After explaining the necessary details and requirements of the mission and passing along some of the intelligence they had gathered to the six subordinates below him,
Zero directly announced their dismissal.
He had the leaders of each squad immediately take their teams and disperse throughout the village and its surrounding areas to conduct the necessary investigation. Although the situation was still under control for now, if the Anbu failed to uncover the truth for too long and allowed the disappearances to worsen or even erupt, it would inevitably cause panic throughout the village. Over the past year or so, Konoha had already suffered through the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox's Attack and Kumogakure's invasion.
They could only be said to have barely weathered those crises. Even their aftermath had yet to fully subside. In the northeastern region especially, the Kumo Ninja had merely reduced the frequency and intensity of their attacks; the alert had not been lifted entirely. One major incident after another had frayed Konoha's citizens' nerves. The composure once befitting the foremost ninja village had now turned into a state of constant unease.
Now, the village had encountered such a vicious series of disappearances. The Third Hokage was bound to take it extremely seriously. Among those who had vanished were ninja from the Akimichi Clan and the Gekko Clan. During the previous period, the heads of those ninja clans had all gone to the Third Hokage, applying considerable pressure on Sarutobi Hiruzen through highly veiled words.
This was not an isolated crime, but a continuing string of heinous acts. While Konoha had still needed to remain in a tense standoff with Kumogakure along its borders, the Third Hokage could only conduct a small-scale investigation. Now that the border situation had eased considerably, he could finally free up his hands to