"This was the third time."
Chiba stopped at the street corner outside Iruka's apartment. A Sensing Vine beneath his sole stretched along the drainage ditch. Unfamiliar chakra skimmed past the wall before vanishing beneath the window.
Bai Ye stood in the shadows beneath the rear eaves, wearing an old coat Chiba had found for him.
"They've already left."
"They left behind a scent."
"You smell people through wood?"
"Their chakra touched the roots."
Bai Ye looked along the wall, his fingers touching the insulating wood layer beneath his collarbone.
"They weren't like the people chasing me. Those people leave behind a snake stink. This one was cleaner."
"Root operatives are trained to hide themselves."
"Konoha Anbu?"
"Or possibly Hidden Sound Village."
Bai Ye stepped on a flake of fallen plaster and pushed it aside with his toe, revealing half of a narrow, elongated footprint beneath it.
"Their feet landed lightly, their heels never touched water, and they always kept enough strength to turn around while walking. Whoever came here was used to being chased."
"Or used to killing those who chased them."
A window opened on the apartment's second floor. Iruka leaned out, still holding a half-graded report.
"What are you two doing under my building?"
Bai Ye retreated a step deeper beneath the eaves, out of sight of the window.
Chiba looked up at Iruka.
"Passing by."
"The route from the school to your clan grounds doesn't come this way."
"Detour."
"Who was that?"
"Someone I picked up."
Iruka set the report on the windowsill.
"Come up first. I have something to ask you."
"Ask here."
"About Naruto's Shadow Clone Technique report. Are you sure you want me to shout it out?"
Chiba entered the apartment by the stairs. Bai Ye remained in the back alley, extending a short length of bone from the inside of his arm to mark the spot on the wall where the unfamiliar chakra had disappeared.
The moment the door opened, a stack of reports was shoved into Chiba's arms.
"Naruto said you were responsible for commanding two hundred Shadow Clones yesterday."
"He lied."
"He also said you told him to bring poisonous spores into the classroom."
"That was a lie too."
"Then why does he write your name every time he gets into trouble?"
"Because Sasuke won't submit his reports for him."
Iruka pulled out a chair and spread Naruto's original draft across the table. The first two pages were fairly neat, but the rest were covered in drawings of clones fighting each other.
"Help him rewrite it."
"No."
"If he doesn't finish it today, he'll be kept after school again tomorrow."
"Then let him stay."
"Aren't you teammates?"
"The flag capture exercise is over."
Iruka stared at him for a moment, then placed a pen beside the report.
"At least tell him why his Shadow Clone chakra keeps becoming unstable."
"The original body distributed it unevenly."
"Write that down."
"You write it."
"Chiba."
Chiba did not touch the pen. His gaze passed over the corner of the table and settled on a thin black thread caught in the window crack.
The end was so short that only half remained. Its surface had no oily sheen, and it was not cotton thread used for mending clothes.
"Someone entered your room."
Iruka followed his gaze.
"The window frame was repaired yesterday. It was probably left by the carpenter."
"Would a carpenter use ninja tool wire?"
Chiba wrapped the thread in paper. When he brought it close, he caught a faint medicinal smell. Meridian Poison had been soaked into the wire, not enough to directly harm anyone, but suitable for testing whether there was a sensory barrier in the room.
"Who have you offended lately?"
"I deal with more than thirty students who don't hand in their homework every day."
"Ninjas."
Iruka shut the window and checked the door lock once more.
"Someone went through the school training records the day before yesterday. The teacher on duty said the Hokage Tower had requested them. I already reported it."
"Whose records did they request?"
"Yours, and everyone in Team Six."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"The records belong to the school, and the request carried a seal. I can't treat every routine official matter like an attack."
Chiba slipped the poisoned wire into a paper bag.
"Seals can be forged."
"That's why I'm investigating."
A fishmonger shouted downstairs. Bai Ye knocked twice on the back-alley wall, their agreed warning that someone familiar was approaching.
Chiba walked to the window and saw Yakushi Yeyue crossing the street with a lunchbox, but he did not head for the apartment entrance.
An adult in dark gray approached from beside a stall. The two crossed paths behind the fishmonger's wooden cart without their shoulders touching, yet one of the notes in Yeyue's hand was gone.
"Who was that?"
Iruka had seen them as well.
"Probably someone buying medicine for the orphanage. Yeyue often delivers orders for the pharmacy."
