Hidden Leaf, Hidden Talents 152 (Patreon)

Shinji left the Uzumaki residence without the answer he’d been hoping for.

Kushina’s mother had done her best to help. She’d listened to his explanation, asked about what the hospital sensor had detected, and thought it over before admitting she didn’t know of any seal that could make someone’s chakra signature appear identical to another person’s.

The closest thing she knew was the anti-sensor tag, but Shinji was already familiar with that. Hiding someone’s chakra was one thing. Making it look exactly like his was another.

Well, so much for that idea. He’d figured that if anyone knew some obscure sealing trick that could pull this off, it’d be the Uzumaki. They’d invented enough crazy seals over the years, after all. Unfortunately, this particular problem seemed to be beyond them.

Shinji sighed and headed back toward his apartment, trying to think of someone else he could ask.

He was still turning the problem over in his head when Moryo started laughing.

‘Fufufu. My, how unfortunate. Even the Uzumaki couldn’t help you? It seems you’ve found yourself in quite the predicament, dear boy.’

Of course she had to show up now.

And judging by that smug little laugh, she was enjoying every bit of his predicament. Seriously, did this woman have nothing better to do than sit around waiting for his life to go wrong?

‘But I suppose you can’t have everything. And here you are, with no idea who framed you and those lovely elders of yours already breathing down your neck.’ She gave a soft, amused chuckle. ‘It’s rather unfair, don’t you think? You’ve fought for this village, protected its people, and done everything a good little shinobi ought to do. Yet the moment something goes wrong, they begin wondering whether you’re a threat.’

She sounded almost sorry for him. Almost.

‘Ah, well. That’s how humans are. A little suspicion here, a little fear there, and before you know it, those old men will be discussing whether the village might be better off without you. I do hope it doesn’t come to that, of course. It would be such a shame after all your hard work.’

Shinji rolled his eyes. What was she trying to tell him, exactly? That people could turn on each other the moment things went wrong? Yeah, no shit. He knew that better than most. And those old geezers had never liked him in the first place, so why would he suddenly be surprised that they were giving him trouble now? If anything, he’d be more suspicious if they started treating him nicely.

‘Oh, I know you’re not particularly fond of those old men, dear boy. But what if they started turning the rest of the village against you? All those people you’ve been so kind to, suddenly looking at you like some dangerous monster. I wonder if you’d still be so calm about it then.’

She chuckled, sounding far too amused by the thought.

‘Of course, you needn’t wait around to find out. Why give them the chance to make your life miserable when you could simply get rid of the problem now? Burn the whole village to the ground, and there won’t be anyone left to accuse you of anything. I’ll even lend you my chakra, as much as you like. With a little help from me, why, you could have the entire place reduced to ashes before morning. Doesn’t that sound wonderfully convenient?’

In your dreams. He wasn’t about to slaughter his own people just because a few old geezers had decided they didn’t like him. What kind of psychopath did she think he was? Seriously, did she ever stop to think about the shit coming out of her mouth?

Shinji left Moryo to entertain herself and turned his attention back to the investigation.

The more he thought about it, the more troubling the whole thing became. If someone could copy his signature well enough to fool a sensor, what was stopping them from impersonating anyone else? An ANBU captain? One of the clan heads? Hell, they could probably pretend to be Tsunade if they wanted.

He had a feeling Zetsu might be involved somehow. That bastard was practically a walking collection of weird abilities, and Shinji vaguely remembered something about it being able to impersonate people. Or was he mixing that up with something else? Damn it, he’d watched Naruto over a decade ago. He couldn’t exactly trust his memory on every little detail anymore.

Either way, whether Zetsu was responsible or not didn’t change much. Someone had already managed to fool Konoha’s security, and he had no idea how many times they’d done it before.

By the time Shinji reached his apartment building, his head was starting to hurt from thinking about it. He considered spending the night keeping the entire village under his sensory watch. It wouldn’t necessarily tell him who the culprit was, but it was better than doing nothing.

