By midnight, we were dressed in our dark clothing, covered from head to toe, and I have to say, we finally looked like proper ninjas, here to infiltrate and assassinate a shogun. Or something similar.
"Tonight is all about recovering as much information as we can," Jiraiya said quietly before we left our room, which we booked in the one and only local inn. "We enter the warehouse where you saw the two swordsmen, then we confirm whether it is an actual meeting point, a storage unit, or a dead end. We take nothing unless I say so. Keep your hands to yourselves. Shinobi are prone to notice such details, so we make no changes to the scenery unless necessary. If we want to stay hidden, we must leave no trace. However, if anything goes wrong, you follow my orders immediately."
"Why are you looking at me?" I asked as both Sensei and Minato were turning towards me. I noticed how Minato's mouth twitched behind his cover, but he didn't laugh in the end.
"If the place is really something important, they may have placed down seals that react to chakra." Jiraiya continued. "So, no jutsus unless I order it or unless we are discovered. If we get separated, fall back to the second alley behind the fisherman's shop. If that is compromised, the roof of the abandoned salt store near the south pier. If that is compromised, you leave the town and head for the cliffs, west of the harbor. Questions?"
"And you?" Minato asked.
"I'll find you, and then we will move from there."
We slipped out into the night one at a time, landing on the narrow roof behind the inn without a sound. The fog had thickened since evening, rolling through Ishiguro's streets, reducing visibility to near zero, giving us the advantage. Lanterns glowed through them, hanging on the scattered posts and buildings, and I could hear drunk voices as we crossed the distance toward the warehouse. Jiraiya was going first, Minato second, and I came last, bringing up the rear. My Sharingan was useful from behind, scanning the surroundings and looking for traps and ambushes, if any.
And there was something I noticed just in time. When we neared the target, I saw where the moss had been disturbed recently on a roof edge, where one tile sat slightly askew, and where a thin wire stretched between two chimney stacks. Hurriedly, I tapped twice against my thigh as a warning, and Minato caught the signal and shifted, searching where I pointed, noticing it, too. Jiraiya did not need the warning, because he had already stepped around it... Heh... Show-off. As for the trap, after passing by it, I took a closer look and noticed that it led to a cluster of small ceramic chimes hidden under a roof lip. A simple alarm... Hm.
Jiraiya glanced at me, wondering why I stopped, so I pointed two fingers toward the chimes, then made a small circle. He nodded, but we moved on without disabling. I guess that was also logical; leaving a trap intact was better than leaving a trap mysteriously broken.
Lesson learned.
Then, we crossed three more roofs, hurriedly dropped into a narrow alley, and waited patiently while two night watchmen passed by us. However, we paused most of the time because of the dogs. They somehow had a bundle of them around that damned warehouse, so much so that we couldn't just go by all of them. The first one we had to interact with, Sensei distracted it with a pellet tossed into a trash heap, sending it to search around, while the second he put under a tiny genjutsu before it could lift its head and notice us. A little unfair to the dog, but... oh well.
Eventually, we reached our target without being seen or heard. The roof sagged on one side, and several boards near the front were warped by the weather it had endured for decades. The blue sign above the main door had cracked down the middle, leaving only half of whatever name had once been painted there. Jiraiya crouched behind a rain-collecting barrel across the street and studied the building for a long minute while Minato and I waited.
Finally, Jiraiya raised three fingers, then he pointed at three spots while I drew on my Sharingan, focusing through the fog and darkness. I could sense no strong chakra signatures from nearby shinobi, and I could see no obvious watchers in the windows. I kept scanning the place, but there was no movement anywhere... However, I did notice a few thin chakra traces around the doorframe.
After nodding at my report, Jiraiya led us through, and we crossed the street one at a time. Jiraiya reached the wall first, placed two fingers near the doorframe without touching the chakra trace I had pointed out, and gestured for me. I leaned closer, eyes narrowing, and from there I could see a very thin line of chakra left imprinted into the grime. An alarm web, as far as I knew. It was probably there for anyone opening the door, so they would disturb the chakra and trigger something.
Jiraiya nodded once after I pointed it out, so we were going in through one of the broken windows. I checked that too, and the glass shards on the frame had fine dark threads wrapped between them like a spiderweb.
Blocked. Again. That was when our third entry point came into consideration, so I glanced up. The roof had gaps, too, yes, but after a bit of looking around, we found three tiny bells and a weighted bead hidden around those gaps that would let someone slip inside. Just by this, it was already proven that this warehouse was not just a damned meeting place, that's for sure.
Looking at Jiraiya's eyes, he was almost amused. While thinking, I scanned the sideboards, trying to see if we could force a way in somehow. Most of the wooden parts were rotten, and after searching, one section near the back had been replaced from the inside, clearly dirtied up later, to match the rest. Its nailheads were dark, but not rusted through like the rest, so I hurriedly signaled to the others. Minato checked the ground for pressure lines while I watched the boards. The replacement panel had no alarm web on the outside, but that didn't mean there wasn't any. It could be set up as a trap, so people finding it might think they had discovered the true secret entrance.
