Chapter 80: Elimination of Dissenters
'I must not allow the smuggling team leader to report the Sunagakure ninjas' request, or he'll leak the information that I killed Ebizō's disciple.'
Sasuke's heart trembled, sensing something was very wrong. He hid and, using the Body Flicker Technique, chased after the Konoha smuggler leader. In less than a few minutes, he positioned himself in front of him and set a trap to kill him.
In the forest, everything seemed normal. The leader, who was carrying a huge sealing scroll with the contraband, jumped onto a giant tree, shaking the leaves. Suddenly, three of the falling leaves exploded into human form. Before he could even process the ambush, Sasuke's clones subdued him with ruthless efficiency, breaking his limbs and cutting off his teeth to prevent him from committing suicide with poison.
"Actually, it was Mitokado Takashi who helped me conceal the information."
Sasuke was very surprised. He didn't expect the person helping him to be his apparent enemy.
The interrogation went particularly smoothly. He thought he would need extreme methods, but the man was a follower of Takashi's playboy ways, not a martyr. The combination of the pain from his broken fingers and the agony induced by Sasuke's hunger technique broke his will. He confessed everything, even previous smuggling transactions, for which he kept a secret ledger in case his master decided to silence him.
'Mitokado clan... you are truly a good Konoha clan,' Sasuke scoffed inwardly, with inexhaustible killing intent in his gaze.
He discovered that the Konoha smuggling team did indeed belong to the Mitokado clan. Their transactions with the Sunagakure clan were not a betrayal of the village, but a mutually beneficial agreement, a traditional skill among nobles to exchange goods, information, and eliminate internal dissenters. These activities, common in the Warring States Period, had been practically eradicated in Konoha by the Second Hokage and the founding of ANBU.
He didn't expect Takashi to be so bold. Once something like this is exposed, it could mean genocide for his clan, even if Mitokado Homura was a village elder. One could only say that money moved people.
"This contraband is a steal for me! Haha, I'm rich!"
Sasuke held the seal scroll with both hands, almost drooling. Several tons of gold dust and iron ingots... the total value amounted to tens of millions of ryo. With that amount of money, he could go to the black market and hire Kakuzu to do some work.
"Ugh..." he let out a sigh, calming his chaotic mood.
He quickly sealed the tortured leader's body into a small scroll and eliminated it without a trace. Afterward, he pursued the Sunagakure smuggling team. After more than ten minutes, he finally caught up with them. He saw them avoiding Konoha patrols, so he left a shadow clone to follow them and he went to seek Torifune's support to capture them in one fell swoop.
'What a pity,' he thought, looking at the large amount of materials the Sunagakure ninjas were carrying. He wanted to take them all down by himself and keep everything, but there was a taijutsu jonin in their ranks. Against the others, his mist and tricks would be effective, but a true master of hand-to-hand combat could break through his defenses. It was too risky.
He used his perception technique to avoid patrols. When he was about to cross the river, he discovered that, less than three kilometers downstream, the figures of Fūjin, Raijin, and Kurama Kon appeared. So he slowed down and took the opportunity to perceive their specific situation.
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