Chapter 35

- We don't know anything," said a thin old man with a bushy beard and tangled hair:

- After a shake, the water's gone. There is no water, and there won't be any, I guess. And there are no strangers, strangers don't take root here, hard work is not like throwing iron," the village headman raised his gnarled finger overhead. 

- Think about it, Wai-san. Maybe something unusual has happened in the past few years, like strange people wandering around or a merchant stopping by," I insist.

- Merchants don't come to us, they come to Minou-sama," he said, nodding toward the manor hidden behind the trees.

- Nothing interesting ever happened after the shaking," the old man said as confidently as possible. 

- Maybe a hundred ryu will jog your memory. - I take a large coin out of my wallet and twirl it in my fingers.

The dim gaze of the chief black-footed man of the village comes to life and fixes on the coin. The old man almost drools with desire for the coin. 

- Indeed, something does come to mind.....

I take out the second coin.

- Ha! Rumor has it that the earth is drying up not only here," said the revived grandfather:

- They say that where the Cursed One takes away young girls, water and crops disappear. My wife's brother once told me in confidence that this evil desert spirit came from the Land of Wind to take away our water, and his name is... - grandfather looked around his house, looked through the window, then leaned a little towards me and said with a gasp:

- Ichibi! One-tailed Tanuki! He's decided to take over our land and...

- I understand, thank you for the information, Elder, but we'll be going," I interrupt him. I give him one coin, and put the other in my purse. 

After saying goodbye to the headman, we went outside. There were a lot of children jumping up and down in every direction. Some of the kids hid and watched the scary shinobi from afar, and some of them ran away. 

A village, yeah, it's a whole fucking city! The size of this 'village' was slightly smaller than Konoha. And according to Dan-sensei, it's not even that big, I can't even imagine what size cities would be! And he told us at the Academy that some villages were very crowded. 

  We've been looking for evidence and interviewing people for five fucking days, five fucking days, to no avail. Nobody saw anything, nobody knows anything. Zero evidence! 

- I wouldn't want to be born here," Anzu said as she looked at the dirty girl of five, thin and ugly.

- Not only do peasants have to plow from morning till night in order not to starve, but they live on average thirty years... - I support the conversation.

- Let's go, we won't learn anything new here," I nod toward the road. 

After walking along it for a while, we rushed into the forest, only to reach the strange seal a couple dozen minutes later. The seal was the only clue to the culprit's whereabouts so far. Sensei had already sent a request for help to Konoha. A Fuin expert should arrive here today or tomorrow to disarm the seal of unknown purpose. 

  - Dan-sensei, when the specialist arrives, will we be removed from the mission? - After a couple minutes of arriving at the stone with the Fuin carved on it, I ask the question I'm interested in.

- It's hard to say. Most likely, we'll be used as reinforcements for the incoming team, but we might also be sent home. It all depends on the function of the facility," Dan-sensei shrugged. 

- The mission won't count," Anzu sighed sadly.

While the teacher was explaining the intricacies to the girl, I moved closer to the stone.

"What was the purpose of killing ordinary people? Why did the unknown man suspend them over the seal? Why eliminate the witnesses so spectacularly? Did he want us to see, or was he afraid and made a mistake?" - I searched for the right questions, looking at the star with many rays.

"Rays?"

"Nah, it can't..." - I questioned the sanity of the thought that came to mind.

- Look, let's go that way," I say loudly and point to where one of the beams is pointing. 

Torio followed my swing, then shifted his gaze to Fuin. There was a look of doubt on his face.

- Aki-kun, that's too easy," Senju spoke up.

- There are no leads anyway," I shrug and add:

- To mark our location on the map... But I'm not sure of the accuracy of mine," I said regretfully.

- Mark," Torio hands me a detailed map of the Hanguri region.

After a little bit of work, I found the customer's estate first, but then there were difficulties.

- We need to calculate the number of kilometers to the manor in a straight line, - folding the map I inform my comrades.

