Chapter – 257 Greedy Cat!

There are only a handful of people in the shinobi would who would dare to attack or cause trouble with the Raikage.

Kuroto is no exception to this, as even he is unwilling to cause conflict with Raikage unless absolutely necessary, so the identity of the attacker is not so hard to guess, in all likelihood, it has to be the handiwork of Akatsuki, and this guess is more than likely to be true because there is mention of this member with plant-like appearance, which has to be Zetsu without a doubt.

But Kuroto is a little puzzled as to why would Akatsuki attack and intercept Raikage and his two guards?

'Moreover, even if they did attack, why would they want to blame this upon Amatsukami? Are they worried about something? That… should probably… not be the case, right!?' – thought Kuroto but he wasn't so sure.

At this time, Shisui who has also read the information asked Kakashi, "There is too little information about the enemy here, did Raikage not fight the new suspected member of Amatsukami?"

Kakashi shook his head awkwardly, "Raikage… Raikage was actually too impatient and rashly chased after this member of Amatsukami and was deliberately led away, neither was he able to catch this member nor did he have any battle with him. So, there is not much we know about this enemy."

"But it can be determined that Amatsukami's target was probably Rai." – After a pause, Shisui continued, "Rai's life and death status are unknown, but what could be the reason that Amatsukami went after Rai, weren't their target the nine Bijuu, so why to attack a non-Jinchuriki, after all, we do know that Amatsukami does not attack any unrelated party, so why attack him? Was it just the bounty on his head or did they hope to extract any information out of him, like the probable location of the Jinchuriki, or maybe the secrets of Storm Release?"

Kakashi said, "Both are possible, the second reason is more than likely to be the case, based on the fact that Amatsukami has already kidnapped two Uchiha Shinobi, it wouldn't be wrong to judge that Amatsukami is also targeting shinobi with different Kekkei Genkai too, but we can't loosen our guards as who knows when they will start to target Bijuu..."

Guy continued, "The threat on Naruto is more eminent; if Amatsukami dares to openly attack Raikage's entourage just for Kekkei Genkai user, unlike the other times when they carried out sneak attacks, there is no telling whether they will again sneak inside Konoha and try to do steal the Kyuubi, as such Hokage-sama has added more manpower to ensure Uzumaki Naruto's safety!"

'Storm Release huh!?' – Hearing Kakashi and Guy's words, Kuroto suddenly recalled Hiruko, and thought, 'Is it possible that Akatsuki's attack on this Storm Release user is related to Hiruko?'

Kuroto is not sure, this is because it's too early for Hiruko to act, even in the original series, Hiruko started to steal Kekkei Genkai when Naruto's generation had already grown up into teenage, it was also at that time that Hiruko completed his imperfect Chimera Technique.

But Kuroto has to also take into account that there have already been too many changes in the timeline, as such, the sudden attack and disappearance of this storm Release user at the hands of Akatsuki does lead to the possibility. Since Hiruko has joined Akatsuki, so this could be the only reason.

'But how come Hiruko manage to perfect Chimera Technique so early? Is it because he joined Akatsuki and got all the help he needed to complete that technique?' – thought Kuroto.

This could be the only possible case.

After completing their shift, Team-11 separated and went to their respective homes.

Shisui and Kuroto were going in the same direction, and after Kakashi and Guy left, he asked eagerly, "Kuroto-san, what's going on? Are there other members in Amatsukami?"

"If there were other members in Amatsukami, then why would I not inform you about them in advance!?" – snorted Kuroto, and continued, "The person who attacked Raikage and his entourage is someone else pretending to be a member of Amatsukami; their goal is obviously to put the blame of their actions on our head!"

Shisui was immediately angry, "Scoundrels! Kuroto-san, let's find them!"

Kuroto glanced at Shisui and said, "Don't be in such a hurry!" Then asked after a pause, "First answer this question of mine, what is the objective of Amatsukami?"

Shisui was confused as to why would Kuroto-San ask this, but he answered nonetheless, "To solve the conflict between the Uchiha Clan and the village?"

Kuroto nodded, "That's not exactly correct but it is one of the objectives in the big game, so does it really matter whether someone is putting the blame of their action upon Amatsukami? Although their intentions are obviously malicious towards us, by doing so, they are actually helping us further increase the threat of Amatsukami in the eyes of everyone, so this is obviously very helpful for us!"

Shisui thought a little and said, "Right, the more threat Amatsukami poses, the more concerned the Clan and village will grow towards them, so the internal conflict will continue to get delayed as time passes."

"Exactly!" – Kuroto nodded.

"But… but these people are doing such things and using our name to put on the blame, I always feel a bit uncomfortable, are we going to let them do as they wish?"

Kuroto said casually, "I have a few things in mind that we will be doing to deal with this problem, so you don't need to worry about this too much, what we should focus on now is to ensure Uzumaki Naruto's safety, because Akatsuki will definitely target Kyuubi!"

