The shadows of three figures licked against the walls of the Hokage's office. There was only the anaemic light of a single lamp and the soft sound of shuffling papers occupying the room. A coil of smoke slipped from between the Hokage's lips and hung around him like a curtain.
Across from him, standing at attention, was Nara Shikaku, the Jounin Commander, and beside him was Ibiki Morino, the chief intelligence officer. The pair were reporting to him late into the night armed with freshly inked papers. There was quarter of an hour of silence as the Hokage scanned through the reports, his eyes flicking down each page with a practiced ease.
"So," Sarutobi finally spoke, "the salient question is, where did he get the coin?"
Shikaku wordlessly reached into the pouch at his waist and pulled out a slab of gleaming metal. It was the size of his palm, rectangular with rounded corners. The upper and lower thirds were ridged and the center marked with a round mon depicting the character for Hot Spring.
"The currency is a mix of coinage from various northern countries, including the Land of Lighting. The bulk of it, however, is Hot Spring ryo from the Maitama mint. As far as we can tell they're genuine."
Sarutobi received the oversized coin and turned it over in his hand, feeling its weight, and the depth of the embossing on its surface. With a grunt he placed it on his desk and peered at his two subordinates over the top of his hands clasped in front of him.
"Yet impossible." He stated.
Shikaku nodded.
"Even if they had that much they couldn't move a half ton of gold without us knowing." He replied. "There's also a lack of motive for sending this kind of money to a Fire Lord. So far we've accounted for about ninety percent of the purchases made, mainly food stuffs and construction material. The remaining ten has been stubborn."
At that moment Shikaku flicked his eyes to Ibiki beside him. The man with a scarred and dour face had yet to say a thing, but seemed content to remain silent.
"There's been no signs of rearmament in Hot Spring, same as always. They're still using spears made when my grandfather was still around." Shikaku said.
"Then there are only two possibilities. Confirm which would you?" Sartutobi replied. "Also, it seems Cloud wants to throw its weight around and Sanada-dono has a hidden backer. Find out if these two are linked."
"Of course Hokage-sama." Shikaku said.
He gave a neat bow followed by Ibiki and turned and left the room. The moment the door to the office shut behind him his posture loosened and he shrunk an inch into a slouch. A long sigh escaped from his mouth.
"Troublesome." He muttered.
Ibiki was long used to the cryptic comments his superior enjoyed making at times like these. He didn't even bother asking since most of the time the answer was that it was too troublesome to explain.
"Good night Nara-hanchō" was all he said.
The dark, sharp features of the head Jōnin softened for a second.
"Don't get too fond of sleep Ibiki. On top of all this, the Chūnin exams are only half a year away." He said.
Then he turned around and stalked down the hallway.
Naruto wiped his forehead on his sleeve, leaving it damp with a slick of sweat. The sun was beating down mercilessly. He had stripped off his jacket long ago, his body was streaked with dirt, and he was up to his waist in a hole he had spent the last thirty minutes digging.
He peered up out of the hole to see Kakashi lounging with an orange book in the branch of a tree. He grimaced. Around him were four or five similar holes, dug even deeper than the one he was standing in.
"Taisa," he said. "Why the hell are we digging a bunch of holes in the middle of nowhere?"
For a moment Naruto thought Kakashi hadn't heard him, but eventually the man lazily lowered his book and looked down on his subordinate.
"Well unfortunately you decided to join the Konoha shinobi corps and then was further unfortunate by being assigned under me. Then some lord named Sananda Masayuki felt he needed his neighbours land and despite burning down all his food he's still determined to go through with it. So here we are." He said.
"That's…" Naruto sighed.
Then a clod of dirt hit him in the back of the head.
"Keep digging, you lazy ass." Sakura grunted and flung another spadeful of dirt over her shoulder.
Naruto shook the dirt out from his hair and picked up his shovel while muttering under his breath in an awful falsetto.
"Keep digging meh meh meh. I'm Sakura, queen of the world."
Sakura turned her head and threw her spade to the side where it stood straight up, buried up to its neck.
"Did you say something?" she said.
"Not a thing." Naruto smiled back.
Sakura seemed to want to say more but on Naruto's next thrust, instead of giving dirt he hit something with a clang.
"The hell?" he said. "Hey you guys, I found something."
His two team mates came over to his spot with their shovels and watched as Naruto used his hands to clear away some of the dirt. The corner of a box, matte metallic and green, could just barely be seen.
They spent the next hour digging it out. It was almost two meters in length and half a meter deep with a string of numbers and the symbol of the leaf stencilled on the lid.
"You knew this was here the entire time." Naruto said.
The hole they found it in was right next to the tree Kakashi had been resting in since they started digging. The man just shrugged and jumped down, landing lightly on his feet.
