Keiko carefully lifted the camera from its hiding place, turning it over in her hands. It was one of the more advanced models, the ones that can record videos and play them without difficulties.
"...A camera?" She frowned, checking it for any traps or anything that could warrant it being hidden. Whatever Kudo had hidden behind a chakra-protected seal, he had believed it was worth protecting more than the documents in the hidden compartment.
She turned on the camera with a beep, the tiny screen lit up. On the top right corner, there was a icon which showed—storage.
Keiko pressed it, her eyes searched through the several recordings, each one was dated, traces back to years ago.
Keiko chose the oldest one and pressed play, "If this is where it began..."
The image flickered before stabilizing and Kudo appeared on the screen.
He looked noticeably younger than he did now. His hair was neater, his face lacked the perpetual exhaustion Keiko had grown accustomed to seeing, and his suit was immaculate.
More importantly... He wasn't looking at the camera, but what was behind it. He was looking past it.
Kudo was sitting in his chair and the camera was placed on the desk.
His eyes repeatedly wandered toward the office door. Several seconds passed before he finally forced himself to speak.
"If anyone is watching this..." His voice was steady, though only because he was making it so. "...understand one thing before anything else."
"This is not a confession." He swallowed. "...Nor is it an admission of guilt."
Kudo suddenly flinched as he heard some footsteps outside his office. "Sir? You are being summoned by the CEO. They want you to introduce yourself to the new board members.
Kudo gulped, before replying, "G-give a-a few minutes... I'll be there in a few minutes." Kudo voice was shakier than he wanted, but at least his secretary's footsteps went away.
His tried eyes looked at a camera again.
"This is..." He stopped, rubbing a trembling hand across his face before trying again. "...This is an attempt to survive—To survive them."
He suddenly felt so silent he felt his heart beating like a drum.
He stared at the office entrance for several long seconds, as though expecting someone to burst through it. But nothing happened... Yet.
"I don't know how much time I have. So if you're seeing this..." He hesitated. "...then something has probably happened to me."
Kudo wiped the sweat from his forehead, struggled to loosen the tie as if it was trying to choke him to them. Loosening his tie didn't help him as there was no air going into his body.
Kudo began hyperventilating. He fell from his chair with a loud thud. The shock from falling off his chair directly onto his chest, drove in waves of pain throughout his body.
Keiko waited a few moments as Kudo slowly got up and said "I... I don't know what is happening to me. All I know that there is a group of people operating inside this company."
His eyes instinctively drifted toward the windows. "They don't officially exist. Not on paper at least. Kaiyo Harvest is undergoing a hostile takeover from an organisation that doesn't even exist."
"And yet... They're everywhere."
He leaned closer to the camera. "They call themselves..." His lips parted for a brief moment, no sound came out.
"...The Crimson Pillar." He choked out. Even saying the name seemed to drain the color from his face.
"I don't know who they are, how many there are or-or what they even want! But I know this... My friends have gone missing."
His fingers tightened around the edge of the desk. "It started slowly. A friend retired, another resigned and one goes on a vacation and never comes back."
"No one questioned it because every replacement seems qualified... Their absence was never felt as these newbies are so good at their jobs—like machines. Or maybe they didn't say anything because they think they will be next?"
His laugh was short. Humorless.
"Then one day... I realized everyone who disagreed is gone. The chairman was found dead last week. The next chairman sat on his chair while it was still warm. Every single one of them—replaced!"
"I tried convincing myself it was coincidence. I told myself companies restructure all the time. I was wrong. There is someone else living in my friend's house, eating dinner with his wife, playing with his children. They are all pretending it's fine. It's. Not. Fine!"
A faint sound echoed somewhere beyond the office. Kudo froze as his entire body became rigid.
Someone was outside. He slowly looked toward the door.
"...No..."
The chair scraped against the floor as he stood. His breathing became frantic. "They're—"
---
It ended, leaving the room in silence.
Only the faint hum of the camera remained. Keiko continued staring at the blank screen for several moments.
"...That..." Her brows slowly drew together.
This mission went from a B rank to an A rank—A S rank mission.
If the first video had raised questions... Perhaps the second would finally begin answering them. But that could wait, as she has run to run—the alarms were triggered.
Before Keiko could examine the camera any further—She heard footsteps, many people's footsteps
Shouts echoed through the corridor outside the office, growing louder with every passing second. "They're on this floor! Make sure to check every room!"
She slid the camera into her pouch. The office door wouldn't remain undiscovered for long, she had to run. Now.
