The Land of Hot Water is, contrary to the name, a very quiet and forest covered land. The thing that has struck me most about coming here, more than anything else, has to be how thinly populated the countryside is. A far cry from my travels in the Land of Noodles and the Land of Tea, the people here always live close to the major hot springs bubbling up from the earth. When I asked about this, I was told that it was a result of most of the major business and activity surrounding the smaller hot spring villages. Tourists often act as the life blood of this country, and as a result, most of the nation's economy has come to be built around capitalizing on that sector.

The Village Hidden in Hotsprings, in truth, is rather lackluster. Clustered between the Land of Fire, the Land of Lightning, and the Land of Earth- this nation, much like the others bordering it, are constantly under the pressure of their much more powerful allies. It is my belief that in the coming months, as Konoha's relations with the other major villages continues to sour, that the Land of Hot Water will be one of the major battlegrounds for influence and political control. Whether such cold war tactics may transform into a hot one (forgive me for not making a Hot Water pun), I cannot say.

Continuing my personal journey across the shinobi world, I have come here after hearing report of a rather strange phenomenon: the disappearance of entire village.

'Take no Mura', the Bamboo Village, was a rather plain settlement. Built, like all other villages, around a large hot spring, its main draw were the groves of bamboo that surrounded in for miles. The story goes that the morning after a recent Spring Festival, the residents of the town woke up to find the entire village had disappeared. The buildings, the streets, the ground, and most importantly, the hotsprings, had all vanished without a trace. The people may be fine, but their home is gone. I cannot imagine such a tragic twist of fate.

I have gone of my own volition with a fellow Konoha-nin to investigate, hopefully to find the truth behind this strange tale.

Ever your faithful travelling partner,
ジョーよしひろ

Yojo had his traveler's journal tucked safely within his bag as he walked down the modest cobblestone road, led by his local guide. The young man had been nervous looking ever since they had left the Village Hidden in Hot Springs, constantly looking over his shoulder as they made their way. Whenever he managed to catch Yojo's gaze, or his partner's, he immediately looked forwards again. It seemed as though he was watching for something, constantly on alert, for what though was anyone's guess. Yojo had already used his sharingan previously to try and see any of the residual chakra that might be cloaking some sort of stealth technique, but so far as he could tell, the three of them were alone.

"W-We're almost there!" the guide said suddenly as they created a small hill. The pine trees all around them created a cloak of green and brown that made the whole area seem to blend together seamlessly. Yojo gave a small nod. He could tell by now that the young man was startled and nervous, nothing more. The Chunin looked to his partner, as if to silently gauge what they might be thinking. After a few more minutes of easy hiking, the trio reached the top of the hill.

Yojo stopped as he saw the area ahead. A dark brown splotch of land stretched across the small valley below. It was as if a massive tractor had come and torn up all the earth. There was nothing left here but dirt and memories, not a single stone or building remained- not even the grass was there still. It was as if someone had taken an eraser and gotten rid of it all overnight.

The guide paused, choking up at seeing the empty plain. Yojo looked to his partner, "What do you think?" he asked, curious to get their thoughts on the set-up.

704/704

The sun was at its apex which meant it was now time for him to move out. It had been exactly a day since the young shinobi’s ship had reached the Land of Hot springs; since then he had travelled a considerable distance on foot, but was forced to camp out when sunset had eventually caught up to him. Today he aimed to make his way towards the Bamboo Village where he intended to spend a few days simply taking in the area and indulging in its many hot springs. It wasn’t often these days that he could find himself able to explore new lands and when he would eventually reach his destination of Konohagakure and return to his duties as a shinobi, he would surely have to say goodbye to his days spent adventuring. In many ways Enlil saw this situation akin to a bachelor party. One last hurrah before the eventual lifelong commitment. Using a tree stump as a makeshift table, the young shinobi lay a compass and a map of the country. It was these exact tools that had brought him to countless of places in the past five years. Tracing a pencil along the map, he planned out the route he would need to take in order to reach the village. Luckily a straight road nearby led directly to the village itself.

