Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over to Patreon @
[ https://www(dot)patreon(dot)com/fictiononlyreader ]
The link is also in the synopsis
———
.
An Aburame didn't know true silence because it meant the absence of life. Since before they could remember, they had grown up constantly hearing the microscopic vibrations and the hum of their hive within them.
With his bugs drugged and quietened, the stone cell felt like a tomb to Resa.
The grinding sound of shifting earth brought in a flood of light that was frankly welcome, even though Resa knew that it couldn't mean anything good for him.
Tobi stepped into the cell. He was still wearing the same clothes as before. He carried a small, collapsible metal chair, unfolding it in front of him to sit down. Another operative brought in a metal table, set it between them, and placed a bottle of water on it. Tobi weaved hand seals, and Resa was released from his bindings; his chakra, however, remained sealed. He hurriedly gulped down the water, not knowing when he would next see water.
He clamped down the panic, not sure what the ANBU wanted from him. If they were going to ask for clan secrets, he would rather die than give them information about the hiden jutsu.
Tobi reached into his jacket, retrieved two glass vials, and placed them on the metal table. Resa's breath hitched. He stared at the table, his blood running completely cold. One of the glass vials had a few dead pale beetles twice the size of an adult ladybug; the other vial had bunched-up, thin, light-green worms that wriggled against the glass.
"Let's not waste time," Tobi said. "We have many questions for you, Chūnin Resa. We would appreciate it if you spoke truthfully and in detail so we have an accurate account of the events as they truly happened… Please take a look at this document and confirm if the date of the experimentation timeline on the pale beetles by Aburame Shigeki is accurate."
The other operative put down a sheet of paper before Resa, who looked down and couldn't stop his eyes from widening. The timeline was accurate, frighteningly so—but that wasn't it. There was so much more information on the page that should only be known by a few people. The ANBU knew what they had done.
"I will take your silence as confirmation that this is correct. Please speak up if you'd like to make corrections."
"I-I—T-This isn't—" Resa couldn't find the words. Tobi wasn't asking if Resa was guilty; he didn't ask for a confession at all. It was like ANBU knew all of what they had done already and were doing fact-checking.
"Can you tell me when you decided to breed these chakra pests?" Tobi asked, tapping the vial with the worms.
Resa once again felt a spike of fear in his chest. No one except for Elder Shigeki was supposed to know that he had bred the chakra pest plaguing the south-eastern sector of the agricultural belt. It had started as a project to sate curiosity, never meant to be anything more than a side project before he showed it to Elder Shigeki, who gave it a much larger purpose than Resa could ever imagine.
"Can you shed some light on the delivery mechanism for the pests? Are these requirements correct?"
The constructed walls of silence that Resa was insistent on keeping up collapsed.
"How did Aburame Shigeki decide on the genetic lifespan of the pale beetles?"
His mind raced as a way to manoeuvre through this.
"Can you confirm if this is how you expanded the inflicted area over the years to earn more profit?"
But with each question, each document, any inkling of what he could say seemed utterly insufficient. The ANBU knew he bred the pests; they knew that Elder Shigeki bred the pale beetles; they knew scientific specifics; they knew about the deployment—they knew everything! ANBU wasn't trying to fish for information; they were trying to confirm what they already knew.
"I… I am—you cannot d-do this. T-The clan—!"
"The clan is going to hurt with or without your help, Chūnin Resa," Tobi interrupted smoothly. "What the Aburame did is already done. We know what you did, and when we present this to Lord Hokage, he will take appropriate action against your clan. The Aburame will try to fight this, we know, but we aren't worried about it. The evidence is insurmountable… The question now is about assigning proper responsibility or blame, whatever you may want to call it."
Tobi tapped the glass vial with his gloved finger.
"When a clan like yours realises they're trapped, they go into damage control. They excise the rot. Aburame Shigeki is the architect of this all. He's a known expert of your clan's hiden jutsu. He's indispensable. You, on the other hand, are inconsequential when compared to what they could lose. And it would be in their right to put all the blame on you because you did actually breed the chakra pests. If you didn't do that, none of this would've happened."
The words punched Resa in the teeth. He wanted to deny it, but he could see it happening. The clan had to protect itself. If he were in their position, he would do the same. He pictured Elder Shigeki in the greenhouse, not even bothering to look up from his desk to address him; taking all the glory when he was the one who helped him develop the beetle. Resa did the work, but Elder Shigeki took all the praise and glory.
A sense of dread washed over him. If Resa were scapegoated as the primary culprit, he would be stripped of his rank and have his chakra sealed under village law. But what he truly feared was the clan laws that would have the hives inside him stripped and have his body changed so he would never be able to rebuild them. He would be alone from that point until the end of his life.
