Witty Naruto Life

Chapter 74: Are we going to hunt for Qingquan? (4000 words)
On the morning of July 7th, somewhere near the outskirts of Konoha Village.

A woman with long purple hair, wearing silver armor and a mask roams around here. She stands on a high place, staring quietly at the scattered low buildings in front of her, her eyes behind the mask full of seriousness.

Suddenly, she grabbed the sword behind her with one hand and turned her face to the side. She saw several people wearing animal masks staring at her silently.

The man in the middle was wearing a raccoon mask. He spoke softly, "You shouldn't be here."

He seemed to be just talking about a trivial matter, but the people around him had serious expressions. They took out their weapons from their pockets and pointed them at the purple-haired woman in front of them.

Uzuki Yugao didn't show any surprise, but simply responded calmly, "Isn't it just one of the entrances to the Root? If you really haven't done anything shady, why are you hiding it?"

"It's really you..." The raccoon mask nodded, revealing a hint of "as expected" in his tone: "A few days ago, I was wondering why the Anbu suddenly started investigating our Root's past. It turns out that you were the one behind all this!"

"Can't we talk calmly? Why do we have to make things so unpleasant?" The raccoon mask's tone became increasingly harsh, expressing dissatisfaction with Xiyan's "usurpation".

Xi Yan took a deep breath and said slowly: "In that case, tell me, is Yue Guang Ji Feng's death related to you?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"What about Orochimaru? He had no involvement in this at all?"

As soon as these words were spoken, the air fell into a strange silence. The raccoon mask tilted its head and finally sneered:
"Is this how the Third Master educates his subordinates? How dare you put such a huge blame on us!"

His whole body suddenly revealed violent chakra fluctuations, causing his black robe to flutter in the wind, which was quite terrifying.

"If you are innocent, why don't you dare let me in? Is there something hidden from your roots?"

"Ridiculous! Do we have to prove our innocence if someone doubts us?"

A dark figure beside the raccoon mask also said: "We are the guardians in the darkness. The purpose of our existence is to protect the peace of Konoha. For this, we do not need to prove our innocence to anyone."

"Go back before we do anything to you!"

Xiyan gritted her teeth and finally did not choose to force her way in. Instead, she turned around and went straight to the Hokage Building.

Since she was not allowed to investigate, she was going to make a big deal out of this matter.

No one can stop her from investigating the truth behind her lover's death.

……

On the afternoon of June 7th.

Somewhere on a cliff at the border of Konoha.

This is where Sasuke and Kakashi practiced before. There are many pits here with charred marks, which are the scorch marks left by Sasuke using Chidori.

Uchiha Sasuke sat there calmly, glancing towards the cliff from time to time, as if waiting for someone to arrive.

Another moment passed.

A man in a black robe and an animal mask jumped up from the cliff and walked slowly towards Sasuke.

"Uchiha Sasuke, the sole survivor of the Uchiha clan, is an active Genin of Team 7. His instructor is the Copy Ninja Hatake Kakashi, and he recently opened his second Magatama Sharingan."

Every time he took a step forward, he would say a few words, reciting Sasuke's resume like naming a dish.

Sasuke opened his eyes, not seeming surprised by the man's arrival.

He stood up and calmly said to the man, "You can add another achievement to your resume later: killing an elite Sand Ninja during the Chunin Exams."

After hearing this, the man laughed in anger, and one hand reached into his black robe, as if grasping the hilt of the knife at his waist.

He said word by word, "Give me a reason to approach the Sand Ninja."

In just these two days, this young man from Uchiha repeatedly provoked three Sand Ninjas including Gaara. Among them, Comrade Gaara said that the blood of this Konoha ninja smelled extremely delicious and should taste very palatable.

It is connected with the original plot.

This scene was noticed by the Anbu who was patrolling Konoha Village. He first found Sasuke alone and threatened him, but then found that the young man didn't seem to take what he said seriously at all and continued to do his own thing.

So this scene happened.

Sasuke didn't reply to the ANBU immediately. Instead, he recalled what Naruto had told him. After preparing his thoughts, he said calmly, "Is this the ANBU's ability to detect attacks?"

The man was a little confused. He didn't say anything, but gave Sasuke a look that said, "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Hmph," Sasuke snorted coldly and continued, "The Sand Ninja keep saying they are close allies with Konoha, but what do they do? Bringing dangerous Jinchuriki to Konoha to take the exam, is this the sincerity of the Sand Ninja?"

