'Report update 285
They nearly found me. Their movement through the ventilation system is ugly and inefficient, but nearly effective. Where it not for their inexperience at doing so I would have been trapped and forced to use force for my mission for the first time. I find it odd that despite this being the longest mission I have undertaken, I have only fired one shot during it.
I regret that one shot even now, and wish I had not. I reflect on it whenever I see my bow and wonder what would have happened if I had not fired it. He would likely still have died, but even so. I realise now how many mistakes I made, but I find two streams of mistakes.
My logical brain says I should have moved, should have got a better angle, should have shot into the fight when I could. I was too busy watching the fight to see what was happening. My old training tell me I should never have got so close to someone.
With the seventh stage of the plan completed, I find myself wishing more and more that time would pass faster. This is a problem I have not had before, but with every day I feel it more and more. They are coming. They could find me. I know the probability is slim, but my calculations show the cumulative chance is...bad.
They will not. I am a ghost, and I have learned new tricks whilst I have been here. My stealth before seems almost apologetic and clumsy.
Attached to the report is a small treatise on the henge jutsu, stating it's tactics in evasion and disguise. I have had to make new ones, and they have been difficult. I have lowered the chakra required so I am not detected so easily.
The guards speak more and more of the ghost in the night. I must evade patrols and time all my movement through the base extremely well. Whilst holding a henge is suitable for disguise as a shinobi, it leaves me open to detection by sensor.
I long to activate my Byakugan, knowing that not using it will lead to my prowess with it diminishing. Yet I cannot. Such usage would see me detected.
Time is immaterial. Day or night, I know not. I miss the sun. I find it ironic. I used to dislike the sun, knowing that seeing it meant I was in the light. After this much time...I miss the sun. I miss the wind. I miss the rain. I miss the night. I miss the conversations with Baka. I miss the other genin my age.
I must continue to fight these thoughts. Their faces sometimes speak to me at night. One screams my name and curses with the voices of the guards. Her bloodstained face demands mine, demands I give myself to them in surrender.
A second merely screams, leading me to wake up coated in cold sweat. I am thankful her visits are rare and short.
The last is quiet until the first is silent, and then tells me of forgiveness. She speaks to me with no malice. She is kind. I long for this face. I long to see it night after night.
I do not know my own. My hair I have cut with kunai to keep it short and I feel the beginnings of facial hair beginning to form. My age is becoming apparent. I must still be short as I have not eaten properly for some time. Nor slept.
I...finattir...fael
I find that tiredness nearly overtakes me sometimes. I cannot give in. I cannot.
If I do, they will find me.
They are coming, but they will not find me.
Sleep will claim me soon.
I hope it is the desired face.'
'Report update 453
I have gained a summoning contract.
I was lucky in the way I found it, locked away in a deep vault after a vigilant pair of guards nearly found me. I was forced to escape deeper into the base to evade them.
The darkness swallowed me as I found the room. The lock was surprisingly easy to pick, almost as if the combinations were familiar. Given Orochimaru once worked with my former master, I cannot be overly surprised their bases are similar. You don't draw attention to a vault of secrets after all. It remains hidden, a dark corner where nobody looks.
I spent two days in that vault, searching it for things of use. In the end, I found it in a dark corner, seemingly abandoned there. I would say it called to me, but in truth I was lucky to have seen it.
The Rat contact. Not a noble animal, but one best suited to my needs. They are quick, they find holes in places, and they will fight when cornered. I feel an odd kinship with them.
They do not speak much. I signed the contract with a sense of curiosity, my blood forming my name on the paper. I realised it had been so long since I had heard or read my own name, it was alien.
I am fortunate that they are small. Summoning them takes little chakra, and they are hiders by nature. The contract has few names on it, all of them crossed off. They are either dead or broke the contract.
I summoned their leader, and we spoke in the dark. He felt our kinship as keenly as I did and accepted me.
I can now have eyes and ears all around the base. I will respect them, and they will help me.