The pursuit was grueling. Even with a definitive lead, the trail was cold and fragmented. The physical scent markers that Kiba and Akamaru relied upon had long since evaporated into the wind, and Shino's insects found no chemical residue on the forest floor. The tracking fell entirely to Hinata. Every few kilometers, the massive, armored kunoichi would skid to a halt, her helmet tilting slightly as she tuned out the physical world to search for the faint, decaying spiritual echoes clinging to the path the money had traveled. It was a stop-and-go rhythm that bled through the night and stretched into the following morning.
Finally, the team came to a halt on a ridgeline. Below them sat a small, unassuming town nestled in a valley, waking up to the morning fog.
"This is disturbing," Ino whispered, crouching low on a branch. "A black market hub inside our own borders? I thought we cleared the Land of Fire."
"Yeah," Choji muttered, munching quietly on a ration pill. "We've run dozens of operations dismantling these places. How did we miss this one?"
Hinata stood silent and motionless. Beneath the armor, her skin crawled with unease. Venom was restless, a low hum of agitation in the back of her mind. Ino and Choji were right. She had traversed her country on countless missions, crisscrossing the map on routes that should have taken her near here. Yet, she had never stopped in this town. She had never even considered it as a waypoint. It was as if the location existed in a perceptual blind spot, deliberately avoided by Konoha's logistics and mission planners.
Asuma exhaled a stream of smoke away from the team. "Kiba. Anything?"
Kiba sniffed the air, his eyes narrowing. Beside him, Akamaru let out a low, menacing growl. "Yeah. Faint, but it's here. It smells like… old antiseptic. We're in the right place."
The team moved. They dropped from the treeline and entered the town, sticking to the rooftops. They moved with the silence, shadows flitting across tiles and gutters, unseen by the few civilians walking the streets below.
Guided by the convergence of Kiba's nose and Hinata's sensory data, they landed on the roof of a building adjacent to their target.
It was a nondescript, two-story structure that looked like an old municipal records office or a small clinic. The paint was peeling in long, gray strips, and the windows were boarded up with rotted wood. To the casual observer, it was abandoned, just another decaying husk in a quiet town.
But Hinata saw the lie.
She focused, the veins around her eyes pulsing beneath her helmet. The world shifted into a monochrome grid of chakra and energy.
"Deception," Hinata's voice rumbled, the dual resonance vibrating in the air. She tilted her head, scanning the walls. "This structure is consuming a significant amount of electricity. The current is bypassing the meter and running directly into the sub-basement."
Her gaze locked onto a specific point below the foundation. Her vision pierced the concrete and soil.
"There is a large chamber. Partially underground," she reported. "Temperature controlled."
"People?" Shikamaru asked quietly.
"One," Hinata answered, her tone chillingly flat. "One living bio-signature. But he is not alone. The room is filled with shelves. And the shelves are filled with bodies. It is a storage facility for the dead."
A heavy silence fell over the team. A makeshift morgue hidden in a civilian town.
Asuma tossed his cigarette aside. His expression was grim. "Alright. We're taking it down. Ino, Shikamaru, Shino, you secure the perimeter. Nothing comes in, nothing goes out. If that runner bolts, capture him."
He pulled his trench knives from his belt. "Kiba, Akamaru, Choji, Hinata, you're with me. We breach hard and fast."
Without a sound, the four assault specialists dropped from the roof to the street level. Asuma approached the boarded-up front door. He didn't bother with the lock. He infused his chakra into his blade and slashed the hinges in a single, fluid motion. Choji stepped forward, his arm expanding with the Partial Multi-Size Technique, and slammed the heavy door inward.
Wood splintered and metal screamed as the door flew off its frame, crashing into the darkness of the hallway beyond. The team surged inside.
They moved through the building in silence, their boots kicking up clouds of dust that hung thick in the air. The corridors were narrow and dark. To Hinata's surprise, there were no cameras, no modern surveillance systems of any kind.
The low doorframes were a constant nuisance, forcing her to move in a hunched-over posture, her helmeted head tilted forward to avoid scraping against the decaying wood. She felt like a giant in a dollhouse.
Hinata led them, her senses reaching out, painting a picture of the layout in her mind. She came to a halt in front of a wide, tiled room that had once served as a men's washroom. Sinks were torn down and mirrors are missing. They moved near the stalls. Most of the stalls were intact, but one at the far end was missing its door, the porcelain of the toilet shattered. She pointed.
Her enhanced vision pierced the tiled wall. Behind it, the secret chamber was just as she had seen it from the roof. A single, calm chakra signature pulsed steadily. The man had his back to them, seemingly inspecting one of the refrigerated shelves. And the shelves… they were filled with the cold, still forms of the dead.
