'Is he three-timing all his employers?' The Detective Clone-kun wondered with a measure of amusement as he watched the Jonin kneeling on one knee from the shadows covering the ceiling.
"Well? Is it done?" Akito asked in a commanding tone of a man who already knew the answer. What he was really asking for was a report.
"Yes, Sir." The Jonin spoke, understanding the silent implications. "There were unexpected circumstances, however. I tried to improvise, but it didn't go very well." He lowered his head a little bit.
Akito snorted. "Unexpected circumstances." A small disbelieving smile appeared on his lips as he glanced at a letter on his desk and slightly shook his head. "That's one way to call it." He muttered.
Up near the ceiling, the Detective Clone-kun noted his behavior, and suddenly, he couldn't help but feel very curious about the letter and its obvious connection to what was going on.
Unfortunately, it appeared that Akito was not his man. Shame, that.
"I might have fallen under suspicion due to my actions against the Konoha scum." The Jonin continued his report with a small scowl.
"You did well there, Kenichi. You managed to throw enough suspicion at him that he is still under considerable heat. I intend to increase that pressure in the coming days." Akito said and nodded at the now-named Kenichi to continue.
"I led the ANBU watching me to Miss Shizumu's establishment, unveiling my connection to her before vanishing," Kenichi reported with a smirk. "With some luck, they will focus on the last clue I left them and focus their investigation in her direction."
"Good." Akito's smile turned into an extremely pleased one. "I will run interference in the council and maybe even give the ANBU some forged evidence of our dear Shizumu's wrongdoings. It's not going to be easy. The woman is as sly as a desert fox. But with some luck and some chaos, we might turn the attention away from our endeavors for long enough. Your performance is satisfactory."
"Y-Yes, Sir. I'd rather not suffer an unfortunate disappearance." Kenichi nervously answered with feigned boldness and a strained smile, accompanied by a small bead of sweat rolling down his temple.
"How would you enjoy the money I am paying you, then, right?" Akito chuckled. "Come. I owe you at least a dinner for your exemplary service."
With that, they stood up and started walking out the door, surprising Detective Clone-kun. Their relationship seemed like that of a boss and a subordinate, but now that the official part was finished, they looked more friendly than that.
"I recently hired some good-looking girls from the streets as new servants. We can have some fun after dinner. Just don't break them like the last-"
Akito's voice got too muffled to hear for the Detective Clone-kun as the heavy door closed behind them, before briefly glowing with a surprisingly robust seal lock.
Dropping from the ceiling to the floor, Detective Clone-kun's knees bent slightly before he straightened up and looked around the room, discovering more subtle seals. All in all, it was a good setup. He reckoned not many people would be able to get to this room. And even less would manage it undetected.
In his mind, he hummed and firmly thought, 'All hail space-time techniques! Nin-Nin!'
With the homage to his personal cheat done, his head turned toward the table, and he beelined it to the letter. He wanted to sate the curiosity that was still eating at him.
He took it into his hands and started reading, "It is with a heavy heart that we must inform you, Mr. Sawada Akito, that an unfortunate tragedy is to occur near the marketplace at..." The clone's eyebrows furrowed.
"Was my routine so obvious that they could really guess when I would be strolling through the marketplace?" He unhappily frowned.
Thinking about it more deeply... yes. He was getting complacent because he felt safe. He visited Temari at the Kazekage Tower almost every day of the work week, always taking the same route through the marketplace and always at more or less the same time.
"I guess I will have to tell the original to use the teleportation markers more often, so any watcher would get confused about the time and means of our comings and goings. Can't really stage an ambush on my way to Temari if I am teleporting, now, can they?" He mumbled under his nose.
Sadly, that would make keeping his space-time techniques hard to keep secret. It was a dilemma. One, the Detective Clone-kun was happy to leave for the original as he broodily returned to the letter. Skipping the uncomfortably specific date and time, the clone continued to read.
"It might not be our place, but we heard about your recent displeasure with Mrs. Sawada. We feel compelled to remind you that such an event could be a good way to get rid of a charred body. With best regards, Signed, Concerned Citizens."
The Detective Clone-kun sighed as he put the letter down and leaned on the table. Well, that explained why the man did not warn the village about the supposed tragedy.
Even if he was not a bastard, the letter pretty much name-dropped him before revealing he might be considering his wife's murder. If Ren were in his position... yeah, he wouldn't have shown the letter to anyone either.
Still, he might have tried to stop the tragedy or at least find out more about it. Instead, Akito clearly used the situation to dispose of his wife's body. The puzzle pieces slowly started to come together in the Detective Clone-kun's mind.
Kenichi was in the area deliberately. He was there to dump Akito's wife's burned body after whatever tragedy occurred, and his antagonistic approach toward Ren was this supposed improvisation of his.
Clearly, these people were going to be a problem in the future. Unfortunately, it also meant they were not the terrorists the Detective Clone-kun was looking for.
His eyes slid back toward Akito's table, and with an inner shrug, he decided he might as well have a proper look since he was already here. In his very justified opinion, Akito forfeited all rights to privacy when he decided to target Ren.
Besides... he was curious.
But first, he took the letter from the table back into his hands, and after a brief use of the Shadow Clone Technique, he now had two shadow clone copies of it in his hands.
Applying durability seals with a touch, these copies were now significantly harder to dispel. Smashing them against a rock might still not be enough to do it. They would also last much longer since their chakra did not leak as much. If he was calculating it correctly, these copies might last five to six weeks.
And lastly, he sealed them in storage seals. One would go to Ebizo for his personal perusal, and the other will be left for the original and as a backup. After all, he could always make more copies based on the copy he possessed.
Being stored in the storage seal also meant that time pretty much stopped for the cloned copies. They could last five to six weeks, but this was time outside the seal. If Ren and Ebizo only took their copies out sparingly and sealed them back when they were done using them, they might last them years in this state.
With the evidence secured, Ren checked the chair for any unpleasantness before he started rummaging through Akito's documents while humming a happy tune under his nose.
They might not be the terrorists he was looking for, but now he wondered what kind of devilish, secret plot they were having that they were willing to throw their village into chaos to accomplish it.
It took him twenty minutes of slogging through boring, official paperwork until he finally got to something interesting, and when he did, he owlishly blinked.
"The... Daimyo?" He whispered in a grim surprise.