Diplomatic Immunity, Chapter 3: Getting Caught

by Nezuko, Prince of Rats

This is a work of derivative fiction based on "Naruto" by Kishimoto Masashi.

Entering the village of Hidden Rain was simple, with their diplomatic passes. They were escorted by four Rain ninja (that they could see) and probably at least four more higher-level shinobi lurking out of sight, as far as The Fire Country Embassy. There, on "home" territory, the treaties between the countries demanded that Genma and Shizune be free to do as they liked.

The embassy itself was an elegant stone building, three stories tall. It had been built in the previous century as a residence for a wealthy Rain Country land baron, and only converted to diplomatic offices after the treaty between Amegakure and Konoha was signed after the Third War.

Making contact with the operative in Amegakure had gone like clockwork. Genma and Shizune entered the little second-hand bookshop and browsed quietly. A typical tourist couple spending a typical rainy afternoon shopping at the bazaar in the University District. The shop was near to the college, and full of the sorts of dusty books and scrolls one associates with academia. Text books, and histories, books on alchemy and ninjutsu. Literary works from the glorious past of Rain Country. Foreign books in foreign languages. One-of-a-kind books that were so old they nearly fell apart when you opened them.

They were dressed for the part – Shizune in a simple black dress with a necklace of brass leaves, Genma in jeans and a heavy black turtleneck, with his hair pulled back into a scraggly brown ponytail. A pair of vaguely academic types, visiting the town famous for its university. They engaged in the light banter their subterfuge called for: How about this one? No, he's already got that. My father will never be impressed with you if you bring him something like that. Well, how about this one then? And so on, edging their way closer and closer to the nervous-looking clerk.

Finally the clerk was emboldened enough to enter the exchange. "Are you looking for something in particular? Perhaps I can be of assistance."

"I'm sure we can find it on our own," Shizune snapped, playing her part.

"Wait," said Genma, "we should at least let him try. Maybe he'll know what we're trying to find."

"I can tell by your accents you're from out of town," the clerk prompted. He looked up at Genma who stood almost fifteen centimeters taller than himself.

"Visiting from Fire Country," Genma answered with a smile. "Got any map books of the old city? You know, the illustrated kind?"

The clerk paled ever so slightly. A tell, Genma and Shizune recognized instantly, but with any luck – and the shop was fairly empty – no-one else savvy enough to read these things had noticed. "I- I might have something you'd be interested in," the clerk continued. A balding man, small and dyspeptic looking. Could this really be a man so concerned about the things the ninja of his country were doing he'd be willing to betray them to the Leaf? Was he really even in a position to know such things, much less share those secrets with the enemy?

"Sure, sure," Genma reassured. "Come on honey," he added to Shizune, "it can't hurt to look."

"We're not paying too much for it," Shizune grumbled, still playing along. But the script was running flawlessly so far.

The clerk pulled a slim folio from a locked case behind the counter and handed it to Genma. "Is this the sort of illustrated map book you meant, sir?"

Genma flipped past a couple of pages, feeling discreetly for the edges. The texture told him the pages of the antique atlas were carefully glued together, concealing thinner sheets yet between them. He passed the book to Shizune. "I think this might be it, yeah," he said.

Shizune examined the book more closely. It was definitely the vehicle they were expecting. "My dad might like this..." she said reluctantly.

"Well, she's the boss," Genma said with a grin at the bookseller. "Suppose you'd take fifty for it?"

"Oh no sir, that book's worth at least seventy," the nervous man answered. But he was reassured. Everything was going as he'd been led to expect.

"We'll pay fifty-five," Shizune said, holding up a hand.

"Say sixty, and I'll agree to it," said the salesman.

"Done," Genma answered, pulling out a wallet. "How about you gift-wrap it for us?"

That was the final confirmation. The bookseller nodded, reaching for the book. "Right away sir, madam." When he'd wrapped the book in simple yet elegant washi paper and handed it back he said, "Enjoy your stay in Amegakure."

