Shino suddenly said, "He's even more cautious than I expected."
Chizumi replied softly, "That's what happens after getting burned."
"People like that are troublesome."
"But easy to predict."
"Why?"
"Because he'll keep thinking, 'I can't get bitten by the same trick twice.'" Chizumi's gaze settled on the main building. "The more he thinks that, the more his eyes will keep going to the places that hurt the most yesterday."
Shino was quiet for a few breaths.
"So?"
"So he'll nail down places like the western well courtyard, the southwest slope, and the main lane tighter and tighter. But other places, if he doesn't need them immediately, he'll leave aside for now."
"Like Dusty Pass?" Shino asked.
"Like Dusty Pass."
The conversation in the main room continued, but the voices lowered even further. Maybe someone had moved the map deeper inside, or perhaps they had simply entered an inner room.
Shino suddenly raised a hand and lightly pressed Chizumi's wrist.
"Someone's coming."
Almost at the same time, footsteps sounded from the east side outside the courtyard.
They weren't the relaxed steps of a patrol, but hurried ones. Two Allied ninja carried someone quickly into the courtyard. The person's body was half-covered in blood, and the cloth wrapped around his leg had already turned red. He was set down under the side-room eaves, and when they lowered him, he let out a muffled groan of pain.
A medical ninja quickly followed, half-kneeling on the ground to examine him. Another shouted toward the main room, "Another hidden pit collapsed over at the well courtyard! Someone fell in. Looks like an old storage layer below!"
Two people immediately came out of the main room.
One was the gray-white armored middle-aged man, and the other was Heidan.
Chizumi narrowed his eyes.
"Old storage layer?"
Shino said quietly, "Last night's explosion was too heavy. It shook loose what was originally beneath the well courtyard."
The well courtyard already had an old well, stone rings, a woodshed, and a large courtyard. If there really were storage layers, old passageways, or deeper cellars beneath it, that wouldn't be strange.
The question was how Heidan would interpret the thing that had "collapsed out" now.
Heidan walked up to the wounded soldier and lowered his head to ask a few questions. The wounded soldier's face was deathly pale, his lips trembling as he spoke between gasps. Shino was silent for several breaths, then quietly translated for Chizumi.
"He says there isn't just one hollow layer underneath. It looks like an old horizontal beam passage. Not everyone who fell in has been pulled out yet. It smells like medicine and mildew inside. Also—"
Shino paused.
"What else?"
"Behind a cracked wooden board, there seems to be burnt talisman ash."
Chizumi's gaze tightened.
"Talisman ash?"
"Mm."
Chizumi's mind raced. They had placed remote talismans and explosive packs near the well courtyard, so it wasn't strange for some talisman ash to be left after the blast. But if that ash had fallen into the old storage layer, it was uncertain how the Allied Forces would interpret it.
Heidan was clearly thinking too.
He stood in place, silent for two breaths, then said directly, "Seal the well courtyard. All unrelated personnel withdraw. Sensory team, demolition team, inspection team—come with me."
The gray-white armored middle-aged man immediately answered, "Yes."
Chizumi lowered his voice. "He's going to inspect it personally."
Shino said, "This is an opportunity."
"What opportunity?"
"The people following him will carry out more openings." Shino's voice was as flat as ever. "The more people there are, the easier it is for insects to attach. Once Heidan moves, I can see his next stopping point."
Chizumi gave a quiet hum, but didn't move immediately.
Because there was still a problem now—should they reposition and follow toward the well courtyard?
If they didn't, they might miss more core conversations. If they did, the risk would rise instantly.
Just as he was thinking, Shino suddenly said, "Don't follow yet."
Chizumi looked at him.
Shino pushed up his sunglasses.
"He is at his most alert right now, and the people around him will also be the tightest. What we want is to hear what he says after he makes a decision, not stand at his feet watching him lose his temper."
After hearing that, Chizumi actually didn't refute him.
"Fine," he said. "Then we stay here and see who remains."
Sure enough, after Heidan took a group of people away, the tall courtyard suddenly seemed looser. Inside the main room, two mapmakers and one Land of Lightning sensory ninja remained. On the side-room side, two more people were watching the boxes.
With fewer people, their voices didn't have to be as tightly suppressed as before.
One of the young mapmakers wiped his face and complained quietly, "The well courtyard again… So many people died there last night. Isn't that place unlucky enough already?"
The sensory ninja beside him said coldly, "Shut up. The general hates hearing people mention bad luck."
"I didn't say it in front of him," the young man muttered softly. "I just think this village started feeling cursed from the well courtyard onward. First it got bombed, then the people guarding it at night said they kept feeling something moving in the wall cracks…"
The sensory ninja glanced at him.
