CH_11.4 (407)

As they sat in Fujita's office, the man had recovered from his initial surprise. He was still anxious, but managed to keep his nerves in control. The stunt had put him on guard, so Takuma could only blame himself.

Unlike the time in Maizuru Quarters, he wasn't going undercover. His identity as an ANBU-nin was convenient because people were more forthcoming, but he also knew it influenced how they acted. He wanted to know more about Fujita before he met him, and one way to do that was to see how he ran his operation. He couldn't approach the people working at the outpost because, even if they feared the ANBU, they might fear their boss more. If Fujita remained in his post after the investigation, he could mess with the lives of people whose answers he didn't like. On the other hand, the ANBU-nin would move on to their next case.

So, he arrived late and snuck around the outpost for roughly an hour.

It was tough because the outpost was substantially big, and everyone seemed to be on high alert during their duties. Everyone was either very dedicated to their jobs, or it was possibly because he was arriving, or they were trying to avoid any mistakes, as things had been tough recently, and no one wanted to incur an inordinate amount of punishment because of a mistake.

"I'm pleased to see how well this outpost is run under your command," Takuma said with a modulated voice. He wanted to ease the defensive Fujita into the conversation.

"That's high praise when coming from an ANBU-nin," Fujita replied with his chin raised.

Takuma noted that the man seemed to take great pride in doing his job well. The faint dark circles under his eyes could be seen as proof because the bandit attacks had thrown a wrench into the smooth operation.

"I would like to hear from you, in your own words. What do you think the problem is?" he asked.

"We are being targeted," Fujita replied seriously with a frown.

"Why?"

"There are three countries between the Land of Fire and the Land of Earth..."

The Land of Rapids, the home to the Hidden Waterfall Village, and the only village outside the Great Five Villages to hold a tailed beast, the Seven-Tails.

The Land of Prairie, the home to the Hidden Grass Village, was a peaceful nation with an unimpressive military that maintained a neutral political position, leaning towards neither of the Great Nations that flanked it.

The Land of Torrents

, home to the Hidden Rain Village, was a country embroiled in a vicious civil war between the Hidden Rain forces, led by Hanzo of the Salamander, and a rebellious mercenary organisation known as Akatsuki. According to the recent intelligence reports, the conflict was ramping up, and a large number of casualties were predicted.

"All trade between the Land of Earth and us needs to go through one of these countries. Our outpost is on the Fire-Prairie border," said Fujita proudly.

He was in a crucial situation, which would usually be handled by a court noble or a samurai, but somehow, the leader of this particular outpost had always been a shinobi for the past few decades.

He continued, "Our route is the most popular among the three. The Fire-Torrent-Rapid route has experienced a sharp decline in the past couple of years due to the civil war; merchants are no longer confident about the safety of their cargo in transit. The Fire-Rapids- Earth route is stable, but it's too long, which has always been a downside due to its associated costs. Our route is not only the shortest, but also the safest."

The Land of Prairie understood the importance of its role as a vital trade route between the two nations and had taken steps to make trade between them safe and convenient.

"The Hidden Grass isn't powerful, so they have allowed shinobi from both sides into their country in exchange for regular, healthy investments into the country. That decision not only helped them thrive but also kept them safe, as it benefits everyone. Anyone who tries to screw with it gets hammered down."

"But why do you think you're being targeted?" asked Takuma.

"Because our outpost is the only one of its kind on the Fire Prairie border. All trade that's done via the Fire-Prairie-Earth route goes through us. It has grown every year without fail since the end of the war. This is clearly an attempt by someone who wants to scare away the merchants from using our route!" Fujita all but yelled.

"But, in one of your reports, you claimed this was an independent bandit group that was trying to make money by selling the goods," Takuma asked calmly.

Fujita's reports were all over the place. He blamed different things as the main problem in each report. It gave the image of someone throwing things at the wall, hoping something would stick. It was clear he didn't know the cause of the sudden increase in bandit attacks.

He seemed embarrassed and sank into his chair. "None of the goods have made it to the market. It doesn't make sense for money-hungry bandits not to sell the stolen wares."

"What are your thoughts about Stone-aligned couriers getting targeted? Before you answer that, I'm confused as to what that means. What are Stone-aligned couriers?" Takuma asked.

"Former Stone shinobi or chakra users from the Land of Earth."

"They're allowed into the country?" asked Takuma. Even if they were former shinobi, allowing a high quantity of them into the city at a high frequency was a security risk.

"They are, but also not," Fujita nodded with a sigh. "The way it usually works in that cargo changes hands in the Land of Prairie. Goods coming from the Land of Earth are handed to Leaf-aligned couriers, who bring them into our country. However, every time goods exchange hands, the price goes up because the middlemen have to make money, so some have come up with workarounds."

Merchant houses from both nations had branches in the Land of Prairie.