"Here's your reality. It'd be wise to embrace it," Tobi continued, his dark eyes locking onto Resa's. "You cooperate with us. Give us everything about this operation from the logistics to the people involved to anything else we want to know—"
"If I testify… m-my clan will brand me a traitor. I… would be good as dead."
"That's why we aren't asking you to testify," Tobi countered. "We want accurate information, so that we can construct the indictment so tightly around Aburame Shigeki that the clan won't have the space to twist the facts. We will block every legal avenue they have to misassign the blame. We will ensure they cannot use you or anyone as a scapegoat. Everything would be fair."
"That means I would still be charged," Resa said.
"You're guilty, Chūnin Resa. Even if you claim that you didn't create the pests for malicious purposes, you knew what they were ultimately used for, and you stayed quiet. In fact, your net worth has risen by a factor of thirty since the start; you willingly gained from this scheme." Tobi leaned back, crossing his arms over his chest. "You can stay quiet and let your clan decide your fate. But if you cooperate, you get a fair fate."
The silence in the cell was deafening. Cut off from his hive, far away from the village, and isolated from his clan, the confidence Resa had in his position crumbled like a pile of stone. He frantically leaned forward, put his hands on the table, and had a desperate urgency in his eyes.
"Elder Shigeki initially planned the genetic lifespan cap to be three months, but then decided to reduce it to one month when one of the early variants showed consistency," Resa said, his voice trembling in the quiet room. "He didn't try after that… more profit for the clan that way."
—
.
Yazo, codenamed Shire, or as he was going by for the mission, Juu, stepped out of the temporary earthen building and walked towards the small stream nearby, where he found his friend sitting on a large stone with his pants rolled up and bare feet submerged in the flowing water.
"What are you looking at so intently, Thirteen?"
ANBU Lieutenant Ratel, who had chosen the name Tobi for himself for the mission, leaned forward to look at the water even closer.
"I'm seeing how the water flows around my feet," Takuma replied.
Yazo looked as well, and all he saw was the usual flowing water, but he didn't doubt that Takuma saw something more. His batchmate's understanding of chakra and his chosen nature affinities was beyond his capabilities.
"I didn't expect him to fess up so easily," Yazo said. As an assault squad operative, interrogations weren't really his wheelhouse. He could use physical intimidation and threats, but breaking someone down with questions wasn't something he could do.
"Actually, he didn't." Takuma raised his foot out, and the water current seemed to rise up as though it were cloth stuck to his soles. "I made him believe that we already know everything, so in his mind, we've already completed the marathon. He thinks that all he's doing is helping us improve our time… In truth, we know enough to get the Aburame clan in trouble, but he's making sure that they get what they deserve and can't avoid it."
Yazo wasn't allowed to listen to the conversation. Heck, he didn't even know the topic of the interrogation, but he doubted he could've done something like that and claimed to do it as casually as Takuma was doing it. He could imagine doing it if it were simpler—he was an ANBU after all—but this seemed much bigger. He looked around; they were in the middle of nowhere. Takuma had chosen to do this so remotely because he didn't want to be interrupted.
"Then are you sure you don't want to be in there? What if the other guy messes up and lets Resa know that we're bluffing?" Yazo asked. The guy doing the interrogation was young.
"Osprey will handle it; he's careful with his words," Takuma said. "And I wouldn't have been able to get everything out of him. It's better if the same person is there for continuation." He looked up at the afternoon sky. "My time is almost up…"
"Ah, right," Yazo said, not surprised. Having spent as much time as he had spent at Maruboshi's home over the past year, he had seen enough of how Takuma liked to use his clones. Even if he didn't, there were enough rumours inside ANBU about a certain eccentric lieutenant. "You weren't worried about what would've happened if you popped before we arrested him? That could've ruined the plan."
"Not really. You would've handled it," Takuma said.
"Trust me that much?" Yazo chuckled, but internally, those words meant more than he could express. He called himself an assault squad operative, but he hadn't been on regular missions with his squad for most of the past year. He had been joining in support positions recently. Thus, he was very grateful when Takuma asked for him personally for this mission.
"You've been learning under the best teacher I know. He has been satisfied with your effort and progress. If he believes in you, I believe in you." Takuma stood up to face him. "Everyone knows their assignments. We only have four days with him, and I want to move on the information before we release him or the Aburame finds out we have him—depending on what happens first."
"You're leaving?"
"Yup."
Yazo raised his hand in response to a dap from Takuma; the moment their hands met, the clone dispersed in a cloud of smoke with a perfect clap
.
———
Chat with me and the rest of the community on our DISCORD server.
The link is in the synopsis!