Chapter 180: Deescalation and Doxxing​

Hazou and Noburi slid smoothly into more open body language, raising hands out to their sides in a gesture of non-threat. Keiko remained tense, as did the ninja facing them.

“So... anybody up for a ceiling race?” Hazou asked.

The ninja who sure looked like Team Fifteen relaxed marginally. The kunai-wielder, an Inuzuka, obstinately maintained a half-snarl on her red-marked face.

“I’ll do you one better and race you on the sky,” the swordswoman replied steadily, completing one of the Leaf countersigns.

Shoot, what's her name? Ichimaru? Ishimaru? Ishimura? Hazou cursed inwardly and hoped Noburi would pick up that particular bit of social slack. Satisfied that at the very least these were Leaf nin, he dispelled his disguise. Noburi followed a moment later, as did Keiko, after a slightly longer hesitation and a Look at Hazou.

Inuzuka’s scowl deepened, and looks of confusion flitted across the faces of the other two.

“Is cavorting around town in others’ faces without permission normal in Mist? I always felt it was in pretty poor taste,” the guy who’d been prepping a jutsu, a Sarutobi if Hazou remembered right, inquired.

“And poor smell,” Inuzuka growled.

Ishi-whatever rolled her eyes. “I bet you’d survive not making that joke for once in your life.”

“Maybe, but why take the chance, right?” Noburi cut in smoothly, grinning between the two girls. Inuzuka started nodding and then seemed to catch herself.

“Our sincerest apologies,” Hazou followed up quickly. “We thought disguising ourselves as another Leaf team would be a way to avoid the target that got painted on our backs at the end of the last event, and to avoid getting prices jacked up while we were shopping for a birthday gift for our father, without causing some international kerfuffle if our henges were popped during our outing. I give you my solemn word as a representative of Clan Gouketsu that we have done nothing that would reflect poorly on yourselves, your clans, or on our village.”

“Way to kill the relaxed atmosphere, bro,” Noburi stage-whispered, elbowing Hazou lightly in the ribs.

“Sorry,” he replied with a grimace. “Wanted to get that out of the way.” He turned back to the other team. “And sorry for not asking your permission. It's obvious in hindsight.”

Team Fifteen looked between one another. This clearly hadn’t gone the way they anticipated. After several moments, Sarutobi turned back to Team Uplift. “Look, we appreciate your forthrightness in apologizing, but we’re not especially comfortable leaving it at just words. I don’t know if it’s a difference in how Mist teaches its academy students or whatever, but you can’t just go around in someone’s henge without permission.”

“I… see,” Hazou said slowly, mulling that over. “Would a more material form of apology be appropriate, in your view?”

“It might.”

Keiko spoke up for the first time. “This all assumes, of course, that you really are the team in question, and have not yourselves adopted their guises to extract unwarranted concessions from us.”

In response, Inuzuka dropped one of her kunai. In a puff of smoke, it expanded into a handsome black dog with a stunted snout and bright yellow eyes. “Good enough?”

“Unfortunately, no, as there are more than one Inuzuka clan member present in the city. Would you all be willing to show that you are not henged?”

In short order Team Fifteen verified that they were, in fact, Team Fifteen, and Keiko...

...managed to talk them down to taking a trio of explosive tags each as an apology gift. Then all that was left to do was wait for Team Gai to arrive.

-o-​

“There are blatant decoy documents on a couple of the desks of more important-looking offices, so hopefully that means we can eliminate a mathematics and history test as an event, at least,” Hyuuga reported with a smirk. That drew some snickers and snorts from the otherwise largely silent assembly, including from Hazou, though Keiko pouted a bit. A written test for the chuunin exams? You’d have to be an idiot to fall for that one. “Give me a moment to try and parse out a couple of the more securely-stored scrolls. It’s difficult to read read multiple overlapping layers of text that are wrapped in a spiral, even for me.”

The pair of teams was huddled in an alleyway at a surprisingly long distance from the nondescript building Panashe had identified as the proctors’ hub - Hazou made a mental note to spend some time being extra worried about the range of the Byakugan in the near future. He had been surprised by the level of professionalism Hyuuga and Lee had brought to the operation. Even Noburi was behaving himself - no pointless antagonism or ribbing, just business.

Hyuuga cut through Hazou’s musing. “No, no, these are all inconsistent. Some of them might be revisions or different versions of the same plan, but they aren’t marked by date or organized in a coherent way. Suggestions for a city-wide battle royale, simultaneous wilderness escort and assassination missions, races and other athletic competitions...”

“Any other options?” Keiko asked quietly.

“None that are obvious. But…” Hyuuga hesitated, frowning. “There’s a storage seal in a pile of logistics papers in one of the offices on the second floor, rather than in the actual storage room. It might, perhaps, be nothing, but it may have more sensitive papers.”

“Fabulous. So, to clarify, if we want them, we have to break in?” Noburi asked.

The veins around Hyuuga’s forehead began to subside, and he reached up to massage his temples. “For once, Gouketsu, we appear to be on the same page.”