Chapter 35: The Orphanage
Following the mission clues, Team Five arrived at the town where the commission had been issued. The client was a local wealthy merchant whose only son, a four-year-old boy named Koharu, had disappeared. Since the boy was his only child, the merchant was willing to pay a high price for a C-rank rescue mission.
By now, three days had passed since the boy vanished, and even the father himself had little hope.
Ishiro and the others split up to gather information, then rendezvoused at one of the town's entrances.
Based on what they learned, Koharu was last seen near this very gate.
As the one who insisted on taking this mission, Ishiro spoke up with determination: "Since Koharu was last spotted near this entrance, he almost certainly left through here. Whether he wandered off or someone snatched him, we need to follow this trail."
The other three had no objections, so they departed the town and began searching along the road.
In normal circumstances, after three days, footprints are quite difficult to track. None of them expected much. But luck was on their side: they soon found something.
Because the outside world was so unsafe, children almost never traveled alone, especially in a remote place like this. Consequently, nearly all the footprints on the road were adult-sized – you rarely even saw teenage footprints, let alone a four-year-old's. Yet here they discovered a cluster of small footprints some distance from town. The team's spirits immediately rose.
"Nothing like that on our way in, and none farther ahead, so the child must have been carried most of the time. These footprints likely formed when they took a rest," Ishiro surmised. He circled the area. "Over here, an adult was resting with Koharu. Notice how the adult's footprints are deeper coming and going, but shallow in this spot. Probably because he was holding the boy, then set him down for a moment. Let's follow these prints."
Tanaka and Shouhara agreed, while Kitsuchi made no objection. With that, Team Five followed the footprints swiftly. All they had to do was run a distance, confirm the footprints were still heading the same way, and continue.
They leapfrogged along, pressing forward after each confirmation, eventually reaching a village quite far from town. Not wanting to risk any mistakes, they stayed outside and followed Kitsuchi's suggestion: Ishiro should do a sensor sweep.
Ishiro paused, realizing indeed that he had that "ace up his sleeve" – his newly acquired sensory jutsu. Because the village was fairly small, the range might suffice. Ducking behind one of the houses, Ishiro cast his technique.
Moments later, he said, "I sense no ninja on this side of the village. My max range is about three hundred meters, so I'll circle around to check the other side."
Kitsuchi and the others nodded, so the four repositioned themselves. After scanning from the opposite side, Ishiro concluded, "All told, only a few hundred inhabitants. No shinobi. We didn't see those footprints leading elsewhere, so the boy must be here." Finishing, he asked Kitsuchi, "What next, Captain?"
Kitsuchi smiled faintly. "We're shinobi, not officials. We can be more direct." With that, he led them boldly into the village.
Shinobi often made civilians uneasy, but Team Five wore official Iwa forehead protectors; the villagers recognized them as legitimate. People pointed them to the village chief's home.
Kitsuchi, without preamble, told the chief they had come looking for a missing boy.
The chief, an older fellow who had seen a few things, swiftly confirmed that two days earlier, indeed, a man had brought a child here, claiming poverty and wanting to "sell" him. One household in the village wanted a son, so they paid for the boy.
The chief had suspected the man was lying – the child's clothes were far nicer than the adult's, and the boy looked well-fed, suggesting he was from a wealthy family. Possibly the culprit had planned it in advance. But the chief kept silent, since an extra child in the village was no bad thing.
Hearing this, Ishiro asked at once, "So where's the boy now?"
Unexpectedly, the chief replied, "He isn't in the village anymore. You see, the boy refused to eat the food that family gave him; he cried day and night. They tried to get their money back from the trafficker, but he refused. They quarreled. Then a young nun passed through. She said there was an orphanage in Zhuchang Town that would take him in, though her money was limited. The trafficker did return some of what had been paid, and that settled things."
Shouhara blurted, "Chief, did that nun leave already?"
He nodded. "Yes, she took Koharu and headed off again. Looked like she was going back toward Zhuchang Town."
All four were relieved: at least Koharu was alive. Ishiro cross-checked the child's appearance and outfit with the chief to confirm. Then they hurried off to Zhuchang Town.
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By dusk, they arrived at Zhuchang Town. This was a large settlement, so Ishiro's sensor range wasn't enough to cover it all. Without wasting time, they asked around for the orphanage's location and made straight there.