Finished with his navigating, he pocketed his compass and stored the folded map inside his bag. Digging through his bag, he pulled out a container of water and brought it to his camp fire. With a firm wooden stick in one hand, he doused the remaining embers and separated the heated wood from each other. With that out of the way, he tapped his metal container. Taking a sip of water from its contents, he decided that he had might as well refill his container. Luckily, he had camped just right beside a creek. Packing everything and leaving nothing behind, he took out his compass once more and head south towards the road that would lead him to the village. Finally it was time to head out once more.

An hour passed and the young shinobi inched himself closer to the village. Carefree of any troubles he chose to simply stroll his way towards his destination. Being so close to the village, he was in no particular rush and so he would even find time to fish along bountiful looking lakes that he had come upon along the road. Eventually the iconic bamboo trees would begin to show themselves to Enlil, it was a sign that he had been going towards the right direction— not that there was ever any doubt in his proud mind. As he grew closer to his destination, so too did his excitement; it had been a few weeks since last he had cleaned himself with hot water and while he had often bathed in lakes or creeks, there was nothing quite like hot water. Of course the thing that excited him most was the prospect of finally having a soft bed to rest on; while he loved the outdoors, sleeping in bedrolls wasn't exactly a part of camping that he enjoyed.

Finally he had reached his destination… or had he? Enlil looked to his map and then back to the landscape in front of him. He double checked, then triple checked, and finally quadruple checked; each time he had come to the same conclusion, it was impossible for him to get lost. He wondered if the map he had purchased had been a dud, but aside from this one mistake it had been perfect on marking out the various bodies of water. The map couldn't have been wrong. His eyes drifted forwards, looking for any semblance of his fantasized Bamboo Village. Instead what he found was a large crater the size of a meteor and a vast emptiness. What the hell happened here? Had the village been abandoned? If so then where were the buildings? The shinobi’s mind raced, trying to piece together what had happened to his paradise. He walked to the center of the crater, looking for any piece of clue that might present itself. Through all scenarios inside his mind only one thing explained the sudden disappearances of an entire village... Ninjutsu.

721

Well shit, it looked like Yojo's partner was sharin-gone... Heh, sharingan, sharingone- he killed himself with that one.

"H-Hey. Who's that down there? Is he one of yours?" the guide asked, snapping Yojo out of his inner thoughts. The Chunin squinted his eyes as he stared along the pointing finger to the bottom of the hill where a lone figure was gesticulating wildly about. What in the what was that? "I didn't see anyone on the road. Though most people know how to get here" he explained, his voice worried a tad at the way the stranger was standing in the upturned dirt of the vanished village. He looked to Yojo with a perplexed look, obviously waiting for him to do something. The Chunin, for his part, while not necessarily confused, was still rather puzzled.

"Hang back here for 5 minutes" Yojo instructed, walking down the grassy hill towards the dirt patch that was at the center of this mystery. Already a bit of a shut-in hermit, he tried to keep up a healthy amount of skepticism as he approached. Blinking, a ring of red appeared along his eyes, his one-tomoe sharingan spinning idly. It was still bizzare for him to see chakra now like this, he was still learning to master his dojutsu as it was. The chakra running through the stranger's body was strong enough to be something close to a high-end Genin, certainly no fresh graduate from the academy. Blinking again, the male let his normal bright-brown eyes return, ideally still being too far away for his sharingan to have been seen.

When the Chunin finally got a few dozen meters away from the stranger, he'd slowly put up his hands, his swords dangling at the hip, ideally to show he wasn't trying to act as an aggressor. "I'm Yojo of the leaf. Who are you?" he asked, eyeing the male up and down. They looked perhaps only a few years younger than himself, with black hair and a muscular form. They had the build of a shinobi, that was for certain. Yojo didn't necessarily think the stranger was meant to be taken as a threat, but still kept an observant gleam to his eye, waiting to beat a hasty evasion with a genjutsu if he was wrong- and, well, seeing as how he was pretty shite with reading people in social settings, that wasn't out of the realm of possability.