An exporter from the Land of Earth would buy goods from the domestic manufacturer and transport them to the Land of Prairie, where they would be sold to an importer from the Land of Fire, who would then further sell them to the domestic businesses. At all three points of exchange, the price of goods increased. Not to mention, they had to pay customs duties to the Land of Prairie.

Some merchant houses figured they could increase profits by excluding middlemen. Some exporters owned the manufacturing business, but others attempted to cut the courier exchange. Instead of offloading to the Land of Fire importer, the exporter's courier would enter the country and sell directly to the business at the end of the chain.

"Some higher-up in the Daimyo's court decided that it was fine for Earth-aligned shinobi to enter the country as long as they were registered," Fujita said with an indifferent shrug. "It was never a big threat because the number of those couriers was always low."

"Why is that? If it's profitable, then why isn't everyone doing it?"

"Because the whole business is built on trust. Imagine a weapon smith bought some chakra alloy from the Land of Earth to forge a weapon, but later finds out that the quality was not what he was promised. They could show up at the importer's office to complain and receive some compensation, but what if there was no importer? That blacksmith isn't going to the Land of Prairie to find the exporter's branch office just to complain. The weapon smith can't even turn to the law and the courts because the sale didn't take place in the country. If an importer was cheated by an exporter, they could turn to the law because both sides have branches in the Land of Prairie and, thus, have to follow the letter of the law. That's why most only buy through importers because of trust and having the backing of the law in case something goes wrong."

Takuma digested the information in silence. The silence in the room agitated Fujita, but he waited patiently until Takuma asked his next question. He pointed at the map, dotted with multicoloured pins, in the corner of the room.

"Tell me about that," he asked.

"The red pins are locations of the attacks, the blue pins are patrol outposts, and green strings are patrol routes," Fujita replied as both of them stood in front of the maps.

There were a dozen red pins on the map, each accompanied by a sticky note with the date and the number of people who died. Each attack claimed multiple people, and over the last three months, over fifty people, all but five of them were Earth-aligned couriers.

"That's... yesterday's date." Takuma was utterly surprised when he saw the date beside a pin.

"Five more were killed yesterday," Fujita sighed. "Would you like to go see the site?"

———

 .

Takuma looked around the spot, and there was nothing extraordinary about it other than the middle of the road still bore burn marks from the cargo that had been set on fire. He walked to the side of the road and saw dried blood pools and splatters on the ground.

"What do you think?" asked Fujita.

Only the two of them had come to the site on Takuma's insistence that his arrival was kept a secret for a while longer. Fujita's secretary was firmly instructed not to tell anyone that her boss was going out with the ANBU-nin who had snuck into the base.

"This is highly professional," Takuma replied as he looked at the ground near one of the blood pools. "Do you see this?" He pointed at the ground, where a large square impression in the dirt was visible, with multiple sets of footprints on both sides.

"I don't get it," said Fujita.

"This set of footprints is from the courier when they put their boxes down and then moved to that tree's shade," Takuma pointed at one side where footprints were in both directions. "Then the single set of footprints that are only going in one direction—towards the cargo. That's one of the bandits who snuck behind the cargo. They managed to sneak-in undetected, despite the couriers being so close... That requires a level of training that wouldn’t be seen in normal bandits."

It wasn't just that.

He looked around. Everything about the scene seemed so precise and "clean". There were barely any signs of struggle. From the information Fujita had given him, except for the raging fire in the middle of the road, his people hadn't observed the usual signs of a back-and-forth combat.

The attack was one-sided, and that could be because the bandits outnumbered them or were significantly more skilled.

"Three people," Takuma said.

"Pardon?"

"There were three of them."

"How do you know that?"

"Identical shoe prints, but different sizes. One on this side of the road and two on that side. They're probably using identical gear." Even though a day had passed, and they were still outdoors, and many people from the base had probably examined the scene, there were still enough clues to infer some things.

"As expected of an ANBU," Fujita sounded impressed.

"I have a question."

"What is it?"

"How're these bandits identifying Stone-aligned couriers?"

The couriers' deaths were a problem, but the reason it reached the attention of the ANBU was that the targets were disproportionately Stone-aligned. Hidden Stone had taken notice of it, and while the couriers were no longer their shinobi, they were still Land of Earth citizens, who were dying in a foreign country.

Hidden Stone, via the Earth Daimyo, complained to the Fire Daimyo that Hidden Leaf was specifically targeting the Land of Earth citizens. Political tensions were on the rise with the possibility of small skirmishes in the Land of Prairie on the horizon.

"We don't know," Fujita replied.

Takuma frowned at the response. He could immediately guess one way the bandits might obtain information about the courier's identities.

"I would like to talk to your subordinates. Specifically, those who check the courier's registration," said Takuma, looking at the tokubetsu jōnin, who suddenly looked very defensive.

"My men wouldn't do what you're thinking, ANBU-nin," Fujita said, the previous praise nowhere to be heard in his voice.

"That's not for you to decide. I'd like to talk to them today; I hope you'll cooperate."

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