When Karatachi Yagura opened the door, he studied the unfamiliar man on his doorstep. "I thought you were still outside Kirigakure looking for an opportunity. I never imagined you'd enter the village and come straight to my door."
The house was noisy, with plenty of family members inside.
Yagura looked like a boy, but he was well on in years. He had become a pillar of Kirigakure more than a decade ago.
"Shark Village wasn't safe. The innkeeper at the place your people arranged for me sold us out."
"Shark Village? What Shark Village? I sent word for you to go to Sea Village." Yagura went pale. "Come with me."
He hurriedly pulled Byakuya to a neighboring house, unlocked the door, and led him up to the study on the second floor.
"Don't worry. I've bought off the Mizukage's men who watch me."
Byakuya then repeated, word for word, what the Kirigakure Ninja he had met in the Land of Fire had told him.
"He wasn't one of mine. I did send someone to find you, but our meeting point was the port where you Konoha Ninja boarded the ship."
"No one approached me at the port," Byakuya said in surprise.
"Then the Mizukage's ninja must have killed the man I sent. But if the Mizukage knew, why would he still let you reach the Land of Water? Something about this is wrong."
Yagura thought hard, but he could not make sense of it.
Byakuya lowered his head and considered it. If the Mizukage had known their whereabouts, he would never have let them enter the Land of Water so easily. The Kirigakure Ninja had questioned them countless times along the way, yet no one had taken action against them.
That left only one answer.
They looked at each other