Hinata raised a single, armored finger, then made a fist. A silent command. Kiba and Choji gave subtle nods. Asuma's eyes hardened. Akamaru had bristled in preparation.
They filed into the destroyed stall. Hinata placed her gauntlet against the wall, concentrating for a brief second. A ripple of silver-blue chakra flared around her hand.
BOOM.
The wall exploded inward in a shower of tile and plaster. The four shinobi surged through the breach before the dust could even settle.
The chamber was dim, lit by a few humming fluorescent lights, and smelled of antiseptic and something foully underneath. The man inside spun around, his mouth opening to shout in surprise.
He never got the chance.
Hinata was on him in a flash. She grabbed his outstretched arm, twisted it behind his back with a sickening pop, and slammed his face into the cold, tiled floor. She dropped her full weight onto his back, her armored knee pinning him with crushing force.
The others fanned out, securing the room. Hinata looked down at her captive. He was a bald man, his scalp crisscrossed with a web of old, silvery scars. He groaned, trying to push himself up against her impossible weight.
"Don't… move…" he gasped after hearing that.
Just as Hinata raised a fist to deliver a disabling blow, a low, grinding rumble filled the room. It wasn't from the machinery. It was coming from the shelves.
Rrrr… CRUNCH.
Hinata scanned them instantly. A trap? Explosives? No. She and Venom had swept the room. There were no seals, no bombs, no secondary life signs.
Her Byakugan locked onto the rumbling shelves. The bodies inside, cold and dead seconds ago, were now spasming. Their chakra networks, previously inert, were flaring to life with chaotic, violent energy. Their muscles were expanding, bones snapping and reforming at an unnatural rate.
Rapid mutation, Venom hissed in her mind. Just like at the lake.
"The bodies are reanimating!" Hinata's voice boomed through her helmet.
Asuma, Kiba, and Choji spun around, weapons ready.
CRASH! SMASH! CRASH!
Three of the metal shelf doors burst outward. Three figures, already on their feet, emerged. They were no longer human. Their bodies were swollen with grotesque, tumorous muscle, their limbs elongated into disproportionate lengths.
One of them let out a guttural roar and swung a massive, club-like arm straight at Hinata.
She dodged, abandoning her prisoner and rolling under the blow. The world seemed to slow to a crawl as her enhanced senses processed the chaos.
As she moved, she saw Choji's arm expand, his hand swelling to the size of a boulder to meet the charge of a second mutant. She saw the third mutant miss its tackle against Kiba, Akamaru, and Asuma, who had scattered, causing it to stumble toward the breach they'd made in the wall. She saw Asuma and Kiba, now clear of the charge, moving to flank the monster wrestling with Choji.
Hinata finished her roll, pushing off the floor. Black symbiotic biomass flowed over her right gauntlet, swelling it to twice its normal size. She drove the massive fist into the side of the mutant that had attacked her, the impact sounding like a sledgehammer hitting stone. The creature staggered, its momentum broken.
She didn't give it time to recover. Channeling her chakra, her enlarged fist now glowing with a furious blue light, she landed a second, far more devastating blow to its chest.
CRUNCH
As her mutant buckled, the one that had stumbled into the breach turned back, its eyes wild. Simultaneously, Asuma's wind-laced trench knives slashed across the hamstrings of the monster fighting Choji. The creature's legs gave out, and Choji seized the opening, driving his own enlarged fist into its face.
CRASH
The three mutants, all hit at once, stumbled backward into each other, a tangle of grotesque limbs. They crashed through the weakened wall, tumbling out of the morgue and into the men's washroom.
The Konoha shinobi in the chamber knew they couldn't continue the fight here. The evidence was too valuable.
Hinata locked her gaze with Asuma. He nodded, already forming hand seals. He inhaled and spat out a focused jet of wind that wasn't a wide-area attack but a solid, concussive blast. It slammed into the three mutants, pushing them further back, pinning them against the far wall of the washroom.
At that moment, Hinata and Choji stepped through the breach.
Hinata's arms both swelled with black, living biomass. Choji's fists ballooned to their maximum size.
They struck at the exact same time.
CRACK
Their combined, synchronized blow hit the pile of mutants like a battering ram. The outer wall of the washroom destroyed, and the three monsters were launched out of the building entirely, tumbling end over end through the air before crashing onto the abandoned street below.
Hinata, Asuma, Akamaru, Kiba, and Choji burst through the ragged hole in the wall, their boots skidding on the pavement of the abandoned street. They fanned out instantly, forming a wide semi-circle around the three monstrosities that had just tumbled out of the building.
