After I tossed all the cleaning tools in the closet and shut the door behind me, I wiped the sweat from my forehead with satisfaction.

The dishes are washed and descaled, the linen is clean and ironed, the floors are swept and polished... Maybe it took me longer than I imagined, but I finished all the chores and that's what counts. Now that I'm free, I can dedicate myself body and soul to my other task. ...but first, I have to give this a try.

I pulled out from my pocket a matchbox that I found in the kitchen, and lit one match up.

Uhm... okay, it gives enough light. I'll go with it.

The original idea was to explore the west wing with my flashlight, but I hould have go back to the dormitory to get t. I couldn't risk to be seen.

So, I left the canteen area for good and headed to the entrance hall. After giving a look at the pendulum clock -it was half past ten- I stopped in front of the two bookcases that blocked the way to the West Wing, and brushed them with a hand. It should've been easy for me to push or pull them out of the way to pass, but even so I could've risked to make some noise and wake up everyone sleepng two floors above me.

I had to find another way.

So, I got outside. Thanks to the moonlight, I didn't need to light a match to see something.

First thing first, I took some steps backwards to take a look at the two little towers on the roof of the orphanage, where Mistress Azumi and Miss Hiromi lived.

The lights are off, which means they are sleeping too. Perfect.

I got close to the front of the West Wing and proceeded to examine the various barred windows, one by one. At a first glance, they all looked the same: the shutters were closed shut and, to make sure that wind blows won't open them again, somebody had nailed some wooden planks over them.

I'd really like to know how they did put them. Maybe Yori descended from the roof grabbing a rope, or maybe they asked help from the guy that brings the food... I should remind myself to ask them, tomorrow... Hey, would you look at that!

One of the windows of the last floor was barred in a different way. Rather than being closed, the shutters were kept wide open, and the wooden boards were nailed at a greater distance from one another.

I guess they left that space open to let some fresh air in. I couldn't hope for anything better!

Rubbing my hands together in excitement, I neared the wall. After a quick last look around, I concentrated some chakra on my feet and begun the climbing.

It had been way too long since the last time I performed a basic technique like that, but despite my rust I didn't meet any trouble.

That is, until I saw a flying creature swooping down from the sky and heading right towards me.

"IGH!..."

I threw myself backwards to dodge it but, due to the fact that I was walking on a vertical surface, I ended up getting stuck to it upside down.

Ouch... Here it comes!

I turned on my belly to avoid a second attack. That winged menace stopped a second before colliding with the wall, then he begun to fly incessantly around my head, flapping its wings very loudly.

Great, this is just what I needed... Gotcha!

Turning on my back again and clapping my hands, I managed to capture that obnoxious snag. To the touch, I realized it was just a nightbird.

And now, what should I do with it? I can't just smash it on the wall, after all it's just defending its territory... I goti t!

Getting back on a standing position, I shook the animal into dizziness before throwing it into the forest surrounding the orphanage, as far away as possible.

I hope I didn't hurt him too badly... Anyway, I have an investigation to do.

I reached the open window of the last floor without other obstacles. Luckily for me, the space between the boards was large enough, so I could slip inside easily with no risk of getting stuck.

I finally sneaked inside the West Wing!

To be precise, I found myself in what must've been one of the two original male dormitories: thanks to the many days of abandonment, it had become nothing more than a long, empty, dusty room.

The door of the dormitory was left open, just like the window. However, I soon realized it didn't help at all the moment I set a foot in the hallway.

Not counting the room I came from, the air throughout the entire West Wing was saturated with the state smell usually found in old attics. I was forced to constantly wipe my nose in order to bear it.

I lit a match. Just as I expected, the hallway was almost identical to its twin in the East Wing: two doors leading to the dormitories on one side, two doors leading to the bathrooms on the other, stairs leading to the lower floors at an end, and a spiral staircase leading to Mistress Azumi and Miss Hiromi's rooms at the other end.

