"What's the extent of his political reach, here, is this something we could assess by going and looking around?"

"He's the leader of the military arm of a fairly small nation. Probably if there's instability the daimyo would get killed too, since he's pretty closely associated with Orochimaru. Orochimaru has bases in a lot of countries, but not a lot of political reach. The main destabilization risk outside of the Land of Rice Fields would be an increase in terrorist-like attacks."

"...what, from Rice people? What would be the motivation?"

"Retaliation, figuring he'd want them to cause trouble, or just sadism. And I don't think it'd be large just, just... Places are better at handling anyone who just tries to leave their home nation and fold into normal criminal groups, those are a - established part? Of how things work. Someone who's doing things for politics or revenge is a bigger problem than someone who wants money."

"Money's fungible," nods Cam. "Your world sucks. Mine used to suck maybe this much? I probably systematically underestimate how much mine used to suck."

"We're probably underestimating how much our past sucked too." Shrug. "Humans can be better, at least."

"Humans can be great."

He shrugs. "I think the main thing to figure out now is how much prep time we need, and how much we want to trade further speed against more preparedness."

"Have you been talking to the undead about that?"

"I've talked to Minato. We could probably move quickly, even if we wanted to get more undead first. If we wanted to bring in outsiders it'd be slower."

"Are there any outsiders who might be worth it?"

"Senju Tsunade, current Hokage of the Leaf. She's Orochimaru's old teammate, and his neighbor now."

"If there's a chance Minato could sell her on it really quickly he could go say hi? Or is the problem transit time on her end?"

"Minato can move people too. I don't know how quickly we could convince her, or if it'd alert the Third's old teammates, who are up to some unspecified shit that the Third won't elaborate on."

"Well, I could get forensics on that?"

"That'd be helpful. The teammates are Shimura Danzo, Utatane Koharu, and Mitokado Homura."

Little diorama(s)?

Koharu: spends a lot of time in an administrative building, at home alone, or in a garden.

Homura: mostly in the same administrative building or a library. Often meeting with Koharu, Danzo, and a woman in official robes.

Danzo: that sure is an underground base, and that sure is a kid dressed like a soldier wearing a blank mask. He seems to spend a lot of time at a desk in the underground base, meeting with blank-masked soldiers, or in meetings with the other two teammates.

"Looks relatively innocuous apart from the whole child soldier business."

" - That's an ANBU Black Ops uniform, though the mask is different. Supposedly twelve is the youngest anyone's been in ANBU. That kid looks younger."

"Well, they could be very short, or it could be that whatever process slid the line all the way to twelve fucking years old didn't stick very firmly at that as a stopping point."

He nods. "And ANBU are secretive. I wouldn't be surprised by a non-public-facing sub-group."

"Would it help anything to know who the kid is?"

"I'd be unlikely to recognize them."

"Well, I certainly won't. Okay. Anything else you want checked?"