"Pharmacy workers don't walk like that."
Every three steps, the man's left foot angled outward by half an inch. His right hand remained inside his coat hem, and he did not change his stride even when encountering puddles.
That was the gait of a man who used a short blade.
The arm held to the inside was used to draw the blade, while the outward-angled left foot made room for a diagonal cut. After exchanging the note, his chakra briefly entered the soles of his feet before withdrawing again as he passed through the crowd.
Chiba memorized the old scar along the man's right jaw, then looked behind his ear. There were two needle marks there, similar to the experimental traces on Bai Ye's body.
"You know him?"
"I've never seen him before."
"I'll go ask."
"Don't."
Iruka reached out to block the doorway.
"You're still recovering. If he's a ninja, chasing him will only alert him."
"You'll be the one in danger if you stay here."
"I can protect myself."
Chiba looked at the hand Iruka had pressed against the doorframe.
"Someone tested poison outside your window, someone searched the school files, and someone is making contact downstairs. Are you planning to wait for a fourth person to knock on your door?"
Iruka did not release the frame. His other hand had already reached for his ninja tool pouch.
"I'll report to the Third Hokage tonight. Go back to the clan grounds first, and stop taking that white-haired child everywhere."
"You saw him?"
"His shoe was sticking out from beneath the eaves."
In the back alley, Bai Ye pulled back that foot and cursed through the wall.
"Are all Konoha teachers' eyes this annoying?"
Iruka heard him and pushed open the window.
"Come out. I need to register your identity."
"Register me so I can live in prison?"
"Konoha has no reason to lock up children."
"That's what the laboratory people said too."
Chiba shut the window, cutting off their conversation.
"I'll explain his situation later. Don't come back here tonight."
"Then where am I staying?"
"At the school."
"I'm not on the night-duty roster."
"There are empty rooms at the clan grounds too."
Iruka looked at Chiba. His hand left the doorframe, and he picked the reports off the table into his arms.
"If I go, what about the person you're hiding?"
"He eats a lot, but he doesn't bite."
Bai Ye knocked three times on the wall outside.
"I can hear you."
When Chiba left the apartment, Yeyue had already followed the man into another alley. Sensory roots pursued them for several dozen steps along the drainage ditch, only to be cut off by lime scattered in advance.
Two hours later, Yeyue returned alone to the area near the orphanage. Chiba was waiting for him by the roadside.
"Who was that man?"
"The pharmacy's new bookkeeper."
"A bookkeeper has calluses on his right hand from drawing a blade?"
"Accounting can cut your hands too."
"What did he give you?"
Yeyue handed him the lunchbox.
"Tomorrow's rice balls."
Chiba did not take it.
"Why was Iruka's name on that note?"
Yeyue shifted his grip on the handle.
"You saw wrong."
"The paper was translucent. Half the writing on the other side was visible."
"It was a medication verification form from the Ninja Academy. Iruka was responsible for signing it."
"Where?"
"Warehouse Seven."
Yeyue walked two steps forward, then stopped beside Chiba.
"Tomorrow afternoon, Naruto will be kept behind to make up his report. Iruka asked you to pick him up."
"He didn't mention that just now."
"The notice hasn't been delivered yet."
"How did you know first?"
"The pharmacy is delivering hemostatic medicine to the warehouse."
Chiba took the lunchbox. There were no rice balls inside, only two pieces of cold smoked meat.
Yeyue continued walking, his sole crushing a thin root growing close to the ground. This time, he still did not sever it.
"Don't go to Iruka's house tonight. People will see you there."
"Who will see?"
"Those who want to."
When Chiba turned around, Yeyue had already entered the orphanage gates without looking back.
After nightfall, Bone Wood roots spread outward around Iruka's apartment. Poison Vines concealed themselves in pipes and wall cracks, while another batch of roots laid sensory nodes along the road from the school to Warehouse Seven.
Bai Ye sat at the entrance to the clan storehouse, using a bone blade to carve up the smoked meat.
"You believe that food-delivery guy?"
"No."
"Then why set things up the way he said?"
"He mentioned the warehouse. That doesn't mean the warehouse is where they'll actually make their move."
"You're planning to stand guard all night?"
"Until they come."
Just after midnight, the sensory root buried beneath Iruka's bed was snapped underfoot. Immediately afterward, three unfamiliar chakra signatures crossed the apartment wall at the same time.
Before you continue