Hanging from the ceiling, there was even the rope used to get the ladies' attention in case of emergency. I surely was careful not to touch it!

I headed downstairs instead. There, I immediately spotted a big difference from the East Wing. Some steps of the first flight were chipped and cracked, and a big dent was evident on the wall of the lower landing.

What happened here? Maybe... Maybe somebody lost grip of a bed when they moved to the East Wing dormitories. Anyway, I better watch my steps.

Holding on to the handrail, I got down to the hallway of the first floor, in which I found three doors leading to their corresponding classrooms.

If I recall correctly, these must be the reading room, the modeling room, and... since the gym is downstairs, what's the remaining classroom for?

With the help of the match, I illuminated the plate hanging on the nearest door. Thankfully, it was the room I was just thinking about.

"Recreational room"? What does it mean?

Blowing on the almost worn out match, I slowly opened the door and stepped inside.

I was just about to light another one, when a sudden scare made me drop the entire matchbox.

I had just stepped on something slimy. Something that produced an inhuman, high pitched hiss.

Trying to keep a cool head, I raised an arm to search and find the light switch. It took me a couple of seconds to adjust to the light, but eventually I opened my eyes.

...oh.

The floor of the room was almost entirely covered by puppets, stuffed animals, board games and building blocks, all of them covered as well by a thick layer of dust.

Toys, just toys!

The "something" I stepped on was nothing more than a rubber chicken, the kind of toy usually given to dogs to play with.

Ha... Ha ha ha ha! How dumb of me to be scared like that!

I lifted my foot...

There is absolutely nothing to be afraid of-OH SHIT!

...and by doing so the rubber chicken reinflated again, releasing a longer and louder noise than the previous one.

I quickly shut the door, but the damage was already done.

It'll be a miracle if I didn't wake up the entire orphanage, damn it! ...no, maybe I'm just overthinking. I must stay calm.

I spent the following minutes keeping my ear pressed to the door, but luckily for me the only noise I heard was my heartbeat slowing down.

Nobody came down, thank goodness.

After recollecting the matches and the box from the floor, I lit one up and left the room, making sure to turn the lights off. I'd have liked to snoop around in the other classrooms too, but I decided to leave it for another time.

My objective was right below my feet.

I came down to more flights of stairs -watching my steps veeery carefully this time- and I found myself right on the other side of the bookcases that blocked the way to the entrance hall.

I turned to my right. At the end of the small hallway I found a double door, identical to that of the cafeteria.

The entrance of the gym.

The door didn't have locks at all, maybe to make an escape easier in case of fire. However, to keep it shut, there was something even tougher: a very thick rope, knotted many times around the handles in order to make impossible for anyone to push or pull, not even for a few inches.

Now what? I can't just cut it or set it on fire! If Yori or the ladies ever find out that somebody went here, who knows what could happen... The only thing to do, alas, is to untie each and every knot, one by one. Come on, let's get to work.

I examined the rope until I found one of its two ends. I was about to loosen it and begin, when I stopped myself just in time.

There was one more thing I didn't consider. Once I had finished my exploration, putting the rope back wouldn't have been enough: I had to knot it back in the exact same way it was now.

I learnt at my expense how Yori had a remarkable attention to detail, therefore even the smallest difference would have been enough to make her realize that someone has entered the gym.

I should do something to remember the exact shape of the knots, but how? Maybe with a sketch... No, even if I had pen and paper with me, I really suck at drawing! So... I goti t! If I had a second rope, I could easily copy the knots and have an example to look at! Now, where should I look to find a rope, a lanyard, a string, or something that looks like a...

Of course!

Yori's apron! I totally forgot I still had it on!

After I took it off, I picked one of its laces and with a little bit of patience I knotted it the same way as the rope. Then, with the same patience I loosened the rope and laid it on the floor next to the apron.

Finally, I wrapped my fingers around the two handles, took a deep breath, and pushed the doors open.

