Clarence
*Sana sat outside the tunnel grounds and kicked his feet absently as he sat over a faux mineshaft that had been set up a few years ago in case that Nora needed to ever to go down into the caverns of the Jihibiki again. Sana would have waited a bit inside the tunnel grounds normally, but the place no longer felt safe. Truth be told, not a lot of places felt safe much anymore, but going underground in those very similar mine-like tunnels just made him nervous enough in order to not want to hang out so easily somewhere where someone could very easily drop the ceiling on him and he would lose the ability to escape. Would he really need to set up a Reality Skipping Matrix every time he went somewhere now? If he just could buy a minute inside his barrier, he could extract a large number of people at once.*

*But while today was about that, it wasn't entirely about that. What this was about would be informing a frequent member of their missions with the truth of what really happened and the danger they were in with simply associating with them. It was also possible that Takeshi was a target of the attempted assassination as well. Or at the very least they were fairly indifferent to his death that they decided to simply accept his death along with Sana and Hitomi's. Only they knew for sure, but it was something that it would be hard to know either way. Regardless of the reasons and the intentions, Takeshi deserved to know.*

*It was a bit odd actually, Takeshi and him had trained a few times, but outside of missions, they didn't spend a lot of time together. Even though the war made it so that Takeshi was an ever increasing presence on his missions. The first mission of the war involved him after all, and now he had gone from only slightly comfortable with the concept to now a powerful and dependable companion on any mission.*

*Well, he simply had to wait now he supposed.*
James
Takeshi dreaded coming to the tunnel grounds, especially after what happened to him down in the caves. The commander touches the scar on his neck, sighing. The scar is obviously visible. That spear did pierce through his neck in an instant from what he remembered, however, it was so quick that remembering how it went at a slower pace only gives him chills. Ever since that mission, Takeshi found himself continuing to improve. He keeps finding ways to utilize Crystal Release's strange logic.

"You know, you don't usually call me out here for no reason." 

In the midst of night, Takeshi's golden eyes would worry anybody. Owls, while having many shapes and eye colors, the commander's close resembles those with yellow eyes, like a horned owl, piercing through the night. While his mask is the main reason why he got his codename in the Frontier Patrol, it's interesting that Takeshi's golden eyes matched such a feature. Of course, it was simply by coincidence that he chose a mask that represented an Owl... Well, at least the shape of their eyes and nose. To be honest, he considered painting the mask many times but refused to do it. The white grew on him. 

Staring at Sana, Takeshi speaks up, "What do you need me for? It's already suspicious enough that you summon me in the evening near the tunnels. I'm assuming you want to discuss something."
Clarence
*Sana smiled as Takeshi approached. He recognized the footsteps and the scent, a facet of shinobi life that he truly forgot a lot of the time. Having the ability to confidently identify someone without having to look at them at all. Takeshi's suspicions were natural obviously, it was late and they were near the place the mimicked where they all had almost died. Sana had been thinking about how to tell people this, especially Takeshi. If anyone deserved having a straight to the point, no nonsense answer, it was the taciturn shinobi himself.*

"The mission? Remember we told you about the cave in that almost got us stuck down there? It wasn't an accident. It was an assassination attempt. Likely for Hitomi and I, but either you were a target to or they saw you as expendable losses. Either way, a commander of the FP and an unknown aburame tried to have us killed."

*Sana stared into Takeshi's eyes with a serious look on his face. He didn't know if it was dark enough for Takeshi to not be able to see him yet. But Sana's jade pupils stared back out of the darkness, like a feral cat that was desperately eyeing a mouse that had caught its eye.* "The only reason we're not killing them right now is that we have reason to believe that they are part of a group. How large, we do not know. But we are operating from the worst possible scenario. Unlike others, this directly affected you. So you deserve the truth more than anyone."

*It was less of a pitch and more of a blunt report, but Takeshi needed the important parts first. They could talk about context and details in a minute.*
James
Listening intently to Sana's explanation, Takeshi scratches the back of his head. He remembers Hitomi telling him about what happened after the mission. She went to check up on him since, well, he technically died on that mission. It is still pretty hazy about the details, but during his unconscious state... He remembers that very well. Whatever. Now it seems Takeshi's suspicions were correct. While it was a theory at first, the commander had found way too convenient. It's a good thing that Hitomi told him about the report before Sana came to tell him about their findings. 

"Not going to lie, I already had my suspicions... Hitomi tried brush it aside since there wasn't much evidence, which is fair, but..." Takeshi pauses, thinking his next couple words carefully. Also, the Uzumaki didn't need to worry about him seeing him or not. "I had connected the dots when she told me the details, but I couldn't back up anything about that without knowing who to trust, granted, I do have trust issues." 

"Honestly, I was surprise you guys didn't think of it first," The commander bluntly states. "The enemy wouldn't blow up a key point in their campaign. Also, they didn't know what team Nora was gonna send, so exploding it wouldn't be a viable strategy, especially with the enemies we were facing. Arguably, the enemies that were eliminated during the mission could of probably taken out 4 squads, if they didn't plan very, and I mean very, carefully. There were only a few people that knew of our mission, specifically in the FP."

"As for not killing them right away, that's fair. While it is dangerous to keep them alive, dealing with two enemies on two fronts is another game that I wouldn't want to play. So, what's the plan?"