Chapter 43: Investigation

The Land of Fire, Konoha.

The Hokage's office building, the Battlefield Anomalies Investigation Department.

Habara had returned to Konoha. He hadn't encountered Yagura again, which was a stroke of luck amidst misfortune.

"Genin Habara, please explain what happened during your mission."

A Konoha ninja asked Habara.

Before returning to Konoha, Habara first dug a hole outside the village and hid some of his "contraband" items that were difficult to explain the origins of. This mainly included the Treasured Tools of the Sage of Six Paths, Orochimaru's secret techniques, Daigo's corpse, and the sealing scroll... This was to deal with Konoha's possible searches, and from this practice, one could see his level of distrust towards Konoha.

Then he returned to Konoha with the remains of some of his teammates and parts of the remains of some of his teammates, and then reported to the village that the squad, except for himself, might have been completely wiped out.

Next, Konoha's investigation and questioning were in accordance with the procedure. After all, Habara claimed that only he had survived, so this matter needed further investigation... His current location was an office in the Hokage's office building. There were only two ninjas sitting across the table from him, which indicated that this was just a routine inquiry and not specifically targeting him.

"Yes. Our 12-man squad was carrying out a patrol mission in the 248 area of the eastern border of the Land of Fire. When the squad arrived at the mission location, Captain Hayasegawa did not deploy the formation in the correct way. Under his command, the squad could only move in a concentrated formation. During this period, several members made corresponding suggestions, but they were all rejected. Then the team suddenly encountered strong Kirigakure enemies. Captain Hayasegawa lacked judgment. He was first reckless and aggressive, and then fled the battlefield, ultimately leading to the annihilation of the team..."

Habara explained the encounter of that squad in as concise a manner as possible, and he didn't need to lie about these things at all. Anyone could tell that the captain was greatly responsible.

"The so-called 'strong enemies,' what are their specific identities? Can you determine them?"

"The enemy was a four-man squad. I could only recognize two of the ninjas. One was the Kirigakure jonin, Yagura Karatachi, and the other was the Kirigakure jonin, Juzo Biwa," Habara said.

The two Konoha ninjas looked at each other, appearing somewhat incredulous. Obviously, they knew what these two names meant.

"You're saying these two people appeared in the Land of Fire not long ago?"

"Yes."

"What was their purpose?"

"Unknown."

The two ninjas asked one question after another. Soon they asked the key point:

"Since the enemy's strength was so great, how did you escape?"

Habara had already thought of an excuse beforehand. He didn't want to show off his strength, because it wasn't worth showing off, and he didn't want to reveal that he had eliminated Juzo Biwa, because such a thing was difficult to prove and would instead make the situation more complicated.

"I am a Magnet Release kekkei genkai ninja. During the escape, I used metal iron sand to completely cover and hide myself, thus avoiding chakra leakage and isolating the other party's detection. Finally, I was lucky enough to escape."

As he spoke, Habara indicated that he could demonstrate his abilities. After the two ninjas nodded, he waved his hand, and a burst of iron sand flew out of the "sword box" on his back... At this time, there was only a lump of iron behind him, because the piece containing mercury had been thrown away on the battlefield.

The two Konoha ninjas nodded. Habara's explanation sounded flawless and had considerable credibility.

No one could expect Habara to meet such strong enemies head-on, could they? Those were enemies that even ordinary jonin-level ninjas couldn't deal with. Who could expect a genin to do anything? The fact that he survived was incredibly resourceful.

Apart from eliminating that captain, Habara hadn't done anything that violated Konoha's rules. But he would never take the initiative to say this, because in the ninja profession, "insubordination" was absolutely not allowed.

Even if Habara's actions were justifiable, he was not the kind of ninja who had the "right to dispose" of others, so in order to avoid accidents, he had to keep his mouth shut.

Based on the considerations of what he wanted to do later, he also couldn't bear a similar stigma.

After asking a few more questions, the routine inquiry ended. But before Habara was about to leave, they added a few more things.

"There's nothing else in particular, but until the investigation is over, you are temporarily unable to leave the village. Please understand. Also... here is the list of the deceased. Please confirm it. If there are no problems, please sign it."

Habara took the list and found that Daigo's name was indeed listed, which gave him a sense of unreality.

Then he found Hayasegawa's name, which could only be said to be a good death.

And then, as his gaze moved down, something unexpected happened... Habara didn't expect to see a familiar name, so he couldn't help but read it out loud:

"Umino... Iruka..."

The figure of that ten-year-old plus child instantly appeared in Habara's mind. So it was him?

"Is there a problem?"

Hearing him say such a name, a Konoha ninja immediately asked.

"No, I just think he's too young and shouldn't have died on the battlefield."

Habara shook his head. He picked up a pen and quickly signed his name on the list of the deceased, and then handed it back.

War was truly full of unexpected events.

After Habara left, the two Konoha ninjas looked at each other, and then nodded at the same time.

During the questioning just now, they had slightly used some subtle genjutsu hypnosis and guidance techniques, thus confirming that what Habara said was basically the truth.

The methods used by the ordinary investigation department, Anbu, and Root were different. Under normal circumstances, Konoha couldn't just grab a ninja and search their brain, otherwise it would definitely cause internal problems.

Even Habara was, nominally, a "Konoha ninja," wasn't he?

However, the rights of the living needed to be respected, but the dead were different. Anyway, the dead couldn't shout that their privacy had been violated.

The several corpses that Habara brought back were temporarily sent to the Interrogation Department. After the ninjas of the Interrogation Department investigated, they obtained the encounter of this squad at that time. This process was completely consistent with the content described by Habara. Therefore, it was basically determined that Habara had no problems.

On the contrary, the commander of this squad had big problems.

In the end, the news that a twelve-man ninja squad was almost completely wiped out was sent to the Fourth Hokage. Minato Namikaze almost frowned as he read the relevant incident report.

"Is it the team that Genin Habara was newly assigned to? So the young female ninja next to him at that time sacrificed herself this time..."

Perhaps because Habara had previously "spoken out" in the Land of Rivers, this left a deep impression on Minato Namikaze. Unexpectedly, Lord Hokage still remembered him.

At the same time, Lord Hokage expressed sincere regret for the death of the young ninja.

Then he waved his hand, and an Anbu ninja appeared in front of his desk.

"Investigate why a ninja of such quality could become the commander of a twelve-man squad..."

"Yes, Lord Hokage."

The Anbu ninja took the investigation report and was about to turn and leave.

But unexpectedly, Minato Namikaze called out to him again, "By the way, there's one more thing... Go to the Operations Department and have them count how many young ninjas under the age of fourteen are still on the front lines."

"Lord Hokage, are you thinking..."

"Let's just do the statistics first."

In the face of cruel reality, sometimes, some things, even the Hokage seemed particularly powerless.

It could only be said that the helplessness of small people might be great helplessness, and the helplessness of big people was definitely great helplessness.