Chapter 4 – Toss a brick to get a jade gem 3

"I can't handle it anymore! Every time I go out there to the good spots, I see them pirate ships coming in. Won't even let my tiny little boat off, I'll be lucky to get half the usual harvest this season." one fisherman grumbled.

"Times are tough, eh, maybe the lord'll put together a force to teach those scum a lesson," another man at said while smacking his table.

"Count yourselves lucky boys, I came over from Water country and nearly lost my life. No clue how I'm gonna get back home at this rate," a man in clothes that seemed to have been soaked and dried without washing said.

"To hell with Ozen, he thinks he can just sit around and do nothing while those outlanders pick fights with our men and harass our women. I swear they can't be up to any good camped here like some kind of army instead of living in proper lodgings like regular people," a scarred and bulky man in leather armor with a huge war axe and shield on his back said after gulping down a big mug of something.

"Rengo, you shouldn't say that out loud. What if somebody here goes and tells him?" A woman wearing leather tunics and knee high boots replied.

From the stairs, three men wearing large straw hats and black overcoats walked down and exited the tavern.

As they hit the road outside, one of the men said, "Mizuki, when are we gonna get a big feast?"

"Just wait. You'll get it once we get to Wave."

Back inside the tavern, Sakura asked in a low voice, "Why do I feel like this place is lawless?"

"The world's a big place, Sakura, and everyone is struggling to survive. The lords don't have the manpower to keep order everywhere. Plus, there's only one hidden village but hundreds of other villages and towns in Fire Country." Kakashi answered in an equally low voice.

After that, they split up to gather additional information.

To avoid getting unwanted attention with too many people suddenly asking questions about the pirates, Lelouch didn't use Shadow Clones. He headed to the piers and asked around about prices for getting a ride to the Wave Country, which was effectively an island nation fairly close to the mainland. According to the sailors, the waters surrounding Wave had become extremely dangerous over the past two months so there weren't many ships sailing there, especially not without a good security force. Even the waters off the coast of the Fire Country and everything in between to Wave was risky. There were only two ships in port willing to even sail and only one already had a security force arranged.

For the pirates themselves, they were not to be underestimated. There were at least a fleet of ten ships currently operating, and all of them were heavily armed with some pirates capable of using a degree of chakra. They mostly targeted cargo ships though and aimed for the cargo itself rather than capturing ships. They could be fended off with an exorbitant crossing fee, and only took people prisoner if they could be ransomed or were young women.

As for the Fire Country navy, well the first sailor whom he'd asked just laughed at him and said, "Those fat bastards don't give a damn. Ships are mighty expensive to keep at sea, and no noble would do something as unprofitable as patrolling the waters."

After his basic reconnaissance, the team regrouped and shared their findings.

Sakura obtained information on trade goods from Wave and their prices. According to the local merchants, all Wave products had been equally targeted by the pirates. Moreover, several shipping companies had discontinued operations in Wave, the only left was Gato Company, which was extremely large, operating across the whole Elemental Nations and had an extensive private mercenary force to protect their operations along with some of the fastest ships around. Other than that, the only goods that were coming in were from loose ships from private groups who were willing to put together significant battle power for some reason or another and needed to cross to Wave or back. As a result, common trade goods that were not unique to Wave were now being supplied by other places, especially Water Country and Whirlpool Country.

Sasuke investigated the suspicious group camped on the north side of the village and found that they were a force of around fifty men all armed with basic weapon and armor. According to the man named Rengo and his mercenary team, nobody knew what these guys were doing but they were camped here for almost a month after sailing in from somewhere. The lord Samurai hadn't done anything about it because they paid some fees for putting up their tents. However, they had been stirring up trouble with the villagers with their arrogant attitudes. They had also been buying up medicinal herbs and non-perishable food items aggressively.