Still mulling it over, he headed upstairs and opened his apartment door.

Only to find Tsunade sitting at his table, helping herself to a drink.

What was she doing here?

She looked perfectly at home, with a bottle of sake in front of her and a cup already in hand.

He glanced at the bottle again.

Hold on, wasn’t that his sake?

Before he could complain, she reached for another cup, filled it, and pushed it across the table toward him.

“Well, don’t just stand there staring. Close the door and come have a drink with me.”

He closed the door and joined her at the table. He picked up the cup she’d poured for him, tossed back the sake, and gave a satisfied sigh.

“Ahh, that’s more like it.” He set his cup down. “So, what brings you here, Sensei? Don’t tell me you still haven’t had enough of chewing me out back at the office?”

“Keep talking and I might.”

“Then what is it?”

She hesitated, looking strangely awkward for someone who normally had no trouble speaking her mind.

“It’s… about earlier, actually. I know I was pretty hard on you back there.” She glanced away, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear even though it wasn’t in the way. “Those old geezers had evidence, and as Hokage, I couldn’t just brush it aside because you’re my student. Even if I believed you, I still had to take it seriously.”

She looked back at him, then quickly lowered her eyes again.

“Anyway, I just wanted to make sure you understood that. I don’t want you thinking I was taking their side or anything.” Her voice grew a little quieter. “And... well, I’m sorry I had to put you through that.”

Shinji blinked. So that was why she’d come all the way here? To apologize?

He’d figured she had another lecture waiting for him, but apparently she’d been worrying about whether he’d taken the whole interrogation personally. Seriously, she didn’t need to feel bad about that. He understood perfectly well why she’d had to question him.

Still, watching her sit there fiddling with her cup, he couldn’t help finding it a little cute. Who would’ve thought his teacher could get so worked up over something like this?

He smiled and poured them both another drink.

“Come on, Sensei, what’s with the apology? You were just doing your job. Besides, I saw how you stood up for me back there. If anything, I should be thanking you for putting up with those old geezers on my behalf.” He gave her a small grin. “You didn’t seriously think I’d be mad at you over something like that, did you?”

Then another thought occurred to him, and he couldn’t resist bringing it up.

“Still, I have to admit, I’m pretty happy about this. You actually came all the way here just to make sure I wasn’t upset with you.” His grin widened. “I had no idea you cared so much about me, Sensei.”

“Huh?! W-Who said I was worried about that?” She shot back, looking a little flustered. “You’re my student, aren’t you? Of course I’m going to look out for you! That’s what a sensei is supposed to do, so don’t go getting any funny ideas!”

She picked up her cup and took another drink, refusing to look at him.

He hid his smile behind his cup. Right, so she’d only come because she was being a responsible sensei. Well, if she wanted to put it that way, who was he to argue? He’d teased her enough for now, and it wasn’t every day he got to see her looking this shy.

He took another sip of sake, enjoying the chance to relax now that he and Tsunade had cleared things up.

For a while, he’d almost managed to forget about the whole mess at the hospital. Unfortunately, now that his mind wasn’t occupied with anything else, it went right back to the stolen Zetsu.

And the more he thought about it, the more annoyed he got. Getting dragged into an investigation was bad enough, but losing something he’d worked so hard to obtain made the whole thing even worse.

He set his cup down with a frustrated sigh.

“What a waste. I went through all that trouble to capture that thing, and now some bastard’s gone and stolen it right out of the hospital. We barely even got started on the research.”

She waved a hand dismissively. “Oh, quit worrying about that. It’s not your fault someone broke in and stole it. Besides, we’ve still got the samples, so the research can go on just fine.”

“Yeah, I know it’s not my fault, but that’s not the point. Do you have any idea how hard it was to get my hands on that thing? And now we’ve lost our chance to study it before we could even—”

He stopped.

What did she just say?

He slowly turned toward her.

“Wait a minute, Sensei. What samples?”

