Naruto: Passerby and Returnee

Chapter 290 "Mystery"

"You mean, the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki is in the Land of Frost right now?" Upon hearing this news, Madara surprisingly repeated the information, speaking very quickly.

"Yes, the first White Zetsu clone sent out to probe was killed, confirming that it was undoubtedly the Nine-Tails itself," Black Zetsu said slowly.

"As expected, he was the one who killed our brothers who died in Konoha." White Zetsu feigned concern, wiping away his tears with his serrated leaf.

"Disgusting! You call spore products 'brothers'?" Black Zetsu said with disgust.

"They were trained with great care by us..."

"Shut up." Madara abruptly stopped the useless conversation and said, "Before the golem was infused with the tailed beast, its chakra was integrated with nature and could not be detected by ordinary senses. Don't worry about it."

"This is the closest a Jinchuriki has ever come to a Golem, but it's the last one... what a pity." Pain, with his Sage Eyes wide open, stepped out of the shadows, accompanied by a purple-haired woman with flowers in her hair.

These are the core members of "Akatsuki" at present.

"Although I only glanced at it, Jiraiya is also in this group." Black Zetsu dropped another bombshell.

"Ku-Tails is Jiraiya's newly accepted disciple. It's common sense that a Jinchuriki must be accompanied when leaving the village. With the current rate of progress of Ku-Tails, in the future, it might not be Itachi who can match him, but you. He is your junior brother..." Madara's only eye under the mask was observing Pain through the mask, but this person's will seemed quite firm and unwavering.

"This is a necessary sacrifice, all for eternal peace. Whoever he is, he needs to sacrifice himself for the greater good." Payne's eyes glowed with a pale purple light, and his indifferent gaze resembled the image of a god as people imagined him.

God should exist beyond the mortal realm, fairly weighing the costs, treating all fairly, and then fairly bestowing blessings. He should possess the strongest soul, indifferent to everything, yet filled with compassion for humanity. In this way, all people are equal in God's eyes... Isn't equality the most difficult thing to find in the world?

Madara sneered beneath his mask. That's how it is; people like him are the easiest to control. After personally killing Yahiko, Nagato was left with nothing but empty slogans; even his hatred was built by Madara. Now, revealing the beauty of the Eye of the Moon, obtaining this pawn is a foregone conclusion.

However, in the initial vision of the future, there was no place for Nagato; he was a sacrifice chosen early on, solely to summon the true executor. But Madara admired him, so he had no such intention. Perhaps it's a characteristic of the Uchiha clan to always want to do things personally? If a way to remove the restrictions could be found, he could... personally fulfill his wish.

"Have all White Zetsu temporarily refrain from entering or leaving the base to reduce the risk of being discovered. Have you clarified their mission?"

"There's no need to investigate this. It's a public mission from the Frost Kingdom, supposedly to investigate a missing persons case."

"Ban" didn't pay much attention to the movements of the Frost Kingdom. He only needed to ensure that the Mountain Cemetery was a forbidden area in the eyes of the locals. At this moment, he didn't think too much and directly issued the order: "Help where you can and make them get out of here as soon as possible."

"understood."

Compared to the risk of their base being destroyed, it doesn't matter whether their underlings suffer any losses; all they need is the result.

"This must be data accumulated over a long period of time, right?" Naruto frowned as he looked at the numbers on the document.

In Hui's territory, the disappearance of even one person is a major issue, because these individuals are connected to families, communities, and jobs. Driven by the belief that everyone should have a good life, everyone in the territory needs to be registered and have their identity verified, ensuring no one is overlooked when assigning jobs. Only large cities like Wande can't guarantee job placement, but anyone wanting work must have identification; those from out of town need entry permits. Therefore, disappearing silently into their territory is no easy feat.

However... the number of missing persons reported by the Frost Kingdom has reached five figures! What kind of administrative dysfunction is this?!

Faced with this question, Ye Ming finally lost his usual ease and said with unease and sadness, "This is indeed a long-term figure. It is a list of all suspected missing persons compiled by me over the past ten years. However, due to the long time span, a lot of information is incomplete, and there are many illegal immigrants we cannot count. Even though the time span is long, the average annual number of missing persons is still quite alarming. This is indeed our dereliction of duty."

Naruto managed to salvage some of his negative impression of Yoru, because the guy's sadness was genuine. The leader, habitually comforting people, said, "You don't look very old, and you haven't been working for very long, have you?"

"I grew up with His Majesty the King, so I started getting involved in politics as soon as I was old enough to understand things."

"But exposure doesn't mean you can make any changes; you need to firmly grasp power. Aren't you already working hard before you've even warmed your seat? Don't be too hard on yourself. If we have to say who failed in their duty, it's clearly the guy who was in charge of these things before."

Naruto's words were quite blunt, to the point that outsiders might suffer if they heard them, but he precisely hit the spot that touched Ye Ming, causing the young man who always wore a mask to reveal a different expression.

"...Do you see things so clearly because you empathize with them?"

Naruto smiled faintly, then quickly regained his seriousness, because the numbers on the document were simply not something to joke about.

"So, can you tell me about your investigation direction? I see you've divided the areas where the missing persons are located and marked their occupations." Once Naruto was in work mode, he was like a completely different person, attracting the attention of Sakura, who was diligently flipping through her books, and Jiraiya, who was already distracted.

"My initial plan was to look for commonalities among these people, hoping to trace their whereabouts from their disappearances. If I could find even one or two of them, I would obtain the most crucial clue. However, in the Frost Country, where transportation is so inconvenient, I couldn't find any commonalities in the areas where they disappeared. It seems like it could happen anywhere, and anyone could be a victim..."

"Including nobles?"

Ye Ming's eyes widened slightly, and he calmly replied, "Nobles have many guards around them and never travel alone. I was once a member of the guards, so I know that most of them value their lives and would not seek death."

"They specifically target the elderly, weak, women, and children who are alone?"

"That's not necessarily true; they seem to be more interested in younger men."

"The timing of the occurrence is also not fixed?"

"Yes, and multiple incidents can occur simultaneously."

After asking a few more questions, Naruto realized this case was difficult to solve. It had clues, but they were broad and lacked focus, practically meaningless. He even considered scanning the entire city, but Sakura was right there, and he couldn't let her notice anything amiss.

Are we just supposed to wait for the next case to happen?