"Gaara and Fū were abducted by the Akatsuki?"
"It happened so suddenly that we had no choice but to ask Konoha for help."
Minato and Xuanhui exchanged a glance.
"Xuanhui, what do you think?"
Xuanhui had tacitly approved the whole thing. What opinion was he supposed to have?
Neither of them would come to any harm anyway. Taking this mission himself would also let him stall for time.
"Gaara is something of a student of mine. Let me handle this."
Minato swallowed. His gaze held both worry and hope as he looked at Xuanhui.
"Xuanhui, the Akatsuki's activities concern every village's jinchūriki..."
He was deeply worried about Kushina and Naruto.
His wife and son were both Konoha's Nine-Tails Jinchuriki. Anxiety was only natural.
"Relax. I'll get to the bottom of this.
Also, have Lord Jiraiya take Naruto away for training. That will make it much harder for the Akatsuki to locate him."
"Let's do as you suggest."
The Third Kazekage raised his head and looked at Xuanhui as well.
"I'll go with you."
"You don't need to come along. Your people are leading this operation. I'm just outside support from Konoha."
The Third Kazekage stared at Xuanhui for a while before finally letting out a breath.
"I understand...
Where do you intend to start looking?
The Akatsuki may be a mercenary organization, but they operate across an extremely wide area. Even the great nations don't know their background."
Xuanhui closed his eyes, and one event after another flashed through his mind.
Only after a long while did he slowly open them again.
"Kusagakure is some distance from both Takigakure and Sunagakure, and it isn't under the jurisdiction of the Five Great Nations. It makes sense to investigate there first."
"Isn't that deduction... a little too hasty?"
"The search and tracking