Chapter 455: Something’s Off

Chapter 455: Chapter 455: Something’s Off

As though she had finally convinced herself, Kurenai raised her head and met Kagami’s gaze.

"Captain, is there anything else you want to ask? If not, I’d like to head back and get some rest."

Kagami nodded. "Go ahead. Get some rest."

Kurenai said nothing more. She stood up and left.

Watching her departing figure, Kagami rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"Something’s off."

At that moment, Hayate and Yugao, who had been standing guard outside the door, walked in.

After flipping through Kurenai’s report, Yugao furrowed her delicate brows.

"Captain, I can’t shake the feeling that something’s wrong with Kurenai-senpai."

Hayate said, "She was ambushed by an overwhelmingly powerful enemy. It’s only natural that she’d be feeling a little down."

Yugao shook her head. "It’s not about her feeling down. Kurenai-senpai has a strong personality. After suffering a defeat like this, knowing her, she should at least be somewhat angry. But instead, she looks like she has something weighing heavily on her mind..."

Hayate curled his lips. "Yugao, you’re overthinking it. Her opponent was Orochimaru, one of the Sannin. What good would getting angry do after being ambushed by someone that strong?"

Kagami ignored the two of them bickering and thoughtfully looked over Kurenai’s report.

According to Kurenai’s report, Orochimaru had abducted her from the village this time because he needed her help with something.

And judging from the fact that Orochimaru’s destination had been that Uchiha ruin, what he wanted Kurenai’s help with was, nine times out of ten, related to the Totsuka Blade.

"If he needed Kurenai’s help, then it must have involved something related to genjutsu. That really is one of Orochimaru’s weaknesses."

Just as Kagami was mulling it over, a burst of hurried footsteps suddenly echoed through the corridor outside.

Immediately afterward, the door was pushed open and a large group of people entered.

The one leading them was none other than Asuma, who had spent the past several days running all over the place searching for Kurenai. Behind him were Kakashi, Guy, Anko, and the others.

The moment he entered the room, Asuma asked, "Where’s Kurenai?"

Kagami replied, "She went back to rest."

Asuma immediately asked with some nervousness, "Is she okay?"

Kakashi, Guy, Anko, and the others also turned toward Kagami, waiting for his answer.

To avoid causing panic, the Third Hokage had refused Asuma’s request to place the entire village under lockdown and conduct a full-scale search for Kurenai. With no other choice, Asuma had turned to his former classmates—Kakashi, Guy, Anko, and the others—for help searching for her.

As a result, Kakashi and the others had also put quite a bit of effort into finding Kurenai over the past few days.

Kagami patted Asuma on the shoulder and smiled. "Relax. She only suffered some minor injuries. It’s nothing serious."

Asuma let out a long sigh of relief before asking, "By the way, which bastard attacked Kurenai?"

Kagami casually tossed Kurenai’s report over to him.

Strictly speaking, until the Third Hokage officially determined how the incident should be classified, Kurenai’s attack should have remained confidential. However, everyone present was one of Kagami’s former classmates, and he already knew the full sequence of events and understood that there was little value in keeping it secret, so he saw no reason to hide it from them.

After everyone had taken turns reading through the report, Asuma and the others exchanged bewildered looks.

Asuma asked in astonishment, "Orochimaru? How could it be him? Why would he abduct Kurenai?"

He had originally been planning to catch the culprit and vent some of Kurenai’s anger for her, but he had never expected the culprit to be Orochimaru, one of the Sannin.

He was both astonished and helpless.

After all, at this point, even the Third Hokage himself probably wouldn’t dare claim that he could reliably defeat Orochimaru.

The moment Anko saw the name ’Orochimaru’, however, her expression darkened.

Even though she had already stepped out from under Orochimaru’s shadow, he was still the person she least wanted to face.

Kakashi’s attention, however, was entirely focused on Kamigami.

He muttered to himself, "Why would Kamigami fight Orochimaru? Could it have something to do with Akatsuki?"

