"Anko, if one day I leave this village, would you come with me?"

In the laboratory, Orochimaru mixed potions while smiling and asking his disciple, Anko.

"Leave the village? Orochimaru-sensei, do you want to travel again?"

Anko looked up, her pure gaze directed at her teacher, Orochimaru.

Orochimaru didn't speak, he just smiled and stroked Anko's little head.

This disciple is truly innocently adorable.

However, he was already tired of this village.

Here, he couldn't find what he wanted.

No, what he was searching for inherently meant saying goodbye to this village.

Since the end of the war in the Land of Rain over three years ago, he had already sensed it.

The speed of this village's windmill turning had become very slow, becoming dull and tedious.

Ultimately, humans are entities bound by 'time'.

No matter how powerful a ninja is, they are like this.

"If Orochimaru-sensei is going traveling, take me along, just like Tsunade-sama takes Shizune." Anko muttered enviously.

Orochimaru continued to pat Anko's little head, but his thoughts were elsewhere.

Because this time his journey would be a very long and distant one.

Saying a ruthless farewell to everything here.

◎

"Missing cases..."

With the information obtained from the Anbu, Kakashi went home to study it thoroughly. It was already nighttime.

The first disappearance occurred in early February, nearing the middle.

A couple mysteriously disappeared in the commercial district west of Konoha. Initially, it did not alert the Anbu, but was investigated by the Uchiha Security Team. However, after searching fruitlessly for three days, another disappearance occurred, making the Uchiha Security Team realize the problem.

The key point was the second disappearance; the missing person was not a civilian, but a Genin from the village.

Given the seriousness of the matter, after discussions between the security team and Anbu, the case was officially handed over to Anbu patrols, with the security team assisting in the search.

There were some gains during the period, but ultimately due to insufficient evidence, even with the suspect narrowed down, immediate arrests couldn't be made.

After all, the suspect was highly esteemed in the village, and reckless action could be problematic.

There were two suspects, one of the Sannin - Orochimaru, and the Root Leader - Shimura Danzo.

Compared to the former, the latter, as the Root Leader, is more suspicious.

In the Anbu's files, Shimura Danzo's records were particularly awful.

Kakashi finished reading all the materials brought from the Anbu, showing a thoughtful expression.

Since early February until now in April, from civilians to ninjas, a total of twenty-one people had disappeared.

The frequency could be considered quite high.

Those taken, where have they gone? What is the purpose of the captors?

Because in Kakashi's thoughts, neither Orochimaru nor Danzo had reasons to do this.

Although Orochimaru was involved in human experiments, he never experimented on his own village's ninjas. With the power and connections Orochimaru held, acquiring test subjects from outside was overly simple.

The same for Danzo.

Once exposed, even the Third Hokage would struggle to cover it, and couldn't hide it.

It could ruin anyone's reputation, regardless of high rank, they couldn't escape imprisonment.

But, if it wasn't these two people... the Anbu really couldn't guess who else would have such power and motive to kidnap those missing persons.

The Anbu was slow in pinpointing the true target because each time they acted, traces would be erased beforehand. Clearly, someone implanted a 'spy' within the Anbu.

That 'spy' within the Anbu was passing information to someone.

Could it be either Orochimaru or Danzo? Or perhaps they both were involved? Or maybe it was a third party? Kakashi was filled with such doubts.

If they were to begin the investigation, the difficulty level was very high.

Even the Anbu had been infiltrated, and the Anbu's every move might be detected by the hidden enemy.

While Kakashi was pondering where to start investigating, he suddenly stiffened, his body leapt backward, instinctively drawing the White Fang Short Knife from behind him. Intense lightning illuminated the dim room.

A figure stood straight at the window of the room.

Smooth black hair was draped, a pale handsome face with delicate features, purple eyeshadow paired with snake-like golden vertical pupils, gave off an eerie chilling aura.

He wore the Konoha Jonin's uniform, and a Konoha ninja headband was still worn on his forehead.

Seeing Kakashi's alert action, the eerie smile on the face grew more.

"Your instincts are really getting sharper, Kakashi."

"Lord Orochimaru."

Seeing it was Orochimaru, Kakashi breathed a sigh of relief, lowering the White Fang Short Knife, dispersing the lightning.

"I'm glad you remember me."

"Yes." Kakashi, unsure of why Orochimaru sought him at this time, asked with a probing tone, "Does Lord Orochimaru have an important task to assign me?"