"That's because you didn't sleep."
"I really heard it." The young man lowered his voice. "Like something crawling behind the wooden boards."
Hearing this from behind the wall, Chizumi tilted his head and looked at Shino.
Shino's face was expressionless.
Chizumi said quietly, "Your bugs scared someone."
Shino replied evenly, "That means they were not focused enough."
Inside the main room, an older person cut in, "Stop being paranoid. The thing we should be watching most is the southwest forest. Konoha retreated from there last night. Tonight, they may switch to the southern trail and sneak in again."
Chizumi's eyes shifted slightly after hearing that.
This sentence did not come from Heidan, but it was clearly a judgment gradually forming within the Allied Forces—they were defaulting Konoha's next infiltration route to "the southwest or the south."
That meant for a short time, the eastern gentle slope, and perhaps even some routes farther north, might be considered "relatively safe."
As he was thinking, someone from the side room brought up another matter.
"Did they recover those boxes of Lightning Burst Tags from the northern warehouse?"
"No."
"The batch stolen from the forest last night?"
"Yeah. Not much trace left. The fire was too big, and the footprints were all messed up."
"The general cursed pretty hard this morning."
"Wouldn't you? We fought all night and took the village, then Konoha turned around and carried off a cartload of tags, medicine, and soldier pills."
At that point, the speaker suddenly laughed a little stiffly.
"Honestly, this is the first time I've seen someone steal logistics so righteously."
The other person couldn't laugh and only said, "You'd better not let the general hear you say 'steal.' He'll think you're praising the other side for being clever."
Chizumi's lips twitched faintly when he heard that.
After a moment of silence, Shino suddenly said, "Your reputation among them is not bad."
"Is that so?"
"At least enough that they can't sleep steadily."
"That's enough."
The two lay behind the wall for nearly another quarter hour.
During that time, Shino's insects gathered quite a lot of fragmented information. For example, the Allied Forces had transferred another Water Release squad from the north last night, specifically to counter forest fires and fire attacks. For another, deeper storage pits were being dug beneath the tall eastern courtyards, preparing to store remaining medicines and talisman materials separately rather than concentrating them in one place. Also, before this evening, three new sentry points would be established along the southern trail, one of which would be staffed by a sensory type.
All of that was useful, but Chizumi still felt something was missing.
What was missing was something more like a "next step."
Not "what are they doing now," but "which hand are they preparing to reach out with next."
After a while, people finally began returning from the well courtyard.
The first to return were two from the demolition team. Their trouser legs and sleeves were covered in ash, and their faces didn't look good. Immediately after them came the gray-white armored middle-aged man. He walked faster than when he had left, and his expression was even darker. The moment he entered the courtyard, he went straight into the main room.
Heidan did not return immediately.
Chizumi's gaze darkened. "He's still at the well courtyard."
Shino closed his eyes, as if following another line of insects.
"Mm. Three people are with him. One sensory, one demolition, one seems specialized in talisman formula appraisal."
"What did they find below?"
Shino was quiet for five or six breaths before saying softly, "Old wooden beams, medicine jars, two long-rotted skeletons, and several cracked talisman board fragments."
"Talisman board fragments?"
"Not the type we currently use. Older." Shino paused. "There may have originally been old seals or an old talisman storage layer beneath the well courtyard. It isn't all from last night."
Chizumi frowned.
That made things complicated.
If the talisman boards found beneath the well courtyard were not entirely from their setup last night, how would Heidan judge it? Would he suspect Bamboo Village had something buried or hidden there in the past? Or would he simply attribute everything to Konoha?
Shino continued, "Heidan is asking one question now."
"What?"
"He is asking, 'Who used to manage medicines and sealed items in the village?'"
Chizumi's eyes shifted.
"He wants to investigate the old foundation."
"Yes."
"Then his next step will be to find locals."
"Or find captured people who can identify the village."
Chizumi cursed under his breath.
This was troublesome. If the Allied Forces began systematically searching for locals, old registries, or even the village's account books and property deeds, some of the temporary arrangements they had made in Bamboo Village might not be directly exposed, but the village's complexity would become clearer and clearer to the enemy. The clearer it became, the more they would reinforce it and the less likely they would be to step carelessly.
But conversely—if they began investigating "the past," their attention toward "what is currently happening around them" would be diverted.
Chizumi suddenly asked, "If we wanted to do it again—not blow something up, but enter and kill one person before leaving—which route would most easily bring us into contact with Heidan?"
