Chapter 12: Spy Ninja

With an Instant Body Technique, Qimu Chao vanished before Kakashi's eyes.

Kakashi didn't follow his steps; he still remembered his brother's words, to go back and inform his father first.

His brother's keen senses were more than enough as a reconnaissance ninja; saying that surely meant he had sensed something.

In his current poor condition, he couldn't have helped his brother at all in the past.

Thinking that, Kakashi quickened his pace.

"Ao De Yi, what are you looking at? We should go."

In a house beside the road where Qimu Chao and Kakashi were walking, three tall men surrounded a girl; the girl had long red hair and a wound on her face from a strike.

Her limbs were bound, and a cloth was stuffed in her mouth to silence her and prevent her from biting her tongue to suicide.

"Damn, those two brats that just passed by were Bai Ya's sons, right…"

The man known as Ao De Yi by his companions gritted his teeth and said, "I really want to rush out now and slaughter those two brats!"

"Don't cause extra trouble!"

Someone beside him placed a hand on Ao De Yi's shoulder and said, "I know you're angry because your brother was killed by Bai Ya, but we spent so much time and paid such a price just to bring this Xuanwo family's brat back. If anything goes wrong here, all our effort will be wasted! Then none of the three of us will be able to get out!"

"I know..., I know..."

Urged by his companions, Ao De Yi spat out a mouthful, "Spit, if we run into those two brats again, I'm going to cut their heads off and let Bai Ya see the grim fate of his two sons!"

While speaking, the three of them opened a passage they had been digging for months, lifted the girl, and rushed in, sprinting toward the end of the passage at top speed.

When the three carried the girl through the passage, they had already reached outside Konoha Village; then one of them performed a Seal Formation, pressed his hand to the ground, and used Earth Release: Iwa Door Collapse to make the entire passage collapse, sealing it solidly with rubble and earth.

The technique's vibration range was tiny and caused little noise, so it wouldn't trigger Konoha Village's alerts; thus the village would take some time to trace their tracks.

"Seems Konoha Village doesn't care much about this Xuanwo Clan brat; they didn't assign any dedicated ninja to protect her."

Throwing the girl onto the ground, Ao De Yi kicked her and said, "Get up, walk on your own; do you still expect us to keep carrying you?"

"Hey, Konoha Village and the Xuanwo Clan never had a good relationship; only the First Hokage's wife was from the Xuanwo Clan. How could a brat like this have a dedicated ninja guard? She only has the qualification to become a jinchuriki, but she's not an actual jinchuriki."

A companion beside Ao De Yi said.

"Yeah, if this brat were a jinchuriki, Lord Ai wouldn't let us bring her back."

Another of the three spoke, scolding the girl, "Move faster, what are you dawdling for here?! Did you think someone would come to rescue you? Stop dreaming!"

Where the three weren't looking, the girl pulled out a few strands of her hair and tossed them on the ground, hoping someone would find them.

Inside Konoha Village, when Qimu Chao arrived at the approximate location he sensed, he found the place empty.

"The red‑haired girl?"

Seeing the photo frame on the table, Qimu Chao frowned, "Is she the owner of this house? No dust, which shows someone lives here, yet we don't see her. Is she the spy?"

Thinking that, Qimu Chao squinted.

There were no signs of a fight in the room; three possibilities: the girl hasn't returned home, the girl was taken away under a spy's control, or the girl herself is a spy.

He then searched the room thoroughly and found a secret passage whose entrance was completely sealed.

"Damn, there really is a spy ninja."

Having come to this world, Qimu Chao cursed for the first time, yet he used his vibration detection to sense the direction inside the passage.

"These vibration traces, three people? No... four people?"

His increasingly sharp perception told him he was close to the realm of Magnetic Field Rotation, but what he sensed made him wonder whether he should chase.

"If we can dig a tunnel and infiltrate once, we can do it a second time! Cut the weeds at the root!"

He quickly made a decision: his own and his father's safety were secondary, but Kakashi and his mother could not be allowed any failure!

Time was tight; thinking that, Qimu Chao rushed toward the sensed direction.

After leaving the village, Qimu Chao sprinted at top speed along the direction he had sensed; his whole body was filled with the current carried by Electric Current Propulsion, and even a Lightning Release ninja famed for speed had to yield before him.

What Qimu Chao didn't know was that when Kakashi got home he happened to run into his father, told him the matter, and then Qimu Shuomao immediately arrived near that street and told Kakashi to inform the Third Hokage.

At the Third Hokage's command, the ANBU deployed and carefully searched the nearby block, but found no trace of the spy.

Realizing this, Konoha's higher‑ups sensed something was wrong, sent people into Xuanwo Jiu Xin Nai's House, discovered the secret passage traces, and thus mobilized all Konoha ninja: first they searched the village thoroughly, and after finding nothing, they had every ninja search outward from the village step by step, determined to find Xuanwo Jiu Xin Nai!

Konoha's leadership all knew that the First Hokage's wife, Xuanwo Shuihu, didn't have much time left, and that the girl was a necessary jinchuriki; it was also quite normal for other ninja villages to kidnap a girl to replace their own jinchuriki.

Besides Konoha's leadership, another person was equally frantic about the girl's disappearance: the future Fourth Hokage—Bofeng Shuimen.

After the fruitless internal search, Shuimen rushed to the outskirts first; no one in the village knew his feelings for the girl.

At Qimu Residence, Kakashi, having reported the spy information to the Third Hokage, paced back and forth at home, waiting for his father and brother to return together.

He knew his brother was strong, but his worry for his family was uncontrollable.

When his mother learned that his brother had rushed out alone to chase those spies, she collapsed onto the floor; now she's a bit better, but still worries for his brother just like him.

This time his brother returns, he must give him a good scolding; such a situation must not happen again!

This was Kakashi's first time hating his own helplessness so much; if only he had gone with his brother then...