It stood in a neglected corner of town, with rather shoddy buildings. At the doorway, Ishiro used his sensory ninjutsu again – inside were about twenty children and three adults.
Seeing a group of ninjas approach, the orphanage staff were uneasy and fetched whoever was in charge.
That turned out to be a young nun with light-brown hair and notably large glasses. She was, in fact, very beautiful.
The sight of her momentarily left Ishiro slack-jawed—he nearly blurted out, but managed not to. Inside, his mind spun with possibilities of leveraging the nun's hidden identity for his own gain.
While Ishiro's thoughts ran wild, the negotiations between Kitsuchi and the nun moved swiftly. The nun emerged holding a small boy, with several other curious children peeking around her. One look at the boy she led by the hand told them it was indeed Koharu.
Tanaka immediately stepped up and took Koharu from her. Kitsuchi thanked the kindly, beautiful nun. Just as he was about to say goodbye, Ishiro suddenly flung a shuriken toward one of the other kids who'd followed Koharu out.
Tanaka and Shouhara both froze in shock. Kitsuchi noticed as well; he could have stopped it, but halfway raised his hand and then let it be.
The shuriken flew unbelievably fast toward the child—only to halt right in front of them because a super-thin wire was attached, with Ishiro gripping the other end. Then, with a twitch of his wrist, he reeled the shuriken back.
Everything happened so suddenly. Only then did Shouhara explode in anger: "Ishiro! Are you out of your mind? You nearly scared that kid to death!"
Ishiro ignored him, instead glancing at Kitsuchi. Sure enough, the jōnin no longer had that polite aura, but instead wore a grave expression trained on the nun.
When Ishiro's projectile had streaked toward the child, the nun's eyes had flickered onto the wire for a fraction of a second before quickly shifting away—no chakra fluctuations, no tensing up, outwardly an ordinary civilian. Then she belatedly "noticed" the danger and ran over to comfort the frightened kid, adopting a normal person's wariness. But for a jōnin like Kitsuchi, that moment's reaction time was a dead giveaway that this nun possessed real combat reflexes—and had recognized the wire trick instantly. Her subsequent act only proved how dangerous she might be.
After the orphanage descended into uproar, Kitsuchi apologized, then led Ishiro's trio away.
Once beyond the orphanage walls, with Tanaka holding Koharu, they hopped over the town's perimeter fence. At that point, Kitsuchi shot Ishiro a terse look: "Ishiro!"
Ishiro nodded. He crouched and extended his sensing technique. About a minute later, Ishiro said, "She's coming."
Indeed, in Ishiro's perception, the nun who had earlier suppressed her chakra presence was leaping over the fence. She was as quiet as a phantom, but in that instant, her vital energy briefly gave her away.
Tanaka and Shouhara realized something was off and stared at the looming shape cresting the wall—a nun, apparently a ninja. "Is she a shinobi?" they exclaimed.
Kitsuchi gazed at her, warning, "Who are you?"
She shook her head, refusing to answer.
No response came. Kitsuchi wasted no time and charged forward. Nor did the nun retreat; she met him head-on. The chakra on her hands glowed a faint green, akin to a "chakra scalpel." She used pure taijutsu to parry Kitsuchi's blows.
All the while, Ishiro maintained his sensory ninjutsu to watch the orphanage behind them. If this was some form of clone or decoy, he would notice a missing life signature. Illusions or shadow clones produce different signals, and that subtlety wouldn't escape Ishiro's detection.
Each side displayed jōnin-level skill, leaving Ishiro's trio little chance to intervene. They might only hinder Kitsuchi if they tried. So they stood guard and let him handle it.
After trading dozens of moves, Kitsuchi, slightly stronger in raw power, began pressing the nun. Realizing her pattern, he exploited a gap and forced her to leap upward. Ishiro, having anticipated that moment, shouted: "Now!"
Tanaka and Shouhara flung multiple shuriken from opposite sides. Though the nun twisted midair to dodge most, she had to parry a few with her chakra scalpels. That minor delay let Kitsuchi close in for a decisive flurry of blows. She soon sustained multiple injuries, culminating in a final heavy strike that took her down.
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