Chapter 49 - Truth Behind Missing People Revealed

"Is it Danzo doing?"

Standing on Hokage Rock, two teens appearing around thirteen stood there overlooking the village. One figure was a boy with black hair loosely tied back with dark eyes and fairly light skin. He wore a dark blue outfit with an overcoat with the sleeve rolled up to his elbow.

Next to him was a girl with long raven black hair tied into a long braid. She wore dark ninja pants and sandals with a large gray coat. All while having similar dark eyes that looked over the village in front of him.

These two were Senju Kagami and Uchiha Mira. It has been a few months since Mira's birthday when Kagami gifted her the Serum. Which allowed their bodies to grow stronger as their natural chakra reserves grew larger. Which combined with what many call the golden period to train and grow stronger. It wouldn't be a stretch to say they are climbing toward chakra reserves that used to belong to the gifted members of Senju or Uzumaki.

Which still paled in comparison to Hashirama and Naruto, but they were growing closer.

"Why do you say that?' Mira asked.

The two were currently tasked with helping solve the mystery behind the raise in missing people reports. There was a sudden spike once more and more than a dozen went missing in a short time. Which set many on edge and Hiruzen wanted it solved quickly.

"More than one noted that a few missing people were taken away with those wearing animal masks. I had investigated the ANBU and beside one or two who had previous conflict with an ANBU member a few years ago. There are no records of ANBU pulling in any missing civilians that is worth noting." Kagami explained.

"Which makes you believe Danzo is behind it or at least involved." Mira nodded. "The question though is why."

"It's no secret among the elders and most Jonin that Danzo does dark things behind closed doors. Only a very little of all he does is reported to the Hokage, mainly to keep Hiruzen to turn a blind eye to his activities." Kagami answered.

Mira frowned, "Isn't he a traitor than?"

Kagami thought about it for a moment and shrugged. "Hiruzen knows more about Danzo activities than Danzo believes he knows, but Danzo is very good at covering his tracks. So until Danzo does something grand or leaves enough evidence, Hiruzen has a headache. Danzo has many connections and unless he can find a good reason to make most of those connections vanish. It is better to place Danzo by his side to keep as many eyes on him than have Danzo vanish from sight totally."

"Politics?" Mira sighed.

"Politics."

"However, Danzo shouldn't be dumb enough to kidnap from the village." Mira answered.

"Yes, unless something happened recently to him or he is trying to get his partner in trouble. I don't believe Danzo is using the missing people himself but delivering them to someone." Kagami answered.

'Is it Orochimaru? It should be about time for Orochimaru to be discovered and defect from the village.' Kagami thought.

Since the show nor the manga really give a specific time range when Orochimaru defected from the village besides when Kakashi was a teenager and Itachi yet to join ANBU. Kagami could only roughly guess the time frame and compare it to a fan-made timeline alongside his own judgment and clues.

"That doesn't make sense either. Why would he try to rat out his partner? Unless that partner is becoming more greedy or not producing the results he needs quick enough."

"Bingo."

"So we need to determine who his partner is and gather evidence." Mira sighed. "However, is this partner even in the village?"

"I believe so, otherwise why would Danzo continue to kidnap so many from the village. It must be easier to pull from the village than pull someone from outside." Kagami answered.

"Has there been any results from ANBU search over the last few months?" Mira asked.

"Beside it being high ranking in the village from possible being an elder or elite jonin behind this. Then no, they haven't found much besides the other party is very skilled in covering their tracks." Kagami replied. "However, I do have an idea, but whether I'm right or not needs to be proven."

"You think it is either a researcher in the R&D department or Orochimaru, don't you."

Nodding however, Kagami leaned more towards Orochimaru for the cause. While they do many things in the R&D department, most of their current research is on weapons or attempting to improve or change his own creations. Since each time a chakra vehicle is sold, Kagami receives a fair amount of money, which few elders complain about.

As for why Orochimaru was on Mira's mind. Well it's because he is the only other jonin who has a laboratory outside the R&D department beside himself. Not to mention Orochimaru is very skilled and knows how to cover his tracks.

"Shall we check out Orochimaru first? It will be faster than going through the R&D department. If nothing else, just get it out of the way." Mira suggested.

Giving Mira mental thumbs up for heading to a big boss in the current times. Kagami nodded in agreement as they both left in the direction of Orochimaru public laboratory. For finding out where his hidden one is, well, that will require a bit of time.

--

After searching Orochimaru laboratory up and down, Mira sighed while Kagami noticed that a few devices were gathering a bit of dust. While it was not much, it told him that Orochimaru either hasn't done much research lately or research that can't be done here. Which he knew to be the case but felt weird to be doing a reverse investigation.

He knows that Orochimaru is behind the missing people, but at the same time is troubled about the evidence. Thinking mentally, he decided to search around this area, especially underground. Since Orochimaru will need the laboratory to be around this area, so he can easily slip in and out.

"Thank you, Orochimaru and sorry for the trouble." Mira apologized to Orochimaru who stood before them.

"No problem, I am sure the teacher is troubled by this. I hope you can catch whoever is behind this rise in missing people." Orochimaru licked his lips.

"I'm sure we will." Kagami replied.

A week later, Orochimaru was discovered for it took Kagami and Mira a week to track down his hidden laboratory. Thus, Orochimaru, an idol for many, became a missing nin.