Industrious - Chapter 58 (Patreon)

Nohara Rin looked over the man explaining the procedure the closest thing she had to a mother was about to undergo. The slightly overweight monk's name was apparently Rihaku. A wanderer who had taken up in Konoha now that he was getting on in years and no longer wished to travel the Elemental Nations in search of ancient and forgotten lore.

...and honestly, she could see it.

As annoying as it was, he had the air of a well-traveled man. His bald head bore a few small scars and discolorations that she knew to be old wounds. Likewise, his face had a few more lines on it than she remembered Jiraiya-sama's. Though that was a few years ago now and might have changed.

He was also, like Jiraiya... or perhaps Tsunade, an undisputed master at his art. Really, his skills were so niche that they slid into the thin overlap between the two great Sannin. Having had the privilege to briefly study under the latter some years prior during her wanderings, Rin knew exactly how rare specialists in medical seals were.

Rihaku's hands danced through complex patterns, his fingers tracing shapes that made her eyes hurt to focus on too closely. “Use those pretty little hands of yours and seal those vessels,” his voice flowed out in a slow drawl even as she scowled at him.

“Of course,” Rin nodded, already moving to do the work before he'd asked. Tsunade had treated her much like he did, as a green recruit who needed to be told every step lest they forget something. “Where did you come up with the idea for something like this?”

Rihaku hummed deep in his large chest, his digits not pausing for even a moment. “This is the fruit of my observations over many years. Life, death, peace, war... it seems that the thing each and every person longs for is more time. Time to experience the world, time to consider choices, time to avert their own demise...”

“So you're a wanderer?” Rin asked, her own hands working as they danced with green healing chakra.

“To a pretty young thing like you? Maybe I just haven't found something worth sticking around for.” Rihaku chuckled, tapping the ink from one of his fingers as if punctuating a sentence before pushing a mote of energy into it. “There we are. That will stabilize her while we move forward.”

Through her connection to Kushina, she could feel the body beneath her go into a sort of stasis, all functions seeming suspended. Rinsing her hands, she ignored the second comment in as many minutes about her appearance. Much like Jiraiya, the older man seemed to be harmless unless you indicated you were fair game. As long as she didn't engage on his level, he wouldn't push too hard. She'd put up with much worse on her own travels. “What's next?”

Rihaku turned and pulled a cloth cover off the intricate artificial spine and Rin felt her breath catch in her throat at the sight of it. Even after studying the designs...

“So that's it, then?” Rin asked, stepping around the operating table and leaning close to it. “Amazing. The quality of these seals... I haven't seen anything like it since my sensei passed. How did you manage it?”

Rihaku huffed and shook his head. “These hands are no good for forging and shaping metal, Nohara-chan. After I did my work on that crippled boy, your Hokage gave me a few other patients' records to look at, this lady included. I mentioned I could fix her if he had someone who could craft me an impossible design I've spent most of my life creating. Imagine my surprise when he showed this off.”

Rin felt her eyes narrow at the confirmation. She'd doubted the old monk had actually created this by himself. Honestly, she'd half-thought it was a discarded relic or something he'd found and looted from a ruin. This kind of thing was the work of an ancient master lost to the sands of time, like so many other creations that were uncovered from time to time or handed down as priceless heirlooms.

“I'll have to see if I can find out who made it,” Rin nodded to herself, already having an idea of where to look. In all likelihood, the answer wasn't the prodigious orphan she knew of through little Narumi, but instead whoever taught him the secrets of the trade.

Although... it wasn't as though she had the kind of pull to arrange a meeting like that, student of the Fourth or not. She'd been out of Konoha for too long for all her favors to still be good... or the people who owed them alive to pay them back.

“I ask you to introduce me, but you ninja are always so tetchy about your secrets,” Rihaku snorted, then eyed her form with a pervert's gaze. “Besides, I'd rather spend the time getting to know you instead.”

Rin gave him a mild glare. “I'm starting to see why you never found a home at any of the temples.”

Rihaku barked a laugh. “True, true. My brothers were always sticks in the mud about that sort of thing. Probably why I took up the wanderer's way in the first place.”

“Perhaps I would be willing to share a few drinks with you if it meant hearing a few stories about the skills you've learned,” Rin offered.

Rihaku paused, blinking as he was obviously taken aback at her reply. He hummed again as he activated a healing technique. Rin watched as he lifted the artificial spine with a firm, but careful grip, his hands coated in soothing green energy. “Perhaps I will have time for that, it would be enjoyable, but we've got work ahead of us before we play.”