Taking Kurenai’s report back, Kagami said, "Alright, this is a hospital. Everyone, clear out."

Since he had no way to catch the culprit and vent Kurenai’s anger for her, Asuma could only settle for the next best thing.

"I’ll treat everyone tomorrow. We’ll celebrate Kurenai’s safe return, so all of you come too."

Guy grinned. "Come to think of it, it’s been a long time since we all got together."

Kakashi, now a genuine one-eyed man, drooped his eye and said listlessly, "I think I’ll pass."

Knowing that Kakashi still had a knot in his heart, Asuma deliberately threw an arm around his neck.

"Hey, that trick you taught me was completely useless! Don’t you think you should take responsibility? Anyone else can skip tomorrow, but you’re the one person who absolutely has to come!"

Kakashi could only nod helplessly...

......

Early the next morning.

Kagami brought Kurenai to the Hokage Building.

After submitting Kurenai’s report to the Third Hokage, Kagami had expected the Third to keep Kurenai behind and question her privately.

Unexpectedly, the Third merely picked out a few key points and asked Kurenai several questions before dismissing both her and Kagami.

After leaving the Hokage Building, Kagami glanced back in the direction of the Hokage’s office and thought,

"He’s so busy that he can’t even spare much attention for Orochimaru ambushing one of his directly subordinate ANBU anymore...?"

On the surface, the village was peaceful and tranquil.

But Kagami knew very well that this was nothing more than the calm before a great battle.

Through Yagura’s secret channels, he had learned that Sunagakure’s Fourth Kazekage and Kumogakure’s Fourth Raikage had both secretly arrived in the village.

At present, the Third Hokage had arranged for both of them to stay inside the former Root base.

Of the Five Kage, only Iwagakure’s Third Tsuchikage had yet to arrive.

However, during the Third Hokage’s secret meeting with Yagura and the other Kage at the former Root base, he had already informed them that the Third Tsuchikage, Onoki, had agreed to participate in this Five Kage Summit being secretly held in Konoha.

And by now, he was most likely already on his way.

Thinking about the information Yagura had passed along, Kagami mused,

"Once all Five Kage are gathered, the Third will probably close the net."

At that moment, Kurenai, who was walking beside him, asked in confusion, "Kagami, don’t you think Lord Hokage was acting a little strange today? This involves Orochimaru and Kamigami, yet Lord Hokage only casually asked a few questions."

To prepare for the Third Hokage’s questioning today, Kurenai had painstakingly spent the entire previous night preparing herself.

She hadn’t expected the Third Hokage to have absolutely no intention of digging deeper, making all her worrying and agonizing completely pointless.

"Maybe the Third has other things keeping him busy."

After casually brushing it off, Kagami glanced at Kurenai and reminded her, "Asuma’s treating everyone to dinner tonight. Don’t be late."

Kurenai yawned. "Alright. I’m going back to get some rest first. I didn’t sleep well last night."

After Kurenai left, Kagami thought,

"Kurenai clearly knows a lot about my Wind Release clone, so why didn’t she report any of it? There’s definitely something wrong here. Could she have figured something out?"

......

That evening.

As promised, Kagami arrived at the izakaya where Asuma had reserved a private room.

Since it was still early, only Asuma and Kakashi had arrived. When Kagami pushed open the door, the two of them were huddled together in the private room, quietly discussing something.

Entering the room, Kagami smiled. "What are you two talking about?"

Asuma answered without the slightest embarrassment, "Kakashi’s teaching me how to pursue Kurenai!"

Kagami gave him a teasing look. "He’s single himself. How the hell is he supposed to give you advice?"

Asuma’s face instantly darkened as realization dawned on him.

"That’s right! No wonder none of the tricks he taught me worked!"

Kakashi, unusually, put on a serious expression.

"Everything I taught Asuma came straight from a book."

Kagami curled his lips in disdain. "What book?"

Kakashi immediately reached into the ninja pouch at his waist and pulled out a small book with an orange-red cover.

Three conspicuous words were printed across the front—

Icha Icha Paradise...