CH_11.3 (406)

The angry sun glared down on a five-man band as they travelled across the Land of Fire on trade routes. They were dressed lightly but covered themselves well to beat the heat and protect themselves from the sun, while carrying between three and four absurdly large wooden cargo boxes on their backs.

While they jogged at a brisk pace, they were moving at speeds comparable to a horse's gallop.

They were clearly not civilians, but they were also not shinobi—at least not currently. Every year, shinobi all around the world left service after completing their contracts. Most of them were still in their early twenties or thirties with the rest of their lives ahead of them and in need of employment.

Private security and protection services were among the most sought-after occupations for former shinobi, but those jobs were limited in number. Not to mention, a majority of shinobi left the service to escape their violent and dangerous occupation.

Long-distance transportation was the option for those people.

Not only was there plenty of demand to go around, but it was a job well-suited for people enhanced by their chakra. Horses and other mules were fast, but couldn't run at those speeds for long hours. The train networks developed by Daimyos of the Five Great Nations were still in infancy.

Former shinobi or average chakra users could run at high speeds for hours, traverse challenging terrain, endure poor weather, and carry heavy loads. When that was combined with the fact that plenty of goods could be safely sealed in storage scrolls, there was more than enough that each courier could transport for the practice to be fiscally feasible. Employing former shinobi also came with an added benefit of a higher level of security against lost goods to bandits.

The group of couriers stopped beside the road for a short water break. They set down their boxes and sat under the shade of the tree canopies to cool themselves down.

"We are ahead of schedule," said one of them as he looked at the sun. "How about we pick up some more speed, get to the destination earlier, carve out some time for a proper soak in a bathhouse. I feel all mucked up," he said while flapping his thin shirt to get some air inside.

"Works for me," said another and others also chimed in agreement.

"The less time we spend near the border, the better. Especially at night," said a courier as he looked around vigilantly. Even though the sun was up, they still had a few hours of journey ahead of them as they were only a few dozen kilometres into the Land of Fire border.

"Ah, because of the rumours?"

"They're not rumours," said a different courier. "I knew one of the guards who got killed."

All of them hailed from the Land of Earth and worked as couriers in the Earth-Fire trade. For the past three months, there had been an increased frequency of bandit attacks against couriers with a soaring percentage of successful attacks, resulting in abnormally high death counts.

Bandits were a risk in the courier business, but it was a known risk. The couriers took precautions to minimise said risk. They strictly followed busy routes with better patrolling security and travelled in groups to avoid becoming easy targets.

"Now that you mention it, I saw a new outpost along the road with two tree-huggers inside. I don't remember seeing it last time I passed through here."

"You didn't see it because it wasn't there before. Three tree-huggers have increased security along the busiest roads. Things have been dangerous recently. I'd like to spend as little time as I can in this country."

"Okay then, it's decided! Let's hurry along and enjoy ourselves with a good soak!" The courier, who had started the conversation, laughed uproariously when he sensed the mood growing grim. "You all are accompanying me to the bar. We're going to get drunk ourselves to—"

The only warning sign they received was the faint hum of metal as it sliced through the air before the kunai dug into the courier's neck from the side. The smile faded from his face and his eyes rolled over as he fell to the side while his hand fruitlessly went to his pierced neck. The man was dead as he hit the ground.

The courier standing closest to him flinched in the split moment of shock as the blood splattered on his face. The silence broke as internal fear met external chaos with a surge of adrenaline.

"Ambush!"

The kunai was thrown with perfect timing. While everyone looked at one of their peers in shock, a spark lit up in the darkness of the woods, unnoticed for just long enough. A fire spear shot out from behind a tree trunk and hit a courier, who was unable to react in time, in the face.

The kunai appeared from the woods on their side of the road. Even though they had retired from service, they were still shinobi and jumped back to create some distance. A masked and cloaked figure slipped out of the woods on the other side of the road, rushed towards the nearest courier, who had his back to him, and buried a sword through the heart from behind.

Three couriers were dead within a second.

