CH 486

Morning of the next day.

Kuroto brought Kurenai to the Hokage Office for the purpose of repeated inquiry, and after submitting the report he had prepared yesterday, along with the report Kurenai prepared as per Kuroto’s instructions, the two waited for Hokage-sama to read the report.

Initially, Kuroto thought that Sandaime-sama would order Kurenai to reiterate everything in great detail so Kuroto was prepared to control Kurenai into not speaking anything he doesn’t want her to, but unexpectedly, Sandaime-sama just read the report silently, sighed once or twice then asked three questions and finally instructed both Kuroto and Kurenai to go back and rest.

In fact, Sandaime-sama did not even bother to issue an investigation mission of the location Orochimaru took Kurenai to, of course, even if he did order it would make no difference as the location marked on the map was a fake one… Kuroto himself checked the map that Kurenai added to her report and knew that the location marked on it was a false one.

‘I do wonder if the location she has marked in the map has traces of fighting around it, because if not, Kurenai might be under the suspicion of betrayal…’ thought Kuroto as he left the Hokage Office.

After leaving the Hokage Building; Kuroto looked back in the direction of the Hokage Office and thought inwardly, ‘Has the situation already gotten to the point that Sandaime-sama is unable to pay much attention to this incident?’

After all, an Anbu of the elite Team-Ro was kidnapped… not just an orphan of the civilian class… okay, Kurenai is indeed an orphan of the civilian class but this doesn’t change the fact that she is also an Anbu member of the elite Team-Ro, and yet Sandaime Hokage seemed absent-minded during the entire inquiry and didn’t seem to care much that she was kidnapped by Orochimaru, of all people!

Of course, it’s not that he doesn’t care, it’s just that he is too preoccupied with much more important things.

And Kuroto quite a lot about it.

These days, the surface of the village seems quite peaceful and calm, but Kuroto knows very well that this is just the calm before the storm.

According to the information given to Kuroto by Pakura and Yagura, yesterday night, Yondaime Raikage of Kumogakure has also secretly arrived in Konoha, and counting the Kazekage and the Mizukage… four of the five Kage of the Five great nations are currently present in Konoha.

Only the Sandaime Tsuchikage Onoki of Both Scales has not yet arrived for the time being.

However, Hokage-sama has already given information to the Raikage, Mizukage, and Kazekage that Sandaime Tsuchikage Onoki has also agreed to participate in the 3rd Gokage Summit, and is currently on his way to Konoha.

Thinking of all the information relayed to him by Pakura and Yagura, Kuroto thought, ‘If everything is taken into account, then the day Akatsuki will attack Konoha will probably be around the time when all five Kage have gathered in Konoha. And since Hokage, Raikage, Kazekage, and Mizukage are already present in Konoha, and Tsuchikage is also on his way… this means that the day of Akatsuki’s attack is approaching closer and closer.’

At this time, Kurenai, who was silently walking next to Kuroto suddenly raised her head and said, “Kuroto-kun, don’t you think Hokage-sama seems a bit strange lately? This matter concerned Orochimaru and Amatsukami, yet Hokage-sama only asked a few questions and then ordered us to leave, in fact, to me he seemed absent-minded the entire time, what do you think could be the reason behind Hokage-sama’s strangeness?”

In order to deal with the inquiries of Hokage-sama, Kurenai spent the entire night preparing herself to make sure that she doesn’t leave any loopholes… but Hokage-sama didn’t seem to be too attentive during the entire inquiry… making Kurenai feel a bit regretful that she wasted the entire night for nothing.

When Kuroto heard Kurenai’s doubts, he almost had the urge to hold her by her collars and ask her, ‘Shouldn’t I be asking the same question from you? Because to me, you seem stranger than Sandaime-sama!’

But Kuroto chose to calm himself, and answered her, “I felt the same way… perhaps Hokage-sama is very busy dealing with other things.” After saying up to here, Kuroto took a pause, then continued, “It may also be possible that the Hokage-sama we met up with was just a Shadow Clone, while the real Hokage-sama is somewhere else dealing with other issues.”

“A Shadow Clone?” muttered Kurenai in a wondering tone, then continued after a pause, “But isn’t it one of the rules that the Hokage is forbidden to use Shadow Clone for doing his main duties?”

People assume that Shadow Clone is omnipotent and can do everything that the original can, but that’s actually not true… the Shadow Clones also have their limits.