Yojo slowly, silently, moved one of his hands in front to make a thumbs up in silent confidence, still looking for a Hidden Village headband on him. "What're you doing here?" he asked, calling out. He could feel the dirt squelching beneath his feet, still vaguely aware of the bamboo forest surrounding them, listening for any cues that might indicate a trap.

483/1187

Truly he was perplexed, who or what could have caused an entire village to just up and vanish? The situation was eerie in the sense that the supernatural could have been the cause of the disappearance, but he was a sceptic who only believed in facts and logic. Nonetheless he had often been told bedtime stories on situations like this and from his experience on how those stories turned out, it was often a satanic ritual or a curse that was at the root of the cause. Hopefully art wouldn’t imitate life in this situation. He wondered what had happened to the Take no Mura civilians, had they disappeared too like their once established home? And most importantly where were the damned hot springs? He would need to make way for the closest village and ask for some much needed information regarding the sudden disappearance of Take no Mura, perhaps he could have even be hired to investigate had they not already hire another. Taking a more realistic guess in his mind, he thought of ninjutsu as the primary cause of the vanishing. If he was correct in his assumptions, then destruction would have been the proper word to use.

The shinobi crouched down taking a piece of the soil in his hand. He looked for any burnt pieces of ground that would have indicated the use of raiton or katon chakra, but no clues gave to his rousing suspicions. There was of course the very possible fact that all the evidence had been simply swept away by time. For all he knew the once established Take no Mura and its hotsprings could have been a disappearance already solved, or just one that hadn’t been recent. Either way, there was no use staying at this area… he needed to ask the locals. One way or another he wanted to get to the bottom of this, if not for the people then for the hot springs.

Just then he would be alerted to the sounds of footsteps, instinctively a hand dipped down to the kunai pocket at his back. He would turn to the source of the noise and be greeted by a man with his hands held up in the air. "I'm Yojo of the leaf. Who are you?" The man asked. "What're you doing here?" ‘Not getting a hot spring bath that's for sure’. Already his eyes inspected the man, searching for any indicator that he was who he said he was. He looked at his head, his neck, and his belt those were the common areas where young shinobi often tied the forehead protector given to them upon becoming a shinobi of Konohagakure. None. He gripped down on his kunai, ready to throw it at a moment’s notice until he saw a gleam of silver on the man’s arm. It was the exact thing he had been looking for, proof that this Yojo was in fact from his hometown of Konoha. Satisfied, the young shinobi eased up and let go of his kunai. Like Yojo did, he put his hands up as a way to convey he wasn’t hostile. “I am Enlil, a shinobi of Konohagakure no sato.” He gestured his thumb to point to the bag strapped on his bag. “I have my forehead protector along with my belongings in my bag. Feel free to check.” Slowly he set his bag down to the ground and kicked it slowly towards Yojo.

582 | 1303

Ah, well, now that he knew he wasn't going to get shanked by this man Yojo felt more amicable.

The young man lowered his arms back down to his sides as the uneasy calm seemed to settle over them both. He squatted down to open up the pack, inspecting the silver head protector that was sitting there as Enlil had described. The alibi checked out. Which mean that thankfully Yojo no longer had to shoulder all this madness by himself. He stood up with the pack and held it out for the man to take, content to trust him for now. "As you can see. This village is gone" the Chunin said, looking around a tad at the large patch of dirt in an attempt to nail that point home. "I'm here on behalf of Konoha to find out why. Since my former partner got los and is likely waist deep in some remote hot spring, I'm in need of a new one. Are you up to the task?" Yojo asked. He didn't have the authority to just impress other shinobi into service, let alone something that wasn't an official mission  per se. Still, it was a genuine enough request. Hopefully Enlil would respect that.

