"You guys..."
"Truly thick-headed!"
"Can't you use your brains a little more?"
"You don't even know how to find proper allies!"
"It seems even the Nara clan isn't entirely made of geniuses!"
A disdainful curl formed at the corner of Qingyu's mouth. These people were still obsessed with "evidence." What era did they think they were living in? Evidence? Was this a time of peace? A democratic society?
They actually wanted to use evidence to overthrow the Third Hokage... Did they not realize that the Third had a "Pot Master" (Danzo) acting as his ultimate shield?
You should be turning enemies into friends! Don't you know the Pot Master also wants to pull the Third down?
Qingyu didn't even know what to say. From the memories he had read from Yamanaka Yuta, these "remnants" hadn't done anything else for the past 20 years except butt heads with Danzo.
"I must find a way to extract myself from this mess!"
Qingyu rubbed his chin, falling into a deep state of reflection. His thoughts began to race. Through the retrieved memories, he understood one thing clearly: Yamanaka Yuta didn't actually want the truth. He didn't even want a real answer. He simply wanted to amplify the social impact of the missing persons case until the situation became untenable for the Third Hokage.
"Yuta came to me because he thinks I'm tight-lipped. His goal isn't to have me 'investigate' the case fairly, but to find a way to lead the trail back to the Third, or even manufacture more incidents!"
Based on the memories of their secret meetings and conversations, Qingyu formed a preliminary judgment. This realization made him even more certain: he could not touch this muddy water.
"If I were Yamanaka Yuta, how would I drag 'me' into this?"
"What would be the purpose of involving me?"
"Let me think..."
Qingyu's brow furrowed. He stopped looking at it from his own perspective and forced himself to adopt Yamanaka Yuta's mindset. He closed his eyes, and the scenes from Yuta's life flashed by like a high-speed film. He analyzed the core ideology of Nara Tetsu, the habits Yuta had formed over decades of handling cases, and the specific way Yuta looked at "Qingyu" in his memories.
"If I am Yamanaka Yuta..."
Qingyu massaged his temples. This was the first time he had truly tried to simulate someone else's consciousness to predict their moves.
"This kid, Yamanaka Qingyu, is tight-lipped and useful. I don't have to worry about the plan leaking. But he's too cautious; I'll need a trick to reel him in."
Qingyu's eyes grew sharp.
"Since he won't take a mission unless it's official, I have to make sure he gets one. To get him a mission, I need Captain Morino Eaton. But Eaton doesn't have the authority to assign a 'missing persons' investigation. Therefore, I need to use another case as a bridge."
"We need to create a crime! Something different from the disappearances, but something that falls under the Torture Force's jurisdiction. With my seniority, I can convince Eaton to hand the case to the kid without him knowing the true motive."
"Once he has the mission, he'll investigate. The task shouldn't be too hard; he needs to find the culprit easily. But how do I link that culprit to the missing persons case?"
Qingyu paused for a moment in his internal monologue.
"I've got it! Make the culprit disappear! That way, the culprit becomes part of the missing persons case!"
"But if that's all, the Root will just absorb the case and the kid becomes useless. So, we need something more ruthless. We plant clues that point the disappearance of the culprit toward the Root, then spread rumors among the civilians that the Root is behind the kidnappings."
"At that point, the 'clueless' kid will be forced to investigate the link between the Root and the disappearances. As long as we feed him some forged evidence, we can point the spear directly at the Third Hokage."
Qingyu opened his eyes, his gaze cold and clear.
"Holy cow!"
"The details might differ, but the logic is almost certainly this. I am being groomed to be the 'gun' they use to snipe at the Third."
"And if that happens, regardless of the outcome, I will have offended Danzo, the Third, and even Orochimaru to the point of no return."
"This is the darkness of the human heart!"
Thanks to his near-paranoid caution and the data from the memories, Qingyu had completely dismantled the plan.
"Sorry. If you want a gun, find someone else. I'm not doing it. I won't offend Danzo, I won't offend the Third, and I won't even offend you, Yuta, or Tetsu."
"This power struggle... you guys can play it yourselves!"
Qingyu stood up decisively and walked out of the dorms toward the Torture Force's interrogation rooms. There was one key to breaking this entire scheme: The Mission. As long as there was no mission, their plan was dead in the water.
Ten minutes later, he reached the "Black Room." Before entering, he heard the rhythmic sound of a whip and muffled screams. Morino Eaton was interrogating a man tied to a post—the man was a bloody mess but hadn't uttered a single word of surrender.
"Captain Eaton!" Qingyu called out from the doorway.
Eaton turned, his eyes flickering with confusion. "Qingyu? Didn't you take the day off? What are you doing here?"
"I have something I'd like to discuss with you," Qingyu said in a low voice.
"Alright." Eaton rubbed his wrists, looking a bit tired from the physical exertion. He dropped the whip and walked over. "What is it?"
"Captain Eaton, it's like this... for the past six months, I've been working non-stop interrogating criminals. My head is constantly filled with their negative thoughts and dark memories. I'm physically and mentally exhausted."
Qingyu put on a piteous, weary face—a talent for acting he had "awakened" after seeing Yuta's performance.
"So, I'd like to request a few months of leave! I want to spend this time doing some volunteer work and charity in the village. I need to purify my soul and feel some human warmth! Plus, I want more time to train my body so I can dedicate the next hundred years of my life to the Torture Force with a refreshed spirit!"