In the blink of an eye, the whole week passed with the Konoha team following Ryozo daily, seeing him playing with his life like it was no big deal. Openly dealing with both factions with just a veil to cover the dealings would truly have been a death sentence if not for him being an important merchant.
It was also thought Kirigakure would eliminate him the first moment they got; the whole thing was not ideal for them, unless it was a mission.
It was always much more beneficial to just loot all of the supply ships going towards rebels' camps, and it is much easier to do when you know who their supplier is. But even knowing this, the gall shown by the merchant was enough to earn a small approval in the hearts of the ninjas.
After two whole weeks of brain-rotting meetings, the mission was finally complete, and they were ready to go back home. Though there was a little someone who couldn't officially accompany them to their ship, it was never a problem when they had several Jonin and even an S-rank on the team.
Till now, they had not gotten permission from the village about smuggling the ninja of the enemy clan to their village—the same ninja who is one of the more wanted persons in the village. But with all of the members of the team being experienced ninjas, it was not much of a guess that the village would agree to this in a heartbeat.
So, with Kaida taking Kimimaro out of the island while others boarded the ship with the merchant, Kaida's clone left the Land of Water. Kaida and Kimimaro joined them a little away from the surveillance area of the Land of Water, after which the journey was once again uneventful.
With some small-time pirates wanting to try their luck, they got another ship, but calling that even a ship was an overstatement—it was just an overlarge boat which was rotting from various areas.
They just gifted the boat to the local fisherman community in the port town of the Land of Hot Water after reaching there. After dropping Ryozo to his own home, which somehow looked like a toned-down version of something a daimyo should be able to afford, showing the true wealth that merchant possessed, they finally went back to Konoha.
...
"So you are saying that you found a member of the now-extinct Kaguya clan in the city you were staying in and, without even asking for permission, decided to bring him to Konoha? If Kiri found out about this, we will have a very angry enemy in the next ninja war," Shikaku said, massaging his temple.
"So should we have left the boy there?" Kaida asked with genuine doubt.
wiggle
A vein popped up on Shikaku's forehead on hearing that. He was trying to show him that not every decision could be made on impulse, but this stubborn boy was not ready to take the clue. It was just that his decision was so good that he couldn't even criticize him on that as well.
"Ahem, no, even with the risk, we couldn't let a boy suffer, so you did the right thing to bring him here," Shikaku said.
"We couldn't send any message because we were being monitored by both of the factions from the Land of Water. Since it could have been seen as spy work, we decided to take the chance to make the decision," Taizen, though internally laughing at Shikaku's misery, decided to give a formal answer.
"Good job. I will need to discuss something with Lord Third for now, so you guys can leave, but I may call you back for verification once again," Shikaku gave a standard answer, and all of the ninja nodded and turned back, all but one.
Though they noticed Kaida not coming with them, they let it be, as it clearly meant he had something else to report as well, something they were not needed for. Shikaku also raised his brow at that but let the jonins leave first.
"So you have something else to report?" he asked when only those two were remaining in his office.
"Yeah, first of all, everything they have told you is a lie... I mean, it is truth from their side, but was an act I and Kimimaro did to make them agree to take him with us," Kaida said.
urgh
Shikaku grumbled, already expecting something much more complex than the already bad news.
"On the scale of 1-10, how bad of a news are we talking about?" he asked.
"11," Kaida replied with a small smile on his face.
"Fine, let's go to Lord Third's office," Shikaku said and started moving toward Hiruzen's office. Kaida had to stop his chuckle when he saw the vein on Shikaku's forehead becoming bigger than before.
...
Shikaku gave a brief overview to Hiruzen about the news he had till now before calling Kaida in.
"So Kaida, can I know the reason you had to even trick your teammates?" Hiruzen asked, not having his usual neighborhood grandpa vibes at the moment, but the one of the leader of one of the most deadly armies of the world.
"The explanation will only get confusing if I mention it from halfway, so can I start from the beginning?" Kaida asked, getting a firm nod in return. Even with the stern behavior of Hiruzen, Kaida was still calm as he knew there was literally nothing they could have done to him even if he was wrong, let alone now when he was in the right.
"So, when we reached the main business city in the Land of Water, I discovered that some of the farmers there were under a very subtle genjutsu—something incredibly difficult to detect but extremely potent.
At first, I thought it was the work of a rogue ninja who had done something unspeakable to them. I dispelled the genjutsu and started searching for the one responsible, but I found nothing... or at least, almost nothing.
One of the farmers still had a faint lingering impression of the perpetrator. With a bit more effort, I was able to trace it back to the person behind everything—Orochimaru.
Since his involvement made things a lot more serious, I decided to investigate further. That's when I discovered why Orochimaru had cast genjutsu on so many villagers. His goal was to make them hate a certain boy—to isolate him, to make him feel like the entire world despised him for no reason.
And when I found out about the boy... I felt a strange connection. He had no parents, completely alone in the world. The only difference between us was that I grew up in a good environment. If I had been in his place… I might have ended up just like him. So I wanted to help him. But I knew none of my teammates would agree, so when we reached the neutral area, I left a shadow clone behind and went off to search for him.
Originally, my plan was just to locate him—see if there was a way I could rescue him. But as I followed his trail and got closer… Orochimaru found me first. But just before…" After which Kaida shared the actual event that had happened.
Since he couldn't say that he already knew about Kimimaro, so he found him out, he had to make up an initial story, and from his recent experience, it was really easy to lie if the truth is mixed in it, resulting in a report which almost gave the shock of their lives to two very important people of Konoha.
They even had thought about this whole thing being a lie, but the description of Orochimaru from Kaida's story was enough to crush that thought.
There were no records of Orochimaru in the village anymore, so this level of story couldn't be a lie, especially when Kaida also shared a little blood sample of Orochimaru from the fight. When he completed his story, the tension in the room was so dense that it was almost visible to the naked eyes.