{Ren - Records Pavillion}
At the same time, Ren was browsing through the Records Pavilion, a public archive in the Land of Iron. This place recorded everything the country's leadership was comfortable letting the public know, no classified intel, but still valuable for surface-level research.
It was one of the few locations where the Konoha delegation was officially allowed to access documents.
Upon entering the building, a samurai guide took him to a specific section and instructed, "You have an hour to go through them, but you cannot take them out or make a copy."
The man then locked eyes with Ren and stationed himself nearby, clearly to supervise.
Ren started flipping through the files. Most of them contained reports on Shikeru's diplomatic work in the Land of Iron, going all the way back to his early days as an assistant up to the recent events surrounding his arrest. The files recorded even his public relations with various ministers.
Ren made mental notes of every minister who had any sort of relationship with Shikeru, whether good or bad. Most interactions were positive, but one name stood out, Minister Gendo Haruki, who had apparently once threatened Shikeru, saying he'd make sure he "died a dog's death in the prison."
The matter had been hushed up thanks to another minister, Minister Shunpei Araragi, stepping in at the time.
Ren frowned as he flipped through a few more pages. 'What nonsense... are these records even true, or are they just comics written to distract us?' he thought.
Then he reached the crime report, which claimed an anonymous tip had been received one night, alleging that Shikeru was colluding with rogues to undermine the Iron Capital. As he scanned the paper, Ren paused.
'This ink…' he muttered and rubbed his finger along the bottom of the page. It smudged. The ink wasn't fully dry.
That alone was a red flag.
'Someone made this just a few hours ago and planted it here,' he realized. That meant the records that had been cleared for Konoha's viewing were being manipulated in real-time. He could no longer trust a single thing they were "allowed" to see.
As he looked around discreetly, he noticed someone entering a section labeled Criminal Records, an area clearly locked behind a card reader. That section, he figured, probably held the actual version of Shikeru's case file.
Ren started thinking.
Near the reception desk, he saw two girls chatting and glancing his way. One had level 18, the other had level 21. Their uniforms said they were archivists, so they would most likely have the access cards.
He focused his hearing.
"...cute, look how cute he is. Hey, he's looking this way," one of the girls whispered, immediately schooling her expression when she realized she'd been noticed. Her friend mirrored her.
Ren cracked a grin and flashed his Konoha headband, then gave a bright, innocent smile. Both girls giggled.
He began making goofy poses behind the supervising samurai while he "read" the files, just enough to get their attention. Each time the samurai turned around, Ren was suddenly back to reading, his expression serious. This routine played out a few times until Ren pretended to get caught.
The samurai scowled. "What the hell are you doing? Looks like you don't actually want to read these records. Get out."
Ren put on his best panicked face. "No! I want to read them!"
The man sneered. "Well, I don't feel like giving you a chance. Get out."
He began chasing Ren toward the exit. Ren thought to himself, 'Disciplined samurai my ass. Just because the girl you like smiled at a kid.' He recalled the man had made some suggestive actions to the girl but she ignored him.
Ren ran toward the girls and ducked behind one of them, grabbing her waist slightly for cover. "Nee-chan, can you stop that man?" he asked with a face scared expression.
The girl named Hana based on what her badge read, turned to the guard. "Ryousuke, what are you doing scaring a kid like that?"
Ren slid the access pass off her belt and replaced it with a similar-sized piece of folded paper.
Ryousuke didn't back down. "Hana, that kid's from Konoha. We let him in to read records, and he just kept doing weird stuff. He should be grateful we're not kicking him out of the Land of Iron altogether."
Hana was about to say something, but Ren cut the conversation short by quickly stepping away.
He lowered his head and muttered, "Oh man… sensei's gonna be pissed…" and walked out of the building.
Once Ren was out, he waited for a while before he hid his presence and suppressed his chakra, and once again went inside the building, but this time, he kept himself hidden by moving along the ceiling.
He made a clone with a very low amount of chakra, which hid itself using the Camouflage Jutsu. The clone was made for keeping an eye out on the girl.
