"I think we should tell our team" you tell Kakashi
"We should wait. Telling more people will only make it harder to prove that they actually are the culprits"
"Yeah, but it could also make it easier" you retort
"You really trust Naruto to keep his mouth shut"
"Please, Naruto wouldn't say anything. If anything he'd just act really weird, thinking he's a spy or something."
"And that's any better how exactly?"
"Fine, maybe not tell Naruto. But both Shika and Neji should know. They are both very watchful, and the more people helping, the more likely we are to find something." You argue
"Alright, your the leader still, and if you think this is what we should do. We'll do it."

You get up, and head out the door.
You go and find both Neji and Shika, which was pretty easy since they shared a room.
You walked in without knocking, and instantly regretted that when a shuriken flew by your head, and hit the wall next to the door.
"What the fuck (Y/n)!! Why would you not knock!??" Shikamaru yells
You turn around close the door, and then pull the shuriken out of the wall.
"Where's Neji" you ask
Shika was sitting on the bed completely dumbfounded. Likely because of your weird behavior.
"He just went out for some air."
"Fucking lovely. Stay here til I get back." You order
You lightly toss the shuriken on the side of him, and head out the door.
As your leaving you hear him say
"What the fuck" in confusion.
You look around for a few minutes, until you finally find him sitting up in a tree.
'Not again' you think to yourself
You walk up to the tree and yell
"Neji, can you come with me?"
Without replying he jumps out of the tree, landing perfectly
'Show off ' you think to yourself.
"What's going on?" He asks.
Before replying you look around, Ito was in earshot, so you simply say
"Oh I just need a favor from you real quick" and smile at him.

Once getting back to their room, you knock on the door.
"Why are you knocking? Just go in" Neji says
"Easier said than done, I almost died by the hands of Shika earlier for not knocking."
You both laugh
You hear Shika come and open the door, and you all go in.
"Sooooo what is really going on?" Shika asks suspiciously
You turn around and make sure that the door was locked, and the shades were down before saying anything.
"We have reasons to believe that Ito, Endo, and Ayaka were the ones who attacked Lord Akane. Me and Kakashi overheard them on the trail talking about about almost completing a mission, almost directly after Akane's attack. They were also talking about how they think that Kakashi and I may be into them, but they never said what that mission was, so we don't have enough proof to go to Akako or Lord Akane."
They both look at you in shock.
"I wanted to tell you guys, because we need to find something to prove that they are the ones behind the-" you stop when you hear footsteps around the door.
Shika goes around the blinds, and carefully looks out the window. He looks at you and Neji and puts a finger over his mouth, indicating to be quiet.
He then mouths the words
"It's Ito"
"Thank you so much for helping me Neji! You know I can't sew for shit, and I really needed this hole in my bag patched." You said loudly.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm always the one having to sew and stitch for you." Neji says playing along.
A second later you hear footsteps getting increasingly quieter. You look over at Shika, and he gives you a thumbs up.
"Sewing? Really?" Shika asks
"Oh shut up, I didn't know what else to say"
"Why does everything have to be so difficult" Shika whines
"I wish I could tell you"
"Same" Neji says.

