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"The situation in the Land of Lightning is going well. The account of the degrading infrastructure requiring repairs has been omitted from the reports submitted to the budget reallocation body. In two weeks, our assets will further undermine the need for additional funds."
Danzō listened to his agent's report about a mission ROOT was tackling in the Land of Lightning, sowing discord between Cloud shinobi and the Land of Lightning's samurai. The Lightning Daimyo greatly favoured the Raikage; their relationship was better than it had been under their predecessors, and that didn't sit well with some parties, as it had allowed the Hidden Cloud to expand its influence while weakening the samurai's.
Danzō wanted to put pressure on that relationship until cracks appeared.
"The faction led by Jōnin Tasei"—he was a Hidden Cloud jōnin who was once a popular candidate for the position of Fourth Raikage and now led the opposition faction, keeping the Raikage's administration in check—"has a chain of fortresses in the west, does it not?"
"Yes, sir."
"Have the asset present a case for additional funds to that part of Cloud's defence, and then use that fuel to spread rumors that the Daimyo's favor might be shifting away from the Raikage."
"As you order." The agent bowed.
"What else?" Danzō returned the mission file. They were in the process of diversifying their workload in the Land of Fire, which involved building their foreign presence. ROOT's and his name had been a major factor in people's eagerness to have them solve their problems. It also meant he had the chance to sow more and more discord in the lives of the Hidden Leaf's enemies, weakening them as he built his power back.
"The scheduled report from Ember arrived yesterday."
Ember Imperial City and Hidden Leaf Village—all the imperial cities and hidden villages—were targets for regular reports about their happenings. Danzō had been reading these reports for decades without fail, and that had only become more important after losing access to the Hidden Leaf's sources, many of whom he had personally developed.
"Have it placed in my office. I'll read it in the evening. Did anything stand out?"
"Iron King Baizan has had a bad week with a sudden landslide of legal trouble. They pulled a lot of his people in for interrogations. Multiple reopened cases against him, which will keep him busy for a while. There's also an unverified rumor that the cases were reopened because of new evidence provided by the Leaf."
That gave Danzō pause. Baizan was one of his active connections and provided ROOT with iron, steel, and weapons at competitive prices. In the past, they had supplied much iron and weapons to rebel and mercenary groups across the nations, and ROOT had used Baizan's wide and stable logistics to transport all kinds of things he needed moved without anyone knowing.
"…Find out more about this," Danzō ordered.
Even though he and Baizan were still on good terms, if Danzō could help him now, it would prove that he still had considerable influence within the Land of Fire, and perhaps open doors that had been closed after his exodus. Right now, nothing was more critical to ROOT than showcasing its capabilities and building confidence. He was doing it abroad, and even though the plan was to stay low domestically, perhaps re-establishing a connection with those who had influence by doing some small jobs for them could be beneficial for the future.
———
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The special report on Iron King Baizan arrived after a week.
"Until two days ago, two of Baizan's ironwork bases were on strike for better pay and conditions. He reached a settlement with them, raised wages, and agreed to their other demands. However, it seems like it's only a matter of time before all or most of his bases demand similar treatment."
Danzō read the information scroll as his agent gave him a summary of the facts. A lot of information needed for a complete picture was missing. It was reported that Baizan had sent his men and mercenaries to quell the protests, but there was no information on what had happened after that.
Given that he had agreed to their requests, it seemed their demands had been met. Had the ironworkers pooled together to hire shinobi of their own to combat such tactics? It was plausible. But what about two bases cooperating with each other to launch their strikes simultaneously? It could be a coincidence, but the timing of it seemed suspicious. It wasn't impossible for them to conspire with each other, but it seemed unlikely. The bases were too far away from each other. And what about the legal cases that also happened to coincide with the strikes?
The thoughts swam in Danzō's mind as he read other unconfirmed rumors and information that ranged from convincing to made-up.
"Was there any confirmation on shinobi providing evidence against Baizan?" he asked the agent.
"None that we could consider reliable."
Danzō tapped his bony finger against the tabletop in silence as he gazed at the scroll for a while.
"When is the next shipment from Baizan?" he asked.
They received regular shipments of iron, steel, and weapons to a delivery point in a city far from their bases, where another independent courier brought it to a nearby town, where one of the civilian villagers finally brought it in.
"I believe it's supposed to be in two weeks, but it might not be fulfilled due to the strikes. Should I make preparations in case we don't get our delivery?"
"Leave it be," Danzō said, looking up at his agent. "But we are going to change some things once it's time for the next delivery. I want to check some things."
