Shikamaru thought for a second. “If Kengakuin really is behind this, then I guess it’s possible. She’s with them, right?”
“Not so much with them. She’s a scientist there,” Naruto said. “For some reason, she was doing her research alone in the basement of a house instead of at the institute. Weird, huh?”
“But the house was destroyed by the drones,” Shikamaru commented. “Where’s she working now?”
Naruto averted his eyes. “I talked to this scientist I know, and he offered her a lab.”
“You know a scientist?”
When Naruto told him the name of this scientist, Shikamaru’s expression grew stern.
Afternoon.
Naruto visited Chihare’s new lab to help with her experiment as promised.
It was a desolate facility built in a cave in the valley with the steel bridge across it. The place itself had done nothing wrong, but the further he went into the cave, the more he felt the oppressive air.
The researchers in this place were all a bunch of bad characters, but their skills were sharp—Suigetsu, Karin, and Orochimaru. Chihare was borrowing one of Orochimaru’s labs.
Of course, Konoha was definitely not allowing this trio to run as they pleased. Yamato was always monitoring the situation, keeping a close eye on their movements.
“You were a real lifesaver showing up yesterday, Commander Yamato,” Naruto said, and his words echoed slightly against the rock of the cave. He crouched down and whispered to Yamato behind the rock wall near the entrance. “Sorry for all this, for leaving you to watch over Orochimaru.”
“That’s just how it has to be. There’s no one who can take over for me after all.”
Yamato had basically carried the burden of observing Orochimaru’s group since the days of the last Hokage. The man himself almost certainly didn’t view his mission in terms of advantage and disadvantage, but it was clear that the burden was concentrated on him alone. Kakashi had looked into improving the situation numerous times, as had Naruto and Shikamaru, but they hadn’t really been able to find anything better than Yamato. As Yamato himself said, there was no one else who could take his place.
Naruto sensed someone coming in from outside and pressed himself to the ceiling. Yamato stayed where he was hidden behind the protruding rock.
“Hello, Yamato!” Mitsuki appeared on unusually quiet feet for a genin. He had just finished a mission with the Konohamaru team and stopped in for a visit.
“Mitsuki.” Yamato looked back, still on his knees. “You’re early. How was the mission?”
“Finding a lost cat and cleaning culverts,” the boy replied. “Boruto fell in the river, but other than that, we finished without any issues.”
“Those are both D-rank missions?” Yamato raised his eyebrows. “I would have thought you’d find missions like that a bit lacking.”
“To be honest, I do a little. Since we finished early, Boruto, Shikadai, and Inojin stopped by the burger place in front of the station.”
Naruto looked down on the pair smiling at each other with a curious feeling. This gentle conversation was like something between an elementary school kid and an older neighbor man.
Mitsuki at last bowed politely and went into the laboratory. Naruto waited for the sound of his footsteps to fade and then dropped down from the ceiling.
“Commander Yamato, you’re kind of right at home, huh?”
“Well, when I’m here twenty-four seven, you know?” Yamato smiled like even he was exasperated with himself, and then his face tightened again. “But you can’t trust a one of them. Orochimaru might seem quiet these days, but you never know what he’s thinking deep down. And those guys in the Taka, they’re pretty idiosyncratic. You can’t let your guard down.”
Now Karin came from within to see Yamato.
While Naruto watched from the rocky shadow of the ceiling to which he hurriedly returned, Karin took a plate with a strawberry daifuku on it and a cup of green tea off the tray she carried and set them down on top of a rock.
“Yamato, have a snack,” she said. “Mitsuki got enough daifuku for you too.”
“I told him, I’m good,” Yamato protested. “I’m on duty here.”
“Oh, quit that. Mitsuki went out of his way to get one for you, so just be quiet and eat it. Bring the plate back when you’re done!” Grumbling, Karin went back to the lab.
Yamato sighed and looked at the strawberry daifuku and its light dusting of flour with a troubled expression.
“Commander Yamato,” Naruto said. “Are you sure you’re not letting your guard down?”
“I told you, I’m not.”
Leaving Yamato to continue his observation mission, Naruto went to visit the lab for real.
He couldn’t exactly visit as a proper guest, ringing the doorbell with a little gift for his host in hand. He simply walked in and wandered around until he ran into Suigetsu.
“Aah! Seventh Hokage! I’d heard you were coming, but you really are here, hm? In a place like this,” Suigetsu said, his voice light. The corners of his mouth were dusted with white powder. Probably from the strawberry daifuku.
“Where’s Chihare?” Naruto asked.
“This way, come on.” Suigetsu started to walk on ahead of him but then slackened his pace and waited until he was beside Naruto before starting out again. Orochimaru was apparently in another lab that day. “The experiment she’s doing … developing an applicator for pluripotent chakra? Was that it? It’s a lot of work, hm? There are so many different stimuli to try on the chakra; it takes an enormous amount of time. A lot to take on all on her own.”
“If you’ve got the time to sit around eating strawberry daifuku, then give her a hand,” Naruto replied.
“How did you know I was eating strawberry daifuku?” Suigetsu stared at him in surprise. “And anyway, me and Karin both asked if we could help. But she absolutely refused to let us.”
Refused?