- Basically, we have nothing to lose. After these words, the girl calls Shu-Shu, a small brown and black speckled slug, and asks him to do her bidding and calculate the distance between Fuin and the manor. 

The slug, not yet able to speak, squeaks something joyfully and crawls away at breakneck speed. 

- Anzu-chan, can Shu-Shu handle it? There will be trees along the way... and she doesn't look very smart," I glanced questioningly at the summoned animal that had fled.

- Foo-foo-foo, don't underestimate Shu-shu. Trust me, she can do it! Or do you want to do it the old-fashioned way, counting steps? 

- We'll wait," Torio sits down on the grass and pulls out his sword and begins to run a sharpening stone across its blade.

Soon the point was marked. 

- Shu-Shu is tired," Anzu rejected my suggestion to send Anzu slug toward the direction of the fuin beam. 

- Too bad, we'll have to go ourselves. I think it's about four hours straight, and if there's nothing there, we'll go back and wait for the specialist," I decided. 

Three hours later we found her, another fuin dugout. 

- No casualties," Torio said glumly after looking around the empty room.

- The rays are directed differently," the girl murmured, sitting down beside the stone.

- Were sacrifices necessary? - The comrades look at me questioningly.

- See, we've taken it on faith that torturing the girls was necessary for the seal to work. But what if it wasn't? 

Uchiha rejects my theory:

-Few facts. That seal is central. Look, - he took out the map, oriented by the sun, and drew a series of lines from the new point (we were counting the distance the whole way) in the direction of the rays. There were several points surrounding the central seal. 

Anzu nodded her head:

- It makes sense that sacrifices should be made to the central seal... Most likely corpses are needed. Remember those bodies hanging in the cleansed lair? Each one of them had a strange seal on them that we haven't figured out the purpose of. Maybe it's some kind of preservation? And I agree with Torio-kun. Remember the bodies! Each girl was meticulously worked on, the wounds are almost identical... As is the way the skin was removed. 

I looked at the map, trying to figure out what was confusing me about my comrades' arguments. I furtively shot a glance at Sensei, who was still calm and detached, as if he had nothing to do with what was going on.

"Think, Aki! Realize what's bothering you!" - I kicked myself. 

"You have to line up the events in your mind in order."

- As we know, there was a drought after the earthquake. The underground springs became shallow and the soil began to dry up. Rainwater disappeared without a trace. Then, more recently, a year ago, the kidnapping of girls began," I say aloud. A question pops into my head:

- Why did the intruder kill the landowner's daughter? 

  Laying dry branches in the firepit, Senju froze. The Uchiha looked up from the map.

- Why kill witnesses in such a spectacular way? It's like they're yelling, "I'm a shinobi! Look what I can do! 

- Wait-wait-wait," the girl waved her hands, pushing aside a branch:

- It's really stupid, isn't it? The landlord couldn't help but know that the landlord couldn't help but summon shinobi. Or it's a mistake," Senju began.

- Or someone wanted shinobi sent here," I exhaled.

- This is bad," the Uchiha muttered seriously.

Sensei, listening to our conversation, tensed up a bit.

- But after showing us the fuin, there's no way someone couldn't have known we'd call in a specialist," Senju's eyes widened.

- I don't think anyone is capable of destroying the Seal Master's guard unit," Sensei assured us.

- And everything was going so smoothly," the girl sighed sadly.

I wasn't so adamant. Sensei was clearly tense, and it looked like we had surprised him. Maybe he had a different theory that he didn't doubt, and our fresh look at some things allowed him to revise the facts and come to the same conclusion. 

In the meantime, it was beginning to get dark. We set up camp a couple of kilometers away from the rock near which the false fire was burning. 

My eyes didn't want to close. My soul was tormented by doubts. 

I would very much like to see it through, but unfortunately, such missions are beyond me at the moment. I don't have enough knowledge, experience, chakra, after all!

"A specialist will arrive tomorrow with the team and I will at least be able to see how the professionals work."