The mutants stopped rolling and scrambled to their feet with a jerky, unnatural movements. They emitted wet, gibberish sounds, a chorus of low groans and high-pitched, gargling roars that grated on the ears.
Now exposed to the harsh light of the midday sun, their horrific sight was clear. Their skin was stretched to the breaking point over mounds of tumorous muscle, varying in shades of sickly gray and bruised purple. Embedded directly into their flesh, running along their arms and upper backs, were transparent tubes pumping a luminous green liquid. Their veins pulsed violently beneath the skin, black spiderwebs tracing the path of the potent drug.
"GRHLRAAAH"
One of the creatures threw its head back and roared, a sound of chemically induced rage, before lowering its shoulder and charging straight at the Konoha line. The other two followed, the ground shaking under their uneven gaits.
Hinata didn't flinch. She raised her right hand, fingers splayed.
"Raijin Senkōdan (Thunder God Flash Bullets)."
A rapid-fire volley of small, compressed lightning spheres shot from her fingertips. The projectiles slammed into the charging mutants with the sound of cracking whips. Wherever they hit, flesh cooked instantly, sending up plumes of acrid smoke. The creatures stumbled, their momentum broken by the barrage of stinging impacts.
Hinata wasted no time. She lunged forward, closing the distance to the center mutant.
The creature recovered faster than a human could, swinging a massive, elongated arm at her head like a falling tree. Hinata dropped low as she executed a swift roll beneath the limb.
As she rose, the black Klyntar biomass surged along her left arm, hardening and sharpening into a long, serrated blade. With a single, fluid motion, she sheared upward. The blade sliced through muscle and bone with ease, severing the mutant's arm at the shoulder.
Before the creature could even register the amputation or scream, Hinata channeled a surge of blue chakra into her right fist. She drove it into the mutant's side. The impact cratered its ribs, lifting the heavy creature off its feet and sending it stumbling further down the street.
Around her, the rest of the squad was dismantling their targets with equal efficiency.
Asuma moved fast. He ducked under a clumsy haymaker from the second mutant, his wind-laced trench knives humming. He slashed low, severing the tendons behind the creature's knees. As the monster buckled, Asuma vaulted onto its back, his blades crossing like scissors against its thick neck.
Further away, the third mutant was being overwhelmed. Choji, his fists expanded to the size of boulders, hammered it backward with heavy, rhythmic blows. Kiba and Akamaru flashed past its flanks, tearing deep gouges into its legs.
Suddenly, the creature froze, its shadow elongating and merging with a dark line stretching across the street. Shikamaru stood calmly near the breach, his hands held in the Rat seal. At the same moment, a black cloud descended over the mutant's face as Shino's kikaichu swarmed, cutting off its vision.
Inside the ruined chamber, the bald man dusted plaster from his jacket. He looked through the shattered wall, watching the carnage outside with wide eyes. The Konoha shinobi were distracted, fully engaged with the traps his client had so generously provided.
He allowed himself a small, relieved smirk. This was his chance.
He turned, keeping his footsteps silent, and sprinted toward the corridor exit. He made it three steps before a hand clamped onto his wrist and another kicked the back of his knee.
His vision blurred as the world flipped. For the second time in five minutes, his face was slammed violently into the tiled floor. His arm was twisted up behind his back at a painful angle, pinning him down.
"And just where do you think you're going, bastard?" Ino's voice hissed, sharp and dangerous.
Back on the street, the fight was over.
Hinata stood over her opponent. The black biomass receded, flowing back into the seams of her armor like liquid ink. The mutant lay still, missing limbs, its chest caved in. Nearby, Asuma wiped a dark, viscous fluid from his blades, the creature behind him lay headless. The third was a dead heap, covered with bruises and deep cuts.
Hinata walked over to inspect the bodies. Their bodies were covered with Curse Marks on multiple places. They were gray and faded, as if the power had burned itself out.
"These look exactly like the ones we fought at the lake," Kiba said, sniffing the air with a grimace. "Same smell. But these guys were… twitchier. Even more unstable."
Shikamaru walked over, stepping carefully around a pool of the green liquid. He looked up at Hinata. "Hinata. You said the chamber only had one signature when you scanned it."
"That is correct," Hinata replied, her voice doubling. "When we breached, there was only the man. These bodies… they were inanimate objects on the shelves. As soon as we entered, they underwent a rapid biological cascade. They reanimated instantly."
"A defensive measure," Asuma concluded, sheathing his knives. "Either that person activated it, or our presence triggered a proximity seal. It was a failsafe to buy him time to escape."
He turned back toward the gaping hole in the side of the building.
"Well," Asuma said, lighting a fresh cigarette and shielding the flame from the wind. "It seems his backup plan failed. I think it's time to ask him a few questions about where he got these party favors."