Shisui nodded as he understands the importance of Kyuubi for Konoha, and Uzumaki Naruto who hosts the Kyuubi must be protected at all costs.

With this final understanding, Shisui bid Kuroto farewell and returned to his home.

…

Kuroto who also returned to his home pondered a little, after biting his finger and printing the hand signs, Kuroto tapped his hand on the ground and muttered, "Summoning Jutsu!"

Poof…

Followed by a puff of white smoke, an all too familiar orange cat appeared before Kuroto that… didn't… look... familiar at all!

Kuroto frowned seeing this, it's because this orange cat's orange hair was covered in some stripes, these stripes were black in color over the orange fur, making the cat unrecognizable at the first glance.

Even Kuroto was a little confused and doubtful whether this is the same greedy cat, "You are…?"

Kasai, who was suddenly summoned by Kuroto looked a bit annoyed and said, "Meow, I am dying my hairs today, so I would not be delivering any message for today."

As soon as he heard that voice, Kuroto was sure that this fake tiger is definitely the same Kasai, and asked with s smile, "You gave me a good shock Kasai, for a moment I thought that a real tiger appeared in my room, those stripes look so real on you!" – said Kuroto in a fake surprise.

"Really?" – hearing from Kuroto, the cat was suddenly joyful and happily curled on the table, "Do they really look real? I guess I didn't do anything wrong after agreeing to his offer, the tiger stripes are dyed markings, I felt that when I get these markings, I will look intimidating and mighty."

'Who fooled this stupid cat?' – Kuroto thought but did not speak it out loud, and said, "Anyway, I called you because I want you to pass on a message to Shinichi."

The cat didn't seem to have heard what Kuroto spoke as it was busy daydreaming about how mighty and ferocious it will look with the tiger stripes, "Huh, it seems that hair dye shop is pretty good, you can also visit it and get some tiger stripes in the future if you want, I am telling you, you will also look intimidating, meow!"

Punch… crack…

Kuroto beat the table to bring Kasai out of his daydream and spoke, "Did you hear what I just said? I said that I called you this time because I want you to pass on a message to Shinichi for me!"

Kasai denied immediately, "Meow, I have to go back and complete the dying of my hair, consider me unavailable until then."

As soon as the cat spoke, Kuroto immediately took out a thousand Ryo bill and put it in front of Kasai.

"How about now?" – asked Kuroto.

A tangled expression was evident on Kasai's face, it still didn't faze it, looking back and forth between the thousand Ryo bill on the table and him, Kasai, shook his head, "It… gulp… I have to dye my hair…"

'Greedy Cat!' – Before Kasai could complete that sentence, Kuroto took out another thousand Ryo Bill and placed over the previous one, "How about now, do you still have to dye your hair?"

As soon as two bills were present in front, the cat's eyes were glued to them but still shook his head, "Hahaha… don't be funny, bribing me won't get you…"

Before Kasai could complete his words, Kuroto again took out another bill of thousand Ryo and put it over the previous two, and side while gritting his teeth, "I am sorry! I didn't hear you correctly, so what were you saying?"

By now the cat already had stars shining in his eyes and saliva literally dripping from the corners of his mouth, as soon as Kuroto asked the question, the cat fiercely grabbed the three thousand Ryo, and immediately put them inside the small bag hung around the neck while patting the chest with a determined expression, "Meow, you are of course a special exception to this, what message needs to be passed on to Shinichi, give it to me, I swear in the name of Nekobaa that it will be delivered in one minute!"

…

One of the many training grounds of the Uchiha Clan.

Uchiha Hiiragi, who had been training for the whole day, dropped his sword on the ground and wiped off the sweat with a hand towel.

The previous encounter with Homusubi has become a shame for Hiiragi, being defeated is another thing altogether, but being treated as nothing more than trash, and yet not being able to take a single step in the face of the enemy has become a thorn in Hiiragi's heart, he has not been able to let go of that look he received from Homusubi.

"To think that I would be intimidated by just a mere glance of his, it's unforgivable!" – whenever he thinks of that scene, Hiiragi not only feels anger at Homusubi but also upon himself, but he is ashamed of himself and his weakness, 'First I lost to Hyuga Kuroto, and now this Homusubi!?'

So, to make sure that such a thing does not happen again, Hiiragi has been constantly training whenever he is on a break or holiday from his regular Konoha Military Police Duties.

The effort he has been putting in is obviously being paid off as Hiiragi feels that his strength is steadily improving.

And this has made him feel somewhat better, but he still too far from reaching Homusubi's level who can fight against Kumo's A-B brothers at the same time.

After having wiped off the sweat, just as Hiiragi was about to draw his sword that rested on the ground, an unusual spiraling whirl appeared in front of him.

Hiiragi was immediately cautious and asked, "Who are you?"

He asked this because Hiiragi saw a figure emerging out of the eye of the spiraling whirl…

.

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