Chapter 174: The Impossible Trail

While moving, Akihiko observed the map. He said, "This village is Tsumagoi. It was the 5th village to have its children kidnapped. We will separate into 3 groups. I, Sora and Masaru will lead each group. Mieko, Fujin, you two will come with me. Genji and Shunko will be with Masaru. Haru, you will work with Sora."

Everyone nodded. Akihiko continued, "We will visit the homes of the missing kids one by one and see from where they went missing. We will investigate that location and check any trails from that location until we find the right one."

The group moved at full speed and reached the village in less than an hour. They met up with the Village Chief and divided into the 3 groups. Each group had an official from the village leading them.

Mieko and Fujin followed Akihiko. They reached a small home. The official knocked on the door. In a few seconds, a middle-aged woman opened the door. Fujin could observe that her health didn't seem very good. Inside the house, he could see a middle-aged man and 2 old people.

She said in a weak voice, "Kaito-sama. Is there any news about my daughter?"

Kaito was the official who had joined the group. He said, "We are working all the time. We will find them soon. These Konoha ninjas have arrived here to look for them. Please cooperate with them."

The woman looked at Akihiko. Akihiko asked, "Can you tell me where you last saw your daughter?"

The lady said, "She had gone out to play with her friends. They all went missing!"

She began sobbing.

Akihiko asked, "Can you lead me to the playground?"

The woman nodded. Her husband came out and said, "I'll also come with you."

Akihiko nodded.

The group headed to the playground. On reaching, they saw that the playground had been sealed and barricaded. Kaito said, "We restricted entry to the playground after the kids went missing."

Akihiko asked, "Did all children who were playing in this playground go missing?"

Kaito answered, "No. Only 6 children went missing from this playground. More children were playing here, but they didn't notice anything. In total, 23 children went missing from the village. In addition to these 6, 11 more were playing in other playgrounds before going missing."

Akihiko nodded and said, "Mieko, check the playground for footsteps with me. Fujin, use your sensor skills to see if you can find anything odd."

Mieko nodded and entered the playground alongside Akihiko. Meanwhile, Fujin wondered, 'Did he just give me a useless task just to make me feel included?'

He spread his chakra field and observed by focusing the chakra in his eyes but couldn't find anything. Since it was pointless, he stopped wasting his chakra and just waited for Akihiko and Mieko to find something.

Akihiko and Mieko had their Sharingans active the entire time. They looked at the entire playground to observe the footprints. Most of the footprints had already been messed up due to the winds and the investigation carried out by Kusagakure ninjas. However, their Sharingans could still notice the footprints.

After searching for around 10 minutes, both Akihiko and Mieko arrived at the same end of the playground. Akihiko looked back and called everyone. Fujin, Kaito and the kid's parents walked towards him.

Akihiko looked at the parents and said, "You guys can go home. I will try my best to find your daughter and bring her back safely."

The woman broke down again, while her husband thanked him and left with her. Akihiko said, "There are many footprints leaving the playground. Most of them are at normal exits. However, this area isn't someplace where anyone would leave the playground normally. There are footprints of 6 small kids and 2 adults here. And someone has tried to hide them with Wind jutsu."

As he said, he looked at Kaito. Kaito immediately said, "I'm sure that no one from our village would do it. It is probably the kidnappers."

Akihiko nodded and made a shadow clone. He said, "Fujin, stay here with my clone."

Fujin nodded. Akihiko, Mieko and Kaito followed the footprints.

Akihiko's clone said, "We will ensure that no one disturbs the playground. If anyone comes here unintentionally, make them turn back. If anyone tries to create trouble, then you have permission to kill. Though if you can avoid killing, then just knock him unconscious for us to interrogate."

Fujin nodded. Akihiko and Mieko kept following the footmarks. They walked for around 200 meters before stopping. The place where they stopped was completely isolated. There were no homes in this area, it was completely covered by trees and had no roads in it. Hence, the villagers would never walk through here.

