Chapter 115: The Request That Never Existed

The next morning, Kurenai was already standing outside the academy’s east entrance, studying the recovered patrol sketch.

Ren walked up the street with Pakura beside him.

Kurenai lowered the paper, looking at Pakura, and then at Ren. "You actually brought her."

Pakura glanced at the charcoal marks on the map in Kurenai’s hand. "Apparently someone is studying a school my employer owns. I took that personally."

"See?" Ren said. "Teamwork."

Kurenai gave him a dry look. "Don’t make it worse."

Kurenai handed the recovered sketch to Pakura as the three of them started along the eastern wall. "These three rotations were already marked when he dropped it. Last night he came back during the gap I left here."

Pakura studied the charcoal line crossing the service entrance. "Did he actually try to get inside?"

"He tested the door, made enough noise to bring out one of the inner guards, watched how long the response took, then started leaving."

Pakura slowed near the corner and looked toward the service road instead of the wall. "Who normally comes through here after school hours?"

Ren listed the usual traffic: paper and cleaning supplies, occasional food deliveries, repair crews when something broke. Most of them were the same companies the academy had been using for months.

Pakura’s attention shifted to Kurenai. "And temporary guards?"

"The academy hires them when we need extra coverage."

"Do they know the permanent rotations?"

Kurenai’s expression tightened. "They’re not supposed to."

Pakura didn’t say anything. She didn’t need to.

"I’ll check," Kurenai said.

Ren looked between them with a grin. "I can already tell this partnership is going well."

Both women ignored him and kept walking.

The morning guard was standing near the service road when they reached the corner. Pakura asked whether anyone unfamiliar had been hanging around the delivery entrance recently. At first, the man shook his head. Then he hesitated.

"There was someone a few weeks ago," he said. "Didn’t seem suspicious. Said he was checking access requirements for the Village Records Office."

Kurenai stopped beside him. "What did he ask?"

"Whether deliveries needed advance notice. Which entrance contractors used. When the exterior shift changed." The guard scratched his cheek, looking increasingly uncomfortable as he listed them. "He had paperwork. Looked official enough."

Pakura asked for the branch name.

Ren recognized it immediately. It was a real village office.

"So either Records suddenly developed an interest in my delivery doors," Ren said, "or somebody picked a name nobody would question."

"The second one," Pakura said.

Ren called over one of his commercial runners and gave him the office name. "Ask whether they actually sent anyone here. Don’t tell them what answer we’re expecting."

The runner nodded and headed toward the village center.

Pakura watched him go, then turned back toward the service entrance. "Good. While we’re waiting, show me how a normal delivery gets inside."

They didn’t have to manufacture a test. A real supply cart came rattling up the road before Ren’s runner returned.

Two workers Ren recognized were pushing it, with bundles of paper, ink, soap, and cleaning cloth stacked beneath a canvas cover. The lead driver handed the guard an invoice bearing a familiar company seal, gave the name of the academy clerk expecting the shipment, and waited while the guard glanced over the paperwork.

The gate opened.

Pakura said nothing as the cart rolled through.

The workers were allowed to stop beside the east corridor while the guard went inside to fetch the clerk responsible for supplies. One man stayed with the cart, looking entirely ordinary while he waited.

From that position, however, he could see straight down the corridor. Two classroom doors were visible from where he stood, along with the turn toward the inner courtyard. He had also just learned which guard responded to a delivery and which direction that guard disappeared when he needed confirmation.

Kurenai’s trap had done nothing because there was nothing illegal for it to react to.

"That’s irritating," Ren said.

Kurenai folded her arms. "I had another word in mind."

Pakura nodded toward the waiting driver. "Correct company. Correct goods. Correct paperwork. He can stand there for five minutes and learn more than the idiot hiding across the street."

Kurenai stared at the service entrance for another moment before looking at Pakura.

"Your illusions are fine," Pakura added.

Kurenai’s eyes narrowed. "That sounded like an insult."

"It wasn’t meant kindly."

Ren covered a smile before either woman decided he was the easier target.

The academy clerk finally appeared and led the cart toward storage. Pakura watched it disappear before saying, "Late deliveries wait outside until someone inside confirms them."

Ren immediately shook his head. "You’ll turn every ten-minute delivery into half an hour."

"Good."

"Kakuzu will personally send me an invoice for wasted labor."

"Also good."

Kurenai pulled the patrol sheet from beneath her arm and flattened it against the wall beside the service door. "We don’t need to stop every cart. Approved companies get a verification phrase with the day’s schedule. The guard checks the company name and asks for the phrase before anyone comes inside."

Pakura leaned closer to the sheet. "Change it every morning."

"Obviously."

Ren looked between them. "Half my suppliers are going to forget it."

"Then half your suppliers can wait outside," Pakura said.

"You’re enjoying this."