She sprinted toward the window, breaking it open with a punch before launching herself into the night.
The cold air rushed past her as she fell towards the ground. The streets below looked far more dangerous than they were before, guards already beginning to spill from the Kaiyo Harvest headquarters.
Keiko drew her sword.
The blade bit deep into the outer wall of the building. Steel screamed against stone as she used the weapon to bleed away her momentum, sliding down several stories before pushing off the wall and landing in a low crouch.
She didn't spare the headquarters another glance.
Tatsuo. That was the only destination that mattered now.
Several streets away—Hiten lowered his hands after finishing another sequence of hand seals.
The battle with Ko had left him exhausted, but the journey back had given his body enough time to recover. Combined with his medical ninjutsu, he had managed to restore himself to a condition he could fight in again.
He closed his eyes to focus, his senses spread outward like ripples across water.
Hundreds of chakra signatures entered his perception.
Civilians, thousands of them.
Shinobi, surprisingly high.
Guards, all cluttered around the Kaiyo Harvest building.
He ignored them all. "...Found you."
One chakra signature felt familiar.
Tatsuo.
Without another word, Hiten disappeared into a sprint.
Keiko raced across rooftops, cutting through narrow alleyways and abandoned streets.
During the past few days, she had memorized nearly every route between their safe locations.
When she heard guards approaching one street, she immediately diverted to another. When patrols began searching the rooftops, she descended into the alleys before climbing back onto the buildings several blocks later.
The security teams searched frantically, but failed to find the intruder. Within minutes, the small clinic came into view. Keiko crossed the final rooftop before dropping silently beside one of the upper-floor windows.
She slid it open and climbed inside.
"Tatsuo—" The words caught in her throat. Someone else was already there.
A young man sat beside Tatsuo's bed, one glowing hand resting over the bruises that covered Tatsuo's arm. Green chakra illuminated the small room.
The bruising had already begun fading beneath the steady flow of medical ninjutsu.
The man looked up. Black hair. Calm tired eyes.
"...Hiten?" Keiko asked, unable to hide the surprise in her voice.
Hiten looked at her, then at the dust covering her clothes and the haste in her breathing.
"Took you long enough." he said quietly.
The room remained silent for a moment before Keiko began moving. She hurried to Tatsuo's bedside, slipping one of his arms over her shoulder as she helped him sit upright. Even after Hiten's treatment, Tatsuo winced, his face tightening from the pain that still lingered throughout his body.
"Easy," Keiko muttered, she glanced at Hiten.
"...How did you get here?" Her eyes lingered on the dried blood staining his clothes and the faint bruising around his jaw. "And what happened to you?"
Hiten finished wrapping another bandage around his forearm before standing. "I'll explain once we're outside the village."
He stepped beside Tatsuo without another word. Before Tatsuo could protest, Hiten crouched slightly.
Tatsuo winced, "Careful with the hand!"
"Hmm," Hiten replied.
Tatsuo gave a weak, defeated chuckle before climbing onto Hiten's back.
Keiko picked up the few medical supplies they had scattered around the room before looking toward the window she had entered through.
"We should leave. They are looking for us, it won't be long before they find out about us."
They left the room and headed to exit the village. Hiten carried Tatsuo the entire time, maintaining a steady pace despite his own fatigue, while Keiko moved several steps ahead, checking each intersection before signaling the others forward.
The village was far louder than it had been the previous night. Extra guards had appeared around the commercial district.
Twice they were forced to change routes after spotting patrols sweeping nearby streets.
they finally slowed down once the village walls became difficult to see. The forest swallowed the sounds of civilization.
A small clearing appeared between the trees, sheltered enough to remain hidden from the road. Hiten gently lowered Tatsuo onto the grass before sitting against the trunk of a nearby tree.
The movement alone made him exhale through gritted teeth.
Keiko noticed. "...You're injured too."
"I'm fine."
Keiko looked between the two of them.
Tatsuo's bruising had faded somewhat under Hiten's medical ninjutsu, but his body still hadn't recovered enough for a journey back to the Leaf.
Hiten, meanwhile, had pushed himself through a battle, healed himself on the way here, searched an entire village with sensory ninjutsu, and spent more chakra treating Tatsuo.
Neither of them was in any condition to keep moving.
"We rest," Keiko decided. "Just long enough for both of you to recover enough to travel."
Hiten gave a small nod. "...Agreed."
For the first time in days, the three teammates found themselves somewhere quiet.