On October 27, Akaseki and others returned to Konoha and were ordered to reflect at home in the morning. After reflecting for a whole afternoon, Akaseki and Ranwu, Nonō, just come out of Forest Street and go straight to Hokage Building - but instead of going upstairs, you go directly to the task reception office downstairs and check the task file.
Meanwhile...
"It's so outrageous! Hiruzen, you just told them to reflect at home during the day, and now? Now they are downstairs! They don't take what you said to heart at all!" Danzo complained again in Hokage Office.
Hiruzen Sarutobi took a sip from his cigarette holder and said, "They went to check the recent mission files... Well, it should also be about the recent disappearance of the young ninja."
"Does this matter have to be done by the two people who were ordered to reflect? That's not the case..." Danzo did not accept this reason.
However, Hiruzen Sarutobi interrupted at this time, "Danzo... These disappearances were not caused by you, right?"
Danzo:???
"It's none of my business!" Danzo said angrily.
"That's good..." Hiruzen Sarutobi breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing this.
After Danzo went out, he also breathed a sigh of relief - it was indeed not Root who did it, but... Danzo vaguely knew who did it, but he always kept it secret.
"Where is Hiruko?" After Danzo returned to Root's station, he immediately checked with others.
"Hiruko Researcher has asked for leave to do a mission." Root Ninja responded.
Asking for leave to do tasks...
It sounds like I love the profession of ninja!
Danzo's face darkened when he heard this, and he immediately said, "Call Chenwu."
Not long after, Aburame Ryoma of the Aburame Clan appeared in front of Danzo - Aburame Ryoma had followed Elder of Danzo before Root was established. When Chunin Ninja Exams was there, he also served as an examiner for the written examination.
"That Hiruko has a problem, go and solve the problem." Danzo directly ordered.
"Yes." Aburame Ryoma agreed without hesitation.
Hiruko is a researcher with research capabilities discovered by Danzo!
When Danzo first discovered him, he was just a Chunin who had no talent and was conducting illegal research in secret...
At that time, Orochimaru had just become Uchiha Orochimaru, which left Danzo with no allies in research. So after discovering Hiruko's research capabilities, they not only turned a blind eye to its illegal activities, but also provided convenience to a certain extent!
On the one hand, in order to avoid being suspected, on the other hand, he was worried about being implicated by Hiruko like he is now, so Danzo did not let him directly join Root.
Not long after the disappearances began to appear, Danzo suspected that Hiruko was responsible.
However, Hiruko did not rely on the power of Root. Instead, Root would pull out some valuable data that came from unknown sources in Root's research, so Danzo never asked about these.
However...
Now Hiruko seems to be getting more and more courageous, and has been targeted by the Uchiha Clan. Danzo feels that it is too dangerous to keep him!
On the other hand, Akaseki took Ranwu and Nonō to the mission center and obtained all the recent recorded mission acceptance and completion data.
Although these are also confidential, Akaseki came with the warrant of Konoha Military Police Force!
All information on tasks below level 1 has now been handed over to Akaseki.
"The next step is to organize... summarize all the movements of all the ninjas in the village in the past two months, and select those who match the seven times!" Akaseki brought a large pile of information and placed it in front of Ranwu and Nonō.
Ranwu couldn't help but twitch her mouth when she saw this amount, while Nonō looked serious - she probably also understood that there might be something to do with Root behind it.
"Can you call more people?" Ranwu asked in fear.
"No, the more people you call, the easier it will be to alert someone... There are only three of us, but we can use Shadow Clone Technique!" Akaseki stressed.
Ranwu:...
Ranwu looked at this pile of information. Although he was helpless, he could only silently separate two Shadow Clone Technique - ordinary physical clones, unable to think so logically. As for non-physical clones, they couldn't even read.
Nonō separated into three, not because they could only divide so much chakra, but because they were afraid that they would be mentally tired and not be able to bear it anymore.
Nonō has been trained and is slightly stronger.
Akaseki is divided into thirteen in one go!
Akaseki's "Mirror Clone" cannot synchronize memory, which is an advantage at this time. At this time, chakra can be used.
One night passed, the three of them went through all the information in the room they borrowed from the mission office...
Finally, three names were locked in!
"There are actually three people who have a chance? There are more people than I thought..." Akaseki originally thought that there were seven probabilities, either a "real murderer" or not.
After all, the time span spans more than two months...
Less than 10% of Chunin have been in China for two consecutive months. Some of them are seriously injured and cannot go out to do tasks. The actual scope of investigation is not large.
As a result, each of the three of them happened to find one!
"Kurama Murakumo and Might Duy are impossible, right?" Ranwu said, looking at the two familiar names.
"Kurama Murakumo is impossible, let's try it first!" Akaseki said confidently.
