Hiten lowered the recorder onto the ground beside him. He remained motionless for several seconds before slouching forward, resting an elbow on his knee as one hand covered his forehead.
"...Is this really within our pay grade?" he muttered. "We should have turned back."
Keiko let out a quiet breath. "I expected to find evidence of tax fraud... embezzlement... maybe enough to give the Fire Capital probable cause to investigate Kaiyo Harvest." She looked down at the recorder. "...Not this."
Hiten slowly shook his head. "This isn't something even jonins can solve." He looked toward the recorder lying on the grass. "An organisation with an international foundation..."
Keiko blinked.
"...Was that a pun?"
Hiten stared at her for a moment. The silence lasted just long enough for him to realize what he had said.
A quiet chuckle escaped him. "...Yeah." Keiko rolled her eyes.
The corner of Keiko's mouth twitched upward before her expression returned to normal.
She glanced toward Tatsuo, who remained resting against the tree while Hiten's medical treatment continued to dull the pain in his injuries.
"...How long will it take us to get back home?" she asked. "Assuming we don't push Tatsuo too hard."
Hiten leaned back against the tree and thought for a few moments, mentally calculating their pace. "We'll have to stop regularly so I can continue treating him."
His eyes shifted toward Tatsuo before returning to Keiko. "If nothing delays us...then, about a week."
Keiko nodded slowly.
---
"Come in. I know you're standing there." Hiruzen said, without even looking away from his scroll. It was the mission of newbies chunins who had reported back from their first missions.
It was an important stage in a chunin's life. It was their first mission without their jonin instructor after all.
Danzo opened the door and entered the room, his steps were uneven as he shifted his weight on his cane. "The new chunins are doing well, I assume? Your face is revealing anything."
"Speaking of new chunins," Hiruzen placed the scroll down with a little more force than necessary, "Where is Keiko's team? It shouldn't take them this long."
Danzo shrugged before replying, "You gave them the mission as per the tradition. You didn't read what the mission was about?"
Hiruzen's eye twitched and he stood up immediately, "A mission about finding suspicious things about fishermen shouldn't take this long. A mission that you recommend they take."
Danzo narrowed his eyes as he asked, "Do you think that I had a hand in this? You didn't consider that it might be the chunins that are taking so long?"
Danzo smirked in a way that made Hiruzen seethe. It was the same kind of smirk he had seen since childhood. He hated it.
Hiruzen walked up to be only a few feet away as he kicked away Danzo's walking cane, making him fall to the ground with a grunt.
"Very mature Hiruzen, very mature. Is this how you treat all your friends?" Danzo retorted, only for Hiruzen to say, "Didn't like how I treated you? Try standing up for yourself then."
Hiruzen knew it was an immature thing to do, but he would be lying if he didn't admit that he didn't enjoy it.
"Why does it matter that they kids are late? They are easy to replace—except for the Uchiha." Danzo said, slowing getting up.
"It matters because because the samurai from that village are complaining about several fishermen corpses littering the villages and all of them were killed by shinobi."
Hiruzen handed Danzo's his cane, "You'll be dealing with this mess. You'll head to that village and resolve this conflict. After those kids have come back, that is. You better hope they come back soon.
---
The gates of Konoha became visible to the team. Keiko had a soft smile as she saw villagers near the gate.
They had been away for too long.
What was supposed to be a simple investigation into suspicious fishermen had turned into something none of them were prepared to understand.
For now, however, they were home.
Hiten stopped once they passed through the gates.
"Let's take this to the Hokage." His hand rested briefly over the pouch containing the recorder.
Hiten looked toward Tatsuo. "You take him to a hospital. He needs proper rest and a real doctor to take care of him."
Keiko glanced at Tatsuo before nodding. "I'll take him to a hospital and join you." Keiko said as she body flickered away.
Hiten headed toward the Hokage's office, carrying the evidence that would soon pull a lot of people's attention—if it were to be revealed.
Keiko took Tatsuo to a hospital.
---
Hiten entered the Hokage's office and stopped in front of Hiruzen's desk.