The man's heart trembled. This was obviously a very serious accusation, but he still did not respond. Instead, he asked abruptly: "I remember that the Uchiha clan and the Sand Shinobi have no feud, right?"

After hearing this, Sasuke shook his head and looked at the man with a hint of disappointment in his eyes.

"Are your views on Uchiha so narrow-minded? I'm discussing the safety of Konoha with you, but you're arguing with me about family feuds."

"Is this the level of Konoha's Anbu?"

This heartbreaking remark somewhat irritated the man. He took a deep breath and said to Sasuke in a deep voice, "What about the evidence? What makes you think the Sand Shinobi will harm Konoha?"

"During the Chunin Exams, that guy named Gaara said he wanted to kill everyone. Also, they stayed indoors during that time, locked themselves in their rooms for a long time. Are they sure they're not plotting something important?"

The man frowned. These evidences were obviously not enough to "convict" the Sand Ninja. Why did he dare to speak so arrogantly?

Sasuke saw the man's disbelief and said, "It's easy to verify what I said. Go ask the Sand Ninja's instructor, the guy named Maki. Ask him if Gaara is a Jinchūriki and whether he said he would kill everyone."

"If there's no conspiracy, I'm sure that Maki would be very angry, but if he doesn't, it just proves that the Sand Ninja is guilty!"

In fact, even Sasuke himself didn't understand why Naruto said this. After all, they had never met Gaara, so how could they be sure that he had made these reactionary remarks?

But it just so happened that Naruto had read the original novel and was very familiar with Gaara's character. If he were to ask Maki about this, he would probably believe it because that was the kind of person Gaara was in his eyes.

As long as he showed the slightest sign of guilt, the Anbu would become suspicious and report it to Sarutobi Hiruzen.

After hearing this, the man fell into hesitation. He was shocked by Sasuke's bluntness and confused about his motives.

The interesting point here is that Sasuke has no conflict of interest with the Sand Shinobi, which makes his position more neutral and convincing.

The man said nothing, but walked away from Sasuke and headed towards the Sand Ninja.

He had to confirm the facts with the Sand Ninja first. This matter was of great importance and could not be taken lightly.

……

The evening of April 7.

Hongdou kept looking through past information in the archives department. She could feel pain in her shoulder from time to time, which meant that Orochimaru was not far away, but was active nearby.

"In the 58th year of Konoha, the Uchiha clan was brutally exterminated, and their bodies were recovered by the Konoha Anbu..."

"The Root is responsible for monitoring the Uchiha clan's movements. The results of this monitoring indicate that the Uchiha clan is increasingly dissatisfied with Konoha's policies..."

"Shimura Danzo ordered the Root to clean up the Uchiha clan's territory... So, the so-called Anbu is actually Danzo's Root..."

This is a secret past that Hongdou accidentally discovered when she was looking up the relationship between Danzo and Orochimaru.

This information may not seem unusual at first glance, but piecing together the information from this period reveals that Danzo's roots were very active during the Uchiha extermination, even participating in the final cleanup.

The most valuable treasure of the Uchiha clan is undoubtedly the Uchiha clan's Sharingan...

The question is, these files do not record the whereabouts of the Sharingan. It is impossible that they were all taken away by Uchiha Itachi, right?

There were no additional clues here, so Hongdou opened another file.

"Orochimaru conducted a large number of unknown human experiments during his time in Konoha. These experiments required a lot of manpower and material resources to maintain..." "Orochimaru needs to steal the baby without attracting anyone's attention. He can't do it alone. He needs an insider to work with him..."

"Hmm?" Hongdou discovered that this part of the file was obviously missing.

She rubbed her tired eyes, closed them, and kept calculating in her mind while feeling the slight pain in her shoulder.

"Naruto asked me to check Danzo and Orochimaru. Why did he put Danzo and Orochimaru together?"

"Orochimaru...experiment...Sharingan..."

suddenly,

Hongdou opened her eyes and felt an unprecedented sense of absurdity in her heart.

"No way……"

She took out the materials again and sorted them in chronological order.

A long time passed.

"This evidence isn't conclusive, but if shown to the Hokage, it might become a powerful weapon for him to attack Danzo!"

