July 2nd, 12:08 AM in the early morning!
Konoha Village, Hokage Office.
The guard captain who had just regained consciousness from the forbidden area reported an emergency situation regarding the disappearance of Madara's corpse!
"What did you say!"
Naruto's bandaged right hand struck the desk hard. The pile of documents stacked high on the desk scattered to the floor!
"Are you certain? The one who broke into the forbidden area and took away Madara's corpse was that Uchiha Ayato?"
"Correct, Seventh Hokage. Years ago when I returned to the village after completing a mission, I met him once! Such a distinctive face, I couldn't possibly mistake him! He incapacitated all my subordinates! I was also careless for a moment, hit by his Sharingan Genjutsu and fainted!"
Naruto wore a tense expression, "What about casualties?"
The small captain answered: "Fortunately there were no fatalities! Everyone was just knocked unconscious! I think that Ayato didn't dare act too far!"
"I see..." Naruto breathed a sigh of relief, sat back in his chair with his hand supporting his chin, thinking about what decision should be made next.
(How exactly could he bypass the protective barrier and the Yamanaka clan's sensor team without leaving any trace at all...)
Naruto felt confused, but facing the reality that had already occurred, he could only accept it.
At that moment, the Hokage advisor standing beside him, Shikamaru, suddenly asked: "Ayato, did he leave a message?"
"Ah?" The captain was stunned for a moment, "A message! Right, it seems there really was a message! He told me to relay it to the Seventh Hokage!"
"What message?"
When hit by the Genjutsu, a sentence had indeed faintly echoed in the captain's head.
"It seems he said... Tell the Hokage, I've greeted him many times, but since you decided to do nothing, I was forced to use my own method."
"Huh? Greeted?" Naruto furrowed his brow, staring at Shikamaru: "Did Ayato ever say... he wanted to take away Madara's corpse?"
Shikamaru held his chin and pondered for a moment, then shook his head confidently: "No, over the past ten years, he has indeed contacted me unilaterally through letters many times, but he truly never mentioned wanting to target Madara's corpse."
Because it wasn't official correspondence between the Five Great Nations, Ayato's personal letters didn't go directly to Naruto's desk for daily official business.
Shikamaru, as an advisor, reviewed those letters first before deciding whether to forward them or not.
However, Shikamaru felt the content of his letters was either unrealistic or just fear-mongering, so he withheld them.
Only three years ago, when Ayato mentioned his identity as an Uchiha clan member for the first time in a letter, did Shikamaru inform Naruto.
Naruto thought... an Uchiha descendant, although just a branch that served to guard the Chinoike clan's forbidden area in the Land of Lightning nearly a hundred years ago and whose identity had become civilian, but Ayato could still be considered Sasuke's distant relative, right?
So Naruto intended to make time to meet him personally... but unexpectedly, when the time came, the Fire Country Daimyo wanted to meet him for very urgent business.
Like it or not, Naruto had to leave immediately without even having time to leave a Shadow Clone.
That's how Naruto gave Ayato false hope.
Naruto recalled: "Remember that day, he was told to wait a long time in the reception room, right?"
The small captain: "Right, right, right! I had just returned to report on a mission, and saw him in the reception room. He sat there continuously looking down at his wristwatch!"
Naruto said: "After that incident, he really went silent. Never expected that today he would actually take this extraordinary action..."
Mentioning that incident, a trace of an indescribable look passed through Shikamaru's eyes.
"Naruto, since it's come to this, there are several things about Ayato I must tell you..."
Naruto became slightly vigilant; he gave a signal to the small captain.
The captain immediately understood and left the room, locking the door from outside and standing guard in the corridor.
Naruto supported his chin: "Speak, Shikamaru."
Shikamaru lit a cigarette.
"I shouldn't have hidden this from you. Because Ayato's statements in his letters were quite suspicious, I've long been secretly investigating his background."
"First, regarding Ayato's identity as an Uchiha clan descendant is true. The disturbance caused by Kinkaku and Ginkaku from Kumogakure back then also affected Uchiha clan members guarding the Chinoike clan's forbidden area. Most clan members were killed, and a handful of survivors didn't return to Konoha but instead settled in the Land of Lightning while hiding their names."
"Ayato's parents were part of the group that settled in the Land of Lightning. However, their identity was accidentally exposed, triggering revenge from Chinoike clan survivors, the Uchiha clan's old enemies. Both were killed."
