Chapter 88- Three Body Problem

"We have received an assignment, so prepare yourselves. We will head out in an hour."

'My first case? Finally! I was getting tired of just patrolling the village. But the timing couldn't be worse. I was planning on training my body to get a good feel of the improvements. Oh well, I could always do that later.'

"What are we supposed to do?" Kagami asked.

"There have been some reports of missing people in the village, we will first head out and meet their families and conduct interviews with them to get a clear picture of what is happening."

'Interviews? I just hope that this will not take too lo- nope, I am not even going to think about it. I won't jinx it.'

"So, get ready and meet me at the entrance of the base," Fujioka finished. He then left his squad members to prepare themselves.

"It must be your lucky day Renjiro," Toda remarked.

"Why?" Renjiro asked.

"You are just an initiate, but you are already getting your first case. It's like someone specially requested our squad leader to take the mission," Tobe answered. The brothers shared a similar thought.

Fujioka, who was not far away from his squad's room, just smirked when he heard Tobe's statements. 

'Why are they acting like it's a big deal?' Renjiro was confused.

"Yeah, most of us got our very first case after we got to the third or fourth ranks. If you perform well, you might even move a rank or two." Hae added.

'But what's the benefit of moving up the ranks? It just means more work and responsibilities. Besides, in the next year, I will be one of the few shinobi with a Sharingan who aren't in the force.'

The four shinobi continued with their preparations all except Renjiro. The latter had formed a habit of carrying all his essentials like weapons, seals and even extra clothes in his modified seals. So, he was always prepared.

The squad then made their way towards the base entrance where they found Fujioka already waiting for them.

"Alright, as I earlier said, we will have to interview the missing civilians' relatives so that we can narrow down where to start our investigations," Fujioka began,

"There are fifteen missing civilians since we are six, I will go with Renjiro while we each interview three families. Are there any questions?"

The five shinobi before him shook their heads. 

"So here are the addresses," Fujioka handed them a bunch of scrolls.

"Once we are done with the interviews we will reconvene at the base," Fujioka said with finality as Kagami, Hae, Toda and Tobe each flickered to their respective addresses.

"We have three addresses, which one should we start with?" The squad leader turned to his initiate and asked.

Renjiro simply studied the scrolls before replying, "We should start with this one, followed by this and then that," he said while pointing at the scrolls.

"Good choice," Fujioka nodded.

They flickered off to the first address. Once Fujioka determined Renjiro's Body flickering speed, he quickened the pace.

'Am I in some sort of test? From the very start, I thought I was accompanying him since I was new to the squad, but from his actions, it feels like I am doing some sort of exam.' Renjiro thought as they entered the homestead of one of the missing civilians.

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Renjiro and Fujioka sat across from the worried family of the missing person in their modest home. Madam Tanaka, a middle-aged woman with worry lines etched on her face, clasped her hands tightly in her lap as she recounted the events leading up to her son's disappearance.

"I-I just don't understand," Mrs. Tanaka stammered, her voice trembling with emotion. "My son, Hiroshi, he's always been such a responsible boy. He left for work at the market like he does every morning, but he never came back."

Renjiro exchanged a glance with Fujioka before speaking gently to Mrs. Tanaka. "Mrs. Tanaka, can you tell us if Hiroshi had any enemies or if he was involved in any conflicts recently?"

Before they entered, Fujioka had made it clear to him that he was just going to observe and let Renjiro take the lead. This confirmed Renjiro's suspicions while also bothering him.

'This is my first mission, so why is he giving me this responsibility? I am not sure how things work here, but I am sure someone must have put him up to it.'

Madam Tanaka shook her head, tears welling up in her eyes. "No, no, Hiroshi is a good boy. He never gets into trouble with anyone. He's just trying to make an honest living for our family."

Fujioka leaned forward, his expression serious. "Do you know if Hiroshi had any debts or if he owed money to anyone?"

She hesitated before nodding slowly. "Yes, he mentioned something about owing money to a man who lent him some to start his own stall at the market. But Hiroshi said he was close to paying it off. He wouldn't run away because of that."

Fujioka paused before saying "Thank you, Mrs. Tanaka. We'll do everything we can to find Hiroshi and bring him home safely."

As they left the Tanaka residence, Renjiro turned to Fujioka, "Do you think Hiroshi's debt could be connected to his disappearance?"

Fujioka nodded grimly. "It's possible. We'll need to follow up on that lead and see if we can track down whoever Hiroshi owed money to. But first, let's gather more information from the other addresses."

From the other two addresses, there were two children missing. Unlike Hiroshi, these children just disappeared in one of the playgrounds in the village. But similar to Hiroshi's case, their parents had a debt that they failed to pay.

'They probably used some Genjutsu on them, that would be the only way, they could lead them off the village. But to do so, they must have used one of the village's entrances. The force guards the village, so this will look bad for the Uchiha Clan.'

When Fujioka and Renjiro returned back to the base, they found the rest of the squad already there.

"You guys are already done? Good, we can begin and save some time, Kagami how did the interviews go?" Fujioka asked. The rest began summarizing their findings, with Renjiro informing the squad of their findings, Fujioka calmly listened.

"So most of them are children?" Fujioka asked.

"Yes, and the two places they disappeared from the playground and market," Renjiro added.

"So we can start from there, let's gather more information from the market vendors and see if anyone saw anything suspicious on the day he went missing. if we don't find anyone, we can move to the person who lent them the money." Fujioka said.

They all did so and none of the vendors noticed anything wrong with the missing civilians before they disappeared. Their next course of action was to head to the place of the money lender.

The squad arrived at the address Madam Tanaka had provided for the loan shark, only to find the building abandoned. 

Renjiro frowned, his brow furrowing in confusion. "This doesn't make sense. Madam Tanaka was certain this was the place."

He used his chakra field to ascertain that the building was empty.

Kagami scanned the surroundings, "It looks like this place has been abandoned for a while. But that doesn't mean our lead is a dead end. There might still be clues inside."

They approached the building and pried open the door, the hinges groaning in protest, and stepped into the dim interior. 

They used their Sharingans to search every corner of the abandoned building. Renjiro squatted down as he noticed something.

'Hmm? Is this blood?'

"Fujioka-sama, I think I found something,"

Fujioka neared him, "Kagami, there is blood here."

Kagami sprung into action as he placed what looked like a seal and performed a hand sign. Their environs changed and something like a red essence became visible to Renjiro, who had activated his Sharingan.

"Was that a seal?" Renjiro asked.

"Wait," Kagami said.

The essence rose and started heading north. The squad followed the essence and it led to a shack behind. Once they opened the shack, a nauseating smell met them.

"What is that smell?" Tobe asked.

"Wait, are those bodies," Hae said as she neared the cause of the smells. Right before them, there were three dead bodies. A man and two children lay there dead with their bodies already decomposing.

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