Hiruzen looked up from the scroll he had been reading, and his expression immediately became irritated.
"Do you have any idea how long your team has been gone? Your mission was supposed to take a few days, not several weeks. I've had your elder brother and your clan head asking me where you are, and I've had to keep both of them calm while you were off somewhere."
Hiten ignored the scolding and reached into his pouch, placing the camera on Hiruzen's desk. Hiruzen stared at it for a moment. "What's this?"
"Evidence from the mission." Hiten answered.
Hiruzen looked from the camera to Hiten. "What does a camera have to do with a mission about fishermen?"
"We went looking for iron," Hiten replied. "We found gold. A lot of it." Hiruzen's expression changed slightly. "Explain."
"The more we investigated, the worse it became. Keiko and Tatsuo were looking through the company's office for documents that could prove some other financial crime. They found the camera hidden behind a chakra-protected seal."
Hiruzen picked it up and examined it. "And you decided to bring it here instead of backing away?"
"We didn't know what was on it until Keiko opened it. By then, we had already gone too far to go back."
Hiruzen gave him an irritated look. "That isn't an answer."
Hiten shrugged. "We didn't know what we were dealing with."
Hiruzen sighed before turning the camera over in his hands. "Fine. Show me."
Hiten took the camera back, turned it on, and opened the oldest recording.
Hiruzen observed Hiten use the camera and thought, 'These youngsters and their technologies...'
Kudo appeared on the screen.
Hiruzen listened as the man's panic rant with detached boredom. When Kudo finally named the organization as the Crimson Pillar, Hiruzen's expression became noticeably more serious.
The recording ended abruptly.
Hiruzen remained silent for a moment before looking at Hiten. "You encountered anyone connected to them?"
"Yes."
"Describe them."
"Masked. His name was Ko."
Hiruzen asked with narrowed eyes "Titles based on fingers?"
"That's what he used."
The office door opened, and Keiko stepped inside after returning from the hospital. Hiruzen looked toward her. "Keiko, come here."
Keiko walked over and stood beside Hiten. Hiruzen repeated what Hiten had told him.
Keiko nodded. "Tatsuo encountered someone like that too. That man's name was Tensei."
Hiruzen's expression hardened. "What happened?"
"Tatsuo was critically injured and is currently is being taken care off. This Tensei was stronger than a normal Jōnin."
Hiten nodded. "The person I fought was strong as well."
Hiruzen looked down at the camera again.
Something about the information was beginning to bother him. The masked shinobi, their unusual titles, and the organization's method of quietly replacing people reminded him of several incidents that had occurred over the past few years.
His thoughts returned to the Chūnin Exams and the genins who had been killed during the incident. He remembered the groups of bandits that had entered the country while its defenses were weakened.
At the time, each incident had seemed unrelated. Now, with the Crimson Pillar appearing behind Kaiyo Harvest and its members turning up during the investigation, Hiruzen was beginning to wonder whether they had all been connected from the beginning.
His thoughts then moved toward Danzo.
The organization's methods reminded him uncomfortably of the sort of covert operations Danzo favored. Hiruzen wondered whether Danzo already knew about them, or perhaps had even been trying to remove their influence from the Land of Fire without telling him.
Hiruzen looked back at Hiten and Keiko. He placed the camera on his desk.
"Don't discuss this with anyone outside your team. I don't know how far this organization has spread, and I don't want information about what you've discovered reaching the wrong people."
Both of them nodded. "Understood."
"You're free to leave, good job on your work. You have made us proud."
Hiten and Keiko left the office, closing the door behind them. Hiruzen remained seated for a while, staring at the camera.
The mission had begun as a routine investigation into suspicious fishermen. Somehow, three Chūnin had returned with evidence of an organization that might have been operating inside the Land of Fire for years.
He leaned back in his chair and rubbed his forehead.
"If Danzo knows about this..." he muttered. Hiruzen's expression darkened as he looked toward the door. "...I'm going to have a very unpleasant conversation with him."