the days slip by and the tournament draws closer, i haven't found any leads on the old man yet, i even snuck into the archives of the hokages office building, in the basement there you can find archives of everything, i found a record of every person in the 5 villages and all known rogues, its from 10 years ago but it should have had something to go off of, but there was nothing. its almost as if the old man doesn't exist, i was planning on trying to find out anything i could at the tournament but i suspect he wont be there, from what i do know about him is that hes incredibly intelligent and if he doesn't want to be found he wont be.
the tournament is now only 2 weeks away, the deadline for signing up is 1 week before, since theres so many participants a bracket will have to be made and that will take some time, the sand village is organizing the entire thing which im sure is hell.
i haven't spoken to jeiku recently, ive been preoccupied with my research, i should visit him today. im now walking down the streets of the village, there isnt a single person in sight, it feels like the whole village has been abandoned, its calming in an almost eery way.
"you should just give up now while you still can" a chill runs down my spine as im now standing face to face with the old man, its like he just appeared out of nowhere "youre trying to find a memory in a world thats long since forgotten"
"who are you!" i shout
"mikku are you ok?" im walking alongside jeiku, the streets are full of people like normal now
"oh uh yeah im fine" i dont know what just happened.
"hey jeiku, how long was i away at the ambassadors meeting" he thinks for a moment and counts on his fingers briefly
"it had to be 4 no 5 days... yeah it was definitely 5. why do you ask"
"oh no reason just couldn't remember is all" that shouldnt be right though, it took one day of travel and the meeting was only about a half hour in length, and then we headed right back, we didnt sleep or break at any point, it shouldve been only 2 days at the most. where we really there for 5 days?