She looked at him like he’d just asked something ridiculous. “What do you mean, what samples? The tissue samples we took before the corpse was stolen, of course. They’re all preserved in storage. It’s not like we were going to leave everything sitting inside that thing.”

He blinked. “Hang on. So we can still go ahead with our research?”

“Of course we can. Why wouldn’t we?”

He almost wanted to smack his forehead.

So he'd been worrying about losing all that research material for nothing? He'd assumed everything was gone with the corpse, and since he couldn't exactly pull out the sample he'd hidden in his glove without raising some awkward questions, he'd pretty much given up on continuing their work. Hell, he'd even started considering teaming up with Orochimaru to continue the research instead.

And now she was telling him they could’ve carried on this whole time?

Then why the hell hadn’t anyone told him?!

Well, okay, maybe he should’ve thought to ask. In hindsight, that seemed like a pretty obvious question. But come on, he’d just been accused of stealing a corpse from a hospital. Surely he could be excused for having a few other things on his mind!

Still, damn it. He’d been getting upset over nothing.

He dropped his head onto the table with a groan.

“Good grief. What am I going to do with you?” She shook her head, looking somewhere between amused and exasperated. “Anyway, enough fooling around. There’s something else I wanted to talk to you about.”

He raised his head from the table.

“Mm, something else? Wait, you mean you didn’t come here because you missed me? Or because you were so worried about your precious student that you just had to see him?”

“In your dreams! And would you stop twisting everything I say into something weird? I already told you why I came!”

He chuckled and finally sat up.

She gave him one last annoyed look. “Are you done? Because I think I have a way to find whoever framed you, but I'll need your help.”

Hoh?

Shinji listened as she laid out her idea. He had his doubts about whether it would actually work, but considering how little they had to go on, it was worth trying.

…

Over the next few days, security around Konoha tightened to a level Shinji hadn’t seen since the war.

ANBU patrols were tripled, more shinobi were stationed around the village, and even those returning from missions had to put up with additional questioning.

Tsunade also had every available sensor-nin working on the problem. Those on nearby missions were recalled whenever possible, while the rest took turns monitoring the signatures of people moving around the village.

The reasoning behind it was simple. Whoever had stolen the corpse could make their signature look exactly like Shinji’s. And if they were still sneaking around Konoha, there was a chance they’d need to disguise themselves as someone else sooner or later.

If that happened while a sensor was watching, they might finally catch the culprit slipping up.

Of course, there was no guarantee anyone would be stupid enough to change their disguise while the village was on high alert, but it was better than sitting around doing nothing.

Tsunade had also lifted the restrictions on Shinji’s Shadow Clones, letting him spread them around the village to help with the search.

The elders weren’t too happy about that, especially since Shinji was still technically a suspect. But she wasn’t about to leave one of Konoha’s best sensors sitting on the sidelines just because those old geezers had a problem with him. She was the Hokage, and assigning shinobi to an operation was her decision.

They complained anyway, but Shinji had better things to worry about than whatever they were saying behind his back.

For one thing, even with his clones helping, keeping an eye on everyone in Konoha was practically impossible. There were simply too many people moving around, and no matter how they divided up the work, they couldn’t watch every signature at once.

All the culprit needed was a chance to switch identities when nobody was paying attention, and they might never even realize it had happened.

That was why Tsunade had ANBU teams working alongside the sensors. They couldn’t rely on chakra signatures alone, so anyone acting suspiciously would have to be checked out the old-fashioned way.

Shinji himself ended up spending a good deal of his shifts working with Aya. She was one of Konoha’s more experienced sensor-nin, and having her help sort through suspicious chakra readings made his job a lot easier.

The trouble was, things had been a little awkward between them lately. Or rather, Aya was the one making things awkward. Whenever they were paired up, she’d suddenly become stiff and formal, and sometimes she’d barely look at him while they talked.

Well, he couldn’t exactly blame her. They’d gotten pretty intimate the other day, and it seemed she still hadn’t figured out how to act around him afterward.