The bald man sat bound to a sturdy chair salvaged from the wreckage, the ropes digging him. He looked up, sweat beading on his scarred scalp, at the two figures dominating his field of view. Directly in front of him stood Asuma, casually smoking a fresh cigarette, the flame illuminating the hard lines of his face. To his right loomed the armored colossus of Hinata.
Asuma exhaled a stream of smoke, looking down at the broker. "Where did you get those things? The mutants."
The man gritted his teeth, puffing out his chest in a futile attempt to look intimidating despite his position. "I ain't telling you Leaf bastards a damn thing. I have powerful friends. You touch me, and…"
Asuma didn't blink. He simply tilted his head to the side.
Behind the chair, Ino stepped forward. She placed her hands on either side of the man's head, her fingers splayed.
"Ninpō: Shintenshin no Jutsu (Ninja Art: Mind Transfer Jutsu)."
The broker's eyes rolled back into his head, and his body went slack against the ropes. His jaw hung open, drool pooling at the corner of his mouth. The room went silent for a full minute as Ino navigated the surface currents of his consciousness.
With a sharp intake of breath, Ino slumped slightly, catching herself on the back of the chair as she released the jutsu. The broker's head lolled forward, unconscious.
"I couldn't go deep," Ino reported, rubbing her temples. "Doing a deep dive without the T&I division support takes too long and is dangerous. But I got the surface layer."
"And?" Shikamaru asked.
"He's a broker," Ino said. "He's been running this collection point for over a year. He connects illegal bounty hunters with clients who don't want to go through official channels. Those monsters… they were a 'gift' from one of his biggest clients. He thinks of them as high-end security dogs."
"What about the payment in the capital?" Asuma asked. "The cash for the medical equipment."
"He remembers that clearly because of the volume of money," Ino nodded. "Masked shinobi. Cloaked. He is one hundred percent convinced they were official Konoha Anbu. He thinks we are one of his patrons. He never asked questions because they were regulars. They brought in bodies, he paid them out."
Asuma frowned, the cigarette shifting in his mouth. "Regulars. Fantastic. Alright, toss this place. If it's not bolted down, check it."
The Konoha shinobi spread out through the ruined chamber.
Kiba and Choji pried open a large, reinforced steel safe in the corner. Inside, stacked in neat rows, were bundles of cash, bearer bonds, and heavy bars of silver and gold. It was a fortune accumulated in blood.
Along the walls, Shino and Ino inspected the remaining intact shelves. They pulled back the sheets covering the cold bodies.
"Missing-nin," Shino noted, recognizing a face from the Bingo Book. "B-rank. Wanted in the Land of Hot Water."
"This one isn't a ninja," Ino said, examining a corpse in a cheap suit. "No callus on the hands. Soft. Looks like a merchant or a civilian."
While the others cataloged the dead, Hinata moved to the broker's desk. It was cluttered with papers that had miraculously survived the explosion and the subsequent brawl. Shikamaru was already there, sifting through a stack of loose receipts.
Hinata picked up a thick, leather-bound folder. She flipped it open. It was a catalog of targets, a black market mirror of their own village's Bingo Book. Each page featured a hand-drawn portrait, a description, and a price.
She turned a page and froze.
The portrait was a bald man with, a monk. The name printed below was Chiriku. Affiliation: Fire Temple.
The bounty was 30,000,000 ryo.
She turned the page.
The next face was familiar. A beard, a cigarette, a sash. Asuma Sarutobi. Former Guardian. 35,000,000 ryo.
Hinata flipped the page again.
She stared at two drawings. One depicted her in her full armored state, a towering silhouette of black plates and glowing lines. The other was a sketch of her face without the helmet, her Byakugan eyes rendered in stark detail.
Hinata Hyuuga.Alias: Konoha's Monster.Abilities: Unknown Kekkei Genkai variant. Heavy assault specialist.
The text below, which were descriptions of her abilities, was riddled with inaccuracies, as if it was compiled from various rumors and maybe testimonies, but the price at the bottom was very clear.
100,000,000 ryo.
Beneath the number, a note indicated the bounty was a cumulative pool from multiple sources.
Flattering, Venom purred in her mind, a low vibration against her skull. We are valued highly. Perhaps we should pay these 'customers' a personal visit. Refund their investment... with interest.
"Asuma-sensei," Hinata called out, her voice calm but heavy. "You need to see this."
Asuma walked over. Hinata handed him the folder, open to his own page.
Asuma looked at his own face, his expression unreadable. He tapped the ash from his cigarette. Then he flipped the page back to Chiriku. He stared at the monk's image for a long moment, a shadow passing over his eyes.
