The four ninja went to the local ramen stall and together shared a pleasant lunch. The soup was at first too hot to eat, so they had plenty of time to speak. Over the meal, Mari and Kaname related their last adventure in the forest of death, discretely avoiding some of the more sultry details- while Tashi and Jun explained what brought them to Konoha village to begin with. It left a bad feeling... something was amiss here. It couldn't have been a coincidence that a member of that ancient ninja clan infiltrated Tanigakure just on the eve of the treaties expiring... And that Konoha's interest in Tanigakure was only to acquire that clan's secret teachings... It was a set-up... and Konoha was playing along. How did they put so much value on the Bansentennin's forbidden knowledge while dismissing the threat that the Bansentennin themselves possessed? Jun and Tashi knew from the scroll that there were infiltrators in already a few other villages... And the disappearance of Imouto couldn't have been a coincidence either. And who was that machine man? Marise just remembered him kneeling over the girl... and then he was gone. He nearly killed Kaname, but it seemed like he was more interested in gathering information from her.<br/><br/>And his anatomy was like nothing else she had ever seen. Extensive body modifications certainly fit the bill of Bansentennin, according to Tsunade. So it was entirely possible that at the time Tanigakure was being attacked... another member of Bansentennin was on a mission in Konoha. Imouto's brother was a member of the ANBU black ops, an esteemed one at that according to Sakumo. Did his little sister have access to some of his information, locked away in that scattered brain of hers?<br/><br/>When lunch ended, it was a bit past mid-day. The Tanigakure ninja were welcome for as long as they wanted, but the Daimyo did seem to be quite... demanding that they return hastily...<br/><br/><hr/><br/>The Daimyo of Tanigakure stood outside a small house as a pair of his guards dragged a small body out from within, covered in cloth. From beneath his mask, his eyes were cold and hard.<br/><br/>"Tanimaru's parents died in the last war." Daimyo Mitsuo said to the captain of his guards next to him, "He was my only grandson- my heir. ...How many others?"<br/><br/>"Seventeen, Lord Daimyo. Old men and women... some children, the infirm. There shouldn't be any more, we've told everyone to get their water from outside the village."<br/><br/>"Tanimaru always woke up early to train." Mitsuo absently reminisced, "He drank a lot of water... didn't want to dehydrate himself. What's the point in tainting the village's water supply if you can only poison the young, the old, those already sick?"<br/><br/>"I don't know, Lord Daimyo."<br/><br/>"Suna will pay." Mitsuo said.