disagreed with the luck part— luck was only half of the equation; the rest of it was pure life-risking effort. It made sense that not every saying from his world made it to this world, but he thought a war saying by a military man would’ve made it to the world of mercenary shinobi.

“What’s next?” she asked.

“I have contacted Tokubetsu Jonin Oishi for the interrogation.” Taro’s mother had very recently gotten a promotion. “We will get some hard actionable intel out from the farm help and the genin part of the delivery convoy and proceed from there. If things go well, we might have the location of the main distribution center.”

“How long do you think this will take?”

“Hopefully, soon,” said Takuma. “I want to hit the distribution center as fast as possible before they get a whiff that we are involved. Right about now, they might be thinking that the courier stole the consignment and ran away with it.... And for that reason, I would like to keep this away from the media. Nothing should go out until I say it’s time.”

“Which means another mission soon?”Điscover new chapters at novelhall.com

“Indeed. Speaking of which, I might need additional funds for the mission.”

“Let’s discuss that after you have actionable intel that’s confirmed by our sources,” said Sayuri.

Takuma wanted to sigh, but he had gotten used to this. Any time the matter of money came up, the subject would be changed. It wasn’t that he didn’t understand the budgetary conflicts between the departments; Takuma needed the money to run his small team. They ran a small weekly raid, targeting dealers much like Takuma’s level when he was still dealing. But once a month, they tried to strike it big by hunting a supplier.

And because of Enomoto’s intel, Takuma and the Narcotics Task Force had a 100% strike rate. Every time they had put their crosshair on someone, they had caught them with enough evidence to put them away for good and had resulted in significant disruption in the Hidden Leaf drug trade. True, Hidden Leaf village was just one “city,” meaning they weren’t putting any serious dent in the drug trade around the Land of Fire— but Takuma chose to focus on the present and deal with the problems in his home ground before looking elsewhere.

.

“Sir, the information you asked about the farm raid,” said the subordinate.

The emotionless, middle-aged man behind the desk with buzz-cut light brown hair looked up from his desk. “Report,” he said.

“The raid was conducted by the Leaf Military Police Force. The Narcotics Task Force in the Department of Organized Crime,” responded the young, equally emotionless subordinate.

“I believe that’s a new task force.”

“Yes, sir,” the subordinate placed a file on the table. “Led by a genin called Takuma, graduated from the academy two and a half years ago. An orphan of no notable lineage. He founded the Narcotics Task Force nine months ago. Under his leadership, the task force has conducted several significant raids around the Hidden Leaf. He was present on the farm raid as the lead. The rest of the people involved in the raid are on the file.”

The man picked up the file and flipped through it.

“Three teams filled with clan shinobi,” he said. “Anything else notable about this Takuma?”

The subordinate placed a second file on the table. “He was involved in the Hidden Frost incident we engineered. He was trained by Maruboshi Kosuke during his last year at the academy. Fights in the underground gladiator arena Ring under the stage name Scars. And he is currently being tutored by Jonin Uchiha Mikoto, the wife of Uchiha Fugaku.”

The last sentence got a reaction from the man. “The nature of their relationship?” he asked.

“Strictly teacher-student.... Additionally, we sent one of our own into the Police Force as part of their new recruits. According to the information, Takuma is about to lose the command of the Narcotics Task Force.”

“... No notable parentage; Maruboshi Kosuke, while, has connections won’t present a problem; about to lose his important position... and a Police Force officer who moonlights as an underground prizefighter, that crosses the Uchiha connection.” He looked up at his subordinate. “What is the status of the trainees?”

“Our trainees?”

“Yes, the current batch. Are they ready for a joint mission?”

“I’ll relay the request to the Master Instruction. May I ask what this mission pertains to?”

“Assassination of a threat to the foundation.”

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