Ugokasenai Keito, Konoha Jonin
Konoha Uchiha District, Underground
10 am
[ANBU File:
Enhanced activity surrounding several of Orochimaru's known research labs in Konoha East, Central and Uchiha Districts within the past week; Surveillance suggests a complete clean-out is underway as of 0300 this morning. Likely that Orochimaru is moving his bases of operations out of Konoha; equally possible that Orochimaru is forming a military force, alongside his usual experiments. RESPONSE REQUEST: Infiltration and Apprehension of Suspects and Assets. REQUEST: Denied, by Seal of Shimura Danzo]
'Those two,' Keito thought, gritting his teeth,
'Lord Hokage has been trying to expose Orochimaru for a whole year, but every time he comes just
short. And it feels like Lord Danzo has a role to play in it...Lord Danzo, who himself bends Lord Hokage's ear, day and night. I don't know what he wants
to achieve in all this...'
After a year of anxiety surrounding the sannin Orochimaru and his apparent unrest with the Leaf, it seemed as though he had run out of patience; with over a month, still, until the Daimyo would arrive in Konoha to launch his inquiry, maybe the wannabe-Hokage was hedging his bets.
Lucky as Keito was, it seemed as a pair of his genin somehow fit into Orochimaru's schemes.
And although he'd searched for only an hour to that point, it looked as though ANBU's leads ran just a few hours too late. He'd been to labs in the East and Central Districts alike, and the third seemed to tell the same story: a dark, dank lab lit by dim lamps and dying candles, their wax mostly melty and reformed on the floor.
He found each room bare of all furnishings, with not even spare parts or excess left in the wake of moving out; even traces of chakra signatures seemed to have been erased, as the jonin had no indication that anyone had been in the underground lairs at all, aside from those lairs' existence to begin. Even the natural energy itself surrounding the area felt like a bear provoked and cornered in a cave.
Pushing on into the third, underground site, Keito was left to wonder how Danzo could even have the gall to deny the ANBU's request, given their reasonable suspicions. Some days it seemed not a single shinobi in Konoha wasn't aware that the sannin went...his own way with his research, and often went a little too far to go such a way. It felt as though the Leaf had missed a big chance in letting Orochimaru move from Konoha proper -- even if Danzo collaborated with the sannin, wouldn't he want to keep him on a short leash?
"Keep on your guard," Ubongado - one of Keito's many earthworm summons, , wrapped around the jonin's neck like a winter scarf - mentioned, and not for the first time, "It's almost-"
"Too clean," Keito nodded, breathing steadily, "I've been thinking that."
"Yeah, cuz I keep sayin' it!" Gado pointed out.
"I can't hear you," Keito said," I'm concentrating."
Nearly at the back-end of Orochimaru's abandoned lab, the restless jonin entered a wide room with a low ceiling, once again lit only with dying lamps and over-exerted candles. The walls, floor and ceiling all gave off the look of a room torn apart, then freshly repaired with matching haste and efficiency. Keito pegged it as the room with the most to hide out of any of the three sites, and it had but a single, narrow way in and out.
A knotted feeling in his stomach started to well up as the jonin moved to examine the room in full.