Assuming that Enlil was willing to go along with all of this craziness, Yojo would turn and beckon for the guide at the top of the hill to come down. Seeing that the two men weren't trying to viciously murder each other, the guide scampered down in a hurry, looking the new party member up and down worriedly. "Who is he? W-Who?" the guide asked. Yojo raised a hand, both to calm them as well as threaten with a Uchiha-grade pimp slap. "He's a Konoha-nin. He's with us now. Tell him everything you told me" Yojo instructed, ideally hoping to only have to give this spiel once so that Enlil could be caught up to speed. Looking anxiously between the two men, and the tree-line of bamboo groves, the guide finally started his tale:

"It was the night of the Spring Festival. Winter was coming to a close and the seasons were getting warmer. After a good winter of tourists flocking to our hot springs, the locals were going to celebrate the great fortune and give thanks to the ancestors. There was fireworks, dancing, and drinking... so, so much drinking" the guide said, looking to Enlil as his intended audience. "When I woke up the next morning, the entire village had disappeared! The people were all fine, laying on the dirt and all that, but the buildings- the hot springs, they were all gone!" they continued, rubbing their hands together anxiously. Yojo waited patiently, but wanted to keep things moving along instead of letting his companion pause every three sentences or so that he spoke.

"While we were walking to the next town over for food and shelter, I heard stories about a stranger having been seen during the night of the Spring Festival. They had blue hair and wore black, but wore a shinobi head protector. However, each said there was a different sigil that they saw! One said that it was a Kumogakure-nin, another that it was an exiled Suna-nin, a third that it was an Iwa-nin, and a fourth that it was a Konoha-nin. T-That's all we know, I swear!" the guide said, looking between the two shinobi. Perhaps the most concerning thing of all to Yojo was the last bullet point, that a Leaf shinobi could be responsible for such a bizzare and tragic feat. It was partly why he was so keen to get to the bottom of all this.

"Congrats, you're up to speed. Welcome to square one" Yojo announced, looking briefly back to Enlil before drifting a few meters away to survey the area. "What do you think? It has to be a jutsu of some kind- but I likely won't be able to read any chakra residue to pick up a trail. So, it's time to brainstorm" Yojo asked, humming in thought before falling silent to let the other Leaf-nin cut in.

707/1894

With the younger shinobi’s words and actions it looked as though he had managed to successfully defuse the situation. The chunin began lowering his arms as if satisfied with the answer he received and the younger shinobi followed doing the same. Just as Enlil had suggested, the man began to search his belongings for the forehead protector bearing the Hidden Leaf’s insignia that would prove his identity. It took some time as the chunin would have had to skim through all the piles of tightly compressed items, but eventually the iconic silver icon showed itself. With that out of the way the tensioned seemed to die down quickly, and now all that was left was to solve the mysterious disappearance of Take no Mura. The young man walked up to the older shinobi, taking back his bag into his hands and strapping it over his right shoulder. “As you can see. This village is gone.” The chunin would say, turning his eyes towards the horizon as if to emphasize his point. Going along with the man, Enlil did the same even squinting along as he looked at the dirt. “I hadn’t noticed.” The young shinobi said sarcastically, and then gestured for the man to continue with what he had intended to say. "I'm here on behalf of Konoha to find out why. Since my former partner got lost and is likely waist deep in some remote hot spring, I'm in need of a new one. Are you up to the task?" Without a moment’s hesitation he nodded his head. “Count me in.” He said,. Enlil had as much motivation as any man to see the Bamboo Village restored to what it once was, it was the stubborn gene within him that refused to have come all this way for naught and if it meant having to restore the village brick by brick he would see it done.

A jittery man cautiously descended from a hill, called down by the chunin. Enlil wondered if the adult was supposed to have been back up had things escalated into a brawl, but simply based on the man’s gait it was made clear that he was no shinobi. "Who is he? W-Who?" The worried adult asked, likely intimidated or panicked by the presence of the genin. The Hatake sighed with a hint of annoyance. That made twice for this day that someone had presumed he had something to do with the incident surround Take no Mura. Nevertheless he answered politely. “I am Enlil Hatake, and I mean no harm.” He would say, looking at his newly met companion for some much needed vouching. "He's a Konoha-nin. He's with us now. Tell him everything you told me." The older shinobi would say, alleviating some the adult’s suspicion. From the chunin’s words, Enlil had managed to gather that the paranoid adult was a local that definitely had some much needed information regarding the incident.