Jiraiya crouched down near it, while he removed a thin metal tool from his sleeve and slid it between two boards. He did not pry; instead, he leaned in to listen before handing the tool to Minato. After three seconds, his eyes narrowed, then he mouthed:
"There is a latch."
Jiraiya nodded while Minato adjusted the tool, and with a soft click, the board panel loosened. I watched the inner seam at the same time, and right on cue, there it was: A sudden flare of chakra-infused wire suspended between the panel and the frame, almost invisible even with my Sharingan. If pulled too far, it would snap. The moment my eyes twitched, Sensei held up one hand, and Minato froze at once. Then, while Minato stayed motionless, Sensei reached into his pouch and removed a small folded paper tag, a sealing slip, that was left blank except for a tiny spiral drawn near the corner.
He placed it near the seam, activating it, and when his chakra went into it, completing the 'circuit,' I saw the thin wire snap to it, becoming attached to Sensei's seal, allowing us to move it around a bit. After that, Minato could open the panel just enough for us to slip through one by one.
Inside, the warehouse was just as dilapidated as it was from the outside. Twitching my nose from the smell of rotting wood, I entered last and closed the panel behind me, careful not to disturb the seal and the alarm system. After we began scanning the room, broken crates lay scattered across the floor, while rotted beams leaned against one wall. A torn tarp sagged over a pile of rubble, while old fishing floats were hung up from hooks. Three barrels sat near the corner to us, one split open, two sealed with cracked wax... but... I could tell which parts were clearly 'cleaner,' thanks to people always moving to the same spot. It made the scene uneven, and my Sharingan immediately picked it up.
After I pointed out the spots that looked off, we split to check them. Minato went to look at some of the floorboards, I went to a broken crate, while Jiraiya took the rubble pile not far from us. The broken crate was empty at first glance, and without touching it, I could only find old, soggy, wet straw, a cracked ceramic cup buried inside, and a dead rat that had been turned into a... maggot nest. Ew.
I almost moved away... But... I saw the marks beneath it. Please no... For a moment, I closed my eyes, but when I reopened, the marks were still there. Fuck. I hate espionage. I pulled out a kunai, and just barely, I moved the dead rat. Right under it was a small waxed paper tube no longer than my thumb, blackened and dirtied to look like debris.
I picked it out before I could change my mind, and I hurriedly held it up as they all moved toward me. Apparently, we found a drop-off point. So... They were using this decaying warehouse as a message cache, huh? Jiraiya opened the waxed tube with care, unrolling the slip inside, and his face became unreadable. Before doing anything, he handed it to me, and I looked, too, and it was gibberish. Meaning, it was a coded message. Minato leaned closer, too, eyes scanning and memorizing it.
In the meantime, Jiraiya removed a thin notebook from inside his sleeve and began copying in a hurry. That was when we heard a footstep in the alley... Then another. Minato's hand rose, while Jiraiya stopped writing, not wanting to make any sounds when someone was approaching us. He made a quick decision, signaling to us, and began restoring everything to its original place, putting the message back under the dead rat.
Another footstep, with voices now... Two men... Or a woman who smoked too much, it was hard to tell. There was no time to hesitate, so we slipped toward the rear panel, while the voices came closer to the front door. Great... They were coming in. At the same time, Jiraiya reached the rear panel and used his seal to keep the alarm steady, while we slipped out, closing it down and retrieving his seal just in time, right when the front door opened.
For one heartbeat, I thought it would trigger, but thankfully, it didn't. The three of us flattened ourselves against the outer wall hidden inside the fog, waiting and not even breathing.
"Rotten place," someone muttered, sneezing twice in quick succession.
"Serves us well, so stop complaining."
"Why is it a rat?" The first one moaned once again, and by that alone, we knew that they were here checking the cache. If something looked even slightly wrong, they would investigate, and if they searched properly, they might find our trail...
But nothing like that happened. They kept complaining, retrieving the message, and then left. When the coast was clear, we took a look inside, again, but the tube was gone... Shit. We could do nothing but leave.
"Well?" Minato asked when we were back in our room, inside the shabby inn.
"Ew, that's what," I pulled down my face wrap. "That was disgusting."
"What?" Minato removed his cap. "The dead rat?"
"Yes, the dead rat!" I said, rolling my eyes, "Why was the dead rat important? Why couldn't they hide it under a nice, clean rock?"
Jiraiya ignored me and opened his notebook, reading the code, biting his lower lip.
"I copied three full lines and half of the fourth."
"That's still a lot," Minato said.
"Not enough." He shrugged, and I could tell he was angry. "There were five more lines."
"Um," I cleared my throat. "Well… I have the rest."
Jiraiya slowly lifted his eyes at me, then I turned on my Sharingan, then off, making him almost laugh.
"Not decoded," I added quickly. "Don't look at me like that! I mean, I memorized it. Duh."
"All of it?" Minato asked?
"Everything I saw before we put it back." I nodded.
"That's good!" Minato grinned, "I also memorized it, so we can compare it and see if there are any discrepancies in it!"
I wanted to hit him. I wanted to hit him so much! Haaah... ruining my big moment... But, oh well. At least we have a message. As for cracking it? I guess, Minato and Jirayia can do that? Because I was never good at cryptography. Or crossword puzzles, for that matter.