Chapter 33 – Search

Blood, so sticky and messy, so red and dirty. That same blood was covering the room as if someone had poured a bucket of red paint on the floor, in the centre of all that laid a body, its head missing.

Blood had never had such impact on him, in his long years of battling at the edge of life and death he had seen blood enough to fill a river, but his duty and beliefs pushed him through such carnage. Yet, the sticky mess in front of him left him with pain surpassing what receiving a fatal wound brought. He had lost many companions and friends in his long years of serving Konoha, but it never got any better, he didn’t think losing a son would be so much worse.

He wanted to cry, he wanted to shout to the sky in rage, he wanted to bawl like a kid and cover his head with a blanked so not to see the headless corpse of his son, but he had no such luxury, he was the Hokage, he was the pillar of the people of Konoha, weakness was a luxury he couldn’t partake in.

Later, later would be the time to mourn, now he had to kill those feelings and represent the will of fire for the people.

“How did this happen?” His voice a few levels colder than usual, the Hokage asked the two Anbu members beside him.

The two Anbu were ready to witness a father cry over his son’s dead body, but they were awed by the strength of his will, retaining his dignity as a Hokage in this harsh moment. They didn’t doubt he loved his son; they had been beside him for years.

The most senior Anbu of the duo swept a glance around the room another time before answering.

“We don’t know.” The Anbu felt abashed at his and his group inability to provide any clues, “There are no windows and the door was guarded the whole time.” He explained to the Hokage, “The guard didn’t notice anything until blood started flowing from under the door.” A slight tremor could be faintly perceived from his voice.

The perpetrator was no ordinary assassin, such skill to do something like that without anyone noticing was hard to fathom, not to forget that Asuma died without having time to let out any sound, not even the sound of his body hitting the floor was heard as reported by the guard.

What was worse for the Hokage was that there was none for him to direct his hatred towards, whoever did that to his son was escaping even at this moment. Hiruzen Sarutobi wasn’t going to let his son’s murderer escape so easily, even if the assassin ran to the end of the world he vowed that he would catch him.

“Did you send people to search the village?” The Hokage asked.

“Yes, we sent around a hundred shinobi and Danzo-sama has also sent help, at the same time more troops are being mobilized as time passes.” The Anbu member finished his report.

“Danzo eh?” The Hokage thought about his old companion, they had grown apart, taking separate path. One followed the light, the other the shadows, both necessary. He believed that as light and darkness couldn’t exist without the other, so the village needed two opposites to balance each other. That is the reason as to why there was Danzo working through the shadows doing the dirty work for the village and he, the Hokage, was the light for the people.

There was nothing the Hokage could do on his own, he couldn’t go chasing after the culprit in person, his son died but he regarded the whole village as his family so he couldn’t betray them by risking himself and leaving them without a leader because of his own egoistic desire, that was the will of fire. All he could do was trust his companions and leave the task to them.

“Well done, report to me as soon as you find anything.” The Hokage said before turning around, preparing to leave.

“One more thing, Hokage-sama.” Before he could leave, the Anbu called to him.

“What is it?” He stopped and asked.

“What should we do with Kurenai and the kid?”

The Hokage remembered the duo, they were also victims, he had to go apologize on behalf of his dead son after this was over.

“Let them go.” He said calmly, “Also inform them of the situation.” He also added that before leaving, they also had to be careful, so it was better to inform them sooner rather than later.

All that taken care of, the old man left towards his office, his body seeming to age more with every step.