Chapter 172: Chapter 169 : Missing Children
As soon as Fujin entered the room, he saw 6 Uchihas looking at him. He thought, 'Ugh, I forgot that her squad is an all-Uchiha squad! I hope that it doesn't attract any unwanted attention.'
Among the 6 Uchihas, 3 seemed to be in their 30s, two in their 20s and the last one was just a year older than Fujin.
One of them said, "So this is Fujin? Not bad, his chakra is quite high for his age."
Fujin wondered, 'Hmm, he can tell chakra without using his eyes or sensing?'
Mieko said, "Yes, Uncle Akihiko."
She looked at Fujin and said, "Fujin, this is Uncle Akihiko. Just like sensei, he is an Elite Jounin too. He will be heading this mission."
Fujin nodded and respectfully said, "Pleased to meet you, Akihiko-san."
Uchiha Akihiko smiled and said, "No need to be formal Fujin. You can call me Uncle as well."
Fujin replied with a smile, "Alright Uncle Akihiko."
While he was speaking, he thought, 'Not bad. I was afraid that all of them would be arrogant to the core.'
At that moment, the Uchiha, who was slightly older than Fujin, scoffed and said, "Mieko, are you sure that he is strong? We don't want any slackers joining us. Besides, can he really replace Uncle Tienosuke?"
Fujin looked at him and thought, 'Nevermind. I concluded too soon.'
Mieko rebuked him, "Shunko, you can't even defeat me. Fujin is even stronger than me."
Akihiko calmed the kids down, "Calm down. Shunko, learn to work with your teammates. And Mieko, don't insult your teammates. Fujin, don't mind Shunko."
Fujin nodded. There wasn't much change in his expression, but he was surprised, 'Who'd have thought that she would admit that she was weaker than me.'
Akihiko asked, "Mieko, you and Fujin can do the Fire-Wind combination jutsu, right?"
Mieko and Fujin nodded. Akihiko said, "Alright. Tienosuke could do the Fire-Wind combination jutsu with all 3 of us. But, that was due to us taking missions together for years. We won't be able to reach the same efficiency with Fujin in this little time. So this combination jutsu will be left to you guys."
Mieko grinned and replied, "Don't worry, we got it."
Akihiko said, "The mission is an emergency. It is a rank A mission issued by Kusagakure. Over a hundred kids younger than the age of six have suddenly gone missing and all their attempts at investigation have failed. Instead, some of the search teams have gone missing as well. Our mission is to investigate this event and rescue those kids.
We will leave the village in 30 minutes. Gather your supplies and weapons and meet at the village gate as soon as you can."
Everyone nodded and left. Mieko looked at Fujin and guessed, "You are carrying all the supplies that you need."
Fujin nodded, "Yup. What about you?"
Mieko grinned and said, "Same here. Let's race to the gate."
She flickered before Fujin could reply. Fujin sighed and flickered as well. He very quickly caught up with Mieko and commented softly, "Why do you arrange a competition that you have no chance of winning."
He overtook Mieko but didn't create a huge difference between them. Mieko snorted at his confidence. She tried hard to catch up, but Fujin's physique as well as the mastery of Body Flicker jutsu was better than hers.
Fujin reached the Village Gate. However, he wasn't the first one there. Akihiko and the other two older Uchihas were already at the gate. Mieko reached a few seconds after Fujin.
The three senior Uchihas saw them. One of them smirked and said, "Looks like both of you lost the race."
Mieko was annoyed by his smirk and taunt. But at the same time, she was happy that Fujin lost too. So she didn't complain and looked at Fujin with a smirk. Fujin shrugged his hands and asked, "Aren't you too old to be racing with preteens, mister?"
His smirk immediately fell, while the other two laughed at his expense. Mieko introduced them, "Fujin, he is Uncle Masaru. He likes teasing young kids. And he is Uncle Sora."
Masaru immediately said in embarrassment, "Hey, don't speak nonsense!"
Meanwhile, Fujin wondered, 'Is this entire world filled with pedos?'
Mieko laughed at his reaction. Akihiko said, "Don't mind him, Fujin. He is very competitive and playful. Anyways, are you two ready? We will be moving at a full speed. We will only rest once before reaching Kusa."
