Kana wanted to rush behind Mei but Santo held her hand and stopped her "Kana I know that you are worried. But remember what Uncle Wu taught us. Don't let your emotions rule your mind. Do as per Sister Mei's instructions and we have a high chance of finding the kid."
Kana hesitated for a second but in the end, she nodded and left. Her attachment to Yami wasn't too much but he gave her a different feeling which made him unique in her eyes. Kana moved around the houses to see what the situation is. Luckily she didn't find any enemies but she heard a few people calling each other for help.
She looked in that direction and saw a house had caught on fire. Kana ran in that direction and saw that Mei along with a few mist shinobis was already standing there. Mei was talking with a few locals while the shinobis we dousing the fire. They couldn't use too strong jutsus as it could destroy any evidence that was inside but they couldn't just let the fire destroy everything.
"Lady Mei, we will need to use stronger water-style jutsus as this fire doesn't seem to be natural and it flaring again and again." a shinobi reported to Mei and along with 2 others sprayed a big jet of water at the house.
"Sister Mei, what happened here?" Kana asked as she approached Mei and the locals. Mei turned to her and said "This house was on fire when I came here and normal means aren't working while the shinobis on patrol tried to put it off. We will know more when we go in. What about the work I gave you...is there anything to report?"
Kana shook her head and said "No...the people are scared but none of them are hurt or even know what happened exactly. Whose house is this?" Kana asked the question as she looked at the locals standing beside Mei.
A woman who looked in her mid-thirties came forward and said "This belonged to a fruit vendor in our village named Kenji. Luckily he had gone to deliver some fruits so I don't think there was anybody home"
Kana widened her eyes as she heard this and then another local who was standing there quickly said "Aunt did you forget that Kenji's nephew came back a few days ago? Though I haven't seen him since morning, I don't know where he is."
"Oh god yes...how could I forget Yuta...I brought fruits from him not long ago. I hope that kid wasn't unfortunate enough to get caught in this tragedy."
"Sister Mei." Kana said in a desperate tone and Mei understood what she meant.
*sigh* "Fine let's go in and see what's the situation." Mei said and looked at the house which was almost burned down by now. The Shinobis had managed to put off the fire but most of the house was already destroyed. They didn't even know where from they should go inside as the roof had collapsed on the door.
Hearing that Mei was going inside the house, 2 shinobis quickly went forward and started pulling out the big parts that were blocking the entrance. As the entrance cleared, Mei and Kana entered the burned-down house. As they entered, a foul smell quickly assaulted their nose. Mei immediately understood that this was the smell of burnt flesh. As someone whose kekkai Genkai is lava and boil release, she knows better than anyone how a burnt corpse smells.
Mei looked around and saw the furniture and everything else had been reduced to dust. They went inside the backroom from where the smell was coming. As they entered, they saw a burnt torso on their left, the legs of the body were missing and the head was crushed. The torso wasn't too big which gave the impression that the body probably belonged to a teenager. As Yami was just 10 years old but looked 12-14 years due to his size and muscular build, it could easily be concluded that it was Yami's corpse.
Kana was about to jump to that conclusion but then Mei's voice entered her ears "It isn't him...the corpse is bigger than him and look over there." Mei said as she pointed at some distance from the corpse.
A half-destroyed hidden mist headband was visible. Mei wouldn't have been able to find it but due to it being shiny and metallic, it shined and this caught Mei's attention. Kana went ahead and picked up the headband. She looked at it for a few seconds and then passed it to Mei. She didn't find anything from that headband except for it belonging to a mist shinobi.
Mei looked at that headband for a few seconds and said "This does not belong to our faction. There are some minor changes in the headband of the bloodline clans. These look like the ordinary ones which are worn by the 4th Mizukage's faction."
Kana sighed in relief and said "This means that this corpse is not one of our allies nor it is Yuta. But who could have killed an enemy here in this house?"
Mei shook her head and said "That's not the question that you should be asking. The Anbus of every village don't wear any kind of headband that could give away their village's name. If the ones attacking were only Anbus then how did a normal shinobi come here."
Kana was confused by hearing all this. She felt that her head would just blow up after hearing all this information.
"None of this makes sense Sister Mei...and where is Yuta?"
Mei smiled seeing the troubled expression on Kana's face and said "Yuta isn't in any immediate danger. They must have taken him a hostage. He is a good leverage against Hideki and the hidden leaf. Moji wants to either get them on their side or just have them leave the Land of water so there isn't any interference. Because it isn't just us two factions fighting. The hidden stone has poured a lot of resources into the Mizukage faction."
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The chapters with 1500 words are already uploaded
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Link in the synopsis as well.