———
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Tern breathed out a sigh of relief as she stepped into Ratel's squad offices after over a month of being away from the village. Was it bad that she felt better returning to her workspace than she had felt returning to her home?
She had worked hard planning the labour strikes at two Baizan ironwork bases, spending two months of her life convincing and preparing the people to launch a solid protest against Baizan.
Ennotora's town was a dream. The ironworkers had a solid unit, a charismatic leader, and a negligent opposition that made things much easier. Tern had spent the time living with an old lady who had agreed to take care of her daily needs while she was helping the ironworkers.
The other village was a much larger challenge. There was a meagre unit, people were scared of losing their jobs, and a few of the furnace leaders seemed ready to betray the strike for their own benefit.
It had taken a lot of effort and wrangling to whip that second town into shape.
"Excellent work, Tern. I don't drink, so I hope this will do for now." In his office, Ratel placed a flute glass of fizzy lemonade in front of her. It felt fancy, even though it was only lemonade. He looked happy as he settled behind his desk with a glass of his own. "We only managed to pressure Baizan because of your flawless work. None of this would've happened without you."
She smiled as they clinked their glasses. "Not at all. This was a team effort."
While Tern took care of the ironwork bases, Ratel worked on things in Ember Imperial City.
"I barely did anything this time. It was all thanks to Weasel that I had such an easy time," Ratel said.
Ratel didn't have the authority or reach to make things happen in the imperial city, but Weasel was different. The ANBU Captain had made wrangling politics and diplomacy look easy as he helped them corner a very powerful man.
"What did he say?" she asked.
"Baizan's in contact with Danzō. The greedy bastard is supplying them with metal and weapons," Ratel spat in disgust. "He tried to act oblivious, but he obviously would've helped Danzō with much more if asked for it. Danzō must've helped him with business with the village."
Tern hid her wince. It was no secret that her boss wasn't a big fan of her former clan leader. Even though they had worked together for a while, and she knew he was different from everyone else who judged her unfairly, she couldn't help but wonder what he really thought about her. She was, after all, a Shimura. Did he really trust her? Would he ever trust her? What about the rest of the team?
Those questions often plagued her days and nights.
"It sure was satisfying when I told him that his problems weren't going away."
All the problems Baizan had to face were real—from the legal cases in court and re-negotiating with the Hidden Leaf, to meeting with his workers to address their demands. According to Ratel, these influential men needed to feel some pain to get things across their power-obsessed heads.
"Not that it would mean that much."
As the Iron King, Baizan had significant influence even within the Hidden Leaf, as there was no shortage of demand for iron, steel, and weapons, and the man was very good at being an iron merchant. ANBU could only suggest that the Hidden Leaf drop Baizan as one of their providers, but the people who actually handled those contracts might not want to do so, as it would complicate their work and create unnecessary issues when Baizan was doing a good enough job.
Baizan was also close to the Daimyo's court, so the Hidden Leaf suddenly dropping him might displease the Daimyo, which the Hidden Leaf wanted to avoid.
"We might actually find ROOT's new base," Tern said.
The shipments from Baizan were going somewhere. As long as they followed one, they might be able to identify ROOT's base.
Ratel was confident that it was in the Land of Fire.
"That's the reason why I chose Baizan as our first target. ROOT needs weapons—already manufactured, or materials to make the weapons themselves. Either way, Baizan seemed like the best option to get our hands on Danzō."
There were many people they wanted to target, but not all of them would have a way to reach Danzō, since they were keeping their distance for the moment, waiting for the old warmonger to reach out first. But with Baizan, the chances of an active connection were high, and Ratel's hunch turned out to be true.
"This was because you found that letter," Ratel said.
Danzō had taken away most of his personal belongings with him when he escaped, but there were things in the Shimura clan leader's home that he couldn't move because, as pressure rose on him in the days preceding his departure, even his own clan was keeping an eye on his movements, forcing him to leave behind some of his belongings. That letter was among the belongings seized by ANBU.
"The capture of Shimura Danzō would look good as part of your history," he said. "How do you feel?"
Tern smiled. "To be honest, as strange as it may sound, I don't think it would be the best part of it for me."
At first, the amount of work she had done for the past two months didn't really feel worth it. She would rather have been in live combat, but after seeing the workers' and their families' happy faces and tears when their demands were met, all the hard work they had done together was worth it.
She could say with confidence that it was among the best things she had ever done in her life.
"But that doesn't mean I don't want it on my record," she said, meeting Ratel's eyes. The squad's aim was the eradication of ROOT and Shimura Danzō. "We have a lot of work ahead of us, but let's get that traitor."
He raised his glass. "I'll drink to that, Tern."
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