"Idiot!" Kakashi chopped Obito over the head with his hand, drawing a painful yelp from him.
"Why are you hitting me again? Do you want to fight, Kakashi?"
Kakashi ignored Obito and instead took out the scroll the Yugakure ninja had given him earlier to examine it. No matter how he looked at it, the object seemed like an ordinary scroll.
Ruri moved closer to Mitsuki's left side and asked softly, "Did you notice something?"
"Yes. That woman's situation earlier didn't seem like a coincidence." After fully activating the Six Eyes, Mitsuki had noticed many other parents who had also lost their children. The strange part was that inside Yugakure, there was not a single unattended child to be found anywhere. That was clearly not normal.
Mitsuki flipped the stall owner's stamp upside down. Under the moonlight, the fireworks pattern engraved on the base looked unusually eerie.
"Partner, that stamp carries the aura of an evil entity," Shukaku said, pointing at the bottom of the stamp as a reminder.
The pattern itself was fine, and the stamp body was just an ordinary wooden tool. That meant the only thing that could be problematic was the ink residue on it. Thinking of this, Mitsuki decisively said to Ruri, "Ruri, interrogate him. Find out who gave him this stamp."
"Got it." Ruri immediately shifted into work mode, using genjutsu to extract information. The old stall owner was indeed just an ordinary person and stood no chance against a Mangekyo interrogation. With vacant eyes, he told them everything he knew.
"The stamp and the scrolls were distributed to us by the Yugakure ninja." "What is their purpose?" "I don't know." "What happens when the stamp is used?" "I don't know."
Ruri questioned him from several other angles, but she still failed to obtain any further information. The old stall owner seemed to be nothing more than a normal civilian who had been dragged into this.
Kakashi felt at a loss. "What do we do, Mitsuki? This looks like an internal problem within Yugakure." Konoha's international reputation was good, and the Land of Hot Water was an ally of the Land of Fire. Actively interfering in an allied village's internal affairs would not look good if word got out.
Mitsuki picked up the seemingly ordinary scroll and considered the situation. Based on the stall owner's answers, the majority of merchants at this fireworks festival were promoting the booklet activity. That meant Yugakure was definitely aware of this at an official level. The only uncertainty was whether the problem with the stamp was something Yugakure's higher ups had done themselves or whether they had been exploited by someone else.
That was as far as Mitsuki could analyze. This kind of intelligence work was better suited for Minato. With that in mind, Mitsuki decided to use the Flying Thunder God Technique to bring Kakashi and the others directly back to camp.
However, two Yugakure ninja noticed something was wrong and slowly approached from opposite directions, subtly blocking their path.
"What's going on here?" one of the Yugakure ninja asked, patting the stall owner on the shoulder. Naturally, the man under genjutsu showed no reaction at all. The other ninja reached behind his back, seemingly preparing to take something out.
Mitsuki frowned, rapidly forming hand seals with one hand. In less than a second, the technique was complete. He lightly tapped the ground with his toes, and two barely perceptible currents of electricity shot out, striking the two Yugakure ninja and paralyzing them on the spot. Ruri activated her Mangekyo Sharingan once again, casting genjutsu on both ninja and easily subduing them.
"What now?" Ruri asked.
"Use genjutsu to control these two and have them walk ahead. We're going into that alley up front."
...
With the two Yugakure ninja leading the way, Mitsuki and the others entered the alley without drawing attention.
"Ruri, interrogate these two first."
Nodding, Ruri began with the thin-eyebrowed ninja on the left. "You're a Yugakure ninja, right?" "Yes." "What is the purpose of this stamp, and why are merchants having children stamp it?" "This stamp is… it's evil… ugh… ugh…"
The ninja, who had been speaking normally, suddenly seemed to suffer an acute attack. He began retching uncontrollably, his abdomen swelling unnaturally. Yellow bile spilled from his mouth, followed by bright red blood. Then, something shocking happened. A thick black tentacle emerged from his mouth, wriggled a few times, and then dissipated into smoke.
The ninja collapsed stiffly to the ground, completely lifeless. From the perspective of the Six Eyes, Mitsuki could see that the man's internal organs had been crushed and ruptured by the tentacle. The cause of death was most likely massive internal bleeding.
The scene was genuinely horrifying. Obito felt nauseous and almost vomited, but remembering the man's final moments, he forcibly swallowed the sour taste rising in his throat.
"A secrecy measure, huh?" Mitsuki noted. This was not unexpected; many shady organizations in the ninja world operated like this. At least this man's brain remained intact. Along with the other Yugakure ninja, they could be taken back to have Inoichi sensei read their memories.
"Everyone come closer. I'm jumping."
...
After returning to the Konoha camp, Mitsuki first handed the three suspicious individuals over to the interrogation department. Then he led Kakashi and the others to the command center. As expected, Minato and the others were still working overtime. After listening carefully to Mitsuki's report, everyone in the room looked puzzled.
Minato closed his eyes and thought for a moment. "Inoichi, go and read the memories of those two Yugakure ninja."
"Understood. I'll go right away." Inoichi nodded and quickly left.
Minato then asked Mitsuki for the stamp and the scroll. While Mitsuki could not see anything special about the stamp, Minato found the issue in the overlooked scroll. He unrolled it and laid it flat on the table, then rapidly formed a series of complex hand seals. When the seals were complete, Minato placed a finger on the scroll. Chakra rippled outward, producing a crisp sound like wind chimes.
The scroll, which originally only had a few simple square markings, began to reveal densely packed black formulas.
"This is a summoning formula?" Mitsuki asked. Although he had not studied sealing techniques for long, he could still recognize this classic formula model at a glance.
"That's right," Minato nodded. "This scroll has a double layer seal. Inside is a preset summoning formula. Once the conditions are met, it activates instantly."
"So the stamp is the medium used to trigger the formula? But that still doesn't explain why the children suddenly disappeared. The conditions for reverse summoning shouldn't have been met."