Naruto: Chronicles of a Fire Ninja-Chapter 342 - 338: Evidence

The village erupted into controlled chaos as word spread. The Kage arrived within minutes, his experienced eyes taking in every detail of the crime scene. He quickly noticed the earth spear going through the body of Ryoshi's son and the wide cut in Ryoshi's neck, clearly the use of earth chakra.

But he didn't make any assumptions based on that. All villages, even minor ones, have one or two experts of Earth chakra. He quickly ordered the search to start and ordered Anbu ninja to gather every aide of the elder in his office.

...

"This is the last time I am asking you. Did anything unusual happen in recent days at elder's house?" Seiryu asked the crowd standing in front of him, consisting of servants, guards, and the first elder's trusted officials.

"If I find out anything in my investigation which you knew and still tried to hide from me, not only you but all of your families will be charged with treason. So if you have nothing more to say, all of you can leave." Getting tired of the silence, he gave his ultimatum, and the color drained from the faces of the crowd. With their master dead, there was no use maintaining the silence, so a servant came forward.

"Sir, a guest arrived at elder's house day before yesterday, and they had some talk in the study room, but I don't know anything more than that."

"Do you know any location where the elder may store important items?" he asked the servant.

"I am nothing but a servant, my lord, please spare my family," the servant fell to his knees from fear.

Giving no response to him, Seiryu directed his attention toward the trusted aides of the elder, and finally, he got a good reply.

"I do know some locations where the first elder used to store important scrolls, my lord."

"Okay, Etsuo, go with him and retrieve all of the scrolls from elder's storage," Seiryu said.

Etsuo, the trusted aide and leader of Anbu ninja of Kusagakure, bowed his head and took the aide toward elder's house.

...

"Sir, these are the scrolls we got from his study," Etsuo presented the scrolls to the Kage, who quickly dismissed some of them which were related to property and jutsus.

At last, he reached the message Kaida had left, and his face darkened, as aside from that letter, he had also found one letter in which the elder was planning on using the Uzumaki family as a bargaining chip for Iwa's support.

"Send someone to the Uzumaki residence. I want them escorted here now," he said to Etsuo, who quickly nodded his head and sent a squad to complete the order.

...

The squad returned within minutes with a message that sunk Seiryu's heart further.

"Sir, the Uzumaki residence is empty," a jonin reported. "No signs of struggle, but they're gone. Complete disappearance."

The Kage sat heavily in his chair, piecing together the puzzle. The messenger's note about Iwa's alliance with Takigakure lay before him, along with the evidence of their supposed betrayal.

'Too perfect,' he thought. 'The timing, the evidence, the Uzumakis' disappearance—it completely points toward Iwa's involvement... but it is also so perfect that it almost reeks of a setup.' But he couldn't ignore the political reality. With tensions already high between nations, this incident could easily spark open conflict if mishandled.

"Your orders, sir?" his advisor asked.

The Kage stared at the documents before him. Even if this was a setup, they had no proof. More importantly, they had no choice. With the Uzumakis gone and the threat of war looming, they needed allies.

"Send word to Konoha," he said finally. "Tell them we have evidence of Iwagakure's hostile actions and request to strengthen our existing alliance."

"But sir, if Iwa really did this—" Etsuo began.

"Then we'll need Konoha's ninja to come into our country, and they will make a base here, and we will become completely dependent on Konoha," the Kage finished. "But we don't have any choice now."

"Sir, shouldn't we try to find those two? It's still just 6-7 hours from the incident; they may not have reached far," Etsuo said.

"If any major ninja village is involved in this, they could have easily transported them out of the country way before we got to know about this, and even in the off chance we find them, it will just lead to more casualties. Uzumaki are way too big of a resource for a village as small as us. Just send some scout squads but don't do anything extensive," Seiryu said.

Etsuo just nodded his head—there was nothing he could do in this situation other than following orders.

...

Meanwhile, Kaida, Reina, and Karin had covered significant distance. They stopped briefly at dawn to rest and eat, having crossed well into Fire Country territory.

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"I should send a shadow clone while we are resting so that Lord Third will not be surprised by your arrival," Kaida said with a small chuckle, already imagining the look on Hiruzen's face.

"Okay, but also make sure to tell him that we will not be at the village's mercy and would leave anytime we want. I don't want to be arrested inside Konoha," Reina said.

"I have already said it multiple times, and I will say it once more: don't worry, you guys will become citizens of Konoha from now on, fully allowed to do whatever you want, no restrictions. I mean, not crime, but aside from that, anything," Kaida said.

Knock Knock

"Sir, here is your food," the hotel owner of the single hotel in the village brought fresh and hot stew and bread for them along with some green salad.

"Thank you, old man. Here, for your trouble," Kaida said, giving a bill of 2000 Ryo to the owner.

"Thank you, sir. Please just give me a call if you need anything." With how much devotion he spoke, Kaida was sure this man would even consider cleaning the floor with his tongue if he asked, though he had no intention of finding whether his thoughts were true or not.

He took the food and went to the small table in the room.

"Breakfast is here," Kaida said. By now, he had already sent a shadow clone toward Konoha with 50 percent of his chakra—barely enough for it to reach Konoha and give the message, but it would not have chakra to do anything after that, though this was enough in itself.

...

'This doesn't seem right. Are they trying to save taxes by saying they work for Daimyo now? Maybe I should have a meeting with Daimyo about this...'

"Sir, Kaida Uchiha is requesting an urgent meeting with you."

"Urgent? Send him in," Hiruzen said.

"Yes, Lord Third."

...

"Good morning, Lord Third," Kaida's clone bowed his head.

"So little chakra... wait, you are not Kaida."

"Yes sir, as you have guessed, I am a shadow clone. I have a really important message I have to deliver."

"Go ahead."

"Lord Third, when I went to..." Kaida started to recount the whole mission detail about how when he went to Kusagakure, he found out about Iwa's plans and the elder's response, plight, and at that time, his plan to use the Uzumakis for bargaining. How he saved them and killed both the elder and his son, leaving behind evidence about Iwa's doing, and also taking two Uzumaki with them. He also shared the demands of those two Uzumaki girls for which they agreed to come to Konoha.

As the details progressed, Hiruzen's face changed many expressions from understanding, shock, worry, and then at last, a sigh escaped from his mouth—of course, those emotions were only visible because Hiruzen wanted them to be.

"Where are you at the moment?" Hiruzen asked.

"We should have completed resting at a village near the border and should be on our way here. We will reach Konoha by around 12 PM tomorrow," Kaida's clone said.

"Fine, I will send an Anbu squad for you just as a precaution. I assume you are going to have a talk with Fugaku after this?" Hiruzen asked.

"Yes, Lord Third, though I will not share anything about the mission," Kaida said.

"No need, this mission is not below his rank. He can know about it. Just tell him to meet me in the evening," Hiruzen said and then dismissed Kaida.