Chapter 90: Warning and Suspension

Chapter 90: Chapter 90: Warning and Suspension

The Kusagakure jōnin Ryūran accepted the remaining payment for the commission. After having Hyuga Kagami sign the mission document, he left with the other Kusa ninja and the guide they had hired.

Throughout the entire process, he didn’t say a single unnecessary word. He seemed completely uninterested in Kagami’s search for the remnants of Roran.

In truth, over the course of their month together, Ryūran, being a jōnin himself, had long since realized that Hyuga Kagami—who was traveling under the alias "Mr. Ki"—was a ninja.

After all, if an ordinary person spent an entire month trekking through the desert, no matter how physically fit they were, they would inevitably become mentally exhausted. Yet Kagami, just like the Kusa ninja, hadn’t shown the slightest sign of fatigue.

That alone was enough to prove that Kagami knew how to use chakra.

And as a ninja from a small shinobi village, Ryūran had seen all kinds of strange commissions.

He had even received commissions from ninja of the Five Great Shinobi Villages to assassinate fellow ninja from their own villages. Because of that, he had long since learned one simple truth:

The less you knew about things that had nothing to do with you, the better.

Kagami was quite satisfied with the Kusa ninja’s discretion.

If they had insisted on getting to the bottom of the commission, or shown any sign of investigating why Kagami was searching for the remnants of Roran, then Kagami would have had no choice but to silence them permanently.

After sending the Kusa ninja on their way, Hyuga Kagami remained concealed atop a sand dune and carefully observed the remnants of Roran in the distant oasis.

Before long, his gaze settled on a red-haired woman.

She looked to be around twenty years old and was holding an infant in her arms, her face filled with worry.

Kagami muttered uncertainly to himself, "Is that her?"

From what he remembered, the last Queen of Roran had been four or five years older than Kakashi when she traveled alongside the Fourth Hokage.

Kagami had graduated in the same class as Kakashi, which meant that the last Queen of Roran should also be four or five years older than him—putting her at roughly twenty years old now.

The age matched, and so did the hair color. Among the group of two or three hundred people, she was the only one who fit the description.

Thus, Kagami finally concluded that the woman holding the infant was indeed the last Queen of Roran.

"What a miserable state they’ve fallen into..."

After sighing with emotion, Kagami took out a scroll and summoned the Third Kazekage human puppet.

Now was not yet the time to make contact with the Queen of Loulan.

If anything happened to the Dragon Vein while he was away on his journey, the village would very likely suspect him.

Therefore, this two-month journey was merely the preliminary stage of his preparations, and it had two objectives.

The first was to determine exactly what kind of sealing technique the Fourth Hokage had used on the Dragon Vein.

The second was to confirm the Queen of Roran’s exact location.

Now that both objectives had been accomplished, all Kagami needed to do was leave the Third Kazekage human puppet behind and have it secretly follow the caravan of Roran survivors. That way, he could keep track of the Queen of Raran’s whereabouts at all times.

As for Kagami himself, he could openly return to the village and clear himself of any suspicion. After that, he could find another way to secretly slip out of the village and quietly steal away the Dragon Vein without anyone noticing.

Poof...

Suddenly, a cloud of smoke billowed out.

When the white smoke dispersed, the lazy figure of the one-eyed viper appeared.

Kagami froze for a moment.

The only person who could summon a snake to deliver messages to him was Orochimaru, and Orochimaru hadn’t contacted him in quite some time. So this sudden message came as a considerable surprise.

Kagami took the scroll from the one-eyed viper’s mouth and unfurled it. The moment he read its contents, his expression darkened.

"That bastard just won’t leave me alone!"

There wasn’t much written on the scroll. It was simply a warning.

Orochimaru informed him that Sasori had already discovered his whereabouts and was currently heading toward the Land of Wind.

Over the past several days, Kagami had encountered all sorts of people while searching for the remnants of Roran. There was no telling whether one of them had seen through his disguise.

But none of that mattered anymore.

He had already accomplished his objectives, so there was no longer any reason for him to remain in the Land of Wind.

After thinking for a moment, Hyuga Kagami took out a scroll and handed it to the one-eyed viper.

Recorded within the scroll was information Kagami had gathered on ANBU members during his day-to-day activities. It even included information on the several ANBU squads that had been killed during the conflict with Kumogakure.

Back when Kagami had traded with Orochimaru for the artificial tailed beast scroll, one of Orochimaru’s two conditions had been that Kagami use the advantage of his Byakugan to gather information on ANBU members.

So much time had passed that Kagami figured he owed Orochimaru something to show for it.

Besides, Orochimaru’s warning this time had saved him from a major headache.

He had to repay that favor.

Konoha, Hokage’s Office.

The Third Hokage stood with his hands clasped behind his back, gazing out the window at the village below.

Danzo sat off to one side, leaning on his cane in silence.

The three members of Team 11 other than Hyuga Kagami stood in a row before the Hokage’s desk, each looking somewhat uneasy.

After a long silence, the Third Hokage turned around and asked the three members of Team 11, "Have you all finished reading it?"

Kakashi and the other two nodded.

The Third Hokage asked, "What do you think? Could Hyuga Kagami have been the one who did this?"

Guy was the first to step forward.

"Lord Hokage, Kagami would never attack a comrade from the same village!"

Kakashi placed the photograph of Dingyou’s corpse and the related documents back on the Hokage’s desk.

"I believe Kagami too."

Whenever Kakashi thought about how Kagami had led the team back into the valley to rescue him, facing hundreds of Kumogakure ninja, or how Kagami had desperately fought against Kumogakure’s Two-Tails jinchūriki in the Land of Hot Water for the sake of the village, he simply couldn’t believe that Kagami would betray Konoha.

Even if the Root ninja in the photograph really had been killed by Kagami, then in Kakashi’s eyes, the man had probably deserved it.

The moment Shisui saw the iron sand particles mentioned in the report, he guessed that the Root ninja had almost certainly been killed by Kagami.

After all, he had personally witnessed Kagami controlling the Third Kazekage human puppet.

However, Shisui had already promised Kagami that, when it came to matters involving Danzo, no matter what Kagami did, he would keep it secret.

So he said nothing more to the Third Hokage.

"Hmph!"

Danzo, seated off to the side, let out a cold snort, openly expressing his displeasure.

The Third Hokage sighed.

"Dingyou’s death is, to some extent, Hyuga Kagami’s responsibility. Therefore, I hereby suspend him from his position in the ANBU."

Kakashi said calmly, "Lord Hokage, Hyuga Kagami is a member of my team. If he’s responsible for this, then as his captain, shouldn’t I bear some responsibility as well?"

Danzo said coldly, "Your Team 11 already concealed the truth once before. Now, a member of Team 11 is suspected of assassinating a fellow Konoha ninja. I recommend suspending every member of Team 11 from the ANBU."

In order to placate Danzo, the Third Hokage nodded.

"All members of Team 11 are hereby suspended from their ANBU positions."

In the Third Hokage’s view, this was merely a temporary suspension. Their positions could be restored at any time once some time had passed.

There was no need to get into an argument with Danzo over such a minor matter when the man had just lost one of his subordinates...