Chapter 46 Coincidence
"The leader of the Takumi Village was kidnapped by the people of the Four Celestial Symbols Men Workshop and taken to another place?"
This was the first possibility that Kaito thought of, but after hearing this, Ao's expression became a little weirder.
"No, his house was very clean. There was only a letter left on the table to a man named Hoki. He said he knew his purpose and would not get involved. He took his wife and children to visit friends in Daimyo Prefecture."
The three little ones looked at each other.
Kaito finally understood why Ao had such a strange expression.
The leader of this Takumi Village might have run away with his family, and even left everyone in the village behind and ran away alone.
Ao raised his voice slightly to attract the attention of the three people again, and continued speaking.
"The matter of the Takumi Village has nothing to do with us. We just need to find evidence of smuggling."
"Ao-sensei, how about we sneak in again tonight and find the evidence directly?"
"This..." When asked by Zabuza, Ao's face turned slightly red with embarrassment.
Seeing this, Kaito quickly pulled Zabuza.
Given the alert state of the Four Celestial Symbols Men after being eavesdropped, Kaito estimated that it would be no problem for Ao to break in directly. However, sneaking in to steal was a bit difficult for these guys in the Naruto world who were called ninjas but were actually mages.
Besides, although the location of Four Celestial Symbols Men Workshop is remote, it is still within the Takumi Village, so it is not advisable for the few of them to make too much noise.
Ao didn't explain much, just looked at the sky which was already getting brighter.
"The other party has been alerted tonight, so it's not easy to sneak in. Tomorrow during the day, Mei and I will pay a visit in the name of doing business, while you and Zabuza will find an opportunity to sneak into the workshop from other directions."
The three of them looked at Kaito who didn't say anything.
"Um, what I want to say is, then we are just going to ignore Shimotsuki-san? Protecting him is our mission, right?"
"Don't worry, since this is a door-to-door transaction, Shimotsuki-san will naturally come with me."
Well, this is the confidence of the great ninja village jōnin in his own strength. Even a young jōnin like Ao doesn't think anyone in the Takumi village can beat him in a head-on confrontation.
It is naturally safest to keep the target of protection close to you.
Now that the plan had been finalized, everyone went back to their rooms to rest.
Considering that it would be a bit inconvenient to go to the door to trade so early in the morning, the few of them did not get much rest last night.
It was not until almost noon that Ao called Shimotsuki Ichiro to go out to Four Celestial Symbols Men Workshop together.
Seeing Ao bringing Terumi Mei and Shimotsuki Ichiro to visit, Kaito and Zabuza quietly went around to the back door of the workshop courtyard.
But before the two of them got close, they saw the middle-aged woman named Kujaku sneaking out from behind carrying a strange box that looked like a mummy's coffin.
This sudden situation caught the two of them off guard. Zabuza was too lazy to think and just looked at Kaito, waiting for him to make a decision.
After a moment of hesitation, Kaito still felt that he needed to follow and take a look, so he quickly wrote a note and handed it to Blue, asking it to go to the main gate to find a chance to inform Ao-sensei. He and Zabuza then quietly followed Kujaku.
Looking at Kujaku in front of him carrying a box and walking into the forest, Kaito felt relieved.
The other party came to such a remote place alone. If we can find an opportunity to capture her quietly, wouldn't it be more convenient than looking for some account book?
Soon the two of them who had been following her saw that they were far enough away from the Takumi Village and were about to attack her directly, but then they saw Kujaku stopped in front of a building.
Even though it is so far away from the Takumi Village, there is a strange building that looks like a temple and also a bit like an altar.
"Hoki, I have caught him."
As Kujaku finished speaking, the thin young man from last night actually walked out of this strange building.
"Are we still going up?"
Zabuza, who was squatting on a tree, was eager to ask Kaito, but even though he was asking, Zabuza had already slowly drawn the short sword from behind.
Kaito was a little hesitant. Although the 'Four Celestial Symbols Men' were somewhat funny and weak villains in the original novel, he and Zabuza are not very strong now.
If there was only one person, it would be no problem to take it down by surprise. But now it's two against two, so he is a little unsure. He doesn't know whether he should wait for Ao to come before taking action.
While Kaito was hesitating, Kujaku had already untied the box behind her and pulled out a black-haired boy who was in a coma from the box.
Looking at the slightly silly windproof glasses on the black-haired boy's face, who else could it be but Uchiha Obito?
"How did this guy get caught here?"
The sudden situation left the two people in the dark a little confused.
The two of them had previously thought that the Konohagakure team had already left the Takumi Village, and their team also had a senior ninja like Minato Namikaze, so how could they be captured here?
They naturally didn't know that because of the incident last night, Hoki and Kujaku suspected that it was the Minato team who were secretly investigating them.
What's even more coincidental is that Namikaze Minato had been planning to take advantage of the mission to complete and accompany his students to the less dangerous Takumi Village to broaden their horizons, but he was suddenly summoned by the Hokage and used the Flying Thunder God Jutsu to quickly return to Konohagakure Village.
Of the three people who stayed behind, Uchiha Obito was unhappy with Kakashi being the temporary team captain, so he ran out to wander around alone. He was caught by Kujaku who wanted to find out the information about Team Minato.
While Kaito was still sorting out his thoughts, a new development occurred below.
A brilliant white blade light cut through the air and slashed towards the arm of Kujaku that was holding Uchiha Obito with incredible swiftness.
However, Hoki, who was standing opposite Kujaku, discovered the attack first. He drew out the black sword behind him and swung his hand to cut out a ray of flame to force back the attacker.
The person who came was naturally Hatake Kakashi, who had discovered that his stupid teammate was missing and came to rescue him.
After Kakashi stood still, he held the short sword in his backhand and looked warily at the two people wearing the forehead protectors of the Takumi Village, and spoke slowly.
"Ninja from the Takumi Village, why did you kidnap my companions?"
"Oh, another little devil."
Hoki obviously did not answer Kakashi's question. He just flashed forward and prepared to take down the opponent. In an instant, the two of them started fighting.
Kaito and Zabuza in the dark looked at each other in bewilderment. They did not expect the plot to develop in such an unexpected way.
When he saw that the kidnapped person was Uchiha Obito, Kaito was still thinking that it would be nice if this guy, who would bring disaster to the Kirigakure Village and even the entire ninja world in the future, could die here.
However, when he thinks about it, everything Uchiha Obito did was ultimately guided by Uchiha Madara.
Even if Uchiha Obito is gone, there will still be Uchiha Madara, but this cannot solve the fundamental problem. Instead, it will make oneself lose foresight.
So when he saw Kakashi rushing out, Kaito also decided to take action decisively.
"Zabuza, get ready. Don't worry about Konoha's guys, we just need to capture one alive."
After saying this, he didn't care about Zabuza who was already grinning, and he just bit his finger and formed seals with both hands to summon Blue.
The tracking lasted for such a long time, long enough for Blue to deliver the note to Ao. And seeing Blue being taken away by the Summoning, Ao must have guessed that a battle had taken place on their side.
The jōnin support will be here soon, there is no need to hesitate any more.