Chapter – 37: Escape

"So, that leaves us with only five minutes to finish our deal!" says the masked man.

"How do you know we will not be able to find him?"

"Because, I am the one who's holding him here and once I let him go, he will vanish! hehe," smiles the masked man, "Are you sure it's a good idea to be wasting time now? I mean I have all the time in the world, it's you who should be rushing things you know…"

"Tell me what you want,"

"I want Konoha's research on Cloning technology, especially Second Hokage's research in this field!"

"Are you sure that's what you want?" Hiruzen is really surprised. Not because of how confidential what the masked man asked is, but on the contrary, it's actually not that highly classified. When the masked man said he wanted knowledge, he was expecting to be something like village intelligence or some high-ranked ninjutsu, he went even as far enough to think that the masked man might ask for the Scroll of seals.

"Absolutely, but I want the entirety of it; along with the research notes and all!" says the masked man, "Hokage-sama, I know how everything works around here. Copies of all research data are kept in multiple places so that, in case an emergency occurs in one of the labs, the data is not truly lost. Just give me one of those copies and I will tell you who the culprit is, I will even give you the proof. Just to remind you, we only have about five minutes, I suggest you hurry …"

Hiruzen thinks for just a moment to see if handing out the information the masked man is asking is detrimental to the village and soon determines his worry was unnecessary as all villages have at some point done similar research. Although Konoha might be a bit ahead of them, it's not by much anyway. So, he agrees to the deal and sends one of his trusted anbus to get it.

While they were waiting for the anbu to come back, Hiruzen tries to probe, "You are a Konoha shinobi aren't you?"

"Mmm, why do you ask?"

"So, you are not denying it," smiles Hiruzen, "Just call it an old man's intuition. I could also guess the attack you made on Tsunade was not just to confirm if she had blood phobia. You see, even though your plan was good, you left some obvious clues. You were afraid of Tsunade's strength so you already confirmed if she had blood phobia while on the street acting together with those kids. I don't think you had the need to confirm it again? I can even estimate your strength from this incident, it should be around a Jonin or even a Tokubetsu Jonin, am I right?"

*Clap*clap*clap*

"Shikaku, eh? he really lives up to his reputation," says the masked man, "Yes, you are correct in everything except my strength, and I was a Konoha shinobi, not anymore."

"Oh," Hiruzen starts to think they might have underestimated the masked man's strength. A delightful misunderstanding that the masked man was more than happy not to clarify.

As they were about to continue, the anbu who went to fetch research data comes back and hands it over to Hiruzen with a bow and stands behind him.

"Here is what you asked for, now give me the information!"

"Not so fast Hokage-sama, you surely can't be thinking I will just trust you, right?" says the masked man and makes the hand signs to create a shadow clone. with a poof, another masked man appears next to him, "Give the information to him and let him leave. It will take up to two minutes for my clone to reach a safe place and I will give you the information you want after that…"

To the masked man's surprise, "Ok," Hiruzen directly agrees.

The newly created clone takes the scrolls with data and rushes out of the Hokage building.

A couple of minutes later.

"Hokage-sama, it was nice doing business with you. The information and proof were handed over to the anbu you sent to follow the clone, hehe," the masked man smiles eerily.

"In the future, if you have such information, you can come directly to me. Konoha will definitely give you the best price for it, think about it," Hiruzen extends the offer.

"If the price is right then why not?" were his last words before the clone dissipates.

'As expected, he would never come here with his real body,' thinks Hiruzen. There were a couple of reasons Hiruzen trusted the man to hand over the intel. From the way the masked man acted, it seemed as if he doesn't want Konoha to suffer such a huge loss and thereby lose the upcoming war. It was not Kinship or the WIll of Fire, it felt more like dealing with his business partner. If I suffer a loss, you will also suffer, kind of scenario.

A couple of minutes ago.

The anbu who was following the masked man's clone follows it all the way from Hokage building to Konoha Hot springs. Once he goes inside, however, he was in for a nice surprise. In the place where the clone was supposed to be, was instead a neatly placed scroll. He guesses that the masked man must have dissipated his clone, so he takes the scroll and rushes back to Hiruzen to report.

A similar scene happens at Hoshiko's place too. The masked man makes a clone and asks the money to be handed over to him and that once he is sure that his clone has safely left, he will dissipate this cone too.

After confirming his clone safely entering the origin space with the money, the masked man grins and says, "Thank you for your cooperation, Hoshiko-san. Now like I promised, I am leaving, hope you have a wonderful day!"

After watching the marked man's clone dissipate, Hoshiko was just about to pack everything and go underground for a while when the anbus rush in and surround him.

"I hope you die a gruesome death someday," curses Hoshiko.