Scarlet Justice - ep. 77
"Barn Doors"
[Fire Country Night Session: Feature]
We move ahead as planned. Kurenai follows me closely as we move through the forest at a slow pace, trying to pick out any unusual chakra signatures or movements. Everyone is still scrambling to get into position, so it won't be easy to pick out who we should be going after at this point. There's still time before we freeze everyone on our side.
"How are things going, Taneda?" I call over the radio around my wrist.
"Everything is going according to plan, ma'am. Nothing to report so far, still quiet out there. Twenty minutes to go."
"Excellent. Have everyone keep their eyes and ears open. Report anything of importance as soon as you hear of it." I turn to Kurenai. "Anything on your end?"
"Nothing."
"We might not get as lucky as we want, but it's still nice to look for opportunities."
"Five minute window...you think it'll be enough?"
"It should be. No chance they want to stay in the forest longer than this. They'll move and expose themselves, or I'll hunt them all down. No in-between."
"Got it. Just give me the signal and I'm there."
The split offensive and supplementary disciplines are here for a specific purpose. No doubt there will be countermeasures taken for someone like Kurenai, but if there's a chance I can act fast enough to negate them, we can take advantage of the situation quickly. The distinct smell of black powder repeatedly reaches my nose; it seems like these ones aren't taking too many chances.
Five more minutes pass with the same report from Taneda, then ten. We're getting close to the promised time.
"Asuma, it's me."
"Hey. What's happening on your side?" he answers.
"Nothing so far. I can smell black powder, and the scent is getting stronger as time passes."
"Yeah, sounds like they're not screwing around. ANBU guys definitely have their extreme methods...if I had to guess, we might be looking at one or more guys with bomb vests. Means we might have to abandon any attempts at capture. We still haven't found the cargo yet, but we're getting close to it. Lots of misdirection being applied in this area alone."
"Alright. Do what you can and then start winding down as discussed."
"Right. See you in a while, Lili."
"So they're coming up blank, too. And I can definitely smell the gunpowder you're talking about now," Kurenai says.
"Yes. Something is definitely happening...but it's only a few minutes before our plan goes into action. Let's stick to it."
We stop in a tall tree nearby, and I close my eyes to focus as much as possible on the signals that are coming to me. The gunpowder is coming from two different sources that are moving. I can't attack them yet, though. I can feel that the perimeter is holding and that nobody has broken it, or altered the initial formation meaningfully. Taneda would have said as much if it did happen.
Less than five minutes now.
"I'll move towards the first suspected target, and you can handle the other at the same time," I say to Kurenai, keeping my eyes closed. "It will help immensely if there's a thought that the attacking force is much bigger and closer than it seems. Any objections?"
"Nope. Let's do what we have to."
"Good."
"One minute to jamming," Taneda announces. "Get ready to hold your positions. Repeat, one minute to radio jamming. All personnel, hold your positions."
"Northwest section, shift your attention a bit further north. We're not expecting much of a drive out to the main road since they have yet to retrieve the cargo. We want to be careful since there are some explosives and there might be traps in the vicinity to set them off," I announce.
"Copy, Captain. Shifting focus," a voice calls back. But obviously, he's not going to physically move in that direction. And if I'm correct, then...
"Twenty seconds to jamming. All personnel, hold your positions."
"Slowly...slowly..." I keep my focus and continue tracking the targets, who have come to a stop. "And..."
Static.
"We're jammed," Kurenai says.
"Sixty degrees...seven hundred meters. That one is certain to have an explosive vest, so be careful," I say to her. "Do what you can, but no more than that."
"Understood." Kurenai vanishes into the night a moment later. I advance towards my own target, keeping to the trees and lowering my profile as much as possible. There are a few tricks I have in mind to make stalking prey easier in the future, but this will do for now. Learning those will take some time, and I would rather not rush things. I drop lightly to the ground and sneak past one of my comrades, then move even lower and crawl along the ground on my stomach. Certainly unglamourous, but highly efficient in my case. Ah, this reminds me of that time during the exams. That was fun...making that trash squeal before I slaughtered him. But I can reminisce on that another time.
The stench of gunpowder is overwhelming. Is this one a decoy? I don't know for sure, perhaps I'll find out in a little while. Kurenai is still approaching her target, and the others aren't moving. So it's as I thought, they were listening in on the radio calls and using that to coordinate their escape. Staying put should be the safest option in this case.
Or, it would be. But their plan has a massive weakness. Me.
I crawl closer to my target and can see him pressed up against a tree. Clearly a grown man, in good shape and wearing facial paint so that he can blend better into the darkness. Must have been put on after the initial heist went south. His breathing is barely steady, and he keeps peering out into different parts of the forest, as if he suspects something is going on nearby.