Kakashi got info directly from Samurai Ozen after revealing his rank. He and other local lords were in fact preparing a force to start patrols as soon as they received some additional funds from the Daimyo and were able to hire some Konoha shinobi, probably in a couple of months. He knew nothing about the camped group other than the fact that they had several shinobi of unknown affiliation in their ranks, so he did not want to provoke them. No ninja were spotted among the pirates, but they had ninja supplies, explosive tags, and incredibly, some of their ships seem to be outfitted with cannon, which is why the lord shokudai was not acting carelessly. There were also unconfirmed rumors that the Wave Daimyo had gone missing and sightings of shinobi from the hidden Mist village on the island of Wave.

Together Team 7 quickly decided on a course of action. Seeing as there were no clear signs of enemy ninja yet, they would proceed with the mission to uncover the source of the pirates by getting on a ship to Wave, where they would either meet the pirates or reach Wave and find out what happened to the Wave Daimyo. Thus, they found the captain of the ship that was preparing to sail tomorrow and got themselves hired as very cheap extra security after privately demonstrating some non-ninja combat skills.

O O O

The next morning all passengers boarded the ship named Hardy Anchor, a double-masted hoy. The captain's own crew had ten hardened fighters, plus 15 hired guards, Rengo's team of four, and Team 7, making a total of 32 combat-capable troops, which was quite a huge force for a supposedly civilian ship, as the most merchant ships usually had less than five. Combat-capable members took up 2/3rds of the total passenger count, completely unheard of except on warships.

"Ah…I think I'm seasick," Sakura said while gripping tightly onto a wooden rail.

It was two hours into the voyage and part of team 7 was on deck near the crow's nest.

"Only seven hours left to go, little girl. Try to keep your eye on the horizon," advised the woman from Rengo's team, named Takumi. She was leaning back against the railing beside Sakura.

Kakashi was reading his book as usual while disguising it as piously reviewing scripture, while Sasuke sat beside the jounin on a bench with his arms rested on his knees and his hands cupped together in his standard posture.

Lelouch was sitting at a table in the shipboard dining hall. Beside him was the man from the tavern who had claimed to be from Water Country.

"Thanks for the coin, kid, never thought I'd become a charity case, but there's a first for everything," the man named Tenmaru said.

"How'd you end up like this?" Lelouch asked.

"Sigh…these waters are deeper than you think. I used to be the steward of a shokudai lord in Water Country. After the Water Daimyo was assassinated and civil war broke out, whole country's been a terrible mess. In the beginning, it was just between the ninjas, but soon enough the Mizukage flipped the country upside down looking for the people with special blood. And what do you know? A group of them were actually hiding in our lands and it became a warzone. My liege was killed and I got out of there as fast as I could, taking a ship to Wave where I have some relatives. But on the way, the ship was attacked by pirates and wrecked, I escaped floating on wreckage and drifted for a while before a passing lifeboat from survivors of another pirate attack picked me up," Tenmaru explained as he slowly savored the food Lelouch ordered for him.

"Why don't you just look for new opportunity in Fire Country then? Why head to Wave again?" Lelouch pressed.

"Well, I'm worried. You know the rumors about the Wave Daimyo going missing and Mist ninja right? And these pirates…they're not natural, I tell you. They were sailing a caravel, but have heavy cannons, with range far enough support a coastal siege! My liege was lord of a port castle so I know a little about these things. And I'm worried my family's in danger from Water's civil war spreading over. "

"That doesn't sound good…may the heavens have mercy on us all."

O O O

Mizuki and the Stupid Brothers made land in the morning. They had taken a tiny rowing boat and paddled their way over to Wave, occasionally running on the water with the boat lifted overhead when the brothers were sick of paddling or the waters got difficult.

As a result, there was nowhere for Anko and team to hide on the open seas while following them, and they were forced to find another way across and temporarily lost their targets.

The missing-nin trio quickly skulked over to what appeared to be a smuggler's den in a forest a little distance away from Wave's main town of Boro.

"Who are you, how did you find this place?" The were immediately surrounded upon revealing themselves. Various drugs could be faintly smelled, as the group of thugs pointed assorted weapons at the trio.

"Relax…we're with the Blue Snake. I have goodies for your boss," Mizuki responded as he took out a small jar.

O O O

It was late afternoon when the navigator yelled, "Ship on the horizon, four hours starboard from the bow!"

