A/N This one's fairly short. C'est la vie.
ooo
If you truly do not want a massively superior opponent to gain certain information, send agents who do not have that information.
ooo
It turns out, anyone can buy clothes and bandages, and finding a poor street kid who'll do anything for some ryo is even easier. If I ever take over this place there are going to be some serious societal reforms mused Tetsuo as he considered the disadvantaged youth in front of him, regretting the steps that would be necessary to save a life without being sent to T&I. Why do we even have a Torture and Interrogation department in a village that has Yamanakas... Yamanaka? Yamanaki? Whatever. Shouldn't it just be an Interrogation department? Is there just that much torture that needs to be done that a whole clan of them isn't enough? How much could they possibly need to do? Is it supposed to scare everyone into obeying then once you walk inside they don't actually torture you? Or is it just one of those accepted things that everyone is fine with because they've grown up with it.
Today, he was wearing the blandest, the most average, the dullest clothes possible and his face was wrapped in bandages. They had all been washed with soap that was not the type used in the orphanage. If it's close enough, a person can actually see pretty well through sufficiently coarse cloth, which was useful because his orange eyes were pretty distinctive. As a result, he looked like a particularly boring Egyptian mummy, perhaps one called Clive that works at the bread counter. He had walked down the side of the building to come up behind the kid in the dead end alley. Then he had cleared his throat and made his offer, scaring the crap out of the kid in the process. A little pointless intimidation was rarely a bad thing in these cases and if he couldn't do it now, when could he?
"Repeat it back to me." Tetsuo said in a voice that was not his normal one.
"You want me to go to the Hokage's tower and tell the Chuunin on duty that you overheard those Kumo people talking about how they wanted to kidnap the Hyuuga princess for her eyes, and then I'll be a hero for saving her!" replied the young bright haired boy, dreams of glory shining in his eyes.
"And if they want to know who told you?" Tetsuo asked, just to make sure he had been understood.
A frown from the boy as he remembered his lines. "Tell them Arashi told me, and that I didn't know who you are, then answer any questions they ask me about you. And I'm not to try and hold anything back."
"Well here's your money and off you go. One last thing." He stated, crushing the arm that had grabbed the money with a surprising amount of force for one so small, abruptly there was a kunai in Tetsuo's off hand. "If you cheat me, I will find you. Now, run along now!" he finished faux cheerfully, releasing the boy. The boy stumbled out of the alleyway, then glanced about and dashed off.
Tetsuo took a moment to carve a stylised storm cloud into the ground beneath his feet, then walked back up the wall of the alley onto the roof, and put the bandages into his pocket. He walked back down the other side, wandered through the main marketplace and through two more busy squares to confuse his scent trail. Finally he re-wrapped his head in bandages and repeated the process. The second boy was told to go to the Hyuuga gate guards instead.
After carving one more symbol, walking through three more busy places and changing into a completely different set of clothes he'd hidden in a tree on the way home, he finally allowed himself to relax. A thin smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. The problem he musedis twofold: how to help the unfortunate Hizashi, and how to get credit for it later. I'm not nearly good enough at lying yet to go in front of a Hokage or a Clan Head and tell them I overhead things I did not overhear. They'd take one look at me and think it was a trick by Kiri to foul the negotiations or something. I'd be hanging from the ceiling by my toenails in no time. If they follow the kid back to track me, they'll find the symbol, which I can replicate later to prove it was me. If the plan backfires, they can't find me to take the blame. The kid will be fine because he's not lying, and that should be obvious to whoever looks. Call it a 10% chance of them finding me anyway, worth it to save a life and possibly make Neji not an arsehole. Can't really blame him though, damn slavers.
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The following week when Gai told him the leader of the Kumo delegation was in prison awaiting punishment, Tetsuo's smile split his face in half. Gai may have come to the conclusion that he was a bit of a sadist.