At first, he’d figured she’d settle down on her own, but several shifts had passed and things weren’t getting much better.

So the next time he caught her alone, he decided to talk to her about it.

“Hey, Aya, you know you don’t have to be so nervous around me, right? I mean, I get that things are a little awkward after what happened, but if you keep acting like this whenever we’re together, people might start getting suspicious.”

“I know, I know.” She sighed, looking rather helpless. “I’ve been telling myself to act normally all day. But then you come over, and I start remembering... well, you know.” Her cheeks grew a little warm. “Good grief. I’ve been a shinobi for years, and I can keep my composure just fine when someone’s trying to kill me. Now look at me. I can’t even talk to you without getting embarrassed.”

“Hey, don’t be so hard on yourself.” He smiled. “I know things are a little awkward now, but it’s not like I’m going to start treating you differently. You can still talk to me like you always have. And if you get embarrassed sometimes, that’s fine too.”

“M-Mm! I'll do my best!”

Well, he’d said what he could. The rest was up to her. Unfortunately, she seemed to have taken his reassurance as a challenge to prove just how normal she could act.

Whenever they worked together, she’d straighten her back and put on this ridiculously serious expression, as though she were trying to suppress every emotion in her body through sheer willpower. A few of the other shinobi even started giving her concerned looks, probably wondering if the poor woman needed to use the bathroom.

Well, at least she was trying.

And to her credit, things did improve after a while. She still got flustered around him now and then, but she could finally hold a normal conversation without looking like she was about to flee the room.

So that was one problem taken care of.

Unfortunately, the investigation wasn’t making nearly as much progress.

Three days had passed, and they still hadn’t found anything useful. It wasn’t for lack of trying, either. The sensors had flagged all sorts of suspicious activity, and the ANBU had chased down one lead after another, only to find petty thieves, teenagers sneaking peeks where they shouldn’t, and other ordinary troublemakers. Not a single case had turned up anything resembling the chakra impersonation they were looking for.

With so much effort going nowhere, people were starting to lose patience. Some of the sensor-nin had even begun questioning whether there was an infiltrator at all. After all, why spend all this time hunting for someone who might not exist when the evidence from the hospital already pointed to Shinji?

Nobody said that to his face, of course. Tsunade had made her position clear, and openly questioning the Fourth Hokage’s orders wasn’t something most shinobi were eager to do.

Still, Shinji noticed the occasional glance in his direction. He wasn’t stupid. He knew exactly what they were thinking.

Not that he particularly cared. He went about his work as usual, chatting with Aya and occasionally giving anyone he caught staring a cheerful smile. Somehow, that only seemed to annoy them more. A few looked like they wanted to say something, but none actually approached him.

Well, he couldn’t exactly blame them. Glaring at someone behind his back was one thing. Walking up and picking a fight with a jonin who’d killed the Kazekage was another.

Not that Shinji was going to beat someone up just for looking at him funny. But if they wanted to worry about that possibility, he wasn’t going to waste his time reassuring them.

When their next break came around, he headed downstairs to grab something to drink. He returned with two bottles of fruit juice and set one beside Aya’s notes.

“Here. Got one for you too. Figured you could use a drink.”

“Oh, thank you.” She smiled and accepted the bottle. After taking a sip, she glanced at him. “You know, I’m actually impressed by how you’re handling all this.”

“Hm? What do you mean?”

“Well, everyone’s been giving you those looks, and you just go about your day like nothing’s wrong. I don’t think I’d be able to stay that calm if I were in your position.”

He chuckled. “What about you? You don't think I was the one who broke into the hospital?”

“What? Of course not!” She looked genuinely offended. “Shinji-kun, I’ve known you long enough to know you’re not that kind of person. I mean, sure, you can be a handful sometimes, and you do have a habit of getting yourself into trouble, but that’s hardly the same as attacking your own comrades and stealing from the village!”

She shook her head with a small smile.