The man though, as if still unsure, began alternating his eyes to look at the two shinobi. “Let’s here it then.” The young shinobi said, slowly growing impatient. The adult’s attention snapped towards the Hatake and reluctantly he began.


"It was the night of the Spring Festival. Winter was coming to a close and the seasons were getting warmer. After a good winter of tourists flocking to our hot springs, the locals were going to celebrate the great fortune and give thanks to the ancestors. There was fireworks, dancing, and drinking... so, so much drinking. When I woke up the next morning, the entire village had disappeared! The people were all fine, laying on the dirt and all that, but the buildings- the hot springs, they were all gone! While we were walking to the next town over for food and shelter, I heard stories about a stranger having been seen during the night of the Spring Festival. They had blue hair and wore black, but wore a shinobi head protector. However, each said there was a different sigil that they saw! One said that it was a Kumogakure-nin, another that it was an exiled Suna-nin, a third that it was an Iwa-nin, and a fourth that it was a Konoha-nin. T-That's all we know, I swear!”

The Hatake stroked his chin, deep in thought upon hearing the adult’s take on what had happened. Naturally gaining new information had only brought about more questions to pop up in his head, but at least a few of his self inquiries had been solved. Most importantly, the villagers were safe and the fact that they survived eliminated the possibility of a high level shinobi simply deciding to disintegrate the entire area and its citizens. It turned out to be a more complicated situation than he had earlier assumed however. Nonetheless, he had no intentions of backing out. "Congrats, you're up to speed. Welcome to square one." His companion said, summarizing precisely how he felt at that moment. Back to square one. "What do you think? It has to be a jutsu of some kind- but I likely won't be able to read any chakra residue to pick up a trail. So, it's time to brainstorm." Enlil’s eyes would drift away to the surrounding area and like all the other times his brown eyes scanned the area, there was nothing more than meets the eye but more dirt. Enlil was no sensory ninja which made him rely solely on his naked pupils when it came to searching for any clues, but based from the way his companion spoke the older shinobi had some way of sensing or seeing chakra though had still come up short.

It seemed as though there wasn’t much to go on as far as investigating the empty ruins of the village were concerned. They needed to look elsewhere, and luckily they had a few places to go, four to be exact. Turning to his partner, he began to speak. “I think it would be best if we returned to where the other villagers were. I doubt we’d manage to find anything we don’t already know if we remain here to search for clues.” Now his piercing eyes turned to the adult that had more to know than either of the konoha boys. “You mentioned that there were four individuals that saw someone, correct? I’d like for you to take us to each of them… since we’re both from Konoha let’s start with the one that claims they saw the Hidden Leaf symbol on the stranger’s forehead protector.” He was grasping for straws, but there wasn’t any other route to take. He wondered though how reliable the memories of  a bunch of drunk adults were. “Y-Yes sir.” The adult would say, still intimidated by the fifteen year old’s presence.

“T-T-This way.” The man guided, gesturing for the two to walk up the hill and follow. “Now,” The Hatake said, walking beside his partner in order to continue their discussion. “I think there are two ways we could do this. First, we could split up and interview two of the villagers each and save time, or second, we could question each individual together and likely have two perspectives on each person’s take. The choice is yours.” He said, eyes looking forward so as not to lose sight of their guide.

