I knew I was in trouble from the moment I walked into the Hokage's office.

Sitting behind the desk, I found the three senior councilors along with a couple of hooded ANBUs, who immediately rushed to close the door behind me. There was no trace of the Hokage herself, Lady Tsunade.

I almost felt like I was about to be sentenced to death, but I tried my hardest not to show it.

"Good morning" I greeted. "Forgive me, but I was expecting to see Lady Tsuna..."

"We are surprised that you're not aware of it. Right now, the Fifth Hokage is on her way to the Land of Wind to participate in a series of diplomatic meetings. In her brief absence, the three of us will have decision-making power. As unfortunately limited as it is... But enough of that, let's get to the reason why we summoned you" the councilor sitting in the center snapped "Choji Akimichi, from the reports of your recent missions it emerged that you always adopt a passive stance. You have to be encouraged several times when you are asked to take risks. Worst of all, you always protest whenever it's necessary to adopt a strategy that involves exposing yourself or your companions to life-threatening dangers! Your performances are extremely scandalous! Do you have something to say in your defense?"

I was taken aback.

"W-w-well" I tried to explain myself, even though I failed to see why I had to. "Me, Shikamaru and Ino form a very close team... We always were... This is why I try to make sure that none of us put our lives in danger. Whenever I can. I supposed you may know... that we have already lost our master, Asuma Sarutobi... And... This is the reason why I could not bear the idea of another of my companions being killed in mission..."

"BAD!" the bandaged man yelled, making me jump in fright. "A self-respecting shinobi must always be ready to accept a sacrifice for the sake of the country he swore to protect! If not even the valiant death of Asuma Sarutobi was enough to teach you that... Choji Akimichi, we are forced to dismiss you with immediate effect from your role as ninja of Konoha, and strip you of all the rights and duties you had!"

"NO!" In a panic, I raised a hand and took a step forward. The two ANBUs stopped me, but I kept struggling to advance.

"No! Please, give me another chance! Even though I am scared sometimes, I don't wanna stop being a ninja! I beg you, I will do anything to...?"

The councilor smiled.

I should have taken that as a good sign, but that man for some strange reason gave me the creeps.

"That's what we hoped to hear. We can't afford to have a cowardly ninja in our ranks, but we can't afford to be short of a ninja either. Release him."

"Yes, Lord Danzo."

At that command, the two hooded took their hands off me and brought him some documents which they kept hidden under their cloaks.

"Of course, I was lying in order to see your reaction. You won't be dismissed. Not yet."

"Not... yet?"

"That is up to you. You will be given a new mission and if you fail, then we will confirm your demotion. Otherwise, if you successfully complete it, which we hope you do, you will be able to continue serving Konoha as a ninja."

"Oh, thank you! Thank you! I won't disappoint you!" I exclaimed elated, as if I could touch the sky with a finger. "I promise you, I will no longer be a burden to my team!"

"We're not questioning that," the only woman councilor said. "In fact, you will not go along with your companions. You will be on your own."

If just a moment before I thought I could touch the sky, after that news I felt myself sinking to the center of the Earth.

"On m-my own?"

"On your own. Do not forget, right now we are merely discussing about the possibility that you may still be worthy of being a ninja, in and of itself. Now, take a look at these pictures."

The old lady pointed to the papers in Danzo's hands. I stepped forward to look at them.

Oh. Boy.

I immediately looked away, but in doing so I ran into the glares of Danzo and the other two. It was obvious what they were thinking. If I didn't have the guts to endure that sight, I could have as well return my forehead protector and resign there and then.

So, I went back to staring at those terrible images. Someone with a stronger stomach than mine had taken a series of photographs of dead ninjas. They all had in common one thing.

They no longer had a face.

Someone had cut off their skin, and also their eyes. From the top of the forehead to the tip of the chin, all that was left of the poor guys' faces was a skull stained with flesh and blood.

"Who... Who were they?" I asked, trying not to stammer and swallow more than I was already doing.

"You should rather ask yourself who it was that reduced them like this."

Danzo put the photographs away - thank goodness - and showed me a pencil sketch of a ninja with a covered face, huddled like a cat ready to jump on its prey.

"We gave him the codename "Masquerader" " Danzo explained. "According to the little information we have gathered about him, he is a professional assassin, which several countries opposing the Land of Fire have used to gain an added advantage, especially in the various conflicts that have seen us opposed. Many of our soldiers have lost their lives by the Masquerader's hand. For more than two decades, an ANBU team I personally educated has been hunting him down. The investigations have been long, tight, and more than once have led to a red herring. Until, a little over a year ago, my men finally managed to locate the killer's hideout. A secret dungeon, dug deep in a forest."

Danzo showed me two more photographs. There were portraying two rooms of what must have been the killer's lair: several smiling masks, of the most varied shapes and sizes, hunged on the walls.

"Ah, I understand now why you nicknamed him "Masquerader"!" I said with a forced giggle.

A giggle that died in my throat, when I realized what those masks must have been made of.

"There were no traces of the assassin himself. Despite this, however, the ANBU team remained in hiding near the entrance to the den for days and nights, hoping that he would show up. One day, he did."

"Did you catch him?!" I asked, but the crooked look of Danzou and the other two was enough for an answer.

"He managed to escape, of course. My men chased him for several miles, separating in three smallest units in an attempt to encircle him. Eventually, they confined him inside this area."

Danzo shifted all the documents to one side and opened a world map on the desk, with a red-circled area standing out.

"So... is that where he's hiding now? Are they sure?" I asked.