“Besides, you don’t have to convince me of anything. I know you, and I trust you. If other people want to think the worst of you, that’s their business. I just hope you know that I’m not one of them.”

Damn, if this were a galgame, she would’ve just scored a ridiculous number of affection points with him. Enough to unlock a special event. Although, considering what had already happened between them, hadn’t they already skipped a few events?

They eventually got back to work. Another day passed with nothing but false alarms, and everyone was getting tired of chasing leads that went nowhere.

Then, on the fifth day, the ANBU finally found something worth looking into.

It wasn’t a suspicious signature, either. It was something far more ordinary.

While the sensor teams were busy monitoring signatures, the ANBU and undercover shinobi scattered throughout Konoha had been keeping their ears open for anything unusual. And apparently, they’d been picking up some rather strange gossip.

Nothing particularly alarming at first. Just the usual chatter among neighbors, shopkeepers, and housewives going about their day.

One woman at the market mentioned that her son had forgotten something he’d known since he was little. A shopkeeper grumbled to another merchant about a regular customer who suddenly couldn’t remember things they’d talked about countless times. Elsewhere, a woman had been telling her friends that something was off about her husband, though she couldn’t quite explain what bothered her.

Normally, nobody would’ve thought much of it. People forgot things all the time, and a few strange habits hardly meant someone was an enemy spy.

But when the undercover shinobi compared what they’d been hearing around the village, one of them noticed that several stories sounded suspiciously similar.

What stood out was that the people involved were still going about their lives as usual. They recognized their families, showed up for work, and generally behaved like themselves. Yet little things didn’t quite add up. Some had forgotten old habits, others got familiar details wrong, and a few became oddly evasive whenever someone asked about their past.

That was a little harder to dismiss, especially considering what had happened at the hospital.

The ANBU began looking into these cases more closely, discreetly gathering information from people who knew the individuals involved and keeping an eye on their daily activities.

They still couldn’t say for certain that anyone had been impersonated, but there were enough similarities that Tsunade needed to hear about it.

After reviewing the reports, Tsunade decided it was too risky to leave the suspects alone any longer. If they really were infiltrators, giving them more time could mean letting them disappear again.

She authorized a coordinated operation that same afternoon.

ANBU teams moved in on the suspects across Konoha, surrounding their homes and workplaces while other shinobi secured the nearby streets. Sensor-nin were stationed around each location to make sure nobody slipped away unnoticed.

Of course, it was hard to carry out something on that scale without attracting attention. Before long, people were gathering to see what was happening, clan representatives were demanding answers, and rumors were spreading that enemy spies had somehow infiltrated the village.

The ANBU also ended up dragging in quite a few innocent people.

Some were released after questioning, while others turned out to have perfectly ordinary, if occasionally embarrassing, reasons for behaving strangely.

One merchant, for example, had apparently been sneaking off to meet another woman behind his wife’s back. His sudden change in routine had made her suspicious, and somehow that had ended with the ANBU knocking on his door.

Shinji almost felt sorry for the guy. Almost. Though considering what he’d been up to, getting questioned by a bunch of masked shinobi was probably the least of his problems once his wife found out.

Still, those false alarms weren’t the only things the ANBU uncovered.

At one location, a man suddenly tried to flee when the ANBU came to question him. He shoved past the nearest shinobi and took off running, only for another ANBU to intercept him with a kick that sent him crashing into a nearby wall.

But before they could restrain him, he sank straight into the ground and vanished.

And similar things were happening elsewhere.

Several more suspects abandoned their disguises when cornered, with some attempting to fight their way out while others escaped through the earth.

The Barrier Corps managed to track some of the creatures underground and relay their positions to nearby shinobi, but actually catching them was another matter. Not every ANBU knew how to use Kaidō Shōkutsu to force them back to the surface, and by the time someone who could arrived, the damn things had usually moved on.

…

Back at the monitoring station, Shinji opened his eyes as one of his Shadow Clones dispelled itself.