Naruto has been trying to get Red Bean to find evidence that Danzo and Orochimaru are in cahoots.

In fact, this is indeed the case. For example, after the Uchiha clan was exterminated, Danzo recovered a large number of Sharingan and used Orochimaru's technology to transplant them into himself.

However, the evidence that could prove the case has either been hidden or destroyed. Only when these seemingly unrelated materials are combined together can they have some effect of catching some shadows.

However, in some cases, this information can become deadly.

But one thing is certain, that is, Orochimaru did not leave Konoha, and Red Bean can provide direct proof of this.

In order to prevent Orochimaru from doing anything bad to Konoha, Red Bean thought about it and decided to submit the sorted information to Sarutobi Hiruzen.

……

July 7th, Hokage Building.

Today, Sarutobi Hiruzen's office was particularly busy, with Anbu members constantly coming in and out of his office.

He first let Mao Yue Xigao into the office.

"...That's the thing. I suspect that Gekko Hayate's death is related to the Root. He was caught up in the internal struggle within Konoha and became a victim."

Xiyan did not mention Danzo directly. After all, before the evidence was conclusive, she could not easily bear the anger of this powerful figure.

Hiruzen was silent for a long time, then slowly said, "Besides your suspicions, is there any more solid written evidence?"

“…Sorry, no.”

"Okay, I understand. You go down first."

"……Yes."

After Yugao left, Hiruzen let the next person into the office.

"Hokage-sama, I followed Uchiha Sasuke's instructions and questioned Maki, the guiding jonin of the Sand Ninja. He was behaving very abnormally."

The man with a deep voice recounted the whole story.

Hiruzen was silent for a long moment, digesting this enormous amount of information, then asked, "Is there any other evidence?"

"Not for now, Hokage-sama."

"I know, you go out first."

"Yes."

The man left and Hiruzen called Anko into his office again.

Seeing the thick file in her hand, Hiruzen let out a breath unconsciously.

"Well, just show it to me, and I'll tell you while I look at you."

Anko looked a little surprised, but she didn't say anything. Instead, she placed the organized files on Hiruzen's desk and began to tell her thoughts.

After listening to Anko's words, Hiruzen carefully read the file again and frowned.

He had a vague feeling that Hongdou was right, but...

The evidence is not conclusive enough.

"I understand, Hongdou, you can go out first."

"Yes, Hokage-sama."

Close the door.

Hiruzen turned his gaze to the two Hokage advisors, Mitokado En and Utane Koharu, who were listening quietly at the other end of the sofa.

He lit a cigarette, took a puff, and asked, "What do you think of these things?"

The two were silent for a long time, and finally it was Xiaochun who broke the silence: "All this evidence points to one direction: there is a current situation of division within our Konoha, and someone has broken the rules and allowed outsiders to interfere in our own family affairs."

Yan nodded at the side: "But we can't rule out the possibility of slander, because none of this evidence is conclusive. It's also possible that someone is deliberately making trouble and destroying the unity within our Konoha."

"Yeah." Hiruzen nodded. His opinion was similar to the other two. As for Danzo, they could only wait until the external hidden dangers disappeared completely before settling accounts.

"You come in."

As he spoke, a white-clad ANBU appeared out of thin air in front of Hiruzen.

"I asked you to monitor Shiba Kiyozumi some time ago. Do you have any clues?"

The white-robed man lowered his head slightly: "I'm sorry, Hokage-sama, but I haven't found any new clues."

"Understood. Tonight at midnight, secretly arrest Shiba Kiyozumi and bring him to the Anbu for interrogation. After that, you will lead another team to personally monitor the movements of the Sand Ninja, especially the child named Gaara."

"Yes."

The white-clad Anbu retreated.

According to Mingying's original plan, she would first create a big news, and then wait for the Anbu's attention to be distracted before taking the opportunity to deal with Qingquan.

But Sarutobi Hiruzen did not intend to let Qingquan go for the time being, but chose to capture him directly.

……

Meanwhile, at Naruto's house.

"...Yeah, yeah, I see. You've worked hard."

Naruto put the little snake back into his pocket and said to the pink-haired girl beside him: "You heard it, they have already started the action, the time is ripe."

"So when are we going to hunt for the spring?"

"Just tonight."

(End of this chapter)