Chapter 232: The Great Investigation
Kitahara Kaede opened his eyes and glanced at the alarm clock on his bedside table. It was an hour earlier than usual.
The room remained dark. Moving by touch, he slipped into his Anbu uniform and fastened his mask to his hip. This time, he didn’t use the front door. He pushed open the second-story rear window and vanished into the night, leaping silently into the shadows of the adjacent alley.
Following a route etched into his memory, Kaede headed straight for the Mizukage’s office building. There was a thorn of doubt lodged in his mind. Over the past month, had a single word out of Terumi Mei’s mouth been believable?
Rather than passively waiting for information, he decided it was better to see for himself. If Yagura’s defenses were truly as airtight as she claimed, then staying put for a month might be justifiable. But if they weren’t... then she was deliberately stalling for time.
Why? Kaede stopped his train of thought; his intuition told him the answer would be nothing good.
Soon, the grayish-blue dome of the Mizukage building emerged from the morning mist. He didn’t approach directly. Instead, he circled around to a residential area and slipped like a shadow into a derelict, uninhabited building. A second-story window facing east provided a perfect vantage point overlooking the main entrance of the Mizukage tower.
Kaede scanned the scene. At the main entrance, two Anbu squads stood guard in overlapping positions. Every few minutes, a four-man team would loop around from the left to swap positions with those on the right, the transition seamless and flawless. Along the second-floor corridor windows, masked ninjas stood every few paces, as motionless as statues.
His gaze drifted upward to the third floor—the location of Yagura’s office. Sentry posts were perched on the roof directly above and on both sides; six men in total, sealing off every possible angle of infiltration.
He silently calculated their rotation timing. The gap during the guard change at the main gate was minuscule, flashing by in an instant. However, between the third and fourth sentries at the left-side window, there was a fleeting blind spot. To reach the door of Yagura’s office without alerting anyone, he would have to hit both windows of opportunity simultaneously. The timing required was exacting.
Kaede ran the simulation in his head twice. He could do it. With his current skills, he could indeed slip inside like a ghost.
But the problem wasn’t the entry. It was the exit. Once inside, if he made the slightest commotion, the Anbu outside would realize something was wrong immediately.
Kaede frowned. What Terumi Mei had described was true. He pulled away from the window and retraced his steps. It seemed he couldn’t afford to rush this.
***
In the building opposite, Terumi Mei sat in a chair by the second-story window, wrapped in a thin blanket with her legs curled tightly against her chest.
As was her habit, she had arrived early. Her gaze was fixed, motionless, on the closed wooden door across the way.
At 8:30, the door didn’t open. At 9:00, it remained shut.
For the past month, Kaede’s routine had been clockwork; he usually left around 8:20. She had long since mastered his schedule. Because of this, she would often head downstairs a few minutes early to "coincidentally" run into him at the intersection, making their walk to the office together seem natural.
But now, the clock pointed to 9:12. That door had not budged an inch.
"He wouldn’t have overslept," Mei murmured to herself. A man like him wouldn’t break his own rules without a reason. Unless... he had already left before she took her seat.
Mei’s body stiffened. In the Hidden Mist, he had no acquaintances. Aside from the office and the training grounds, he had nowhere to go. Where would he go this early?
A name leaped into her mind. *Yagura.*
He had gone to the Mizukage building.
Mei felt her breath hitch. A month without progress, and he had grown suspicious. He was going to verify with his own eyes whether her words were truth or lies.
"You really... don’t trust me," Mei whispered, burying her face in the blanket on her knees, her voice muffled and nearly inaudible. Although she had expected him to eventually notice something, the feeling of not being trusted still stung. She remained curled in the chair, motionless, like an abandoned doll.
***
By 10:30, Terumi Mei was at her desk, having spent nearly an hour reviewing official documents. She held her pen, her eyes on the paper, but her mind was blank. She read the same sentence several times and couldn’t comprehend a word of it.
Then, the office door pushed open.
She looked up almost instantly to see Kitahara Kaede walking in. Mei scanned him, a practiced smile already gracing her lips.
"Why so late today?" her tone was casual, but her eyes were locked onto his face, searching for the slightest flicker of emotion.
Kaede replied offhandedly, "I woke up a bit early and took a stroll through the village before coming in."
Having said his piece, he walked straight to his seat and began reviewing a document. Mei watched his profile as he looked down, her smile unchanging.
*A stroll?*
"I see," she smiled, asking nothing more, and returned to her paperwork.
About twenty minutes later, Mei closed her folder and stood up. With a brief "I have some matters to attend to," she walked out the door without waiting for his response.
At the far end of the corridor, tucked into a corner, Mei stood in the shadows. She spoke softly to the empty air.
"Come out."
As soon as she spoke, a dark figure appeared silently, dropping to one knee before her.
"Report," Mei commanded, her voice void of warmth.
The Anbu kept his head down and reported rapidly. Kitahara Kaede had avoided the main entrance this morning, taking a side path to the Mizukage building. He had spent approximately half an hour in a derelict grocery store opposite the tower, observing the external defenses and guard rotations, before heading to the office.
Mei remained silent as she listened.
Exactly as she had thought.
She raised her hand and gave a light wave. The kneeling Anbu vanished soundlessly back into the shadows.
Standing alone at the end of the corridor, Mei lowered her head, her falling hair masking her expression.
This couldn’t continue. He had begun his own investigation. The longer she stalled, the more holes he would find, and the closer he would get to the truth.
She had to find a way. A way to fill every second of his time—to ensure he never had a spare moment to ponder Yagura again.
She needed his entire focus, his entire gaze, to be consumed by one thing.
A place where there was only her.