Looking at Uzumaki Kushina's back, which had been reduced to a giant gaping wound the color of raw meat and twice as bloody, Rin steeled herself. “Yes, of course.”

“I must compliment whoever did the initial surgery on this woman, though. I could not find a single bone shard from when her spine was shattered. It is extremely impressive that the damage was even reconstructed to the degree it was,” Rihaku stated, pulling out a stack of sealing tags.

Rin nodded. “That's Lady Tsunade's work.”

“She truly is every inch her legend, then,” Rihaku replied, pressing his hands together and saying a short prayer. “Now, let us begin.”

…

“So, what have we got?” Obito asked as he sat down at their makeshift camp on the island of Wave.

“They're definitely here for more than the bridge,” Satsuki started out, running her finger along the handle of her blade thoughtfully. “Their patrol pattern is off. It's too varied around settlements, they focus in on inns and boarding houses and skim over forested areas.”

“You're sure they haven't detected you?” Yakumo asked with a frown, rubbing her chin.

Satsuki rolled her eyes. “You remember that time Kota sealed our chakra off? I've been running on that level.”

Obito blinked, his eyes scanning the girls with the new tidbit. Cautiously, he raised a hand, “I'd like to hear more about that, actually.”

All three girls grimaced, but it was Naruko who spoke up. “Ugh! It was the worst, Obito-sensei! Kota slapped these seals on us and made us run through all of these exercises using basic stealth. Through mud and forests and everything! And if we left a trail he could follow we failed! We were doing that for a month!”

Satsuki twitched at the reminder, her thumb bumping the blade out of its sheath in a nervous tic. “Shut it, Naruko.” Her eyes tracked to Obito. “Kotaro always said that chakra is a tool like anything else, so he wanted us to be able to perform even if we were completely tapped out, met a seal master, or received an... unusual injury.”

Which, Obito noted, hadn't been the word she'd originally gone to use. “Back on topic, then. We can be reasonably sure the trained hunter-nin didn't see you-” Which, again, made him wonder about the specifics of the training Kotaro put them through. “-so they're looking for something instead of just patrolling. Very likely someone.”

Satsuki shrugged. “Whoever it is, they're laying low. I haven't picked out any other ninja lurking around.”

Obito rocked back and forth on the log he'd picked out. He always hated puzzles. Well, no. He hated puzzles he couldn't solve easily. But honesty was for people who weren't shinobi. So he hated puzzles in general. “I think the most likely possibility right now is that they're trying to double-dip with bad intel.”

The girls turned their heads towards him and he sighed. “Sometimes a village gets information that a missing-nin is in a general area and either sends an over-qualified team to pick up an easy mission or picks up a mission they'd normally pass on to have a reasonable excuse to put boots on the ground in any given area.”

“What about the idea we had before, about trying to, um-political stuff. With Wave, Konoha, Kiri, and the Lands of Fire and Water?” Naruko asked, squinting her eyes.

Obito shrugged. “That was always a longshot, but nothing says they can't be trying to hit three or four birds with one stone. You'll learn this later, but oftentimes the best position the higher-ups can manage is one that means they get something they wanted even when a mission fails.”

“We're familiar with the concept,” Yakumo noted, cocking her head. “How so in this situation specifically, though?”

“Well... lately Suna has been pulling away from Konoha's nominal alliance with them, which is a major stabilizing factor in the continental balance of power between the nations. In the scenario where Suna thinks it has more to gain from allying with Kumo and Iwa, that would leave Kiri as Konoha's only viable partner. Manufacturing an international incident, especially a small one that can't blow up into something serious, would give Kiri political leverage to use against Konoha in the event Suna goes through with its move. Or in the event the Hokage and his advisors think that Suna is going to go through with it.”

Naruko rubbed at her forehead with a look of confusion on her face. “It's like listening to Kotaro all over again. Ugh, I hate politics!”

Satsuki scowled. “What if they're here for a trade-off? Like, they're looking for someone, but not to bring them in. Maybe because they have someone or something from the Land of Fire that needs to go to Water.”

Obito rolled the idea around in his head, then shook it out. “Trade-offs like that are usually pretty precise. It's not impossible, but my gut says it's unlikely. If it was something like that, I don't think they'd have taken a mission that would have them in the field this long. They'd have wanted to get it, grab whatever it was, and get back to Kiri as soon as possible.”

