Sunlight slanted through the window, drawing a long, narrow strip across the office floor. Dust drifted slowly in the beam like a swarm of silent insects.
Yongye leaned back in his new leather chair, his back sinking into the soft cushion as he flipped through a ninja novel he had borrowed from Ayame.
A cup of tea sat on the desk, long gone cold, with a faint ring of tea stain around its rim.
Uchiha Izumi crawled out from beneath the desk, straightened herself up, and resumed her usual Secretary duties.
"Lord Yongye, we still haven't found any leads in the disappearance of the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki or Uchiha Itachi's prison escape."
"Any new instructions?"
Yongye didn't look up from his novel. He gave an offhand "Mm," then waved her away.
Izumi's lips parted. She stared at the teacup as though she wanted to say something more, but in the end she only bowed slightly and turned to leave.
At the door, she paused and looked back.
Yongye was still leaning against the chair, turning the pages of his novel, as though he hadn't noticed her pause at all. The door closed behind her with a soft click.
The office fell quiet again.
Yongye put down the novel and looked at the closed door. A mocking smile slowly curled at his lips, full of unspoken meaning, and he laughed silently.
It wasn't just Naruto Uzumaki, the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, who had vanished. Sasuke Uchiha was missing too.
Uchiha Fugaku was deliberately keeping it quiet, but he couldn't hide something like that for long. There were plenty of Uchiha willing to curry favor with Yongye now.
The closely watched Nine-Tails Jinchuriki and the Uchiha Clan Head's youngest son had disappeared at the same time. Across the entire Shinobi World, only a handful of