The massive A-un gates connecting the village with the outside world were closed now, as if to escape the darkness of night; the enormous rock wall with the faces of the six generations of Hokage carved into it was quietly illuminated by the light of the moon spilling through the clouds.
Ancient even among the ninja villages, the Land of Fire’s Konohagakure. This village, which had once taken catastrophic damage from Akatsuki’s Pain, now shone even more brightly than it had in the past, and the population, which dropped during the Fourth Great Ninja War, was gradually recovering. Everything appeared to be going well, but every era inevitably had its trials.
“Hmm. This is actually a tough one.”
The Hokage’s office.
Looking over the letters that had arrived from Kirigakure and Kumogakure, the sixth Hokage, Kakashi, sighed. The mis-sing shinobi were master hands. And with the ninja of Kirigakure, a hundred shinobi had disappeared all at once, together with a ship.
According to Kumogakure, someone who had seen the Kirigakure ship in the ocean near the port in the Land of Lightning. In which case, it was possible that the ship had docked at one point at the port of the Land of Lightning. So maybe the Kumogakure ninja had gotten on the ship and gone somewhere with them?
But it was not going to be helpful if they had actually fled across the ocean. They wouldn’t leave any footprints or scent; in the wide ocean, even the ninja dogs Kakashi could summon, all of them excellent trackers, would have a hard time finding the missing ninja. Kirigakure and Kumogakure were no doubt both at a loss for what to do.
If this were the past, the details of this incident would have stopped at the borders, but the letters seeking information had been sent to Konohagakure, Iwagakure, and Sunagakure—ninja villages of the five great lands—and now the information seemed to be spreading even further. Although this was another village’s problem, it was not a stranger’s problem.
When the information arrived, Kakashi conveyed it immediately to the ninja of Konoha. And to Sasuke, who was traveling the world. Kakashi suspected that genjutsu was involved. Although neither Kumogakure nor Kirigakure had any specific theories, they likely thought the same thing. And it had to be an unknown genjutsu. That was the only conclusion he could come to when he thought about the fact that so many ninja had been unable to grapple with it. Sasuke probably thought the same thing after reading Kakashi’s letter.
Sasuke had left on his journey for information and atonement, saying something bothered him. Unlike the ninja in the village, he had some room to maneuver. And more than anything else, he had the sharingan and the rinnegan. Things other ninja couldn’t know might be seen with his eyes.
“Sixth.”
He heard a knock on the door of his office. Identifying the voice as that of Shizune, former Hokage Tsunade’s student, he called out, “Yes, come in.” She was kind enough to be his assistant as well.
The door was slightly ajar; Shizune poked her face through with a concerned expression. “Excuse me—Sai says he has a report,” she informed him.
He had asked Sai to get in touch with Sasuke. So it was probably a report that his message had reached him.
Shizune looked worried, but Kakashi said, “Sure, show him in.”
“All right, then.” Shizune opened the door, and looked over her shoulder. “Excuse me.”
“Hello!” Sai walked in with his usual somehow smarmy smile on his face. Behind him was Haruno Sakura, looking apologetic. A question mark popped up in Kakashi’s mind.
Behind Sakura, one more person came into the room. “Hey! Master Kakashi!” Playing the fool with an unboundedly cheerful smile was the man who had saved the world in the last Great War, Uzumaki Naruto.
Sai was one thing. Why were Naruto and Sakura here?
“Of course it would be you, too.”
Naruto clasped his hands behind his head and cackled. “Sai said he was coming to see you, so I just tagged along.”
Without the slightest compunction.
“You too, Sakura?”
“I was looking something up with Shizune.”
So when Sai and Naruto asked Shizune for a meeting with the Hokage, they had noticed Sakura there and invited her along, then.
“Anyway. How about I hear your report, Sai?”
“Right. My messenger safely reached Sasuke the other day.”
“The Cartoon Beast bird flew off to the northeast, hm? In which case, judging from the number of days, he’s around Yugakure or Shimogakure, maybe?”
Hearing this, Sakura let out a sigh of relief. Sasuke was still alive somewhere. She felt easier, just knowing that.
“So, like, Master Kakashi, any progress in the disappearances?” Naruto unclasped the hands behind his head and looked at the letter in Kakashi’s hands. He was clever at times.
“Apparently, there’s no evidence or anything.”
“Sixth, something’s bothering us about this incident,” Shizune said.
Sakura nodded and stepped forward. “It seems that we’re seeing ninja missing from Konoha, as well.”
“What?” Kakashi started to rise from his seated posture.
“It’s not on the same large scale as in Kirigakure or Kumogakure, but there were several cases about three months ago. There might also be others that just weren’t made public.”
Even now, they had many dangerous missions, and sometimes, ninja did go missing. And because they had more frequent contact than before with other regions, there were more people coming and going. So this wasn’t a special, rare occurrence—but something bothered Kakashi about it, too.
“Why were you looking into something like that, Sakura?”
Sakura was very busy as a medical ninja, and the fact that she was looking into something of this nature was a little unexpected. At his question, her gaze froze slightly.
“A regular at Ino’s family’s shop went on a trip and disappeared. Ino said he wasn’t the sort of person to suddenly vanish, and when I heard about this case, I immediately remembered him.”
Yamanaka Ino was a female ninja, Sakura’s rival and best friend. Her family ran a flower shop, where Ino also worked from time to time. The sight of Ino worried about a regular customer had probably stuck in Sakura’s mind.
“I thought I’d tell you once I learned more details.”
Given that this was Sakura, there was no doubt she had been planning on telling him once she had looked into it enough to be sure.
“Oh, thanks. I’ll keep an eye on it too.”
Although the person on top was thought to have all the information, he actually didn’t. For better or for worse, people sifted through information, deciding what was and wasn’t worth telling the Hokage, so a lot of information never reached his ears. Which was why it was vital for him to hear the opinions of people he knew like this.
Good thing Sakura’s story got to me at the right time, Kakashi thought as he turned his gaze to Naruto, who had brought Sakura in to begin with. It was at that moment …
“Sixth! There’s an invader in the village!” A ninja from the barrier team appeared suddenly in the Hokage’s office. Tension ran through the room.
“Did they touch the barrier?”
A spherical barrier had been set up around the village of Konohagakure, from the ground up into the sky. After the attack by Akatsuki, they had put up an even more powerful barrier.
“They … they’re already inside the barrier, all the way to A-un gate …”
“What?!”
“The ninja of the barrier team are currently on their wa—” The end of the word didn’t make it out.
Boom! They heard a sound like an explosion from somewhere. Kakashi and the others opened the windows of his office and looked outside.
“Master Kakashi, flames …” A fire had broken out in the direction Sakura was pointing, near the A-un gates, perhaps an effect of the explosion.
“Master Kakashi! We’ll go check it out right now!” Naruto said.
Sai swiftly opened up a scroll hanging at his hip and sent his brush racing across it. The ink drew out a large bird with its wings spread. “Ninjutsu! Art of Cartoon Beast Mimicry!”
The bird flew up from the scroll as if being born and spread its large wings outside the window. Flapping them, the bird first allowed Sai to leap on; then, Naruto and Sakura followed suit.