Shino paused rarely, as if seriously weighing whether this question was casual or whether Chizumi was already planning the next move.
"Now?" he asked.
"Not now. Just asking."
Only then did Shino say, "Impossible in daylight. At night, if he still moves between the well courtyard and the tall courtyard, the shortest route is along the beam line over the collapsed western roofs. But once you go in through that route, it will be hard to bring anyone back out."
"What if I go alone?"
"You can reach him alone," Shino said calmly. "But you will probably die by the third wall on your way out."
Chizumi clicked his tongue.
"You're very direct."
"Because what you asked is not worth phrasing gently."
As they spoke, Heidan finally returned.
When he came back to the tall courtyard, his steps were faster, his face colder than before, and the hem of his cloak was stained with ash. The moment he entered the main room, everyone inside stood up. Now that they were closer, even Chizumi could faintly hear a few lines.
"…Seal off the area beneath the well courtyard first."
"…Don't dig through all the old layers. Leave two people to watch it."
"…Bring that herb delivery man here again."
The gray-white armored middle-aged man immediately answered, "Yes."
Chizumi whispered, "He really is going to question someone again."
Shino suddenly said, "Wait."
"What is it?"
"He mentioned a 'list.'"
"What list?"
Shino seemed to be piecing together several incomplete lines.
"'Old household registers from the village, medicinal contract lists, outside trade ledgers… dig out whatever can be dug out.' Something like that." He paused, then added, "And another line: 'If we can't get them from the Land of Fire's local officials, take them from elsewhere.'"
Chizumi's eyes instantly turned cold.
"Elsewhere—does that mean grabbing people along the road, or intercepting logistics documents?"
"Both are possible," Shino said. "But it sounds more like the latter. Lists like that wouldn't all be in the village."
Chizumi's mind immediately flashed through the southern reception point, the evacuation roster, the compensation registration documents in Shizune's hands, and the Bamboo Village resettlement records that border logistics had probably already started reorganizing.
If the Allied Forces really targeted those things, then the problem wasn't just Bamboo Village anymore.
That meant they would follow the line of "who was evacuated, where they were taken, who is still alive, and who can be brought out to identify the village."
Chizumi whispered, "This needs to be brought back immediately."
"Not enough," Shino said.
"What else is missing?"
"Where he plans to reach out and take it." The gaze behind Shino's sunglasses remained calm. "Right now, it's just an intention. But if we can hear which line he is specifically preparing to touch, the value of the intelligence doubles."
Chizumi was silent for two breaths.
Then he said, "Listen a little longer."
This little while passed even more slowly.
Because both of them knew that with every extra breath they stayed, the risk increased. There were more and more people in the village, patrol routes were being rearranged, and even the sensory ninja on the southwest rooftops had moved closer to them.
But precisely because of that, if Heidan's room was really about to finalize the "next step," now was the most likely moment for it to surface.
Finally, someone else entered the main room.
This time, it was a young ninja carrying a short scroll. After entering, he knelt on one knee and presented the scroll with both hands.
Heidan opened it, looked twice, and asked something.
The young man immediately replied, speaking very quickly.
Shino was silent for three or four breaths, then quietly translated. "The southern reception point has only revealed two outer lines; they can't enter. The Land of Fire border logistics area has increased personnel over the past two days. The village resettlement list has not been obtained yet, but the team escorting the compensation documents will take the western relay road the day after tomorrow."
Chizumi's eyes narrowed sharply.
The day after tomorrow. Western relay road.
This was no longer a vague "wanting the list." It had a specific time and route.
Inside, Heidan was silent for a while before saying, "Don't touch it the day after tomorrow. Too obvious. Mark out the western relay road first. Intercept when their second batch of resettlement supplies moves."
The young ninja answered.
Heidan added, "Have people watch the reception point first. Don't bite yet. I want to know whether the people coming out are officials or villagers."
By this point, Chizumi knew they had enough.
This intelligence had to be taken back immediately.
But at that exact moment, an accident occurred.
From a crack in a collapsed wall not far from the two of them came a very faint "creak."
Not an insect sound, nor wind.
More like the sole of someone's shoe scraping against broken tile.
Chizumi and Shino turned their eyes at the same time.
At some point, an Allied ninja had circled around to the edge of this ruined courtyard behind the collapsed wall. He was half-crouched behind a low wall, still carrying an unfinished water pouch. He had probably come to this secluded place to catch his breath, but when he raised his head, he happened to see a bit of shadow behind the wall that shouldn't have been there.
~~~
F this! I hate this! This author is bullshitting every chapter! I might come back but anyway. This is Dropped!