Taking advantage of Tenten and Shion officially launching the second round of their bill-settling war, Shinji slipped out of the barbecue restaurant.
As he walked along Konoha's bustling streets, his expression was grave.
The last message his Shadow Clone had sent back was that it had destroyed Danzo's trap hidden in the vault at the cost of its own life, all to cover Meiqiu's escape.
So even he, the mastermind behind the operation, had no idea whether Meiqiu had actually succeeded.
But no matter how curious he was, he couldn't summon Meiqiu right away to confirm what had happened.
The operation might have looked smooth, but it had been extremely risky.
There were simply too few suspects. Besides Sasuke, there was only Shinji, who had entered Root Base with him, and the mysterious figure who could barely be linked to the case.
With just three suspects, the village could easily investigate all of them at once.
Sasuke might seem like the most likely suspect right now, but he had probably already caught the attention of the village's higher-ups.
"Will the village use a mind probe on Sasuke?"
Shinji wasn't sure what to think.
In theory, mind probes involved the mental realm, and the slightest mistake could damage the subject's brain. So without hard evidence, the village probably wouldn't resort to such an extreme measure against Sasuke.
But you could never be too careful.
If the village really disregarded its reputation and Itachi Uchiha's feelings, it might have the Yamanaka Clan use their secret techniques to enter Sasuke's mind.
Then Sasuke's name would be cleared immediately.
That would leave only Shinji and the mysterious figure as suspects.
"If they use a mind probe on even Sasuke, the village definitely won't spare me."
He knew himself well. If it came to that,