Ren himself kept moving towards the Criminal Archive, and once he made sure there was no one around the entrance, he slid down and placed the card on the reader and quickly entered.
The card and the reader were made using Fuinjutsu, so Ren could have also broken through it that way, but it would have taken much more time and it could have also alerted the one who made them.
Once inside the room, he once again moved through the ceiling and started searching for the crimes that happened this month.
Once he found them, he searched for Shikeru's file. Since all the scrolls were placed in such a way that the crime was listed on the edge, Ren was able to find it easily after he enhanced his eyes with chakra.
Once done, he searched for anyone within the vicinity. There were three people here, and from Ren's vantage point he could clearly see that all three were pretending to read but were actually keeping an eye out on anyone who enters the area.
Since he couldn't enter the area directly, he took out a rope and made a hole in the wall using chakra and his finger. He then fixed the rope from that hole and slowly started advancing down.
He also threw a coin some other way, but the three men didn't move in the slightest and stayed in their position.
Clicking his tongue, he continued moving down. Out of the three, two were near the edges with their backs to the area, but one of them was in the area and would be able to spot Ren easily.
Ren made a plan and adjusted a little so he was just above the man. Sliding down, he came just above the man and instantly made two hand signs and then stared at the man.
He was using Genjutsu [Ordered Illusion Loop].
It would cause the man to see the same world he is seeing now for 5 seconds. He wouldn't feel any auditory or visual disturbance.
Once done, Ren quickly took the scroll and pushed himself back up so that he wouldn't reveal anything to the man, who would wake up soon.
Ren used earth chakra and filled the hole and then moved to one corner of the room. He hid behind a shelf and opened the scroll.
The first thing he noticed was the reason why the authorities raided Shikeru's compound in the first place.
Shikeru Nara, the Konoha ambassador, signed an order to collect a shortblade through the Mugai-Iai Dojo, but the shortblade was not returned even after the advanced time allocated to diplomat.
Minister Gendo Haruki placed a request that he wanted the shortblade since he found through the record that this shortblade belonged to his ancestor, so he wanted to worship.
But when the people of his residence found that the shortblade was with Shikeru and he hadn't returned it till now, they made a formal complaint and pushed for the authorities to search his compound.
Since Shikeru was not in his compound, the inspectors had to wait but men of Minister Gendo rushed them and they were forced to search the compound.
There they found the shortblade. However, it was found that the shortblade was hidden and wrapped in some paper.
Opening the paper, it was found that they were details of security details of Land of Iron and other sensitive details.
The discovery sparked an intense investigation. Further reports revealed that a merchant was intercepted by border guards while en route to the Land of Earth, carrying similar classified documents. Under interrogation, the merchant confessed that he had been paid to transport the scrolls, though he later claimed he never agreed to the deal and was unaware of how the documents ended up in his goods.
After repeated questioning, the merchant finally remembered that Shikeru had approached him.
To make matters worse, rogue ninjas were later spotted lying in wait along the merchant's route. Upon capturing one of them, it was revealed they were hired to eliminate the merchant. The money and the letter they carried were traced back to Shikeru.
Based on this compiled evidence, Shikeru was arrested.
Ren absorbed every detail. Once he finished, he carefully made a copy of the scroll and returned to the ceiling. From there, he skillfully tossed the original scroll back into its slot. Due to his nearly master-level Shurikenjutsu, he didn't have much problem and he went outside once he was done.
He dispelled the clone and threw the card back to the girl's holder and went outside. After dropping the information at the marked location, he went to the point where the three had decided to meet up.
There he met with Hitoshi, but Yugao wasn't there even after the decided time. So they both returned back to their temporary residence. They weren't worried, since Hitoshi's insect conveyed that she was fine, just busy.
~~~
{At night}
Sometime after Ren and Hitoshi returned to the residence they had been allotted, Yugao returned and told them about her duel.
She revealed that she had challenged the top disciple of the dojo, but since it was a kenjutsu-only battle, she lost. But by doing this, she was integrated among the students and continued the investigation.