Despite the darkness, I immediately realized that the room I just stepped in was very big, and the tiny light of a match wouldn't be of much help in there.

Right near the doors, I found and pressed three switches. One after the other, three pairs of neon lamps brighten up on the ceiling, and I could finally see what the infamous gym looked like.

The room was just as big as the cafeteria, rectangular in shape and with a high ceiling. On the left side were the stands, consisting of three metal benches fixated to the floor. On the right side I saw various gym equipment: wall bars, a balance beam, some mats and a metal basket full of balls. Beside me and on the opposite side of the room stood two baskets, supported by red poles.

On the wooden floor, a basketball course was drawn. Many lines painted in bright colors to trace the boundaries, a white circle as the midfield... and a splotch.

A dark brown spot, shaped like a deformed and enlarged horseshoe.

A stain of clotted blood.

The spot in which Yori had found the corpse.

This empty space...

As painful as it was, I tried to remember the body of the child as I saw it in the photo, and mentally placed it over the stain.

...the victim's head could have left it. Which means... it's right here where the Masquerader cut his face off.

Swallowing hard, I kneeled down beside the bloodstain to look closely.

Smallest drops were scattered all round it, but unfortunately that murderer was very careful not to leave a single fingerprint.

However, raising my gaze a little, I spotted some more drops in the distance. I followed the trace, which led me to the door of the locker room.

Whatever it was that lost all this blood, the Masquerader must have discarded it in there.

Holding onto that part of courage that hadn't left me yet, I entered the locker room and pressed its light switch with a knuckle.

The room, big as the kitchen, was coated in white tiles. It was impossible not to see the drops of blood on them. The trail ended right near the entrance, at the base of a basket full of wristbands.

A swarm of flies was buzzing loudly on top of it.

Oh... Oh, man...

I felt the last part of my courage packing its things to leave for good.

But I had to look. I had to!

I came to the compromise of covering my face with one hand, so that my eyes could see in the tiny space between my fingers.

Dispelling the flies with the other hand, I finally dared to peek.

...w-what is this?

I sighed in relief, but not too much. The face of the victim wasn't there, thankfully, but so wasn't the murder weapon.

Instead, what attracted the flies was a grayish strap, poorly blended with the wristbands.

This is... it's a flap of skin, of course! This is the skin that the Masquerader cut away from the neck of his victim, to prevent anybody from finding his fingerprints! ...too bad it's completely useless now, dammit!

Just as I brushed it with a finger, the flap crumbled into dust.

I should've expected it. This skin is decomposing for a month at least, even with all the good will in the world I couldn't have made anything with it.

In that instant, I felt an unstoppable need to yawn.

Barely holding it back -with all those flies, all I needed was for one to dart right in my mouth!- I exited the locker room, leaving the door to slowly close by itself behind me.

That's crazy, of all the moment I could start to be sleepy...

I didn't hear the noise of a closing door. I heard two noises. One, a couple of seconds after the other.

One noise was close, the other was distant.

Quickly I turned around. The door of the locker room was now closed.

...the echo, it must be the echo.

I went back to the center of the room to check the blood stain once again.

There weren't any more trails of blood, and I didn't find anything suspicious anywhere else in the gym.

I came to the conclusion that the Masquerader must had kept the face of his victim for himself. The thought made me feel a shiver of disgust...

...which was immediately dispersed by a second yawn.

What the hell is happening? Suddenly it feels like I... I no longer want to investigate. The sleepiness, that must be it. After all, it's very late. I guess... I guess it'd be better to stop for now, and continue the exploration tomorrow. I think I saw a sac of coffee powder among the food storage, but I'm not sure... I'll ask Yori if I can have some, just in case...

In a mixture of reluctance and relief, I turned off the lights and left the gym.

I was already going up the stairs, when I remembered I still had to put the rope back on the double doors. Under the dim light of the matches and with my head bobbing down every twenty seconds, the task was downright titanic, but somehow I managed to complete it.

