"You killed them all?"
Jaeger looked dazed as he raised his head and stared at the Leaf shinobi who was smoking.
The man leading them had a thick beard and a rugged, weathered face. There was a faint smile brewing in his eyes.
Jaeger stared blankly.
How could he not recognize those headbands?
He had risked his life to collect them from the battlefield, then distributed them among nearby refugees so they could scare off bandits.
Asuma took a drag from his cigarette. Smiling faintly, he exhaled a stream of smoke.
"Oh, just a few rogue ninjas."
Jaeger murmured in a hollow voice, "They weren't rogue ninjas…"
"Oh? Weren't they?"
Asuma leaned closer to the thin man, placing his face beside Jaeger's and blowing out another thick puff of smoke.
"Where's your headband?"
Jaeger's pupils widened. His face turned deathly pale.
Clink—
The veins on a Hyūga jōnin's forehead bulged as he activated his Byakugan.
Through his black-and-white vision, he began inspecting the wooden house.
While scanning the surroundings, the Hyūga shinobi sneered.
"You refugees having rogue-ninja headbands or not doesn't matter."
"If we kill you, then we kill you."
"The Land of Fire doesn't need refugees."
"If we say you're rogue ninjas—"
"Then you are rogue ninjas."
"In the ninja world, no matter which country's border you're on, you're nothing but homeless ants."
"Used as cannon fodder by the great villages."
"Used by shinobi pretending you're rogue ninjas to earn rewards."
"Hasn't that always been your fate?"
His words carried the arrogance of the Hyūga clan—even though he himself was only from the branch family.
Jaeger stared blankly at the ceiling.
"It was war that turned them into refugees," Nono said coldly as she stood up.
"After they fled here, they robbed no one. They harmed no one. They survived by hunting."
She pulled the kunai from the table and flicked it lightly.
The ropes binding Jaeger and Nake were sliced apart.
Nono looked at the Leaf headbands on the four men's foreheads.
Suddenly, she felt that coming from the same village as people who trampled human lives so casually was a profound humiliation.
Jaeger remained sitting in the chair.
Nake, however, immediately ran behind Nono.
As someone experienced with people, he could clearly see that this woman had no intention of killing them.
But the four newly arrived Leaf shinobi—
They were pure killing machines.
"Who cares?"
The Hyūga jōnin raised an eyebrow, ignoring Nono entirely as he walked toward the kitchen.
Asuma glanced across the wooden floor before his gaze settled on Nono.
She looked familiar.
But he couldn't quite place her.
So he smiled and asked, "Didn't expect to run into another shinobi here. Which village are you from?"
Although Nono's name was known, very few people had ever seen the true face of the wandering shrine maiden—even within Root itself.
That was basic discipline for an intelligence agent.
As for her identity as the head of Konoha's orphanage—
Who would care?
Leaf shinobi didn't spend their time visiting orphanages.
"My name is Yakushi Nono," she said calmly.
"Former member of Konoha's Root organization. I'm currently outside the village on a mission."
"How did you find this place?"
"And what is your objective?"
Nono pulled her Leaf headband and her Root mission scroll from her pocket.
With a light thud, she dropped them on the table and locked eyes with Asuma.
Asuma glanced at the headband and the scroll.
His eyes suddenly brightened as something came back to him.
"So you're the head of Konoha's orphanage."
He chuckled lightly.
"Sorry."
"But we're not obligated to reveal mission details to you."
Asuma did recognize the name.
Once, he and a colleague had discussed the most beautiful female ninja in Konoha.
That colleague had praised Yakushi Nono as one of the top women in both appearance and figure.
At that moment, the Inuzuka shinobi tugged firmly on the leash of his white-furred ninja hound and laughed.
"We tracked the smell of blood. Me and Yukimaru followed it all the way here."
"This place is really remote, though. Took us a while to find it."
Earlier, their five-man squad had waited near the water route outside Kikyo Castle until midnight.
But the Uchiha escape team never appeared.
So when reinforcements arrived, they split up and began searching across Kikyo Mountain.
The ninja dog picked up the scent of human blood.
They guessed the Uchiha fugitives had fought somewhere on the mountain.
And so their pursuit squad gathered at this refugee settlement.
"The smell of blood…"
A trace of guilt appeared in Nono's eyes.
Her body trembled slightly.
She had never expected that her hunt for real rogue ninjas and bandits would inadvertently bring disaster upon this refugee camp.
Now she understood.
This well-equipped Leaf squad was hunting the group that had just fled.
Nono glanced at Jaeger.
Her emotions became complicated.
If she had caused this mistake, then she had to fix it.
At the very least—
She could not allow this family of three to die at the hands of Konoha shinobi.
Thunk—
The Hyūga jōnin returned from the kitchen carrying a set of used teacups.
He placed them on the table.
Twelve cups in total.
Asuma, the Inuzuka jōnin, and the Akimichi jōnin examined them.
Jaeger noticed it too.
His pupils trembled as he slowly came back to his senses.
"Woof! Woof!"
Yukimaru barked twice at the cups, then retreated nervously behind his master's legs.
"Yukimaru says twelve people used these cups," the Inuzuka shinobi explained with a smile.
Asuma slid one cup toward Jaeger.
"One cup for the host."
"That leaves eleven."
"Looks like our intelligence was wrong."
"This rogue-nin squad has eleven members, not ten."
"I ask. You answer."
The Hyūga jōnin stared coldly at Jaeger with his Byakugan active, watching every twitch of his face.
"Which direction did those eleven people flee?"
Jaeger's mind raced.
Without hesitation, he pointed south.
"They went that way."
He didn't know the full situation.
But he did know one thing.
If Captain Kazuki had escaped from Konoha—
Then the direction of Konoha in the east absolutely couldn't be revealed.
The Hyūga jōnin frowned.
Suddenly—
He kicked Jaeger hard in the stomach.
The chair and man flew backward into the wall before crashing to the floor.
Jaeger clenched his teeth, clutching his abdomen as sweat poured down his forehead.
"Ah—!"
Jaeger's wife cried out and tried to rush forward to protect him.
But before she could move—
A kunai pressed against her throat.
Another aimed directly at the swaddled infant in her arms.
The Hyūga jōnin had appeared behind her.
The two kunai in his hands hovered steadily.
"Don't move."
"If you move…"
"You all die."
Nono's pupils shrank.
Her fists clenched tightly as she silently waited for the best moment to act.
Nake had already crouched in the corner, trembling.
Judging from their speed and methods, these men were powerful even among Konoha shinobi.
"Four Konoha jōnin…"
Nono's expression turned grave.
She stared at the four men and felt immense pressure.
Inside, she wondered—
Just what kind of people had stolen her bathtub?
What kind of identities did they have that Konoha would send such a high-level pursuit squad?
Asuma ignored the scene entirely.
The Hyūga jōnin he had brought along had once served in the interrogation department.
But because his methods were too cruel, Ibiki Morino had expelled him.
"Don't try any tricks."
"I can read your facial expressions and tell if you're lying."
"I won't waste time."
"There are four directions."
"We already eliminated the south."
"Three directions remain."
"Only one is correct."
The Hyūga jōnin's voice was ice-cold.
"If you lie…"
"I'll kill one person at random."
"You get two chances."
"If you run out of chances—"
"You die."
Want More? Get up to +60 Extra Chapters on Patreon!
➤ https://www.patreon.com/aureliusstudios
➤ +300 Power Stones = +1 Extra Chapter Drop!
Thanks for the support!