The next morning, when the Sunagakure shinobi changed shifts, they discovered something tremendous.
The gold had been stolen!
The news was sent to Chiyo and Ebizo, the village's two highest-ranking advisers, as quickly as possible.
The two nearly suffered strokes when they heard it.
They hurried to the treasury and stared at the completely empty vault. Their heads buzzed.
"Bastards! Which bastard did this?!"
Chiyo's shrill voice made everyone's ears ring.
Ebizo carefully tried to calm her down.
"Big Sis, calm down. At your age, you shouldn't keep losing your temper. You'll die young."
"Shut up!" Chiyo ground out through clenched teeth. "Where are yesterday's guards? Call them over!"
The two guards dropped to their knees before Chiyo, their faces pale with terror.
They knew that after losing the Gold Dust right under their noses, they probably wouldn't be able to keep their lives.
Moreover, Lady Chiyo was an expert in poison. What if she poisoned them in a fit of rage?
Then they would be unable to live or die.
She would simply make them suffer.
The mere thought was terrifying.
At that moment, Chiyo spoke.
She drew a deep breath and forcibly suppressed the urge to execute the two useless fools on the spot.
"Tell me exactly what happened last night."
One of the guards began speaking in a trembling voice.
"My lady, he was too fast... I couldn't see his face clearly. I only remember that he was wearing a black robe, just like Kakuzu's."
He shakily pulled a palm-sized scrap of black cloth from his robes and raised it above his head with both hands.
"I tore this off his clothes."
Chiyo took it and examined it. The Red Cloud Pattern could still be faintly distinguished.
"A black robe, red clouds..."
An idea suddenly surfaced in