1256 | 2559

Yojo thought for a moment as Enlil put in his two cents. Though, at hearing the suggestion to return to the nearby village where most of the Bamboo refugees were being sheltered, the guide burst into a sudden fit of disbelief. "W-WHAT? We just go here and you want me to take you both back?" he asked, looking between the two Leaf shinobi as if his reservations might be enough to sway one of them into talking the other out of it. Yojo, for his part, warmed to the idea and gave a small nod of agreement to his newfound ally. "He's right. We're not going to find anything out here... Except for perhaps..." the Chunin thought aloud before kneeling to the ground and staring at the clumps of dirt the three of them were standing on. Pausing for a moment, the familiar feeling of his sharingan being activated came to him. Finally, there was some small clue for them to work with.

"There we are..." he said aloud, seeing a light blue haze clinging to some of the rocks. "I can see some chakra here. It's not enough to track our suspect- but I might be able to identify them since their chakra signature should match the residue they left here... Whoever did this though will be strong, they made an entire village disappear after all" Yojo said, getting up onto his knees and then to his feet. He blinked a few times to coax his sharingan to subside, it still felt weird for him to be calling it forth and dispelling it. It constnatly felt like there was something in his eye making it water up, it felt trippy.

He looked over to the guide that had once again been put in the spotlight for all of this. He'd finally calmed down a tad, as well as been intimidated into complying by Enlil. He gave a small nod in resignation before speaking again. "Well, if you say so. Much of it is rumor and hearsay, but I'll bring you to those who I know I can trust!" he said, trying to find some small task that he could take ownership of instead of remain helpless. Yojo nodded, watching as the guide turned back towards the hill path that led into the countryside, away from the clearing. They'd have an awful long walk ahead of them, but if there were answers at the end of it, hopefully it'd make it worth it all.

Yojo saw Enlil come up besides them as they followed their guide along the forested path back to town. His suggestion, and question, were both solid ones. Should they split up, or should they double team each person. "If we split up, we risk being taken unawares if something should go wrong. Though, if there is foul play afoot, the culprit may attempt to flee once they see us talking with the victims" he thought. Of course, there were a lot of variables within all of that too, and a lot of presumptions. After a moment of thinking the Chunin made up his mind. "We'll split up. I'll trade speed for security. I trust you can take care of yourself in case things go sideways?" he asked, not knowing much of anything about his newfound teammate. He was a shinobi of the Hidden Leaf, that was all that he'd gathered by now.

Regardless, the two would walk down the dirt path, brainstorming about the possible scenario's they might encounter...

---

A young woman hummed as she sat in the corner of a dark and cramped room, a blanket held over her torso to keep her warm. The nights in this country were harsh, likely why the locals were so fond of their hotsprings. She gently brushed her white hair from her red eyes, looking across the warehouse-turned-shelter at an empty cot. Where was her partner? God, was he still hungry after all he'd eaten?

The albino frowned a tad, wondering where her partner had gone. Sighing, she opted to not think on it too hard, instead peering under her blanket to look at the small object in her hand. It looked something like a snowglobe, only without the cliche snowflakes, and with a brackish embalming fluid keeping the contents in place.

Inside the crystal sphere was a model of a small village surrounded by bamboo, trapped in an eternal nighttime festival that never ended. It looked pretty. She'd probably get a good fee if she sold it to some rich jerkwad.

The long-distance radio in her pack hummed expectantly. She frowned again, picking it up and holding it to her ear, well out of earshot of the other refugees. "What? i'm busy" she said, still looking at the miniature village. She froze up at the voice of her employer, his wheezing and pained breaths coming through over the radio's receiver.

"Do you have it?" he asked slowly.

"Y-Yeah, I do. I've got it with me here. As soon as night falls, Wakai and I will slip out of here. Things have finally quieted down enough to get out of here without being noticed... You got the money?" she asked, though she mentally kicked herself for asking that to him of all people.

The wheezing voice didn't respond, instead hanging up without nary another word.

"Pfft, douchebag" she swore, looking back down at the sphere in her palm.

It was crazy how much people were willing to pay for the most innocuous shit like this. Their employer certainly had the money to be going and hiring her and her partner, but she never quite got how they were willing to just shill out money for all of this crap. Was it sentimentality? She couldn't tell.