When the disguised foreign ninja left his shop, he had to go in the back and sit down. Never again, he told himself.

ooo

The documents hidden in the atlas they recovered from the bookseller, however, did not conclude their mission. There was still spying to do. Shizune was to attend a conference and present a medical paper while Genma worked in the shadows. But something unexpected had come up: tucked into the wrapping the nervous man had done the book up in, Genma and Shizune had found a slip of paper with a name and contact information for a professor at the university. The bookseller was just the courier, a sympathizer; it was the professor who was their real informant, and he who had carefully sealed the documents between the thick pages of the atlas. It wasn't something they could just ignore. And it had led to the position Genma found himself in now.

Genma shivered and eyed the camera. He knew his captors were watching his every move. He hoped the video feed was working, and that in the signal analysis room in Konoha's ANBU headquarters, his allies were watching, too. It had been a risky operation, placing the video parasites on the Amegakure equipment. But when they'd heard about the jutsu lab, with its state of the art equipment continuously recording experiments on human subjects – prisoners mostly – they knew the opportunity for the Leaf was too big to pass up.

Their contact at the university had tipped them off to the secret lab, affiliated with the academy and staffed by shinobi researchers. A new jutsu was under development that was so powerful it had utterly destroyed the first test subjects, leaving only tatters of flesh and shocked scientists. Uneasy ninja medics were deployed to the facility to keep the new test subjects alive long enough to gather useful data. Prisoners from high security jails – unrepentant killers, dangerous convicts – had been transferred to the research facility, while their records listed them as already deceased.

The Rain village researcher had been so disturbed by what he'd already learned that he'd turned traitor, divulging the existence of the lab and the new jutsu to the Leaf shinobi. "I don't want to see my village going down this path," he'd told them. Too bad it was already too late for that.

Genma and Shizune had debated an infiltration late that night, in the carefully screened room at the Leaf's embassy where they were staying.

ooo

"It has to be the same jutsu. What else could it be?" Genma asked.

"I don't doubt it," Shizune replied. "But are we sure our informant's reliable?"

"We can't know. His other information has all panned out, though. And the ones like him who've got some kind of moral calling are usually the most trustworthy."

Shizune nodded. "He thinks he's helping his village."

"We can't pass up this chance, Shizune," Genma continued. "We have the equipment we were going to use to bug the conference in hopes of learning more about the jutsu. This is clearly within the purview of our mission."

"If we go in to this facility, though, if we even find it, it means we won't be getting the conference data," Shizune countered.

"You can still go to the conference. You have to," Genma returned. "It's our cover."

"So you're planning to go in solo? Genma, that's too risky."

"It's a risk we have to take." Genma sipped at his tea. "You'll go ahead to the conference, and present your paper. Gather as much info as you can. You won't have all the surveillance equipment, but we can still rig a recorder on you. And I'll dive into the lab and bug their video feeds."

"You'll be going in blind. You don't even know where the facility is, let alone how heavily guarded it is." Shizune frowned. "It's not a good setup."

"That's why it's an A-rank," Genma said with a smirk. "If it were a safe mission, we wouldn't be the ones doing it."

"It ought to be an S-rank, given what it's turned out to be," Shizune grumbled.

"Yeah," Genma agreed. "We'll have to lobby for an upgrade when we get back."

Shizune sighed and pushed the pile of miniature electronics she'd been working on towards her partner. "How do you plan to find the place? We don't have any idea where the lab is, other than not on the Amegakure Academy campus."

"The guy said they were transferring high security prisoners into the lab to use as subjects. I'll attach myself to a prison transport."

"What, you're gonna get yourself arrested?"

"It's one of the oldest tricks in the books, Shizune. I'll get myself thrown in the drunk tank or something. Once I'm in, I'll leave a clone in the cell and go exploring. You can come bail out my clone, and no-one will be the wiser."

"How are you going to get your equipment with you?" Shizune frowned and stretched out her legs. "If you get yourself arrested, they'll strip you."

Genma picked up one of the tiny bugs and looked at it. "They won't do a cavity search if they think I'm just a harmless drunk."

"That's another big risk. They know you're shinobi, so they're gonna be suspicious. If they catch you with this stuff on you – in you – your cover is blown and so is mine."

"They won't look. Trust me." Genma grinned. "I'll stuff all my equipment – vest, weapons, and the bugs – in a summon, and just take the scroll. And I'll disguise the scroll and hide it where the sun don't shine. If I'm so drunk I'm blowing chunks and breaking nasty wind, they won't want to look."

