Minato knows that despite Mizuki being a fool, the latter would still realize there is nothing a ninja of his caliber could do with a scroll containing such dangerous techniques.
This leads Minato to the conclusion that someone tasked him with it, but the question is who? An enemy village? Or rogue ninja?
The Village Hidden in the Stone is the one that first comes to Minato's mind; after all, they have been itching to get revenge since the war ended, but the memory of Kanabi Bridge ensures that the very mention of his name strikes a terrible fear in them.
The Village Hidden in the Cloud comes second in Minato's mind, as the village was known to be a very militaristic one, and their current Raikage is on the mission to make his village the most powerful one in the Elemental Continent.
Though their failed attempted kidnapping of the Hyuuga Clan's firstborn daughter occurred only a few years ago, and with the warning Minato delivered, surely they weren't foolish enough to make such an attempt.
When trying to answer if the situation was caused by a rogue ninja, the criminal ninja organization that Jiraiya had informed him about, which Itachi Uchiha was reported to have joined, comes to Minato's mind.
But Minato was slightly against such an answer for various reasons, but mainly about the nature of the criminal organization that Itachi joined. The organization seems to have made no move against the 5 Great Villages just yet, but there are some unsavory rumors floating around that Jiraiya greatly needs to address.
Whatever the case, Minato knew this matter should be treated with utmost seriousness. He had Ibiki and Anko handle the matter and try to gather information, but Minato learned they surprisingly failed, which made Minato feel that he was correct in his suspicions, but to confirm it, he asked Inoichi for help in attempting to extract the information they needed.
To everyone's surprise, the Yamanaka Clan Head also failed, and after a short investigation, they discovered that there was a seal on Mizuki's brain that acted as a lock to his memory.
The seal wasn't a problem for someone like Minato; however, the seal had a fail-safe mechanism that ensures that should it be broken, Mizuki's brain will be destroyed before any information can be retrieved.
This confirms his suspicion but also makes Minato worry, as he is unable to identify who Mizuki is working for.
The only saving grace was the fact that the Forbidden Scrolls of Seal had been recovered; if they hadn't been, then it would definitely be a huge problem for the village.
One of the questions that is constantly in Minato's mind right now is who is the person who stopped Mizuki from escaping the village with the scroll?
In Minato's mind, it is perhaps another individual within the village who was also working with Mizuki but ended up deciding to hand over the scroll and betray Mizuki in the end, and now Mizuki is trying to protect this person for fear that they will tell all there is to know about the plot of the mastermind behind this action.
Minato was also very disappointed in how the Forbidden Scroll of Seals was able to be stolen easily in the first place. The security around the building has been tightened as a result of this incident.
Minato knows that when Danzo hears what happened, he won't hear the end of it, but right now it isn't as important as the thing he is currently handling at this moment.
Sitting across from Minato is a man who appears to be a ninja himself. Two scars can be seen on the right side of his face. He has dark hair tied into a spiky ponytail, dark eyes, and a chin beard.
He is wearing only a mesh shirt underneath his jonin vest, which is the standard outfit for a jonin ninja of the Hidden Leaf.
This is none other than the Jonin Commander of the Village Hidden in the Leaf, and by far its most skilled tactician and sharpest analytical mind is the Nara Clan Head, Shukaku Nara.
Currently the pair is discussing the team arrangement of the newly promoted generation of ninja of the Leaf, which contains their children.
"So Minato, how do you feel about this line-up?" Shukaku asks, not referring to the village leader by his appropriate title, which just shows how close their relationship is.
"Well, there are a lot more assault squads compared to previous years," Minato observed. While there are two teams who aren't an assault focus but more on tracking and tactical support.
The Tracking Team wasn't really focused on tracking per se since one of the genin chosen for the team didn't have the ability to track, but with the Team Leader Shikaku selected, it was quite appropriate, in Minato's opinion.
"Indeed," Shikaku slowly nodded. "We currently don't have a shortage of tracking and tactical support personnel within the villages. It is to be expected. This is what many people in the village looked at this generation as being destined for."
Minato adopted a thinking pose. There hasn't been a group of individuals with this much hype surrounding them in a while. The notion that one needs to be from a ninja clan to be talented was ridiculous to Minato.
He himself has no clan background, yet he manages to reach such great heights. Though the graduated genin were a promising bunch.
"All right, I'll give it my approval," Minato said.
Minato had great hope for this generation. And along with this new batch of ninja, a new Jonin who likes to teach would be coming in as well.
Kushina and Mikoto already informed Minato about their coming out of retirement, and an old friend of his would be taking up teaching as well.
Shikaku leaves Minato's office as the Hokage turns his seat to look over the village. He is currently thinking deeply about the previous problem that the village faces right now.
The Ninja Academy
It's been a few days since the graduation exam happened, and everyone in Iruka's class who successfully graduated is currently sitting in the room waiting for the announcement of their team.
Naruto currently rests his chin in one of his hands and waits for Iruka to enter the room and announce the team they are about to be assigned.
Naruto is currently thinking about what happened that night. He is currently still wondering about what Orochimaru's goal was when trying to steal the Forbidden Scrolls of Seals.
Naruto knows that Orochimaru is a power-hungry person, and he didn't find it surprising that he planted some spies to acquire various information, but what really intrigued him was the reason behind stealing the scroll.
Naruto believes that Orochimaru already knows most of the techniques in the scrolls, especially the fact that he was the student of the Third Hokage and once the candidate to become the Fourth Hokage; surely with his time working with the village, he managed to learn the technique inside the Forbidden Scrolls of Seals.
Naruto also knows that stealing the Forbidden Scrolls of Seals was a suicidal move for Orochimaru, as he would certainly be hunted by the village, with Minato certainly leading the search to acquire the scrolls back.
No matter how slippery Orochimaru is, he is certainly no match for Minato, who is probably at the same level in terms of strength as the legendary ninja, who are Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha.
With this in mind, Naruto is certain that the stealing of the Forbidden Scrolls of Seals wasn't Orochimaru's plan but Mizuki's plan instead, and the reason behind the plan is actually simple to guess, which is for Mizuki to prove himself to his master, which he certainly hinted at when Mizuki arrogantly revealed his crime when they met.
'What an idiot,' Naruto thought to himself.
Naruto already can guess Mizuki's fate if he successfully delivers the Forbidden Scrolls of Seals to Orochimaru.
Mizuki will definitely die and burn to ashes or something similar to erase his traces and for the Leaf to be unable to locate the whereabouts of the Forbidden Scrolls of Seals.
While Orochimaru will definitely use the scrolls to his advantage, he also makes sure that there's no technique formula that Minato secretly placed to track down the scroll.
Even if there was, Orochimaru will definitely place some countermeasure about it, which makes the Forbidden Scrolls of Seals Orochimaru's property.
Naruto also realized while thinking about Mizuki that he put himself in a tough spot, especially with the fact that he knows that Mizuki is working for Orochimaru.
While Naruto was completely confident that Mizuki would not tell anyone who was the one responsible for stopping him, Naruto was sure that the Leaf had some other way to extract information from Mizuki, and when that happens, the higher-ups of the village will definitely start questioning him.
While he wouldn't mind killing every single one of them, he still didn't like to kill them, or it might affect his grand plan in some way, be it a little or a big one.
The risk is just too great for him to kill them.
Naruto knows that he doesn't have to suppress his strength anymore, but to fully show it at this moment is quite stupid in Naruto's opinion since it will only lead to further problems.
He only shows his full strength when he feels like it is the right time.