The Monument of Spirits?
These children knew about even that?
When had this happened?
Hearing Uzumaki Naruto's utterly bewildered question, Kakashi frowned. He glanced at Team 10, then at Second Pillar, whose tightly furrowed brows openly showed his hostility, and a thought flashed through his mind.
His expression turned grave.
Shikamaru, Choji, and Ino... Were they investigating Chiba? Could it be that I'd talked about him too much? At that moment, Asuma Sarutobi suddenly thought of something, and a trace of embarrassment crossed his face.
Clearly, Asuma Sarutobi knew himself well enough. He guessed that he had mentioned Chiba more often than anyone else in front of his students. That was precisely what had sparked their curiosity and led them to investigate Chiba.
It might have been somewhat disrespectful to the heroes on the Monument of Spirits, and they should not have done it, but there were so many names engraved there. There had been countless battles and wars involving Konoha throughout the Shinobi World, and countless heroes had died for the village. The monument bore an enormous number of names. Without deliberately looking into them, his students could never have known those names so clearly.
Uchiha Hirohiko, Hyuga Yukina, and even Taki Chiba were all engraved upon the Monument of Spirits. Yet because of Chiba's influence, and because Chiba had needed to "die," those three names had in fact been deliberately forgotten.
At his students' age, they would never have been drawn to those three names without a purpose.
In other words, it was obvious that his students had investigated everything concerning Chiba because of his influence.
Of course, they probably had not uncovered any key information. They had only found the names.
Konoha's intelligence network was not for show, after all. If his three students had actually managed