Footsteps and Chakra Set the Killing Trap

"The third time."

Chiba stopped at the street corner outside Iruka's apartment. A sensing vine beneath his shoe soles stretched along the drain, while unfamiliar chakra swept past the wall and vanished beneath the window.

Bai Ye stood in the shadows beneath the roof behind him, an old coat Chiba had found draped over his shoulders.

"They're already gone."

"They left a scent behind."

"You smell people through wood?"

"Chakra touched the roots."

Bai Ye circled along the wall, his fingers brushing the insulating layer of wood beneath his collarbone.

"Different from the people chasing me. They leave behind a snake-like stink. This one's cleaner."

"Root operatives are trained to hide themselves."

"Konoha Anbu?"

"Could also be Hidden Sound Village."

Bai Ye stepped on a fallen flake of plaster and pushed it aside with his toe, revealing half of a narrow footprint beneath it.

"The forefoot landed lightly, the heel never touched water. Whoever it was kept enough strength to turn around while walking. They're used to being pursued."

"Or used to killing people who chase them."

A window on the apartment's second floor opened. Iruka leaned out, still holding a half-graded report.

"What are you two doing under my building?"

Bai Ye took a step deeper beneath the eaves, out of the window's line of sight.

Chiba looked up at Iruka.

"Passing by."

"The route from the academy to your clan compound doesn't go through here."

"I took a detour."

"Who's that?"

"Found him."

Iruka set the report on the windowsill.

"Come up first. I need to ask you something."

"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 piece of bone from his inner 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 in charge of directing two hundred Shadow Clones yesterday."

"He lied."

"He also said you told him to bring poison spores into the classroom."

"That's a lie too."

"Then why does he write your name every time he gets into trouble?"

"Because Sasuke won't turn in 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 have to stay after class again tomorrow."

"Then let him."

"Aren't you teammates?"

"The flag-grabbing 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 gets messed up."

"The original body distributes it unevenly."

"Write it 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 gap of the window.

Only half an inch of it 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. The carpenter probably left it behind."

"Carpenters use ninja wire?"

Chiba wrapped the thread in paper. Up close, he caught a faint medicinal smell. The wire had been soaked in meridian poison, not enough to harm anyone directly, but perfect for testing whether there was a sensory barrier inside the room.

"Who have you offended lately?"

"I deal with over thirty students who don't hand in their homework every day."

"Ninjas."

Iruka shut the window and checked the door lock again.

"Someone went through the academy's training records the day before yesterday. The teacher on duty said the request came from Hokage Tower. I already reported it."

"Whose records did they pull?"

"Yours, and everyone in Team Six."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"The records are managed by the academy, and the request had an official seal. I can't treat every normal administrative matter like an attack."

Chiba put the poisoned wire into a paper bag.

"Seals can be forged."

"That's why I'm investigating."

A fish seller called out downstairs. Bai Ye knocked twice on the back-alley wall, their agreed signal that someone familiar was approaching.

Chiba walked to the window and saw Yakushi Yeyue crossing the street with a lunchbox in hand, yet he did not head toward the apartment entrance.

An adult in a dark gray coat approached from beside a stall. The two passed each other behind the fish seller's cart without their shoulders touching, but one slip of paper disappeared from Yeyue's hand.

"Who's that?"

Iruka had seen them too.

"Probably someone from the orphanage buying medicine. Yeyue often delivers orders for the pharmacy."

"Pharmacy workers don't walk like that."

Every three steps, the man's left foot shifted half an inch outward. His right hand remained tucked inside his coat hem, and even when he encountered puddles, he did not alter his stride.

He used a short blade.

The arm on the inside was for drawing the weapon, while the outward-turned left foot made room for a diagonal slash. After receiving the note, chakra briefly gathered beneath his feet, then withdrew 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 scars on Bai Ye's body.

"You know him?"

"Never seen him."

"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 Iruka's hand resting on the doorframe.

"Someone tested poison outside your window, someone searched the academy records, and someone's meeting contacts downstairs. Are you planning to wait for a fourth person to knock on your door?"

Iruka did not release the doorframe. His other hand had already reached for his ninja tool pouch.

"I'll report to the Third Hokage tonight. You go back to your clan compound, and stop taking that white-haired kid everywhere."

"You saw him?"

"His shoe was sticking out from under the eaves."

In the back alley, Bai Ye pulled that foot back and cursed through the wall.

"Are all you Konoha teachers this annoying-eyed?"

Iruka heard him and pushed open the window.

"Come out. I need to register your identity."

"So you can put me in prison afterward?"

"Konoha has no reason to imprison children."

"That's what the people in the laboratory said too."

Chiba shut the window, cutting off their conversation.

"Explain his situation later. Don't come back here tonight."

"Then where am I supposed to stay?"

"The academy."

"I'm not on the night-duty roster."

"There are empty rooms at the clan compound too."

Iruka looked at Chiba. His hand moved away from the doorframe, and he gathered the reports on the table back into his arms.

"If I go, what about the person you're hiding?"

"He eats a lot. 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 around into another alley. His sensing roots pursued them through the drains for dozens of steps, only to be cut off by lime scattered in advance.

Two quarters of an hour later, Yeyue returned alone to the area near the orphanage. Chiba waited for him by the roadside.

"Who was that man?"

"The pharmacy's new accountant."

"An accountant has calluses from drawing a blade on his right hand?"

"You can cut your hands doing accounts too."

"What did he give you?"

Yeyue held out the lunchbox.

"Tomorrow's rice balls."

Chiba did not take it.

"Why was Iruka's name on that paper?"

Yeyue shifted the hand holding the handle.

"You saw it wrong."

"The paper was translucent. Half the writing on the back showed through."

"It was a medicine inventory form for the ninja academy. Iruka is responsible for signing it."

"Where does he sign?"

"Warehouse Seven."

Yeyue took 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 it just now."

"The notice hasn't been delivered yet."

"How did you know first?"

"The pharmacy needs to deliver 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 shoe sole crushing a thin root growing along the ground. This time too, he 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's roots spread outward from around Iruka's apartment. Poison Vine hid within the pipes and wall cracks, while another batch of roots laid sensing nodes along the road from the academy to Warehouse Seven.

Bai Ye sat at the entrance to the clan storehouse, shaving smoked meat with a bone blade.

"You trust the one who brought the food?"

"No."

"Then why set things up the way he said?"

"He said warehouse. That doesn't mean the real place they'll make their move is the warehouse."

"You're going to keep watch all night?"

"Until they come."

Just after midnight, the sensing root buried beneath Iruka's bed was stepped on and snapped. Immediately afterward, three unfamiliar chakra signatures crossed the apartment wall at once.