Sin and Punishment

"Did you kill them all?"

Yager looked dazed as he raised his head and stared at the Konoha ninja smoking at the head of the group.

The man had a full beard, rugged features, a weathered appearance, and a hint of amusement brewing in his eyes.

Yager stared blankly.

How could he not recognize those headbands? He had risked his life to pick them up from the battlefield and give them to nearby refugees, so they could deter bandits.

Asuma took a drag from his cigarette, smiled, exhaled smoke, and said, "Oh, just a few rogue ninjas."

Yager said distractedly, "They weren't rogue ninjas..."

"Oh, weren't they?"

Still smiling, Asuma leaned his face close to the frail man's and blew a thick cloud of smoke at him. Then, word by word, he asked, "Where is your headband?"

Yager's pupils widened, and his face turned pale.

Clang—

Veins bulged on his forehead as the Hyuga Branch Family Jonin activated his Byakugan and inspected the wooden house through his black-and-white vision.

During his inspection,

the Hyuga Branch Family Jonin said disdainfully:

"You refugees, whether you have Rogue Ninja Headbands on you or not, it doesn't matter."

"Once you're killed, you're killed."

"The Land of Fire has no need for refugees."

"If we say you're rogue ninjas,"

"then you can be rogue ninjas!"

"In the Shinobi World,"

"no matter which country's border you're at, you are nothing but homeless insects."

"You're used as cannon fodder by the major ninja villages."

"And isn't it your fate to be used by ninjas as rogue ninjas in exchange for rewards?"

His words carried the pride of the Hyuga Clan, even though he was merely from the branch family.

Yager stared blankly at the ceiling.

"War turned them into refugees. After fleeing here, they never robbed anyone or committed evil. They survived by hunting."

Nonō rose to her feet and said coldly.

She drew the kunai from the table and flicked it lightly, cutting through the ropes binding Yager and Doctor Nak.

Nonō stared at the Konoha headbands worn by the four men. Suddenly, she felt that coming from the same ninja village as people who casually trampled on human lives was an enormous disgrace.

Yager remained seated in his chair.

Doctor Nak, meanwhile, bolted behind Nonō. Being a shrewd man, he could naturally tell that this woman had no intention of killing them, while the four Konoha ninjas who had just arrived were pure killers.

"Who cares?"

The Hyuga Jonin raised his brows, ignored Nonō, and headed straight for the kitchen.

Asuma swept his gaze over the wooden floor before finally focusing on Nonō.

She looked familiar to him, but he could not remember who she was, so he smiled and asked,

"I didn't expect to run into another ninja here. Which ninja village are you from?"

Though Nonō was well known, even within the Root Organization, few had seen the true face of the wandering Miko. That was a basic principle for intelligence operatives.

As for her identity as the director of the Konoha Orphanage, who cared? Konoha ninjas would not have nothing better to do than visit the Orphanage every day.

"My name is Yakushi Nonō. I am a former member of Konoha's Root Organization, currently out on a mission."

"How did you find this place?"

"And what is your purpose?"

Nonō took out her Konoha headband and a Root Organization mission scroll from her pocket, then tossed them onto the table with a smack as she met Asuma's gaze.

Asuma glanced at the headband and mission scroll. His eyes suddenly lit up as he remembered something, and he said frankly,

"So you're the director of the Konoha Orphanage!"

"Hehe."

"Sorry."

"We have no obligation to reveal the details of our mission to you."

At the mention of Nonō's name, Asuma did recognize it. He had once discussed the figures of Konoha's beautiful female ninjas with a colleague.

That colleague had praised Nonō as one of Konoha's most outstanding female ninjas in both appearance and figure.

At that moment, the Inuzuka Clan ninja forcibly led along his white-furred hound and said with a smile,

"Of course, Yukimaru and I followed the scent of blood all the way here. But this place is really remote—we spent ages looking for it!"

The five of them had waited by the water route outside Kikyo City until the latter half of the night, yet they had not seen the Uchiha Rogue Squad. They then waited for reinforcements and spread out across Mount Kikyo to search.

The Ninja Hound caught the scent of human blood.

They guessed that the Uchiha Rogue Squad had fought on the mountain.

Thus, their pursuit squad converged at this mountain stronghold.

"The scent of blood..."

Guilt appeared in Nonō's eyes, and her body trembled slightly.

Her accidental act of hunting down real rogue ninjas and bandits had brought catastrophe upon this refugee stronghold.

She also realized that this seemingly well-equipped Konoha ninja squad was pursuing the group that had just fled.

Nonō glanced at Yager, her heart filled with mixed emotions.

Since she had made a mistake, she had to find a way to make up for it. At the very least, she could not let this family of three die at the hands of Konoha ninjas.

Bang—

The Hyuga Jonin carried a set of used teacups out of the kitchen and placed them on the table. There were twelve in total.

Asuma, the Inuzuka Clan Jonin, and the Akimichi Clan Jonin examined the teacups.

Yager also noticed something. His pupils trembled as he came back to his senses.

"Woof! Woof!" Yukimaru barked twice at the teacups, then hid by his master's leg, visibly uneasy.

"Yukimaru is saying that twelve people used these teacups," the Inuzuka Clan Jonin explained with a smile.

Asuma pushed one teacup in front of Yager and said, "One cup for the owner of the house, leaving eleven."

"It seems our intelligence was wrong. This rogue ninja squad has eleven people, not ten."

"I ask, you answer!"

With his Byakugan activated, the Hyuga Jonin observed Yager's facial expressions and asked indifferently,

"Which direction did those eleven people flee?"

Yager's mind raced. Without much thought, he raised his hand and pointed south.

"They went that way!"

He did not know what was going on.

But he knew that if Captain Ingetsu had escaped from Konoha, he absolutely could not point toward the east, where Konoha was located.

The Hyuga Jonin frowned and delivered a heavy kick to Yager's abdomen, sending both man and chair flying into the wall.

Yager gritted his teeth, clutched his stomach, braced himself against the wall, and broke out in a cold sweat.

"Ah..."

Yager's wife cried out and wanted to shield her husband, but the instant the thought arose, a kunai was placed against her neck, while another was aimed at the swaddled infant in her arms.

The Hyuga Jonin appeared behind her, his two kunai held steadily in the air. He said softly, "Don't move. If you move, you'll all die."

Nonō's pupils contracted. She clenched her fists and silently waited for the best opportunity to strike.

Nak had already crouched in the corner, trembling.

Judging by these ninjas' movement techniques and methods, they would be considered strong even in Konoha.

"Four Konoha Jonin..."

Nonō's expression was grave as she stared fixedly at the four men, feeling immense pressure.

She secretly wondered what identities those people who had stolen her bath barrel had.

They were worth Konoha dispatching a pursuit squad of this caliber.

Asuma turned a blind eye to the scene.

The Hyuga Jonin he had brought along had once served in the Konoha Torture and Interrogation Force.

Because his interrogation methods were too cruel, he had been expelled by Ibiki Morino.

"Don't play tricks. I can tell from your facial expressions whether you're lying."

"I won't waste words with you. There are four directions. We can rule out the south."

The Hyuga Jonin said coldly:

"Of the remaining three directions, only one is correct. If you lie, I'll casually kill one person!"

"You only have two chances!"

"When those chances are gone, you die."