One minute and thirty seconds gone. Right...I'll use this one to make some noise. Kurenai is on top of her target and...now has them subdued. My turn, then.
I charge Mobius and get to one knee quickly, aiming directly at the man's chest. He barely turns as the shot rips through him, and then after a delay the vest packed with powder goes off, sending up a blast that's aided with more than a few explosive tags. It's loud, definitely. It's also started a small fire that I'll put out in a moment, but I'm more interested in the movements of the others. If they haven't started towards the supposed exit that I announced earlier, it means that they're more interested in playing this game than I assumed.
"Two accounted for. Two to go, three minutes until jamming is lifted," I say to myself. "A sorry sight. He's turned right to ash...just how much explosive was he fitted with?" I stomp out some of the flames and spot a metal tag lying on the ground. It's still a bit hot, so I smother it in some dirt to cool it down before placing it into my pouch. It will help with identification later. Now the next phase is figuring out who exactly is in the wrong place, as I'm not familiar with all of the people who are supposed to be patrolling. But I do have a good idea of where they should be at this point in time. Nobody has come to investigate the explosion, so I run through the trees and towards the first person I think is out of place.
"Oi. What are you doing out here?" I say as I approach.
"C-Captain Kobayashi, ma'am!" The young woman bows apologetically, her short brown hair shaking with her movements. "Sorry, I was just following the orders given out earlier! I was heading to my perimeter position, and...p-please don't kill me, I swear I'm not a traitor..."
"Oh, knock it off. If you were a traitor you wouldn't piss yourself so openly," I say with a bored expression. "Now...you were telling me why you ended up all the way out here, about a kilometer from your initial guard position?" I had already accounted for this one, but there are things that I want to confirm. She doesn't need to know much of anything.
"I was investigating some suspicious findings, someone else mentioned it in a short range transmission earlier and I was technically closest, so...um, I did find something strange, but I can't move so I wouldn't be able to-"
"You can move."
"Eh? Really?"
"I'm the commanding officer here, so yes, really. Come on, we're on a timer. Show me where it was."
"Ma'am." She sprints from her position towards a nearby tree, and kneels to the ground to carefully clear away some grass. "Right here."
White powder, huh.
"Good work. You stay here, and when the jamming is lifted call for Captain Sarutobi as soon as you can. Got that?"
"Yes, ma'am. Thank you, ma'am."
Two minutes. Not much time left...I would consider it a personal failure if even one of those traitors got away. Someone is occupying the open space where the young chuunin from earlier was supposed to be, but I can't go out and kill on mere suspicion alone. Has to be something else. Has to be...ah, I know.
"Excuse me. I'm going to need a bit of help here," I say as I walk up to the tall man holding his position up ahead. He salutes and nods.
"Ma'am. What is it you need?"
"The radio jamming is going to be lifted in about a minute or so. There's an issue we're having right now. I want you to join the woman who's east of us right now and get her help to search the area...there's a strange substance on the ground and I would like to know how much of it there is, aside from what it is exactly. I'll get someone to cover this gap while you're gone, and Captain Sarutobi will be joining you in a while."
"Understood."
There's not nearly enough time to hunt down the last one, so I'll clean up this loose end first. I pretend to move away into the distance before fading into the darkness again, slowly stalking this target like I did the last. He's not wearing an explosive vest like the others, meaning those two must have served the purpose of bait or decoys as I assumed earlier. I can only assume the last one isn't wearing any rigged equipment either, which will make him much harder to capture. Not impossible, but merely troublesome in comparison.
"'Scuse me. Captain Kobayashi sent me over," he says to the young woman as he makes his presence known.
"Oh, I see. Thanks...the jamming should be gone in a few seconds. I gotta call Captain Asuma Sarutobi and have him come over here..."
"I see. Alright, I'll wait for you to finish."
"Thanks for that."
Jamming over in three...two...one, and...gone.
"Kurenai, come in."
"Read you loud and clear, Lili."
"Good. I assume there wasn't any trouble, or much to report on your end. Did you hear the explosion earlier?" I ask unsubtly.
"Yeah, I did. Nothing on my end, the guy I was tracking isn't with us anymore. Was that explosion you?"
"Yes."
"I figured. We need to regroup soon, then."
I crawl on the ground and get close enough to the pair that I've been watching. She gets on her radio to make the call that I requested. He moves, and I move faster. My lightning shroud appears around me as I jump up, and I rush towards him with a hard elbow before he can properly draw his weapon, sending him flying through the air.
"Finish calling him over!" I yell to the woman. She nods her head vigorously, tears falling from her eyes as she quickly messages Asuma again. The other shinobi gets up and holds his side briefly before weaving seals. Judging from the pattern...has to be an Earth technique to buy time and get away. No point in interrupting the jutsu, I'll let it activate and then deal with the aftermath quickly.
