Looking at the stars, Raito closed his eyes and finished his soup. Facing Akito and Touya with a small smile, Raito said. “I have finished my investigation and all the scrolls hidden in this area have been taken by others.”

Hearing Raito, the three looked at him with shock and confusion.

Futoshi, closest to Raito, took a few steps back facing Raito. With confusion in his eyes, he asked, “What are you talking about?”

Touya slowly moved his hand behind, to his pouch whereas Akito narrowed his eyes and looked at the bowl, which had little to no soup left.

Ignoring Futoshi’s questioning, Raito looked at Akito and Touya. Standing up he stretched his limbs and squeezed his shoulders then looked at Touya.

Touya had frozen in time, just like a sculpture. Only his eyes and chest movements proved that he was not a sculpture but a human, alive and well.

“Touya, do you feel it?” Raito’s lips curved as he looked at Touya. “The feeling of being unable to move your body at will, the feeling of suffocation… and your chakra disappearing.”

With a cold smile, Raito’s glare deepened, “Just like you betrayed the village, your body is also betraying you.”

His voice was like hands touching their heart, leaving a painful after-effect.

“Kuh,” Touya’s body trembled in desperation. His heart was filled with anxiety and his brain was filled with different ways he could have escape in this situation, only if he could move his body.

Even though his body was paralyzed, Touya looked at Raito with hate-filled eyes. Eyes reddened, veins bulging, and sweats raining like buckets, Touya would like to rip Raito into pieces, for poisoning him, using a dirty trick, and destroying his rich future.

“Don’t worry, you won't die.” Raito threw his bowl, which disappeared mid-air. “I wanted to make this capture as painless as possible.”

Akito was sweating, not in anger but in his foolishness whereas Futoshi was looking at the scene dumbfounded.

“Futoshi, I’ll call you Futoshi-kun for now.” Raito took out a pair of street fighting gloves and equipped it.

Raito pointed at Touya and started. “Your teammates, one him and other, which accidentally tripped and injured himself while trying to save an old lady yesterday, and the team leader, Akito-senpai, have betrayed Konoha and are now labeled as traitors. They have leaked or tried to leak security plans for the entire scouting division to the hostile forces.”

“… Are you freaking serious, right now?” Futoshi looked dumbfounded as he looked at coolheaded Raito then Akito.

“Of course I am.” Raito rolled his eyes and added, “I have already submitted the mission given by the tower to the station captain earlier today. He will maybe explain it to everyone later.”

Akito was sitting on the ground, paralyzed but his face was distorted, looking ugly and saliva dripping from his mouth. Eyes reddened, he wanted to strangle the Genin in front of his eyes and look him in the eyes, as light in the eyes slowly dimmed.

Looking at Futoshi, Raito commanded with added chakra in his voice, just for assurance. “Tie Touya and wait for me.”

While the words were being processed and opposing views were being raised inside his brain, Futoshi’s body was already moving, quickly tying up Touya.

After a while, Raito looked at Akito and said with a demon-like smile on his. “You wanna kill me after finding that your assignment from the mercenary organization has failed?”

Hearing the word ‘Mercenary Organization’, Akito’s eye widened but the thought of killing Raito didn’t diminish even by a bit instead it rose by a hundred folds.

Akito had already gained some immunity against the poison after being stationed in the scouting division for three years. So, after battling out the poison by a little, he roared with all might. “I’ll kill you.”

“Why not?” Raito touched his right hand and activated the purple seal, which resonated with the poison in Akito’s body.

When Akito had decided to use the remaining chakra to eliminate the poison and take chances, he found that the poison had just magically disappeared.

“Let’s try it.” Raito’s mocking voice, mixed with chakra, pierced Akito’s mind, causing his mentality to destabilize.

“Why you little!!” Eyes dyed red, Akito jumped straight towards Raito, his right corked back, ready to break his opponent’s face.

Raito waited patiently as he looked at Akito and crossed his right leg over left. When Akito was just a meter away, Raito pressed on his right and circled in an anti-clockwise direction, dodging the punch. Continuing with the circle, Raito kicked at the back of the knee with the sole of his left foot, empowered with chakra.

“ARGH!!!” With the kick landed at the back of his knee, Akito fell and hit the boulder with his head. Blood flowed freely from his head as he rolled form the boulder to the ground.

Grabbing his head, Akito felt the blood then cried out in pain. “BLOOD!?”

“Me? By a GENIN?”

Wiping his face, Akito glared at Raito but when he wanted to move around, he felt that it was strangely difficult for him to move.

“My leg? What happened to my leg!?” Looking at Raito then at his leg, Akito hurriedly withdrew using his hands and one remaining functional leg. The glare with which he looked at Raito just now had turned into fear, no longer daring to look at him.

“I must have damaged your knee somehow. If you are lucky and cooperate well with the village, they will surely heal your leg and you will be able to walk in two or three months.” Raito started his explanation and when he saw Akito ignoring him and searching for his pouch and scrolls frantically, Raito added, “If you are looking for your pouch and scrolls, then… I have them.”

