Pakkun lowered his head and rubbed the coat he was wearing against himself, then bit out a piece of red string from inside.
Kakashi found this red string. It looked like a deliberately left clue, or some kind of confusing mark.
Although he found this thing, he had already guessed that Hatake Satoru might have been behind everything here.
So he didn't rashly share it with Shikamaru, but instead asked Pakkun to bring it back for analysis.
"This smell is right, it's your brother's."
"The traces of the rocks being moved are also strange, like they were all taken out directly, instead of being moved out little by little."
"Although a lot of the smells in the forest have faded, I can still smell a little bit."
"If we wait any longer, it will be impossible to investigate."
Pakkun sat in front of Kakashi and described the specific situation in the forest, then paused and said thoughtfully.
"There's also the fact that there are no footprints. That's true."
"There are absolutely no signs of leaving."
This surprised Pakkun and the other ninja dogs, after all, they were responsible for searching.
If someone could leave without being detected by the ninja dogs at all, then that person would really be something special.
Whether it's a person or an animal, if Hatake Satoru wants to leave, he can definitely leave.
"I thought so… This is his?"
Kakashi picked up the thin red string, examining it repeatedly, but he didn't feel anything special about it.
It just seemed like a string used to hang a mask.
Hatake Satoru didn't seem like the kind of person who would leave such obvious openings, Kakashi frowned as he repeatedly looked at the string.
If someone else had been responsible for the search this time, wouldn't this string have become evidence against Hatake Satoru?
"Could it be that he left it so you could recognize his identity?"
Pakkun sat next to Kakashi, watching his troubled expression, and couldn't help but speak up.
"To give me a clue?"
Kakashi was stunned, then carefully examined the string in his hand.
Although he was a little hesitant, considering Hatake Satoru's personality, it was entirely possible that he would leave him a clue.
But how did he know that I would come to investigate?
Kakashi scratched his head and took a deep breath. This is really a headache.
There are too many mysteries surrounding Hatake Satoru. He seems to be able to predict the future with some of his information.
"It's possible…"
"Okay, thanks for your trouble this time, you can go back now."
Kakashi understood more or less.
Even if this red string wasn't meant to give him a clue, it was probably there to tell them that he wasn't an enemy.
Even if he didn't understand how Hatake Satoru knew that he would be the one to check, there was no doubt about it.
Fortunately, this makes it clear that this group isn't hostile, they just need to ask Hatake Satoru why he did all this.
Kakashi sighed softly, thinking about how to ask Hatake Satoru in the best way.
It just so happened that he hadn't talked to Hatake Satoru in a while, wonder what he's been up to lately?
Lately, Kakashi had been running around with this small team, so he hadn't had any free time.
Because he had met Sasuke, Naruto's desire to train and his competitive spirit had also been ignited. In short, he never wanted to rest, he only wanted to improve quickly and stand shoulder to shoulder with Sasuke.
This was torturing Kakashi.
Jiraiya was one of the Sannin, strong, and taking care of Naruto was no problem.
Kakashi called himself just an ordinary Jonin, how could he stand such hardship?
Kakashi glanced at the setting sun outside the window, paused thoughtfully for a moment, then packed up his papers and pens.
…
On the other side, Hatake Satoru was underground.
"You left too suddenly, I didn't even have time to check the puppets I collected."
Sasori, who had already entered a safe area, complained.
He had to check everything again when he returned, if anything was missed, it would be troublesome to be tracked down.
"No worries, I inspected them for you, all those puppets are properly stored away."
"Oh, right, take this to the emergency medical team."
"At least bring him back to life first, it's meaningless if he dies."
Hatake Satoru tilted his head, wanting to avoid trouble, and took Hidan's head from Hozuki Mangetsu.
He randomly threw it to Sasori, who was standing next to him.
"As expected, you want to send me away again."
Sasori caught Hidan's head with one hand, muttering as if complaining.
Although he was complaining, he still obediently followed Hatake Satoru's instructions and walked out the door.
"Although it's not the first time seeing Teacher's ability, it still feels amazing every time…"
Hozuki Mangetsu's Kabuto helmet hung down behind him, he hadn't taken off the mask on his face yet, just spread out his hands and looked blankly at his palms.
After a pause, he looked up at his surroundings, making sure of his current location.
In the blink of an eye, he wasn't even sure if Shikamaru had seen the hair sticking out from the ripped part of his Kabuto helmet.
He was just in Konoha, and in an instant, he would be back here.
It was like a miracle.
Hozuki Mangetsu tilted his head, and then prepared to take off his mask.
Along with Hozuki Mangetsu's movements, "Snap." There was a crisp sound, and the red string that he used to tie his mask broke.
"Ah…"
"Because of the earlier thing, not only the Kabuto helmet broke, but this also broke."
Hozuki Mangetsu touched the broken string, if they had left one step later, this thing would have fallen off, and his face would have been revealed.
"Looks like they were aiming to knock off my mask."
Hatake Satoru curled his lips, then pulled out the thin string behind his head, preparing to take out the spare string hanging on it.
However, his hand groped around behind him, and then stopped.
"Huh…?"
Hatake Satoru's smile froze, and then he loosened the string behind his head.
Apparently there was only one string behind there, and the other spare one was gone.
Hatake Satoru casually felt his pockets, and sure enough, there were no strings anywhere.
Seeing that Hatake Satoru couldn't seem to find a spare string, Hozuki Mangetsu waved his hand and said.
"It's okay, Teacher, we won't need it for a while anyway, it's fine if we don't have one!"
"I'll just change it later!"
"That's not the problem…"
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