Anbu Arrives

"Even hidden Anbu can be detected?"

"What a terrifying talent!"

Although he had expected Minato to be gifted, Minato's talent still shocked the Third Hokage. Looking at the boy's youthful face, his eyes filled with even greater satisfaction and delight.

An Anbu remaining hidden and motionless had already suppressed their Chakra to the absolute limit. Even he could only vaguely sense them at close range.

Yet six-year-old Minato could sense them with ease.

To possess such sensory abilities at such a young age was remarkable.

If nothing else, this sensory ability was absolutely no worse than the Second Hokage's.

"Such talent cannot be wasted."

"I need Jiraiya and the others to take notice."

In that instant, the Third Hokage had already picked out Minato's future ninja instructor. Well, he would choose one from among his three disciples.

It would be a pity if someone with such talent did not become Hokage.

To become Hokage, he would have to join... Ahem.

Back to the matter at hand.

His thoughts had lasted only an instant, but Minato had already grown impatient.

"Lord Hokage, quickly..." Minato said anxiously.

"Don't worry." The Third Hokage smiled. "I will handle that child's situation. You should go home first."

Minato did not want to leave. He wanted to confirm his friend's safety as soon as possible, so he quietly pleaded, "Lord Hokage, I... can I wait here?"

The Third Hokage shook his head. "Go home. Your grandmother is still waiting for you. Don't make her worry."

At the mention of his grandmother, Minato thought of how worried she must be when he had not returned home. He no longer asked to stay. After bidding the Third Hokage farewell, he immediately ran home as fast as he could.

He did not want his only family, his grandmother, to worry because of him.

He would trust the Third Hokage with Yao's safety!

The moment Minato left, the Third Hokage immediately issued orders.

"Kari, notify the Military Police Force to search the village for... Forget it. There's no need to notify the Uchiha Clan."

After some thought, the Third Hokage withdrew the order.

According to Minato, that child was being remotely controlled by an enemy. There had to be a Chakra connection enabling that remote control, just like Sunagakure's puppet techniques, which used specially condensed Chakra threads.

The spy hiding in the shadows surely had some kind of Chakra connection with that child in order to maintain real-time control.

To find that Chakra connection, the Uchiha Clan, with their Sharingan capable of seeing Chakra, were undoubtedly the most suitable for investigating the spy who had appeared this time.

But... thinking of the Uchiha Clan's increasingly formidable strength and their growing dissatisfaction with him, the Third Hokage had a few thoughts of his own.

The police force guarded by the Uchiha Clan had originally been responsible for monitoring spies in Konoha.

Now that a spy had appeared in the village, the police force had not reacted at all.

If he asked the Uchiha Clan for help this time, it would instead give them an opportunity to redeem themselves.

On the contrary, this was an opportunity.

An opportunity to hold the Uchiha Clan accountable, reduce the scope of the police force's duties, and suppress the Uchiha Clan's power.

Mr. and Mrs. Kimura had sacrificed themselves for Konoha only recently.

Yet their son had been controlled by a spy and might even be killed.

And the Konoha police force had not received even the slightest intelligence.

Such a serious dereliction of duty, coupled with public pressure, would make it only natural to propose having the Anbu inspect Konoha for spies. No one would object.

As long as the Anbu dealt with this spy, there would be no problem.

These thoughts, too, lasted only an instant.

Then the Third Hokage continued, "Notify the search teams. Starting from that child, spread out across all of Konoha and close in on the spy hiding in the shadows."

"Yes."

Kari responded softly, then left with a Body Flicker Jutsu.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

Four figures silently landed around Li Yao's house, each wearing a differently shaped white mask.

They were Konoha's directly subordinate Anbu, the Explosion Squad.

Their captain's codename was Baku, hence the Baku Squad.

The four quickly used Invisibility Jutsu to conceal themselves like chameleons.

The Ninja Academy dismissed classes rather late.

It was already dusk. The sun had just set, and Konoha had grown dark. There were few pedestrians left on the streets, and no one noticed anything unusual around Li Yao's home.

Of the four Anbu, Baku, as the captain, remained in the middle to direct the operation. He and two other members spread out to guard three sides of the house, preventing the target from escaping.

The remaining Anbu ninja crouched on the roof above the kitchen.

Hiss... Black beetle-like insects, too small to notice with the naked eye, fluttered their hard wings as they emerged from the sleeves of this Anbu ninja and spread around the house.

One of them slipped through a gap beneath a tightly shut window, entered the kitchen, and flew toward Li Yao, who stood sideways to the window.

Blub, blub!

On the stove, noodles kept rising in the pot's boiling water, like a spring of thin noodles.

Li Yao held a pair of chopsticks as he stood before the boiling pot, stirring the noodles to keep them from sticking while wearing a thoughtful expression.

Konoha's subsidy was not much. It was basically only enough to keep him from starving each day. Eating his fill was impossible, let alone eating well.

