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The next day, Takuma was at a hole-in-the-wall soup restaurant for lunch with Arisu. It was the kind of place entirely sustained by its regulars and rarely saw new customers unless they came in with the regulars.
"The old lady should be arrested. Her cooking is addictive," Arisu said as she chowed down on her hot noodle soup.
Takuma smiled. That was very much a joke from someone who worked at the Department of Narcotics Control. Yes, the task force that was once part of the Department of Organised Crime had been spun off into its own entity under the Police Force. It meant they would lose Organised Crime's resources, but in return they would gain a level of autonomy difficult to achieve within the political web of the most influential Police Force's department.
And Fuma Arisu was there at the forefront of the new department as one of its true founders.
"Congratulations," he said.
Arisu grinned. "Thank you, but this isn't going to cut it, you know. I want something more than a lunch treat."
"Who said I was paying?"
She quirked a brow. "You aren't?"
"Of course, I am paying," he chuckled. "And I'm offended that you think I didn't come bearing gifts."
He took out a thick stack of files and slid it across the table towards her. It was a messy pile with dog-eared pages, notes sticking out of the corners, messy handwriting on the covers, and even some loose papers between the folders.
"What's this?" she asked.
"It's time you started thinking about making chūnin."
Arisu stared at him for a moment before putting down her spoon. She reached for the files and began rifling through them. The filing folders were generic ones, but she recognised the sticky notes, the ink colour, and the paper clips from the stationery used by the Police Force and the Narcotics Taskforce. The formatting and structure of the documents were the ones they established in the early days of the Narcotics Taskforce. More importantly, she recognised Takuma's handwriting.
"… I have never seen this before. Why now?" Arisu asked seriously when she realised what he had given her.
"You have seen a good amount of it, just not gathered in the same place like this."
The documents were all related to the drug ring run by Enomoto. During his time as the head of the Narcotics Taskforce, Takuma hadn't just helped Enomoto grow his operation by aggressively targeting the competition; he had also protected him by doing a few things here and there that would make it harder for anyone going after Enomoto to gather enough material against him to target them in any real seriousness.
Most of the dirt on Enomoto was already present in the Narcotics Taskforce archives. Takuma had put it there himself. They worked together by helping each other, and it was in their best interest to protect each other at all costs, but he didn't omit facts and evidence from the official records. He could have done it, but he didn't. He just made it difficult to put together.
Looking back at it, a part of him wanted someone to find the things he had there against Enomoto. Unfortunately, he had done too good a job and no one had found it since he had left the Police Force.
Arisu noticed that the bottom quarter of the stack was different from the rest. The stationery was no longer the one they used at the Police Force. The handwriting was still Takuma's, but the way he presented and recorded information had changed. She could tell that it had been collected over a long period of time, and a rough skim was enough for her to know that her team didn't know a substantial amount of what was written in front of her.
"How did you get this?" she asked.
"That's a question with a complicated answer that I can't give you," Takuma said.
It wasn't complicated. He had been collecting information on Enomoto since joining the Inquisitor Unit. He had reactivated relationships with his informants from the Police Force, which took some effort because he hadn't been in contact for a long time. Combining that with an ANBU-nin's resources, it wasn't hard for him to get the juicy stuff, which would get the Shady Guy in a lot of trouble.
Enomoto was one of the pain points in his background. One that he wanted covered. So he devoted valuable time in one of the busiest periods of his life to prepare for the possibility that his unlawful dealings would be used against him.
The look of disappointment in Arisu's eyes hurt. He wanted to look away. It wasn't just that he didn't answer her question, but also that he had all of this information with him and he had never gave it to her, or that he had hidden things from her while he was at the Police Force.
The Narcotics Taskforce team under Takuma wasn't stupid. They knew something had to be going on when he came up with incriminating information against important people that would usually be hard to get. They ignored it, but everyone was aware of it. No one thought less of him or judged his character for how he got those things because of how he conducted himself as their leader. They believed that whatever he was doing wasn't crossing the line because they genuinely trusted him and thought he was protecting them by keeping their hands clean. But what he had given her now brought up what they had ignored and shone a spotlight on it.
She now had an idea of the extent of things he had done back then. He had helped to grow the thing they were working so hard to take down. It felt like spitting on their efforts, and that made it difficult to come to terms with it, even though they had benefited greatly from it. What he had done back then was now the foundation of the newly formed Department of Narcotics Control—a tainted foundation.
If it were someone else, perhaps it wouldn't have meant as much, but this was Arisu. The Narcotics Taskforce was just as much as her baby as it was his.
"…Why now?" she asked.
Takuma knew that giving his information to Arisu would make their relationship tense for the foreseeable future, but it had to be done now.
"It's an opportune time. Their leader is dead. They're trying to hide it, but it's going to blow up sooner or later. You should strike while they're unstable and factions are trying to vie for the head position."
Takuma didn't want to dredge up things while Enomoto was alive because there was a risk of it backfiring on him, but now that he was dead or at least missing, this was the perfect chance to bury his past so it wouldn't ever come after him.
"This gift is heavy." She smiled bitterly.
Takuma nodded. He wanted to say something, but he held his tongue.
With the task force transitioning into an independent department, it would become difficult for Arisu, a genin, to hold her position as the second-in-command. If she managed to bring down Enomoto's rapidly growing drug ring, it would keep her in the position while she got herself ready for the chūnin promotion and even add to her achievements, making it easier to justify an internal promotion.
It was entirely beneficial for her, and she knew that as well, but if he said that, it would sound like he was doing this for her when both of them knew that he was doing it for himself, too.
———
.
The hope growing within Tern now flickered like a feeble flame in harsh, cold winds. She glanced at her boss, who was nearly a decade younger than her, leaning against a railing inside the headquarters, not knowing what was going on in his head.