After putting Yori's apron back on again, I lit another match and begun to go upstairs.

I was so dead tired, I didn't realize I already reached the first floor until I made a very long step where I thought was another stair, but I regained my balance in time.

At this rate, I'd have to climb the rest of the stairs on all fours... ?

With the corner of my eye, I noticed a thin thread of light on the floor coming from under the last door of the hallway.

I never got in there, I'm sure of it! T-then...

Putting out the flame of the match, I pinched my arm three times to drive the sleepiness away. Then, I slowly approached the door.

Little by little, I heard some various noises coming from behind the door. Someone was there, no doubt about it.

I knelt a little, to peep in the keyhole.

A person, of whom I only saw an arm, was sitting at a desk, illuminated by an old table lamp.

Many objects were scattered on the desk. They were of various colors. Some thin, some larger... Pencils and tempera paints, that's what they were. There were also shreds of toilet paper, scissors and who knows what else.

The person lowered his arm, and I was able to spot a glass can filled with water, in which two dead little fishes were floating.

No, those things weren't fishes at all.

My heart skipped a beat.

Those were human eyes.

There couldn't be any other explanation.

The Masquerader was behind that door.

I leaned forward a little, as if I could fit in the keyhole with my whole head.

The lamp on the desk turned to look at me right in the eyes, then it dashed to attack, like a snake that has just found its next prey.

"Leave a piece for me" the person said, before turning as well.

I couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman. It was a creature, entirely dressed in black. In place of a head, it had a human skull. From its empty sockets, countless eyeballs kept falling out like beads of a broken necklace.

"Leave a piece for me."

The Masquerader stretched a hand towards my face. I could do nothing but back away...

I fell backwards, butt-first on the floor.

I was still in the hallway, in front of the classroom door, and the scene I saw fro the keyhole came back to the way it was before I tried to enter.

What... Was that... A dream?

I shook my head until my neck ached, but in a few seconds I felt a deep sleepiness crashing again on me.

No, no, NO! I can't fall asleep right here, right now! I held on for all this time... I never kept myself awake... so long... before...

I thought back at all the times I fell asleep whenever I tried to write down the mission report. Not just thinking: the dumbness that was overtaking me more and more made me dream the thoughts whirling in my head.

I saw the dormitory. I saw the children and the boys falling asleep, more or less in the same moment.

I saw Naoki, sleeping deep in the kitchen, and Yori... her too, after she had confided me her secrets, was on the verge of dozing off.

However, I was instead still wide awake, a far cry from the other nights.

Something happened differently, but what exactly?

Maybe it was because of my empty stomach, I skipped dinner after all...

No, Yori made me a sandwich. Then, what...

"I guess it's getting late for me... That's right, I almost forgot. You have to take the digestive."

"Even if I've just eat a sandwich?"

"It's the rule. Everyone must take it."

The realization instantly woke me up.

I drunk the digestive much later then the others, I'm falling asleep much later than usual... It can't be a coincidence!

I was about to fall backwards again, but I managed to keep my balance by opening my arms before standing up.

The digestive is a sleeping drug, how couldn't I get it sooner?! Which means... What does it mean? Why do they drug the orphans? And Yori, is she on it too?

I heard some noises.

A chair scraping on the floor.

Some steps.

My heart beating faster and faster.

False alarm, the Masquerader got up only to pick something.

Nonetheless, I was in grave danger.

I couldn't fight him in my current conditions.

If I fell asleep there... I'd die.

I had to get out of there.

I was so close... Damn it... Damn it!

I walked backwards to the other hand of the hallway, then I turned around and went up as fast as I could holding onto the handrail.

Unfortunately, the ever growing dumbness made me forget about the cracks in the stairs. Withouth seeing a thing, I tripped on the last step and fell on the ground with a loud thud.

Great... Surely somebody has heard me by now...

Groping everywhere on the wall on my left, for anything that could have help me stand up again, I found a doorknob. I lowered it with all my weight, and rolled inside.

