Chapter 556: Shocking News
Tsunade ruffled her hair into a bird's nest. She wasn't an unreasonable person. Looking at it this way, she really was the only one with free time.
"Fine, fine," she reluctantly nodded, willing to go and help with the identification. As for how many she could identify, that was hard to say.
Tsunade was drafted to identify the remains one by one. Shizune not only had to manage the Konoha Hospital but also had to help Tsunade with some of the advisor's work, leaving her dizzy with business.
Ino claimed to be very busy, but with numerous subordinates, she didn't really have much to do.
So she began to ponder her own affairs. Whether it was integrating the final Yin nature chakra into her bloodline to form the Kekkei Mōra, or using mental stimulation to awaken the Rinnegan, she needed to repair and improve her relationship with the Shinigami.
When she had been sent to the underworld by Nagato's "Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique," Ino, in order to save her own life, had "eliminated" more than half of the Shinigami's life stakes again. The whole point of a life stake was the "life" part. With the people dead, the effect was naturally weakened by more than half.
She had to capture new people.
In a way, Ino had now replaced Danzo's previous position in the village. As long as it didn't challenge her moral bottom line too much, she could do some of the dirty work.
That night, she dispatched former Root ninja to find people for her.
She wanted bad people, the worse the better, with priority given to those with chakra.
The former Root ninja had always been tool-like ninja who "never ask about the number of enemies, only where they are." She felt very confident using them.
Good people were hard to find in the ninja world, but bad people were everywhere! In less than two days, more life stakes were sent to the Shinigami's space, and Ino's friendship with her old pal, the Shinigami, began to warm up again.
After learning that the Akatsuki had the means of Reanimation, Mei Terumi couldn't afford to play the victim anymore and hurriedly returned to the Hidden Mist Village.
Konoha had many ninja who died in battle, but as the Village of the Bloody Mist, the Hidden Mist Village had just as many.
After receiving a clear answer from Konoha about the Tailed Beasts, the Third Tsuchikage immediately set off to return to the Hidden Stone Village.
Kurotsuchi liked the relaxed atmosphere of Konoha, but at this time, she had to leave.
As an ally, Konoha informed the Hidden Cloud and Hidden Sand villages about the Reanimation Jutsu. What they did with that information was their own business.
A month passed quickly.
In the end, Obito didn't just watch Zetsu extract the Tailed Beast's chakra alone. After slacking off for three days, he went out and committed a crime, stealing a large amount of gold and silver jewelry from wealthy merchants.
In this day and age, there were only two people who would disregard their status as powerful ninja to attack ordinary merchants: one was Ino, and the other was Obito. However, Ino basically committed her crimes under Obito's guise. So, rounding it up, only Obito attacked ordinary merchants.
Obito spent a large sum of money to re-recruit Kakuzu into his faction. Kakuzu, in turn, brought back Hidan.
The four of them working together were a far cry from the nine heroes at their peak, but the speed of extracting the Tailed Beast's chakra had increased considerably.
All in all, it took them twelve days to completely drain the Three-Tails, turning it into a part of the Gedo Statue's chakra.
Obito felt his own martial strength was insufficient. He wanted to go after Yahiko and Konan in the Land of Wind to seize Nagato's Rinnegan.
But Gaara still had considerable influence in the Land of Wind, and Ajisai had taken some elite Hidden Rain ninja to join them. If Obito went alone to steal the Rinnegan, he would most likely end up leaving his Kamui Sharingan there.
Kakuzu was only helping him for the money. If there was no money, or if the mission was too dangerous, Kakuzu would abandon him and flee without any hesitation. And as for Hidan, others might not know his ability, but Konan did.
A direct assault was unrealistic. He had to use his wits.
Two days later, a shocking piece of news reached Konoha Village.
Baki, the teacher of Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro, who, as the representative of the Sand's neutral faction, had been acting as the Kazekage, was dead.
He died in his office. His body was covered with seven or eight crisscrossing wounds from a sharp weapon, one of which had diagonally cut through his heart.
The murderer's sword skills were sharp and ruthless.
The ninja responsible for the autopsy looked left and right and felt that the wound was caused by Konoha's "Dance of the Crescent Moon." The current user of this sword style was Hayate Gekko, who had a personal grudge against Baki.
Temari reported this matter to Konoha Village, hoping they would send someone to participate in the investigation, at least to clear Hayate Gekko's name.
When Hayate Gekko received this news, he was completely bewildered.
Why would he go and kill Baki for no reason?
And he couldn't even beat Baki, who was an elite jonin! The power gap between them was quite obvious.
Killing the acting Kazekage, who was stronger than him, in the Hidden Sand Village, under the protection of numerous guards? Hayate felt that everyone was overestimating him.
However, he was willing to go to the Hidden Sand Village to assist in the investigation.
Minato Namikaze couldn't let him go on this adventure alone. Konoha and the Sand were allies, but this ally was not very trustworthy.
The work of the Hokage was too busy, and sometimes he couldn't pay enough attention to Naruto. He felt that father and son needed to strengthen their bond. Going out of the village for a mission together was a good opportunity.
An autopsy and examination of the body required a medical-nin.
Tsunade and Ino were too high-level; they didn't need that much high-end combat power in the Hidden Sand Village. So, he called on the experienced Shizune.
Minato Namikaze, Naruto, Hayate Gekko, and Shizune, a group of four, left Konoha Village for the Hidden Sand Village to investigate the truth of Baki's death.
Before Shizune left for her mission, she entrusted Tonton to Ino's care.
"Don't worry, I'll raise Tonton to be fat and strong!"
Shizune: "..."
The more you say that, the more I worry.
Five days later, a piece of news that was enough to cause a strong earthquake in the ninja world reached Konoha Village.
Minato Namikaze had gone to investigate the inside story of Baki's death. For the first three days, the messages sent back by messenger hawks were relatively normal. On the fourth day, a message came back saying that they had found some clues. But today, they had suddenly lost contact.
Losing contact easily led to bad assumptions. Considering Minato Namikaze's status as the Fourth Hokage, the problem was even more serious.
"Is the Hidden Sand Village crazy? They dare to lay a hand on the Hokage?!" Koharu Utatane was furious. Based on her experience, Minato Namikaze had been killed by the Sand using some insidious means. The Sand could betray Konoha once, so they could naturally betray them a second time.
Several high-ups felt the situation was very tricky. Not only was Minato Namikaze missing, but there was also no news from Naruto, Hayate Gekko, or Shizune. Four living people had just vanished into thin air.
"I'll take the ANBU to find my teacher." Kakashi suppressed his anger. He also suspected that the Sand had secretly attacked, or had used some despicable means to severely injure Minato first, causing the Fourth Hokage to fall in the Hidden Sand Village.
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