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"Why don't we just sneak in and grab the daimyo? That way, we can force them to hand over the Land of Honey," Lee suggested.
"Exactly! Lee, you're a genius!" Guy immediately chimed in.
But Shikaku shook his head. "No, that won't work. If the daimyo gets killed, the country will completely fall under the control of the shinobi. Like, if the daimyo of the Fire Country were killed, then the Third Hokage would basically become the one in charge. The daimyo's role is mostly symbolic, but it still matters."
"Oh…" Lee looked disappointed and nodded. "We're the same age, but how come I can't come up with clever ideas like Akio?"
"Akio's really not like most people our age," Neji added. "He's like a grown man trapped in a teenager's body."
While the group in the cave was still chatting about Akio, he was already taking action elsewhere. He'd caught a villager who had just left the village—probably going out to gather herbs or something, but that didn't matter. Akio knocked him out, transformed into his appearance, took his stuff, tied him up, and hid him away before heading to the village gate.
"Hey, didn't you just leave? Why are you back already?" one of the gate guards asked. They clearly remembered the guy—he had just walked out.
"Oh, forgot something important. Just ran back to grab it," Akio said, putting on a flustered act like he was in a real hurry.
"Alright, but we still need to see your entry pass," the guard said.
"Entry pass?" Akio panicked a little inside, but he stayed calm on the outside, pretending to dig through the bag. Luckily, he found a piece of paper labeled entry pass, with the name "Juyou Shihao" written on it. So that was this guy's name.
"Found it, here it is." Akio casually handed it over. The guards checked it, wrote down some info for the log, and then let him through.
Once inside, Akio let out a sigh of relief. "That was way too close. Good thing I grabbed his bag. I've never heard of needing an entry pass before—guess everyone here knows each other."
Now safely inside, Akio ducked into a quiet spot, changed his appearance again, and walked into a tavern. He ordered a pot of sake and sat quietly in the corner, eavesdropping. If you want intel, a bar's always a good place to start.
"Ever since we got a new Honey Shadow, this whole village feels different," said someone at the next table.
"Better not complain too much. We're lucky we can still afford to drink," the other replied.
"Our country's shinobi are such cowards! The war's barely started and people are already switching sides. Spineless!"
"Hey hey hey! Keep it down!" the second man quickly covered his friend's mouth. "Are you drunk? Do you have any idea what it's like right now? You trying to get yourself killed?"
So there were traitor ninja.
Akio took a small sip of sake, but from what he'd seen, aside from the change in leadership, not much else had changed in the country. The villagers were still the same as before.
"Alright, enough, let's go. Don't get us into trouble," the sober guy said as he dragged his drunk friend out. Akio quietly followed. That drunk guy might spill some useful info.
The sober one dropped the drunk man off at home, and then headed home himself. When they reached a quieter part of the village, Akio suddenly rushed forward, knocked the man out, slung him over his shoulder like he was drunk, and carried him off to a secluded corner.
Then he waited for the guy to wake up. He hadn't hit too hard, so it didn't take long.
"W-Who are you?! Are you one of the village ninja?! I'm sorry, I'm sorry! He was the one talking, not me! I had nothing to do with it! Please don't kill me!" the man wailed as soon as he opened his eyes and saw Akio.
Akio rolled his eyes, already annoyed. "Alright, enough." He shoved the man to the ground. "I'm not one of your village's shinobi. I just have a few questions. Answer honestly."
"Yes! I will! I swear I'll tell you everything!" the guy stammered.
"How many ninja from this village have defected so far?"
"Two jonin, four chunin. I don't know about the genin… I swear I'm telling the truth!"
"So there are still five jonin and twelve chunin left…" Akio thought to himself. "Where's the daimyo of the Land of Honey?"
"He's been captured—locked up in the prison. Everyone in the village knows about it."
"What about the former Honey Shadow?"
"He died in battle. Killed by ninja from the Land of Stuffing. Now the entire Land of Honey is under the Land of Stuffing's control."
"Good. Now keep your mouth shut. If you tell anyone about this, I will come back and kill you." Akio hadn't killed anyone before, but the look in his eyes was enough to make the man tremble in fear.
"Yes! I swear I won't say a word!" the man promised quickly.
As soon as he said that, Akio vanished using the Body Flicker Technique. "Five jonin, twelve chunin… If two chunin get sent to deal with bandits and go missing, would they send a jonin to investigate?" Akio walked down the street, stroking his chin in thought. After a while, he changed his appearance again and headed to the mission posting office.
He spent 50,000 ryo to post a bounty on a group of bandits. That one hurt—Akio wasn't exactly broke, but that was still a decent chunk of change. I'm definitely getting that old man, the Third Hokage, to reimburse me later!
After posting the mission, Akio bought a ton of supplies, then used Flying Thunder God to teleport back near the cave. He'd left a mark near the cave and another in Mitsuhana Village, so now he could come and go freely.
"I'm back," Akio said as he dropped his pack onto the ground. "Haven't had hot food in forever. Got us some roast chicken and duck, but the rest should be non-perishables."
"Awesome! I was about to go green from eating nothing but dry rations!" Lee looked thrilled. Actually, everyone was excited.
"How'd it go? Get any useful info?" Shikaku asked.
Akio leaned against the wall. "More or less. Two jonin and four chunin have defected. Still don't know how many genin. But the mission's been posted—they'll probably send ninja here by tomorrow at the latest."
"You marked this cave as the mission site?"
"Yup," Akio nodded. "Just waiting for them to walk into the trap."
"This is just step one. By the time they realize what's happening, they'll already have taken major losses." A sly smile crept onto Akio's face. Shikaku smiled a little too, and Akio shot him a quick glance.
"....."