"Get clear," I call to my new charge. She jumps away just as the other man slams his hand to the ground.
"You're done! Can't run fast with no ground beneath you! Earth Release: Tearing Earth Turning Palm!"
The ground shifts and starts to break apart beneath me. Very hard to aim in these circumstances, and the attack threatens to destabilize a large enough area. Normally, these would be issues.
I shift myself into the third stage of my chakra mode and burst across to the other side, planting my foot in the enemy's chest and sending him rocketing backwards, into and almost through a tree. He falls from the trunk and to the ground, unconscious...alive, it seems. Almost lucky for him, if he survives. Or maybe not, considering that he's likely to be executed for his role in this.
"Captain Kobayashi, we've got reports coming in."
I shut off the chakra mode and sigh. "Tell me what's happening, Taneda."
"We've got one casualty in the northwest, but they've managed to capture one of the traitors. He apparently had a previous injury, must have gotten it when he attacked our guy earlier. Made him take some risks that a seasoned vet wouldn't otherwise with the enemy closing in. The team followed protocol and took him down after he struck first. Injured soldier should be okay after some treatment."
"Wonderful news. Send a few medics to section 3-4 just off the center line, won't you? I have one of the cowards here with some serious injuries, unconscious. Pull the extras from the perimeter in and we'll see what develops from there, but I think we have all of the traitors accounted for," I say. "Some parts of a drug trail were erased by a jutsu, but I think that was a dead end anyways. Tell Kawasaki to take it easy and we'll join him soon."
"Got it, relaying orders."
"Lili, it's me."
"Go ahead, Kurenai. We're all clear."
"Great. I can confirm after some discussion with my new friend here that there were indeed four people in on the plot, and all of them were present this morning. A few juicy details that we can talk about once we get back to base."
"Understood. Contact Taneda with your position, and we'll have some strong fellows sent over to help you transport our new friend back to base."
"Cleaned up here already, huh."
Asuma arrives, already smoking away as usual. He looks down at the unconscious traitor with the amount of disdain I would expect.
"Yes, it was only a minor hassle. Remarkable for such a mission, I only had to kill one person outright."
"That's definitely a miracle. Dad will like it."
"Well, if it makes him happy...that's a bonus worth fighting for, I suppose."
"Right," he says with a chuckle. "When you're done being bashful and all, we should start on the search for that cargo. By the way, what'd you have the rookie over there call me for?"
"There was a substance on the ground that seemed to be consistent with the medication allegedly onboard." I gesture to the now uneven ground ahead of us. "Of course, we've now run into some technical difficulties where that's concerned."
"Yeah. Think one of them took a free sample?"
"It might not be out of place-"
"Sarutobi, you there?"
"Yeah, I'm here. What is it, Gramps?"
"I found the cargo and a couple other things. Might want to head over to my position," Kawasaki says over the radio.
"I know where he is," I say. "Follow me. If you could stand guard here, my darling. If he wakes up and makes any sudden movements, engage with lethal force. Understood?"
"Ma'am. Understood." She sniffles and composes herself as well as she can. Asuma and I acknowledge her before taking off through the forest, due north and to the area where he and Kawasaki were searching earlier. We find the older man standing in a small clearing that looks relatively undisturbed.
But there's a heavy smell of blood.
"The driver," I mumble. "I was hoping it wouldn't come to that..."
"Pretty quick and careful operation. Raised a big enough section of earth, carved it out, put the cargo in there, lowered it and that was all she wrote. Poor bastard from earlier is probably buried somewhere nearby," Kawasaki says.
"Here," I say as I walk over a few feet to a smoothed-over patch of earth. It's hard to see in the dark, but I can definitely smell the blood seeping out from the body. I carve out an approximate area where the body has been buried and Kawasaki carefully lifts up the outlined section of earth.
"Ah, shit," Asuma says as he turns away.
"..." There is no body to speak of. It's been butchered into pieces.
"Ruthless fucks. This isn't anything shinobi are supposed to be doing. Savages, all of them. Fucking hell," Kawasaki growls.
"Probably...to add another degree of deniability," I say as I gently take the body parts out of the dirt and lay them on the ground. They're in large chunks, so it was very obviously a rushed job. "Bandit, serial killer...something to put distance between themselves or any organized crime families once this was investigated. Too precise and there would be suspicion laid at the feet of shinobi. Too ruthless and the yakuza would end up bothered by authorities. This was a happy medium of sorts."
"..."
