The intelligence Ninja who had come to report adjusted his glasses. "And this hasn't just been happening around Konoha. Over the past week, Konoha alone has received more than a dozen investigation requests. At first, we didn't realize they were incidents of the same kind. It wasn't until yesterday, following Lord Hokage's instructions, that we discovered these incidents were very likely connected."
"So the Intelligence Division spent the night organizing the information and investigating the surrounding area as thoroughly as possible. The results were somewhat unexpected. Besides the investigation requests the village received, similar incidents have been reported in other countries. Their local authorities are still investigating, however, and haven't come to Konoha to commission missions."
"How widespread are they, according to the preliminary investigation?"
Kurenai Yuhi, who had been summoned to the meeting, asked.
But the intelligence Ninja's answer startled everyone—
"It's very possible that incidents like these are happening throughout the Quan Shinobi World."
"Not long ago, because of the conference, the Lord Third and Fourth Hokage contacted the factions in other countries. They mentioned these incidents too."
"Wait, not long ago? Didn't you say you only discovered this yesterday?"
"No, yesterday there was a sudden increase in similar cases, which caught Lord Hokage's attention. Similar incidents seem to have occurred sporadically before that."
"After confirming the reports, we found that incidents of the same nature had occurred not only in the Land of Fire but in other countries as well. In fact, quite a few of them had eyewitnesses."
"Eyewitnesses? Then did they see who was responsible?"
"No. We don't know whether those responsible deliberately avoided being seen, but most of the witnesses were ordinary people. Their accounts varied wildly, too. Some said the victims were carried off by a ball of fire, others said they were