When Akito heard Raito say that, he looked up and saw Raito grabbing his pouch and scrolls. Akito seems to have lost his energy as his frantic hands stopped and hung down.

“Don’t worry too much.” Throwing the pouch and the scrolls, Raito walked casually and soon closed the distance, which was less than five meters.

Akito sat on his buttocks and clenched his fist. Raising his head, he could only see the youth walking towards him. ‘All because of a Genin.’

If not for Raito, today would be a great day for him. If not for Raito, he could have done the job told to him by the organization. If not for Raito, Naruto would have come and then he could finish another mission. If not for Raito, he could have easily earned hundreds of thousands of Ryo in a single feat.

Soon Raito’s shadow covered Akito and Akito felt that the chance had come.

“Take- What!?” Akito wanted to throw the dirt and sand towards Raito and gain a chance to attack but looking down at his own hands, he found that black earth had covered both of his hands, not letting go in the slightest.

“You talk too much and think too much.” Raito grabbed Akito’s neck and activated his chakra. Within a few seconds, a black line circled Akito’s neck and sealing his motor system and chakra system.

“I also found that you had deals with a mercenary organization regarding Naruto. But it was an anonymous meet up and that man which gave you the assignment probably used a transformation technique.”

Releasing his hands, Raito stood up and added, “Too bad, if you had known more about them… I could have let you enjoy your freedom a little bit more.”

After looking at the expressionless face of Akito because of the seal, Raito stood up then faced Touya and Futoshi.

Futoshi flinched, taking a step back unconsciously after looking at the faint blue light in Raito’s eye. ‘Cold blue light.’

“I was sent after people found out about the leak from the aviary,” Raito started while grabbing Touya's neck and creating a Fuinjutsu mark on him too.

“There are other people, other than me, who are looking into this. They should have already finished things on their end, if I am not wrong.”

“Oh-ohh.” Futoshi was too stunned to say anything. After calming down, Futoshi looked at Touya and Akito, and could not help question some things.

“Say, Raito… um, how did you know I wasn’t involved in this thing and why didn’t Touya and Akito-senpai use their chakra?”

Raito sat on the boulder and took out a canteen; one for himself and another one for Futoshi, “About your involvement… it’s my conclusion after the investigation and them not using chakra, I just poisoned their food.”

Just when he was about to drink the water, Futoshi quickly stopped and looked at Raito with fear, “You poisoned the food? That means you poisoned me too.”

“… What a pain.” Raito felt his eyes twitching, looking at this stupid person. ‘I thought he was smarter with all that killer vibe thingy.’

Raito sighed and started explaining, “I already gave you the antidote for the poison several times today and… can't you see that only they are paralyzed and not you?”

“Ah, yes.” Futoshi smiled with a bit of embarrassment then emptied the whole canteen in one go. Throwing the canteen back, Futoshi let out a chuckle and slapped his face. “How stupid.”

“Yoshizawa!” Entering the clearing, DRAGON walked in with ANBU units in tow. They had a bunch of people tied by ropes with talisman pasted on their forehead.

Raito stood in attention and signaled Futoshi to do the same, seeing that he was looking at the ANBU with his jaws opened.

DRAGON looked at Touya and Futoshi, then sighed. “This time it was a total of four teams with ten traitors. The remaining were not involved ‘according to the report’.”

DRAGON focused on Raito’s contribution because these are the things that the intelligence department could not find out. While they have covered most of the areas, the betrayal to the village, mental breakouts, rampage, and such things, they couldn’t predict it.

To the quote by a Wiseman, ‘Humans are the greatest variable.’ (in a sense)

This time it was thanks to Inoichi and his team of special shinobis, who were proficient in information extractions, and the Intelligence department that they were able to weed out these traitors in the village.

“BEAR, you take the lead.” DRAGON looked back and gave the authority to one of the ANBU behind him.

BEAR quickly led everyone except for Raito and DRAGON, out of the clearing, which included the traitors and the innocent members of the team.

DRAGON did not need to lead the investigation, instead, he looked at Raito and asked, “Your clones took something from the scenes. Do you wanna share it with this old man?”

“I do.” Raito nodded then quickly took out a bunch of purple cover scrolls from his inventory and gave them to DRAGON. “I didn’t look into them and only collected after finding that it wouldn’t trigger anything.”

“Good job.” DRAGON nodded then picked one scroll from the bunch.

“I didn’t know you could transfer items to yourself from your shadow clones.” DRAGON said, stunning Raito.

Raito kept his head down and abstained from answering anything.

“This is.” DRAGON found a ‘{1,10}’ written at the end of a scroll. With a guess in his mind, DRAGON went through a couple of them and found the similar numbering pattern on others. After making a half rat hand seal, DRAGON activated his chakra. “[Release]”

To Raito’s amazement, the scroll opened by itself revealing complicated lines, numbers, and a few characters seals on it. “What is this?”

Giving it a quick look, DRAGON similarly opened another scroll. In this period, Raito waited patiently for DRAGON to answer his question although he already had found what it really was with his ‘[Observe]’ skill.