He nodded once, closing the folder and handing it back to Hinata. "Keep that safe. It's evidence."
The search continued. In a lower drawer, Shikamaru found the transaction ledgers. They were meticulously kept, detailing every payout and intake for the last year.
"Here it is," Shikamaru said, his finger tracing a line. "The payout that matches the medical equipment receipt. Three Konoha-nin arrived. They delivered five bodies. The payout was… massive."
"Who were the targets?" Hinata asked, leaning over his shoulder.
"Civilians," Shikamaru said, his brow furrowing. "I'm cross-referencing the names… These aren't criminals. They're bureaucrats. Low-level government officials from the Land of Rivers and the Land of Grass. Why would anyone put a bounty on a tax collector or a bridge inspector?"
"Who put up the money?" Ino asked, joining them.
Shikamaru flipped to the client index at the back of the ledger. "Client code… originates from the Land of Grass. It's a proxy. Different runners brought the cash to set up the bounties."
"And the mutants came from the same source," Ino added. "According to the broker's memory, the client sent them as 'security' for the facility."
Hinata stepped back, her mind racing.
"Mutants means Orochimaru," she stated. "He is the only one producing biological weapons of that specific nature. We destroyed a convoy of his that was moving medical equipment."
It was a convoluted web. Someone, likely Danzo, given the 'Konoha-nin' disguise, was hunting down random foreign officials to collect black market bounties posted by Orochimaru's proxies. They then took that dirty cash, washed it through this broker, and used it to buy legitimate medical equipment from the capital, which then vanished into the shadows. Most likely ordered by Orochimaru.
This bears another question. Why Danzo, if it is him, even bothering with all of that? Why he is getting involved in these schemes for Orochimaru? This looks like a liability from his side.
"We're done here," Asuma announced, breaking her train of thought. "Pack it up."
The team moved quickly. They sealed the corpses of the mutants and the bounty targets into storage scrolls. They swept the safe, sealing the money and gold into evidence scrolls. The ledgers, the Bingo Book, and the documents were secured.
Asuma hoisted the unconscious broker onto his shoulder.
They exited the ruined building, stepping out into the quiet street. The destruction was obvious, a gaping hole in the wall, debris scattered across the road, yet the town remained eerily silent. No one came out. No local police, no curious onlookers.
The Konoha squad took to the rooftops, leaving the town and its secrets behind, turning their faces toward the Village Hidden in the Leaves. The puzzle pieces were gathered, but the picture they formed was becoming increasingly dark.
The return trip to Konoha was quick, driven by the urgency of their findings. The mission had consumed two days in total, the trek to the Capital, the subsequent investigation, the raid on the Black Market, and the return journey.
Upon arrival, the unconscious broker was handed over to the interrogators. The sealed scrolls containing the corpses of the mutants and the bounty targets were rushed to Forensics for autopsies. The mountain of paperwork, ledgers, and the money, were carted off to the Intelligence Division.
Now, the dust had settled.
Hinata stood in the Hokage's office, flanked by Asuma, Shikamaru, Kiba, Ino, Shino, and Choji. Akamaru sat faithfully by Kiba's leg, looking tired.
Tsunade sat behind her desk, her hands clasped in front of her face, her expression grave.
"The initial summaries of the data you gathered are… concerning," Tsunade began, her voice low. "After your report from the Capital, I dispatched a second team of shinobi to investigate the supplier's facility and the staff further. We need to know how deep the rot goes."
She looked at the weary group. "As for the broker… Ibiki is handling him personally. We can expect something reasonable soon. You have all performed admirably under these circumstances."
Tsunade leaned back. "Kiba, Shino, Choji, Ino. You are dismissed. Get some rest. Asuma, Shikamaru, Hinata. Stay."
The dismissed Chuunin bowed and filed out of the room. The heavy door clicked shut, leaving the room quiet.
Tsunade turned her gaze to the young strategist. "Shikamaru. Give me your assessment. What are we looking at here?"
Shikamaru sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. "It's a supply chain, Hokage-sama. A very expensive, very complicated one. First, the mutants. They are biologically distinct, unstable, and heavily modified. That's Orochimaru's signature. We've seen it before."
He gestured vaguely with his hand. "Then there's the Black Market. We've spent years dismantling these hubs, yet this one was operating right under our noses. They processed bounties for missing-nin, criminals, even civilians. It generated massive amounts of untraceable cash."
"And the deception," Shikamaru continued. "Ino confirmed that the broker was convinced he was working with Konoha shinobi. And that secretary in the Capital… she knew our procurement forms better than some of our own logistics officers. She smoothed over every crack in the paperwork."