Shizune made a face. "You're such a pig, Genma."

"Yep." Genma nodded agreeably. "But it's a good method. And even in the worst case, if they do find it, all they'll see is a scroll for a sex jutsu."

"You have no shame at all, do you?"

"Harsh." Genma grinned again and sipped his tea. "So it's a plan?"

"I guess so. What are you gonna do after you plant the bugs? Come back here? If you don't you'll be missed."

"If I can." Genma paused, staring thoughtfully at Shizune for a moment. "No, wait. I have a better plan, and one that won't expose you to as much risk."

"What now?" Shizune asked.

"You need to send me packing. Publicly. Send me back to Konoha to get something you forgot – slides, or data or something."

"And this helps, how?"

"I'm officially gone. I can henge into some bum, get arrested, carry out my mission, and no-one's gonna be wondering where the other Leaf nin went."

"What about the fact that the bum they arrested will have disappeared from the drunk tank?"

"It's just a bum who managed to get out. I'll pick someone who we've seen around – a repeat offender. The poor guy will end up arrested and interrogated for a jail break he didn't commit, but I doubt they'll be too hard on him if I use some senile old fool."

Shizune nodded. "Alright. I guess I can go along with it. But I still don't like you going in blind."

ooo

He'd gone in blind. And right up to almost the very end, Genma's plan had worked flawlessly. He'd said goodbye to Shizune with much bitter complaint about being sent back to Konoha to play fetch and carry for her. There was, of course, another escort to get him to Amegakure's gates. Once he was outside, though, it hadn't been terribly difficult to sneak back into the city disguised as a mendicant priest. In that guise, it was an easy thing to move among the lowest classes of Amegakure's residents and find a suitable drunk to knock out for a while so Genma could take his place. He'd gotten arrested, and not searched. Left a clone in his cell and slipped out of the drunk tank to search the jail. Found a transport order for convicts going to a lab as test subjects, and used that to discover the lab's location. And gone.

It was nestled in bedrock at the edges of the slaty mountains to the north of the city, in an area that wasn't farmed and was no longer mined. In fact, Genma noted, it looked like they'd taken a played out mine and turned it into this base. It was late night when he shimmied in through an air shaft, and found himself in an underground labyrinth that at first seemed more like a high-tech dungeon than a research facility. The rough walls of the former mine were still visible, with metal conduit and exposed wires lacing along the sides. As he got deeper underground though, the facility became more and more developed looking, with plastered walls and squared corners to the rooms. It was clever. Deeply hidden. Nearly undiscoverable. And nearly unbuggable. Genma frowned and reconsidered his strategy. He'd hidden his vest and dogtags in the air shaft, so that if he were caught, he couldn't be identified. But now he was going to need to run wire back to the outside if any of his bugs were going to successfully broadcast.

As he crept through the lab, Genma made a mental map, intending to sketch it all once he was safely away. There were offices and conference rooms, sleeping quarters for the staff, currently occupied, a kitchen and mess hall, storage bunkers, power generator, toilets and showers. All the things you needed to maintain an underground base. In the prisoners' quarters Genma counted nine inmates in various stages of health from fully well to heavily tortured and nearly dead. All in solitary confinement, no doubt to prevent collaboration and escape. It wasn't a huge operation, but it was big enough. Genma checked the time: nearly three in the morning. At this hour only a skeletal staff of guards were awake, which made Genma's prowling easier. Still, time was ticking away, and the effort of maintaining a high-level invisibility jutsu was draining. It was time to deploy the bugs and get the hell out of there.

He planted a listening device in the conference room, and rigged camera intercepts in an office that looked like it belonged to a high-ranking officer, and another in one of the prisoner's cells. And then there was the lab itself. It looked like an operating room crossed with a prison cell, rigged with recording and measuring devices, with one wall devoted to an observation area. No one-way glass here, the observers gallery was part and parcel of the main room where experiments were conducted. It was to a camera here that Genma attached a live video interceptor parasite. Then he carefully strung wires from his bugs back to a lead he'd dropped from a tiny broadcast antenna he'd planted on a cold water pipe that led to the outside.

By five in the morning, Genma had nearly completed his mission. He'd successfully deployed all his bugs, and was on his way back to his air-shaft escape route, when he was caught.

ooo ooo ooo