Here you go. It's from Kakashi's POV this time round.

The Free and the Hated

Why?

Why would anyone desire that scroll?

No, that's not the right question. A far better question would be more along the lines of which technique within it are they after? That particular scroll is of little value; at least in comparison to the extreme-priority scrolls that would've surrounded it. It had been in OS Room 4, along with some of the more potent techniques, most of them strictly guarded and totally forbidden. So why that one? Why scroll #036? None of the others were even touched.

All of this ran through my head as I made haste back to the Stronghold. While I owe them no impatience, being interrupted to assign my squad still seemed troublesome in light of recent events. Sakura and Sasuke did not seem to notice my on-time arrival, but then, they were there early. Naruto seemed surprised, but as with the others, that could just have easily been because he was late.

My train of thought was effectively derailed when I suddenly arrived. It was a squat building, unimaginatively painted and windowless. It was surrounded with yellow taping that read CAUTION DO NOT CROSS, attached to trees and posts and the large fence that already traced the properties' boundaries. Just inside the fence were many investigators of all kinds, most scribbling away busily on small notepads about one thing or another.

I ignored the various gumshoes and headed towards the building. Paused to note the lack of any disturbance at the front door. No broken locks, no shattered glass. Then I entered the building, stepping into the puddles that remained from the small lake that had laid claim to the ground floor earlier. I supposed they had drained most of it. From the overwhelming smell and green hue of the water, I guessed silently that the water had come from the nearby sewage pond.

I flashed one authorization card after another to guards at the various (and mostly soggy) security checkpoints. After a swift body search (during which I was disarmed), I was granted entrance to the upper levels, where the majority of the OS-level scrolls were kept under cautious lock and key. I headed up the stairs once more, up to the sixth floor. Found the room I was looking for (the massive steel door with seals all over it and a hole the size of a tennis ball bored through it was hard to miss) and strolled on in, absentmindedly wondering about the scroll again. I wonder if--

"HEY!" I jerked my head around to see a squat, round man whose face was rapidly turning purple. His trench coat, while normal in size, trailed comically around his ankles due to his lackluster sizing. A crooked hat adorning his head matched his badly angled nose. He was surrounded by several others, all snooping about the room. From the way he leered at me, I guessed that he thought quite a lot of his short self. I sighed. An intuition told me that he was the head honcho of all the investigators within the room, if not the building.

"Listen up, guy"--he paused to check my verification card--"This is my investigation, and I don't want you doing--"

"Yosh! I want a list of all the techniques contained in 036, coordinates of the water source, and an access point. We need to know how the hell our guy got in here. Get to it, boys!"

"--Any favors. Listen, Kakashi, these are my men, and I don't care how much you outrank me--you can be head detective to high hell for all I care--but these are my men. Mine." He jammed two stubby thumbs into his chest for emphasis.

I just raised an eyebrow. He stared at me, exasperated, before giving a sigh of defeat and turning to his hesitant men. I guessed they were unacustomed to the sight of their leader taking orders. I laughed half-heartedly. Well, I thought bitterly, they'll have to get used to it.

"Well, you heard him. Get to it!" He shooed them away with a wave of his hands. I smiled as his men scrambled to the tasks, then turned to him once the room was evacuated.

"Alright, Joe, here's the news: Whoever stole the scroll would've only done so for two reasons: Either to sell it--"

"--In which case they would not care about the contents--"

"--Or because they required a technique within for one thing or another. Now, I doubt that anyone would break into such a compound as they did to steal a relatively low-value scroll and then ignore the truly potent scrolls around it if they were stealing for a paycheck; henceforth, they must have some sort of objective pertaining to the scroll's contents."

"Right. The only information we currently have about that is the water. We only have one witness, but he had plenty to say. He was at the front desk, said that a tidal wave crashed through the front door about 4, swept him away, said that he could smell it before it even hit him, that it was damn pungent. Hit his head on something, pretended to get knocked out. Few minutes later, when he thought things had settled, he snuck upstairs. Nearly slipped, said the stairs were real slick. Like the water had gone upstairs with the perp. When he got to this level, he said, it smelled real bad, far worse than the others. Saw the hole in the door, but couldn't open it. His dispel techniques couldn't cut it. Someone--we assume it to be the theif--reinforced this side--"-- He pointed to the ground for emphasis--"--With seals of their own. We had to remove them manually just to get in this morning."

"So you think our guy exited through the hole?"

He shrugged. "We don't even know if he entered that way. It could just be to throw us off. We don't know."

I bent over and scraped some greenish muck off of the oak hardwood. "Our guy made the hole with his water, right?"

"As far as we can tell."

I rubbed the slime between my fingers for a moment, then smelled it. Shuddered. "This is from a sewage pond, alright."

"You think?"

"Definitely. I--"

The door burst open as one of the investigators dashed in, snapping to attention midstep and very nearly falling on his face.

"Sir!" he said, "We have acquired a list of techniques for said scroll, sir!"

"Very good." I held out a hand. After hesitating briefly, the inspector tossed me a small scroll and excused himself. I turned to Joe.

"Shall we?" He nodded tentatively and leaned in towards me. I unraveled a thin red thread binding it and unrolled the scroll. We searched it with our eyes for a minute or two. Mostly genjutsus and a few advanced sealing and unsealing techniques. Nothing very dangerous. I unraveled the scroll further and my eyes shot open. I felt my heart skip a beat, then two as Joe and I poked the same item on the list and simultaneously said, "There."

I looked at him. He was shell-shocked as I was, with mouth agape and eyes like saucepans.

"I-If that's t-the one..." He stammered and cut off. I continued solemnly for him, "...Then this could be a problem..." He nodded grimly. This was terrible. We did not realize it before, but a monstrously powerful technique laid within the scroll. Something that had sat, dormant, for years...probably hidden among the many weak techniques in order to prevent anyone from finding it...my hands began to shake as I stared at the scroll.

Joe broke the silence,"W-...we need to put out an alert of some sort. Whoever plans to use the scroll must be a class-S shinobi, and they may be from a water village. We need to tell the Hokage, at least."

I just nodded. Shook myself mentally, and decided that I'd make the report...this needed to be kept as quiet as possible, at least until we were prepared to release information. I ran from the room and made haste to the Hokage Towers out a window. That technique, I kept thinking to myself, that technique...this cannot end well...

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