"I see..." were Kakashi's only words after a while. He calmly observed the empty coffin and the six Fractured Mind Coins in Devan's hand. His eyes inevitably passed over the shine of those coins until they simply focused on Devan himself.
"Five coins, different from the single coin found in Altair's coffin, it's strange..." Kakashi murmured as he jumped down into the grave to examine the coins more closely.
The necromancer felt a slight danger coming from that gaze; the white-haired ninja himself exuded a deadly aura. "Is he trying to get close to attack me by surprise?" he inevitably thought. However, even if he prepared for a possible attack, What could he do against Kakashi?
"Fractured Mind suggests something about a broken mind, you said that once, Right? Something like a broken mind that led them to commit acts they wouldn't do if they were mentally sound," Devan quickly reached a conclusion. Kakashi nodded his head a couple of times at those words.
"What you say makes sense, although I still believe more that Kurenai committed suicide due to a romantic disappointment, we still have to take this seriously," the white-haired ninja nodded to himself a couple of times.
"Even so, coming here to dig up Kurenai's coffin," Kakashi looked Devan in the eyes; his body language suggested something that the necromancer himself couldn't decipher. "I still feel like you came to do something else, Devan." He placed a hand on the necromancer's shoulder.
"You've been acting a bit strange lately, especially after Altair's death. I don't know if that's due to this anomaly where people's corpses are replaced by coins, but..." Kakashi squeezed the necromancer's shoulder with some strength.
"If something happens to you, or there's some problem, don't hesitate to talk to me about it. Even the Lord Hokage would agree to help you, Don't you think?" Kakashi's single visible eye looked bright, full of life, and for some reason, fearsome.
Devan, on the other hand, smiled upon hearing those words, nodded his head a couple of times, handed the six Fractured Mind Coins to Kakashi, and opened his mouth. "Whatever this anomaly is, we can count on the village's help to find the reason."
Having said this, Kakashi withdrew, turning into a puff of white smoke. Devan rubbed his neck, moved his eyes slightly, and finally closed the coffin to refill the grave with the recently removed earth.
Back in his apartment, Devan was observing the Fractured Mind Counter in his mind, which had reached 988. Genuinely curious about this counter's function, he couldn't help but lick his lips.
"What does the counter really mean? What is it for?" Devan closed his eyes as he rested on his soft bed. "Now that I think about it, it's likely the counter is what influences people's minds, corrupting their mind, just as it says, Fractured Mind..."
The necromancer slowly fell asleep.
The next day.
Alarming news spread through the streets of Konoha. The latest mission of the Jounin Kakashi and Might Guy had ended. Initially, the mission was only about territorial disputes over supplies; however, the discussion dragged on due to the recent news of Naruto losing control of the Nine-Tailed Fox.
That news reached the higher-ups of the other great nations in just one week. One of them, the Hidden Sand Village, as well as the Sound Village, openly declared war on Konoha.
In his office, the Third Hokage looked almost completely haggard, his eyes narrowed, his mind running through several dangerous thoughts.
He hadn't managed to sleep all night, not with the recent declaration of war from two nearby villages. Although one of them is little-known, like the Sound Village, the Sand Village still has very powerful ninja.
Sarutobi, with darker circles than usual under his eyes, hit his desk with some force, making the Anbu ninja kneeling in his office tremble.
"Has everyone gone mad?!!" he cursed angrily. "How is it possible that a simple incident with the Fox has brought about a declaration of war from the other villages?!!" he wondered with total disbelief.
The Anbu leader, a burly middle-aged man, slightly raised his head. "My Lord, we believe the Sand Village and the Sound Village were only looking for an excuse to declare war on us and..." The Anbu stopped at the Third Hokage's dangerous gaze.
The old man let out a contained sigh, took his pipe from the table, and took a few puffs before releasing the smoke that calmed him.
He shook his head and, almost as if accepting it, sat down in his chair behind his desk. He observed the Anbu in front of him and forced a smile. "Have you found the reason why Altair attacked Naruto yet?"
The Third Hokage's sudden change of topic didn't take the Anbu leader by surprise, who quickly took a scroll from his pocket, stood up, and placed the scroll on the Lord Hokage's desk.
"Forget the report, just summarize it," Sarutobi ignored the scroll and gave tacit orders to the Anbu ninja. "My Lord, we haven't found any apparent reason for Altair to know where Naruto was at that moment. We believe it was a... coincidence."
Sarutobi let out a slight sigh while smiling mockingly. "Coincidence?" he said, tapped his fingers on his desk while making a strange clicking noise with his mouth. "A coincidence would be me running into a..." The old man was about to make a joke when he shook his head and let out a sigh of disappointment.
"Forget it, let's leave the matter of Altair for now. Also forget the matter of Kurenai; we haven't found any valid clue so far that deserves our effort," the old man nodded to himself.
However, the lead Anbu ninja quickly stood up. "My Lord..." his sudden movement brought Sarutobi's attention. The Anbu swallowed, shuddered slightly, however, he still spoke. "I think Devan is hiding something. Not just because of the Altair incident, Kurenai's reaction, but, I spoke about Naruto, he somehow..."
The lead Anbu ninja couldn't finish speaking; the Hokage's cold and firm gaze weakened his will. He lowered his head, felt a sudden terror run through his body at that cold look from Sarutobi.
"We don't have time to worry about small anomalies right now; we've been declared war on. We must mobilize our forces to launch a quick and precise attack that wipes out the Sand Village and the Sound Village," the old man gave an order.
The Anbu in the office nodded their heads before shouting, "Yes, Lord Hokage!!" and withdrawing one after the other.
Sarutobi remained there, looking at his desk with some curiosity. He felt strange somehow, as if the news bothered him more. "Normally I don't react like this to bad news; it must be due to my lack of sleep..."
Lord Hokage shook his head before standing up; he was determined to sleep at least a couple of hours to calm his mind.
In Devan's apartment, the necromancer began to wake up slowly. His eyes opened with some worry; unconsciously, his attention turned to the Fractured Mind Counter in his mind, only to see a new number: "1200".
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