Naruto Fanfic - Prisoner of Nightmare

Chapter Forty-Five[XLV]: Red Waves - VI

   Uzukaze Naruto returned to Tsunami's house with a small frown on his face, his pouch of yen whittled down to a single five thousand note. Not that he minded, his inheritance plus his position as shochō made sure he didn't have to worry about money even if he spent a stupid amount every day for the rest of his life. No, what he minded was the information he got from spending his money.

   It honestly wasn't much, just confirmation about what he already suspected and a more in-depth description of what Gatō was doing in Nami. The cloths he found interesting because apparently occasionally people who got too close would be abducted. But, there was one tidbit of information that was very important: who Gatō hired, more specifically, the names of the four mercenaries, all of which he recalled seeing in the Bingo Book except one. The most powerful one, to be specific. 

   Absolutely nothing seemed to be known about the man except that he was a male, ANBU level at the very least, and had distinct lime-coloured hair. Now, he had gone on missions before with less information about the enemy but that didn't make him less uneasy, not many people were able to hide their identity from information brokers, especially not higher-level ones who usually attracted lots of attention.

   He said as much when they were discussing what they found out, having already informed Kenko of the situation along with Sasuke prior to coming back. "Have you ever heard of a mercenary with lime green hair, Inu-sensei?"

   Kakashi thought on it for a moment before shaking his head. "No, never. This is a little concerning."

   "Maybe it's a Henge or genjutsu?" Sakura suggested, Sasuke nodding in agreement.

   Kakashi bobbed his head. "A possibility, we won't know until we see them ourselves. I'll look through my Bingo Book tonight and see if there's been a high-level person with genjutsu skills known to be around this area."   

   "Oh, there one more thing," Naruto said with a frown, shoulders tensing. They all looked at Naruto expectantly. "According to the information broker I talked to, women and children have been going missing a lot in Nami, more so in Kanrakugai than any other district as to not be too obvious. It is more than likely that they're being sold on the black market, there's apparently a large unmarked ship leaving the dock every Thursday around three in the morning and there are rumours that people heard crying from the crates."

   They were all quiet for a moment. "That seems about right," Sasuke said. "I heard something similar from around town."

   "Well, we have to save them! It's Sunday today, we have four days to come up with a plan," Sakura said, looking very distressed by the notion of human trafficking.

   Kakashi shook his head, looking a tad bit regretful. "I'm afraid that won't be possible."

   "What do you mean it won't be possible, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked, voice raising only a little, clearly angered.

   Kakashi sent her a sharp look that made her calm down a bit, knowing she almost crossed a line. "I mean what I said, we won't be able to save them. The most important thing we have right now is stealth, we need to gain information about Gatō and survey his headquarters. If we ruin that by acting boldly like that, there's no guarantee Gatō won't send the mercenaries after us right then."

   "There's no guarantee that he doesn't already know we're watching him," Sakura argued, seeming quite uncomfortable with the idea of leaving people to be sold off, not that Naruto blamed her.

   "You're right," Kakashi agreed, "and that's why it's even more important to keep a low profile. We need to make sure that if Gatō does know exactly what we're doing he underestimates the amount of knowledge we have so we can use it against him later. He would expect us to free the women and children as Konoha shinobi are known for their impulsiveness when it comes to helping people."