Chapter 77: Scales of Justice (Part-8/12) [Ball Breaker 2.0]

Chapter 77 - Scales of Justice (Part-8/12) [Ball Breaker 2.0] {Didn't want to but here is an extra. You guys better leave the stones} After finding the coin, Ren didn't leave immediately. Instead, he searched around the room for the other things he had seen during his scan. He tore apart the sliding gate in the room and found some letters addressed to Takeshi. He didn't open them yet and moved to the table he had searched earlier. This time, he gripped the corner of the wooden tabletop and ripped it apart, revealing a hidden diary. Ren frowned, 'How did Takeshi even access these things without tearing them apart like I had to?' Even so, he had to commend the man, this was clever. No one would ever think of hiding items inside a tatami mat, within a sliding door, or between two wooden pieces that made up a table. Once he had collected everything, Ren left the house directly, not bothering to clean up or return things to their original places. With the kind of evidence he had found, Takeshi wouldn't be escaping punishment, so a wrecked home hardly mattered. What Ren didn't know was that he could have demolished the entire house, and Takeshi still wouldn't have noticed, because the man was lying unconscious, wrapped up in sealing tags. ~~~ This time, Ren brought everything back to the residence directly instead of dropping it at the marked ANBU collection points. They hadn't been given such instructions for this part of the mission, and the findings were time-sensitive. When he arrived, he noticed several people leaving the courtyard. At the gate, Homura stood with a few members of the delegation. As Ren flickered directly into the middle of the street, attention immediately shifted toward him. Homura motioned him closer and began speaking as Ren approached. "This is Ren Takahashi, one of Konoha's younger generation," he introduced. Then, turning to Ren, he added, "Ren, this is the White Blade, General Takeshiro Honzen." Ren looked at the giant of a man standing in front of him. Despite his size, the man carried himself with a composed, refined demeanor. Ren bowed slightly. "General." The man gave a short hum. "Juichi's son?" Ren nodded. Takeshiro studied him for a moment, then turned and walked off. The rest of his entourage followed. Once they were gone, Homura led Ren inside. The rest of the delegation dispersed. "He's the one who will preside over the trial," Homura said. Ren nodded again. "I found evidence that Takeshi, Gendo's assistant, is a member of General Ryuma's camp. There are also some letters and a journal." "Good work," Homura said simply and waved his hand. An ANBU operative appeared. "Call Utakata, Juichi, and also Yoru if he's not busy." The ANBU flickered away while Homura and Ren headed to a private room. As they settled down, Homura asked, "Your teammates?" Ren replied, "Yugao is tailing Takeshi. Hitoshi is tailing a rat Takeshi used to send a letter." Homura hummed thoughtfully. Inside the room, Homura gestured for Ren to go through the evidence while they waited. The first to arrive was Yoru, who quietly moved to stand in the corner. Soon after, Utakata and Juichi entered. Once everyone had arrived, Homura looked to Ren and gave a nod. Ren stepped forward and pulled out the pouch, bringing forth the coin with the horse symbol. "This was hidden inside the tatami mats in his house," he began. "At first glance, it looks like a regular Land of Iron coin, but it's not a government-issued one. There's a horse symbol that only appears under chakra enhancement. It may signify allegiance to General Ryuma." Yoru took the coin and inspected it closely. "Yes. These are the ones General Ryuma issues to his direct subordinates," he confirmed. Then asked, "Were there multiple coins? Did any of them explode?" Ren nodded. "There were several. But none of them exploded." He pushed the pouch forward as he spoke. Yoru explained, "The fake ones won't do anything, even with chakra input. But a real one would explode if touched by anyone who isn't authorized." He handed the pouch to Utakata, who began inspecting the rest of the coins. Meanwhile, Ren held up the sealed letters. "These are written in some kind of poetic code," he said, "but the message is simple." He placed the first letter down. "This one instructs Takeshi to push a particular explanation to Minister Gendo." Another letter followed. "This one tells him to fake certain records in the minister's archives." Finally, he placed the third. "This one says, 'Minister Gendo backed out. Proceed with the other plan.'" Ren finished by pulling out the journal. "I can't tell anything from this. It's blank. But it was hidden very deeply." Yoru took the journal from him while Homura began rereading the letters, "It looks like Shunpei, or whoever sent these, originally wanted Gendo to cooperate in something. But then Gendo backed out." Juichi spoke up next. "Could it be that the sender wanted Gendo to work with him to frame Shikeru?" he suggested. "But when Gendo refused, they used forged records to implicate him and threw all the blame on Gendo." He finished, "That would explain the letter about tampering with the archives. It was a cover move, if Gendo didn't cooperate, he'd be set up as the scapegoat." Ren looked at his father with surprise, 'I didn't know Dad could use his brain this well.' At that moment, an ANBU flickered beside Yoru and whispered something. Yoru nodded. "Bring them in." The ANBU vanished. Soon, the door opened. Yugao entered, and behind her, another ANBU operative carried in an unconscious figure, Takeshi. Juichi looked at the man and asked, "Who's this?" Ren answered, "Takeshi. Gendo's assistant." He glanced at Yugao, who cleared her throat awkwardly. Homura asked calmly, "What the hell happened? I thought your orders were to tail him, not apprehend him?" Yugao coughed. "Um... I was tailing him, like I was supposed to. But then he suddenly vanished and reappeared behind me. Before I even processed what was happening, I'd already knocked him out with a kick." She added, "It was one kick." She paused. "I used one of the ANBU markers to call for retrieval, and well, now we're here." Yoru ordered. "Call 4." The ANBU behind her flickered away leaving Takeshi on the floor. Yugao moved to stand beside Ren, not saying anything. Ren whispered, "How did you knock him out with one kick?" Takeshi was level 31. Yugao was level 36. It wasn't impossible, but it was still surprising. "I kicked him in the groin," she whispered back. "...With weights on." She buried her face in her hands. Ren stared for a moment, then had a very, very wrong thought. 