Yako climbed the stairs to the second floor of the inn and found the room where Nara Meika had stayed.
Using Earth Release: Hidden Fish in Earth Technique, he passed silently through the wall, greeted by the pungent stench of cheap perfume.
On the bed lay a man and a woman, limbs entangled, clothes barely clinging to their bodies.
Yako ignored them and began searching the room for coded markings.
Running his fingers along the underside of the desk, he found them—indentations carved into the wood.
He crouched down. As expected—it was a Nara cipher.
He searched the room further and uncovered a second set, then a third.
Tch. Complicated as always. The three codes had to be reassembled in a specific order before they could be interpreted.
Just then, the woman on the bed stirred.
"Another guy? What do you take me for?! You never said there was gonna be someone else!" she screeched, her fingernails clawing at the man's neck until blood welled up.
The man groaned and blinked awake. "What guy? It's just me here…"
"You dare say that? He walked right in! What, if I hadn't woken up, was he gonna climb into bed too?!"
"What the hell are you talking about?!"
"Pay up! I'm not doing this for free! Give me more!"
Both turned toward the room—only to see it empty.
"...You've completely lost it. There's no one here."
The woman let out a confused, uneasy hum. Maybe she had imagined it. She could've sworn there'd been someone else in the room.
Meanwhile, Yako had already left the inn.
He rejoined the White Ram Squad and led them toward the location indicated by the cipher.
It pointed to the town's only lumber mill.
There, White Ram uncovered another set of hidden markings.
The message was clear—Nara Meika had already moved on to the next town.
Yako frowned. Why would she keep moving while deep in enemy territory? It's safer to stay hidden.
They headed to the second town. Once again, a cipher was found near the lumber mill—but no sign of Meika.
They followed the trail to a third town.
This time, the cipher didn't point onward.
Inside the lumber mill, Nara Meika had assumed the identity of a timber merchant.
Her performance was flawless—the mill's owner never suspected a thing.
She waited patiently as her cart was loaded, but her eyes kept straying to one particular stack of lumber nearby.
"Boss, is that golden ironwood?" she asked. "That's a lot of high-grade material… must've come from someone with deep pockets."
Golden ironwood was an exceptional material for puppet shells—hard, durable, and highly workable.
The mill owner nodded.
"Golden ironwood is famous for being nail-proof—thin spikes can't even pierce it. A big merchant bought out all the supply around this town. Rumor is, they've got ties to Sunagakure."
That was all Meika needed to hear.
Key intelligence is always buried in the small details.
She recalled one of her earliest deductions as an advisor in the Hokage's Tower: when rice balls began being shipped in bulk to the Forest of Death, it meant ANBU was preparing for a major operation.
ANBU didn't eat ration pills while in base. Instead, they preferred hearty rice balls stuffed with meat or fish.
The "rice ball coefficient" became a subtle indicator of mission scale: the more rice balls, the more dangerous the assignment.
She had shared this insight with Clan Head Shikakaku, who had praised her—then reminded her that anything involving ANBU was never to be spoken of again.
Now, far from the front lines and deep within the Land of Wind, she'd stumbled across two carts full of golden ironwood while fleeing.
And that had told her everything.
Sunagakure was likely preparing for a large-scale military operation—one centered around puppetmasters.
Someone was buying up golden ironwood in bulk.
For the Sand, this material had a critical use: puppets.
Sand puppets were built with steel skeletons and sheathed in hardwood exteriors like golden ironwood.
Based on this sudden market activity, Sunagakure was likely planning a combat expedition led by elite puppetmasters.
Meika remained expressionless, but her mind raced.
She smiled politely.
"Golden ironwood is so expensive. I wonder when I'll ever have the funds to get into that business."
As she spoke, the ground beneath her feet exploded in a burst of sand.
Dust blinded her vision.
A kunai, its blade tinged with violet poison, darted toward her abdomen.
She sprang backward—barely avoiding the strike.
Landing swiftly, she formed hand seals. She was preparing to use a Shadow Technique to trap her attacker and create an escape window.
But a sharp hiss cut through the air behind her.
Two snake-like puppets erupted from the lumber stacks.
Fangs opened—poisoned kunai launched from their mouths, aimed at her back.
She twisted around, directing her shadow to stab backward—to capture the shadows of the attacking puppets.
But she was still too slow.
She caught one—but the other puppet was too fast.
She watched in horror as the poisoned kunai plunged toward her shoulder—
Clang!
A sharp metallic ding rang out.
A large hand had caught her shoulder.
The kunai struck it—and shattered.
Its blade splintered against a red-bronze surface.
"Copper Fox?" she breathed in shock.
So the Clan Head sent Copper Fox to rescue me?
He was a rising star from the River Country front. His name had been gaining weight recently.
Yako gave her a light shove.
"Come with me."
Elsewhere, White Ram had located the puppetmaster hiding in the shadows. Their relentless assault gave the rest of the squad a chance to flee.
Konoha's team moved quickly.
Meika followed behind Bronze Fox, heart steadying.
She was safe.
Once they were outside the town, Yako spoke.
"Let's go, Tokubetsu jōnin Meika. We'll return to HQ immediately."
But Meika shook her head.
"No. There's something more important than our lives right now.
The golden ironwood trade is behaving strangely—and that concerns the movements of Sunagakure's elite puppetmasters.
I suspect they're planning a coordinated assault on the Konoha front lines.
We have to trace the lumber's supply chain—identify where the puppetmasters are gathering, and which direction they're headed."
She looked him in the eye.
"In the North, Konoha's shinobi have an unshakable spirit of martyrdom.
Faced with danger, their first instinct isn't to run—it's to die for the Leaf."
Yako blinked. Her response had caught him off guard.
His impression of Meika changed instantly.
He'd thought she was one of those pampered high-clan elites—untouchable and refined.
But now…
Where did she find the guts? he wondered. Wait—was it me? Did I inspire her?
After a moment's pause, Yako replied,
"Alright. You'll lead the investigation. We'll protect you."
He couldn't openly defy Konoha's political principles.
Meika had assumed ANBU would follow her lead—she wasn't surprised in the slightest.
They hid outside the town for hours.
Eventually, a caravan emerged—twenty camels, each one carrying five massive beams of golden ironwood strapped to its sides.
They trailed the caravan from a distance for days.
At one point, Meika whispered,
"These merchants have absurd stamina. They're definitely not ordinary civilians. I think they're shinobi in disguise."
Yako, meanwhile, was lost in thought—doing mental math.
No towns nearby, no supply posts in sight… I can't waste this month's lottery pull. But who should I use it on?