"Aoda is on the recruit roster?" Yamada Naoto snatched the roster off the desk and flipped through it, the pages rustling loudly. "He was registered today. Who handled it?"
Might Guy stood in the doorway, his usual enthusiasm subdued. "I watched the taijutsu portion of the recruitment assessment. I didn't spot any suspicious movements."
"Taijutsu won't reveal coded signals." Sasuke pressed the malice scroll facedown on the desk. Red patterns still writhed beneath the paper. "Bring me the application files. No one leaves the Konoha Military Police Force headquarters."
Fugaku raised a hand to stop the Uchiha veteran about to rush outside. "Listen to the clan head. Seal the doors, and don't alert the recruits."
Neji moved to the window and activated his Byakugan. "Three hundred and twenty-seven people in the outer courtyard. They're agitated. Two people in the western training shed are exchanging glances."
Yamada Naoto gripped his sword hilt. "I'll get them."
"Leave them alone." Sasuke pushed the roster toward Neji. "The ones exchanging glances aren't necessarily Aoda. Danzo wouldn't put his real inside man where he'd be easiest to spot."
Kakashi looked at the red patterns on the desk. "Defense Line Map, deal, Sound Ninja, Orochimaru. Those four terms alone are enough to open a treason case."
Shikaku rubbed his forehead as he studied the scroll. "The problem is evidence. Malice can serve as a warning, but you can't take it to the square and show it to the villagers. Without footage of the deal, the Third Hokage will say you're using this to expand your authority."
Sasuke raised his head. "That's why we need to let them complete the deal."
Fugaku's expression darkened. "You're going to let Danzo keep selling out Konoha?"
"He already has." Sasuke pointed to the northwestern line on the scroll, which had yet to fade completely. "If we stop them now, we'll only catch a few errand runners. Let Orochimaru accept the Defense Line Map, let the Sound Ninja enter, and make the inside man talk. That's how we get a complete chain of evidence."
Yamada Naoto swore. "You're turning the village into a gambling table?"
Sasuke glanced at him. "If the Konoha Military Police Force can't even handle the assassins who come in, the Third Hokage will repeal the new law tomorrow in the name of protecting the village."
Kakashi pulled his mask back into place. "I'll take the ANBU to watch the Barrier Team. If Aoda plans to help the Sound Ninja get in, he'll have to access the village's passage records."
"No, you won't." Sasuke opened the recruit roster. "You'll go to the Hokage Building and report to the Third Hokage that, because of Danzo's bounty, the Konoha Military Police Force is preparing to withdraw to the clan compound and fortify it."
Kakashi lowered his brows. "False intelligence?"
"Make the Hokage Building lower its guard." Sasuke tapped the paper. "He'll think I'm scared. He'll think we're pulling back just as the new police law gets underway. Danzo's remaining followers will receive the same signal."
Shikaku studied the row of names. "What about Aoda?"
Sasuke crossed out three genin with unremarkable surnames, then circled a civilian chunin named Qingmu Shen.
Yamada Naoto leaned closer. "His assessment results today were average. Nothing wrong with him."
"Too little wrong with him." Sasuke turned the application over. "He lives in the South District, both parents are dead, and his mission history consists entirely of low-level escort jobs. His record is so clean he's never even had points deducted. In a place like Konoha, a low-ranking ninja being that spotless is abnormal in itself."
Neji added, "His chakra flows half a beat slower than the people beside him, as though he's been taking suppressants for a long time."
Might Guy frowned. "His taijutsu is solid. He deliberately lost to Takaya."
Sasuke pressed a finger over Qingmu Shen's name. "Don't arrest him yet. Assign him to perimeter security at Training Ground Three tomorrow. Let him think he has a chance to clear a path for the Sound Ninja."
Fugaku tapped the edge of the desk. "What about Orochimaru?"
Sasuke picked up another blank scroll. "He'll be tempted. Danzo still has Sharingan, the Defense Line Map, and the locations of the remaining Root hideouts. A snake hates taking a loss, but he hates missing out on experimental material even more."
Meanwhile, hundreds of miles outside the village, someone pushed open the underground base's stone door from within.
Danzo dragged his battered body into the light. His right shoulder was empty, the fabric wrapped in several layers of bandages, and the bloodstains had already turned black.
Orochimaru sat beside an operating table, holding a test tube containing a red eyeball. "Lord Danzo, you look quite different from the leader of Root I remember."
Danzo tossed a Sealing Box onto the table. "Spare me the chatter. Three Three Tomoe Sharingan. Enough to get you moving."
Orochimaru ran his tongue over the corner of his mouth, opened the Sealing Box, and inspected its contents. "Fine eyes, though it's a shame they've lost their fresh vitality. You want me to kill Sasuke Uchiha? That child now has the Uchiha, the Hyuga, the Nara, the ANBU, and Konoha's public support behind him. Three eyes aren't enough."
Danzo planted his left hand on the corner of the table. "What do you want?"
