บท 140: A great clan that fell

Ryuu and Kakashi left the village.

They were in the forest, running and keeping vigilance.

"Kakashi, what do you think happened to them?"

"What? That clan?" Ryuu nodded.

"Based on what we read, that clan was massacred in their compounds and the bodies were nowhere to be found, plus no one mentioned them for years.

I'd guess that a coup d'état of some sort occurred. The commoners retaliated against them and remained silent."

"You might be right, however, there's something odd about this mission, I have a strange feeling inside me." Kakashi looked at Ryuu.

"Strange feeling?"

"Yeah, I don't know what it is, but it might be a trap or something worse.

Anyway, we'll find out soon enough, won't we?" Kakashi nodded.

They entered lightning chakra mode and moved faster.

They arrived in a few minutes.

"Look at this place, it's massive," Ryuu said as he looked at the compound.

There was a compound almost comparable to the Uchiha compound, it even had a hill leading to the compound while small houses were below it.

However, this compound looked abandoned, dust and cobwebs were everywhere, but surprisingly, the trees were still alive and green.

There was a mansion above the hills, and gigantic walls surrounded the mansion, blocking any entrance except the main one.

"So? How many?" Ryuu looked at Kakashi.

"Hold on." Ryuu put his hand on the ground.

"40 people live here, none of them live above though, it's completely abandoned, if we can't find anything, we should ask some people." Kakashi nodded.

Ryuu teleported above the walls with Kakashi.

Ryuu's eyes widened at seeing what was ahead.

"Kakashi from here on, Nobu has connected our minds to be vigilant.

Things don't look as simple as before."

"Alright.

I'll take the East Wing and you take the West, let's see if we can find clues about what happened here."

Even for Anbu, Ryuu and Kakashi were sickened by what they saw below them.

"Multiple corpses…, they're mostly decomposed, but they look like they've been placed here recently.

Who could've done this? And how did they get away with it for so long? It's monstrous."

"Yeah..." Ryuu and Kakashi scattered.

Ryuu activated his Sharingan and started looking for clues about what happened.

"Nobu, see if you can find anything with me." Nobu emerged from Ryuu's body as a small Phoenix and helped Ryuu search the main bedroom.

'Almost everything was taken from here, including some of the furniture, too.

This clan was wealthy, judging by the floor.

Their bodies aren't in this room, though.

I wonder where they are…' Ryuu searched the cupboard for other items.

'A metal bracelet.' He inspected the bracelet and saw a switch.

'What is it for?' Ryuu put it on and flicked the switch.

"Nothing… maybe it's just a prototype device." Ryuu put it back.

He left the room and opened the door to the hall.

"The windows, they look flashy, another object that suggests they were wealthy, and they weren't afraid to show it."

The main hall led to another room.

They locked this room with a keypad.

"A keypad? That's rare. I haven't seen another locked room here."

Ryuu stretched his hand and dark ash came from it, the dark ash spread into the door and forced it open.

"Kakashi, it looks like I found something."

Ryuu entered the room.

"Copy, I'll be there. But I might have found something too."

"Alright." Ryuu searched the room.

"This is like a treasury, it has everything except money.

There are paintings, devices, expensive wines, and whisky."

Ryuu picked up a painting.

"There's a painting for this family, a child with white hair, he's a boy with red eyes.

There aren't many people with natural red eyes, only Mina and Kurenai have them, but Mina is the only one with natural red eyes and white hair.

Beside him are his parents, his father has a goatee and white hair with brown eyes, while his mother has red eyes with black spiky hair.

There's a woman beside them, she has a blonde ponytail with some of it parting in the middle… A sister? No, her clothes show she isn't wealthy and from the looks of it, this family wasn't one to act so humbly.

She might be a maid that was here for a while, I'm not sure." Ryuu tilted the painting and felt something different.

"Huh? A map?" Ryuu opened the map and read it.

"Kakashi, from the looks of it, this compound was home to a clan named the Kenhikari, they were a clan that specialized in building defensive devices.

But… that raises the question.

How did this clan get defeated when they specialized in building such devices?

This doesn't make sense."

"Well no matter how good your defence is, there's always a weakness to it don't you think?" Kakashi said through their link.

"True… but still."

"We don't know what happened here, there might have been someone who let them in, they had many people working for them." Ryuu nodded.

