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"Why do I feel like the amount of paperwork I have been getting these days is going down?" Hiruzen thought to himself as he puffed out a smoke ring while signing some documents.
"Now that I think about it, there hasn't been any major incident happening as of late.
I don't remember any cases of children dying in the orphanage due to sickness coming in as well.
The village is too peaceful. Why is that?
Something is going on, something that I don't know about. Hm?" Hiruzen let his thoughts run free, as the mind-numbing task of signing documents became second nature to him.
"Tatsu, call Kakashi and his team in for me. Tell him it's urgent." Hiruzen suddenly gave out an order, as a masked man fell from the ceiling, accepting the order and disappearing instantly.
"Let me see what's going on in my village."
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"Kakashi, the Hokage wants to meet with you." Tatsu appeared behind a man wearing a mask covering his nose and mouth, reading an erotic novel as he overlooked his team training on their respective styles.
"Do I need to bring my team?" Kakashi asked as he looked up from his novel.
"Bring them as well." And with that, the masked ANBU was gone.
"Naruto, Sasuke, Yakumo, let's go, we have to meet up with the Hokage," Kakashi ordered the three, who stopped their training, and used a towel to wipe the sweat off their bodies.
"A new mission?" Yakumo asked, slipping on a kimono over her mess undershirt and ninja pants.
"Don't know. Let's go find out."
.
"There is something going on in the village. Check out the orphanage first, and check through their records for the past three years. I think there is something odd happening in there.
Previously, there used to be at least a few children that ended up dead in some accident or illness, but for the past few months, there have been no reports. I also don't recall implementing any new policies or changing the matron.
Your mission is to figure out the cause of the sudden change." Hiruzen ordered the team as he handed them the mission scroll.
'So, he's finally catching on, huh? Took him long enough.' Naruto thought as he hid his thoughts and expressions masterfully, as Kakashi and the team went through every detail listed in the scroll.
.
For the next two hours, the three were scouring through the records at the orphanage, looking through every detail, trying to find a needle in a haystack.
"What exactly are we looking for anyway? There are just scrolls upon scrolls in here." Sasuke asked in annoyance, thinking this time could be used for training instead of reading stupid records of a rundown orphanage.
"Look for anything suspicious or that doesn't make sense. Think of this as practice for intelligence collection missions for the future." Kakashi ordered as he too picked up a pile and began reading.
Among the four, Naruto was the most efficient member, making 50 clones and having them speed-read the documents, while the other three still went through the manual way.
"Boss found something." Suddenly, a clone shouted, before passing a scroll to the original Naruto, before going back to look for more documents.
"Kakashi, look at this. This states that a young boy of 4 became ill of a specific parasite and died before reaching 5 years of age.
But I remember that the parasite mentioned in here is one that's bred by the Aburame clan and that they also have the antidote if for some reason someone is infected by it. Also, this parasite hasn't been used by the clan for more than a decade." Naruto showed the team his findings, before explaining his theory.
"Hm. That's odd indeed. I also found two cases of children dying from the same parasite just now but didn't think about it too much. Figured the kids must have gotten it from the bushes or something.
But now that you say that I do remember reading about the Aburame clan's use of this parasite. They were using this a decade or so back to take out big bandit groups, but then they found something much better." Kakashi stroked his chin, as he recalled.
"Keep looking for similar cases. Good job naruto." With that, the team once again went through the hundreds of scrolls placed in the archives of the orphanage, as Naruto and his clones found many more similar cases, all showing cases of children dying for the most illogical reasons.
"Kakashi, I don't think this is as simple as it looks. I think these kids were either traded under the radar, or something bad has happened to them." Yakumo voiced out, seeing the tens of case files of children around 3-9, a huge stamp mark on their photos saying 'deceased'.
"I'm afraid there is something more that's going on than what's being reported. I think it's reasonable we have a talk with the matron of this orphanage." Kakashi said, as his thoughts went to a certain organization that was supposed to have shut down years ago.
"Sasuke, if you may," Kakashi asked the raven-haired Uchiha as they stood in front of a middle-aged woman, looking confused at the team.
"Sorry madam, but this won't hurt a bit," Sasuke said as his eyes blazed red, and the woman fell into a trance.
"What do you know about these kids?" Kakashi asked as he placed the case files of the deceased children in front of the woman.
"I..I—" as if faced by something horrid, the matron's face paled, her eyes widened, still under the Sharingan's genjutsu, but she couldn't say a word.
"That's strange. Ma'am, pull out your tongue." Naruto looked at this suspiciously and asked the hypnotized lady to open her mouth.
"mmhhhnn" on command, the lady closed her mouth tightly, fear evident in her eyes.
"Kakashi, I think I know what's going on." Naruto narrowed his eyes as he reached for the lady, quickly pressing a point on her neck, and knocking her out.
"See this? This is a seal that stops the user from saying anything that the seal is programmed to stop.
Moreover, the matron also had a seal on the back of her ear that prevents her from revealing anything under a genjutsu. When she had a look of fear and horror on her face, I felt it activate slightly.
Seeing all these precautions taken on a matron, I don't think this mission is as simple as it seems." Naruto explained as he tiled the woman's head to show the team his finding.
Being a sensor, an Uzumaki, and a seal master, Naruto was easily able to find out what each of the seals did and where they were placed.
"How do you know about the seals?" Kakashi asked in surprise. He had seen such seals before but believed them to be too advanced for the boy who was learning seals all on his own.
"I figured them out. It's very easy once you understand the underlying basics of the seal. Each component of the seal is designed to do a specific task, so it's not hard to figure it out.
But whoever placed these seals was someone skilled enough in this field.
For an average ninja, they couldn't even hope to extract information from this lady, but luckily, you guys have me." Naruto said proudly, as he began to unravel the fuinjutsu.
After fifteen minutes of work, the two seals were completely broken down, leaving the lady still unconscious on the ground, but a quick tap on her pressure points woke her up.
Soon, the interrogation was done swiftly through Sasuke's Sharingan and Kakashi's experience.
The revelations were shocking, to say the least. Once the team got the information, the matron was sent to the T&I department for further questioning, while Kakashi went alone to report to the Hokage.
"How can someone be so cruel. She didn't just sell all those children just for the money. She also willingly gave them away!" Yakumo asked in horror, as she was shaken to the core to hear about such blatant human trafficking occurring inside the walls of the village.
"To be honest, I had my suspicions when I was kicked out of this same orphanage when I was young.
Back then, the condition was dire, the Kyuubi incident had generated a lot of orphans, and the orphanage couldn't cope.
I recall thinking that when I was kicked out, at least I was able to give my share of resources to the other kids, but now that I think about it, no way saving one five-year-old child's resources allowed the orphanage to jump back on its feet.
But looking at this evidence we just found, this has been going on for a lot of years, right under our noses. Even the Hokage was unaware of this, it seems." Naruto recalled his past with a sad smile.
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.
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Another chapter coming up at the normal time.
Hiruzen has a very good sense, by figuring out something different has been happening in his village.
While he may have caught on too late, remember, he was possessed by Danzo a lot of times, and now that he finally got his full control back unknowingly, he has started to connect a few dots.
Keep reading to find out what happens next. Stay tuned, for the next chapter of Drago.... ahem. Let's not do such a cliche line.
Anyways, Enjoy.
