The elder's hut was a cramped space of worn wood and desperation. The air inside was thick with the smell of boiled roots and unwashed sickness.
Village Elder Polske offered them weak tea, his hands trembling as he poured.
"It began two months ago", he said, his voice a frail rasp, "First the rice. Then the fish in the ponds turned belly-up. Then the people… fevers, weakness, their skin growing pale and waxy. Our herbalist died trying to find a cure. We sent for help to River Country, but they barred the border, afraid it would spread. Amegakure was next."
Mumei listened, his expression impassive. "And the shinobi who came before us? Two teams of three."
Polske's eyes, clouded with age and worry, darted away. "They… they investigated. Asked questions, took water samples from the well and the stream. They left the village to search upstream. They never returned. We… we assumed the sickness took them, or they fell to some beast in the marshes"
"Convenient," Ryugo muttered under his breath, too low for the elder to hear.
Ameruyi shot him a warning glance. Tetsu fidgeted, his mask tilted down at his tea.
Mumei asked precise, thorough questions about symptoms, timelines, and any strangers in the area. Polske's answers were consistent, earnest, and utterly devoid of useful information. It was the perfect, tragic story of a natural disaster.
They spent the remainder of the day investigating.
[Water - Normal Condition]
[Pig - Weak, Hungry, Fever (recovering)]
[Potka - Lv. 1 Civilian (Ill, recovering)]
They examined the tainted well, the sickly stream, and visited the few villagers strong enough to speak. The symptoms were real—chakra depletion, fever.
But any appraisal of the village showed that it was on the path of recovery. It was as if...the water had been purified.
'Did the previous team manage to find the root cause and neutralize it? But then again, why would they disappear like that?', he wondered
It was mysterious.
Ryugo's [Strategy] skill itched. The pattern was too neat. The sickness definitely affected the village, but it was disappearing as it came. As if the source was localized, targeted and somehow, cleansed.
As dusk fell, they accepted Polske's offer to sleep in his hut's main room. The elder retreated to his small adjacent bedroom, closing the flimsy sliding door with a soft click.
The team sat in the dark, the only light from a single candle Mumei had lit.
"Thoughts?" Mumei asked.
"It's a sickness. A bad one, but nothing out of the ordinary" Tetsu said, his voice muffled by his mask, "We need a medical-nin, not… us"
"The water samples show trace toxins, but nothing consistent with a known poison from Iwa or Kusa", Ameruyi reported, her analytical mind working, "It could be a new strain. A natural blight"
Ryugo was silent, staring at the thin line of light under the elder's door.
"Ryugo?" Mumei prompted.
"He's hiding something," Ryugo stated flatly. "His story is perfect. Too perfect. The genins disappeared without a trace? No signs of struggle, no bodies? In this mud, everything leaves a trace. And did you see his hands when he mentioned the shinobi leaving? He clenched his right fist. A stress response"
"Circumstantial," Ameruyi countered, though her tone was less certain. "We cannot accuse a village elder on a hunch. We are shinobi of the Dark Hall, not thugs"
"We are investigators," Ryugo corrected, standing up. "And part of investigating is searching for evidence, not just listening to stories"
Before Mumei could stop him, Ryugo moved. His [Stealth (C)] made him a ghost. He slid the elder's bedroom door open just enough to slip inside, silent as the rain outside.
The room was tiny, dominated by a low pallet. The elder was asleep, or pretending to be, his breathing shallow. Ryugo's eyes, adjusted to the dark, swept the room. A small shrine to some minor water spirit, a cracked mirror, a chest.
The chest.
It was old, but well-made. Oak, with iron fittings. And entirely out of place in this hut of poverty. It sat at the foot of the bed, partially covered by a ragged blanket.
Ryugo knelt. No lock. He lifted the lid.
The faint candlelight from the main room spilled in, illuminating the contents.
Not clothes. Not heirlooms.
Ryô. A significant stack of it, probably 80 000.
Enough to feed this village for a year.
Beside it, three Amegakure forehead protectors, their metal scratched but unmistakable. And a small, empty vial made of dark glass, reeking faintly of chemicals and something else… something organic, like fermented herbs.
[Item Identified: Blue Fever Antidote (Residue) – D-Rank Antidote
A complex antidote of a poison designed to attack the nervous system and chakra pathways, inducing a slow, wasting sickness. Requires intermediate knowledge to synthesize.]
Ryugo's blood ran cold. He carefully picked up one of the forehead protectors.
[Item Identified: Amegakure Genin Forehead Protector]
The system's cold confirmation was all he needed.
