- Spoiler:
Alone (subject to change maybe) / One
Ryuho sat on the middle of a red tatami mat under the ceiling of a medium-sized
shoji room, his legs crossed, the right end of his mouth pressed, and his fingers tapping on his red lap. This day of the Peace Festival was not a very amusing time for him, for he had before him two dead bodies, and neither of them were from his village. Or to be more precise, they did have the village insignia on the back of their bodies, but their headbands clearly distinguished them from the leafies and rooties. The Hokage had a seriously grim expression on his face, for this was a direct attack on the sanctity and reputation of his village. The bodies were covered in white sheets; his men had recovered them before any of their respective Kages could take a look at them. Four guards stood near the door of the building he inhabited, 6 of his advisors were in the room, and Yuu-chan stood next to him, pondering whether she should comfort the old man or not. And the Witness sat on the other side of the departed directly across from him. She was a plain old woman who had no particular beauty features, but the way she swung her hips had a very sensual attraction that made men think more of style rather then substance.
Ryuho scratched his right cheek.
"Yare Yare..." he said, his voice deeper and more booming than anyone has ever heard of him speak with. He had a bad feeling. A holy celebration turned into a bloody feud, and more people are going to cross the border of death soon if he did not use all of his power to avoid war. Looking at the woman, Ryuho could not smile at her.
"So, Miss Himeragi. Please tell us what you saw", he asked with a neutral, demanding tenor. Ms. Himeragi nodded. "It was a distance away, so what I saw may not be reliable. But the moment I turned around, I thin... I think - I think okay, I think that I saw at least one guy who had a black cloak on. I don't know what kind of cloak - maybe an overcoat, it looked heavy. There was some kind of doodle on it. I think it was a cloud. There were a few clouds on it. They had a bright color on them. They took off right after they killed the men." Ryuho nodded, the right end of his mouth tightening.
"Thank you for your help, Miss Himeragi", and he waved his hand so that the guards may dismiss her. "Lord Hokage.... what will you do?" a counselor asked.
Earlier, Ryuho was about to drink his sake from that bar stand when he heard Yuu-chan running over to call him. He fumbled over the bottle, which opened up a crack in it. He had been informed that two ninja were assassinated, and they had the bloody symbol of the leaf engraved on their backs with something sharp - likely kunai. So, Ryuho stationed himself in a room until his men could bring their bodies back to him.
Ryuho twisted a hair lock.
"Well.... I don't know if one of our men did this out of aggressive spite. Maybe something deep had been bottling up. Maybe an argument broke out. But uh..... it is curious that only one ninja from Kiri and one ninja from Suna were killed. Not that I wanted a higher body count..." One counselor nodded. "A ninja from each village meant that this was a message to the other villages. Crafting our symbol with a fucking kitchen knife means that they wanted Kirigakure and Sunagakure to band up together against us. The pressure is intended to be on us - not that this is anything new". It was true. Konohagakure had a lot of very bad events in the past. "Despite the Hokage's activism for peace, there should be at least one rogue-minded soldier who thought otherwise. Maybe they chose this festival to kill, because there would be a greater number of ninja from each village there - even the Kages would arrive. We should run background checks on our shinobi - including Missing Ninja" he suggested. "
Crack the bad eggs", Ryuho said.
"Quite honestly, this could be from anyone who hated the Leaf. Could be from Kiri. Could be from Suna. Could be from any other village. Konohagakure is the easiest to blame for things. This is way too deliberate of a message. It's flashy and has no subtelty in it. But they killed in plain daylight in front of witnesses. This was definitely not out of an argument or feud, and the victims seem to be random, for there's no pattern between them. This was intended for some time to be against us. The murders were planned. Yet, I have a feeling that we're dealing with someone who wants to be caught. He left out so many clues - witnesses, clothing, intended target, time of murder. My fellow men, do search up on this "black cloak". And make sure our ninja don't show off our symbols too much." As the men got to leave, Ryuho would say
"Remember, my men. We will endure as we have always endure. We will weed out the rabble rouser. And we will be victorious", he said, with an excellent air of confidence. "Ho!" they cheered, and out they went.
Yuu-chan sat down besides him. "What are you going to do, Lord Hokage?" she asked.
"I'm gonna talk to the other Kages. But first, we have to do something about these bodies...."