"A little."

Kurenai added another note beside the guard rotation. "Temporary staff stop getting full patrol changes too. They get whatever they need for their own post and nothing else."

Footsteps crossed the courtyard behind them before Ren could complain again. His runner had returned.

"The Records Office never sent anyone," the man reported. "No inspection was authorized."

Kurenai turned away from the sheet.

"The clerk said the wording sounded real, though," the runner continued. "Same phrases they use on actual inspection notices. There just isn’t any visit recorded in their ledger."

Kurenai looked toward the service entrance again.

"So he didn’t just stand outside watching."

"No," Pakura said. "Someone tried the polite door first."

Kurenai tapped the edge of the patrol sheet against her palm. "Then anyone claiming to represent a village office gets verified before our guards answer questions."

Pakura nodded.

"And I’ll change the trap," Kurenai continued. "Not just unauthorized entry. If someone keeps lingering around the same response point, repeats the same route, or spends too long studying the guards, I want to know."

Ren looked at the growing list in her hand. "This place used to be a school."

Kurenai folded the sheet. "It still is. That’s the point."

They carried the patrol sheets back into the staff room, but Pakura didn’t stay long. The questions aimed at the academy bothered her less than the possibility that the same person had been asking around Ren’s suppliers, so she took one of his guards with her to check the commercial delivery records.

"Don’t change the entire system before I get back," Pakura said from the doorway.

Kurenai glanced at the page already covered in fresh notes. "No promises."

Pakura’s eyes shifted to Ren for a moment. "That wasn’t the part I was worried about."

She left before Ren could defend himself.

Kurenai leaned against the edge of the desk inside the staff room with the revised patrol sheet spread beside her. Ren stepped up behind her and reached around her waist for one of the blank forms.

Kurenai caught his jacket before he could pull away and dragged him into another kiss.

Ren’s hand slid around her waist, drawing her firmly against him as she leaned back against the desk. Kurenai kept one fist curled in the front of his jacket while the other moved to the back of his neck, keeping him close until she finally broke the kiss herself.

When she finally broke the kiss, she didn’t create any real distance between them. Ren’s hand remained at her waist, and Kurenai stayed close enough that the front of her body was still pressed against his.

"You’ve been very professional this morning," she said.

"I’m capable of restraint."

Kurenai glanced down at his hand. "That must be exhausting for you."

"You could reward the effort."

Her mouth twitched. "I just did."

She turned back toward the desk but didn’t move out of his arms. Instead, she settled comfortably against his chest and picked up the security sheet again.

"The phrase doesn’t solve everything," Ren said, reading over her shoulder. "If the same guard comes out every time a cart arrives, someone can still learn the response."

Kurenai reached for the brush and added a mark beside the service entrance. "Rotate the verification guard too."

"See? Useful."

"Don’t get proud."

Ren’s arm tightened around her waist. "I’m helping."

"You’re also feeling me up while I work."

"Multitasking."

Kurenai turned her head and kissed him again, shorter this time, before returning to the sheet. "Then multitask quietly."

The staff-room door opened while Ren was still standing behind her.

Pakura walked in, took one look at them, and placed a ledger slip on the desk. "Should I come back when the academy is safe from its owner?"

Kurenai didn’t bother moving away from Ren. "What did you find?"

Pakura’s mouth twitched as she tapped the ledger slip with one finger. "A few weeks ago, one of our outside suppliers got a question from the same supposed Records Office. They wanted to know which days school supplies normally came here."

Ren frowned. "And they answered."

"Of course they did. Why wouldn’t they? It sounded harmless."

Kurenai finally stepped away from Ren and picked up the recovered patrol sketch. She laid it beside Pakura’s note and looked between the old patrol marks and the service entrance.

"The guard here. A supplier outside the academy. Someone pretending to be Records." She tapped the sketch. "Someone’s been asking the same question from different directions."

Pakura nodded. "How do I get close, and when is nobody looking?"

Kurenai pulled the revised security sheet beside the map. "Then I’m not approving this because it looks good on paper. Tomorrow evening, we try to break it ourselves."

Pakura agreed. "I’ll provide a fake contractor identity and a delivery cart. You can try getting yourself through the new checks."

Ren looked between them. "And what am I doing?"

Kurenai looked him over. "You’re the owner. You’ll be trying to cheat."

"Finally," Ren said. "A role suited to my talents."

Pakura turned toward the door. "Try not to compromise the school while testing school security."

Pakura’s footsteps faded down the hallway before Kurenai looked back at Ren.

"Tomorrow evening. After the staff leave."

Ren watched her for a second. "For the security test?"

Kurenai stepped close, hooked her fingers into his collar, and pulled him down until their faces were only inches apart.

"Start with the security test."

She kissed him once, short and deliberate, then released his jacket and picked up the revised patrol sheet on her way out.