Mount Tenmoku

Unlike the noisy bustle outside, the stone room was silent. Only the steady footsteps of Ninja patrols sounded beyond its walls. Security this tight could only mean the room held the outpost's most sensitive secrets.

The shadow that had slipped inside pressed itself into a dark corner and took human form again.

Up on the cliff, Tsukimi fully linked his vision to the Shadowkhan's and scanned the documents on the desk.

The Shadowkhan picked up the top file. It was a list of supply transfers from the past few months, packed with meticulously recorded materials.

Green Velvet Grass powder, poisonous herb extract, toxin stabilizers, Puppet joint components, mechanical parts adapted to the human body...

Every material's source was marked "covert channels," not Sunagakure. The crucial destination column was left blank except for a string of numbers. Every record of supplies entering storage, being allocated, or being transferred bore Rasa's signature.

What was Rasa sneaking around behind Sunagakure's back for?

The Shadowkhan stood before the shelves and rapidly leafed through the ledgers. Their records stretched back to the middle of last year, and the volume of supplies had risen month by month ever since.

Yet even after searching every ledger and transfer record, Tsukimi could trace only the movement of vast quantities of supplies. He could find neither their final use nor their destination.

And what did that mysterious string of numbers mean?

"How's it going?"

As Tsukimi pondered, Asuma spoke up, unable to contain his curiosity and impatience.

He's been in there so long. Has he found a lead or not?

"Quiet. I'm thinking!" Tsukimi shot Asuma a glare, then explained, "So far, I've only found supply transfer records. This is definitely one of Rasa's supply hubs, but I still can't see what he's planning. The destinations are encrypted too."

"With this many supplies, Rasa must be planning something big." Kurenai's expression grew graver. "We need to find their main base."

Tsukimi drew a deep breath and pushed his thoughts aside. He turned his attention back to the shadow and continued searching the files. This time, he found something new.

Beneath the heavy ledgers at the bottom of the desk lay a document. The Shadowkhan carefully slid it out.

It had a double-layer waterproof cover stamped with a top-secret seal.

Tsukimi opened the cover and took out the document. It contained only a few clearly written lines, but they made his heart tighten.

[Evacuate the poison-production outpost in the southwestern mountains immediately. Leave clues implicating Cloud Hidden. In seven days, guide the village investigation team into the outpost and provoke a clash between the two sides. Misdirect outside Ninja investigating the matter. Record the investigators' movements.]

The order was brief and cold. Its contents largely confirmed Tsukimi's suspicions: weakening the Pakura Faction was merely a bonus. Throwing investigators off the trail was Rasa's real goal.

Rasa was far too good at scheming. Pakura was too straightforward to stand a chance against him.

Even after uncovering Rasa's setup, Tsukimi kept searching. He still needed to learn where the supplies had gone and what Rasa truly intended.

The Shadowkhan resumed the search, ignoring the ordinary ledgers and focusing on hidden compartments, encrypted appendices, and other critical documents.

After several minutes of careful searching, a thin sheet turned up in a concealed compartment at the back of a shelf.

Only when Tsukimi examined it did he realize it was not an inventory sheet but a map of the Land of Rivers.

It marked the terrain coordinates of the major mountain ranges in the Land of Rivers. Beside each range was a six-digit code instead of a name. The mysterious numbers from the ledgers were among them.

Of course. That solved it!

The numbers in the ledgers were not random codes. They were Rasa's designations for different regions. All the supplies in this valley had ultimately followed the coordinates on this map to the main base.

Tsukimi committed the map and its coded coordinates to memory. Then he noticed a small line of text in its lower right corner.

"Living Puppet: Experimental base for adapting Puppets and Chakra-activated human bodies"

As Tsukimi read it, his pupils contracted. Every clue snapped into place.

Rasa was the mastermind behind all of it.

Starting with his purchase of Green Velvet Grass powder in the Land of Fire, he had stockpiled toxin stabilizers, sought a new type of Poison, and laid a trap to draw in his rival. He had even been willing to get Ninja from his own village killed. The plan he had spent a year concealing, layer by layer, was to create Living Puppet weapons infused with poison.

Rasa was going this far? Human Experimentation too? Did he even understand the human body?

Then again, he was running these experiments behind the village's back. He was probably paying for them himself. No wonder he wanted Kawata Genji dead. After all that work mining gold, a greedy merchant had tried to jack up the price.

That was my damn money!

On the cliff, Tsukimi had the Shadowkhan return every document to its place. Then he slowly opened his eyes, gathered Chakra at his fingertip, and quickly reproduced the complete map and its six-digit codes on the ground. Asuma and the other two gathered around.

"Teacher, where is this?"

Tsukimi pointed to the center of the map, the final destination of the bulk of the supplies. Orochimaru studied it, his golden slit pupils narrowing slightly. He recognized it almost at once.

"That's Mount Tenmoku, an uninhabited forbidden zone deep in the Land of Rivers."

"Mount Tenmoku?" Asuma looked at Tsukimi, puzzled. "What does it have to do with anything? Where did you get this map?"

Now that he had located the main base, Tsukimi told them everything he had learned.

"So Mount Tenmoku is where their main base is?" After hearing the full report, Asuma rolled up his sleeves, ready for a fight. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go! We can hit them before they realize we've found them."

"Don't rush, Asuma." Kurenai put a hand on his shoulder, her brow furrowed. "Even if we know where it is, that's their stronghold. There won't be just a few Ninja guarding it. Charging in with only the four of us would be suicide."

That doused Asuma's enthusiasm. After a moment's thought, Tsukimi turned to Orochimaru, his expression serious.

"Teacher, do you know how to contact the border forces?"

"You want to ask them for reinforcements?" Orochimaru raised an eyebrow, as though he had already guessed Tsukimi's plan.

"Exactly!"