Not long after, the jolly roger was confirmed flying on the incoming ship, and it was charging right at them.

"All hands, prepare for engagement!" The captain shouted.

Then a shadow flashed in the distance and a large fountain burst a short distance in front of the Hardy Anchor. The ship was forced to turn and evade the wave of water that spread out from the center of the impact. The whole ship swayed with the rising water and non-combatants crammed into the inner cabins.

"What are you waiting for? Fire back damn it!" Rengo roared while whipping out his war axe.

"You moron, we don't have any cannons!" the quarter master yelled back.

The captain cursed. "We can't outrun them, charge them down!"

In between the five rounds of cannon fire, which fortunately all missed except one that hit the tail, Sasuke lost his stiff posture and looked a little pale as the ship rocked back and forth.

"Captain, they're skirmishing and rounding back to cut off our return path to Fire!" The quarter master warned after close observation. "They're faster than we are, we can't get close enough for boarding!"

Then the ship shook tremendously as a loud explosion could be heard, and there were screams from the cabin.

"Hit to port! Oh hell, there's another ship coming two hours portside from the tail!" the first mate reported.

"Damn! At this rate we'll be wrecked without a chance to fight!" The captain's knuckles turned white as he gripped the rail.

"Outgunned, outrun, outnumbered, we're so dead!" A random sailor broke into hysterics.

Lelouch rushed to the captain side. "Captain, if you want to win this battle, then do as I say!"

"Huh? Shut up, monk boy, this ain't time to be messing around!" The captain brushed him off.

However, Lelouch suddenly transformed before his eyes. Before he knew it, the captain felt a blade pressing against his neck, while the apprentice martial priest in front of him shifted into a blonde haired boy wearing a ninja vest and forehead protector with the symbol of a leaf.

Simultaneously, the rest of Team 7 had removed their disguises and surrounded the captain from behind, facing the rest of the crew.

"I'm afraid you don't have a choice, captain. This ship is now under the temporary control of Konoha. But don't worry, you'll get it back with interest soon enough," Lelouch stated.

Everyone else on the ship barely saw anything before the ninjas took the captain hostage and formed a defensive circle. But they didn't miss the second Naruto that appeared from nowhere behind the captain.

"N-ninjas!" somebody shouted. It was unclear whether the voice was scared or relieved. Everybody froze in a standoff.

O O O

—On one of the two pirate ships.

One of the pirates was looking at their latest victim through a telescope. Teams of gunners were preparing more cannonballs.

"Captain, their masts just went down! It looks like they're surrendering," reported the scouting pirate.

"Hold fire. Let's take a closer look." The captain tilted his pirate cap and waved his cutlass to the side in a blocking gesture. He had a sharp nose and angular chin that made him look fierce.

The ship moved in and circled around the unmoving Hardy Anchor while staying beyond the range of typical arrows and bolts.

The other pirate ship pulled up to their allies.

"It looks suspicious! What do you think, ol' sharkhead?" The captain of the second ship, whose head had curly grey hair and a full-face beard, asked loudly to the other as they started moving in sync beside each other.

Both the crews had already observed the target ship. There were two damaged areas but nothing fatal. Water wasn't going in, and it could still keep going without any major issues.

On the deck there was just a single person with his back to the bow with a bunch of cargo crates on front of him.

That person was sitting down cross legged on a bench while playing a portable zither using thin white gloves. He was wearing a white robe with a large hood that drooped down to cover his face in shadow.

"Must be an ambush…do they think we're stupid? Luring us over with loot but actually hiding in the damn crates," came the response from the other cap-wearing captain.

"But who cares? They got one little ship, can't be carrying more than 20-30 fighting men at the most. We got over fifty men here between us," said the bearded one. "We can board from both sides and crush them." He was a greedy man, but he didn't want to take the brunt of the losses while the other one sat and watched when it wasn't clear what they'd be getting out of it.

Especially when the fighting force couldn't be small if they were willing to charge at them instead of running away immediately.

