CH_7.2 (220)

CH_7.2 (220)

Three days after Anko had poisoned Takuma, forcing him to flush out the paralytic agent from his body with chakra, Takuma was bent over the toilet, puking his stomach out. He heaved noisily before hurling again into the toilet bowl.

The venom Anko had given him today had him crawl on the floor and lay just outside the washroom in case he needed to hug the toilet again. The only thing not negative about the experience was that his water clones were resilient— while he was suffering venomous hell, his two clones were doing their thing —as long as he didn’t suffer a mortal injury or got knocked out completely, the clones would stand stable.UppTodated from nô/v/e/lb(i)n.c(o)/m

Takuma closed his eyes and rotated chakra through his body. His head was churning, and his body was on fire, making focusing on molding his chakra a miserable experience. But he had ample motivation to get the chakra moving. He could either burn the venom early or suffer through the combination of a hellish hangover and burning fever.

A worried Daiki peered from the end of the hallway. “Are you okay?”

Takuma whimpered as he flopped to the side, but managed to shoot a weak thumbs-up to Daiki. He appreciated the guy, but there wasn’t much Daiki could do to help. Takuma needed to see it through by himself.

A few moments after Daiki left, Takuma’s tutor clone walked past on his way to the room with his hands full of books, scrolls, and writing material. It was sunny outside, and the clone had been studying under the warm sunshine.

“Lay to the side; you’re inconveniencing the others by blocking the bathroom.”

Daiki and Takuma had two other roommates living with them.

When Takuma didn’t respond, laying absolutely still in his spot, running chakra through his body, the study clone pushed Takuma’s body to the side with his foot. Takuma wanted to yell angrily but could only grumble from the heavy fatigue.

“You better not try to skip the study session,” said the clone before walking to Takuma’s room.

“Fuck you,” said Takuma, flopping onto his side.

“Not really into selfcest,” the clone spoke from inside the room.

Takuma regretted giving Anko permission to feed him venoms because, for three hours, his day turned to shit, with his body betraying him constantly. He couldn’t even blame it because he was the one voluntarily swallowing venom that put him in misery. He envied and cursed the duty and tutor clones for their normal days, while the original suffered through what he began to think was Anko’s way to exact revenge on him.

Takuma was about to grouch some words for his chunin lead, when his face turned green with disgust, and jumped up like a cat whose tail was stepped on, darting to the toilet bowl, looking like he would fall over any step.

Daiki walked into the washroom looking impatient and hurriedly unzipped his pants, only to see Takuma hurling vomit into the toilet. His eye twitched before he ran to the end of the hallway and jumped straight out of the window into the overgrown garden outside.

“It’s okay, I’ll do it outside,” he said, but Takuma was too busy to hear his teammate’s rushed words.

Three hours later, Takuma was forced by his roommates to clean up his handiwork in the washroom before they allowed him a bath.

———

.

The next day, Team-9 was called into the war room to meet with Toridasu and Shirakumo. It was Takuma’s first time in the war room, which was usually only reserved for chunin and jonin.

A large circular table covered a quarter of the room, which Toridasu seemed to have delivered from home. The walls were covered in pages of reports, maps, and memos that were regularly updated to give the most current and correct view of the war. Toridasu and Shirakumo held daily meetings with the chunin to communicate the latest happenings and changes at the war front.

“Ah, our most problematic team,” Toridasu smiled in greeting.

“Thank you, that means a lot,” Anko said, putting a hand on her chest and smiling back.

The two Hidden Leaf jonin weren’t the only ones waiting in the war room. Hidden Steam’s Tokubetsu Jonin Benzou and another man Takuma hadn’t seen before were sitting close to each other around the table. He had long hair tied in a loose ponytail, a tired and long face with a scruffy beard, and a lit cigarette between his lips. He was slumped in his chair as if the war room was his living room and the two jonin were his pals. Toridasu didn’t seem to mind, but Shirakumo’s unapproving gaze made his opinion clear.

Shirakumo looked to Kameko, who was engrossed in the file with wide eyes. Sensing everyone looking at her, she looked up.

“You want us to infiltrate Yu?” she uttered, her tone doubting what she had just read.

“Correct,” Shirakumo nodded. “The mission’s objective is to infiltrate the city and weaken it from the inside for the advantage of the main forces when we mount a recapture....”

Takuma leaned back in his chair and stared at the map, and the Spring City of Yu marked on it.

“Turn the enemy against themselves,” said Toridasu, “spread fear, doubt, confusion in the minds of the enemy occupying the city. Chip away at them slowly in a way that they don’t know who’s attacking them and how—so they have no choice but to doubt everyone, even themselves. Your objective is not to defeat the enemy but to wear them just enough that when the strong wind arrives, they blow over like a house of cards.”

“Urban Guerrilla Warfare,” said Takuma.

Shirakumo nodded.

“Why us?” asked Anko.

“Your team is suited,” said Toridasu. “Mitarashi specializes in information extraction, which is an important skill for the mission. Muscles here is a ranger and experienced in stealth. You have a fuin-nin, which makes her infinitely resourceful in most situations. The tiny girl and Taketori are good muscle.” He then looked at Takuma. “You, of course, proved your worth as muscle—but you have relevant experience, which is important...”

“...How so?” asked Takuma.

“Torture and interrogation like your team lead, you have experience with field intel gathering, and you have done a lot of informant cultivation,” said Shirakumo.

“You ordered my case files?” asked Takuma, not pleased that someone outside the Police Force was poking around in his work. “And they gave you the files?”

He had done all of that. He was in no way as good as Anko when it came to information extraction, but he had some experience. He had done some fieldwork for the Maiko Triad case, which he had then converted into a raid with the help of Arisu, which then got him the Narcotics Taskforce, where he had done a lot more fieldwork. And finally, he had cultivated so many informants in an attempt to reduce his dependence on Enomoto.

“You had to work in the Police Force; they treat everything like a state secret,” Toridasu sighed.

“Okay... I don’t want to undermine myself, but I had power and leverage back at home. I won’t be able to cultivate informants and curry favor with locals—they would never trust me because I’m not from that city. They will look me up, and the moment they don’t find me, they will protect themselves, which means turning on me,” said Takuma.

Takuma wanted to curb the expectations before they decided to send his team into the enemy’s den. If he promised something he couldn’t do, he was actively putting the lives of his team members at risk.

“We’re not stupid, kid,” Toridasu scoffed. He pointed at the man beside Benzou.

The man sat up in his chair and put out his cigarette in the ashtray on the table. “My name is Gaku. I’m a retired Hidden Steam shinobi and a resident of Yu,” said Gaku.

“Gaku will be joining your team,” Benzou spoke for the first time in the meeting. “He will be your local contact, the one they will trust, which you can use.... As power and leverage, I fear you will have to build that yourself.”

Toridasu leaned forward with a smile,

“You wanted something interesting; you got it...”

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