Masked Man

10 Hours later, midnight

In the dark room of the recently promoted elder, sat a man reading through the stack pile of paper in front of him. He set the paper he was holding on to his desk, as he sighed and rubbed his eyes.

Fukagu has yet to reach a week in his office as an elder, but already has piles upon piles of paper. Hiruzen and the village as a whole has given him the task of protecting the village, making all the paperwork that was from Hiruzen be transferred to Fukagu.

As Fugaku turned around and looked at the village from the large window, a sudden swish sound could be heard behind him, as a ninja wearing the newly designed 'Guardian' uniform. The man wasn't wearing any mask, as he was no longer from the anbu.

Fugaku, still looking at the village, asked, "What is it?"

"There have been reports of missing civilians and corpses being dug out from the grave," answered the ninja while kneeling down.

Fugaku sighed and turned around, "I have already seen the report, that was from a week ago."

"You're right, sir… But this time, the disappearances suddenly stopped since your election for the Elder position. It may be because they are afraid of the newly built 'Guardian.'"

Fukagu sat back down and looked through the papers from a week ago, trying to find any information about the case. After finally finding the paper, he quickly read it and threw it back onto the desk and ordered the ninja, "Dispatch a chunin team on the outskirts of Konoha. If they are scared of the newly formed Guardians, then they might be organizing and testing the waters to see what we're made of."

"Sir!" The ninja answered and quickly disappeared.

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The three Chunin ninjas that were dispatched to investigate the outskirts were a newly assigned police force. The police force is now directly under the jurisdiction of the Guardians. The three that were dispatched to the outskirts were merely 17-18 years old civilian ninjas that wanted to prove that they were capable just like the Uchihas.

"Man, why do we have to go to the outskirts and into this random forest? Shouldn't we be going to some super cool investigation mission outside of Konoha?" said one of the dispatched Chunin.

"Don't be stupid, Guriki, we're here for a reason," said the second Chunin named Onanaba.

"Yeah, the Police Force has been investigating this matter for a while now, and we have sent numerous letters to Lord Third, but he is far too busy so weren't given orders. But now, we have Lord Fugaku that isn't as busy as Lord Third," said the oldest one out of the group, named Susato.

"Why here exactly then?"

"Well, that's because there have been weird activities in these areas, such as: Foul smell, blood stains, and just overall creepiness to it. It's also a great hideout for anyone," answered Susato.

As the three walked further in the forest, Susato suddenly held his hands up, giving a sign to stop. All three of them stopped and looked in front of them for a couple of seconds, until a man came out of the shadows.

The man had a white kimono with blood stains all over his kimono. He had a wolf mask on, that had 3 scars on its left eyes. The masked man also had a pale left arm and blood dripping down on the arm.

"Who are you?! Speak!" Yelled Susato.

The masked man just kept on walking towards them, making the three stiff. They all looked at each other and nodded, then launched themselves towards the masked man. Guriki jumped and tried to kick the masked man in the face, but the masked man merely ducked. However, as he ducked, Onanaba suddenly appeared behind him. He held his sword that was on his back and took it out of its scabbard and swung it towards the masked man.

The masked man kicked Onanaba before the blade could connect. After kicking Onanaba, he quickly spun around and kicked Guriki right on his face.

"Fire style: Great Fireball!"

The masked man looked at his left and quickly jumped, avoiding the flames. After the flames were done, he performed hand signed of his own,

"Wind Style: Air Bullets!"

Susato tried to dodge the wind jutsu but failed. His right arm had a hole in them, making him unable to perform any more Jutsu. The two other Chunin yelled his name and dashed towards him, but was quickly stopped by another Jutsu from the masked man,

"Wind Style: Vacuum Great Sphere!"

The two managed to dodge the ninjutsu but could not save their comrade. They yelled their friends' names and cursed the masked man. Out of anger, both of them rushed towards the masked man, with Onanaba going to the right and Guriki going to the left.

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Close to the battle, in the bustling market of Konoha

Two figures could be seen in the crowd. Both the man and the woman had a jonin vest and were eating ice cream, walking and laughing leisurely. The man had yellow hair while the woman had red hair.

They were Minato and Kushina. As they walked, Kushina tried to touch Minato's arm with her pinky finger. The both of them blushed, but their moment was quickly stopped as they sensed something in the direction of the forest.

Kushina and Minato looked at each other with a serious face, unlike their happy and flushed face from just a moment ago. They both nodded at each other and vanished from where they stood, heading towards the forest.

As they got closer to the forest, the smell of blood entered their nostrils, making them frown. Kushina was the one that broke the silence and asked,

"Do you think it's a fight between someone from our village and an enemy village?"

Minato answered, "I highly doubt that… The barrier would have alerted us if someone entered without our permission, and the only people that are capable of that are the Uzumakis."

Kushina made a sad face for a couple of seconds, which Minato had to apologize for and brighten up the mood. However, the mood would soon be broken again as they saw 3 dead ninjas wearing the Police Force uniform.

Minato walked towards the dead body of Susato to investigate, while Kushina watched his back for any potential enemy.

"Died from a wind style jutsu. From the looks of it, he died without getting to fight him in taijutsu. He was killed with only two wind style jutsu…" Said Minato.

"The killer must be a skilled ninja," Added Kushina.

Minato patted Susato and found an ID, "18-year-old, a civilian Chunin shinobi…"

Kushina gritted her teeth and clenched her fist, which was noticed by Minato who just sighed and stood up. After calming down Kushina, Minato walked towards the dead body of Guriki and analyzed like he did with Susato.

The wounds from Guriki were different than Susato. Guriki had 10 holes in his body, and the more Minato looked into the holes, he could not find out what was used to make those holes, until he found something that shocked him.

"From the looks of it, he did not die from taijutsu or kenjutsu… That only leaves us with ninjutsu that could create these holes, but I don't know what kind of ninjutsu it is…" Minato looked closer and saw tiny things inside the wounds, "This…"

"What is it?" Asked Kushina.

Minato looked at Kushina and showed her what he found. Minato was showing a small splinter of wood. Kushina did not understand at first, but soon understood what Minato was implying.

"No… That can't be… Maybe the killer just used a wooden stick or a wooden sword to kill them"

Minato stared at Kushina and said, "I doubt it. The wounds look too clean and I have never heard of anyone using a wooden sword in battle. This is either wood style, the same as Lord First, or it's a replica of it."

"We're looking into a dangerous individual, who has the power of an elite jonin and could possibly have wood style," Added Minato.

Kushina looked serious and said, "We need to report this to Lord Third immediately!"

Swoosh

Swoosh

The two quickly disappeared, leaving nothing in the scene. The three bodies were now gone, they were put into a scroll by Kushina and were going to be used as evidence.

Unbeknownst to the two, a small white snake was watching them the whole time, and as the two disappeared, it only stared at the scene for a couple of seconds and slithered away, heading deeper into the forest.

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Questions of the day:

If you suddenly became Minato, what is the first thing you're gonna do?

Who's winning the 2023-2024 NBA championship?