"Leaving behind Ayato and Jin, a pair of siblings living dependent on each other."
"His background is quite tragic too. Then?" If it weren't for this Madara problem, Naruto might have felt sympathy hearing this story.
"Then, it was reported that Chinoike clan survivors were gradually eliminated, even women and children were not spared. All survivors of that clan were truly massacred to extinction. There's no definite information whether that pair of siblings did it for revenge, but I think they can't escape responsibility."
"Revenge huh... the same path as Sasuke back then, like it's the Uchiha destiny."
Shikamaru continued: "Ayato and Jin weren't registered in any ninja village, nor did they join the Allied Shinobi Forces to participate in the Fourth Ninja World War."
"If their status was civilian, avoiding the ninja world war indeed can't be blamed. However after the war, his behavior had a purpose that was too clear."
"You know, as the most prominent war hero, you have the strongest influence throughout the entire ninja world, the true leader of the Kage. He has blood ties with Konoha's Uchiha clan, if he wanted to approach you to seek shelter that's still reasonable, but he instead used attention-seeking methods like that."
Naruto asked: "Attention-seeking how?"
Shikamaru flicked his cigarette ash: "In his letters, he dared to question the Hokage's direct governance system! He said the Kage as a village's highest combat force shouldn't spend much energy managing complicated administrative affairs, but should establish an institution like a secretariat to replace the Kage's task functions. The Kage must focus entirely on combat power training! As if that's a matter he should worry about?!"
Naruto didn't give his opinion on that.
"Then, I heard his brother died."
Naruto was shocked, "How did he die?"
Shikamaru said: "This really couldn't be investigated. But since his brother died, Ayato's actions began to deviate from the normal path. At money exchange centers and underground black market auction halls, dark corners of the ninja world untouched by light, his figure began to be seen involved there!"
"I heard in just a few years, he managed to control funds sufficient to support a large ninja village like Konoha for several years. He, a rogue ninja unaffiliated with any village, what does he need to accumulate wealth for? Hard not to think of Akatsuki who once made wealth accumulation their staged target!"
"If it were just that, his image in my eyes would at most be an underground broker freely accumulating wealth after no longer having family!"
"What truly made me categorize him as a dangerous element was when he wrote in a letter that Otsutsuki Kaguya clan members are still active on this land!"
"What!?" The word Otsutsuki made Naruto jolt up from his chair.
When he had just assumed the position of Hokage, Sasuke had once gathered the Kage to convey a similar suspicion regarding Kaguya's plan to breed White Zetsu soldiers—that there were still Otsutsuki hiding on the ninja continent. And to prove that suspicion, Sasuke had been conducting secret investigations outside for years!
Shikamaru's next words were even more shocking: "However, information that even Sasuke hasn't been able to prove, that Ayato openly mentioned the Otsutsuki's name in his letter!"
"What name!?"
"If I remember correctly, the name was Otsutsuki Isshiki!"
"Otsutsuki Isshiki?"
Seeing Naruto seemed to take this seriously, Shikamaru said: "My guess is this, after that discussion back then, one of the Kage accidentally leaked the secret, and Ayato heard those rumors and started exaggerating them."
"But... what does he gain from doing that?"
"Three years ago, on the day you couldn't meet him, I happened to come to the reception room and asked him directly how he could know information about the Otsutsuki. Guess what Ayato said?"
Naruto slowly sat back in his chair, "What did he say?"
"He instead said it was the result of dreams that prophesied the future. Heh, that's an ability only possessed by the Great Toad of Mount Myoboku, who does he think he is to have such an ability? Lying without even thinking first."
"But I didn't immediately expose his lie at that time, maybe he had certain reasons about his information source that couldn't be said directly. For caution's sake, I decided to test whether he was truly sincere or not."
"Then how did you test him?" Naruto furrowed his brow deeply.
Shikamaru said: "I told him frankly that his words and actions were very suspicious. Standing in the position of Konoha Hokage advisor, I absolutely couldn't trust his words."
"If you want to prove yourself, then comply with our Konoha procedures. First seal your chakra, then stay briefly in Konoha's isolation room, then let our Yamanaka clan verify whether your words are true or false!"
Naruto supported his chin, asking with furrowed brow: "Then? What was Ayato's reaction?"
Shikamaru wore a gloomy expression; he looked down and lit another cigarette.
Along with the rising smoke, Shikamaru crushed the cigarette filter, "That Ayato, he instead said..."