Once she was done, all three of them sat down to discuss the evidence they had collected and dropped off for the ANBU.
Since none of the relevant adults were here, they didn't share their conclusion with anyone but rather waited for everyone to be back.
Once it was nighttime, Utakata, Juichi, and Homura, all three of them, returned together, and after some time the genin were called in for the reports.
Homura sat in a position that clearly suggested that he was the lead in this one, while Utakta was sitting on his right and Juichi was leaning against a window, keeping an eye out for intruders.
Homura began, "Begin your report."
It was decided that Ren would give the complete report, so he stepped forward and began.
"We had three possible locations to inspect, so we split up. In the Blade Archives, Yugao found that a shortblade had been missing, reported a few ago. This shortblade was requested by the ambassador through the Mugai-Iai Dojo for a ceremony, but Yugao, who integrated with the dojo students today, found out that there was no such ceremony and nobody knew anything about it." He let the information sink in and continued.
"In the records pavilion, while reading through the reports that we had been given access to, I found that the reports were freshly made and had most likely been placed there just a little while ago; even the ink was not completely dry. In it, I found that the reason for the raid on the ambassador's house was an anonymous tip.
Since it was futile to read through the fake reports, I infiltrated the criminal section of the archive. There, three men were discreetly observing the section where the ambassador's file was located.
I found the scroll and found out that the real reason for which the ambassador's house was raided was because the shortblade which I mentioned before, was needed by Minister Gendo, who had a bad relationship with the ambassador. His men forced the authorities to force their way in, and they later found the blade wrapped up in the evidence."
Rem told them about the merchant and guards and then told them the part from Hitoshi's investigation. After listening to the complete report, Homura nodded and said, "Conclusion."
Ren began, "The one who is trying to frame the ambassador is trying to pin the blame on Minister Gendo. They knew that the ambassador and the minister had bad relations, so even if we found the report in the criminal archive, the blame would not fall on the real perpetrator."
He continued, "They requested the shortblade through the Mugai-Iai Dojo on behalf of the ambassador; since both of them had credible reputations, the process would be faster and some steps could be skipped. The shortblade was most likely placed there so that the accuser would have a chance to get a raid team on the ambassador's house."
"The documents found in the merchant's possessions were placed by the two men Hitoshi followed; they were paid by the manager of the Ironroot exchange, who had received a large amount of money, which he recorded in his secret diary."
He finally concluded, "Someone is using the famous names so that they can block us from investigating further. The most likely conclusion is that the three, Minister Gendo, Master Mugai, and the leader of Ironroot exchange, these three didn't have any idea what was actually going on."
Homura raised his eyebrows; he had figured it out, but he still asked, "Why?"
"If Master Mugai had placed the request for the blade himself, then there would definitely be a ceremony, but since there was none, it is possible that his head disciple, who is respected a lot by everyone in the dojo, used the dojo's name and took the shortblade, since he was the head disciple, he carried the dojo's name on his back, so few questions would be asked."
"Next, the one who paid the hired workers was just a manager and not the leader; he must have agreed to just pay the money because he in turn received a good sum; he most likely has no idea that he paid the ones responsible for planting evidence."
"Lastly, the ones who actually pushed for investigation and raid were men of the minister and not he himself, so someone who has high rank among his subordinates ordered them. So someone is using the second-in-command of strong forces to pin the blame on those forces." He finished.
But, just to be safe, he added, "Of course this is all an observation, and nothing is certain without concrete evidence."
Homura once again nodded, while Ren was sure he heard his dad snicker from behind.
Just then, Yoru flickered in the room and said, "Your conjecture is right; however, we have new information that will lead us further."
~~~~~
{2531 words (without these notes). Damn}
{The chapter got quite long since I wanted to be done with the investigations.
Anyway if you got any questions till the point where we are you can ask them here, but if the answers were spoilers I won't answer them.}
{I might take a break tomorrow but it isn't confirmed yet (Groupchat plan yk). But if there is indeed a break I'll do a double or triple release in one of the following days (Probably Monday)}
{I wrote so many words so you should also do something}
{STONES!!!!}