The Joint Investigation Team's Setback and the Revelation of Top-Secret Evidence

The air within the Hokage Building seemed heavier than usual.

On the third day after the Joint Investigation Team was established, report after report showing no progress piled up like waste paper in Mitokado Homura's temporary office.

The people he had sent to the guesthouse could not even get a glimpse of the Sunagakure or Amegakure Emissary Group members. The reason they gave was always the same: the envoys had been frightened and needed rest, refusing all forms of visitation.

Though that explanation sounded perfectly reasonable, to Mitokado Homura, it was no different from a series of resounding slaps across the face.

He knew very well that this was an open scheme.

Using the legitimate shackles of "protective detention," Baishi had firmly locked both Emissary Groups inside the guesthouse. It was protection in name, isolation in truth. And he, the leader of the investigation team, had become the sole target outside those shackles who had to face the diplomatic pressure.

Amegakure was easier to deal with. As the victims, their taking a somewhat loftier stance was understandable.

But Sunagakure's attitude carried a strange sort of stubbornness. They were clearly the suspects, yet they showed no intention of cooperating with the investigation. Instead, they acted like victims at every turn, as if Konoha's detention were an immense insult to a sovereign nation.

Mitokado Homura was no fool. He vaguely sensed that Sunagakure's confidence did not come from themselves.

But the trail ended with Nakai.

The dead could not testify.

He had no leverage capable of breaking the deadlock. That frustration of having strength but nowhere to use it had deepened the wrinkles on his forehead over the past few days.

If this dragged on any longer, let alone putting pressure on the Hokage, even his position as the team leader would