"Fine. But we need to be cautious," The first captain agreed. In the end, they were pirates and needed to thoroughly squeeze the juice from the fruit. They couldn't just waste cannonballs sending them to the bottom of the ocean without bothering to take anything. That's what the navy did…not astute businessmen like themselves.

Besides, there were some unruly subordinates they needed to be rid of anyway.

The bearded one grinned and eagerly took his ship to the other side and moved beside the Hardy Anchor.

Similarly, their allies locked on to their side and put down planks to cross.

Each captain took about half their men crossed carefully, observing for anything odd. They stopped on the port and starboard edges first, and the cap wearing captain shouted, "Hold up!"

The zither music shifted into heavy drawn out notes as if in warning.

An unlucky pirate was sent to slowly approach the one of the crates and open it up.

He touched the crate while sweating heavily.

He flipped over the top at once and prepared his wooden buckler shield in front of his face while glancing inside.

Then his nervous expression turned to glee and he started grabbing gold, jewelry, and other obvious valuables, stuffing them into his pockets as fast as possible.

The zither music suddenly switched to a rapid and cheerful tone.

The other pirates turned green with envy and immediately rushed over to grab a share of the booty before anyone else could take it.

"Wait! Stop!" The cap-wearing cautious captain shouted, but it was useless. Even the other bearded captain had charged like a beast to capture crates for his own ship. When it came time to split the loot, whoever captured more would obviously have more speaking power.

The 'Sharkhead' captain cursed. Why didn't these greedy fools stop to think how a random ship like this could be carrying several crates' worth of treasures? That kind of wealth wasn't common for entire noble families, and this small ship was just casually ferrying it across waters known to be infested with pirates?

In a few quick seconds, all the boarding pirates had surrounded the crates, leaving just the cautious captain by himself at the plank edge. Even the pirates staying back on their ships were whistling with avarice and started running the planks to get over and join the action. Even if loot was going to be split, weren't the ones grabbing it going to hide some for themselves privately?

Suddenly the music stopped.

White gas started pouring out of the crates.

The pirates who were grabbing loot were covered in the white fumes and had no chance to cover up their noses before they sniffed the knockout gas and dropped to the ground unconscious. This cheap knockout gas was neither safe for its victims or effective on those with significant chakra, but it served its purpose well.

Captain 'Sharkhead' saw the situation and prepared to retreat before he could be surrounded by enemy combatants that would no doubt appear from their hiding spots, but just as he flipped around towards the bridging planks, he saw them get enveloped in a cloud of purple smoke, making it impossible to see anything. Immediately after, arrows and crossbow bolts began shooting into the smoke, and pirates who were on the planks crossing started falling overboard in the confusion.

'Sharkhead' cursed again and took out a lengthy piece of rope with a metal hook at the end, before swinging it strongly against a pole on his own ship, slinging himself back, hitting the side of the ship before using some rapid parkour moves to get back on the deck.

Of the pirate's total force of over fifty men, nearly half had been knocked out at the crates, and a quarter fell overboard at the planks. Due to 'Sharkhead's men being a bit more cautious in general and because he sneakily sent less men over to begin with, their ship managed to retain a fighting force of twelve.

The more aggressive captain's ship was far less fortunate, with only two smart men staying back and the rest all gone overboard at the plank or managed to land on the Hardy Anchor.

As the music stopped, the guards and Rengo's team understood the signal and surged out from the cabin entrances.

"UWAAAH!" Rengo screamed mightily as he charged toward the few remaining men near the planks on the starboard side.

The pirates had panicked once their comrades were taken down, and had been easily crushed by the charging men.

"Retreat! Cover with explosive tags!" Captain 'Sharkhead' roared. This man had a bit of intelligence to him and decisively gave up the attack after realizing that they had gone from outnumbering the enemy 2 to 1, to possibly being outnumbered 2 to 1.

Unfortunately, his decision was within the set of possible responses Lelouch had predicted.

Lelouch had been closely observing this opponent the whole time and immediately moved after the gases were released. With chakra enhanced jumps, he had already made his way over to the enemy ship.