Shikamaru looked up, his eyes sharp. "Orochimaru needs heavy medical equipment. Someone inside Konoha is running a complex shell game to buy it for him using laundered bounty money, all while using agents posing as Konoha ANBU to keep everyone else in the dark."
Hinata stood silently next to Shikamaru. Her helmet was sealed away, her long hair pulled back in a severe bun. She watched Tsunade's face closely, looking for the expressions that would reveal the Hokage's thoughts.
"It looks like this operation has been running for at least a year," Shikamaru concluded. "Maybe longer. But the question is… why? Why would that person bother helping Orochimaru? It's a massive liability. If this gets out, it's treason."
"Before Orochimaru defected," Tsunade said, staring at the grain of her desk, "he was reclusive. Secretive. But he needed resources for his experiments even then. I suspect he and that person have a working relationship that predates his exile. Old habits die hard."
She shifted in her chair. "Team Kakashi returned a short while ago from the Fire Temple."
Hinata's breath hitched almost imperceptibly. Naruto is back.
"They completed their mission," Tsunade said, though her tone wasn't celebratory. "But there were complications. The grave robbers weren't just thieves. They were highly skilled, possessing unique earth-based jutsu. Team Kakashi neutralized them, but it was a close call."
Tsunade slid a folder across the desk. "They found documents on the leader's body. Correspondence. It confirms contact with the very same person we suspect."
Hinata stepped forward slightly. "Hokage-sama. While the connections are there… it is all circumstantial. The broker was fooled by disguises. The secretary is dead. The grave robbers are dead. He can deny everything. He can claim he is being framed."
"I agree," Tsunade said, frustration tightening her jaw. "We have circumstantial evidence, but we lack definitive proof yet. And now that we've raided the market and the capital, he knows we're looking. He's going to lay low."
She stood up and walked to the window, looking out over the village.
"However," Tsunade said, turning back to them. "We have an opportunity. In a few hours, there will be a high-level administrative meeting. The topic is an update on village financial policies and budget allocation for the next quarter. All division heads will be there. The Elders will be there."
Tsunade's eyes narrowed. "Especially him. He has been demanding to be included in this specific meeting for weeks. He's eager to see where the money is going."
"You will be attending," Tsunade ordered. "Asuma, you and Shikamaru will be part of the standard guard detail. Team Kakashi will also be present."
She looked directly at Hinata. "Hinata. I am relying on your senses. If he's hiding something… I want to know."
"Understood, Hokage-sama," Hinata said, bowing her head.
"Good. You are dismissed until the meeting starts," Tsunade said.
As they turned to leave, Tsunade added one last detail. "Oh, and Hinata? Team Kakashi didn't return alone. They brought a monk trainee back with them from the Fire Temple. He's currently with Naruto."
Hinata paused, blinking in confusion. A monk trainee? Why would a monk be brought back to a hidden village after a combat mission?
"Acknowledged," Hinata said.
She walked out of the office, her mind already shifting from the mission analysis to the upcoming confrontation. The enemy was no longer in a hidden base or a foreign capital. He would be sitting across the table, wearing the robes of a village elder.
Hinata walked down the steps of the Hokage tower, the heavy wooden doors thudding shut behind her. Her mind was still back in the details of the black market broker. The man had been genuinely convinced he was serving Konoha, yet his own ledgers listed bounties on Leaf shinobi. The decision defied logic, suggesting either a lack of intelligence or a greed that outweighed the instinct to survive. Probably both.
She stepped out into the afternoon sun. The village was lazy in the midday heat, civilians moving slowly through the streets.
Hinata scanned the area, her eyes narrowing slightly. Near the edge of the plaza, she spotted the familiar blonde hair.
It was Naruto. He was standing with Kiba and Akamaru, but there was a fourth figure with them. From this distance, they appeared to be in a heated argument. The stranger wore the white robes of a monk, but he had a mop of unruly blue-gray hair.
Didn't monks usually shave their heads? Hinata wondered.
Kiba was shouting, gesturing wildly at Akamaru, who was bristling, his fur standing on end as he growled at the monk. The monk was shouting back, his body language aggressive. Naruto stood off to the side, hands behind his head, looking thoroughly frustrated.
Hinata approached them, her heavy boots making rhythmic thuds on the pavement. As she drew closer, her towering, armored form cast a long shadow that stretched over the arguing group.
"And another thing!" the monk was yelling, pointing a bandaged arm at Kiba. "You can't just let a beast like that run loose! It's a hazard! If you can't control your mutt, you should put him on a…"
He cut himself off as the sunlight disappeared.
"Hey! Who's trying to intervene in my…" The monk spun around, his head tilting back. And back. And back.
He stopped talking completely, his eyes widening as he stared up at Hinata.