The vigilant and uncomfortable courier didn't try to help his peers and chose to run as his first action. He didn't notice another figure hiding behind the stacked cargo boxes that slammed him in the neck, threw him to the ground, and stabbed him in the heart with no chance to resist.

Seeing that there was no way to escape, the last alive courier fell to his knees to beg for his life.

"P-Please spare me! You can take everything, but I beg you, please let me live!"

He desperately tried to reason with the masked figure nearest to him that he had old parents waiting for him to no avail, because he was stabbed in the back with a sword by another. He slumped to the ground but hung onto the last tethers of life.

He and his fellow couriers were dragged to the middle of the road. The masked trio inspected their cargo and took almost everything, leaving behind semi-full boxes with scraps, which they set on fire with a ninjutsu

The trio were too organised to be hillbilly bandits. As his senses grew colder, he noticed that they didn't speak to each other, yet they operated with perfect teamwork, as though their roles were predetermined, planned, and practised with a perfect sense of understanding.

They were not bandits, thought the courier as he felt the growing fire warm his cold body and closed his eyes.

———

 .

Tokubetsu Jōnin Bessho Fujita had been under stress for the past three months, since the start of the trader and courier deaths. For the first couple of deaths, he wasn't concerned as they were under the recorded average, but then it doubled the next month. People were dying and businesses were losing precious cargo, which was harming the trade health between the two nations.

People said that a bandit group of shinobi was targeting the convoys.

He had done everything in his power to curtail the deaths. He had assigned more resources to security and patrols. He had visited towns near the attacks and interrogated people there. He had overreached his authority by forcing couriers to travel in larger groups, which sometimes meant stopping people until a bigger group formed, causing problems as couriers were on a tight time schedule. He had even placed feelers in the major trade towns for a large amount of stolen goods on the market.

But nothing had turned up positive.

No matter how much patrol he increased, none of his men managed to get a glance at the shadow of the bandits. Increasing the group sizes had no effect and instead increased pressure on him from his superiors. He couldn't even track the stolen goods.

Every day nothing worked, and the more stress he accumulated.

It wasn't good for his home life because he could tell that his missus wasn't happy with him recently, and didn't like it when he was at home.

To be honest, he thought he was going to be fired, and someone would replace him to solve the problem, so he was getting ready to move his family. However, it seemed that his boss liked him enough that he wasn't getting fired just yet. But someone was going to come in to fix his mess.

An ANBU investigation was ordered to find the cause and fix the problem.

He only knew that an ANBU-nin was due to arrive sometime today. he had alerted the people at the gates that he was to be informed every time someone new arrived at the border outpost. It wasn't a good decision because three people had arrived today, and every time his secretary notified him about it, he would feel his heartbeat spike up, only to realise it wasn't someone else.

Fujita leaned back into his chair with a deep sigh and closed his eyes.

A part of him was glad that an ANBU-nin was coming to help. People said that meeting an ANBU-nin was never a positive experience. However, he had exhausted all his options, and he was glad to be given one chance to fix the problem instead of being fired.

His only concern was that if the ANBU investigation turned up nothing, he would end up as the scapegoat. Maybe that's why the ANBU-nin were coming. Not to help him, but to build a case against him.

Thinking about it made his stress worse.

Fujita buzzed the button on his desk to call his secretary in.

"Rujida, can you get me some of that herbal tea we got before?"

"Uhm, s-sir."

He opened his eyes at Rujita's concerned voice and was shocked to see her at the door with a masked and cloaked man standing behind her. It was the ANBU-nin. How was he here? Why didn't the guards at the gates inform him? Had he snuck in? If so, how did no one in the entire outpost see a clearly suspicious man who had made it to his office?

If Rujida had gone to bring him some tea, the ANBU-nin could've probably snuck in directly into his office without anyone seeing him.

"Good day, Tokubetsu Jōnin Fujita. I was hoping for some time for my questions," said the ANBU-nin, his voice eerily distorted.

As Fujita thought, this was not good for his stress.

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