After the initial shock of seeing Shukuba's hero laying down murdered and in the pool of her blood, Mana's eyes started racing across the room, trying to figure out who could have done this. There could have been no mistake, Okasune was capable as much as she was intelligent, even given the recent incriminating information that Itemi and Mana got. She would not have just been caught off guard by just anyone.

"There it was. The one of a kind moment that shatters the stained glass window of your life and begins violently breaking down any walls that separate the isolated rooms of your mind's palace. My friend, colleague, and sister-in-arms laid dead, her essence stolen from her violently right after she did the unthinkable - tried to do the right thing. I needed to know the whos and whys, but I just… Kid, I need to know I can trust to involve you in this, give me a rundown of what happened here before the Security forensics do, then I'll let you work with me on solving this."

"Are you serious? A life was taken, there's no time to fool around. We need to work together on this. Work this out by pooling our efforts, not playing games." Mana snapped back at the officer. Itemi's eyes looked dead-serious.

Despite noticing a whole bunch of details all over the place, they just didn't connect. How was Mana supposed to know just what kind of wound the opening on Okasune's chest was? The blood splatter patterns, while distinctive also told Mana nothing. Only one detail of note, one thing Mana has been trained in as a ninja – tracing.

"She was killed by a woman." Mana uttered before covering her face. Staring at Okasune's dead body was just too painful. Initially came the self-blame, Mana did sense something off in the air, there were signs, Okasune felt so worried over Mana yet wanted to remain so distant, almost like she knew she was going to die.

"A woman? What was the kid talking about? I could see a whole bunch of clues, but I could not see any distinctive feminine tracks amongst the blood stains on the floor. Maybe she was making it up? She was desperate to work this case and she did mean well but… Good intentions don't matter. A nice fellow can go fuck themselves for all I care, it's how good you are at what you do that makes it or breaks it in life and right now, the kid was tanking her assignment hard."

"Look, I'm not as well versed in investigations like you. But look at the spaces between these blood stains, they're left by a woman's step, the spaces between the tracks and smears are not wide enough to be those of a man. She was also not as tall or bulky as a man as the front of her tracks are much more defined, meaning the angle of her step made her lean more on the front of her foot, like she was used to wear more feminine footwear."

"The kid may have had a point, ninja could have been trained to track someone, whether someone they had to kill or just someone to capture. I guess we used a whole different way of tracking, reading papers, vouchers, receipts and tracking where the money goes, not the actual footprints. I needed a drink. This looked up to be a pretty long week…"

"Itemi-san, you need my help. I won't leave you, whether you like it or not. It's clear that if you look in deeper, you'll end up the same way as Okasune-san. I cannot allow that." Mana's resolution was iron-hard. She locked her hands below her chest and tapped her heel to the floor.

"The kid was stubborn but delusional. She may have had the force to play some sick marble game with worlds themselves and the speed to move between countries in mere moments but in this town and case she was limited to what her mind could tell her and her mind was that of a child. I won't waste my time training her in this business, people with the skillset of mine and Kita's and the mindset of the Sorceress had a nasty tendency to end up dead and I've had way too much blood soaking my consciousness."

Itemi stepped outside, Mana closed her eyes and tried making a split-second decision. To follow her ass of a… Whatever Itemi was to Mana at this moment, or to try and work out this murder scene and play Itemi's game. It all depended on the girl's confidence to convince the man that he was wrong dismissing her like that but, being confronted by her failure as an advocate and protector of life, Mana had very little of that left to go around.

Mana tried, again and again, to work out what had happened here, read into every detail she could. Obviously, she knew not to mess around the scene too much and touch anything but as long as she did not change anything the forensics should have been able to work their magic out anyways, this state of the scene of the murder was enough for Itemi to figure his version out, was it not?

This was pointless, Mana could not tell if the gaping laceration on the center of Okasune's chest was a stab wound of a blade piercing her heart or if it was delivered by a kunai dispenser of a lower firing power, she had seen the Syndicate wearing smaller handheld versions of those death-firing tubes after all. The blood splatter also told Mana nothing, mainly because she could not quite tell if the splatter was supposed to tell her the manner of weapon that was used, the position of the victim when she was attacked or something else entirely.