Thank goodness, I made it... But... What the?...

The window at the end of the empty dormitory was no longer open, but barred instead.

I wasted too many precious seconds, before I realized that I had simply entered the wrong room.

What an idiot... The dormitory I came from is the other one... Quickly! QUICKLY!

I slapped myself hard to keep the dizzyness away for another couple of minutes, then I stood up and ran into the right room.

A monstrous creature with four heads was perched on one of the boards nailed to the open window.

What... What is... I'm dreaming again... I can't fall here!

I shook my head violently. My sight soon turned to normal, and the monster was shown to me for what he really was: nothing more than the bird that annoyed me before on my way up.

"Listen... buddy" I whispered "I'm sorry if I hurt you before! I mean it! But this is not the place nor the time to fight again! I have a little urge to get out of here, do you understand? ...mh?!"

The nightbird looked like it actually understood me.

In fact, he replied to my prayers by opening its right, wing to show me a tiny scroll rolled around its leg.

"A message? For me?... Of course! Boy, I'm such a moron!"

I slapped a hand on my forehead. That was one of Konoha's messenger hawks, coming to give me a message from Danzo. To think I threw it away like nothing...

"Oops... Eh, eh... If only I'd took a break to think about it... Well, you should have looked for me at a better time... Ah!"

From downstairs, I heard a door opening and closing.

"He's coming up here! We gotta go!"

Grabbing the hawk, I took a run and threw myself headlong through the window, landing soon after back-first on the grass.

Thank goodness... I'm trained... To take such hits... Hey, the grass here is pleasently fresh at night. I might as well take a nap here... "Ouch! Ouch! OUCH!"

The messenger hawk had started to tap me on the forehead like a woodpecker.

"Ouchy... Thanks buddy, I needed that. I kind of deserved it, too..."

I took the scroll from the hawk, who immediately flew away, then I stood up and with what was left of my energies I rapidly came back inside the building through the main entrance.

I could never have managed to reach my dormitory before collapsing completely, so i choose to go back to the kitchen instead.

No one should be surprised to find me asleep here, tomorrow... I made it! I'm safe!

I closed the door behind me, leaned against it with my back, and slowly slid down until I sat on the floor.

That was a close one, for sure.

Thanks to that last bit of euphoria, I didn't feel like waiting till the next morning.

I couldn't wait to know what Danzo's decision what.

I unrolled the scroll, lit the last match left, and read it.

My dear and faithful subordinate.

First of all, I applaude you for preventing the ANBU, whom you know as Kon, to act without my consent. You'll be glad to know that I ordered his immediate return in the village, so that he can receive a just punishment.

Now, about the crux of the matter. I must confess, when I was informed about the recent news, I felt a little conflicted.

On one hand, it would be idiotic not to give the order to raze the unlawful orphanage to the ground, now that the Masquerader is practically backed into a corner.

On the other hand, I did not forget the special mission I assigned you. I know that you really care about continuing to serve your homeland. I wish of that myself. Therefore, I don't repute fair to annul the mission and so render all your investigative efforts completely moot.

After a long consultation with my ever trustworthy co-advisors Homura and Koharu, I eventually came to the conclusion that the final decision must rest on your own shoulders, Choji.

I thereby concede you two choices. Either you abandon the current mission and be assigned a different one, or you stay in the orphanage and deal yourself with the Masquerader the way you prefer.

However, I won't concede you an unlimited amount of time to decide.

In the wretched eventuality that you won't be able to communicate your decision, or, even worse, that you will outright fail to complete your task, within the next midnight, I already commanded the stakeout team to invade the orphanage and slaughter each and every one of its young residents.

Furthermore, even though I don't consider necessary to remind you this, your mission will be declared as failed, with all the established consequences.

In hope that everything will eventually turn out for the better, I wish you a safe continuation.

Yours Sincerely,

Danzo Shimura.