Both Mieko and Fujin nodded. In 5 minutes, the remaining 3 members arrived. The 8-member squad left immediately at full speed. They travelled without resting until they reached the border between Konoha and Kusa. They took a break at a border patrol camp in the Land of Fire so that all could rest at the same time without any worries about external threats.
The next morning, they continued their journey and reached Kusagakure a few hours after noon. On reaching, Fujin thought, 'I don't recall much about Kusagakure. I only remember Karin and her mother. I wonder if there any others of significance from this village.'
Fujin slowed down as they neared the gate, but the others didn't. Fujin was confused and increased his pace. A couple of guards guarded the village gate. They noticed a few ninjas moving towards them at high speed and got alert. They were already on edge due to the cases of missing kids.
Akihiko and Sora activated their Sharingans.
'Sharingan Genjutsu'
Both guards were placed under a Genjutsu. They collapsed.
Fujin was speechless! He thought, 'What the fuck? And I thought that this guy was normal!'
Akihiko said, "Masaru, stay here with the kids and interrogate them. Others, follow me."
Akihiko, Sora and two others went inside the village. Masaru, Fujin, Mieko and Shunko stayed back.
Masara said, "I will release the Genjutsu on them. Mieko and Shinko, you cast a new Genjutsu on them and interrogate them. I will observe."
They nodded and stepped forward. Masaru made a hand sign and released the Genjutsu. The guards woke up but were confused. Mieko and Shunko casted new Genjutsu on them. They asked basic questions and some tricky questions. Unfortunately, the guards didn't know anything. They were innocent.
Their actions were noticed by the villagers. Seeing their guards being subdued caused panic among the villagers. A few ninjas stepped forward. But Masaru said, "We have been assigned the mission to recover the missing children. This is a part of the mission. Stay back."
Hearing that, the ninjas didn't come very close. However, they stayed in their position and observed the actions of Konoha ninjas. Many of them were unhappy. A few thought, 'The Uchiha clan! They are so fucking arrogant!'
Under normal circumstances, they would have lashed out. But the missing children had put them on an edge. They gritted their teeth and endured the humiliation.
While the interrogation was on, Akihiko's group entered the central building in the village. They were quickly led to the room hosting the leader of Kusagakure and the Daimyo.
The current leader of Kusagakure was Ashikaga Hiroshi. He said, "Welcome to Kusagakure, Uchiha Akihiko. I am glad that you arrived so quickly."
Akihiko nodded and said, "It is an emergency after all. Can you brief me on all the details of this mission? We will begin investigations immediately."
Hiroshi nodded and said, "Until now, 176 kids have been reported missing. There isn't anything common between these children other than the fact that they are aged between 2 and 6. Around 12 went missing from this village itself. The remaining went missing from civilian villages across this country."
He led down a map on the table. The map had locations of villages and the number of children missing from each village. In all, they went missing from 7 more villages. And all these 7 villages were the villages closest to Kusagakure.
Akihiko observed the map and asked, "Where did you investigate and what were the results of it?"
Hiroshi answered, "We didn't find anything."
He began marking locations on the map and said, "We have investigated all these areas but didn't find any clues. Instead, in this location, we lost 3 Rescue teams! We send a huge force to investigate it, but didn't find anything. It's as if they have disappeared from the face of the Earth."
Akihiko and the other Uchihas frowned. This case was very tricky. They didn't say anything and kept observing the map to see if they could decipher any patterns. Hiroshi and the Daimyo didn't disturb them.
After a few minutes, a knock was heard on the door. Without waiting for any response, the door was opened and a man stepped in. He said, "Lord Daimyo, Lord Hiroshi, there are Ko..."
As he was speaking, his eyes went to the Konoha ninjas in the room. He instantly stopped talking. Hiroshi was confused. He said, "Keep going."
The man said, "The guards on the gate are being interrogated by a few Konoha ninjas."
Before Hiroshi could say anything, Akihiko said without taking his eyes off the map, "Don't worry, they are my subordinates."
Hiroshi was speechless. He asked, "What do you mean don't worry?"
Akihiko said, "The children went missing from your village. No one is more suspicious than the guards. Don't worry, we won't ask for any personal or confidential information. But they have to be interrogated. I hope you can bring me the other guards as well to interrogate."
Akihiko's tough stance intimidated Hiroshi. He said, "Alright."
He commanded the man who delivered the message to gather the remaining guards.
[A/N : Additional chapter on Sunday if the fic gets 1000 Power Stones.]
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