An Imperial Influence

[Minato Namikaze]

Was it just a coincidence? A thought that filled the man's head as he leapt from rooftop to roof top. The fact that the Empire's representative had arrived at the building shortly after his targets had left couldn't be a coincidence. It had to be related. The blonde tried to make sense of the Miu family's reasoning. Were they going to turn against the village, and give the Empire a proper foothold in the Greens. Or was it like Kito had suggested, were they being blackmailed by the Empire? The evidence suggested another coup, and all he had against that was Kito's word, unfortunately.

'There's always a problem.' Minato sighed disappointingly, the rooftops giving him relatively quick and easy passage, as he rushed back towards Tsunade's office.

Minato pushed, gently, against the large wooden doors that sat before the Morikage's office. They opened slowly, a rather loud creak emanating from them as they swung open. The room looked just as messy as it had before the trio had left on their mission. Old habits never die, a thought that went through the blonde's mind as he observed Tsunade's unwillingness to do paperwork.

'I wonder which part of the village she visits to gamble.' the man breathed to himself, making sure that the monstrously strong woman wouldn't hear his snide remark.

'So, did you find anything?' she asked, standing from her chair and moving towards the front of her desk to greet the man as he entered the room.

'The Miu family leaders are meeting with someone tonight.' Minato nodded, watching as Tsunade brought her thumb and index finger to her chin. 'They left a note, detailing the meeting spot and time.' he finished. Tsunade nodded her head and thought for a second.

'You know what to do.' the woman stated, Minato giving a nod in response. He was to go and eavesdrop on the meeting to gather information on the situation. A simple task.

'Has Kakashi checked in yet?' the former Kage queried. It had been a while since his comrade had separated from the group and he wanted to know if the man had found anything. Minato's question was met with a swift shake of the woman's head as she returned to her chair, sighing as she grabbed at a stack of papers in front of her.

'I'll go and check on him then. Maybe he found something.' Minato replied. Tsunade replying with a nod, giving her approval as he left the room. 

'Now, where did he say he was going again?' the man thought to himself, crossing his arms as he descended the staircase. 'I think he said he was going to tail Nagai, the guard captain.' the blonde remembered. If he was going to find his former student anywhere, it would be at the village guard towers.

---

Minato approached the two towers, gazing up at them as they stood firm next to the village gates. The two, rather large, towers framed the village gates, the large hinges attaching the massive wooden doors to the stone walls of the guard towers. They were the village's main access to the top of the wall. Any Ninja that was stationed on wall patrol had to go through there. The gates stood firmly in their closed position, but the blonde noted fresh marks in the dirt, probably from the gates opening earlier in the day. He moved closer towards the village entrance, a pair of strange parallel lines ran along the ground and under the gates.

'A delivery...' The ninja muttered as he noticed a set of light footsteps leading away from the area. 

'He doesn't usually leave any tracks, was he carrying something heavy?' the shinobi pondered as he followed the set of tracks to a nearby alleyway. Travelling through the small alley, the man came to a small clearing in between the buildings. At first, nothing seemed odd, the smell of freshly cooked dumplings filled the man's nostrils as he entered the small area. A single tree sat off to one side, it was probably the reason the buildings were so far apart.

'The tracks lead here, but then stop. He must have done something with whatever he was carrying.' Minato deduced as he eyed the tracks. A large, crate-sized, indent sat in the dirt just a few feet from where the footprints had ended.

'Kakashi must have began inspecting whatever was in that delivery... but what happened between then and now?' the blonde muttered as a reflection of light from a metallic item caught his eye. Minato crouched down to find a small, pointed, object sticking out of the ground. The man parted the dirt, revealing a couple of barely used throwing stars. Kakashi wasn't the type to leave his tools just lying about like this. If he'd been here, then someone had either snuck up on the man, or he was leaving a trail for his partner. Minato stood, placing the shuriken in the tool pouch on his backside, and looked around.

'No trace of any other shuriken... Guess someone caught him off guard.' he noted as he examined the area, there was only one entrance, and he'd come from there. The tree was quite tall, but the branches were thin, they wouldn't be able to hold any sort of weight beyond their own. The rooftops were quite low, Kakashi would have seen anyone waiting up there for him.

'So they were already waiting then, some sort of stealth aiding their intentions.' He concluded. He doubted that he'd find any more clues in the area, and he'd need to scope out the construction site if he was going to find the perfect hiding spot. Besides, if this was all related, and not some sort of vendetta from before the two had met up, his best bet was to wait for the meeting anyway.

'For now, I have to focus on this. But I'll find you soon, Kakashi.' Minato spoke as he leapt up onto the dumpling store's roof and headed towards the Aplisto construction site.