But he was at the age when his body was growing and developing. Eating noodles every day would definitely not do. He needed meat.

Otherwise, if his physical development could not keep up, even the upper limit of his future strength would be affected.

After all, Chakra was composed in part of physical energy.

If his body was weak, how much physical energy could it have? And how much Chakra could he have?

So his physical development could not be delayed.

But... how could he get money?

Li Yao habitually furrowed his faint brows, completely failing to notice that a tiny black insect had silently landed on a strand of his hair.

"Sigh! I'm only six, and I still have to attend the Ninja Academy. I don't have much time to make money."

Li Yao shook his head and sighed, utterly unable to think of where he could earn money.

"Forget it. I won't think about it for now. I should eat first."

Shaking his head, he turned off the heat, removed the noodles, placed them in a bowl, added seasoning, and then carried the bowl to the dining table and sat down.

Phew... phew...!

Li Yao blew on the noodles as he ate them bite by bite.

The tiny black insect clung to his hair, its small mouth opening and closing as though it too were eating something.

But judging from how it constantly ground its teeth and shook its head, it seemed not to have eaten anything.

At the same time, outside the house, the Anbu crouching on the roof gradually grew solemn.

"Mushi, not done yet?" The squad captain silently came to Mushi's side on the roof.

The Anbu ninja codenamed Mushi was from the Aburame Clan. He had released the black insects. Hearing this, he said softly, "Captain, there's something wrong with the target. My Little Blacks are extremely sensitive to Chakra, yet they cannot sense even a trace of Chakra leaking from him while on his hair."

Baku was stunned. "Not even a trace?"

Mushi confirmed, "Not even a trace."

Baku frowned. "Impossible."

Mushi said nothing. He was equally puzzled.

All living people naturally emitted Chakra.

Even Anbu like them could only suppress their Chakra to reduce the chances of being sensed by ninja with Chakra-sensing abilities. They could not completely prevent Chakra from naturally leaking out.

But the target inside the house could not be sensed leaking even the slightest bit of Chakra despite the insects directly touching his hair.

That was far too abnormal.

It was as if the brat were a corpse... Wait.

A corpse!!

Combining the information fed back by the insects—that the target's body was very cold—with the fact that no Chakra was naturally leaking out, a possibility instantly surfaced in Mushi's mind.

"Captain."

Mushi looked at his captain, who was also frowning at him. Clearly, both of them had immediately thought of the same possibility.

Only the dead did not naturally leak Chakra.

And they would have to be corpses that had been dead for a long time.

The only secret technique capable of controlling the dead belonged to Sunagakure's puppet masters.

But... could Human Puppets be this lifelike?

They could sense Li Yao inside the house picking up noodles, blowing on them, and eating them. His movements showed none of the stiffness of a puppet. He was just like a living person.

Mushi and the squad captain both felt that something was off, but they could not think of anything else for the moment. They could only continue responding according to their previous assumption.

With that thought, the squad captain lowered his voice and asked, "Still haven't found the Chakra threads?"

Mushi replied, "Not yet."

The squad captain frowned. "That shouldn't be possible."

Mushi himself was also confused. He had not sent out many insects, because sending too many might alert the enemy.

But given Little Black's sensitivity to Chakra, if Chakra threads existed nearby, they should have detected them long ago.

Yet the reality was that Mushi had still not received any feedback from the Little Blacks regarding Chakra threads.

"Could he not be a puppet master?" The squad captain frowned. "But that makes no sense!"

Other than puppet masters, what kind of ninjutsu could control the dead?

Could it be the Second Hokage's forbidden technique, Impure World Reincarnation?

No, no.

Impure World Reincarnation was a forbidden technique. Aside from the Second Hokage, no one in Konoha knew it. It could not be Impure World Reincarnation.

Moreover, the brat's face lacked the cracked lines characteristic of corpses summoned by Impure World Reincarnation. He definitely was not a corpse summoned through Impure World Reincarnation.

Then the question was...

What exactly was going on with the target?

"Captain, let me have Little Black take a bite."

Mushi suggested, "If it only bites a strand of hair, and the enemy is controlling him from a distance, they shouldn't notice the change."

Even if hair was bitten, a person would not notice, just like fingernails. But unlike fingernails, hair contained cells, and where there were cells, there was Chakra.

Since they could not sense Chakra from outside, his bodily cells surely contained Chakra.

As long as Little Black consumed the target's Chakra, it could trace that Chakra to sense the Chakra threads remotely controlling the target, thereby locating the spy controlling him.

"No."

The squad captain rejected Mushi's suggestion. "Continue sensing the Chakra on the target."

With that, the squad captain left and came to another member. After explaining the situation they faced, he ordered, "Night, report the situation here to Lord Hokage. There's something wrong with the target. He may already be dead."

"Yes." Night silently departed, while the remaining three continued watching Li Yao.