Meanwhile, the rest of Team 7 also emerged from the shadows of the mast poles and flung kunai at the pirates, knocking their explosive tag carrying kunai out of their hands before they had a chance to throw them! Unfortunately for the pirates, some explosive tags had already been lit and they were blasted by their own tags.

'Sharkhead' found the robed person who had been playing the zither a only short distance away from him, and was only surprised for an instant before he snarled and yelled, "Enough of your tricks, prepare to die, dishonorable wretch!" even as he charged.

Lelouch smirked and rushed forward to take him down but his eyes widened when the "enraged" captain, instead of charging Lelouch as his words seemed to suggest, sliced a rope hanging a mast up before charging into the inner area of the ship. Lelouch chased after but the huge mast fell down blocking his way and he heard the sound of something sizzling.

'Slippery trickster!' Lelouch thought in annoyance before he quickly jumped away and an explosion blasted apart the hidden entrance to the inner cabins.

Lelouch wasted no time before he made a bunch of shadow clones that swept into the areas below deck. However, soon afterward a series of explosions completely blew apart the middle of the ship and both sides tilted down, capsizing.

Although Lelouch didn't give up and continued searching for a bit, it was futile as 'Sharkhead' was nowhere to be found.

He regrouped with Kakashi and asked, "Sensei, do you have a way to detect somebody underwater?"

"Hm…I'm afraid not. If there aren't any air bubbles he must have some way to breath underwater. How curious," Kakashi answered as he looked over the wreckage from the deck of the Hardy Anchor.

"Sensei, Naruto, all the pirates have been rounded up," Sakura walked over and reported.

O O O

After swiping everything off the pirates and looting their ship, each member of Team 7 took about 200,000 Ryo worth of loot for themselves, while the remaining loot worth about 750,000 Ryo was split between the other combat participants whose contributions were fairly insignificant. The ship itself was kept by Team 7 as well, and Lelouch estimated it was probably worth at least R5,000,000 with all of the cannon and advanced components. Of course, Lelouch had secretly salvaged an extra R450,000 worth of loot himself from his clones that swept through the sinking ship before it fully went under.

From this it could be seen that the pirates had quite a profitable job. With about 30 pirates to a ship, assuming all their shipboard wealth was accumulated over the past three months or so of activity, that meant each pirate had made an average of about 50,000 Ryo, which was twice that of an average commoner's income for an entire year.

Sakura gripped the storage scrolls in her hands like they were made of gold. She wasn't normally a money-hungry person but this sudden windfall was just too much! 200,000 Ryo was more than a typical chuunin made in a year after completing one C-rank mission and a few D-ranks each month. Heck, their current mission only paid 150,000 split between the four of them, and this was a reward usually only seen for B-ranks. Her parents were genin and chuunin, so it was only natural for these scrolls to feel extremely heavy in her hands.

With this kind of earning potential from plundering, no wonder the world was so lawless!

Kakashi wasn't so moved because his S-rank shinobi father and his own mission record had given him plenty of wealth.

Sasuke didn't even give the loot a second look as this little bit could hardly be considered pocket change to him, who had the entire Uchiha clan's wealth that could buy a country if he wanted.

Lelouch was highly satisfied with the spoils, as he had use for funds and started with little. There weren't any foolish nobles willing to gamble underground in Konoha – that was just asking to be robbed by ninja tricks. And most businesses with good potential were tightly controlled by the village itself.

He was slightly regretful that the second ship was blown up, because he might have taken it if he had used a more aggressive attack strategy. That was easily feasible given that Team 7 was more than enough to take them on in open battle. However, Lelouch was very cautious and preferred to win with minimal expenditure and casualties. Kakashi also approved the plan as it was his style to analyze opponents first before charging in, and there was no guarantee that the enemy didn't also have ninja. As it turns out, even if that escapee wasn't a ninja, there was something off about him.

The two ships continued sailing for Wave.

The captured pirates had their weapons removed and were forced to man their old ship which was now commanded by Team 7. A couple of pirates died from the dangerous knockout gas, but Team 7 didn't lose sleep over it. In this world, there actually existed truly "safe" knockout gases, but those were very expensive to create, and it was better to let the enemy die than risk themselves or lose men from their own side in battle. Their corpses were simply tossed overboard.