Different shinobi have a different level of mastery over the Shadow Clone Jutsu. Most shinobi can not use their Shadow Clones to carry out sophisticated tasks that require a lot of thinking and analysis, because everything Shadow Clone does require Chakra, even the normal tasks like breathing and thinking and not everyone has that level of Chakra.

Moreover, the Shadow Clone must be in close vicinity of the original else it will lose the mental link with the original, and its performance will instantly dwindle resulting in either its disappearance or it will only do what was initially instructed to it at the moment the Shadow Clone was formed.

Initially, Kuroto was also troubled over this issue when he started to leave behind Shadow Clones in the village to act as his replacement… but because of the presence of Toyotama/Ryuumyaku Chakra, this issue was resolved… Toyotama may be sealed within the Ryuumyaku Gourd that isolates all external Chakra perception… however, Toyotama is still connected to Kuroto’s soul and helps him maintain a mental link with his Shadow Clone.

The presence of Toyotama also ensures that his Shadow Clone never runs out of Chakra so for Kuroto it is not big of an issue, but even then, Kuroto never creates more than one Shadow Clone when he has to leaves behind Shadow Clone to act as his replacement because as the more Shadow Clone one creates, the more difficult maintain the mental link with the Shadow Clones becomes.

Perhaps only Uzumaki Naruto can make use of Shadow Clones like a bug Jutsu to make his Shadow Clones do everything; however, that’s mostly because of Kyuubi’s Chakra… but even he has his limitations, and this was clearly shown after he became the Nanadaime Hokage and had to rely on the intake of too much caffeine to maintain the mental link with all his Shadow Clones else they will all collapse.

Kuroto nodded, “True… use of Shadow Clone to carry out Hokage’s duties is forbidden, but this rule is only applicable in normal times, if there are emergency situations, then Hokage-sama is allowed to use Shadow Clones to act as his replacement.”

It was Nidaime Hokage Senju Tobirama himself who made this rule, because he, as the creator of the Shadow Clone Jutsu perfectly understood the limitations of this Jutsu…

Listening to Kuroto’s words, Kurenai had a downcast look, and asked, “What do you think is Hokage-sama dealing with?”

“How am I supposed to know? I am not the Hokage.” Said Kuroto with a sigh, and after a pause, he continued, “But it has to be very important.”

“Hmm.” Nodded Kurenai lightly, then started looking at Kuroto’s face from the corner of her eyes.

Kuroto noticed her small actions, and asked while touching his face, “Is something on my face?”

Kurenai flinched then immediately shook her head, “N… no, nothing.” And as if to change the topic, he suddenly said, “Kuroto-kun, I want to increase my training.”

Kuroto looked at Kurenai for a while, and seeing the determined look in her eyes, he sighed and said, “We will talk about your training after you have completely recovered… just rest for now… this is an order.”

Kurenai pouted and said nothing, although she was busy thinking, ‘Kuroto-kun and Futen indeed look quite similar… perhaps Futen was really a member of the Hyuga Clan…’

Looking at Kurenai’s thinking face, Kuroto thought, ‘I can also use this time period to understand your strangeness… and decide whether to dispose of you or not.’

The two people who were on different channels walked side by side with a comfortable silence when the fork in the road came, and their paths were diverging Kuroto suddenly remembered something, and asked, “Do you remember the secret Izakaya where we wanted to celebrate our academy graduation but couldn’t because we were too young to drink…?”

Kurenai went into a thinking pose, then as if she suddenly remembered and nodded, “Oh that one in the eastern bloc, right? What about it?”

Kuroto nodded, “Yes, the one in the eastern bloc… tonight, Asuma has organized a celebration and invited every one of your generations… the timing is 07:00 PM… don’t be late…”

After thinking a little, Kurenai nodded with a yawn…. “In that case, I must catch up with my sleep early… I didn’t sleep well last night, so I will take my leave here, Kuroto-kun, have a good day.” Saying so, Kurenai waved her hand and then left in the direction of her home.

Kuroto glanced at Kurenai’s disappearing back, and thought inwardly as his eyes turned cold, ‘Kurenai clearly knows a lot of information about my Futen Clone, so why the hell is she not reporting it? Did she find something?’

Kuroto nodded to Itachi’s Crow Clone secretly keeping watch over Kurenai then started to walk in the direction of his home.

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