Kiba and Naruto looked up as well. Naruto's frustrated expression vanished instantly, replaced by a wide, sunny grin.
"Hinata!" Naruto cheered.
"Hello, Naruto-kun," Hinata said, her voice a perfect, resonant harmony that vibrated in the air. "Welcome back. I see you have returned from your mission."
"Yeah! Just got back!" Naruto relaxed, his posture opening up. "Man, let me tell you, that mission was a total blast! Literally!"
"Our mission was a blast too," Kiba grumbled, crossing his arms. "Except we were literally inside the blast."
Hinata turned her gaze to the monk. He was still staring at her, his expression a mix of surprise and disbelief. It was clear that between her height, the armor, and the voice, he had no idea what he was looking at.
He looked to be about the same age as them. He wore a sleeveless white robe held by a purple sash, with loose-fitting pants and standard shinobi sandals. But it was his right arm that drew her attention. It was heavily bandaged, from the shoulder down to the fingertips.
"Naruto-kun," Hinata said. "Who is your new companion?"
"Oh, him?" Naruto jerked a thumb at the monk. "That's Sora. He's from the Fire Temple. He's gotta stay in the village for a while. It's… a long story."
Hinata noticed the shift in Naruto's tone. It wasn't just a simple guest situation. Something significant had happened.
She activated her senses, doing a quick, discreet sweep of the newcomer.
There.
A pulse of malevolent, corrosive energy radiated from the bandaged arm. It felt hot, angry, and ancient. It was a sensation she had felt before, standing near Naruto when he was agitated, but this felt… raw. Unrefined.
"Sora," Naruto said, clapping a hand on the monk's shoulder, snapping him out of his stare. "This is Hinata. She's pretty much the most badass ninja in the village, so don't make her mad."
Sora blinked, shaking off his awe. He quickly composed his face into a sneer of arrogance, crossing his arms to match Kiba. "Hmph. Is that so? She's big, I'll give her that. Consider it acknowledged."
Hinata blinked slowly.
"Hey!" Kiba stepped forward, his annoyance flaring up again. "Don't ignore me, monk-boy! You were saying something about Akamaru?"
Grrrrrr. Akamaru bared his teeth at Sora.
"I said he smells like a rug that's been left in the rain!" Sora shot back.
As the bickering resumed, Hinata turned her attention back to Naruto. Up close, she could see the wear on him. There were small patches of dirt on his jacket and a few stitched tears in the orange fabric.
"So," Naruto said, lowering his voice so the arguing duo wouldn't hear. "Kiba filled me in on some of what happened with you guys. The medical equipment stuff."
Hinata nodded. "Yes. It appears your and Shikamaru's suspicions were correct. The supply chain was compromised."
"I knew it," Naruto muttered, his eyes hardening.
"However," Hinata added, "we still lack sufficient direct evidence to tie it to the source."
"Yeah, figures," Naruto sighed. "It's never easy, is it?"
"How was your mission?" Hinata asked. "And why is a monk returning with you?"
Naruto took a deep breath. "Okay, so, when we got to the Fire Temple, I thought the head monk, Chiriku, was gonna be mad about us investigating the donation. But when I showed him the official request, he was super cooperative. Turns out, the money was used to fix up these old tombs."
"Tombs?"
"Yeah! Tombs of the Guardian Ninja," Naruto explained, using his hands to emphasize the importance. "Chiriku used to be one of them! They were his old comrades."
Hinata's mind flashed back to Asuma's words at the gate. One of my old friends from that time… he's a monk at the Fire Temple now.
"So the grave robbers returned?" Hinata asked.
Naruto's face turned serious. "Yeah. And they weren't just thieves, Hinata. They were crazy strong rogue shinobi. It was a total mess. One guy could raise these huge rock mazes, another one put us in these weird illusions… and there was this woman who could use all five natures and switch bodies! It was tedious. Even Kakashi-sensei had to stop holding back. He unsealed that giant sword he got from Zabuza to take them down!"
Naruto started gesturing the sword swings. "They really wanted to get to these tombs."
"Why were they targeting them?"
"That's the crazy part," Naruto said, leaning in. "We found out those dead Guardians knew this insane lightning jutsu. Something that could wipe out a whole city in one shot. But when we finally got to the leader of the robbers… it turned out to be one of the Guardians! Chiriku recognized him! He was supposed to be dead!"
Naruto paused for dramatic effect. "And get this, that guy? The leader? He turned out to be Sora's dad!"
Hinata stared at him, a bead of sweat forming on her temple. "That is… a significant number of revelations for a single mission."
"I know, right?!" Naruto threw his hands up. "It was like, bam, he's alive, bam, he's the dad, bam, he's evil!"