Team 7 had tied up the bearded captain, whose nickname was 'Wildlung', and prepared to interrogate him.

"Heh. Any of my cute students want to have a try first?" Kakashi asked as his eye curved like the moon.

Sasuke stepped forward eagerly. "Let me do it." He glared at the captain who huffed.

Without warning, Sasuke punched his face. "Who told you to make a sound?"

The man spat and glared back.

Sasuke grabbed him by the cuff of his shirt and pulled out a kunai. "Answer my questions or die."

To Sasuke's surprise, the man immediately shouted, "I'll tell you everything you want if you let me go!"

"Who's in charge of this pirate fleet?" Sasuke asked.

"Each captain's operating on their own. Nobody's in charge o' me dammit!"

"Then why are you working together?"

"We were all hired for a job! Take a ship and disrupt trading around Wave, and can't fight the other ships in our group. "

"Hired? By whom?"

"Some rich bastard in Whirlpool country."

Sasuke looked back at his teammates, who appeared equally confused as he was. Prior to the interrogation, they had come up with two main suspects for the pirates' origin. The Gato corporation and some kind of power from Water Country.

"What do you mean? We need more details. Who exactly was it?" Sasuke continued asking.

"I don't know! He operates through agents and just gave me the job and the ship. Never saw 'im. Must be damn rich though, he's got ninja working for him and all these ships to hand out."

After a few more rounds of questioning, they had gotten everything the man seemed to know. 'Wolflung' had been a sellsword and pirate roaming around the eastern oceans. Several months ago, an underground trader in Wave he usually went to get rid of his goods told him there was a high paying client in Whirlpool looking for experienced sailors to do a very big job, and he didn't even need his own ship, just a good team of hired hands. Wolflung followed the trader's instructions and went to a brothel in Whirlpool, and after a few rounds of being referred around, he thought he saw a ninja before he got knocked out. Unfortunately, his memories of that ninja were very hazy and all he knew was that they had a slashed headband.

When he woke up he found himself in a room with a masked agent. This agent told him the details of the job and where to find a ship and supplies that would be loaned to him for the assignment. The job was simple. Roam around common Wave shipping routes and attack as many civilian ships as possible, taking their goods. 50% of their gains would have to be paid back to the client every month at a designated location. Wolflung could keep the rest and distribute freely among his crew. They had to hit a minimum quota in order to receive more cannon ammunition and ship maintenance. If they tried to take off with the ships, they would be tracked down and killed, but he didn't know exactly how, just that the client's ninjas had no trouble doing that to the first and only crew that tried.

Wolflung didn't know anything about 'Sharkhead' or his origins before this job. He had heard of a few of the other captains who were also previously mercenaries or pirates, but nothing unusual. There were at least 11 other ships operating, but he couldn't be sure there weren't any he had never seen.

Interestingly, the pirates had also been ordered not to attack Gato corporation ships.

Team 7 discussed their findings and next steps.

"Could it be Gato corporation trying to hide their tracks and operating from Whirlpool country?" Sakura speculated.

"Hn. Then why make the pirates single them out to avoid? Anyone can see they're the ones benefiting from this," said Sasuke.

"They must be drawing attention on purpose or another power is using them as a smokescreen," Lelouch suggested. In fact he already had some ideas on who hired the pirates and why. It was not hard to see after considering who would really benefit from the drastic drop in trade around Wave. Gains in market share Gato Corporation made would be offset by the drop in total trade volume. And if they did get a monopoly on shipping, there would also be no more competitor ships for the pirates to loot. How would they get paid to keep patrolling and keep competitors out then? So the pirates were not meant to stick around for long…

But regardless of his thoughts, it was still just conjecture and not actual evidence, so he did not share them.

Kakashi intercepted the discussion. "Well, it looks like there's a good chance we'll meet enemy ninja if we keep going. Although we don't know the full truth yet, we can turn around now…"

He dropped a sweat as the three genin gave him a pointed look.