"They weren't quite sure at first. However, after many more months of uninterrupted stalking to check that no one left the confined area, a week ago they reported seeing two women bury a body, wrapped in a blanket, right on the edge of the area. This body."

Danzo handed me another photograph.

I took a deep breath, preparing myself to see another faceless corpse.

In fact, the body portrayed in the picture was not very different from the ones I had already seen.

Except, it wasn't the body of a ninja. He was naked as a worm, and he was minute, very minute...

My hands began to shake. The photograph slipped from my fingers and fell at my feet.

I raised my head and looked at Danzo. I probably had terror painted on my face, but this time I couldn't been able to hide it.

"Is this... is this a child?"

The three councilors nodded.

"One of the members of the stakeout team found the body and took it to the village" the female councilor explained. "the autopsy confirmed that the skin on the face was cut with a sharp blade, clockwise, just like every other victim of the Masquerader. There is more: in addition to that of the face, the skin of the neck was also removed. We deduced that this child was strangled to death with bare hands, and the killer was forced to use his preferred method in order to remove his own fingerprints."

"Such remarkable attention to detail," the other senior counselor commented.

"Finally, under the fingernails of the corpse the experts found particles of gold. The child did not carry golden objects on him, so it can be assumed that our killer owns objects made of this metal."

Shocked as I was, I hadn't paid much attention to the details the senior counselor had listed. However, I promised myself to make a note of it in the future.

For the moment, there were only two questions booming in my head. The first question was "Why did that monster take it out on a child?", but I knew I wasn't going to get an answer from Danzo. So, after wiping the cold sweat from my forehead with one sleeve, I went straight to the second question.

"W-why... why haven't the ANBUs arrested him yet?"

"If you look carefully at the map, you will get the answer by yourself."

I followed the advice, and noticed a detail that had previously escaped me. The red-circled area was in the Land of Rivers, just beyond the borders of the Land of Fire, where the village of Konoha is located.

"Even though it would be the easiest solution, my men can't break in, put everything on fire and capture the killer. They would act outside their jurisdiction, with the risk of triggering a diplomatic incident."

Another question arose spontaneously at that moment.

"Break in... where? What exactly is in this area?"

"An orphanage," Danzo replied calmly.

An orphanage, I repeated in my head. An orphanage.

I immediately understood the gravity of the situation, and without realizing it I said out loud everything I had grasped.

"The Masquerader has taken on the form of a boy... or a girl... in order to enter the orphanage and... and get safe from the ANBUs. One of the orphans might had discovered his secret... and.. . and... the Masquerader killed him..."

"To silence him," Danzo concluded for me, smiling. "Very well. If the situation is clear to you, then there is no need for me to explain the objectives of the mission."

"But... wait a minute!" I objected. "If the ANBUs can't intervene to arrest the killer, how can I?"

"You can hunt him down discreetly. There will be no diplomatic incident, if the capture is done by the hands of a single ninja and without causing a stir."

I scratched my head, confused. How could I have walked into an orphanage and found the Masquerader without getting noticed?

"Choji Akimichi" Danzo solemnly declared. "Your next mission is to sneak into this orphanage located in the Land of Rivers, pass yourself off as a war orphan, discover the identity of the Masquerader and arrest him, to put an end to his crimes once and for all. Is it all clear?"

I swallowed, as my mind went over all aspects of the mission. I had done solo missions in the past, but they were all about stalking or acting as a bodyguard for messengers. I had never been asked to mix with other people under a false identity. For me, it was a totally new and unknown affair.

If there had been Shikamaru and Ino by my side, I would have certainly been calmer. But alone, in the midst of children and young people I had never met before, among whom a murderer was hiding... it was a completely different story.

"Why me?" I asked, immediately ashamed to have asked such a pathetic question. "I mean, why do you think I might be able to pass myself off as an orphan?"

"Because you are the right age and the right personality to play this part," the third councilor replied. "You don't even have to take on another look. You just need to make some changes to your clothing and your distinctive features, and no one looking at you will ever think that you are a ninja in disguise. I think there is nothing more to add. The last word is up to you, Choji."

For a moment, I was tempted to refuse the mission.

And obviously ask for another one, I hadn't forgotten that I was at risk of being downgraded.

But then, almost by chance, my gaze fell to the floor in front of my feet.

The frightening photo of the Masquerader's latest victim was still there.

I was terrified, scared, nauseated, but still I couldn't take my eyes off of it.

Suddenly, among all my fears, I felt anger emerge, and by instinct I closed my hands into fists.

The "Masquerader"... that bastard could have simply escape the orphanage and find another place to hide, but instead he took away the life of an innocent child, whose only fault was being too curious.

I didn't know his name, nor did I know his face, but I felt very sad for him. Sad and angry. Part of me was dying to find the monster that had killed him and crush him under my fists until I had used up all my chakra...

"I accept the mission," I said in one breath. "Give me time to get ready. I'll leave tomorrow morning."

The three councilors nodded, satisfied.

"This is what we wanted to hear," Danzo said, handing me the map and a pencil. "Just in case, mark here the path you will use to get to the signposted area. So, in case any unexpected changes occur, we will know where to find you."

I obeyed, and for the next few minutes the councilors and I stayed in Lady Tsunade's room to discuss secondary details of the mission, such as the size of the controlled area, the characteristics of the Land of Rivers, the physical appearance of the two women that had buried that child's body, and many more things.

At the end of the meeting, when Danzo wished me good luck, I just didn't know how to feel.

I was still furious at the thought of that killer. And I couldn't wait to find him and bring him to justice...

IF I could do it, that is.

And it was an "if" as big as a house, since... Well... I was the one who had to do it.