Kakashi arrived beside Ryuu.

"Look what I found."

Kakashi removed a small recording device.

"Have you listened to it?" Kakashi shook his head.

"No, because that's not all, I found this too."

Kakashi removed a duster.

"A duster?" Ryuu dropped his head depressingly.

"Not just a duster, you said you saw a painting of the family, where is it?"

"Here." Ryuu gave the painting to him.

"Wait a minute, that's…

Mina?!"

Ryuu tilted his head.

"Mina?"

"Yeah, she had short hair when she arrived in Konoha. I remember, she changed her hairstyle later."

"So you're telling me Mina is the last member of the Kenhikari clan?"

"That's what it looks like.

That'll explain her memories."

"Her memories?"

"When Mina first arrived in the village, she couldn't remember her previous life.

All she knew was her name was Mina, apart from that she couldn't remember much."

"I see…"

Ryuu took the recording device from Kakashi.

"Let's listen to it." Kakashi nodded.

Ryuu played the recorder.

"Help! We're under attack!

There are intruders!

They got through the barrier!" A man yelled.

"It's them, It's the Kurosu gang. They're real." A boy said.

Boom!

Shhh…

The recorder stopped playing.

"Hmm, who are the Kurosu gang?" Kakashi asked.

Ryuu shrugged.

"I'll go ask some villagers." Kakashi nodded.

Ryuu removed his mask.

"Transformation jutsu!" Ryuu made his hair black, and he made himself look older.

"Dashing aren't I?" Ryuu said while he smiled hard enough that his teeth glowed.

"Just get lost and complete your mission, you don't want to be late, do you?"

"Late?"

Kakashi facepalmed.

"To your party, you idiot."

"Right… I forgot about that, you know."

Ryuu left immediately.

There was a small town below the compound, a few people lived there, some old geezers and some younger people lived there.

Ryuu was hoping to learn more about what happened here and who the Kurosu gang are, or maybe… were?

Ryuu went to a nearby shop.

"Excuse me, I'm a bit lost here, can you spare me some of your time and help me find someone?"

A lady with a blonde ponytail and a single strand of her hair covering her right side was the waitress.

"You're looking for someone?" Ryuu nodded.

"Well, my brother's girlfriend once ran off with a family heirloom a long time ago.

I've been looking for her ever since.

Eventually, my search led me here. Someone said something about some kind of gang called the Kurosu gang taking her. Any ideas?"

"The Kurosu gang? I've never heard of it.

Something like a gang can't live here, stop looking for one.

The people in this town have already been through enough."

"Been through enough? Like what?"

"N- nothing, I've already said enough.

Now, are you going to order something?!" Ryuu nodded.

"Can I have the menu?"

She went to get a menu from the counter.

"Beautiful…" the lady blushed.

"Sorry?"

"Those earrings, they're beautiful, I've never seen anything like them."

Ryuu stood up and walked towards her.

He looked at her deep in her eyes and traced his finger behind her ear.

"Wha- what are you doing?"

"Answer honestly." She nodded.

"What is your name?"

"My name?

My name is Kazumi…"

"Kazumi? That's a beautiful name. What about your last name?"

"A last name? We are all Kurosu…"

"Oh? Really?" Kazumi nodded.

"Kazumi, are you a part of the Kurosu gang?"

She slowly nodded, as if she was in some sort of trance.

"Do you know what happened to the Kenhikari clan?" Kazumi nodded.

"Tell me what happened here, Kazumi."

"10 years ago-"

"Cough! Cough!" She coughed hard and then she stopped breathing.

"Shit." Ryuu opened her mouth and then he frowned seeing the curse mark on her tongue. He released the seal, he was almost too late.

Ryuu teleported next to Kakashi and told him what happened.

"Right before that happened, I snatched this off her ear."

Ryuu removed an earring with a symbol that resembled two blades across each other and a diamond in the middle.

"There's a chance we're dealing with some sort of cult-like bandits, hence the reason she couldn't speak about the events that took place.

It was my fault that the woman died. I should've focused more and been attentive or even considered something like that would happen, you know."

"There's no time to sulk and play the blame game.

If there is a group of bandits that can get rid of someone this easily, then we should move faster and be more precise. Besides, we don't know that woman, she could've been one of the people who did this."

"Right!"