O O O

In a secluded area with dense foliage and tree cover, the glasses-wearing medic dropped down to the ground. He shifted a few large rocks and suddenly the ground opened to reveal a passage of stairs leading down.

Following the path, he reached passed a metallic gate leading to a horizontal hallway.

A person stepped out partly from the shadows of the gate, revealing a long and sharp spear made of an ivory white material extended from the grip of a pale white hand.

"Lord Orochimaru sensed a cursed seal activating. Did you have something to do with it, Kabuto?" The person in the shadows demanded with an accusatory tone.

"And if I did? Is it any of your concern?" Kabuto said as he turned his head around.

The sharp spear was pointed at Kabuto's face in an instant.

"The seals of heaven and earth are not only Juugo's flesh and blood, but also a tool for Lord Orochimaru's dream…I will kill you if you dare to spread it frivolously."

Kabuto's glasses glinted in the darkness as he smiled.

"Don't worry, I've put your friend's blood to good use. I'm sure Lord Orochimaru will approve."

"You overstep your bounds!"

The spear inched forward.

"Whether I did or not is up to our master to decide, not you," Kabuto responded calmly, his right hand already gripping on the spear in front of him.

"And you should remember who's in charge of curing your disease…Kimimaro."

The spear crumbled away like sand from the spot where Kabuto touched it.

O O O

A/N: This is the final chapter in the Toss a brick to get a jade gem segment. When I first planned the story I didn't expect any one stratagem to take up 3 chapters. But in reality the best moves often reveal their effect long after conception, so it is hard to have one stratagem per chapter. I will briefly discuss the use of this stratagem as promised.

1. In Lelouch's plan to make peace with Konoha's higher ups, it had been conceptualized as give and take from the onset. What he wanted was to stay secure and free to pursue his own agenda, but he recognized that he could not hide everything. So he showed his capabilities and admitted to being not the original Naruto (tossing the brick), in exchange for a chance at a working relationship (receiving the gem). It was a bit of a gamble, but if Konoha discovered it while he hid it, he would likely be in much bigger trouble and distrusted, just like the way the Black Knights betrayed Zero after suddenly finding out about Geass even if he never used it against them.

2. During Lelouch's speech about Zero to Kakashi, he was vague and avoided lying directly as much as possible. He provided just enough information for Kakashi and company (tossing the brick) to come up with some potential answers and complete the story (receiving the gem).

3. The "prison break" of Mizuki was a deliberate ploy by Konoha, who tossed the brick of Mizuki's freedom hoping that it would lead them to the gem Orochimaru. Unfortunately they were not aware of Kabuto, who realized the prison break was a sham based on the minimal collateral damage (ie, the "confusion" that should have provided an opportunity for Mizuki) and no other escapees.

4. Kabuto thus countered with his own version of the stratagem, giving up a modified Cursed Seal formula to gain control over Mizuki and cause the Konoha trackers to follow him to an as of yet unknown purpose to achieve in Wave (and obviously not to Orochimaru).

5. Lelouch bought Tenmaru some food to get him to spill his story, a simple use of the stratagem that most people have probably used at some point in their lives (but perhaps with drinks instead).

6. When the pirates attacked from range, even ninja would be troubled if they didn't know how to water walk. There was no way to counterattack without their own cannon, so Lelouch devised a way to trick the pirates into coming closer. The lure of surrendered treasure was the bait, and Lelouch expanded on this by creating a situation where the pirates' caution worked against them. The overtly eerie situation with music made the pirates check the obvious "trap" cargo boxes, which led them to unexpectedly find what appears to be treasure, thus leading them to actually get trapped. Sharkhead was rather astute in seeing the problem, but the rest were swept up by the greedy actions of the first pirate who was sent to check the boxes and started stuffing the treasure into his own pockets.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed and favorited or followed the story. I will now answer a question which has appeared in reviews more than once:

Q: Does Lelouch still have his geass?

A: From Lelouch's perspective in-story at this point, he does not appear to have it. Geass and the link to the old world are a significant part of the story development so I cannot comment further without spoilers.