Chapter 263: Culprits Found?

As they were walking, Yura asked, "Elder, what assassinations took place in the Wind Capital City?"

Yura and his groups weren't in the Land of Wind when Fujin was creating a mess. So they were unaware. Manabu's subordinates filled them up. Yura and his subordinates began sweating having realized how much trouble their village was in. After hearing the circumstances, they couldn't help but suspect that their own village was behind the assassinations. They understood how others would have felt.

The group reached the hotel where Fujin had stayed and entered his room. The room was impeccably clean. They began investigating the room. After half an hour, every single one had an ugly face.

One of Yura's subordinates said, "There is nothing here that could point us to him at all. It's as if no one has lived here for months."

Another said, "But the hotel staff said that he lived here for over 7 weeks."

A third ninja commented, "Maybe the hotel does such a good job cleaning that all evidence is wiped out."

However, one of Manabu's subordinates shook his head and said, "No. No matter how well they clean, their scent gets left behind. But there is no scent in these rooms. This guy is not a civilian for sure. He should be a well-trained Anbu ninja from some country."

Everyone agreed with his analysis. Yura added, "If he is, then the other traders should be as well. And they didn't leave the city. We can catch them and clear our village's name."

Manabu nodded and said, "Baki is leading our ninjas in this city. Let's meet up with him. He must have an appropriate plan for when we catch the culprits."

Everyone nodded and left. When Baki received the news, he was elated. He had been under a lot of stress for the last few weeks. No matter how much he worked, he never found any clue. The entire job was a dead end. Since Manabu cracked the case, he immediately deployed his ninjas in the city to find the remaining eleven traders.

Unfortunately for Baki, even this clue was a dead end. They searched non-stop for two days. However, no matter how much they looked, they didn't even catch a whiff of those 11 traders. It was as if they had long disappeared from the city. No one even remembered their faces. Only a few merchants who earned big profits from their trade recalled them. But they hadn't seen them again for almost two months! So their memories were useless for Suna ninjas.

Baki sighed and muttered, "I should have known that it wouldn't be this easy."

Manabu nodded and said, "They probably changed their disguises after entering the city."

He looked in the direction of the city gate and added, "Fortunately, we can soon be able to inspect every citizen in this city."

Manabu's words confused the Suna ninjas other than Baki. Baki and Manabu moved towards the city walls and jumped on top of it. The other Suna ninjas followed them. As soon as they saw the sight outside, their eyes widened. Most were too stunned to speak. Finally, one muttered, "This is insane!"

Outside the walls were numerous figures running towards the city gates. A total of 334 ninjas were sent by Rasa to keep the Wind City safe in accordance with his deal with the Wind Daimyo.

Yura asked in surprise, "Did Lord Kazekage send these many ninjas to help us search the deserts?"

Baki replied, "No. They will be stationed in the wind capital to prevent such incidents in the future. It was a deal between Lord Kazekage and the Daimyo to settle our differences."

Seeing that these were their reinforcements, the Suna ninjas were elated. Excitement coursed through their bodies. With such numbers, finding spies would become extremely easy!

Sunagakure ninjas received a warm welcome. Baki immediately made arrangements for everyone. After settling them, Baki immediately began acting on his plan. He cooperated with the city guards to get records of every citizen officially living in the city. He informed the ninjas of their task.

He planned to inspect each and every person in the city. He wanted to find any person living in the city who was unregistered. That could help him find the 11 traders who were under different disguises. At the same time, he planned to deploy sensors throughout the city. Though spies could disguise themselves as civilians, completely hiding from sensors inside the city would be much more difficult. Especially since there were a few extremely capable sensors with him.

Unfortunately, before Baki could begin his search, another Suna ninja arrived in the Wind Capital and rushed straight to Baki and handed him a scroll. Baki opened and read it. His eyes widened and his expression became very grim.

Manabu was surprised. He asked, "What does the scroll say?"

Baki handed him the scroll. Manabu read it and immediately became angry. He cursed loudly, "Which heinous bastard did this?"

The Suna ninjas became curious. However, the messenger said, "Elder Manabu, Lord Kazekage has asked you to travel to Sabakuetsu. Yura will assist you. In addition, 5 squads of Anbu and 30 squads of varying strengths have moved out of our village and are currently heading towards Sabakuetsu."

Manabu nodded. He and Yura along with their squads left immediately.

Another scroll with a similar message reached the hands of the Daimyo. He too became solemn. Soon, the news spread throughout the city causing panic to spread. Daimyo did his best to quell the panic. His assurances calmed the citizens of the Wind City and brought stability back to the city.

12 hours ago :

Fujin travelled for over 3 days through the desert to finally reach the city called Sabakuetsu. He let out a sigh and muttered, "The distance between this city and Sunagakure is larger than the distance between Konoha and Sunagakure."

Though Fujin took a few breaks, he wasn't a fan of travelling for so long through non-stop desert. He couldn't help but wonder, 'In these 3 days, I encountered 2 sandstorms. They didn't affect me due to my expertise in Wind release but I can't help but wonder how civilians even trade across these huge and treacherous deserts.'

Fujin began inspecting the defenses of the city from the outside while recalling the information about the city mentioned in the scrolls provided by Shikaku. Sabakuetsu was a mid-sized city in the far West of the Land of the Wind. Though it wasn't the largest city, it was one of the most important cities for one critical reason.

The city was surrounded by numerous oases and received a decent amount of rainfall every year. Due to this, it had the highest agricultural production in the entire Land of Wind. Overall, around 60% of the total agricultural production in the Land of Wind would be obtained from this city.

Due to this, it provided food to all the cities and villages in this region, thus saving the Land of Wind a lot of trouble to transport food across the vast desert. In addition, it also sent some food supplies to the Wind Capital and Sunagakure and helped them reduce dependence on other countries for food.

For this reason, Sunagakure permanently deployed 8 squads to protect this city. In addition, one Elite Jounin would always be deployed in the city.

Fujin observed the defenses and analyzed, 'Though the city is important, the defenses aren't very high. The reason for this is that Sunagakure doesn't expect anyone to hit them so far away. In addition, the Samurais won't protect this place because of how far into the desert it is. Still, the city does have an Elite Jounin. Killing him would be troublesome. Especially if there are Jounins to reinforce him. Unless I can take him by surprise like those Anbu.'

Fujin analyzed and shook his head, 'No, that would be difficult. If I fight him and fail to kill him, then he will gain a lot of my information. It would be troublesome if they get enough information to calculate later on that it was me. I shouldn't use my summons or Vacuum techniques in my fight unless I am sure that I can kill all who see me use them. The same for my famous swords. Probably best if I avoid using my swords completely.'

The city had two entrances and was surrounded by huge walls. Each entrance had 2 ninjas watching over it. The walls did have seals inscribed in them, but they weren't as complicated as the Wind Capital city walls. Fujin planned, 'I could enter the city through the gates by using disguises of one of the people who leave the city to work in the fields. However, if they follow a certain routine, then entering at odd times will raise suspicions.'

Fujin thought for a bit and decided, 'Leave it, it's late at night. They won't leave the city for hours. I'll try to infiltrate directly. If I fail or am detected, I'll just escape and replace one of the citizens working outside.'

Fujin began working on the seals. He was a bit excited as he had never yet attempted to dismantle the seals of an entire city! The most fun he had with seals was messing with Hiruzen in the Wind Training rooms in the Anbu Training Facilities.