She hummed in thought, slipping the snowing ball back into her bag and pulling her hood up over her head. At least this whole thing would be over soon. She was looking forward to being able to vacation in whatever minor nation she wanted. Hell, maybe she'd find some small shack on the outskirts of the Leaf Village just to have the luxury of home. Maybe she'd convince her partner to just settle down already and pop her the question instead of being such a tease. Such were the lists of things she had given herself. They were the silly lists that she loved to think on when times got quiet like this. Hopefully everything would go smoothly as usual, and the locals would be none the wiser for their disappearance. Who the hell would send out shinobi to check up on some backwater town, anyways? They'd be home free soon.

"Hmm, still, it's like they say: big things come in small packages"



1147/3041

Total WC: 3041

• Training B-rank Jutsu, 'Death Wind: Doldrums': 1500/1500
  
• Training B-rank Jutsu, 'Wind Release: Dancing in Wind': 1500/1500
  

The three contemplated on their next move and it seemed as if they had universally decided that they would all return to the village, though the guide that had come along with Yojo didn’t seem too keen on the idea of walking all the way back with having just recently arrived, Enlil didn’t see him as someone with a choice on the matter though. "W-WHAT? We just go here and you want me to take you both back?" Immediately the Hatake shot the man with a look of discontent, freezing the guide dead in his words. Frankly, once they had arrived at the village then it would be time for a bit of distance against the civilian, if the worst comes to the worst then there wouldn’t be any place for those that aren’t able to defend themselves. Now that the guide was out of the way it seemed as if they were ready to depart, yet Yojo slowed down seemingly in deep thought. "He's right. We're not going to find anything out here... Except for perhaps..." The chunin lowered himself towards a crouched position, seemingly searching for something that the two had overlooked. His pupils changed in form, spinning a few times and then settling to a reddish hue with black markings. Enlil couldn’t mistake those eyes anywhere, they were that of the famed Uchiha clan whose copy wheel eye once shook the world with fear. He thought back to the moment of their meeting and how he looked the man straight in the eye, a dangerous action against one with the ability to entrap him in a prison of illusions simply from eye contact. He wrote a mental note within his head to not so easily make eye contact with strangers next time.

The Hatake waited with bated breath for his Uchiha companion to speak of his findings. Yojo looked towards a specific patch of rocks that seemed to have some significant purpose. "There we are..." The Uchiha said aloud, locking in the attention of both Enlil and the guide. "I can see some chakra here. It's not enough to track our suspect- but I might be able to identify them since their chakra signature should match the residue they left here... Whoever did this though will be strong, they made an entire village disappear after all" The genin nodded along with the Uchiha’s words, it was something that he had already assumed long before he agreed to help along with the village’s disappearance. What was new however was the fact that Yojo had managed to identify the suspect’s chakra signature, at least now they could say that it wasn’t a complete waste of time to investigate all the way here. This changed everything, now they would have a strong basis for figuring out the suspect.

His brown eyes moved towards the guide, still holding a lock on the man’s fear. “You here that? Our job here is done, escort us back to your village.” He said, now satisfied with the way the investigation turned out. "Well, if you say so. Much of it is rumor and hearsay, but I'll bring you to those who I know I can trust!" The man shuddered, shaking as he struggled to maintain whatever stubborn pride he had left. Now the man walked ahead, and the two shinobi followed suit. As the two hidden leaf shinobi walked, Yojo and Enlil made conversation on their way back to the village. At first Enlil spoke, seeking to plan out their course of action upon arriving at the village. Time was of the utmost importance, yet they would be risking a few things if they decided to split up, so he left the choice to the older shinobi. "If we split up, we risk being taken unawares if something should go wrong. Though, if there is foul play afoot, the culprit may attempt to flee once they see us talking with the victims. We'll split up. I'll trade speed for security. I trust you can take care of yourself in case things go sideways?” In response, the Hatake nodded to his companion with a faint hint of a smirk. Things were beginning to heat up.


-Exit-

717 | 3276

Training: