Chapter Ten
The Fuma town was completely different from what Indra had expected, compared to most of the nation towns and villages he had passed through on his way here, this town was vastly different. The town was completely busy with people streaming in and out of it, bars, hostess clubs, and casinos littered the red light district, the commercial district was littered with various businesses, and stalls selling various consumer goods. As a town under the control of a shinobi clan, albeit a weak one in comparison to the shinobi clans of the great nations, the town was sufficiently protected so the bandits weren't stupid enough to raid it. This showed as the inhabitants of the town were filled with smiles, and the hunger that ravaged the rest of the nation wasn't apparent here, if anything the people living in the town were well-fed, with extra food to boot. Although as any popular town, the street had its fair share of poor people, beggars, and refugees fleeing the rest of the country.
'Huh, I'm guessing every other clan territory would be like this,' Indra thought as he walked down the street while looking for a restaurant.
After finding a restaurant, Indra had a meal and then he left to search for and then book a week's stay in a moderately fancy inn. This time he didn't have to deal with a rip-off owner so he was quite happy, as he didn't want to expose himself yet by dealing with people trying to scam him. His sensei was the head of the Senju clan, so money wasn't a problem for him.
A couple of hours soon passed.
It was currently past midnight and Indra was ready to begin his investigation. Placing the fox porcelain mask on his face to complete his Anbu getup, he then suppressed his chakra and exited the room through the window.
Standing on the roof of the inn, Indra looked towards the direction of the biggest compound in the town, which was the residence of the Fuma clan. With a single-hand sign, Indra used the 'Body Flicker' jutsu, appearing on an electric pole overlooking the compound.
Activating his 'Byakugan', he looked around the compound making a mental note of the positions of every chakra signature. Crouched on the electric pole for the entire night, he observed for the entire night, the patrol patterns of the guards, the direction at which they patrolled, and the interval at which they changed shifts, before leaving and returning to his room at the crack of dawn. If he suppressed his chakra, no one would notice him and with his byakugan activated he'd be able to see anyone coming in his direction. But he's going to take the investigation methodically, he'd obverse the compound for a few days before moving in.
A few days had passed since Indra came to the Fuma town, and he was finally ready to enter the clan's compound after watching it every single night for three days. By this point, he had memorised every place important in the compound, and the location of every important person living in the compound. And most importantly he now knows they had no barrier around the compound, or at any important location in the compound. While a barrier wouldn't be a problem for him to get through, it would be better if there were none.
This would be Indra's first operation and completing it would get him closer to finding his mother so he cleared his mind, removing every extra and unneeded thought from it. Currently, he was laser-focused on one thing only, and that was finding confirmation the Fuma clan has a hand in the bandit situation, and the slave trade happening around the country, while also information that directly proves they support, or are against the alliance with Kumogakure.
Indra used the 'Body Flicker' jutsu, disappearing from his room in the inn and appearing in a closed-off room with just a door to enter and exit the room. The room was located underneath the Fuma clan compound and it was completely filled with scrolls the Fuma clan considered important. Indra chose this room as the starting point of his investigation as the room was where the Fuma clan stored all the information they considered important, so it would contain the financial records of the clan, if he's to find anything linking them and the slave trade or banditry, it would be in here.
Indra made the hand-sign for the 'Shadow Clone Jutsu', and In a cloud of white smoke, 10 clones of Indra appeared in the room.
"Seven of you use your byakugan to scan the room, and then read every scroll that's useful to our investigation. And then the rest of you, ensure the scrolls are kept back the way they were removed after reading," Indra said, instructing the clones. The shadow clones immediately got to work, scanning the entire room with their byakugan. From the hundreds of scrolls in the room, only 10 of them were useful to him. There were various jutsu and the Fuma clan's single hidden jutsu, the 'Curse Mandala'. Indra just skipped the jutsu, not bothering to learn it as the jutsu was useless to the current him, but he copied it as it might be useful to others in Konoha.
The information stored in the scrolls the clones considered important were the finances of the clan, their businesses located in the Fuma town as well as the capital of the Land of Rice Fields, just as he'd expected. But to his annoyance it contained nothing shady, their financial records were clean, every income was accounted for and could be traced back to the business venture it came from.
'I guess I have to get the information I need directly from the clan patriarch,' he thought, dispelling the shadow clones.
With another body flicker, he left the underground room heading towards what he had confirmed to be the clan's patriarch room. He already mapped out the entire compound so he wasn't delayed in the slightest as he traversed the halls of the compound, although he had to hide or slow down once in a while to stay hidden from the patrolling guards.
Standing above the bed of the sleeping Fuma clan patriarch, he quickly knocked him out and with an instantaneous activation of the 'Body Flicker jutsu', he disappeared from the room but not without picking up the unconscious man and placing him on his shoulders.
Running on the rooftops of the town with the unconscious man on his shoulders, Indra headed for the gate with the intention of leaving the town. He's going to interrogate the man and it wouldn't be wise to do it in the town, if the patriarch wasn't forthcoming with the information he needs, Indra would have to resort to Anbu's interrogation tactics.
........
Indra stopped at an abandoned temple twenty minutes outside the town, he had mapped out and then selected this location just in case he had to result to torture to get his information. The abandoned temple was inside a small forest, and it had already been reclaimed by nature which signifies the temple had been abandoned for a while.
Indra dropped the Fuma clan patriarch on the floor, before using a water release jutsu to wake him up. The man shot up abruptly before looking at his location in panic, "Where am I?" he exclaimed, having not discovered Indra standing behind him yet.
Looking around the room he woke up in, the Fuma clan patriarch saw the silhouette of Indra right at the edge of his peripheral vision. The Fuma clan patriarch quickly scrambled to his feet while intensely staring at the location he sighted Indra's silhouette.
"You there, you better come out now...." The Fuma clan patriarch said. Although he knew whoever brought him here was vastly superior to him, but he was a clan patriarch so he contained the fear that was creeping into him from projecting out.
Chuckling, Indra walked out of the shadows, completely decked in his Anbu gear. "I can smell your fear, Fuma Hitoki."
"Konoha Anbu!!" Hitoki exclaimed.
"How dare you kidnap me!! do you want to start a war with the Land of Rice?!" Hitoki said, trying to seem threatening. "If you let me go now, I won't inform the Daimyo of a member of Konoha Anbu in our country, and kidnapping noble clan leaders."
Although he didn't believe anything he said, his only chance would be to threaten war with Konoha, something they would try to avoid as the five great nations are at the brink of war, with some nations already embroiled in war.
Indra just chuckled before replying, "I'd be enough to squash any sort of force your country can muster up. In fact, it would be more beneficial for Konoha should the Land of Rice declare war on it, then I can just directly bring it under our control."
"I'm going to be asking you a few questions, and it would be of your interest to answer truthfully," Indra stated, his countenance changing from the chuckling Anbu operative he showed just a few seconds ago.
"If you think I'd tell you anything then you're stupid," Hitoki said, as he took on a battle stance.
"I didn't expect you to," Indra stated as he appeared right in front of him.
Hitoki wasn't able to react as Indra slammed two of his fingers on his stomach right where his chakra was.
"I didn't hit you hard enough to knock you out, but you won't be able to use chakra for a while," Indra stated as black rods appeared, pinning Hitoki to the wall of the temple.
"Now, let's get to interrogating you," Indra said with a chuckle as he walked towards the struggling Hitoki.
.............
Five hours later, the bloodied and broken body of Hitoki was stuck to the wall of the temple, the only thing to signify Hitoki was still alive was the slow and laborious movement of his chest. The figure of Indra appeared in front of Hitoki, wiping his bloodied hands with a white thin cotton towel.
It only took over four hours of interrogation for Hitoki to spill whatever Indra wanted. Although he eventually spilled everything, Indra was still impressed by the tenacity of the man not to betray his Daimyo, albeit for the short duration the resistance lasted.
From the information Indra gained from Hitoki, every single clan in the country supported the alliance with Kumogakure. They all wanted to increase their power and influence on the shinobi world and they all believed allying with Kumogakure would ensure that. But what Indra was interested in was the slave trade situation in the country, and Hitoki gave him just the information he needed. The Daimyo and ten other clans were directly in control of the banditry situation, and the slave trade happening in the country, so Indra knew who he'd be interrogating when he's carrying out the mission given to him by Tobirama.
Indra didn't have to bother about whether the information he gained from Hitoki was correct or just a dying man saying anything to preserve his life. By sensing the chakra of Hitoki, he could tell if the man was telling a lie or not.
The loss of the major power would further throw the Land of Rice into turmoil, but Indra and Tobirama didn't care about that. In the eyes of Tobirama, the Land of Rice was a threat that he'd brutally put down in his bid to protect Konoha, while Indra just didn't give a fuck about the country. If he didn't need to find his mother, he wouldn't have even bothered to investigate the banditry and the slave trade situation in the country. His sole obsession was finding his mother, and he was willing to do anything for that.
Looking at the broken and hanging body of Hitoki, Indra sighed. "If you had just told me what I wanted, I wouldn't have had to interrogate you so forcefully. Now my entire gear is dyed in blood."
His bloodied Anbu gear caught fire and then fell to the floor with a blood-free one replacing it on his body. Indra then walked towards the body of Hitoki, before stabbing his heart with his tanto. He then set the dead body on fire using a fire release jutsu.