Naruto - The Wind Calamity

Chapter 171 : 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."