You take a deep breath, and sigh.
They were right, everything seemingly had to be difficult.
"Well. That's where we currently stand. If you guys see/hear anything. You'll need to somehow tell me, and/or Kakashi. Oh and by the way, Naruto doesn't know any of this, and we plan to keep it that way."
"He's part of the team too, (Y/n)." Shika says
"Yes, but knowing Naruto, what is he going to do with that information? I can tell you that he's going to be acting like he's a spy, and he's going to give us up. We could be killed if Ito, Endo, or Ayaka find out we know. Don't forget that. They tried assassinating a feudal lord, they won't care about some ninja's lives."
"Shika, she's right. For now, let's not tell him. We'll need to eventually, but I agree that for now. It should remain only the four of us."
After finishing your conversation with the boys you start to head back to your room, when you literally run into Ayaka
"Watch where you're going bitch" she snaps
You roll your eyes, and continue on. Once you're at the door to your room you hear an authoritative voice say
"(Y/n) I need to see you, it's urgent"
You turn around to see Akako, you turn around and follow him to his room.
The last update you had on Lord Akane's condition was that he was slowly recovering, but not much has been shared. No one has even seen Akako much, him and the other higher-ranking guards were detailing Akane constantly. Knowing this made your situation a little bit weird, but you didn't outwardly question Akako, and did as he said.
He took you to Lord Akane's room, and once reaching the door, you took a deep breath. Your palms were starting to sweat, and you were feeling hot. You took another deep breath, and stepped inside. As soon as you were through the door, you watched Akako shut the door, and locked it. You turn around and see Lord Akane laying on the bed. The room was pretty dark, the only light was coming through the curtains. It was just light enough to see him. He was currently shirtless, but his abdomen was wrapped in wrap. His face was pale, and his jet black hair was a mess. His torso and below was covered by the thin white sheet. He turned his head over to you gingerly, and his dark eyes glared at you.
You bowed, and carefully walked to the side of the bed.
"Did you want to see me?"
"Yes." He says unemotionally
"Grab that chair over there, and pull it over here for you to sit." He says.
You start to get up, but notice Akako already heading to grab the chair
"Akako stop."
Akako at this point was grabbing the chair. Once hearing Akane's order, he puts down the chair, and goes back to guarding the door, without speaking a word.
You get up, and grab the chair yourself. You give Akako a small smile, and quietly say
"Thank you"
You gently put down the chair, and sit down facing Akane.
"What would you like to speak about, Lord Akane"
He looks at you with a cold stare and sharply says
"I would like to talk about - how the fuck this happened to me, when I hired your team to specifically avoid this. So tell me (Y/n), if you can't do your one job, do I fire you and let you go back to your village dishonored? Or do I make you simply disappear?"
You take a deep breath, and say
"In all due respect. Our mission was to keep you alive, and are you in fact alive? We haven't failed anything as of yet. If you want to get rid of us, go ahead, but good luck finding who did this to you without us."
"And how do I know it wasn't one of your little buddies that did this to me? Especially right after what we were doing together."
"First off. There was no "we" that was all you. I had NO interest in crossing that line, but you didn't give me a choice." You spat back.
"Watch your tone with me, (Y/n). You have no power where you're sitting."
You stand up, ready to walk out the door, when he screams
"SIT DOWN."
You glare at him, and still head to the door
"You take another goddamn step, I will order Akako to kill you."
You turn around, and defend yourself by saying,
"Is this what you called me in here for? To threaten me? To think I was going to help you find who did this to you, even after you did what you did."
"Fine. I'll make this simple, find who did this to me, or I kill your squad mates, starting with your dear Kakashi. And don't bother wondering how I found out. Lords have all kinds of little birds to tell them things. (Y/n)" your name stays on the tip of his tongue.
"How do you know I didn't do it?"
"Please, I may of been intoxicated, but it was clearly a male who did this to me, and don't take that as me saying a woman COULDN'T of done this, cause they could if trained, but the attacker was clearly a male based off of his build."
"Do you have any idea of who it could of been?"
"Obviously one of my guards"
"So you do you think it was an inside job?"
"How could it not be?" He asks in are-you-dumb kinda way.
"I just assumed you wouldn't of come to that conclusion"
"Do you take me for an idiot (Y/n)"
"I never said that. On to the point, do you know any of you men to be untrustworthy?"
"Do you really think they'd be on this mission if I did?" He asks in that same tone.
You stand up, and head to the door
"Don't forget who's actually in charge here (Y/n)." He says as you depart.
Once out the door you squint, the sun was still out strong, so it took a second for your eyes to adjust. You head back to your room, to let Kakashi know.
You get into your room to notice Kakashi missing
'Not again' you think to yourself.
You immediately go to Neji and Shika's room, and they weren't there either.
'Fuck'
You immediately go to the dining hall, and once again, they're no where to be found.
You were getting really nervous and worried at this point, your heart rate was increasing, you were feeling hot, and you were sweating. Your mind was racing of the bad things that could of happened to them. Suddenly the thought of checking Naruto's room filled your head, and you speed-walked over there. You didn't bother knocking, and went in. You go in, and see everyone there. Kakashi was leaning against the back window, Neji and Shika was sitting at the coffee table, and Naruto was on his bed. At this point you looked like a mess, you were sweating heavily, and you're breathing was heavy, and fast.
"(Y/n)?" Kakashi says
"Why the hell are you guys all in here?" You say still trying to catch your breath.
"Kakashi called us all to meet here." Shika replies.
You look over and give him a questioning look.
He gets up, and passes you to fully close and lock the door behind you.
"What's going on?"
"Well we were hoping you could tell us" Neji chimes in.
You look over at Naruto, then back at the group, not wanting to say anything in front of him.
"He knows." Kakashi says
"What????" You say, looking at Kakashi.
"It was time. We need all the hands we can get"
He shrugs
"Don't worry (Y/n)! We'll find them, and I'll kick their butts!" Naruto says excitedly.
"So? What did Lord Akane want?" Shika inquires.
"Ugh, well. He charged me with finding whomever did this to him, and if we don't. He kills us all."
"What a drag" shika replies
Neji looks troubled, Kakashi - per usual - looks unsurprised, and Naruto's jaw is on the floor. Fun.
"Did you tell him who we are suspicious of?" Kakashi asks
"No, but he did tell me that it was one of the guards, and the attacker was male."
"And you said that Ito was outside supposedly guarding when Akane was attack right?" Shika asks.
"Yes. So maybe Endo did it?"
"This is all suspicion, we have no evidence." Kakashi chimes in.
"Well how are we going to get evidence then?" Naruto says.
"We'll need to catch them in the act. If their mission is to kill Akane, they aren't done yet. They'll try again, the only reason they haven't already is because Akane's detail is up, instead of 3 guards guarding him, he was 5 at all times. If they attack now, they might be successful, but they wouldn't be able to walk out of the situation without being fatally injured, and for some reason I don't think they are wanting to die for this mission." You say.
"Exactly, they likely won't try again until his detail is back to normal."
"Knowing this gives us an advantage. We should set a trap for them." Shika says smiling.
You all continue talking about a detailed plan on how to catch the culprits.

Afterwards you all go to the dining hall for dinner, and later go back to your beds. Tonight you were on guard duty for a couple hours, and luckily everything was quiet throughout the night. Tomorrow the plan was to set back out, and continuing the journey.

Authors Note:
Hey everyone! Long time no see. Many of you are likely wondering why it took a year for a new chapter... well, I've been editing my story. Not too much has changed, but there have been some small changes. I'm not completely done editing yet, but I've gotten most of the chapters done!
I've had time to write recently, and wanted to continue the story rather than rewriting the original, so here is this 2.2k word chapter :)
Also - for any Attack On Titan fans, I do have a new fanfic out! It's a Levi x reader in first person point of view. I would love for people to read it, so give it a try! I am still amazed on the success of this fanfic, currently at 68k reads. That's crazy. This started as just a small little project, that has now turned into this. If you have any questions feel free to comment, or direct message me. I try to always respond. Love u guys, and thanks for reading ❤️