“These scrolls are part of a huge sealing array. Every one of these scroll acts as a coordination point and with enough mapping and-” Looking at Raito, DRAGON knew that whatever he said about this Fuinjutsu would be a waste. Therefore, he gave an awkward cough and said in a simple language. “In short, these scrolls are a part of a massive transportation array.”

“A massive transportation array!?” Raito played his part and showed a shocked face.

DRAGON narrowed his eyes and looked at Raito with his furrowed his brows. “If you want to find about it, finish your basics first. And as for your first mission, it’s over.”

“Whew,” Raito breath out a sigh of relief, and a small smile appeared on his face. “Finally…”

“But,”

Raito raised his brows and looked at DRAGON.

“You need to come with me and write your first report.”

“Report? I thought ANBU didn’t-”

“Everyone has to.” DRAGON chuckled and made a ‘follow me’ signal then started moving.

“What a drag.” Raito groaned then quickly equipped the patternless mask and robe using gamer powers and followed. Luckily for him, DRAGON was waiting for him a couple of trees away.

Seeing Raito coming, DRAGON turned his back and continued, “Since you are already with me, I will show you how an ANBU operative enters the village.”

Cupping his chin, Raito tried remembering ANBU entering the gates but could not remember a single time an ANBU operative had entered through the main gates. “I have seen them leaving the gates but I don’t think I have ever seen an ANBU entering through the gates.”

“Because they aren’t supposed to. ANBU have their own internal management division for things such as registration and so on.”

“And when you see ANBU leaving from gates, they are actually just for show. We still have to show to the people that the ANBU exists and fight for the village.” With DRAGON revealing such things, Raito’s knowledge on ANBU widened.

“Show people?”

“ANBU has replaced the Uchiha police and when crimes are committed, peoples are hurt and captured. When one group overwhelms the other, there naturally be…” DRAGON groaned then said, “Grow up and you will understand.”

Standing in front of a big tree, which was just at the end/beginning of the forest area, facing the great wall, dividing Konoha and the outside wall, DRAGON started explaining. “Each mask has a key inscribed on them.”

(Tree zone/The Clearing/Wall)

Raito touched his mask and sighed in the inside. ‘I need to be more careful.’

“While Konoha’s sensory division uses a barrier Fuinjutsu to keep everything in check-”

“I know about that. My teammate, Hinata, is there.” Raito cut off DRAGON and started his own tale.

DRAGON sighed knocked the back of Raito’s head at lightning speed.

“Ow,”

“Don’t cut in when someone is speaking, especially when that someone is the head of ANBU.”

Raito rubbed the back of his head and glared at DRAGON but with the mask on, nothing could be seen.

“Pay attention.” DRAGON shook his head and added. “Push chakra to the mask, just at the center and that will activate the key.”

“It’s that simple?” Raito pushed his chakra as DRAGON said but nothing happened.

“Jump towards the clearing then activate the key.” DRAGON raised his voice, looking at Raito then jumped from the branch towards the clearing.

Just as Raito was about to jump, he looked at the scene with shock.

DRAGON had jumped from the tree but when he was about to land on the grassy ground, he disappeared, vanished in thin air.

Raito immediately used his ‘[Chakra Sense]’ and tried finding the DRAGON.

“There you are.” Raito immediately found DRAGON inside a cubical room, inside the village walls.

“Same code,” Raito let out a breath then jumped from the tree and activated the key.

The next second, Raito found himself standing in a big cubicle.

Raito walked towards the door to the room from where the voice was coming from while murmuring, “It’s really a teleportation technique.”

“Come out, kid.” DRAGON called Raito, this time with hints of irritation.

“Coming,” Ignoring everything else, Raito hurriedly walked through.

Looking around, Raito found that DRAGON was talking with a mature woman, wearing a kimono, on the reception desk.

“He is a newbie. Register him as number eight.”

The mature woman glanced at Raito before scribbling on a register.

DRAGON turned around to face Raito and said, “Go home and get a good sleep. Inoichi will have a new job for you tomorrow.”

“Yes, sir.” Raito straightened his back in joy and turned towards the door.

“But before you go.” DRAGON cleared his throat and gave Raito a couple of papers. “Fill in everything that happened, yesterday and today.”

“Wasn’t I supposed to get a good sleep?” Raito grabbed the paper and groaned.

DRAGON let out a small chuckle and glanced at the woman. “Help him out.”

“I’ll be going.” With a nod, the DRAGON disappeared, leaving a cloud of smoke.

“He used a clone the whole time.” Raito waved his hand as the cloud of chakra smoke was pushed to the ventilator by the wind.

“Ahem, ahem.” The woman looked at Raito and signaled him to come forward.

“Anything I can help you with?” Raito walked forward towards her and asked.

“You need to pay a hundred Ryo.” The old woman said with her hands stretched forward.

“…”

“To teach you how to write a report.”

Raito narrowed his eyes and took out a thousand Ryo bill then said with a smile, “I am just a newbie, please teach me well.”