"Good job team." He said.
He walked over once the three Genin had pulled the box from the hole and casually kicked it open, revealing a heavy canvas liner. Throwing it back Naruto could see the gleam of oiled blades and smell the iron tang particular to paper seals.
"Our mission is to set up a forward outpost just outside the border town of Wadomari. A delegation from the Hidden Leaf will be meeting with their counterparts in the Masayuki administration. If complication arise we're to act as a reserve or blocking force."
Naruto pulled out a fat brick of explosive seals wrapped in waxed paper.
"You mean all of this stuff is for us?" he said with wide eyes.
Kakashi chuckled then said,
"It's Konoha property but yes, it's for us to use during the mission. Empty it out and bury the box back in the dirt. We're moving in an hour."
Naruto sketched an excited salute and turned to look at his two team mates. Both of them were looking at him like he was a dog with a new toy.
"Aren't you easy to please." Sasuke drawled before rummaging through the box himself.
Sakura was already ahead of him and counting out several kunai to replenish her thigh holster.
Wadamori turned out to be close to their resupply point. They arrived near the town within a few hours and set themselves up on a nearby hill. This close to the coast the trees were not as gargantuan as they were in the centre of the country and from their elevation they could easily see the spread of timber structures that grew over the terrain like mould on a piece of bread.
It was a walled town, hewn from stone and built by masons rather than the rough wooden palisades common to smaller settlements. On the opposite edge there was a river that split the town in two and led further into cleared land that was carpeted in white. Cotton fields stretched down the rest of the valley, the mouth of which was covered by the town. In the center was the magistrates building, a three storey monstrosity lacquered red at great cost. It was like a ripe pimple in the middle of a blemish on the face of the earth.
It was the first time that Naruto or either of his team mates had seen such a place and they found themselves staring at what was before them.
Eventually the sun was beginning to set and the smell of burning wood, as thousands of homes lit their cooking fires, filled the wind and just barely covered the stench of the city itself. The delegation wasn't to arrive for another day or so and Kakashi set his team digging once again.
All three Genin were hunched over with their entrenching tools as Kakashi paced back and forth on a growing berm of earth.
"When taking a defensive posture, if time and situation permits, a prepared position is always superior. Cover, concealment and creating obstacles is key." He started. "What form this takes depends on the expected offensive capabilities of your enemies. When facing conventional forces, conventional fortifications are best, walls, anti-cavalry stakes, barricades, ditches. When facing shinobi, these are ineffectual at best."
His three students barely reacted to his speech as they were occupied with moving dirt. All three had worked up a sweat and their bodies were sick of digging.
"Long range bombardment techniques and explosive seals have rendered these old types obsolete in the shinobi world. Chakra and seals, however, are not limitless or all powerful and almost always following a period of bombardment will come the close assault. At that point any standing fortifications are meaningless. Earth techniques from the Land of Earth, mist techniques from the Land of Water, and dozens of others can easily neutralise a prepared position. The caveat is that these must all be executed at relatively close range. So the principle objective in mind when preparing a position against shinobi is to minimise casualties during the bombardment stage. Foxholes, trenches, dugouts, earth berms to shield as well as possible. The only other meaningful type of preparation is laying traps."
Naruto rested his arm on the end of his shovel and said,
"Couldn't you do this a hundred times faster with an earth moving technique?"
Kakashi stopped mid stride and mid speech.
"I could," he said. "But you can't. Keep digging Yellow."
With a grumble Naruto did just that.
It was Sasuke that spoke up next. It was surprising enough that all digging stopped as the surly cadet posed his question.
"Does the fact we're digging holes mean we're facing shinobi this time?" he said.
For a moment Kakashi gazed at Sasuke, but with the mask in the way it was doubtful what he was looking for. In contrast it was even harder to read into Kakashi as a silent starting contest occurred between the pair.
Naruto tried not to make it obvious that he was observing the two but it became so when his shovel stopped moving. Even Sakura was staring intently at their teacher.
"It's probable." Kakashi said. "Orders have recently changed. We're also to receive reinforcements as the delegation arrives. Then we are to pull back and return to Konoha. It's been judged that you three are too green for this operation."
"And you don't agree Taisa?" Sakura asked.
Naruto's mouth almost fell open as he rapidly turned his neck from Sasuke on one side and Sakura on the other.
Kakashi replied immediately "No, I agree completely."
Naruto felt something deflate in his chest even as Sakura slumped back into the side of the trench in relief. Of all of them he couldn't believe he felt the most similar with Sasuke. The black haired youth next to him had an ugly grimace pasted over his mouth.
"Will we ever get to actually fight?" Sasuke muttered.
Kakashi chuckled, shook his head and whispered to himself.
"You'll miss these days eventually. Enjoy them while you can."