"What about Might Duy?" Nonō asked.
"Might Duy's IQ is not enough to be a researcher... and he is simply "hardworking"." Akaseki curled his lips.
Might Duy will be screened out simply because he rarely stays at home. The time he often submits tasks and the time he receives tasks are connected, so no matter how he is screened, he can get out of the "mesh".
As for Kurama Murakumo...
That is simply Akaseki wanting to put him on trial!
"Why is he still Chunin? I just said Kurama Clan's Genjutsu can't do it!" Akaseki said with disdain - Second Shinobi World War has been playing for five years and hasn't even caught a Elite Chunin, Akaseki feels that it is a sign of lack of talent.
"The main reason is that Sunagakure has too many Puppet teachers..." Ranwu explained for him.
"Genjutsu Ninja v Puppet Master" is really at a disadvantage, Genjutsu is ineffective against Puppet.
Therefore, Kurama Murakumo's performance on the battlefield was mediocre, and he stayed behind Konoha most of the time--although among Chunin who stayed behind, he performed well and completed many A-level tasks, but... forget about promotion!
Nonō didn't care about that at this time, just stared at the third person...
Hiruko!
"Who... is this person?" Akaseki looked at this third person in confusion - this was also the real target of Akaseki's suspicion!
"Have you forgotten? Teacher Jiraiya's classmate, we met before during Flower Capital's mission." Ranwu reminded.
"Ah! By the way, it's that Commoner Ninja who is jealous of our Uchiha Clan's talent!" Akaseki immediately thought of it.
Akaseki remembers that he was probably on the same team as Yashiro who was still Genin at the time, showing that he was envious and jealous of the Uchiha Clan.
Ranwu hammered him - as Forest Street's ninja, Ranwu couldn't listen to this.
But...
"Do you belong to the type of silent jealousy..." Ranwu was also a little hesitant at this time - it seemed that he even had to find out the motive.
Akaseki shook his head and said, "No, this is a manifestation, otherwise how would I know?"
Ranwu was stunned when she heard this - in her understanding, if she only occasionally showed some emotions or could see a look in her eyes, it was considered "silent".
"Then what is silent jealousy?" Ranwu asked.
"What I didn't see was that I was silently jealous!" Akaseki said righteously.
Ranwu:...
Well, there are only two kinds of ninjas.
One is jealous that Uchiha Clan was discovered, the other is silently jealous.
It was just dawn at this time, and the civilian clerk from the mission office came to work. He knocked on the door and took a look. He was startled when he saw the tired men and women in the room.
"U-um... do you... have breakfast?" the clerk asked after hesitating for a moment.
"No need." Akaseki said, releasing all Mirror Clone.
Nonō and Ranwu also released Shadow Clone Technique after a little preparation - as expected, they were all dizzy and couldn't help but swaying on their feet.
"These task records are not specific enough and need to be corrected!" Akaseki said, throwing a stack of task documents in front of him.
Akaseki's name this time is a random check of mission records - no matter whether people believe it or not, they are hiding something.
"Yes!" The other party responded immediately - these are all mistakes that can be corrected... then that's okay.
After the three people left the task reception area, they directly swallowed Military Ration Pill and rushed to the village gate.
"These three people now have missions... should they act separately?" Nonō asked.
They have just locked down the whereabouts of three "suspects".
The bad news is that all three of them are currently away on missions!
The good news is that Might Duy is now in Kurama Murakumo's team.
"No, just go find that Hiruko." Ranwu said directly.
Ranwu knew very well that what Akaseki just said about Kurama Murakumo being suspicious was just to make excuses. In fact, he did not doubt Kurama, he just wanted to put him on trial.
"No, go find Kurama and Might Duy." Akaseki corrected.
"Eh?" Ranwu looked at Akaseki in shock--Are you serious?
"The mission of Kurama and the others is to patrol Land of Fire–Land of Rice Fields Border, and the mission of Hiruko is to transport bulk trading goods to Fire Temple!" Akaseki emphasized.
"You mean..." Ranwu's pupils shrank when he heard this.
"Although it is not certain, but... the distance between the two is not far, and during Fire Temple, even if Hiruko is away for a few days, Genin on the same team will not feel weird." Akaseki emphasized.
Land of Rice Fields is located directly north of Konoha and upstream of the Naka River. The national border is also known as "Valley of the End", while Fire Temple is located directly north of Konoha in the group Yamanaka, not far from the northern border and Valley of the End.
Akaseki suspects that this is not a coincidence, but Hiruko is going to take action again!
Among the teams that recently performed missions on the northern border of Land of Fire, there were only Kurama Murakumo ninjas from traditional Shinobi Clan origins, so Akaseki decided to go directly to the Valley of the End area to find Kurama Murakumo...