"Konoha's Sorceress!? What are you doing here?" A young female with chin-length brown hair gasped. "You would not happen to be related to this murder, would you!?" She pointed at the magician in an accusatory and a strangely triumphant manner.

"Don't mind Burgoniya, she's trying to move up the ranks and out of forensics. The Sorceress has nothing to do with the murder, it was her and Itemi that sent the message, to begin with, remember?" Another forensics officer gently lead the quirky investigator towards the body as the forensics officers swarmed Okasune's apartment.

Mana waited outside the place for the forensics to do their thing. She hated herself for being so weak, not quite literally so but just about in all the ways that mattered. Whenever she looked at a dead body she felt strength leave her body, her usually brilliant mind suddenly started racing and firing self-inflammatory arrows right at the magician's own heart, hurting herself in ways only she knew she could have.

Itemi may have been halfway around the town now. He could have been foolishly confronting the people he held responsible and getting himself killed in the process. He was not at his best either, his lifelong colleague has just been murdered and he found out about it just moments after finding out the woman was hiding plenty away from him. Of course, he wanted to wall himself off from the rest of the world, not let anyone else in and just do the dirty deed he had in his mind.

Mana could barely believe how easily Itemi bought what the ex-officer told him. Sure, she had no way of affirming that he was lying and, at the very least, as far as she could tell, the man was believing what he was talking about most genuinely. Mana could have listened in on his heartbeat by enhancing her perception and she'd have not noticed a deceitful skip of a beat, just the usual tragedy in the man's voice of being betrayed by a woman who used him and whom he loved absolutely. Regardless of that, Itemi clearly treasured Okasune and yet he barely ever faltered before accepting the truth of her shady businesses. Just how many times did he have to make such a realization before that it came so naturally to him?

The magician stopped the one young lady she knew alongside the forensics, she needed to know what had happened in the place so she could find Itemi and convince him to let them help each other out. They were both weak, both in different ways but victory could only have been found in ways they were each strong separately and the ways that separate strength could have been used to help each other out.

"Ma'am, I need to know what happened in there." Mana pleaded with the woman.

"Absolutely not! This is Shukuba Security business!" she looked angered merely by the fact that Mana even suggested being told something.

"I am a Konohagakure ninja, Konohagakure and Shukuba have international cooperation treaties, do they not?" the magician tried recalling the conversation between Okasune and the westerner yesterday. "We are under obligation to help each other."

"Only if you are here on Konohagakure business and not your own, Sorceress-san!" the woman stomped the ground angrily before moving past the magician and leaving her sadly glaring down and back at the body that was being taken away now, together with Mana's last hopes of convincing Itemi to work with her on this.

Maybe she could have forced her way into Itemi's vengeful rampage, trying to figure out who was to blame and bringing those people to justice. Regardless, the investigation where Mana was forcefully tagging along would be more toxic and, possibly, even less successful than if Itemi was acting all by himself.

Damn, now it all made sense, Okasune's determination to arrest Bonda yesterday and her quiet acceptance of her own mortality when she was proved unable to do so. Okasune must have known she did not have the time to do the investigation right, she must have known something, something that made this leak business spread farther and wider than originally believed. The money laundering could have only been the peak of an iceberg of corruption that enveloped and spread its roots under Shukuba's foundation.

Even if she knew all this, Mana had no idea where to begin looking for those roots. Her only link between the underlying criminal element of the town and the Shukuba Security was the western woman that came to bail Bonda out yesterday. The magician had no idea who the woman was, no name, only hints at a profession but the fact that there was no intricate elongated dialogue between Okasune and the westerner clearing that up suggested that the woman was familiar to the Security officer from before.

If there was a person X, the man or woman underneath this town-wide bog of filth and they were connected to the leak of Fire Lord's funds and Okasune, that connection could have only been established through that woman. She was the linking element and Mana suspected that she may have not only linked the person X with Shukuba Security but also with every single element of his criminal activity.

