Aunt Li's plump face.
The fleshy cheeks that usually bulged with vigor whenever she scolded someone had completely sagged.
They were smeared with tears, snot, and black grime from the ground.
Trembling, she pulled a crumpled note from her sleeve.
Even the hand she held out to Sen was shaking uncontrollably.
"This morning..."
Aunt Li struggled to speak through her sobs.
"I went to wake the children for breakfast."
"And found Ishikawa... and the three little ones in the neighboring beds, all-all gone!"
Sen's brows instantly knotted tight.
He took the note.
It was an ordinary piece of coarse straw paper.
A single crooked line had been scrawled on it in charcoal.
There was no signature.
"If you want them alive, come alone to the Abandoned Mine South of the Village at midnight tonight."
The writing was heavy, the strokes pressing through the paper.
It carried an unmistakable air of malice and menace.
"Kidnapping?"
Sen gave a cold laugh.
An exceedingly dangerous curve formed at the corner of his mouth.
He held the note between two fingers.
With a sudden whoosh.
A small burst of black flame sprang from the note without warning, instantly reducing it to ashes.
"Did you report it?"
Sen brushed the ash from his hands and looked at Aunt Li.
"Yes! People from the Konoha Military Police Force came and looked around. They said there were no signs of forced entry, that it looked like-like they'd wandered off on their own..."
In her desperation, Aunt Li tried to kneel again.
"But although Ishikawa loves his food, he's always been such a well-behaved child. How could he possibly take the others out in the middle of the night?"
"And I found that note under Ishikawa's pillow..."
Those useless bastards in the Konoha Military Police Force...
Sen cursed