Unless they knew whatever it was, was going to be hot enough that someone would be in close pursuit. In that case, having an ongoing 'we're just here to do a normal mission' team would be a good deniable double-bluff while the thief led them on a wild goose chase.

But... nah, that's too deep for what we're seeing here. No need to confuse the issue further.

“The best way forward, I think, would be to flush out their prey.” Yakumo suggested into the sudden silence, looking around the group. “This would sufficiently distract them that we could act on the bridge and accomplish our own mission. Provided they believe the bridge is destroyed and their target is either captured or escapes, they would then have no reason to remain here and leave. Which would allow us to turn over possession of the bridge to the client.”

Obito could feel himself nodding. It was a decent plan. More importantly, it put his precious little genin in the least amount of danger. “A classic, 'Let's You and Them Fight.' We can do that. We should also be ready in the event they actually find whoever it is on their own. If it looks like they'll get their capture too easily, we can play a little low-key interference and distract them.”

Satsuki frowned and slid over the map she'd been using to plot the enemy's patrols. “Okay, but where is the target? They've searched pretty much every settlement on the island the last few days. At least, the ones within easy reach.”

Yakumo leaned over, “so our choices are these remote fishing villages, the monk temple in the mountains, and the Daimyo of Wave's capital on the other end of the island.”

“Probably not the capital,” Obito waved them off. “I stopped in there a few years back and unless something big's changed, there's nothing worth calling it a 'capital.' The daimyo of the island is mostly a figurehead since the area is under the Fire Daimyo's suzerainty. So the Wave Daimyo spends most of his time in the Fire Daimyo's court, by personal preference too. Still, it's enough of a capital that there are some shit-postings for spies who've fucked up other missions.”

“So they'd see whoever we're looking for if they were hanging around there,” Naruko translated with a frown as she looked over the map herself. “Hmm... what about there?”

The rest of the team followed her gesture as she tapped a blocky icon on the map.

Satsuki looked up to stare at her with a deadpan expression. “That's the client's trading compound, dumbass.”

Obito opened his mouth to reply automatically even as he felt his stomach drop precipitously.

“It's still a place we should look, bitch,” Naruko replied with a raised finger. “Someone could totally hide there! When Obito-sensei and I went to check it out, it's huge. They've got lots of crates and warehouses and stuff!”

Given that the exchange wasn't as loud or vitriolic as it could have been, both were caught off-guard by Obito's groan as he dropped his head into his hands. “Or Gato could have hired a wandering nin to run security on his place if the locals are really giving him shit and building the bridge as a protest.”

There was silence around their camp.

“In that event,” Yakumo stated thoughtfully, sounding the words out as she spoke them. “The villagers might have resorted to banditry or sabotage of the client's property. Having a skilled individual to make a proper example out of them would be appealing to someone interested in protecting their assets.”

Obito resisted the urge to let loose a string of curses as he let out another groan.

Just my luck. Just my fucking luck.

“I don't suppose there's any chance the client would be willing to let us... borrow their security nin?” Satsuki asked, the question awkward even to her. “With return optional?”

Naruko snorted. “Look who's the dumbass now!”

“Children,” Yakumo called, just as Satsuki opened her mouth to reply. The Kurama heiress' gold-flecked eyes were deeply unamused as she stared them down. Most would have thought that either the Uzumaki or the Uchiha would take the top spot on the three-man team, Obito reflected silently. Those people obviously weren't familiar with clan egos. No, neither of the two girls would allow the other to hold the position. So Yakumo was the only reasonable compromise if they wanted to get anything done at all.

Which led to the normally introverted and quiet girl developing a non-nonsense stance for their bullshit, Obito noted with amusement.

That was undeniably a good thing. I'd have hated to step into the leadership squabbles of genin. It would totally harsh my cool-older-leader persona I've got going on.

“Okay,” Obito clapped his hands to draw their attention back. “This is what we'll do. Keep in mind, this is a quick and dirty plan, so if you see an area for improvement, speak up. Consider this a training exercise, even.”

Three days later, Obito would look back on the entire mission and regret that he hadn't knocked the genin unconscious and booked it back to Konoha at the first sign of complications.

~~~

Alright, this one was a little more difficult to get out.  Sorry about that.  A combination of some family drama, a bout of personal headaches (literally), and a bit of writer's block on how to structure a scene.

That's over now, though!  I'm likely going to be looking at doing a chapter of Nexus Event this week to shake the dust off and do something different.

I've also got the next chapter of Winning Peace started, so expect that some time as well.