The clone had been observing one of the suspects when the ANBU moved in, and its memories showed him exactly what had happened. A man who’d looked perfectly ordinary suddenly turned into a familiar pale figure before slipping into the ground.

Well, would you look at that.

He’d suspected Zetsu might be involved, but actually seeing one of those bastards running around Konoha in someone else’s skin was another matter.

And judging by the reports coming in from the other teams, it wasn’t alone.

A rather nasty grin spread across Shinji’s face.

Oh, he was going to enjoy this. Those white bastards had caused him no end of trouble, and he’d spent the last four days running around trying to clear his name. Now that he’d finally caught them sneaking around Konoha, he was looking forward to getting his hands on a few and beating the living shit out of them.

Unfortunately, the sensor sitting beside him happened to glance over just then.

The poor man froze, his brush stopping halfway through a stroke and leaving a large blot of ink on his report. He didn’t even notice. After taking one look at Shinji’s increasingly cheerful expression, he hurriedly lowered his head and started scribbling away as though his life depended on finishing that report.

…

Shinji was already heading for the stairs leading up to the roof.

Aya noticed him leaving and hurried after him.

“Shinji-kun, wait! I'm coming with you!”

He glanced back but didn't slow down, taking the stairs two at a time. She caught up just as he pushed through the door onto the rooftop.

He broke into a run, bringing his hands together.

Shadow Clone Jutsu!

Twenty-three Shadow Clones appeared in bursts of smoke, and the rooftops suddenly came alive with Shinjis racing in every direction.

They didn’t need instructions. Each clone already knew where to go, following the latest ANBU reports toward the locations where Zetsu had been spotted. Some headed for the residential districts, others for the markets and surrounding streets, spreading out to cover as many possible escape routes as they could.

And this time, Shinji wasn’t taking any chances.

Every clone activated Tengai Hōjin, extending a detection barrier ten meters around itself while continuing to run.

That was twenty-three barriers running at once, on top of everything else he was doing.

He could already feel the strain on his chakra reserves. He wasn’t in danger of running dry just yet, but maintaining this many clones and barriers while fighting wouldn’t leave him much room for mistakes.

He glanced at Aya, who was still keeping pace beside him.

Initially, he’d intended to handle this himself. But now that he thought about it, having someone watching his back wasn’t such a bad idea. Especially someone who could sense danger and fight without drawing on his already stretched reserves.

“Hey, Aya-nee, stick with me. With all these clones running around, I could use someone watching my back.”

“A-Aya-nee?” She almost missed a step. Of all the times to suddenly give her a new nickname, did he really have to pick now? She quickly pulled herself together. “R-Right, of course! Don’t worry, Shinji-kun. I’ll make sure nothing gets past me.”

“Great, I’m counting on you!” He glanced back at her as they reached the edge of the rooftop. “Oh, and Aya-nee? Make sure you jump!”

Before she could ask what he meant, he jumped straight off the roof.

She blinked. Make sure she jumped? What was that supposed to mean?

Curious about what he was planning, she leaped after him.

She’d barely started falling when a burst of smoke erupted beneath them. An enormous bird appeared, spreading its wings as it rose to catch them both.

She landed awkwardly on its back, and the sudden upward movement sent her stumbling against Shinji. She instinctively wrapped an arm around his waist to steady herself.

It was only after she’d regained her balance that she realized how closely she was pressed against him. Her cheeks warmed, but she didn’t pull away. Instead, she kept her arm around his waist, quietly pleased with her unexpected bit of luck.

Anzu let out a sharp chirp and climbed higher, her powerful wings carrying them above the rooftops.

Shinji looked out over Konoha, his attention already returning to the hunt.

Now, where were those bastards hiding?

He didn't have to wonder for long.

A red flare suddenly shot up from the southern market, climbing high above the rooftops.

Shinji turned toward it, his eyes lighting up.

That was one of Konoha's signals. The Barrier Corps must have picked up one of those bastards moving underground and alerted the nearby patrols.

He couldn't help grinning.

There you are, you slippery little bastard!