"Do you smoke?" Ratel asked. She nodded and held out a half-empty pack to him for him to chuckle. "I don't smoke, but you look like you need one desperately… and I apologise for that."
"Pardon?"
"I wanted to talk to you earlier, but I got busy with another matter that demanded my attention," Ratel said as he turned his back to the railing and leaned. "I won't waste either of our time and get straight to it… As it currently stands, you're a liability to the squad."
Tern clenched her fist. Then why had he selected her for the squad? Was it just to humiliate her? Or was it a punishment for being the clan of a traitor who dared to continue being in ANBU?
"Because you were recommended," he said, startling her. "Why did I choose you? That's what you're thinking, correct?" She couldn't reply from the surprise that he had read her. "You were recommended to me by someone reliable, and well, I looked into you, and your record suggests that you're at least competent… Believe me when I say that I didn't fill a precious spot in my squad to choose someone I don't intend to put to work."
"… Then why?"
"Because you're a liability. That's the truth, no matter how you put it. Your status as a Shimura is the biggest disadvantage inside ANBU—even pure incompetence might have been better. Between Aquilla, a Hyūga, and you, he will have a much better time poking in places we aren't supposed to. You don't have Boobook's connection in the initiative, and I can't even make a case that you might be just as good as Mor because literally everyone in the initiative would feel uncomfortable sharing information with you."
Tern was aware of all that, and that's what made it so infuriating because the problem was caused by something she had no control over. The Shimura clan's reputation was in the dumps, and even if she wanted to revive, no one was giving her a chance to even try.
"And they're not alone. You were the hardest hire. I had to consider whether you were still in ANBU because you wanted to slog through it or because your clan had forced you to stay. If it's later, you can understand how I'd feel while providing information to you, and it somehow makes it to Danzo."
Tern's eyes shrank from anger. Even if it was a valid concern, he was openly insulting her clan. Anyone else, she would have said something, but she couldn't defend her clan in front of her boss, who held the lifeline she so sought so much.
Tern felt tired.
He didn't trust her. It wasn't anything new to her.
She had already tried gaining the trust of two different teams—one of whom she was part of before the ROOT's exodus and thus had positive relationships with the people—and none of her efforts had worked. No matter what she had tried, they hadn't changed their opinion. She felt no reason why this would be any different, especially when Ratel seemed to have only taken her in because of a recommendation. She wished she had the name of that person to see if they would be more willing to work with her.
She wondered what he was going to ask her to do. The two teams she had been on had asked her to serve in a support role for anyone who needed help, and said that they were going to judge her based on how useful she was. But most of the people in the team never asked her for help in fear that they would be screwed over. She had even tried to force herself into the work they were doing just to have something to do and maybe even show them what she could do, but that only got her a reprimand when the others complained about her. And when they did ask her for help, they never gave her any credit after the work was done. When she complained, no one took her side and accused her of not being a team player.
"You and I will work a case together," Ratel said.
Tern's eyes widened.
"The squad's goal is to find ROOT's accomplices and associates, and we need to start working on them immediately. You and I are going to work together on one while the rest of the squad establishes a foothold in the village."
She felt the flame of hope burn brighter for a moment before she snuffed it out because this seemed like another avenue that would lead her to do all the work and not get the credit.
"It's not going to be like your previous teams," Ratel suddenly said, looking her in the eye. She was once again startled because he had read her. She momentarily doubted whether Ratel was a secret Yamanaka. "I looked into you thoroughly. I met with your colleagues. They tried to hide it—sugarcoat it—but I can spot when someone's stealing credit. I also talked to the staff. One of the nice ones told me that you put in the work at the start, but in the end, you stopped caring."
Tern lowered her gaze. At some point, it was difficult to keep doing the work without getting anything in return.
"Look at me," Ratel said.
Tern steeled herself. She didn't want to show vulnerability because people would use any weakness to target her.
"Work hard, produce results. That's all that matters with me," said Ratel.
"How can I trust you?" she asked.
He was asking her to earn his trust, but what about the other way around?
"Before I answer that. Do you want this? A chance to prove yourself, no matter how unfair it is to ask it," Ratel asked.
It was unfair. She had already tried her best to show that she was a competent agent regardless of her background. She knew she had proven herself, but it didn't matter because she needed to prove herself once again.
"Yes, I do," she replied.
The tired part of her wanted just to give up and accept her position. The clan wouldn't allow her to quit, and no one was allowing her to work, so she might as well relax, draw her salary and enjoy the benefits.
But a greater part of her wanted to do something that mattered. She wanted to feel productive. Her clan valued that she was in ANBU, but she was the one who joined it after passing the recruitment process. She loved the job because it felt like she was part of something bigger than herself, and she wanted that feeling back.
So while she had been beaten down, she was willing to try once more—one last time.
"Give me a chance and I'll blow it out of the water," she said resolutely.
"Very well…"
Tern's spine turned cold for a moment before her combat instinct took over when a voice suddenly spoke from behind her. Someone had snuck behind her without her knowing. She turned around and froze to see Weasel standing behind her.
"C-Captain," she said in surprise as she quickly stood at attention.
There was no doubt Ratel had called him here.
"Show what you can do," Weasel said. His face betrayed no emotion, and his onyx eyes seemed to peer through her. "If you can show me that you can contribute, I'll support you even if Ratel, the squad, the Domestic Branch, or ANBU as a whole doesn't accept you."
Those were still words by someone with higher authority who could renege on them just like others.
"An Uchiha endorsing a Shimura. In this environment? That's better than the Hokage's backing," Ratel smiled. "So, what do you say, Operative Tern? How is that for motivation?"
Tern swallowed as her heart began to beat faster.
The flame of hope began to burn brighter.
.
———
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The link is in the synopsis!