Uchiha Su stiffened and turned to look at the figure sprinting toward him.
He asked, "What happened? Has something serious gone wrong?"
"Huff, huff, huff..." Iwasui gasped for breath, his words coming in fragments. "It's... Rin... it's..."
"Speak properly. Stop breaking off." Uchiha Su frowned, the ominous feeling in his heart growing stronger.
"Right." Iwasui took a deep breath, steadied his breathing, and said, "Second Elder, a young Uchiha has been kidnapped by two Cultists."
"What?" Uchiha Su froze, then hurriedly asked, "Who was kidnapped? Are they hurt?"
Iwasui shook his head. "The hostage is a little girl named Mikoto. I think she just turned eight this year. I don't know whether she's hurt. Ao and Rin are still confronting them over there."
"Uchiha Mikoto? That girl... ah! We should never have let her come along." Uchiha Su sighed, an indescribable guilt welling up inside him.
Without lingering, he strode outside. "Come on. Let me see what's going on..."
"Yes." Iwasui nodded and followed Uchiha Su, hurrying outside with him.
As he passed Yui and Nai, he gave them a conflicted look before heading off.
"Yui, what's..." Listening to their conversation, Nai Hyuga was bewildered. "They said those children ran into danger? Then why haven't I received any memories from my Shadow Clones? If there really was danger, the Shadow Clones should have been able to handle it."
Yui was equally puzzled. She rested her chin on her hand and thought for a moment before deciding, "Let's follow them and take a look! We won't know what happened until we see for ourselves."
Like Nai Hyuga, she hadn't received any information from her Shadow Clones. Either they hadn't been dispelled yet, or something had cut them off.
The first possibility was easy enough to deal with. If it was the