'Is she trying to be Ball Breaker 2.0?' Soon, another ANBU flickered into the room. Unlike the others, his mask was different, it had four small stars engraved on it, rather than the standard animal design. Just like the female ANBU with three stars who had explained their mission earlier, this one clearly held higher rank. Yoru, still reading through the journal, didn't look up. "Check the body," he ordered. The ANBU gave a silent nod and moved toward Takeshi. He performed basic medical checks, ones Ren immediately recognized from his training. Then, placing one hand on Takeshi's forehead, the ANBU formed hand seals with his other hand. Ren's eyes narrowed slightly, 'Yamanaka mind reading jutsu.' He had once asked his system whether a Yamanaka could read his memories. The system had explained that they could, but only memories from his current life. Any memories of his past life or anything connected to the system would be automatically concealed, with slight alterations made to cover the system's existence. That reassurance had always put Ren at ease. Even though he would never allow anyone to read his mind if he could avoid it, it was comforting to know that his most important secrets were protected, even in worst-case scenarios. The four-star ANBU remained silent for a while, focusing as the technique worked. Finally, he pulled his hand away from Takeshi's head and looked toward Yoru. "Commander." Yoru gave a small nod, giving permission to report. The ANBU began, "He was working for Minister Shunpei, and that diary should contain records of their relationship." He glanced toward the table, then continued, "Minister Gendo had originally accepted Minster Shunpei's idea to work together. However Gendo didn't know that it was frame up, he was led to believe that Shikeru was indeed a traitor. When he later found out that it was a frame up he abandoned his role." He was about to continue but Yoru motioned for him to skip, so 4 obliged, "However, this man was also secretly working for General Ryuma, keeping watch on both Minister Gendo and Minister Shunpei." Everyone in the room stilled slightly at the new layer of complexity. The ANBU went on, "The last message he sent was to Minister Shunpei. However, he suspected someone might be tailing the rat, so he sealed a bit of his chakra with a hidden message inside the rat itself." He turned to Ren and Yugao. "Did your teammate contact you?" Both shook their heads. The ANBU's tone remained calm, as he said, "Although it isn't confirmed we should assume that he has been taken." With that, he flickered away, off to continue his orders, leaving the matter of Takeshi behind. Yugao's expression shifted into visible worry. She clenched her fists slightly, her calm demeanor faltering. Ren placed a hand on her shoulder in an attempt to calm her down. Across the room, Utakata, who had been quietly inspecting the coins, suddenly frowned. He stopped and carefully set the pouch down. Raising his hand, he released a single insect from his sleeve. He channeled chakra into his fingertip, guiding the insect. It paused briefly before flying off into the air. A little while later, the insect returned, but this time, it wasn't alone. Dozens of tiny, mosquito-like insects followed behind. The group hovered in the air, then began to settle on the tatami mat in the room. Moving as if with one mind, they slowly arranged themselves into a recognizable shape. A kanji. Ren instantly recognized it. "Moment," he muttered. It was the same kanji he had found in one of Shikeru's hidden letters. "So Shunpei is indeed the one who took him..." The insect that had flown out earlier returned to Utakata's forearm, crawling back under his sleeve and circling once around his skin. When it stopped moving, Utakata spoke. "He's alive. But locked up." Yugao let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding, visibly relieved. Yoru gave a wave of his hand. "Extract him out." No one moved. But Ren knew that somewhere, ANBU were already in motion. Yoru, still reading through the diary, frowned as he flipped through its empty pages one after another. Something wasn't right. Suddenly, he stopped and focused his attention on the spine of the diary. He narrowed his eyes, then silently ran his finger along the inner edge. With a swift motion, he cut it open. For a brief moment, nothing happened. Then, as the cover shifted slightly, a seal pattern began to glow faintly along the inside of the spine, subtle and refined, nearly invisible without deliberate activation. Yoru stared at it for a second before speaking. "It's an ink absorption seal. Anything written in the diary would be automatically absorbed into the seal within seconds of being written." The room went still. Utakata stepped forward, reaching out to take the journal and inspect the seal himself. But Yoru shook his head. "It wouldn't work that way," he said simply. Then he raised his finger again. Ren watched as Yoru released a pulse of chakra, not normal chakra, not even elemental. The energy had a strange presence. Ren's senses, sharpened through training and instinct, immediately picked up on it. He stiffened slightly. 'That's... space chakra?' But the feeling shifted, there was something off about it. Familiar, but different. 'No... not space. It's close, but it's... time?' His eyes narrowed slightly as he tried to decipher the feeling. Whatever it was, it wasn't something Ren had experienced before, not even when using his own [Space Scan: Absolute Observation Jutsu]. Meanwhile, Yoru pressed his finger directly into the seal. He closed his eyes and began to work silently, manipulating the embedded chakra patterns with delicate precision. His control was absolute, focused, like a surgeon working at the molecular level. Seconds passed. Then Yoru opened his eyes and said quietly, "It's done." ~~~~~ {2114 Words} {A little hint on Yoru's abilities, but worry not it wouldn't be broken. Not at all.} {Trust me bro} {Well, you know what to do} {STONES!!!!}