Mieko said, "The footprints end here. Instead, more footprints are coming from other directions."

Akihiko nodded and said, "Yes. 21 of those footprints are of young kids. 8 of adults."

Mieko frowned and said, "Assuming that they brought all the kidnapped kids here, why are 2 footprints missing?"

Akihiko replied, "Perhaps the kidnappers were carrying them. After all, some of the kidnapped kids are just over 2 years old."

Kaito interrupted them and asked, "Were all the kidnapped kids brought here?"

Akihiko nodded and said, "Most likely."

He asked in excitement and hope, "So can you track them from here?"

Unfortunately, his hopes would be dashed. Akihiko said, "It isn't that easy. Though there are many footmarks coming to this place, there are very few that go away. None of the kids walked away from here. So it will be difficult to trace them."

Kaito frowned but didn't say anything.

Mieko asked, "What now, Uncle?"

Akihiko said, "Let's wait for Sora and Masaru to arrive here. We will try to backtrack the footprints to see how they arrived here. We can be more sure of the result if all 3 teams reach the same conclusion."

Mieko nodded.

They waited. After around 15 minutes, Sora's team arrived. Masaru's team arrived a few minutes later. All 3 teams had reached the same conclusion.

Akihiko said, "Let's trace these 8 footprints and see where they come from. It will be easy if some of them are from this village. Else, we will be out on a long trail."

Sora and Masaru nodded.

All 3 teams began tracing the footprints. Akihiko and Mieko soon returned to the playground where Fujin was. Akihiko's clone dispelled itself. Akihiko and Mieko followed the trail of the footprints in the playground. Fujin followed behind.

Soon, they left the playground. They walked through the streets. At some point, the footprints split in two directions. Akihiko made a clone to trail the other footprint, but soon, they met again. After trailing everything, they reached the village gate.

Mieko sighed, "We will have to search in the wild!"

Akihiko nodded, "And we can't even rest. Otherwise, we might lose the trail."

Fujin thought, 'Wow, I never thought that I would be the slacker in the team. That said, it doesn't feel bad. To just relax and even eat while others do all the hard work, haha. And they can't even complain.'

Masaru and Sora's teams also reached the gate. They too sighed at the amount of work they would have to do. Akihiko looked at the officials and said, "We found a trail, so we will investigate it. See to it that no one in the village damages the trails that we saw."

They nodded. The Konoha ninjas left the village. All of them ate a soldier pill. The Uchihas ate it as using the Sharingan continuously was eating up their chakra. While Fujin ate it as they won't be waiting for any breaks.

As they were moving, Shunko complained, "It is very difficult keeping a track of the trail in this grassland!"

Masaru replied, "Yes. And finding a new trail is even more difficult. We couldn't find any proper trail to backtrack in the previous location. That is why, once you find a proper trail, don't let it go to waste."

Shunko nodded helplessly.

The task was already difficult due to the grassland. It was made even more difficult by the use of Wind and Earth elements to hide the footprints. And all other clues were eliminated by the kidnappers. There was no scent to use, just microscopic footprints that were difficult even for the Sharingan to see.

The group trailed the footprints for over 14 hours! Finally, they reached the end. The footprints went towards a mountain. There was a small village being built on one side of the mountain. It looked to be built very recently.

Additionally, the mountain had a huge cave. The mouth of the cave was 10 meters wide and 15 meters high. The Sharingan observed the chakra signatures inside the cave. Fujin too saw them. Masaru said, "That's one big cave!"

Shunko wondered, "Who are these people? And are the kidnapped children here?"

Akihiko answered, "Most likely. I'm guessing that they are imprisoned somewhere inside the cave. Don't engage in combat and stay hidden until we find the kids.

As they were speaking, a group of people exited the cave. The Konoha ninjas stopped talking and observed. They were already hidden properly and hence weren't worried that they would be noticed. However, Fujin's eyes widened as he saw those people.