Jiraiya once again picked up his book without taking his eyes off the training ground. He wondered, 'What has been happening in the village? I can understand someone protecting a compound, but why do the training grounds also have thousands of seals?
If I hadn't used Nature chakra to detect, I might not even have detected Naruto inside this dense network of seals! Let me see what he is doing inside…'
Jiraiya became completely still. Small amounts of nature chakra entered his body and mixed with his chakra. Around half a minute later, his eyes began transforming and started looking similar to that of the toads! However, since the amount of nature chakra he absorbed was so low, he didn't gain other features of the toads.
Of course, this low amount of nature chakra wasn't sufficient for Jiraiya to enter Sage Mode. It wasn't very useful in combat either. Instead, it served just one purpose, that is, to sense!
While sensing using nature chakra took a longer time and restricted his mobility temporarily, it had several advantages. For starters, other sensors wouldn't detect anyone sensing them. This made it perfect for undercover missions, which Jiraiya frequently undertook, be it for the village or himself.
More importantly, traditional seals couldn't block nature chakra based sensing techniques. Had Jiraiya used other means to sense Naruto, he would have never been able to sense him within that training ground as it blocked everything other than Fujin's Space Time Sensing Technique and Senjutsu-based techniques since Fujin didn't have the seals to negate them.
Jiraiya was surprised that Naruto was no longer in the training ground. Instead, he sensed him some distance away near the river. He thought, 'So, Naruto is training there now. He seems to be training some kind of Wind jutsu. The one next to him must be Suzuki Fujin…'
Jiraiya's eyes returned to normal as he thought, 'I'll go there instead. That place is far better than either of these two.'
Jiraiya began walking towards it while thinking, 'Still, I didn't expect to see such sights on returning to the village. People celebrating openly about a 16-year-old ninja defeating Orochimaru twice… A house hidden behind thousands of seals without anything suspicious inside it… And 5 kids practicing Kekkei Genkai that shouldn't be in Konoha…
Life is full of mysteries… Perhaps I should use some of it for my next story. A young princess is imprisoned by her father in such a house, while her prince goes through hell to reunite with her. Yeah, that book should be a total hit!'
Jiraiya immediately noted down his ideas for his next book while planning a few more 'research' trips. A couple of minutes after Jiraiya left, an Anbu Guard entered the compound. He wanted to meet Fujin but discovered that Fujin wasn't there. So he quickly passed a message to Monkey before leaving. Monkey went to the training ground to inform Fujin about the message.
At the river bank, Fujin was watching Naruto train when he received memories of his Shadow Clone. He thought, 'Hmm, Hiruzen wants to see me? Is this in regards to what he said yesterday?'
Fujin created a Shadow Clone to watch over Naruto's training and flickered towards the Hokage Building. Elsewhere, confusion could be seen on Orochimaru's face. If any of his subordinates were next to him, they would have been surprised to see such an expression on the face of their master.
Orochimaru muttered, "Where is Kabuto? Why haven't I heard from him yet?"
Orochimaru expected Kabuto to find him soon after. After all, Kabuto's cover had been blown. He didn't have any reason to stay inside Konoha. Knowing that they had to prepare an assault against Konoha, Kabuto should have been by Orochimaru's side, assisting him with everything. Yet, not only had he not returned to his side, he hadn't even sent a message to Orochimaru!
The first question Orochimaru had was whether Kabuto was captured by Konoha. However, he quickly analyzed, 'No, that shouldn't be the case. I only left after I couldn't track him anymore. Fujin and Kakashi shouldn't have been able to track him either. And sensei was still in the tower.
Besides, even if they tracked him, they wouldn't be able to capture him silently. The battle would have attracted the attention of everyone in Konoha. So, they wouldn't be able to keep it silent and I would have received reports by now. Unless Kabuto has betrayed me…'
Orochimaru wasn't sure about this speculation. He thought, 'Kabuto is very loyal to me. In spite of how he acts, I'm sure he would have willingly given his body to me and would have felt honored had I asked. However, he does have a history of switching sides. But, what could Konoha have offered to him to make him betray me?'
Orochimaru thought for a long while but couldn't come up with any reasonable guess. He thought, 'No, that shouldn't be the case. I have a feeling that something else is happening. Something very fishy… But what could it be?'
For an unexplainable reason, Fujin's face appeared in Orochimaru's mind. But he didn't have anything that could lead him to believe that Fujin was involved. After all, from Orochimaru's perspective, even though Fujin was strong, he was just an ordinary Konoha ninja who was influenced by Hiruzen like the rest.
Unaware of Orochimaru's thoughts, Fujin reached Hiruzen's office. To his surprise, 2 Genins and 1 Jounin from Kusagakure were present in his office. He identified them quite easily and looked at Hiruzen, wondering why he had been called.
Hiruzen noticed his gaze and said, "Fujin, this is Kurokusa Hanae. He is the Jounin sensei of this Kusa squad. He wanted to inquire about something with you."
Fujin turned his gaze towards Hanae and thought, 'Is he here for Karin? Considering her ability, it isn't strange for Kusa to be concerned. Though if they were that concerned, why did they even send her here with such weak teammates?'
Fujin's gaze made Hanae tense. Had it been anyone else, he could have tried to be more aggressive to get more information. However, in front of the Spectral Swordsman who recently defeated Orochimaru, he didn't dare to show any aggression.
Hanae respectfully said, "As you know, their squad also had a girl along with them. Unfortunately, they separated on the second day and they weren't able to find her afterwards. I was wondering if you know anything about this or her whereabouts."
Fujin replied casually, "If she's missing for so long, she is probably dead. It is rather common in the Forest of Death. As for her whereabouts… Do you think I was there to babysit the Genins?"
Hanae immediately replied, "No, of course not. However, this exam wasn't natural. After all, Orochimaru interfered in the exam. If he targeted Karin, she wouldn't have any chance against him."
Fujin replied, "I fought Orochimaru on the very first day. He didn't enter the Forest of Death again. Since she went missing on day 2, he shouldn't have anything to do with this."
Fujin turned his gaze towards the two Genins and asked, "When did you last see her? And how were you separated?"
Seeing their sensei acting subserviently had spooked the Genins. Fujin's fierce gaze made them sweat in fear. Both felt that their heads would roll if they lied. They immediately spilled all the beans.
Fujin looked at them disdainfully and said, "You left your teammate by herself in that dangerous forest and have the gall to come here and ask us for explanations? Did you even attempt to look for her or did you just ignore the fact that she was missing?"
The Genins immediately answered, "We tried to look for her but couldn't find her. Instead, we just found her clothes, spectacles, some dried blood and some strands of her hair."
Hanae's expression became ugly as he saw the Genins spill everything. However, he didn't blame them. Facing both Fujin and Hiruzen at the same time was extremely demanding for him despite his experience. For two inexperienced Genins, it was impossible to resist either of them.
Fujin turned his gaze towards Hanae and said, "Looking at the evidence, I'm afraid that there isn't much Konoha can do. She should've been long dead and perhaps in the belly of some wild beast by now."
Hanae nodded unwillingly and said, "I understand. Thank you for cooperating with us."
He looked at Hiruzen and thanked him as well before leaving. Fujin waited for them to leave before turning to Hiruzen and saying, "That was strange. Since when did Kusa start worrying about a Genin who couldn't even survive in the forest?"
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