Chapter 103: A Degraded Kekkei Genkai—Smoke Release!
"The mission is the priority."
Nara Keisuke declined Iburi Gota's invitation for the group to enter the cave, stating bluntly, "The mission scroll from the Hokage did not provide detailed information about the two missing children from your clan. If it's convenient, could you give us some general information about this incident? It would help us complete the mission as soon as possible."
Hearing this, Iburi Gota thought for a moment, then nodded and replied, "The two missing children are a brother and sister. The sister's name is Iburi Yukimi, and the brother's is Tenzō."
While providing the two children's names, Gota also gave a rough description of their appearances. "The sister is twelve this year, and the brother is nine. They were still here yesterday morning. At noon, we couldn't find them, and it wasn't until the afternoon that we confirmed they had left the cave. Due to our family's physical constitution, we cannot be active outside for long periods. With no other choice, we had to request aid from Konoha... and then you four arrived."
Hearing Gota's account, Keisuke came to a conclusion. The brother and sister have been missing for nearly a day and a half?
Keisuke asked, "Pardon me, Mr. Iburi, we don't know much about your clan. What exactly did you mean by 'physical constitution problem'?"
"Our family possesses the ability to turn our bodies into smoke." Gota was silent for a few seconds. He looked at the Konoha forehead protectors on Keisuke's group, but still raised his palm and activated his ability.
Iburi Gota's rough, thick hand, under the influence of a special chakra, turned into wisps of lightly drifting white smoke. The white smoke enveloped his hand, with fine particulate threads connecting his forearm and the smoke. Looking closely, one could see that the smoke his hand had transformed into was constantly swaying with the faint airflow, as if a strong gust of wind could completely blow it away.
"This smoke transformation ability is very unstable. A slightly more intense airflow could take the lives of my clansmen," Gota said in a deep voice, turning his hand back to its original form. "Adults can still rely on experience to barely control the timing and effect of the smoke transformation, but the children..."
He did not finish his sentence, but everyone present understood his meaning. Compared to adults, inexperienced children are more susceptible to the external environment, which can lead to accidental death. Under these circumstances, for the Iburi siblings, Yukimi and Tenzō, to have been active outside for nearly a day and a half...
Nara Keisuke significantly lowered the hope for the mission's success. The expressions of Uchiha Shisui and Shizune also changed slightly, while Hyūga Retsu's face remained as calm and cold as ever.
"I know that under these circumstances, finding Yukimi and Tenzō will be very difficult," Iburi Gota said with difficulty. "But no matter what, these two children are my clansmen. I cannot let the others disregard their own safety and take high risks to search for them. Nor can I completely disregard their lives... At the very least, I need a result. I'm begging you, Lords of Konoha!"
At the end, Iburi Gota bowed deeply to Keisuke's group. The four of them tacitly sidestepped, avoiding the client's bow.
"It is a ninja's most basic professional ethic to accept a commission and complete the mission," Keisuke said. "We will certainly do our best to help find the location of those two children. But considering their age, I still have a few questions for you, Mr. Iburi."
"Please speak," Gota said, straightening up. "I will tell you everything I know."
"Are the children familiar with the surrounding environment?" Keisuke pressed on. "Do they have any areas where they frequently play?"
"About that... in fact, our Iburi clan's original settlement was not in this cave, but in another place in the Land of Fire," Gota explained. "About three months ago, Lord Orochimaru learned of our clan's existence from somewhere and promised to solve our physical constitution problem, subsequently inviting us to live near Konoha. Although he also..."
Gota suddenly realized he seemed to have said something he shouldn't have and quickly cut himself off. "In short, Lord Orochimaru is our clan's benefactor. The two children, Yukimi and Tenzō, should not be familiar with the surrounding environment. After all, the adults often warn the children not to go out casually. As far as I know, they have almost always been active only inside the cave."
"Two final questions." Keisuke held up two fingers. "First, where is the Iburi clan's original settlement? You don't have to be too detailed, just point in a general direction. Second, what is the population of the Iburi clan?"
Gota first gave the number of his clansmen, then pointed in a direction outside the cave. It was unknown if it was a coincidence, but the place where the Iburi clan had originally lived was precisely the direction where the night raid battle between Konoha and Iwagakure had taken place.
Nara Keisuke nodded to Gota, then led the other three away from the cave at high speed, moving in the indicated direction.
"Captain, did you find something?" Shisui asked, seeing Keisuke moving so quickly and thinking he had already discovered something.
But just as the team entered the forest, out of sight of the cave, Keisuke took the initiative to stop. "Hyūga." The squad leader called out the name of the main family girl. "Take a look at the cave behind us. Confirm the number of people inside."
"One moment." Retsu stopped, turned around, and opened her Byakugan. Its powerful insight penetrated the cover of trees and earth, looking directly at the Iburi clan's cave.
A moment later, she closed her Byakugan and reported, "The number is two less than what he said just now."