"I want him alive." Orochimaru tapped the test tube with a finger. "Those eyes are fascinating. To drive you to this at only eight years old-killing him would be such a waste."
"Taking him away works too." Danzo's face twitched. "As long as he leaves Konoha, the Uchiha will be leaderless, and the new police law will collapse on its own."
Orochimaru chuckled. "The Konoha Military Police Force is everywhere in Konoha now, and you want me to charge in and snatch him? Lord Danzo, do you take me for a Root death squad member?"
Danzo took a waterproof sealed scroll from his robes and placed it beside the test tube.
Orochimaru's laughter stopped short. He laid a hand on the sealed scroll. "What is this?"
"A map of weak points in Konoha's outer barrier. Hidden channels, gaps in the patrols, the sensory team's shift changes, the Eastern Old Drainage Outlet east of Training Ground Three. It's all in there."
Orochimaru unrolled one corner. Once he saw the Hokage Building's classified stamp, the mockery receded from his eyes.
"You're handing me the keys to the village just to kill a child?"
Danzo leaned his face toward the lamplight, the edges of his wounds bluish. "As long as Sasuke Uchiha lives, he'll seize Konoha. I'm doing this to cut out a cancer."
"Selling Konoha to a rogue ninja counts as protecting it?"
"You have no right to judge me." Danzo spat out each word. "Are we making this deal or not?"
Orochimaru rolled up the Defense Line Map. "We are. But I won't enter the village myself."
Danzo lifted his head. "Are you afraid?"
"I hate taking a hit for someone else." Orochimaru turned. "Kimimaro."
A white-haired boy stepped out of the shadows, pale markings around his joints. "Lord Orochimaru."
"Take the Sound Four into Konoha. Your target is Sasuke Uchiha. Capture him alive if you can. If you can't, gouge out his eyes and bring them back."
Danzo immediately said, "There's one more thing."
Orochimaru turned his face toward him.
"There's an old Root contact inside the village, code name Aoda." Danzo handed over a long, thin Black Needles. "He'll give you Sasuke's route for tomorrow. If the operation fails, have him bite through the seal in the needle and destroy any testimony he could give."
Orochimaru took the Black Needles and examined it briefly, his laughter carrying a chill. "Lord Danzo, you're so considerate toward your own people."
"Root only needs people who complete their missions."
Inside the Konoha Military Police Force headquarters, the red lines on the malice scroll suddenly deepened, and three new words seeped through the paper.
[Black Needles, silencing]
Sasuke stared at those three words and drew a line beside Qingmu Shen's name.
Once Kakashi saw them clearly, he immediately asked, "Should I arrest him now?"
"Arrest him, and all we'll get is a corpse." Sasuke closed the roster. "Have people from the Yamanaka Clan enter headquarters tonight disguised as clerks. Neji, watch his hands. Fugaku, watch his mouth. Guy, watch his legs."
Might Guy thumped his chest. "If he runs, I'll show him the speed of youth."
Yamada Naoto cursed under his breath. "A mole on the recruits' very first day. If word gets out, we'll lose all face."
Sasuke looked up. "Good. Let it get out. Tomorrow, I'll expose Aoda in front of every recruit."
Shikaku frowned. "You want a public interrogation?"
"I want the new Konoha Military Police Force to understand that walking through our doors doesn't wipe anyone's slate clean." Sasuke pushed the map of Training Ground Three into the middle of the desk. "Danzo sold the defenses to Orochimaru, and Aoda sold the route to the Sound Ninja. Tomorrow at dawn, they'll enter through the old drainage outlet, and I'll take the main path. Plant all the Record Scrolls in advance. The footage starts the moment they step through the barrier."
Kakashi picked up the map. "What if the Hokage Building interferes?"
"Tell the Third Hokage I'm afraid of assassination and won't leave the clan compound tonight." Sasuke looked out the window toward the Hokage Building. "If he still sends people to watch Training Ground Three, that means he's even more anxious than Danzo."
A whistle sounded outside, calling the recruits to assemble.
Qingmu Shen stood in the third row of the crowd, his head lowered and his hand hidden in his sleeve. Against the inside of his cuff, a long, thin Black Needles rested on his skin. The snake pattern at its end was growing hot.
The civilian ninja beside him asked quietly, "Qingmu, you don't look well. Are you sick?"
Qingmu Shen raised his head and forced a faint smile. "I'm fine. I'll be better tomorrow."
On the top floor of the Konoha Military Police Force headquarters, Neji's Byakugan pierced past the window lattice and settled on that cuff.
"Clan head, I've found the Black Needles."
Sasuke tossed an evidence bag to Yamada Naoto. "Have an empty bag ready. Don't let him die tomorrow."
The moment he finished speaking, another crow with a broken wing dropped outside the window, its blood spreading across the window paper. Half a snake scale was clutched in its talons, a line of tiny characters carved into it.
[Training Ground Three is only the entrance. The true focal point of the formation is in the Hokage Building Underground.]
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