"How did you defeat him?"
Naruto's expression darkened. He glanced over at Sora, who was currently threatening to shave Akamaru.
"That guy… the leader… he did something to Sora," Naruto said quietly. "You felt it, didn't you? In his arm?"
Hinata nodded.
"It's the same chakra," Naruto whispered, touching his own stomach. "The Nine-Tails. His father sealed some of the Fox's chakra into Sora's arm years ago. He wanted to make him a weapon."
Hinata felt a chill. An artificial Jinchūriki?
"Sora… he lost it," Naruto continued. "The chakra consumed him. He turned into this… mini-monster. He was raging. I had to fight him. I managed to use some of the sealing stuff Pervy Sage taught me to suppress the chakra and knock him out of it. But it's still inside him."
"And the leader?"
"Dead," Naruto said flatly. "Kakashi-sensei, Captain Yamato, and Chiriku took him down. He wouldn't stop."
The silence stretched between them for a moment, filled only by Kiba shouting something.
"What was the objective?" Hinata asked. "Why do all of this?"
"I asked that too," Naruto said. "When we searched the leader's body, we found a lot of bad stuff. Maps. Locations of clans, settlements, small villages… but everything pointed to one place. Here. Konoha."
Hinata frowned. "They wanted Sora and the lightning jutsu to attack the village?"
"Looks like it," Naruto confirmed. "But there was more. He had other papers. Documents."
Naruto looked around to make sure no one else was listening.
"They were layouts of Konoha," he said grimly. "Detailed maps of important buildings, clan compounds, guard rotations. And the way they were written… the codes, the structure…"
Naruto looked Hinata dead in the eye.
"It looked exactly like the papers we took from Sai."
"It sounds like someone is actively trying to sabotage the security of the village from the inside," Hinata said, her brows knitting together as she processed the implications. "It is… highly irregular. Dangerous."
"Tell me about it," Naruto agreed, his expression tightening. "We sealed up all those rogue ninjas, even the leader guy, and dragged 'em all back here along with every scrap of paper we could find. The Intel guys are gonna have a field day."
He kicked at a loose stone on the pavement, frustration evident in his posture. "I still don't get it, though. Why work with total scumbags like Orochimaru or these grave-robbing jerks? What's the point? It just makes everything worse for everyone!"
He sighed, shaking his head as if trying to dislodge the confusion. "Anyway, Sora… he's pretty desperate to get rid of that curse thing on his arm. That's why he came along. Pervy Sage said once things settle down, he can set up a barrier and we extract the Nine-Tails' chakra safely. Get him back to normal, ya know?"
"That is a good decision," Hinata said softly. She paused, her mind circling back to the gruesome nature of the Fire Temple mission. "But… how were they planning to use the deceased bodies of the Guardians? Did they intend to use them as simple puppets?"
Naruto shook his head vigorously. "Nah, it was way worse. The leader guy… he was talking big. Said he had a way to reanimate them. Bring 'em back to fight for him. He was really sure about it, too. Like he'd done it before." He shrugged. "But, well, he's dead now. So all he's got left is his own body and those crazy notes he wrote down."
Boooooring!
The voice in Hinata's head groaned, stretching the vowel into an agonizing whine.
Politics. Logistics. Dead men and paper trails. All of this is so unbelievably boring! Where is the battle? We have been standing here talking about dead things for entirely too long!
Hinata ignored the alien tantrum, her attention drawn away by a sudden spike in volume of shoutings down the street. While she and Naruto had been talking, Kiba and Sora had migrated significantly further away, their argument apparently carrying them down the road. They were now standing near a fruit stand, posturing aggressively. Akamaru was barking wildly, Kiba was baring his fangs, and Sora had his bandaged arm raised in a threatening gesture.
"Ah, man…" Naruto groaned loudly, slapping a hand over his face. "Sora's doing it again. He just doesn't learn! Sakura-chan kicked his butt halfway across the Fire Temple for acting like this, but I guess he forgot already."
Naruto slapped his hands together into a cross-shaped seal, his voice rising to a shout.
"OI! KNOCK IT OFF OR ELSE!"
Hinata watched calmly as Naruto prepared to intervene, the shadow of his hands forming the seal stretching out on the pavement.
Naruto didn't hesitate. With a familiar cross-shaped hand seal, the air around the fruit stand erupted in clouds of white smoke. Two dozen orange-clad clones burst forth, diving into the fray with practiced coordination. It was a chaotic pile-up of limbs and shouting as the clones physically pried the growling Kiba and the shouting Sora apart. Akamaru was lifted into the air by three clones, barking indignantly as he was carried away from the monk like a misbehaving puppy.