Person X, if he existed, was just like the Fire Lord, except his fire was that of corruption, manipulation and building up a treasury for himself from the misery of other people. All of the smaller managers of his individual criminal elements were like his vassals, all buzzing with their own activity, all resonating back to him through the western woman.

Knowing that Mana needed to find the person X, and she knew one of the deviant vassals of his, as well as knew of the westerner woman, all she needed to do was add the two elements she knew together to find out the third. It was simple math.

The solution to the magician's problem annoyed her to no end. For the third time in this blasted town she'd have to perform a technique she did not invent herself and it was a rule that the magician did not overly enjoy crossing, even if it was one with much lighter standards and not as adamant as Mana's other rules. The magician disappeared in an alleyway, placing her hands together in a hand seal position.

"Transformation Jutsu!" she chanted out, transforming her body into what she could recall the western woman looking like. Now all she needed to do was squeeze Sho and see what vile fluids leaked out from his bursting puss. Wearing this shape, she would have little to no problem reaching the man's listening ears.

Wearing her new face, Mana entered the Shukuba Administration building and approached the receptionist, just like before she requested to see the governor of Shukuba, the woman smiled and played the good receptionist, encouraging the magician to sit down and wait, just like before.

"I'd like to see him about a prospect for a new start-up." Mana let the bait out into the pond. Within seconds, the fish burst from the abyss, devouring it whole and the receptionist jumped up from her seat, leading the magician into a room behind her, pulling out a file adding to it a form, which she quickly filled and handed the fake westerner.

Sho didn't look too excited to see Mana, or, more exactly, the face of the woman she was wearing. The man wriggled like a worm, turning to his side with each step, forward or backward as if he was waiting to be stabbed and was weaseling out of it. With each gesture of his face, each little movement or gesture he was emanating fear. Just who was this westerner? She was somehow involved, that much was made crystal clear.

"My employer was not overly fond to hear about yesterday's arrest. He was even less fond of seeing a Konohagakure kunoichi mingling with Shukuba Security." Mana approached the matter from a neutral corner, she did not know just what the relationship between the westerner and Sho was, or what both of them had to do with the person X. All she knew was that her theory was being given more air to breathe with each passing second.

"Ummm… Your employer? That's not what you usually call him. More so, I have nothing to do with that. Show yourself, Sorceress!" Sho declared unexpectedly.

Biting her lip in frustration of being discovered, Mana canceled the transformation, appearing before the governor in her original shape. It may have been wiser to approach Sho when she had more information about the working relationship between the leak-folk and person X, regardless, with just an exchange of a few words, Mana was assured that a person X existed.

"Interesting, you knew who the woman was, you did not deny the existence of a third party, the party that's calling the shots. How did you find me out?" Mana wondered.

"When the presence of a ninja is involved, even the slightest tip off the mark is a reason to worry about even the most obvious of things. Deceiving my eyes is the most basic party trick of your kind." Sho fixed his sweating and messy collar.

"Yeah. Repeating other people's tricks is usually not my thing for that same reason. Your case has reached the Hokage by now. He knows all about it, the leak business is through. I wonder how else you can be useful to whoever is in charge? We both know what people like that do with things that aren't useful to them." Mana tried playing up to the man's fears. She needed to pick up on every detail, that was how she'd earn Itemi's trust back.

"I'm useful in more ways to… Someone who may or may not exist. You're presuming too much, Konoha's Sorceress, not only that, you've played your hand now – before too soon every lowlife in the town will know who you are and why you're here." Sho sang a whole different tune and in a much more shallow tone.

"Good, it will save me the trouble of rooting all of them out, they'll save me a lot of time by coming to me." Mana winked. The Syndicate has been a moderate trouble for Mana when she was a civilian, back when her only strength was a decent ability to fight. Their mightiest weapons would barely make it through Mana's skin. The only reason this hidden society of deviants were still uncaged was that the magician had trouble finding and getting her hands on them. She was no Security officer, that much was for sure, that was why Itemi's experience was so invaluable for her to learn.

"Really? Well, the ability to find new ways of hurting people they are inconvenienced by is what separates bad people from the worst." Sho removed the howling kettle from its stand before filling his cup with tea.