He took the vial and one forehead protector, closed the chest, and slipped back into the main room.
His teammates were tense, ready. Ryugo placed the items on the floor in the circle of candlelight.
The effect was instant.
Tetsu gasped. Ameruyi's hand went to her sword. Mumei's eyes turned to chips of ice.
The rustle of sheets came from the bedroom. Polske stood in the doorway, his face ashen in the flickering light. He saw the items. All the strength left his legs, and he collapsed to his knees, bowing his head until it touched the floor.
"Forgive me! Please, forgive me!" he sobbed, his body wracked with tremors.
"You gave them to him", Ryugo said, his voice devoid of emotion, "The genins. You told him when they'd leave the village, when they would be vulnerable. You sold them"
"I… I had to!", Polske wept, "The sickness… he said he could purify the water! He gave me the money for the village, for medicine! He said the shinobi would just declare a quarantine and leave us to die! He said he needed to… to study them to perfect the cure!"
"Who is 'he'?" Mumei's voice was a whip-crack
"A monk!", Polske cried, "An old monk! He came just before the sickness! He lives upstream, in the old mill! He's been helping, giving me purifying salts for the well! He said the sickness was not natural, but born from imbalance!"
"A monk", Ameruyi's voice was thick with disgust. "You betrayed your own village's protectors to a monk?"
"He is not evil!", Polske insisted, looking up with desperate eyes, "He prays! He tends a garden! He… he weeps for the sick! He told me the shinobi were the cause of it all"
Ryugo stared at the sobbing elder. The man believed his own lies. The perfect pawn.
"He's a poison master", Ryugo said, holding up the vial, "This is a D-rank antidote. He didn't just cure the sickness. He caused it. He's using your village as a laboratory. And our genin as test subjects"
The horror finally dawned on Polske's face, breaking through his desperate self-deception. His sobs turned into silent, shuddering tears.
Mumei stood. "Where is the mill? Precisely."
Polske gave directions through his tears—a half-hour upstream, hidden in a limestone cave where the river emerged.
"What do we do with him?" Tetsu asked, looking at the broken elder.
"We are not magistrates", Mumei said coldly, "Our mission is the source. Bind him. Secure him here. He will face the Council's justice later. If you are worried he escapes, we can kill him on the spot. As representatives of the Dark Hall Tower, we do have the right to do so"
They moved quickly. Ryugo used sturdy cord to tie the elder's hands and feet. As he finished, Polske whispered, "He… he comes sometimes at night. To check the well. He might come tonight"
They extinguished the candle and waited in the dark, perfect silence.
The night deepened. The only sound was the drip of water and the elder's ragged breathing.
No one came.
As the first grey light of dawn seeped through the cracks in the hut, Ryugo finally spoke.
"He's not coming. He knows we're here"
"The missing forehead protectors", Ameruyi realized, "He gave them to the elder to hide"
Ryugo nodded. "It is not like we came unexpectedly. And we did not hide. He knows of our presence. Let's not expose ourselves in the night. If there are traps, we might get injured in the process"
Mumei looked at his team. Their faces were set, grim. The simple investigation was over.
Now it was a hunt.
[C-Rank Mission - Mizuha Sickness Investigation - UPDATED]
[Sub-Objective Added: Neutralize the Poison Master, the 'Monk'.]
[Additional Reward: 500 EXP, D-Rank Poison Recipe (Random), +10 Dark Hall Promotion Points.]
A boss monster right from his second mission.
Ryugo grinned.
It was interesting.
Meanwhile, Mumei was calculating in his mind. He had never been a very courageous shinobi. This investigation mission should have been a cruise. It was meant to teach his team that most missions were actually boring.
It had been meant to teach Ameruyi patience, Tetsu the poverty of regular civilians in the lands of rain, and Ryugo...that money did not have to come from bounty hunts.
But...the clues, the sickness...and now, a monk? Mumei had lost the initiative, and for some reason, started to follow Ryugo's suggestions. He moved like an experience team captain. His confidence...drew people in.
It was not the first time he noticed it. In training, his discipline earned the respect of Ameruyi who could not follow a simple order from him due to his civilian bloodline.
Outside, he had earned the friendship of Tetsu, who was very wary of others and lacked self confidence. He had even begun to make jokes.
Mumei bit his lips. In normal circumstances, he would have retreated with that information. It far exceeded the regular scope for a second mission of a new Dark Hall cell.
'I knew it...I should have sticked to bandit hunting', Mumei cursed inwardly.