Fujin created a Shadow Clone who walked towards the servant who had lied and picked him up. Fujin said, "Give me a small room. I want to interrogate him."
Yuya asked, "What about the remaining 15? And what did you do to them?"
Fujin replied, "They were placed under a Genjutsu. They will wake up in a day or so. Keep them in the same room and have a doctor monitor their health. And they won't remember much of what happened. So make up a story for them."
Yuya replied, "Alright."
Soon, a closed room was arranged for the Konoha ninjas. Fujin placed a few privacy seals in the room and said, "Go ahead Fumito. Check what he is hiding."
Fumito nodded and walked towards the unconscious servant and placed his hand on his head. Yin chakra entered the servant's brain as Fumito began reading his memories. Fujin observed him carefully.
He thought, 'It was a boon to have a Yamanaka on my squad. In the last 6 months, I have seen him read memories several times. Thanks to that, I have gained valuable insights into the technique. I used some bandits to experiment on and I can finally read some memories.
But my method is still too crude. I have only a 25% success rate and I can't read all the memories as the brain gets destroyed after a few minutes. Still, this is good. In a few years, I will be able to use this technique properly.'
For 30 minutes, Fumito kept reading his memories. Finally, he let him go and took a deep breath. Fujin asked, "So, what did you find?"
Fumito replied, "He isn't a traitor. Or at least, he doesn't consider himself as one. That is why we couldn't detect any lies earlier.
He lives alone as his family died around a year ago. He knew who the killer was but had no proof and couldn't do anything as the killer held a lot of influence in the Ito family. He could only bottle it up in himself and continued living bitterly.
However, a few months ago, a man approached him. He knew about his situation and promised to get justice for his family if he passed information about any foreign ninjas coming into this mansion."
His words generated complicated emotions in the Konoha ninjas. Bunjiro sighed and said, "No wonder he didn't consider himself a traitor."
Yugao asked, "Did he pass the information?"
Fumito nodded. He said, "He agreed but added that he will only do it once. The man agreed and eliminated the person who had killed his family.
In return, he informed the man when our previous squad arrived here. After passing on the information, the man gave him another deal. If he passed them information for the second time, he would eliminate the ones who supported the killer and allowed him to live in peace without any consequences for his actions. He agreed once again.
When we were analyzing the map and the situation, he went out to report our arrival to that man."
A frown formed on the faces of the Konoha ninjas. Yugao said, "That means that our arrival is likely known to the enemy."
Fujin nodded. He asked, "Did he know anything about the man?"
Fumito replied, "Nothing apart from his appearance."
Fujin replied, "Alright, draw his sketch. It might help if that person wasn't a ninja. Otherwise, this is a dead-end as well."
Fumito nodded. Though he got a lot of information from the servant, it wasn't very useful for their mission. The only person who mattered was that man, and the servant knew almost nothing about him.
Fumito began drawing a detailed sketch while Fujin analyzed, 'No wonder it took me so long to find this guy. If he was just a spy, then it would have been much easier. The excitement I felt earlier should have been from this guy seeing an opportunity to get rid of the ones that helped the killer. And until I asked whether they passed any information, he hadn't told any lies.
And my threat of killing their family was useless against him as well. Regardless, this route will lead to a dead end as well. What should I do next?'
Fujin began thinking of a plan. By the time Fumito was done, Fujin strategized, 'The next step will be waiting patiently. I can make a decision based on whether such incidents occur again. If they do, then I'll need to use the clues to track and hunt them. If not, then I will have to make an arrangement for us to stay here for a long time…'
Fumito handed Fujin a paper and said, "This is how he looked."
Fujin observed the sketch. He didn't identify the man. He said, "Let's leave it to the Ito family to find this guy."
His team nodded. Searching an entire town would be too tedious and time-consuming with just 4 people.
Fujin deactivated and collected the privacy seals he had attached and exited the room with his team. Yuya immediately asked, "Did you find anything?"
Fujin nodded, handed him the sketch and asked, "Do any of you know this man?"
Everyone observed the sketch but couldn't identify him. Fujin said, "He is the one who bribed this servant to inform him about the movement of foreign ninjas. So the knowledge of our arrival is already known to the enemies. Put the town under lockdown and find this man. He could be the key to helping us understand what is happening in your territory."
Fujin's words enraged the Ito family members. Yuya asked, "He took bribes to betray us?"
Fujin looked at Fumito who explained what the 'bribe' was. The explanation doused their anger. Yuya sighed and said, "I can understand his thought process. But this is still a betrayal of our trust. He won't be able to escape punishment."
Fujin replied, "While I don't care what you do with your people, I'd advise you against it. Like others, he won't know what happened. So we can use him to pass false information to the enemies.
If you can't find that man, you can keep an eye on him to find that man later on. In addition, you can also grant secret protection to his targets to trap and capture any attackers.
Once the issue is resolved, feel free to do what you want to with him."
Yuya thought about Fujin's words and immediately agreed. He quickly dispatched his ninjas to investigate the town. At the same time, he made living arrangements for the Konoha Anbu in the mansion.
The Konoha ninjas made themselves comfortable. Sensing the opportunity, Fujin called Yuya and Yuto into their room.
Yuya asked, "What did you want to discuss? And why did you tell us to come alone?"
Fujin looked straight into his eyes and said, "I have a doubt. I'm wondering if you could provide me with a satisfactory answer."
Yuya replied kindly, "Just say. We will do our best to fulfill any of your requests."
Fujin didn't break eye contact and asked, "Is the Ito family behind these events?"
Fujin's question shocked everyone in the room. Yuto quickly looked at Yuya who looked angry. Yuya controlled his temper and asked in an unpleasant tone, "What do you mean?"
From his reply, Fujin could see that Yuya wasn't a part of it. He said, "Stop being emotional and think rationally. Such a large incident without the support of someone from inside is difficult. Do you suspect anyone from your family is behind this? Or perhaps providing them with information that could assist them in some way?"
Yuya thought for a minute before shaking his head. He said, "I can't think of anyone doing something like this. There is nothing for our family to gain. Some rival families may have a hand, but even after investigating, we didn't find any proof."
Fujin replied, "Alright. Keep an eye out. Though I don't have any proof either, this being an inside job has a high possibility. For that reason, I will only be informing you two about the next step of my plan."
Yuya got serious. Yuto asked, "What plan did you come up with?"
Fujin replied, "If the attacks continue happening, we will begin the hunt depending on the situation. But, if the attacks stop like last time, then we will stay here for a week. You will take that opportunity to see how we act here. And you will arrange for 4 ninjas you trust to disguise as us.
We will sneak out during the night without alerting anyone and those 4 ninjas will continue disguising as us to deter any future incidents."
Yuya and Yuto fell silent and began analyzing. Finally, Yuto let out a sigh and said, "Looks like that is the only feasible action."
Fujin nodded and said, "If the incidents continue happening in the future, then we can meet someplace outside the town secretly and create a plan to stop them. But if they keep hiding, there isn't much we can do."
Yuto nodded. They discussed some more details before leaving.
While walking back, Yuya sighed and said, "Looks like this is our only way. The village won't send us more ninjas and Konoha doesn't want to station a squad here permanently."
Yuto nodded and replied, "Yeah. But this is better than nothing. It could buy a few months of peace until they realize that something is wrong. We can use that time to investigate further."
Yuya nodded. Since the information was leaked, they didn't have any hopes of catching the culprits and could just wish for temporary peace. Unknown to them, their prediction would turn out to be completely wrong!