"That is what will do the worst in. Right now a really pissed Shukuba Security officer is ready to flip the town over, shuffle dirt with the feathers of the heavens for the sake of the person he has lost." Mana shrugged, trying to act like she did not care about the downfall of such a conflict. "Just think about what such a massive clash will do to your reputation as a governor, on the other hand, you could just give me one word, the name of the western woman in the red jacket or the name of whoever employs her."

"Massive clash?" Sho laughed out, spitting the small sip of tea he had ingested back into his glass cup. "Officer Itemi is just one man. Men have a nasty tendency to get shredded to fleshy bits when high-velocity blades are involved. This city is built on people that disappeared from its history or were edited out. You have no more official cover here, your business here is done and you are seriously overstaying your welcome here, I tell you this as the governor of Shukuba – stay out of this and leave."

Mana's eyes tried incinerating the round man where he sat sipping on his tea, unfortunately, for all the many powers she did possess, the ability to do that was beyond her reach, at least for now. She hated this face-swapping, sunken to his chin into manure bastard. Then again, she was the one to talk. It was her third face she tried to wear when talking to this man this week…

"I dropped by the Aviary on my way here." Mana smiled, letting her wild dark hair slip down to cover up her eyes to the point where her face sunk in the afternoon shade as her hand rose up, waving an envelope in clear view of the confused governor. "It's from Lord Sixth, he says he has no more business with me and that my mission of finding the leak is completed."

"Good, congratulations. I hope you'll understand if no one sheds a tear when you leave and if your face will be remembered around these parts, making it impossible for you to conduct future ninja-related activity here. Not that you were too good, to begin with…" Sho sneered at the magician.

"The second half of the letter says "…as per your request to stay in Shukuba due to your personal business, related to your nindo, proceed at your discretion." The angle of Mana's smile sharpened. As the magician used her free hand to brush aside her unruly locks, she saw Sho's face turn pale. "I will give you a strong suggestion as to what "my discretion" entails. I will root out the filth from under your city, even if it will leave wounds in its foundation. I will pull as hard as I need to, whether I end up flipping this city over to expose the most sensitive nerves of whatever's sleeping underneath."

A loud gulp was heard coming from Sho's side. He understood what Mana meant, she was not going to cause a revolution all by herself, that would be a scandal inside the Fire Lord's domain. It would cause unwanted tension between Konohagakure and Shukuba that the Feudal Lord did not need. However, Sho could see that if Mana was to merely expose what was transpiring behind the curtains – he'd end up the sacrifice to a revolution of the people. He knew the only way to possibly stay in his high-position seat.

"I don't know the woman's name, I've only heard of her. She's a part of the Diamond Hand. It's what the people underneath call themselves. I'm sure you're familiar with Okasune-san, she's been arresting the competition of the Diamond Hand's for years now, one by one, leaving the Diamond Hand the ruling criminal element in this town. She was given freebies by the Diamond Hand as well, people no longer useful to them. She was their legal executioner, making her a heroine in the eyes of the town and completely under their control. They could have squeezed its air supply just as easily as they have allowed the hero spirit of the town to breathe." Sho wheezed out, by telling the magician this much he had crossed some sort of a line.

"I'd ask the Shukuba Security for protection if I were you…" Mana nodded in gratitude. This information was not overly useful in terms of what she could or could not do with it but it was something to come to Itemi with. At the very least she could coordinate her actions with a specialist in this case.

"There's no use for it. At this po, nt it isn't clear who is fed by the Diamond Hand and who hasn't been approached by them yet." Sho sighed before turning his chair around. "Go, though. Act at your own discretion as you were told to. I have wondered if the Diamond Hand would be as fond of me as they have been up to now. One does not come into favor with people like them without making preparations for the worst case scenario. For a short while, I can evade their wrath."

"They won't avoid mine." Mana sighed before bowing her head for the man she had decided to pay respect to once more before leaving Shukuba Administration and feeling the cold and heavy rain pelting at her outside as the afternoon sky turned murky grey.