Sin and Punishment

"You killed them all?"

Yager looked dazed as he raised his head and stared at the smoking Konoha ninja who appeared to be their leader.

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

Yager stood there blankly.

How could he not recognize those headbands? He had taken enormous risks to pick them up from the battlefield and give them to nearby refugees, so they could use them to deter bandits.

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

"They weren't rogue ninjas..." Yager said absentmindedly.

"Oh, weren't they?"

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

Yager's eyes widened, and his face turned deathly pale.

Clang—

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

During his search, the Hyuga Branch Family Jonin said contemptuously:

"You're refugees. Whether you have Rogue Ninja Headbands on you or not doesn't matter. Killing you is no big deal.

The Land of Fire has no need for refugees.

If we say you're rogue ninjas, then you can be rogue ninjas!

In the ninja world, no matter which country's border you're at, you're nothing but a group of homeless ants.

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

And being used by ninja as rogue ninjas so they can collect rewards—hasn't that always been your fate?"

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

Yager stared blankly at the ceiling.

"The war turned them into refugees. After fleeing here, they never robbed anyone or committed any evil. They lived by hunting."

Nonō rose to her feet and spoke coldly.

She drew the kunai from the table and gave it a light flick, cutting through the ropes binding Yager and Nak.

Staring at the Konoha headbands on the four men, Nonō suddenly felt that coming from the same ninja village as people who so casually trampled on human lives was an immense 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 Killing Intent toward them, while the four Konoha ninja who had just arrived were pure-born killers.

"Who cares?"

The Hyuga Jonin raised a brow, ignored Nonō, and headed straight for the kitchen.

Asuma swept his gaze across the floor of the wooden house before finally focusing on Nonō.

He found her very familiar, but could not remember who she was, so he asked with a smile:

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

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

As for her identity as the director of the Konoha Orphanage, who cared? Konoha's ninja were not so idle that they visited the orphanage every day.

"My name is Yakushi Nonō, formerly of Konoha's Root Organization. I'm out on a mission.

How did you find this place?

And what is your objective?"

Nonō took out her Konoha headband and a mission scroll from the Konoha Root Organization, 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!

Heh heh.

Sorry.

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

The moment he heard Nonō's name, Asuma did remember her. Back then, he and his colleagues had discussed the figures of Konoha's beautiful female ninja.

One of them had praised Nonō as one of Konoha's top female ninja in both looks and figure.

At that moment, the Inuzuka Clan ninja forcefully held onto his snow-white dog and said with a smile:

"Of course, we relied on Yukimaru and me to sniff out the scent of blood and search all the way here. But this place is really remote—we spent ages looking for it!"

The five of them had waited by the waterway outside Kikyo City until the middle of the night without seeing the Uchiha Rogue Squad. Once reinforcements arrived, they split up and began searching Mount Kikyo.

The Ninja Hound had picked up the scent of human blood.

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

Thus, their pursuit squad converged on this mountain stronghold.

"The smell of blood..."

Guilt filled Nonō's eyes, and her body trembled slightly. She had never imagined that her inadvertent act of hunting down real rogue ninjas and bandits would bring utter ruin upon this refugee stronghold.

She also realized that this seemingly well-equipped Konoha ninja squad was hunting 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.

Clang—

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 noticed something as well. His pupils trembled before he snapped back to his senses.

"Woof woof!" Yukimaru barked twice at the teacups, then hid by his owner's legs, visibly uneasy.

"Yukimaru is saying that twelve people used these teacups."

The Inuzuka Clan Jonin explained with a smile.

Asuma pushed one teacup before Yager and said, "One cup belonged to the master 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 Clan Jonin observed Yager's facial expressions and asked impassively:

"Which direction did those eleven people flee?"

Yager's mind raced. Without thinking too much, he raised his hand and pointed south, responding:

"They went that way!"

Though he did not know what was going on.

He did know that if Captain Ingetsu had escaped from Konoha, then he absolutely could not point east, where Konoha was located.

The Hyuga Clan Jonin frowned and viciously kicked Yager in the stomach, sending both him and his chair flying into the wall before they crashed to the floor.

Yager gritted his teeth, clutching his stomach as he propped himself against the wall. Beads of sweat poured down his forehead.

"Ah..."

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

The Hyuga Clan Jonin appeared behind her. The two kunai in his hands hung steadily in the air as he said softly, "Don't move. If you move, you'll all die."

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

Nak had already crouched in the corner, trembling.

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

"Four Konoha Jonin..."

Nonō's expression turned grave as she stared fixedly at the four of them, feeling immense pressure.

She thought to herself, Just who are those people who stole my bathtub, for Konoha to send a pursuit squad of this caliber after them?

Asuma turned a blind eye to the scene. This Hyuga Clan Jonin whom he had brought along had once served in the Konoha Torture and Interrogation Force.

Because his interrogation methods had been excessively cruel, Ibiki Morino had expelled him.

"Don't play tricks. I can tell from your facial expressions whether you're lying. I won't waste words with you. Of the four directions, we can rule out south."

The Hyuga Clan 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!

Once they're used up, you die."