"It seems the two children have indeed left the cave." Keisuke nodded and continued to move forward, though his speed was much slower, no different from an ordinary person's. "Hearing what the Iburi leader just said, does anyone have any opinions?"
"I think... this mission will probably fail," Shizune cautiously gave her view. "The leader just said that the children of their family are inherently weaker than the adults, and that brother and sister have been away from the cave for so long. I suspect they have already..."
"I think so too." Shisui's brow was tightly furrowed, not to deny Shizune's opinion, but because he was in a bad mood. "The Iburi clan's Kekkei Genkai is very strange, but their survivability is just too weak..."
Keisuke continued to nod and looked at the last team member. "Hyūga, your opinion?"
"More or less the same," Retsu said, looking ahead, her expression cold. "It's just that my suspicion lies in another direction... Lord Orochimaru."
Shizune asked, puzzled, "Hyūga-san, do you think Lord Orochimaru has some special connection with this incident?"
"No," Retsu shook her head slightly. "I mean, there might be some hidden story between Lord Orochimaru and the Iburi clan."
"I think Hyūga's statement has some merit." Keisuke knew Orochimaru's movements—he had learned them from Tsunade. As early as a few months ago, Orochimaru had been sent to the front lines by order of Hiruzen to lead the Konoha ninja against the forces of Iwagakure. Correspondingly, Jiraiya was in charge of the Land of Wind and Land of Rain war zones.
Although in the information Keisuke knew, Orochimaru had been fighting Iwa on the front lines three months ago, it was not difficult to see from Gota's attitude that he truly respected, and could even be said to revere, Orochimaru.
So, three months ago, Orochimaru—or perhaps someone in his name—had made contact with the Iburi clan and brought them from their original settlement to the vicinity of Konoha Village. But would Orochimaru, that research fanatic, have contacted them because of their special "smoke transformation," or rather, "Smoke Release" Kekkei Genkai?
The more Keisuke thought about it, the more he felt that for the poor and destitute Iburi clan, it seemed only their bodies could hold any attraction for Orochimaru. But in that case...
'Could the disappearance of those two children be related to Orochimaru, or even... Root?'
Keisuke threw this somewhat ethereal thought out of his mind. Although the name "Tenzō" was very familiar to him, he could at least be sure that the future Yamato, who mastered Wood Release and was good at building houses, did not have the surname "Iburi."
"Hyūga, don't dwell on the relationship between Orochimaru and the Iburi clan," Keisuke said, pointing down the road ahead. "If Yukimi and Tenzō are still alive, in a day and a half, a twelve-year-old sister with a nine-year-old brother wouldn't have gotten too far. Use your Byakugan and search this path. If there's no sign of them on the path leading to their old home, we'll fly up and conduct a thorough search of the other areas around the cave from a high-altitude advantage."
"Understood." Retsu nodded lightly, took a deep breath, and once again activated her Kekkei Genkai. "Byakugan!"
Within the maximum estimated distance that a twelve-year-old child could move in a day and a half, the four-person squad began an intensive search.
After a precise search with the Byakugan, it was confirmed that there were no traces of Yukimi and Tenzō's movements on the path leading to the Iburi clan's original home. The confirmation of this news undoubtedly pulled down their survival probability by a large margin.
Keisuke summoned a [Shadow Creature], carrying Retsu as they returned towards the cave where the Iburi clan now lived, and began searching from the opposite direction—that is, the direction leading to Konoha. Meanwhile, Shisui and Shizune began the subsequent search from the sides of the path leading to the original settlement. The four-person squad split up, each leaving a shadow clone with the others for communication and reporting.
High in the sky.
The [Shadow Creature] circled and flew. Retsu, with her Byakugan open, did not miss a single corner of the land below. Time ticked by. The Byakugan girl finally brought good news. "Captain, I see them!"
"Direction, location."
After learning the specific location, Keisuke controlled the [Shadow Creature] to continuously descend in altitude, arriving in front of a giant tree that was several arm-spans thick. Such thick trees were a common sight around Konoha Village and were not conspicuous at all. And in the crevice of the giant tree's main trunk, two children, one large and one small, could be vaguely seen, sleeping inside.
Knock! Knock!
Keisuke took a step forward, bent his fingers, and like knocking on a door, lightly tapped the tree trunk, waking the two sleeping souls inside. The older child, the moment she woke up, saw the Konoha forehead protector tied to Keisuke. Instead of joy, she was alarmed. She tightly hugged her brother beside her, hiding in the tree hollow, and asked timidly, "Are you ninja from Konoha?"
A very soft voice came from the crack in the tree.
"Yes." Keisuke pointed to his own forehead protector, and the one on Retsu beside him. "We received a mission from the Iburi clan to escort you back to your family."
"We don't want to go back to the family!" Yukimi's arms suddenly tightened. The younger Tenzō was hugged by his sister's strength into a cloud of white smoke and involuntarily floated out of the tree. "We're going to Konoha, to see Lord Orochimaru!"
(End of Chapter)
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