"It truly is savage, though. There was no beauty or dignity in it. No thought given to any of these actions. An operation like this was nothing but sloth and greed rolled together into some grotesque form. Killing people who didn't need to be killed and hurting those who never needed to be hurt. All for what? The country...the government. Maybe not even that...for a man who claims authority, and thinks he knows what's best for everyone." I activate my radio. "Taneda, come in."
"Read you loud and clear. Anything come up?"
"A few things. Please put out a call for Earth Release users to come to Kawasaki's last transmitted position. Three of us are here. Also...send another person from the medic corps if you can spare them. There's a corpse that needs to be handled."
"It's the driver, isn't it..."
"They've hacked him into pieces."
"Sick fucks."
"I know. Please do all of that for me. Has Kurenai arrived yet?"
"Captain Yuuhi is here and we've got a hold of the traitor that she captured earlier. He's in the tank right now. The other one's getting treated in the medical bay. We're about to send a bird out to the village proper with details on the mission. Gonna send those Earth users your way in a hurry."
"Thank you."
I lower my wrist and let it drop down to my side. I feel so tired for some reason. Maybe it's this sadness that has come over me all of a sudden. As much as I enjoy killing and the hunt, I realize there is a limit somewhere. There are some things that are just...wrong, no matter how we try to justify them in our minds. And sometimes I wonder if I am right to say something like that. But the truth is that I am right. I have an upbringing, a moral code that tells me what is right and what is wrong. Maybe not for the world at large, but for me at the least. And I live guided by all of that. To kill someone who never had a choice in all of this...what sense could it ever make? Why do this? Lives are worth something. I keep that in mind all the time, even as I take them one by one, even as I swallow the essence of my prey and immerse myself in that glorious sensation, that pure glow that can only come from a most satisfying rending of flesh. This...is so very far removed from all of that. That's why it feels so disgusting.
"Hitting you hard, huh."
"Not just unfair...despicable. Maybe even that is an understatement," I say to Asuma.
"I figured you would feel that way about it. The types of people who do these sorts of things...something else entirely. The way they think, the way they act. Following orders and all of that garbage."
"Little more than machines. Some would say that dignifies them too much."
"Are you in that number?" he asks as he lights up another cigarette.
"I would say so."
"That's good to know. If I thought you were one of...these types, I wouldn't ask in the first place. You know how it is."
"I do. I understand that there are certain...unsavory aspects of my character that most don't like to touch on too much. There's no reason I should take offence to that."
"You're sure?"
"Very sure. It's something you learn to deal with, difficult as it might be."
"Ah." He puffs out a cloud of smoke. "I never know what to say to you around this time. Telling you that you sound a couple decades older than you should doesn't have the same bite as it used to."
"Very true. But the sentiment is accepted, same as always. I have always lived a mysterious sort of life, Asuma. That isn't likely to change any time soon...I like it this way. For all of the depressing things that have come down this path, there have been untold blessings as well. Perhaps this time in the darkness will...yield something of importance. That will bring us closer to the future that we've envisioned."
Our philosophizing is interrupted by the arrival of the backup forces. The body parts are photographed, carefully arranged, and placed into a modified body bag for transport. The hidden wagon with cargo is carefully raised from the earth with Kawasaki's instruction and the efforts of four other chuunin.
"Carefully, now. We don't want anything to go off in there."
"..." I sniff at the air once and notice the smell. It's like garlic. "Oi, ossan. That familiar to you?"
"Damn right it is...send the thing back down, you guys. Cut a hole open in the top right down to the roof, then get back a good distance," Kawasaki says. He looks to me with some worry. "Sure you can handle it on your own?"
"I'm good at running fast. Nothing to fear."
"Alright. See you in a bit."
I nod and position myself over the hole while making seals. "Okay. Water Release: Exploding Water Colliding Wave!"
I slowly tilt my head back before throwing it forward, spitting out as much water as I can at once. The cavern that the cargo rests in is quickly filled and then overfilled, water gushing out from the opening before I stop. Small tremors indicate that the chain reaction of other explosives is happening, and that the drugs have likely been dispersed as a result...whatever the case, that water is quite contaminated with different substances by now.
"I suppose the Hokage will have to send an additional cleanup team for this. Unfortunate, but far from the worst case scenario, considering everything," I say to myself.
"Clear yet?" Asuma calls out.
"Clear," I reply. "Apologies for the excitement. We should be fine."
"Looks like it, at least. Alright, let's get back to base already. I'm honestly pretty bushed..."
"Imagine how I feel," Kawasaki complains. "Way too old for this crap. That's why I asked for a post out here in the first place, you know?"
"I hear ya."
"Yes, let's return to the outpost and file our reports properly," I say. "Much to do, and yet so little time to do it."
The group double checks everything and cordons off the area properly. Then we finally leave to start wrapping up the mission in earnest.