Mitokado Homura Escaped

The Advisor Residence stood north of the Hokage Building.

Unlike the Sarutobi Clan Compound, it housed no sprawling clan. There were only a few modest courtyards, neatly trimmed pines outside, and two Chunin who stood guard at the gate year-round.

Tonight, one of the pines by the gate had been blown apart.

Half the courtyard wall had collapsed. The wooden gate lay across the ground, and a trail of blood ran from inside toward the back alley.

By the time Naruto arrived, the fire had just been put out.

Utatane Koharu sat on the stone steps in the courtyard, her face frighteningly pale. Her shoulder had been bandaged; she had clearly just been injured.

Mitokado Homura was gone.

The two ANBU assigned to guard him lay beside the wall. One was unconscious, while the other had been stabbed in the chest. Medical ninja were trying to save him.

The Konoha Military Police Force and several Jonin were searching the scene.

Tekka glanced around as he entered, then quickly crouched beside the blood trail.

"He wasn't taken by force."

Naruto walked over.

Tekka pointed at the ground.

"There are two sets of footprints here. The attackers came in from outside, dealt with the ANBU, and Homura followed them out on his own. The blood belongs to the ANBU, not him."

Naruto looked at Utatane Koharu.

"Where did he go?"

Utatane Koharu looked up, fear and resentment in her eyes.

"I don't know."

Naruto said nothing.

He walked up to her.

Utatane Koharu instinctively clutched her sleeve.

Tonight, she had seen what Naruto had done to Danzo. She had also seen the Old Warehouse Lead traced to Homura. Now that Homura had escaped, everyone would suspect her.

"I really don't know," she said, her voice trembling. "The attack happened too fast. I only saw a few masked people. They weren't Root or ANBU."

Naruto watched her.

"Why are you still alive?"

Utatane Koharu went rigid.

The question was cold.

If they had come to rescue Homura, there had been no need to hurt her.

If they had come to silence witnesses, she should not have survived.

Utatane Koharu's lips trembled.

"They told me to pass on a message."

"Say it."

"He said Homura has the last record concerning the Nine-Tails' Attack. If you want it, go to the Old Naka River Bridge before sunrise tomorrow."

Uchiha Tekka's head snapped up.

The Naka River.

Near the Uchiha Clan Compound.

The choice of location was vicious.

Homura had just been exposed for forging evidence to make the Uchiha take the blame, and now he had chosen the Old Naka River Bridge as the meeting place. If anything went wrong, the Uchiha would be dragged into it again.

The Third Hokage had arrived too.

When he heard the location, his expression darkened.

"He wants to drag the Uchiha into this."

Naruto glanced at him.

"You've finally figured that out?"

The Third Hokage did not argue.

Tekka stood.

"I'll notify the Clan Head and seal off the area around the Naka River."

Naruto shook his head.

"No."

Tekka frowned.

"If you make a move," Naruto said, "he'll claim the Uchiha set everything up in advance."

Tekka clenched his hand, then let it relax.

Naruto was right.

If Homura had set a trap there, the more anxious the Uchiha appeared, the guiltier they would look.

Utatane Koharu leaned against the stone steps, breathing hard.

"Naruto, Homura has gone mad. He won't stop at you. He'll drag the whole village down with him."

Naruto looked at her.

"Now you're afraid the village might go down with him?"

Shame and anger rose on Utatane Koharu's face, but she did not dare curse him again.

Naruto crouched and picked up a splinter of wood.

There were faint scratches on it.

The explosion had not made them.

Someone had deliberately carved them before leaving.

Naruto sent Nine-Tails Chakra into the scratches and found a faint trace of cold Chakra lingering inside.

He did not recognize it.

But the Third Hokage's expression changed.

"Is this... a summoning trace?"

Naruto looked at him.

The Third Hokage picked up another splinter and ran his fingertip over the marks.

"An Old-Style Summoning Mark of the Monkey Clan."

Utatane Koharu cried out, "Impossible! Homura doesn't know the Sarutobi Summoning Technique!"

Naruto's gaze turned cold.

"But the Old Storehouse was just traced back to the Sarutobi Clan Compound."

The Third Hokage's expression grew darker still.

Someone within the Sarutobi Clan was helping them.

Not an administrator on the fringes like Shinnosuke, but someone with access to the old summoning marks.

Sarutobi Ryohei's legs were still shaking when they brought him over.

The Third Hokage looked at him, his voice heavy.

"Who can use this mark?"

The moment Sarutobi Ryohei saw the splinter, his composure crumbled.

"I don't know. I really don't know..."

Naruto walked over and pinned him against the collapsed courtyard wall.

"Your clan already burned a box tonight."

"I don't have the patience to hear you say 'I don't know' again."

Sarutobi Ryohei's teeth chattered.

"It's an old mark Ryohei left behind! After Ryohei died, some of his things were put in the Clan Treasury. The only people who could touch them... were the Clan Elders."

The Third Hokage's pupils contracted slightly.

The Sarutobi Clan Elders.

His own clan.

His own roots.

Konoha's problem was no longer just Danzo, or even the two Advisors.

One layer after another, the people who had fed on power all these years were coming to light.

Naruto released Sarutobi Ryohei.

"Take us to the Clan Treasury."

The Third Hokage stepped forward. "Homura is the priority right now."

Naruto looked at him.

"He said before sunrise."

"There are still three hours until then."

Naruto pointed to the Old-Style Summoning Mark on the splinter.

"If we don't uncover whoever helped him, all you'll find at the Naka River is another trap."

The Third Hokage fell silent.

Naruto was right.

Homura had escaped too easily. The Advisor Residence, the Sarutobi Clan Compound, the remnants of Root—these threads were already connected. The Naka River was only the stage. Whoever was truly helping him set it up was still in Konoha.

Utatane Koharu suddenly spoke.

"The Clan Treasury won't be enough."

Everyone looked at her.

As though making a difficult decision, she gripped the edge of the stone step.

"Homura and Danzo used to have a Backup Escape Route. It started at the Advisor Residence, passed through the Old Storehouse in the Sarutobi Clan Compound, and didn't end at the Naka River."

"Where did it end?" Naruto asked.

Utatane Koharu's lips went white.

"Beneath the Konoha Memorial Stone."

The Third Hokage's expression changed instantly.

The Memorial Stone.

The names of ninja who had died for the village were carved there.

Kakashi often went there.

Many ninja went there to mourn their comrades.

If Homura had hidden something there, or laid a trap, this was more than an escape.

He was using Konoha's dead as cover.

Naruto stood.

"Tekka, send two people to watch the Naka River. Tell them not to get close."

"Inuzuka Clan, keep tracking Homura's scent."

"Everyone else, head to the Memorial Stone."

The Third Hokage watched Naruto issue orders without missing a beat, his expression too complicated to put into words.

A six-year-old child.

Yet tonight, he seemed more in command than the Konoha High Command.

Naruto left the Advisor Residence. The sky in the distance was still pitch-black.

His Mother's Charm rested against his chest, its fire-scorched surface slightly rough against his skin.

Just as they were about to head for the Memorial Stone, a white-haired man appeared at the far end of the street, a giant toad beside him.

Jiraiya had returned.

He looked at Naruto, then at the wreckage strewn across the street.

"Can someone tell me what the hell happened to Konoha?"